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((LAWLZ GAIZ. I'M A PRETTYFUL UNICORN. LAWLS LAWLSSSS... what the heeeckkkk?... It amused me. The end.))

Pugsley tilted his little rotten head at Christine as she blathered on about how dogs, cats, something. In his little doggy ears he really had no idea what she was saying, but he sure liked how sweet her voice was. She had the kind of voice animal's liked and thusly he was instantly attached. He wagged his tail hard and followed at her heels.

((... I dunno. Pugsley decided she had a nice voice...?))

When Christine took Elijah's arm anyway he laughed awkwardly. "Ah ha... ah yes." He rubbed at the nape of his neck looking a little embarrassed with himself. "I wouldn't have been offended if you hadn't." He said for good measure, feeling foolish for reasons he'd never know. He always felt foolish so perhaps now it really wasn't anything different.

At her promise at being safe before dark he looked relief. "Good." He breathed. "I'm...er... I, er... uh... I'm a bit of... a... I... I get er... surprised...er... easily."

He of course meant he was a coward. Somehow saying "surprised" made it seem more... not wussy. Also, being in before dark meant avoiding Declan. Unconsciously he picked up the pace. He'd rather not Christine have to meet him if he could help it. She seemed like such a nice girl.

"Who's this friend of yours, er... by the way?" He asked of her, trying to keep polite conversation.

((SORRY I TOOK SO LONG... I'll be better from now on D: ))

((ORLY? I could have handled a WEEK D:<<<

... What? OKGO.))

Elijah was somewhat comforted when Christine admitted of being easily afraid too. He gave her a smile and held her arm a little higher instead of how he held it so limply before.

"Well... then... I suppose we can be afraid together... or something... like that." He laughed, and adjusted the shovel on his shoulder.

At the mention of her partner/friend/otherwise unknown companion's name he frowned a little. "Er... so... she won't mind me being around will she?" Elijah wanted to know, but then shook his head solidly. "No, no! I don't feel er... you can... er. You're giving me a place to stay, so I guess you can talk my ear off if you want."

He looked startled. "THAT'S NOT TO SAY THAT YOU'RE TALKING IT OFF!" Elijah said, attempting to recover quickly. "Because you're NOT!"

Pugsley gave a sneeze and trotted a little ahead of him. The little dog almost seemed embarrassed by Elijah.

Elijah looked off the side and down. He was quiet for a few moments. "Well... sure is getting dark fast." But he felt they were close... but then he also felt something else was close, or you know, someone.

Elijah's teeth chattered and a tinge of frost gathered at the corners of his mouth. His brow puckered and suddenly he was taking great jogging steps, with Christine's arm firmly tucked in his.

"Maybe we should run, you know? I just feel suddenly like running!" He tried to give a light hearted laugh. It was rather forced and hollow.

Pugsley was yapping and running ahead of them like mad.

Somewhere not too far behind there came the sound of many limbs running together, but it moved in a wave, up and down and over and up and down and over. Elijah was famillar with that particular beast, and found him the most particulary disgusting... that's probably why Declan used him most often times.

But they were so close to a house at the end of a road... so Elijah just kept running. If he could help it, Christine would never meet Declan at all.

((... laaaalalalala.lalala... OKAY ))

((Sooooo... liiiiike... I'm going to post.))

Being inside the great house he felt suddenly very safe. Gasping and panting for breath he leant against the heavy old doors and slid to the floor. He laughed a little and shook his head.

"Nothing...," He paused, swallowed, continued, "nothing like a good run, eh?" He said maybe only to himself. He could feel the shields around this house and knew for certain he was going to be alright here. It was so odd that he had found someone so helpful at this point in his odd life.

Then, politely as one could be while taking of their shoes, he did so. He placed them neatly next to Christine's own and stumbled to his feet awkwardly. He smiled for her and had to grip at the wall to steady himself. Through the old magic he could still feel Declan there, but slowly he felt him go away. His smile grew as he felt him leave.

"Mac n' cheese?" He asked. "PLEASE." He breathed a sigh of relief. "I could just kiss you." He said and let himself be led through the house.

"I mean I WON'T." He said suddenly in case she thought he was some weird sort of sex pervert that went to strange girl's houses that kissed them in exchange for mac n' cheese ((what?)). "But I COULD." And he stammered, tripped, fumbled, and then walked his way to the kitchen. "Because... you know... I could." His voice echoed on and forever in the great halls of the old house. "Becuase... of how helpful you've been.. and.. not that I wouldn't not kiss you because you weren't, you know."

And wisely he gave up that string of conversation. "This place is huge. What is it?"

((hahaha, he's like: OMG THIS AMAZING BECAUSE THIS IS AMAZING. MUST. LOVE HER. FORVER. OH EYAH OKAY

THIS TOO smile )

Declan was halted at the gates of the old house. His beast was beside him stamping its many limbs in anticipation of where it should move next. It's grotesquely headless, fleshy neck, quirked to and fro as though it could see. The necromancer had drifted wraith like to the old iron wrought, a bony hand to it's cold bars. They burned molten and hot beneath his dead fingers and he flinched away.

"Ah. Such a nasty old trick on this gate... nasty, nasty old trick... it's as if no one wants me around." He stuck out his lower lip in a mocking pout. "Ah well, Elijah. You can't hide from me forever. You'll see... you hide behind this old nasty trick. I'll still be here when you come out. It's not like I'll die waiting!"

And giggling to himself madly he swooped around in a mad circle and vanished into the night, his centipede like beast going with him.

((he might go visit Lacey just to annoy her... Declan loves to annoy people biggrin ... but later D:< ))

Elijah listened to her politely as she spoke about the vast emptiness of the house. He glanced around himself, seeming to understand just what she meant. He nodded his head solemnly and crossed his arms slightly.

"Well, good thing I'm here then, huh?" He asked of her. "I mean... I don't really take up all that much space, but... you know... I take up... some?" He laughed a little, not knowing exactly how to say what he meant. "I mean. I'm here."

Maybe that's what he meant.

When the bird hit the window Elijah took it maybe a little harder than Christine (though, he was happy to say he hadn't shrieked). He had dove to the floor and hidden behind a cupboard door as though he were expecting open fire. Though, realizing he might have been safe and not Christine He grabbed a pan lid like a shield and was maybe prepared to... do whatever it was you could do with a shield of that nature, but Christine just laughed.

It was a bird.

Of course.

Ha. Ha.

Awkwardly, Elijah got to his feet and put the pan lid aside. "Er... Um... Figured you might need a lid... you know... for the... stuff." He pushed it a little towards her and laughed nervously.

At the question of cheese he quickly grasped the new subject so he didn't have to talk about how much the bird had made him jump out of his skin. "Oh! I love any kind of cheese really... seriously. I don't mind if you pick." He nodded his head. "Just be careful how much you put on... because... you know... I hear cheese kinda works like... a... hm."

And his ears turned red and he changed subject again. "So. Birds. You have a lot of those here? The kind that runs into windows mostly?"

((Yeah. That's right Elijah. It makes you constipated. Congratulations. You fail at "TALKING WITH GIRLS" 101. yaaaaaay))

((POSTY TIEEEM... OH YA.))

Elijah laughed a little at her comment about all the animals being mostly gone by now. Pugsley had perked up a little, appearing from the kitchen doorway from his wandering misadventures of sniffing around the strange house. Elijah bent down to scratch the rotten animal behind his tattered ears. "No need to be sensitive, Pugs. Being dead isn't so bad, is it?"

Pugsley would have wagged his tail to pretend he understood anything his master was saying, but the dog found himself more distracted by the smell of blood. Running in a several tight circles and yapping like mad, he was like a little siren.

Elijah looked up to see what had him so upset and was rather disturbed at what he was to find. There, in the cheese, were the neat little tips of Christine's fingers, and she was bleeding bleeding bleeding her way to the sink. He sort of just stared. He continued to stare until Puglsey spun into his leg and started him out of his shocked state.

"Oh god." He said at last. "Oh... GOD." He hurried over to the sink with her and fluttered and sputtered. "Uh... I. Should I get your finger tips out of the cheese? Oh god... you're... do I need to get you some bandages? I... it's... does this happen OFTEN?" He demanded in a higher than usual voice and at her request for bandaids he fetched them and then he more or less fainted as he passed of the package into her nonbleeding, fingertipped hand.

Pugsley stopped barking like mad to tilt his head at his fallen companion. "Rr?" He said in his very doggy way.

((... ahahaha, I dunno why he fainted. Maybe he fainted for Christine. He was like:... oh GOD look at all the blood WHY ISN'T SHE PASSED OUT?

And passed out for her. What a gentleman.... time to has some fun... YAAAAY...))

"Oh woe... what a lonely and broken figure to be wandering the night alone and without a hand to hold." A voice lilted from the dark. "And here I was thinking that I wouldn't have any kind of fun waiting out here." The dark that clung so heavily shifted and changed, a pair of glowing eyes and ghastly skin pulled itself as if from a vat of tar. Threads of dark clung to Declan's coat and hair as he appeared as he so often did, always different depending on the consistency of the light.

"Did you want a hand to hold, love?" He asked of her, offering her his own hand. He laughed cruelly. There were maggots wriggling and fidgeting in the soft flesh of his palms. "Perhaps not." And he closed his hand and pulled it back into that misty dark that always seemed to cling to his form. He stepped slightly in what light there was to offer. For once he was walking on his own feet. A sheet of ice spread form the souls of his shoes and Jack Frosted the pavement on which he stepped.

"No place to go tonight, love? The world doesn't need saving, does it?" He laughed a little more wildly then. "It's such a glorious place to be now a days..." He took a deep breath, it rattled and tore and echoed through his exposed rib cage. It sounded disgustingly lifeless. "So full of beauty... Always was a fan of the colour grey and the shade of world destruction. Makes me feel good when I wake up in the night. Don't you think, My little Corpse Princess?" And he leered in her face.

((He's so much fun XD))

((GO GO GOOOO))

Elijah didn't really know how long he was out (only a few minutes, really), but stirring gently and finding Pugsley licking him all over his face with his rotten tongue, it gave him quite the incentive to sit up and be quite awake indeed.

"Bleeech." He said to his little dog and wiped his face off with a sleeve, and then the cloth that fluttered from his forehead. "Nasty, Pugsley... just... ech." He made sure his face was quite drool free before he looked up to see Christine's back as she continued to make their mac n' cheese.

He then proceeded to look really, REALLY humiliated. His face turned red... so red he could feel it in his ears. He moaned and got to his feet. "Sorry." He said. "But... you... uh... shouldn't we put your fingertips on ice...? Or something?" He suggested in a feeble voice. "Ummm... I won't faint again, I promise." He said and rubbed at the back of his neck. "Er... how come that doesn't kill you?" He wanted to know suddenly. "I mean... that much blood... and... you get injured like that ALL the time? I mean... that's not... normal."

He flushed. "Not that YOU'RE not normal. THAT'S just not normal. You know?"

((hahaha, inddeed. OKAY. NEXT.))

Declan laughed and laughed and laughed. "It really hurts me ever so that whenever you talk about how I look it makes you want to vomit. Come now... it must not be SO bad to look at me. I was alive once." He flashed such a smile and drifted behind her heels, laughing and laughing and laughing.

"I'm not worse or better than you, Mistress Stitches." He laughed again and vanished then reappeared hovering someplace else. His smile always came first, than the rest of his face. "But come now... this wasn't what I wanted to bother you about. Your house." He said. "There's just such a nasty trick on it... and it must be your house because there aren't so many people that can put such a nasty trick on their gates." He floated over her and then around her, a hand to her shoulder. "I want in, by all the hair on my chinny chin chin. You have something of mine."

And his eyes for once instead of smiling with some constant joke, glowed dangerously. His mouth followed suit after and twisted into a sick smile. Something slimy and dark squirmed behind his teeth. "Little princess, oh little princess, do let me in."

((He's kinda crazy D: ))

((POSTIE FOR THIS ONE NAOZ.))


Elijah looked to her hand in a state of awe, admiration, and confusion. "That's... unbelievable." He moved to touch her hand, seemed to look to her for permission, and then took her hand lightly into his own open palm. "That doesn't make you a freak... that's." He paused and searched for the right words. "... A gift. Healing like that is a gift." He smiled and touched one of her fingers. "You should consider yourself so lucky in times like these."

He stood back as she worked to finish their meal and glanced around the kitchen. After a moment he chewed on his lower lip and then said: "So... you don't even know where you could have gotten that from?" He seemed curious, or hopeful, maybe both. "It's not like... genetic? Or something like that?" He looked thoughtful as she stirred the cheese into the noodles. "Were you always like that? And what brought you here? Does it keep you safe from the sickness?"

He blushed a little and seemed to go into himself. "Bah. I shouldn't really ask so many questions. Baaah." He waved his hands and looked apologetic. "Should I get plates?" He wanted to know and tried to busy himself with other things being now that he was looking awkward and ashamed.

((TA DAH.))

As Christine answered his questions he sat beside her and ate his own plate of dinner. He nodded when appropriate and then looked sad and pale when she mentioned her family dying and the fact she said it so simply and matter of factly. There was something entirely heart breaking about the way she spoke of the sadness in her life. He had to stop eating half way through his macaroni and cheese. He kind of felt the need to touch her hand, or her shoulder, but the way she shrugged... she seemed so easy about it.

Elijah sat his fork down beside his plate and ran a hand through his hair. "You? Heal everyone? That seems like a lot to expect from you." He mumbled mostly to himself, but still seemed so impressed. Pugsley had settled by the legs of his chair and was snoozing lightly. He idly scratched him behind his ears.

When she asked why he wasn't dead yet he had to laugh. He stifled anymore laughter with a hand, but his eyes were still smiling. "Ah. I..." He paused and uncovered his mouth.

What could he say?

Well, in all honesty I've already died, gone to Hell, been summoned back to the living world, and I'm currently running from a crazed necromancer who wants to use my newfounded hellish powers to do god KNOWS what?

... That didn't seem the right thing to say, even though it was the truthful thing. He could just go with the fact he was already dead... but that might make her uncomfortable and he didn't WANT to make her uncomfortable.

He smiled and raised his eyebrows. "I suppose I'm just lucky." And he laughed airly. "A real good immune system! I LOVE orange juice. You know... all that vitamin C. It pays off." He hated orange juice. He gave her a failing smile, that smile that anyone who knew him well enough would know it was the smile he used when he lied.

He hated to lie.

((Hahah, I'll post more if you need me too... otherwise I leave it like that XD))