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All was quiet, which suited Vance just fine. The guest house was spacious enough, but the three tenants still managed to get on each others nerves sometimes. Music was one of the big points of contention, however this evening it wasn't going to be. Maili and Seraph had volunteered to go help Merci and Cinder with the Halloween festivities at the newly opened bar. That left Vance to tend to the fort. This also meant that he could blast his music as loudly as he wanted to, and wouldn't have to deal with the grumbling. It was with great pleasure that the pink haired man clicked on the play button. The dulcet tones of Johnny Cash singing Desperado soon filled the air.

Now if he could just figure out how to get rid of the interruptions that the little freeloaders proved to be, the evening would be utterly perfect. It was All Hallows Eve. Every youngster from teenager to toddler was out tonight, smashing pumpkins, begging at doorsteps for goodies, and generally being a pain in the a**. Alas, if he turned off the porch light and neglected passing out the chocolaty treats, he was pretty sure that he'd never hear the end of it. On a highly polished wooden bench near the doorway sat an orange plastic tub full of candy, just waiting for the little buggers.

Vance was curled up in the living room, laptop in his lap. He needed to be readily available until whenever the little greedy children stopped coming around for free sweets. So he wiled away the time doing the one thing he loved more then anything else. Internet Poker. For the most part the evening proved to be uneventful. The bell would ring and he'd get up to answer the door, and give whatever princess, goblin or fairy was at the door the contents of that plastic tub. They would ooh and aah over his costume, or shriek and run back to ready parents with tears in their eyes. He would have been more amused by all of this, if it wasn't getting in the way of a straight.

The hours ticked by, and Vance was closing up the laptop. It was actually getting pretty close to when he was expecting Maili and Seraph to be back when he heard a hard rapping at the door. His brows furrowed and he set the closed up contraption on the couch next to him. He didn't think the other two would knock, after all they lived here. The pink haired medusa figured he'd just locked the door out of habit and slithered over to open it and let them in.

On the other side of the door was not who he was expecting. Of course it took him a moment to recognize Merci in the outfit she was sporting. Full pirate regalia clad the demonic fox woman. What really made Vance frown was the ridiculous outfit she had Dio in. The black shadow fiend was dressed up like Rainbow Brite. his hair was pulled back from his face and up in a cute little pony tail. The blue dress sported a shooting star with a rainbow colored tail behind it on it's chest. Really it was all a bit much for the medusa and he scowled. "What do you want. It's late I was just getting ready to go to bed."

Vance was forced to slither backwards and let Merci in. Mostly because she crowded him until he did. It wasn't really normal for her to be so forceful, but something about her carriage told him she'd had a really bad night. "Alright come in then," He sneered, "What can I do for you?"

Merci turned and looked at him with bright green eyes. A smile curled her lips and she canted her head to one side. "Actually I brought you a present Vance. I know that it was such a sacrifice for you to stay home like this. Instead of going out and having a good time with everyone else."

Vance furrowed his brows and stared at his mistress for a moment. She had an uncharacteristic air of mischief about her. Not only that but Dio was cowering behind her much more then he usually did. "That's... kind of you." His tone was neutral, he didn't trust her at the moment. She looked far to self satisfied.

Merci reached a hand into the pocket of her jacket and fished around in it. From it she pulled out neatly little wrapped pieces of candy, but those she handed back to Dio. The fiend took each one like it was precious or something and tucked it away somewhere in that ridiculous outfit. "Ah there it is." Her ears were pricked up and a vicious grin broke out across her face. "Alright Vance, hold out your hands. I went to a lot of trouble to get this for you. I just know that your going to love it." Her tail whipped behind her faster then normal. Something was definitely up.

He thought about telling her to get the ******** out. Vance however was completely incapable of disobeying her when she told him to do something. Merci was his master, and it was ingrained deeply in each one of his kind to do as commanded. So, his well manicured hand stretched out in front of him, palm out flat to accept whatever it was she was about to give him. Merci stared at Vance hard for a moment before her face broke out into a huge grin. Dio clung to her shoulders, he looked nervous at whatever was about to happen. That at least made two of them, the medusa thought, but no sooner had he thought it then he felt the weight of something in his hand. No one could see his eyes move, but they shifted down to examine the object now resting in his palm.

It was a bright yellow rock. Vance had no idea what kind it was, and was momentarily puzzled. Then he heard Merci giggle, "It's a soul stone, like Dio. I got you your very own parasite Vance." His whole body went cold, no wonder she was in such a good mood. He snarled and he was just about to throw it on the ground when the stone itself burst into flames and lifted itself into the air. It hovered a breath away from him and little shadow like tendrils seemed to lift into the air like smoke. Somehow he wasn't getting burned, and the smokey curls moved to entwine around his fingers in a possessive fashion.

The black shadow behind Merci muttered 'I told you this was a bad idea.' Dio's voice sliced into his head. He would have snarled if he'd had the presence of mind, but really at that moment he couldn't think much of anything. The shock was just so overwhelming that he seemed completely frozen.

The wisp twirled once above his palm, it's baleful blue fire illuminating his oddly colored skin. How was it possible that it was it burned, yet he wasn't uncomfortably warm? What really broke him out of his stupor was Merci. She gasped in a breath finally and slapped hands to the sides of her face. "Oh my god Vance I'm so sorry! I had no idea that it was really a fiend stone! I really did think I was just playing a trick on you." She sounded so honestly guilty that it drew his eyes away from the little will-o-wisp in his palm. "I've had such a horrible night, the haunted house was so vicious and so real that I just wanted to play a harmless prank on someone."

Vance didn't know what to say for a moment. He expected that the pain would start any minute. After all when your soul is getting eaten would would expect there to be pain? Dio was petting Merci's hair and trying to calm her down, and she was just rambling meaningless apologies. He finally found his voice, "How could you? How could you do this?" Now that he'd started talking, the anger started. "These things are parasites! Evil disgusting things that should have been crushed when they were found!" He didn't care that behind Merci, the teenager winced. "I'll never ever forgive you for this." He hissed.

The wisp moved from his palm to hover in front of his face. It stopped his tirade dead in it's tracks when he felt the tickle of the smokey shadows against his lips. He marveled for a moment that he couldn't feel any heat from the ghostly flames. Then he realized that he was being shushed, quieted by this thing that was going to destroy his soul.

Merci moved forward and she took Vance's hand in hers. "I'm sorry! I told you I didn't know it was going to be a real fiend." As the fox woman spoke, the yellow stone moved away from his face so he could see her. "I thought that I was picking up a chunk of sulfur for a little fun. I swear to you Vance I'll make this right." She was so earnest, and that was when he realized that she had deep dark bags under her eyes. He hadn't been able to tell at first because of the makeup, but she was exhausted. With that his anger disappeared. He might be mad as hell, but she'd taken them in, fed them, clothed them, housed them and loved them for years. The medusa would find a way to deal with this later.

Vance however was still an a*****e, he jerked his hands away from her and folded his arms. "Just get out. You obviously need to sleep and I don't feel like dealing with you right now. Get the hell out before you make promises you can't keep." He kept his body language closed and guarded. Trust, once broken, was not easily regained.

Merci pulled her hands back against her chest and she stared at him for a moment. She opened her mouth once, closing it again before she spoke. "I love you. I hope you sleep okay." She turned around, and with Dio in tow she walked out of the small guest house.

Vance sighed and he hissed angrily. He turned to pick up his laptop off the couch and slither off to his bedroom. Hopefully this bloody thing had an off switch and he could ship it back to that dreadful place as soon as he woke up. The medusa slammed the door behind him as he found the comfort of his abode. He placed the laptop on the large oak desk that seemed to dominate the small space and put a hand up to rub his forehead. Your going to get wrinkles if you keep frowning like that you know. Vance scowled at his own mind voice and pulled off his hat and personalized blindfold. He didn't have to worry about the effects of his eyes hurting anyone in here.

That was when he noticed the steady knocking on the door. It sounded like someone was tapping it with a pen or some other strange object. Tap, tap, pause, then another tap, tap. It finally dawned on him that it was probably that strange stone trying to get into his room. What had Merci called it? Sulfur huh? Didn't sulfur stink to high heaven? After a few more moments of the off beat noise he opened the door and let it in. "Look uh.. thing." It was glowing with that strange blue flame, "I'm going to bed. That means it's going to get dark. Dark means dark, no light. Capisce?"

Wow, how low had he sunk. He was talking to a rock like it would understand him. Vance hissed unhappily and pulled off his jacket, throwing it over the back of his chair. He resigned himself to just ignore the creepy thing for now. After all it needed him alive so it could suck out his soul right? That meant that he could probably get away with a good nights sleep before he figured out what he was going to do.

So Vance gathered up the insanely long pink strand of hair and coiled it up, using bobby pins to secure it against his head. It wouldn't be fun to get tangled in it while he slept. He flicked off the light and climbed into bed.

The wisp glowed more brightly in the darkness. It moved over and settled itself on his pillow. A golden eye flicked open and he glared at it, that thing was so bright right in his face like that. Vance flipped a pillow over on top of it and rested the full weight of his arms and head on it. Mmmm that was much better. Blessed darkness. It hadn't been a particularly strenuous day, but the medusa fell asleep quickly nonetheless.

Sulfur worked itself out from under it's cushioned prison and explored it's surroundings. The room was not large however and quickly it ran out of nooks and crannies in which to be interested in. The wisp wandered back to it's reluctant guardian, and nestled into his neck. It's flames flickered out as it too allowed itself to rest, awakening was after all very tedious.