[Open] Fear Not This Night

It's a dark night at Yamaku, the sky is dark and the wind is howling. All manner of birds and beasts are making their nightly foray in the forest, and for many it will be their last.

Eric is sitting in a clearing, with several animal corpses nearby. He hadn't killed the beasts themselves, they were simply natural prey. Eric had spent the last few nights collecting the beasts and gathering them in this clearing. He had them hidden in a hole in the ground, covered by leaves, to avoid them being found by an unsuspecting stranger or a curious passer-by. His usual jacket is off and his arms bear. Underneath his jacket was a ripped grey shirt, the very same that he had been wearing for the past three years.

The tallies of his scars can easily be seen in the early-morning gloom, and a strange grin is on Eric's face. He'd been looking forward to this moment. His cat, Lenin, is stalking the edge of the hole, meowling occasionally.

For the past hour, Eric had been skinning the corpses to the bone, and laying the bones in a separate pile. The time had come to create his own Frankenstein's monster.

This wasn't the point of his experiment though, he'd also been collecting something else. He'd been draining each creature of blood and collecting it in a large beaker. The aim of this evening was to find a separate source of power for his dark magics.

Eric chanted the familiar incantation, and the bones began to take form. The assembled creature was nothing special, just a small canine-esque creature. When the time came where Eric would usually offer his own blood, he instead poured the beaker of blood over the creature, and waited.

It was going well, the skin and scraps of flesh were added to the monster, and it began to take form. All was well, for a while. Eric studied the creature... and then it fell apart.

"Curses! It must only be a temporary solution... maybe the magic were too strong to be sustained by something else... I'll try again with a simpler spell another day." Eric said, into the gloom.

He cleaned up and recovered the hole, making sure to put the corpse of his failed-creation into it. "I'll be back." He whispered, while washing his arms of the blood and gore.

Before he had a chance to leave and put his jacket back on, a large twig snapped, and Eric twirled to see a figure entering the clearing.

"Who are you?" Eric called into the darkness...

Sumiko Scurries away in the forest trying to get a distance from the tow other people she had heard.
She stops to rest for a moment adjusting her hood and dusting off her clothes since she had fallen over twice.
"That was close..." She says to herself
She takes one step and a twig snaps
Who are you?
She stops in her tracks and look over to where the voice was heard frozen in place....

Eric peered into the darkness and advances upon the figure.

"I said, who are you?" He half-shouted, but his voice dwindled into nothing when he saw it was just a frightened school girl.

He stared intently at her for a few moments, studying her eyes, her hair... her clothes... everything.

She's... beautiful.

This was the first time he'd ever even thought of something living as "beautiful"... and a strange feeling appeared in the pit of his stomach, kind of like what he imagined a plague of rats gorging themselves on his inner organs would feel like.

He cleared his throat and stammered, "H-hello... I guess you're from Yamuku?"

Sumiko slowly turns her body to address the boy
"Y-Yes I-I am...."
Still paralyzed with fear even with his calmed down voice.
"A-and you?"
She clenches her hand next to her chest bracing for anything that might happen.

"I attend Yamaku." Eric says, through gritted teeth.

Am I really this scary...? Did she see my experiment?!

Eric gets down on one knee and begins scratching behind his cat's ears. "Why are you scared?"

"Y-You scared m-m when you c-called out to me... I-I did not know you were here.."
Sumiko looks down seeing his cat and kneels down as well
"This is your cat?"

"I see."

Shy girl. That's..... cute.


WHAT. Did I just use the word cute?!

Eric proceeds to internally punch himself in the face.

"I guess he's mine... I mean I did reanima- I mean, find him. He's called Lenin."

She extends her arm a bit then stops
"C-can I pet him...?"

I haven't fed him in a couple of days.... She should be fine. She'll think little of me if I say no.

Eric takes a couple of steps back from his cate and spreads his arms, "Go ahead."

Sumiko begins petting Lenin. She quietly sequels in glee as Lenin gets closer and begins purring
"He's so adorable."
She giggles

"Quite. It's very late, why are you here?"

Eric stares at his cat, and the way it was purring. He let hinself smile for a few seconds before reasserting control over his face.

"SUmiko looks up at Grimm With an embarrassed look on her face
"I...I-I was looking for someone at first but instead I got lost..."
She continues to pet Lenin

"Looking for someone at", Eric looks at his watch, "3am?"

He pulls a quizzical look and then decides to drop it as he doesn't want her inquiring into her business.

its already that late.... I though it was only midnight...
"We should head back if it this late then..."
Sumiko stands up and takes a few steps before stopping and turning to face Eric
"I forgot to introduce myself. I'm S-sumiko Nakagawa, Nice to meet you..."

Eric nods, "Sumiko. Right."

He stops and stares at her for a while, making the mood incredibly awkward.

"I like the forest." He says simply.

She answers back in a shaky voice
"I-I don't like it as much anymore... not as much as I use too at least."

Erics head cocks to one side, and he takes a step closer to the girl.

"Why?"

She moves her head slightly trying to to make eye contact
"A friend of mine and I ... were attacked by a wild animal in this forest..."
She lets out a sigh and walks forward

"Attacked?"

Another step. He was almost face to face with the girl.

"There are a lot of dangerous things in this wood at night..." He says, looking over to the hole he'd dug and noticed Lenin was pawing at the covering, and had revealed a few bones.

Oh crap...

"We were hurt that much....he protected me..."

"He sounds like a clever man."

Eric makes no move to hide the bones, but his cat starts meowing fairly loudly.

Shut up, you stupid cat.

She look down a Lenin a bit worried then kneels
"Whats wrong?"
She slightly pets him

Eric freezes as Sumiko makes her way to the grave/bone pit.


Please don't notice... please don't notice...

Lenin looks up at Sumiko and lets our a purr, then walks around the hole to the other side, swinging his tail.

SUmiko follown Lenin
"Is there something here?"
Lenin paws at where the hole should be
"Grimm I think Lenin found something."

Eric closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Great."