He put his cell away. The small phone bleeped twice hopefully before snuggling in to the warm breast pocket of one of the government's best CIA agents. The ebony hand that had put it away with as much care as a mother witha newborn child now began carefully stroking the grass in this small part of the conservation. The grass was stained with something technically unspecified, but according to the colour and to the smell was most likely blood.

Cesar straightened up to his full length of 6'3, his tailored grey suit looking like it could only have ever been made for him. He was wearing a simple white button down shirt, with no tie. His smoke coloured glasses were on, covering suspicious and logical dark brown eyes. Something had happened here.

The phone began ringing, but he ignored it. The previous call he had made had been to himself. He left messages on his machine at work, just incase he forgot or was no longer able to tell his superiors his progress and information. The ringings that were heard now, sharp irritating and note-less sounds that can only be made by something electronic, was telling him he had a new message on his machine at work. The ringing eventually stopped, either out of habit or neglect, and beeped again before falling back in to a technological man-made sleep.

The thirty-three year-old agent rubbed his bald shining ebony head as he looked down at the near-black stains on the ground. He had been told there were strange happenings in the conservation area but had no idea he would find something strange so quickly. The blood was cold though, which led him to believe that his big break was in fact and old one.

Unless something happened soon he would have to try and track whatever this was down. His gun gave him courage, but since he had been shown a glimmer of what was really out there, he would trade it in for a crucifix and silver bullets.

(( For Napo! ))

Pausing mid-step, a shadowy form inhaled deeply, heart pounding all of a sudden much faster than it had been just moments earlier. Fortuna was about to discover that her true love was actually a messenger from another time, come to warn her about her evil twin brother's plan to kill off her extremely wealthy ancestry. Obviously it was followed by a very intense (and horribly written) scene involving satin pillows, heaving bosoms and the ever present throbbing manhood. While such delightful paperbacks often did send this individual immersed in shadow swooning and sighing, the unknown beep from somewhere nearby took over the flow of adrenaline.

Astrid closed the novel she had been reading quickly, though quietly and swallowed slowly. Shoving the paperback into her sidebag with the speed of a hare attempting to win a race, the young adult started forward again. The beeping had stopped and even though her nerves were charged to full voltage, the youthful curiosity she still possessed didn't allow her to turn and hightail it outta there.

Emmerging from the thicket in which she had been pacing and reading her latest racy, literary purchase, the student very nearly walked right into the extremely large and present CIA agent. The shock of the closeness of another body so early in the morning in such a random location nearly choked a scream from between her lips. Luckily, she had enough time in the span of a few seconds to compose herself enough to keep the sound well within the confines of her larynx.

The auburn-haired young woman continued to stand there, eyes wide in surprise, directly behind the large, burly agent with uttering a sound except for the uneven raspiness of her breathing.

Cesar grabbed for his gun when he heard the footsteps, his hand resting comfortably on the hilt out of insintcual habit. He turned around just as he was crashed in to. For a man of Cesar's build and stature, he wasn't in the least bit jolted by the petite woman now staring up at him in surprise. The hand on the cool hilt of his gun dropped as if the metal had suddenly started melting with intense heat.

He cleared his throat, looking awkwardly (because she was so short) at the young woman. "Sorry," He said, giving her a small and polite nod, knowing on the first impression he didn't look like the safest person to be around. The last thing he needed was his mug shot drawn up and pasted on all the telephone poles reading 'Hellmann pervert alert!'. Besides, white people got easilly spooked.

"You all right?" Inwardly he winced. He sounded like a cop. Instant authority and a kind of insensitivity that only came with being an agent and asking if people were all right for too many years.

"Yes! Fine!" Astrid squeaked, voice sounding out an octave higher than initially intended. Afterwards she knew she would replay the entire situation in her head and kick herself for sounding like such a little girl. With her limited curves and tiny bone structure she was often mistaken for a scrawny sixteen year old. Not fun. Not fun in the least. The last thing she wanted was this big, black man to think she were some runaway looking to sell her body for drug money. Then again, she was dressed quite well considering her nighttime activity and on further observation, she noticed how nicely tailored his suit was.

The slow and icy grip of panic began to slide its fingers around her heart, squeezing it so it beat a lot faster than before. Beads of sweat accumulated just about her hairline and she could feel her armpits grow itchy as her glands kicked into high gear. Big man, nice suit, one o'clock in the morning, random forest near the city; the reality of the situation hit like a kick to the stomach. Astrid was very much alone, very tiny and not the strongest pea of them all. Odds were not in favour and had the young woman been in an ordinary frame of mind, she would have been calculating the odds against with grinning glee.

"So, uh, sorry to have disturbed you sir!"

"Disturbed..." He repeated softly, his mind rolling back to what he was doing here in the first place. He turned slightly, watching the stained grass out of the corner of his sharp dark eyes. Probably not wise to have a civilian meandering about a potentially lethal area and perhaps screaming her head off at the sight of some blood. Cesar sighed inaudibly. There was a time when blood carried with it not only DNA but a kind of morbid fascination which made him respect his work and the human bodies he came upon. Now it was just the red stuff on the sole of his shoe.

He woke himself from this stupor of thought and straightened somewhat as he faced the young lady. What was she? Twelve? He cleared his throat, although he really needn't bother trying to intimidate someone who was already scared. Of course, he wasn't looking for signs of fear at the moment. And then it occured to him.

"Have you seen or heard anything around here?" He wasn't thinking over his words. He sounded too much like an agent. Right now he didn't care. His cell phone rang, but he managed with great success to ignore it.

"I work for the city council. A kind of...on the field man. I was told about an oil spill from a delivery truck that was supposed to come by here. Apparently some of it spilled and now the truck is missing." He was all right with lying, and if that didn't work, he simply gave situations as much depth and simplicity he could muster.

Astrid squinted her eyes slightly and bit her bottom lip in an intensely thoughtful expression. It was more of an act really, considering she hadn't been in the frame of mind earlier to actually hear anything out of the ordinary. The young woman had been quite immersed in her steamy novel and therefore was much too concentrated on the plot twist at hand to notice any kind of odd phenomena occuring nearby.

"Nope, sir, can't say I heard anything unusual in the past hour or so," she replied finally with a shrug and a kind of shaky grin in an effort to prove her sincerety. It was in that brief expanse of silence that something occured to her, something that didn't really add up. Looking up, way up, at the large city worker, Astrid cleared her throat and raised a quizical brow. She wasn't so much scared anymore as suspicious.

"I didn't realize delivery trucks filled with oil came by here at such strange hours of the morning," Astrid intoned thoughtfully, scratching the back of her neck as a mosquito removed itself from its latest meal and flew off into the trees.

"They don't," He replied dryly, his dark eyes looking over the girl (which wasn't much of a challenge) and towards the forest. That feeling of being watched came over him. This didn't mean they were, but even though Cesar didn't believe in God, he did believed in instincts. He returned his attention to the civilian, only now realizing his last words didn't explain anything and would most likely lead to more questions.

"This particular truck left this evening and was supposed to end it's route around midnight, but never showed. We started asking questions and then spread out." He was done babysitting some teenange rebel, and wanted this girl gone, "You should probably leave before this gets complicated."

Well at least he wasn't lying about everything.

"That... Is a very nice suit," commented Astrid as if she hadn't heard a thing the agent had just explained. Of course she had, but the way in which he was speaking to her was pissing her off slightly, which was something she didn't much like. Being pissed off, that is. She could tell he had thought she was a youth second he had realized her presence, that she didn't mind much considering her height and appearance. It was when he started speaking to her as if she were some numbskull teen that didn't sit very well in her stomach. Although the young woman wasn't a rude person and therefore wouldn't really give attitude, but if he wanted a teenager, she could certainly give him one.

"I always wondered how much a job for the city could get you paid," she said thoughtfully, her heart starting to beat quickly again as she realized this was still a rather dangerous and uncomfortable situation.

"Am I going to have to call the police?" Cesar asked her, for the moment forgetting whatever his gut as telling him. With one step he was already too close for comfort. He leaned down in order for the teenage redhead to hear very clearly. "If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't want to stick around," He managed to say it without being threatening, but as his very physicality was intimidating it was difficult to see it otherwise.

The agent took a small step back, not wanting some kind of crazy white girl tantrum to ensue, and instead took out his cell phone. "Do you need to call someone for a lift?" He asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. Then it occured to him...What the hell was this girl doing here in the first place? For all he knew she could be the thing he was looking for. Granted, it was a strange act to put on, but it was about to work, wasn't it?

As Agent 00543 of the City Council Investigation Clean-Up Crew took a step forward, Astrid Kavalier, tiny, bored jewish, white girl, took a step back. Now would be the opportune moment to high tail out of there. It was time to bow out gracefully and bolt back to her comfortable and safe Jetta, parked nicely in its space in the Conservation parking lot. My, did that car look good right about now.

"Hey, wow, no cops needed, sorry," she stated almost a little too fearfully for her own taste. She had put her hands up in front of her as if they might keep the large black man at bay by erecting some kind of invisible bubble which would act as a force field. "I can take a hint, I'll leave. Geez! And no, I don't need a lift thanks, I haven't depended on anyone for that sort of thing in nearly a decade!"

"Have you even been alive for a whole decade?" He put his cellphone away, matching her attitude with one of his own. That was just what he needed in his report, a newspaper clipping that read: "24 people killed from unknown creature said to be lurking in Hellman's Forest" and a note in his writing beside it saying 'Was too busy handling small teenage white girl with a chip on her shoulder. Sorry about all the dead folks.'

"And if you could take a hint you would already be gone-" There. Right there. He heard it. Something was in the forest directly behind the short nuissance. A twig snapping or a bush rustling was usually a classic, but what he heard was like breathing. Very faint. Could be the wind.

Astrid rolled her eyes and was about to retort when she, too, heard something in the trees surrounding them. Unfortunately for her, it sounded as though it was in the dark space behind her rather than behind the large man facing her. Why me? She thought briefly, swallowing hard as she continued scratching at her newly acquired mosquito bite.

"Is that your truck?"

"I wish," He said, stepping towards the sound slowly. He pushed the girl behind him, although none too gently. His line of work demanded he save lives in the line of fire, but it didn't say he had to be nice about it. He removed his gun from the holster, no longer caring that city workers really didn't carry armed weapons. He aimed towards the forest, his eyes, as sharp as they were, not being able to penetrate in to the dark.

He cocked the gun and watched for any movement. The breathing became louder, more of a rasping noise as something emerged from between the trees. Two things. Two teenagers...

"Oh God."

They were covered in blood, and they were both missing one hand.

Astrid stared at the gun, mouth agape, not even thinking about giving him a piece for shoving her so rudely. A firearm? Holy flying fuck. It was the first, and hopefully the last, gun she had ever laid eyes and and believe you her... She was now just as fearful as she had been before the battle of wits. And she hadn't even laid eyes on the mutilated teenagers yet. She still had 3...2...1...

"Oh my god!" After peering around the gigantic officer, Astrid's breath caught in her throat, followed soonafter by a large cupful of bile, which she had decided in that moment to swallow back into the pit of her stomach. Mmm, delicious. The young woman didn't want to look, but the scene was so gruesome that she just couldn't tear her eyes away from it. It was something out of a bad horror movie where the special effects were so bad that you almost thought you saw the effects crew with bottle of ketchup, spraying the victims down while they screamed high C's.

"I think I'm going to be sick," she muttered, covering her mouth with her hand and shaking her head. This was all about the same time that another strange noise disturbed the silence of the Conservation. Except this time it was louder than the breathing. It sounded, and at this thought Astrid really did think she was going to throw up, it sounded like giggling.

Cesar could have gone through his whole life without seeing this. He had seen and heard some pretty demented things in his time...But nothing this strange. This...random. He only heard the girl's words through a filter, background music that he wasn't processing. The teens fell over, a girl and a guy, probably thought it would be fun to fuck in Hellman's. The CIA agent realized he hadn't swallowed for quite sometime and did so now. He wouldn't be surprised if the young woman behind him threw up...He had done the same his first time. Quickly he pulled out his cellphone and handed it to her forcefully. Eventually he did a very stupid thing and turned his back on the giggling.

"You have to call for an ambulance. Do you understand? Call for an ambulance." He had to speak carefully in case she was in shock and quickly he turned back around, gun pointed at the laughter.

Where was it coming from? Who...

Astrid took the phone slowly, dialing the single three digits and placing the cellular to her ear. Her brain was working so slowly it felt the same as trying to speak underwater. The giggling was so quiet, yet it seemed to engulf her, making her head hurt and her insides go numb. It was just so out of place! There were two clearly dead young people lying prone and bleeding all over the place, missing a hand each one might add, and some sick fucker was hidden somewhere giggling like he'd just ate a whole batch of special brownies.

"9-1-1, state your emergency," came the sharp voice of a woman on the other end of the line. The first time Astrid opened her mouth, nothing came out. She swallowed before trying again.

"Ambulance, we need an ambulance here right away and... and police, too, but an ambulance, definitely, hurry, please," she stated, speaking as though she were a VCR put on fast forward.

"Location?"

"Hellmann Conservation, the, ah, the-the, near the West parking lot."

"Alright. What's your name?"

"Astrid... Kavalier."

"Okay Astrid, they'll be there as soon as possible."

The young woman waited until the Emergency operator had hung up before flipping the phone closed. It was something she had learned years ago in a baby-sitting class, but that she had only had to remember now. She'd never actually made a 9-1-1 call, ever. Despite the shaken state she was currently in, she was a little bit proud of herself that she hadn't run away screaming and been totally useless.

That was until she turned to hand the cell back to Cesar and saw another tall, lanky, bald man smiling oddly right behind him, lifting a severed hand over the agent's head and placing it there while muttering something that may have sounded like "Oooie" or "Preeeetty".

Astrid's scream was so high pitched, she nearly deafened herself.

"Oh sweet mother of christ!" Cesar yelled as he quickly stepped to the side and shook off the severed hand, rubbing his own bald ebony head where it had been. He hadn't heard anything coming. He was a trained agent and he knew how to detect someone coming up behind him. Nothing human could be completely silent.

Just as he had sidestepped, though, he held up his gun to where the noise and presumably the unattached hand had come from. "What the fuck..." The confused officer mumbled, hearing moans from what was left of the two young teens to his left. He looked over at the man, and the closest description to what he felt was that his spine suddenly melted.

He aimed his gun and forced himself to speak, the words coming out in a hoarse yell. "Hands on your hed!" The irony didn't occur to him yet.

Carnivale smiled...

...and then proceeded to remove the second hand from out of nowhere and put both on his head. The blood, which was still wet and sticky and dripping from the place where arms were supposed to be attached to the wrists, slid down the tanned limbs of the vampire in thin streams which looked like actual veins on the outside of his arms.

He hadn't stopped giggling and didn't appear as though he were about to say anything else. Did the beautiful officer like his joke?

***

Astrid's eyes had more than quadrupled their natural size as the clearly psychotic man put the hands on his own head. The sight was so gruesome, so appalling, that without much attempt to hold back, that evening's dinner of Kraft Dinner and tea came spilling suddenly onto the fresh Conservation grass. Man, did she hate puking, but at the moment, it was a reflex she couldn't help.

Cesar remained calm, but in his mind it was all a blur. He looked over at Astrid as she was sick, some getting on his shoes but at the moment he didn't care. He grabbed her around the waist and, as if she weighed nothing, pushed her behind him. He aimed the gun directly at the psycho standing in front of him.

"Get down on the ground, and put your hands behind your head," He was saying it out of habbit, and the sight of that blood oozing down that grinning face told him this wasn't one that would be easilly forgotten. "Your hands, bitch."

Carnivale stood for a moment, not moving a muscle except to tilt his head slightly to the right, as if contemplating the consequences of not obeying the agent's commands. After a moment, however, he seemed to have disappeared right before their very eyes, although in truth he was just moving too quickly for them to see.

***

The young woman was urgently wiping her mouth, feeling much worse than before she'd thrown up. Was there no way to get out of there without risking the psycho chasing after her? Feeling something warm rubbing her shoulder, Astrid figured it was the large agent, trying to shove her in another direction. Until, of course, she turned to find Carni's face only inches from her own, using a hand which was not his to give her a one-shoulder massage.

"Hello!" He breathed, sounding like an excited child who was meeting someone new. His breath was so revolting, Astrid felt as though she could very easily pass out, but that would prove more dangerous than feeling sick to her stomach.

Cesar immediately began looking around for the psycho. He couldn't have gotten far...Maybe he was gone? He seemed to relax slightly, shoulders dropping from their tense position. He heard the sirens of the ambulances and sighed in relief as he turned towards Astrid.

"I think he-" Oh shit. With one strongly muscled arm, Cesar lashed out with his gun, aiming to hit the center of this crazy guy's face head on, if possible. This was definitely going to be an interesting report.

Carnivale staggered backwards, the impact of the gun hitting his face quite forceful even for his vampiric strength. He hadn't expected the large, ebony human to be so powerful. Mayhaps he wasn't merely a mortal. How wonderfully exciting. Licking his lips, the ancient wondered about the taste of the agent. Perhaps it was bold, like his body, or maybe sweet as a contradiction to his personality. Rubbing his nose slowly, the vampire continued to smile brightly, looking more devilish as the seconds progressed.

The sound of sirens pierced through the silence of the night and the unfaltering smile wavered on Carni's face. A snarl issued forth from between his lips and he seemed to fly forward at Cesar with full force.

***

Astrid let out another scream, grabbed hold of something and shut her eyes tight. It was probably a stupid move, but nothing seemed to have happened as there wasn't any pain, no struggle and she was apparently still alive as far as she could tell. Cracking open a large, brown eye, the young woman discovered two very interesting things.

1) She was holding onto Cesar's arm a little too tightly and

2) The psycho freak had once again, mysteriously disappeared.