Serenity Hills

After the Halloween incident, Victor went back to continuing his workout routines. Not just his basic cardio and weights, but using his weapons, and working on his strength and endurance.

Sad fact of the matter was, bad things would keep happening in this so-called perfect haven. Finding out what was behind it was the challenge. It came and disappeared just as quickly.

Today, Victor was focusing on endurance and weapons. He blindfolded himself and threw daggers at a target for a while and fought his punching bag with a bo.

Finishing off his training for the day, he placed a foot tall block of wood on the ground and stood on top of it. While keeping his balance he did sword maneuvers upping the speed as he went along.

Hilary could say that school after Halloween was the same as usual. People stared at her like always. They whispered among themselves when she walked by. They tried not to sit with her at lunch even though the seats were assigned. But there was something different about the way everyone was doing everything. When they looked at her it wasn't out of disdain because she was different.

There was a sense of awe in their eyes and maybe a little bit of fear. Hilary would say that was pretty cool if she knew what the hell was going on.

She found out at lunch one day when the kids from Halloween scrambled to be near her in line. They didn't say a word to her, they weren't allowed to have conversations in line because 'it would break the flow of the line', but they'd grin at her as if they knew something she didn't.

Shaking her head she sat at her assigned table and one of the other girls in her class was stabbing at her green beans with a curious expression directed at Hilary. After a moment of glaring, Hilary snapped. "What do you want?"

"Is it true?" the girl asked in a whisper. The other kids around them leaned forward to hear.

"Is what true?" Hilary asked with a scowl.

The girl glanced at her friends who silently encouraged her to ask. "That you shot a nun and decapitated a monster."

Hilary blinked in surprise. "Where did you hear that?"

A boy pointed to one of the kids from Halloween. "They've been telling everyone that."

"I told you it wasn't true," scoffed a girl with blonde curls. "Kingston isn't that much of a freak."

Hilary narrowed her eyes. "Oh I did it. I even blew up a bunch of monsters too."

"Did not!"

Hilary took a bite of her mixed veggies with a sly grin. "I did. I even told off a cop in the Metro Nexus."

The other kids gasped. "No way!"

"Way. You know that detective guy asking about those missing kids?" They nodded at her and she continued. "That's him. He took my sword and the gun I used too. He's a tard."

"My parents won't talk about those kids or the parents." A girl said with a frown.

"Because they're grown ups." Hilary said with a roll of her eyes. "They can't be trusted. Only Miki and Susan can be trusted." And then she went on a spiel about how awesome the ladies were and even, begrudgingly, gave Superdork a nice comment or two about how he wasn't as crummy as the rest of the grown ups.

Suffice to say, after lunch the kids were still staring but the entire school seemed to know what she'd done now. She caught a bully picking on one of her kids from Halloween. Hilary stalked over to the boy who was two sizes bigger than she was and she gave him a Death Glare. He nearly laughed at her until one of his friends told them who she was. The bully scuttled off like the chicken he was. Hilary grinned from ear to ear and pat the kid on the shoulder before making sure he got to class.

She was untouchable and they all wanted to learn more about her and how she did it.. all while fearing the crap out of her.

Hilary Kingston ruled the school and she was loving every minute of it.

When Miki woke up, it wasn't at a nice and easy pace. Oh no, that would be too fabulous. No, she literally rolled out of bed and whacked her arm on the nightstand. She yelped in pain but at least it woke her up. Unsurprisingly, after a night of sleep in a bed in Serenity Hills, she felt completely refreshed. Except that damn throbbing arm. As she got up and ignored the pain she noticed she was still in her costume. With a sigh she went through her morning routine and once she was feeling refreshed and cleansed decided she'd better check on Hilary.

It was only 9 AM, and she found the girl sitting on her living room couch in her amazingly spotless costume and sorting through her candy. After grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl, Miki joined her on the couch. "Weren't you covered in blood last night?"

Hilary rolled her eyes at her. "Yes, but that costume is in a trash bin now. I made sure to buy an extra one when my mom and I bought it. Then I put it in your mailbox last night, just in case." She tossed aside a bag of candy corn. That stuff was nasty. "After the first Halloween I thought I'd be prepared. I don't want to get grounded you know."

Miki gave Hilary a serious look that the girl couldn't see. The child's ability to take care of herself astounded the young woman. It also scared the crap out of her. Either the girl would grow up to be brilliant self sufficient or an evil mastermind.

Hilary offered her a Snickers bar with Miki turned down with a shake of her head. Hilary shrugged and put it in her keep pile. "So are you guys going to swear off Halloween forever now?"

"Considering what happened, I'm thinking yes." Miki said and bit into her apple. After finishing the bite off she started to check the keep pile to make sure it was safe. "That's two Halloweens and two disasters."

"But it was awesome!" Hilary whined. "You guys can't give up! It's the best night of the year!"

"We could have died at any moment, Hilary."

"We can die here too," the girl muttered, "Only it'll be from boredom or glitter bombs."

Miki finished another piece of apple. "Glitter bombs?"

"Yeah, there's these girls at school who sell glitter bombs. They make you shine like glitter is all over you. It's so stupid."

"Sounds like it." She frowned at Hilary. "Did you eat?"

"I fixed myself some cereal and had some of that fruit salad you had in your fridge." Hilary said as another piece of candy was tossed aside to the reject pile. "I didn't want to wake you up with cooking."

Again Miki stared at the girl in wonder. "Well.. thanks for that. But getting back to last night, mind telling me everything I missed?"

For the following hour, Miki sat and listened to every bit of detailed story Hilary had for her. Amazingly, when time wasn't an issue, Hilary went into great detail about everything and even begrudgingly mentioned Victor saving her. Still it made her wonder exactly why their Halloweens seemed to always turn out that way. Last year they'd avoided it by not having any Halloween plans. Maybe that was why they took a risk this year. Or maybe it was Serenity Hills dumbing down their intelligence. Either way, it didn't bode well for them. Still, the thinking and nightly recap reminded Miki that she needed to call the others to make sure they were okay. But it could wait until after Hilary went home.

Right now she just wanted to at least pretend to have a normal morning. Just for a bit. Maybe she was more tired than she thought.. but she felt fine.

Really.

Waking I could feel my imp powers had returned.
How some might ask? For one thing I could hear the buzz of hundreds of imps checking in with one another in the back of my head as the demon/imp network came back 'online'.
Without opening my eyes yet, I sent my own individual 'signal' into the mix letting Weirdbard and my other brother imps know I was alive and well.

"My tiny mental voice is one in a mix of hundreds and yet I still feel alone and isolated." I gave into self pity for a moment before turning my head to the right and opening my eyes to face the day.

To see Karen lying next to me in my bed, her eyes closed with a blissful look on her face as she slept. She looked like a little angel.

I blinked a few times, thinking I was seeing things and then turned my head to the left...

To see Lisa lying on the other side of me in my bed with just as peaceful and pleased look on her face.

Returning to staring directly up at my ceiling I said out loud. "I really hope either Victor or Miki know a good lawyer. Cause I think I'm going to need one."

Susan sat on her bed in her Serenity Hills home. Surrounded by a virtual ocean of costumes sent to her by her brother imp 13.

( Read more... )

It had been just under a week since Vic took down the person responsible for his parents death. The victory, as any in this case, was bitter sweet.

Alan Richards was in jail now. For several counts of murder, and smuggling illegal weapons. He won't be going anywhere for a very very long time. But as great as that was, as great as getting answers was...he still didn't have his parents.

After the explosion of his family home, he managed to save some family heirlooms and pictures. Thankfully, he still had a number of photos at his home in Serenity Hills.

Before he left his hometown, he had some loose ends to tie up. First was coming clean with the whole not being dead thing. A scientist Victor knew at Newport Industries took over the company. He was a good guy, but he was going to have to deal with a lot of heat and bad press. But the company would survive.

Victor even sold them several of his father's files on some of his more lucrative inventions. He made sure that they were in good hands and could help the world. Its what his father would have wanted. And Victor would get a nice cut of any money made off of them.

He wouldn't have to worry about money or work for a long time, but he would find something to keep him busy. Never was one to sit and do nothing.

Victor drove up to his Hills house with food and cleaning supplies. It had been six months since he was here. Payments from an account took care of his bills, so it was still his. And he had to clean the place up, it was dusty from under use. And he was actually afraid to go into the refriderator. What did he leave in there before going underground?

After a few hours, the house was clean and his cabinets were stocked with food. His new life was about to start...after a shower.

First, get cleaned up. Then, find Miki and Susan to let them know he was back and alive...until they of course killed him.

Victor headed to his backyard in Serenity Hills and collapsed in his lawn chair. He had spent a very long afternoon working with what he called "The Brain Trust". He was trying to get information from the ones that knew his father.

He hadn't gotten very far the last few days. But it was a matter of time.

He just had to put the pieces together. That would take some time though. For now, he was back in Serenity Hills for a couple days to relax. Or relax as much as he can with all that has been looming over his head.

Victor did as he always did in the morning, he went for a morning run. The weather was beautiful so he couldn't help but try to enjoy it.

Try being the key word.

Susan's brother 13 was still in his statuesque predicament. Police had few leads.

He knew his friend needed help, but he really didn't know what to do to help her. Adding to that the new people on the block. Tessa, Merrick, and Amaya. A strong link to Ava and his past.

Vic didn't know how to feel on that. After everything that happened at the end, he just wanted to leave that part of the past in his past. For reasons he still kept hidden, even to his friends. He didn't talk about it and when the subject was brought up he was vague and dodgy. Just a part that still hurt him to bring up.

He was trying to move forward with his life. But its true what they say, you cant outrun your past. It'll just come back to bite you in the ass.

Victor stopped outside of 13's place. He decided to go in and take another look around. Maybe there was something worthwhile that they all missed.

Okay 13 has humiliated and angered me many times. More than I could count as a matter of fact but this time he took the cake, the pie and a whole damn deli too. What does that mean? I have no clue. That is how mad I am. I am even rambling in my own mind!

I mean the nerve of him to go into the cafe and confront Victor and tell him that he knew Victor wanted to bang me? And what if the human had? It was none of 13's business anyway. And then to have Victor tell me about it in front of Jubilee and anyone else in cafe that was listening in? And then Victor just had to make sure I knew he had no feelings for me in that way? He almost seemed horrified by the idea!

I could have just crawled under a rock and died!

So I decided I was going to have it out with my brother once and FOR ALL! I went to his house and knocked on the door but he didn't answer. I knew the little sot was in there because I could 'feel' him inside, even if it was ever so faint so I kicked open the door and entered even though he didn't open the door or tell me to come in. Normally I would be respectful of his privacy but damn it, he wasn't respectful of mine!

"Come out you little shit!" I yelled as I entered the house. "I know you are here and I'm going to... I'm going to... Okay! So I don't know what I'm going to do to you but it'll be unpleasant!"

Nothing in the living room... Which surprisingly was actually very tastefully decorated. I didn't know 13 had any taste in him.

Nothing in the dining room either. Also very tastefully decorated. Maybe 13 had finally found himself a decent girlfriend and she had helped with the decorating? It certainly didn't look as if 13 had done it himself.

Finally, I kicked the door open to his bedroom. The last place I wanted to go but I checked everywhere else in the house and didn't find him. Probably was hiding in his closet, I reasoned.

There on the bed covered in wine colored satin sheets lay a stone image of my obnoxious brother in his imp form. A television in the room was playing over and over in a loop a particularly vulgar porno scene.

"Big joke brother!" I shouted at the ceiling of the room, certain that 13 was playing one of his gross jokes on me. Walking over to the closet I ignored the statue of 13 lying on the bed propped up as if it was watching the scenes on the TV and ripped open the closet doors. Nothing.
"Where are you hiding?" I shouted as I tried to ignore the moaning and groaning noises coming from the TV.

Finally I couldn't take the racket any longer and looked for the remote to the TV to shut it off. Not finding it on the bedside table in the room or on the floor, I finally looked at the stone figure on the bed and noticed it was in one of it's hands, I ignored where the other hand was located. The remote was clutched tightly as a matter of fact in the hand...With the clawed thumb of the hand pushing down on the repeat button.

"How did you make the stone hand clutch the remote and press the button like that 13?" I asked interested enough to forget my anger at 13 for a moment.

There was no answer from the room.

Suddenly I felt an icy feeling in the pit of my stomach and examined the stone image of the imp in the bed closer.

There was no mistaking the lustful leer on the face or the glazed look in the stone eyes.

"13?" I asked but the stone image couldn't answer me.

"BARDY!" I mentally screamed for Weirdbard as I realized the stone object wasn't an image of 13 but really was my brother somehow petrified into solid rock. Talk about getting stiff and not in a good way.

My name is Rick Dagless.

I’m a doctor.
I went through three years of advanced and hyper accelerated medical school and graduated top of my class. Some would say that I was a medical prodigy. Some would say that God himself must have placed me on this earth to practice medicine since I am just that good at it.

To that, I would say… Who am I to argue with people’ opinions and conclusions?

I practice medicine at my hospital, Darkplace.
I say it is my hospital only because I work there. It’s not really my hospital of course. The hospital is actually run by Won Ton and administrated by Thorton Reed, a real ball buster but fair boss.

I work at the hospital alongside my best bud, Lucien Sanchez. He’s the kind of friend that always has your backside covered; even though we do occasional have the punch ups. What friends don’t?

I had just finished up a grueling yet fairly routine day at the hospital, dealing with an invasion of robotic dermatologist zombies screeching an unholy cacophony of ‘exfoliate’ as they tried to sand the skin right off of everyone with their sandpapery like tentacles, when I decided to pop by my office and pick up my mail. Having not checked it for several months, the pile was somewhat daunting.

First, I found out that I won the national lottery and was four thousand pounds richer than I was. Since I’ve been trying to build the Darkplace Dagless kiddie wing for the hospital this news was considerably welcomed, but the very next letter I opened was a notice that I had failed to pay back taxes for several years to the tune of four thousand and eleven pounds and the government had seized my bank account.

Oh well, easy come, easy go I thought.

The next letter I opened was a notice from the apartment I had been renting in town telling me since my last rent check had bounced, due to the government seizing my account of course, that I was now without a place to live.

What a bother.
I rarely left the hospital because their need for my great medical skills were always in demand but even I liked to occasionally have a place to go home to, pop open a cold beer and watch reruns of Doctor Who while wearing nothing but a baggy pair of knickers.

Sure I could always use the lounge to watch television during breaks in my shift at the hospital but Liz, Dr. Liz Ashner, a highly strung female co-worker at the hospital, tended to over react when she caught me in my briefs watching telly so it was far from ideal.

As I ponder my now homeless state, I noticed a gold envelope among the other normal drab postal offerings. Wondering if I had won yet another lottery or this was my notice that I had won the peace prize for medicine, I pulled the letter out and looked it over.

There was only my name on the envelope with no return address. Opening the letter, I wondered yet again. Could this be another lottery wining notification, or maybe an invitation to tour some creepy guy’s chocolate factory? If it was the latter, I decided to give it to Liz. Women tended to appreciate sugary chocolate treats more than us men did and it helped to mellow them out when it was 'their time of the month'.

To my surprise the letter inside was neither a lottery winning confirmation nor was it an invitation to tour a chocolate factory where creepy little subhumans toiled day in and day out to produce insulin depreciating treats but a real estate advertisement and a key.

Seems my name had been offered as a potential new client to somewhere called Serenity Hills, one of those planned out housing tract communities. Reading further I found that the letter claimed if I was interested in examining one of their houses to buy, all I had to do was put the key that came with the letter in any door lock, turn it and open the door and if the letter was to be believed, it would open onto the community.

Now an ordinary kind of bloke might have dismissed the whole thing as a scam or a bad joke but having had experience with portals, considering the hospital had been built over a Hell’s Gate, I knew there was a chance the letter was legitimate and the key might work.
Or it might open onto a hell dimension flooding the hospital and this world with demons of all types that would rape, pillage and feed on the innocent souls of those here. You just never could be sure with strange keys.

Having considered for a few moments, I shrugged and placed the key in the lock of the door of the room I was in.

I had been on constant duty at the hospital for two weeks and the law said I was suppose to only work at most 48 hours nonstop before being forced to take time off and Reed under Won Ton’s orders had recently decided to enforce that silly restriction so I had time to waste and I did need a place to hang my hat. Not that I usually wore hats mind you but even the proverbial ones need a metaphorical resting place now and then.

With that in mind I turned the door and opened the key.

Victor awoke at his normal time...very early. He did his early morning workout routine and finshed off with a morning jog.

He had heard from Susan about a new neighbor. So, he thought he'd run in that general direction. See if he saw anyone. It was his inquistive nature.

Plus, it was always a good idea to keep an eye out in this place. He still didn't trust it. Things may seem like their close to perfect around here, but Vic knew that just when things seem to be great, they had a way of turning fast.

At least in his experience.

When Miki woke up for her morning run, she hadn’t really expected her day to south. She certainly hadn’t expected it to go so quickly.

It had started off simple enough. Wake up, clean up, get dressed, grab her iPod, and run. And really nothing was wrong with that. Nothing was wrong at all until her path took her toward the small park in their happy corner of perfection. Normally she would bypass the park and stick to the sidewalks of the neighborhoods, but this time she’d felt the desire to burn some more energy along with the extra calories she knew she had acquired since November.

She was jogging along the runners’ path at the park and humming along to Paramore’s ‘Decode’ when she found herself stumbling over something. She tumbled forward, narrowly catching herself with her hands before she could land face first on the pavement. As it was, her palms and her knees were now scrapped and bruised from the fall. She winced at the damage before checking the cause of her physical malfunction.

It was a pair of feet.

Miki’s eyes widened and her injuries were forgotten. She crawled closer and found the feet were attached to a very still body hidden behind the bushes. She got to her feet, carefully not to touch anything, and pulled out her phone even as she stared at the still form.

It was a woman, or what appeared to be a woman judging by her body shape. Miki couldn’t judge by the face because there was simply no head to look at. There was also no blood on the scene and that only caused the young investigator more confusion. That wasn’t possible. Was it? At least she thought that until she realized that it wasn’t a body but a broken mannequin.

Miki snapped a few photos with her phone anyway. It was a little odd even if it wasn’t world shattering. It would make for a semi interesting topic of conversation at any rate. She shrugged and prepared to go on her merry way when something hidden further in the bushes caught her eye. She crouched and pushed aside the greenery for a better look and realized she had found the head. This oddity still wouldn’t have been a bother except something nagged at her mind as she stared at the cold dead eyes of the mannequin head.

“Oh shit.” She muttered as realization dawned on her. The mannequin’s face looked exactly like one of her missing persons. It could have been a coincidence but Miki wasn’t so sure. She snapped some more pictures and pulled a few strands of the hair off of the head. After a moment of debate and checking to see if anyone was around, Miki pulled out a small pocket knife and proceeded to scrape a few bits of mannequin ‘flesh’ off the body to have tested. Thankfully she never went anywhere without at least one or two Ziploc bags... though she had to admit that it was usually so she could steal extra food from buffets in restaurants… Still, they were also handy for times like this.

Once she was finished, she headed back to her house as nonchalant as she could with the intent of having her new items analyzed while filling Egon in on her new lead. Maybe they’d find out what had happened to these missing persons yet. A part of her couldn’t help but be giddy at that thought. She may have just found a real and true lead! South or not, it was still a better way to start the day than the hum drum perfection that life in Serenity usually was.

But damn did her hands hurt from that fall. When she called Egon she was so going to whine and try to get some sympathy for it. And if she didn’t get any, she was going to make her revenge for Halloween’s costume fiasco even more painful to him.

Victor hadn't celebrated the holiday in a few years. Never really had a reason to. Not since leaving the ship.

He wanted to do it right this year.

His house was decorated inside and out and he was offering to cook for his new friends Miki and Susan. Even got presents for them under his tree.

However, cooking part wasn't coming out as well as he had hoped.

"Fuck," Victor screamed as he opened the oven. The turkey was on fire. Which needless to say was not a good thing.

He grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out. Opening a window and side door to let out the smoke.

Miki adjusted her blonde wig for what had to be the thirtieth time in the past half hour. She was dressed as a fairy tale princess, Cinderella. She even had the extravagant blue ball gown and 'glass' slippers to go with it. She was regretting accepting to babysit Hilary Kingston tonight of all nights. The 10 year old girl, who was dressed as a fairy, had demanded that they go trick or treating to every house before they could attempt to go to the local haunted house for fake scares.

Miki was really wishing that she'd planned this better.. and she was going to kill Egon for sending her this costume instead of the one she really wanted.

"Come on! Let's do this one!" Hilary ordered as she dragged Miki by the arm to yet another door.

With a sigh, Miki rang the doorbell. If this kept up, she may have to rethink her opinion of Halloween.

I woke up with a splitting headache, but not just a headache, someone had sneaked in while I was asleep and coated my tongue with dog hair and dust, at least that is what it tasted like.

Stumbling of the top of my dinning room table, which by the way I had no idea how I got there or why I was sleeping there instead of my bed. I staggered, swayed into my living room and spied Miki and Victor sprawled on the couch with Victor's arm around Miki's shoulder.
Even through the pain I smiled at how cute they looked together. Walking to my front door I opened it wide... And nearly cursed at the blinding light that stabbed into my brain through my eyes. When did they replace the sun with a arc wielding light?

I bent over to pick up the paper and discovered two things. One, it is not a good idea to put your head lower than your butt when you are hungover and two, the newspaper dateline said that two days had gone by since we had gone to the cafe.

I blinked and suddenly it struck me. Victor and Miki were at my house, they were together on the couch and two days have gone by without me talking to Bardy so he was bound to check up on me soon, I was surprised he hadn't yet!

Oh and I suddenly realized for some reason I couldn't recall at the moment that I was wearing a skimpy yellow bathing suit and was leaning over in my yard staring at a paper I hadn't picked up yet.

Vic didn't know the how.

But somehow, the realtor broke him. He bought one of the houses in the Serenity Hills. He was looking ofr a new start somewhere. Here was just as good as any.

Finding himself would proove a challenge, especially considering he didnt fully trust this place, yet here he was.

He was moving in on a rather warm day so while lugging in all his boxes, he opted for a muscle shirt.

Miki wasn’t sure how it happened. No really, she wasn’t. One minute she was wandering the open house, the next moment that realtor had jumped her. Not only did she know her by name, she had her frigging profile (the fake one) memorized!

( Ooh. Cut! )

Admiring the house in front of me I waited for a realtor to show up and try to pitch a sale to me.
I had a list of special requirements.

Off in the distance I could see my sis Susan looking at a overly pretty house with flowers.

After a very strange, yet fun conversation with Miki, Victor found a house that reminded him of his house growing up.

He walked in and started looking around. A note out front said the realator would be at this particular house shortly.

Dear Weirdbard:

We would like to inform you of a magnificent housing community located in the nexus. Your belief in community and family values make us believe that you are a perfect candidate for our development. And please don't be concerned about your ex-demon status as the founders of our development are aware of your past and in no way hold it against you or your 'children'. We will be having an open house for you and a few select others that we would like to encourage to move to our development this weekend. We hope to see you there. A packet of information and an address is enclosed. Thank you again for your time.


Weirdbard sourly looked at the paper in his hand one more time before glancing at the crowd he was currently sharing space with as they examined open houses at a gated community.
It wasn't the fact that the letter found him. With Washu's mail forwarding system he was used to letters finding him where ever he went. Although it was unusual to have any directly addressed to him personally. Most of them simply said, to the founder of Weirdbard Academy and were sent to the school.
No this letter had been addressed directly to him and with his real home address. And that was impressive in itself.
The last time he had received a letter addressed directly to him and with the correct address had been a letter from Ed McMahon telling him he might have already won millions of dollars.
A remarkable feat but considering it was McMahon, not so surprising. The ability of that man to find someone to send them junk mail like that was legendary throughout the multiverse and was only rivaled by agencies tracking down people with overdue student loans.

No, someone not only knew of him and where he lived but also that he was a demon. And that concerned Bard but what worried Weirdbard the most was the fact that his imps 13 and Susan had also been singled out to receive almost identical letters as well.
That they, whomever they were, knew Weirdbard and that he was a demon was worrying. That they knew his imps and what they were as well was deeply troubling.
And of all of his imps why send letters to just 13 and Susan?

Still Bard was more likely to ignore the offers and shrug off the who and why of it, if it hadn't been for Susan.
She was enamored of the idea of having her own place. Susan was hundreds of years old in demon terms but in human terms she was just reaching what could be considered 18 or 19 so the idea of her own place was highly appealing to her.
Bard didn't really understand why Susan wanted a whole house to herself though. She had her own room back at Cragmore Mountain so why could she want a place away from it?
But Susan with much tears and blatant manipulations on her part had finally convinced him to at least accompany her to the open house and keep an open mind about her getting her own house there.
Susan could afford her own place with the wages she made working at the Academy and various other odd jobs she held and although Weirdbard himself couldn't understand he accepted her pleas that she wanted to live above ground, with room for a garden.

And 13? He was around here somewhere too. In his case he didn't care one whit about gardens or open air but Bard had heard him muttering something about desperate housewives and Wisteria Lane, any more after that Bard had to admit that he had tuned out.

Weirdbard discretely sniffed the air once again. He was currently in his human form and to deeply breath in the air to sample it as he wished to do would have looked out of place on a human so he resisted the urge. There was something about this housing complex that set his nerves on edge. The grass was cut a little too perfectly and it was a little too perfect a shade of green. The houses were all beautiful with classic lines. A little too beautiful. Everything humans or humanoids did always had a tiny flaw to them but Bard's eyes he could find no such flaws with the houses or grounds of this gated community.


Weirdbard having been one of the 'true fallen' as in an angel kicked out of heaven had memories of the perfection of heaven and like anyone who had been there, he yearned for such perfection again but having experienced Hell and having lived among mortals, he knew the adage of something looks too good to be true, it probably is. And this place looked far too good to have been created by mortal hands, yet there was nothing of it that Bard could detect as being divine or even demonic either.

Bard's wanderings were interrupted as Susan, also in her human form came running up breathlessly to him. She was wearing a skirt that Bard felt was far too short and a blouse far too tight to be decent but having discussed it over and over again with Mavra and Reiko he had been informed he was being too overly protective of her and finally agreed not to comment on her clothing.

"Isn't it gorgeous here?" Susan gushed. "Look at the flowers! Have you ever seen more perfect flowers?"

There was that term again. Perfect. The only problem was Susan was right. Demons, even in human form, had eyesight much better than a human's. Flowers had colors that humans simply could not see. Those vibrant colors were usually reserved for bees, some birds and demons to see, but these flowers were as vibrant and alive to normal human vision as they were in 'bee or demon sight' and frankly that should have been impossible.

"You don't like it here?" Susan asked almost pouting when she noticed the slight frown that cross her 'father' demon's face.

"I cannot find a single thing to find fault with." I honestly answered her.