Under a blood red sky

With Murphy so angry with Harry because of her Molly didn't feel comfortable going back to the apartment, or even going for lessons anymore. It meant scraping for herself again, but this really wasn't the first time Molly has done that. Let's face it, in the past two years she has spent more time on the streets than off. Surviving like that was more familiar than not. She'd waited until she was certain that Murphy had gone out before sneaking back in to get some of her supplies. She kept the key...just in case. Plus she didn't want Murphy to know she'd left for good, and honestly her mind wasn't entirely sold on being gone for good.

She wished Bill were around. He seemed to have this way of pointing something out that made sense and should have been obvious but wasn't until he pointed it out. Stupid reasonable vampire. Sam was a big help, but she didn't want to impose on him too much since he had troubles of his own. Money wasn't getting too low yet since she'd been stashing it away all this time she'd been living with Murphy, just in case she needed it. She needed it now.

She was back to looking a bit rougher around the edges. Living in the elements didn't exactly leave you looking soft and pampered. She knew it so she was keeping on the edges of public life because of that, and not wanting to be seen by anyone looking for her. She took to haunting the back streets, alleys and the woods on the edge of town. Those areas were becoming safer though because of her presence since she took it upon herself to rid them of whatever nasty, creepy crawly from the gates took up residence.

She was about to start her rounds for the night, and had gotten a big bowl of soup to go and a large cup of coffee from the diner to charge her batteries. There was a drainage pipe that used to dump into a small river bed, but it wasn't used anymore from the looks of it. It made a good hidey hole for her so she went back there to eat, sitting on top of it and looking out at the neighborhood a few yards away. It definitely wasn't the Gold Coast by any stretch of the imagination, but that suited her just fine. No one really noticed her coming and going, nor cared if they did. And it was still better than Undertown.

It was getting closer to Christmas and Molly wasn't having a very good time of it. She missed her family. There had been more than a handful of times when she'd picked up a phone and started to dial their number. The closest she'd gotten to completing the call was one digit away. She always hung up.

The headaches were becoming a steady thing. So was the pain in her leg. The nightmares weren't that bad mainly because she was avoiding sleep, only doing so when she'd exhaust herself. Meanwhile she was spending every waking moment out in town, picking fights and generally giving herself over to the Ragged Lady. People she knew she avoided as much as possible. She'd show up at Harry's for lessons but would find any reason to leave as soon as he started asking questions she didn't like.

Tonight she came across something she hadn't expected but probably should have. From where she hid in the shadows near a quaint little park she could hear a sound that caught her attention. Voices. A group of peopler all bundled up were gathered together near a decorated pagoda and they were...singing. Blinking in confusion she ventured closer, stepping out of the shadows to figure out what this was all about. She didn't immediately recognize the quiet strains of Silent Night. When she did she stepped closer, hiding next to a lamp post with a soft smile forming on her face.

The man with the pipe had his tent set up sort of off of the main drag, away from the noise and the rides. It was at the edge of the fair, near trees, and it was hung with white Christmas lights.

The tent had a sign that read CURIOSITIES, and nothing more. There was an arrow pointing to the tent flap, and an ornate tassel with which to pull back the flap and see inside.

Inside, the man with the pipe waited, seated in an armchair that appeared rather out of place, reading a book. There were tables inside the tent, and glass cases. Items were on the tables, sitting on displays and inside the cases, lit from beneath. A generator hummed next to the tent.

The man with the pipe waited.

It had been easier than he'd thought to get the Queen's permission to come here. To explore on the caveat that he report back to her everything that he saw and did. She knew as well as he did that once he was outside of her territory, he would do as he pleased, but there wasn't much that she could do about it. She would wait for her information, and he would feed her what little he could and still get by with. He needed to be able to stay as long as possible, and if she got too much too quickly, she might think that the end of it. Call him back. He could disobey to some extent, but in the end, she was still his Queen. There were still politics.

Almost immediately upon his arrival, Eric knew that there was something much bigger going on in this place than he'd imagined. It felt different than any other place he'd ever been in his life. His entire life. It was as if this place crawled over his skin, tugged at him and pushed at him at the same time.

Yet it all looked so absurdly normal. To the point of boring.

Eric looked at the sky, at the moon, he'd seen York from overhead only moments ago. It had not looked any more significant from up there. Now, at street level, Eric was looking for signs of life, and starting to suspect that everybody who lived here went inside as soon as it got dark. He didn't think he'd seen a place so abandoned at night since the middle ages.