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As time went on in the church, Blade found himself starting to feel worse again. He also now realized the feeling of uneasiness he had was that he felt rather.. unwelcome here. Strange, considering there was no one around him to really make him feel that way. He couldn't hear anything that signified anyone being within the area either for that matter. This little realization disturbed him some, as he now had to wonder if that had anything to do with the rumors surrounding this place.

Haunted or not, it was the only shelter nearby, so he was going to have to deal with it. It probably would be better for him to be here for the time being, he thought. At least for now it seemed that the hallucinations have stopped.

With a warm smile, Bent-Tail nodded to the girl, "Go on a'ead Mitsu. Wouldn't want'cha t'get sick."

As Mitsu approached, Shun glanced over towards her again, though his gaze focused on her hand that seemed to be wrapped up. His eyes narrowed some at this.

"What happened to your hand?"

Klyde would have asked what she had managed to catch but she had thrown a question back at him. He seemed disheartened by the thought since the only thing that was vivid in his mind from his time back at camp was the conversation with Tessa. A little part of his brain wished to tell Riyo the truth but he was certain she wouldn't understand. She would be furious, but why shouldn't she be?

"I really didn't do much of anything," Now he was the one avoiding eye contact as he focused off in the distance. "Just pacing...waiting for you to come back. The hive didn't hurt you did they?" Fine time to ask now after everything.

----

Seething, Tessa had managed to rip off an arm and make a tear down the middle of the body before she occupied herself with gutting it. She only managed to grab a good fist full of cotton though before Poke snatched the bear away. Nami had arrived and was quick to add a comment but Tessa was fuming enough to add her own words. "What the ******** does it look like I'm doing?" She hissed, dark green eyes full of rage. "I'm putting this miserable thing out of my misery, its an eye sore." Standing to her feet she stared Poke down. It looked like she was ready to fight. "If your tiny brain can't handle that then perhaps you should sleep out in the woods with the other beasts."

---

Mitsu was about to wave her goodbye to go change but Shun drew her attention to her hand. It was wrapped pretty well so the wound wasn't visible. "Well, its the reason I got wet." She started without hesitation. "I was trying to move across a gap in the floor and put my hand on the wall....or what I thought was the wall." She mimed with her hands what she had done as she spoke. "Well, turns out crabs hang out of the walls and I managed to make one angry. Took a bit to get it off my hand too." She rubbed at her sore hand, conveniently leaving out the minor detail that she had bitten herself so that Desmond could have blood. It wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the complete truth. "But I'll be back in a minute, I'm cold so I'm going to change."

With a smile she waved her goodbye before heading to her tent. When she got close to the fabric cottage, Mitsu noticed Nami had stepped inside. Wondering if there was anyway to make herself invisible she continued, pushing passed the door. She wasn't even going to say a word, just grab her bag of clothes and leave, but....what was the mess everywhere? Cotton fluff lay in a mess across the tent floor and she followed its trail to the remainder of what looked like...a.....teddy bear. Face paled considerably as she spotted Ludwig's body in Poke's hand and his head and arm on the floor. "W...what happened?"

The two boys kept trudging through the forest, every now and again shouting blades name and listening for a reply, or looking for any signs of him. Still, they didn't come up with anything. They were starting to run out of places to look as well

"I don't think he would have come out this far..." Ken pushed aside some bushes and bent down to see if he was underneath them, but to no avail. He straightened up and peered into the distance, but found he was unable to see anything. It was getting to dark to look for him now, and if they didn't return soon they probably would get stuck out here as well. Perhaps Blade had found some sort of shelter for the night, and opted to stay there instead of return to camp? or, worse case scenario, someone else had found him first...

Again he looked into the forest, but this time was surprised to see something else instead. In the distance, he could make out the shape of some sort of building. And it seemed Varn had seen it as well.

"Hey, isn't that the old church and cemetery?" he questioned. "The one out in the middle of no were and is apparently haunted?"

"Everyone says cemeteries are haunted" Ken replied, not really worried about any ghosts unless they were right in front of him. "still, perhaps we'll find blade here?" He walked on closer to the building "Hello??" He called out. "Blade, are you here? Say something!"

_____

Well, if Tessa was spoiling for a fight, she was going the right way about it. Holding the disemboweled bear close to her in one hand, poke took a step forwards the the other, staring straight back and not backing down. She barely noticed Nami had turned up.

"Least my tiny brain knows enough not to go around ripping s**t up" she spat back. "I don't need to go sleep outside, I have a bunch of beats right here. Your a sad piece of work, you god dammed slut." Because she was so angry and focusing on Tessa, she had not heard mitsu had come in.

((lol Gaia found it necessary to censor n**.))

Mitsu's eyes went from Poke to Tessa, the disbelief of what she was seeing still settling in. "Y....you ripped up....Ludwig?"

When Tessa finally heard Mitsu speak over top of Poke a cruel smile crossed her lips. She wasn't even going to deny it. "Oh? So that scrap of cloth had a name. How sweet. Yes, I shredded the piece of trash limb from limb. I told you before. I don't like you much. It shouldn't have come as a surprise."

Mouth forming a tight line it looked as though Mitsu was struggling to keep from crying. Her eyes became glassy as she stared at the carnage but she didn't stick around for long. Quick to turn around she left the tent again without a word, forgetting her original intent for going there in the first place. If she'd have thought about it she would have just grabbed the rest of her stuff for safe keeping but it was low on her list of things going through her mind.

It didn't take long for the tears to start pouring as Mitsu began to wander around. She wasn't sure where to go at the moment since she didn't want the guys to see her crying. She just kept walking until she found herself on the opposite end of the camp grounds closer to the teacher's cabins.

"Aren't you a sight?"

Mitsu looked up sharply to find her teacher Mr. Adolphus not far off. He was outside....smoking. "Umm, hello." Quickly Mitsu tried to wipe at her eyes but she couldn't prevent more tears from coming. They seemed to be endless.

"Now what has you so bothered?" Usually Suto would shoo the children away from this area, but this particular student was one of his test subjects. There was always a chance he could find a small window of opportunity and give her another dose of the compound he had made.

"I...It's nothing. Really." She didn't want to tell him about the whole incident. Maybe if she brought his attention to something else. "I just hurt my hand earlier and its still pretty sore." She lifted up her bandaged hand.

Suto smiled. This was really too perfect. "Oh, I see." He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the many vials and held it out to her. They were small round tablets, copper in color like Ibuprofen. "This could help with the pain." He offered.

Mitsu was a little surprised, she really hadn't expected him to offer her anything but she supposed it couldn't hurt to take some. It wasn't like he would give her something bad, he was a teacher after all. Her hand did still hurt a little so without too much hesitation she took the vial and dumped a couple of the tabs into her hand and handed it back. "T..thank you Mr. Adolphus."

"See to it you feel better," Suto said putting the vial back in his pocket. His hand then trained back on his cigarette as he took a long drag.

Mitsu nodded popping the pills in her mouth and swallowing them with a great deal of effort. "I will, thank you....I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Waving to him sheepishly she took off. It was a little weird to stick around and she was trying her best to stop crying at the moment and failing miserably at it.

----

Klyde turned back to Riyo not sure he had heard her right. Had she....just said thank you? A warm smile finally crossed his face as he took a step closer to wrap a arm around her shoulder. "For you anything." And he meant it, at least for now. He would play up this role for as long as he was allowed to. "I'm sure Mitsu is waiting for us. Ready to head to the bonfire? Or we could just sneak away, the two of us, to a nice secluded area..." He suggested with a grin. Seemed it had been more than a couple of hours since he had said anything perverted. It was building up in his system.

Hearing who they were, the flames disappeared and Blade's hand dropped to the ground. However, he was still very wary. People were actually looking for him? That seemed somewhat out of place. This could just be another attack rising in his mind..

"Well you can go ahead and go back now. I'll be fine here," he mumbled to the two.

The young thief watched them carefully, trying to see if anything would happen.

"Yes, adorable." So they had made it to rhyming names now. Lovely. He took another drag on his cigarette giving Lou's proposal some thought. "What havoc to wreak is a good question." He did enjoy seeing those in his company suffer and he was willing to stoop to juvenile means to see it happen. It was just so hard with this job and all its restrictions to really have some fun. His old job had been rather good about turning a blind eye, but sadly they had lost funding due to an 'incident' he may or may not have caused. Really, killing a few people was an honest and most delightful mistake. He would never do it....more than necessary.

"I have some animal carcasses to dispose of from earlier in the day, we could always make good use of those." Nothing would delight him more than to hear the Alchemy teacher scream bloody murder after finding a headless squirrel in her sleeping bag. She didn't interest him much, but she certainly got on his nerves. The day he got a chance to cut into her flesh would be the happiest day of his life.

-----

"What's there to think about? You wouldn't abuse me would you?" He asked with a sheepish smile pulling her close as she elbowed him in the sides. "No takers on the second option huh? That's too bad. What about a kiss for your boyfriend? I may be able to settle," He said playfully.

When they got to the campfire he noticed Desmond and Mitsu weren't around either. Had they not arrived yet? Shun and Bent-tail were present so he would have thought Mitsu would have been hanging out with them. "Where's Desmond? Have you seen him? Or Mitsu?" Hopefully they weren't still in the cave....if they were it might mean he needed to sneak off and play let's hide the body.

-----

Tessa had been too smug and in the moment to realize Poke was throwing a punch until it was too late. The hay-maker hit her right in the face throwing her head back as she stumbled and fell on her rear. With a hiss she brought her hand up to her eye that was already showing signs that it might bruise. "You little b***h!"

Scrambling back to her feet Tessa rushed at Poke, her eyes fierce with murder. They weren't in class now so there was no need to hold back as she started throwing punches one after the other.

------

After a bit more walking Mitsu found herself back at the picnic table she had sat at earlier in the day. It was quiet here now that everyone was at the bonfire. Taking a seat she rested her head on the table top trying her best to stop her tears. There was no reason to be upset right? It...it was just a bear right? That thought only seemed to make it worse as she covered her head with her arms, new tears brimming up in her eyes. It was hard to think of Ludwig as just a bear when it was the only thing she could remember her parents giving her. Certainly they had given her other things but she had remembered and held onto this memory.

It was the night they had both passed away, Mitsu could remember the police officer holding out a box with her name on it. Her birthday was the next day so the box was wrapped in pretty paper with a bow. The card on the front had been signed with her mother's pretty script and her father had scribbled something resembling 'Dad' beside it. When she opened that box she had found Ludwig inside and he had just stayed with her over the years. It had been their last gift to her and she just hadn't wanted to let it go.

Mitsu felt bad at times that she couldn't even remember anything else from that night because her brother had said it was hectic. Their parents had gotten into some sort of accident at the research facilities they worked at, but nothing more had been explained. At least that's what her brother kept telling her. He always liked to avoid the conversation when it was brought up.

"Goodie goodie! We can always stuff them into sleeping bags or use their blood to write cryptic messages while everybody is asleep. Which reminds me, the little shits are having a bonfire right now. We could cook up a horror story to go with it." Lou suggested, taking another gulp of his 'unknown' liquid. How he loved seeing fear in his student's eyes.

----

"Abuse you? That depends on what you consider abuse." Riyo teased, giving him a small peck on the cheek but nothing more. It was a little embarrassing for her to do things like that in public...

At least they knew Mitsu and Desmond had been back, though. "Sounds good." Riyo didn't really care where they sat, whether it was next to Shun and his friend or on the other side of the fire. "So what usually happens at this thing? Do we just watch stuff burn?"

----

Desmond had decided to throw on a casual shirt in case something else happened. Nothing special, just a dark blue shirt with no writing on it. His pants had also been changed to jeans.

this was the first year he'd ever had to change out of his usual attire because of something that happened. Not that he was mad about it. On the contrary. It gave him an excuse to wear something comfortable, he supposed.

The vampire was about to walk back to the fire... Until he spotted something white at the picnic table from earlier.

"Mitsu...?" He said softly to himself, moving a little closer. Indeed, it was... And she was crying.

What the hell had happened? it's not like he had been gone long enough for somebody to beat the crap out of her...

Quietly, he made his way over and sat next to her, not saying anything at first. "What happened Mitsu?" He asked softly with concern in his eyes.

---

Nami... Decided not to get into this conflict. Unlike Tessa, the cat girl didn't really like getting her own hands dirty. Time to take a walk, she thought.

“A horror story, hm? What a novel idea,” It was even better to burrow into the young impressionable minds of today’s youth and leave them with something traumatic to think about while they tried to sleep. Amusing indeed. And with Lou to help they would surely have a story the students wouldn’t soon forget. “Then let’s head that way.” Grounding his cigarette into the bottom of his shoe he flicked it off into the forest. It was obvious he was concerned about forest fires and littering.

------


“Oh, so they have been back then?” That was a relief. It was good to know Desmond hadn’t drained the poor girl while they were gone.

With a shrug Klyde took a seat not far from them patting the bench so that Riyo would have a seat beside him. If possible he was going to work on the feline to give him more than just a peck on the cheek. “The teachers will come and tell some lame ghost stories sometimes which are a pretty good laugh. It’s still pretty early, usually there’s music sometimes food.” Normally Klyde didn’t stick around for these things so this was bound to be an experience.

----


Mitsu heard approaching footsteps and someone take a seat beside her. Rubbing her face on her arms to rid her cheeks of the tears she forced a smile on her face before she turned to Desmond. “It’s nothing.” She tried to reassure as she sat up.

Her attention immediately focused on his attire when her eyes settled on the vampire. She was fairly certain this was the first time she had seen him dressed down. “I don’t think I’ve seen you in casual clothes before.” Her smile widened as she tugged on the sleeve of his shirt. “They look good on you.” For now she would put Ludwig in the back of her mind. There was no reason to make others worried about her over a problem like that. She just had to remember to keep smiling and not think about it.

-----


When Poke went down Tessa was satisfied enough to back off for the time being. She was still very mad, it was easy to read in her eyes, but she wasn’t going to risk a teacher over hearing their fight. “You’ll pay dearly for the black eye you just gave me.” Tessa spat before she spun around and exited out the rear of the tent. She would get revenge on both the little bitches before this camping trip was up.

Anger forcing her onward she made her way to the bathhouse to check a mirror and see the damage done. If she was lucky she could stop by the mess hall for some ice and keep the swelling to a minimum.