Like every day after the Clock chimed, Judith woke in the bed she had been assigned by the powers that be, dressed in the same threadbare canvas pants and drafty tank top she'd arrived in- even her mass of strawberry blond hair was loosely tucked in the usual crown-braid away from the threat of grabby fingers (skeletal or otherwise); every start of a new week reminded her of where she'd come from, and how monumentally stupid she ever was for thoughts about going back. Back home, she had it good- there was no fucking doubt about that; she had it best for what was left of the world...
But here, she had Erik. Here, she had her dad, after having lost him a decade before. Here, she usually had hot water on demand, and all the food she could ever want. Here, the dead didn't wander or bite or tear. This place could be Hell, sure, but she'd been born into Hell, grown up in it, and owned it before signing that book in the lobby. Judith didn't mind this Hell. Not even when something started clawing and pounding at her and Erik's door.
Vlad, roused from his post-breakfast nap, sat up the moment it all started- his lips peeled back in a low growl, straight on the end of a rod-stiff spine and picked-up black fur. It was a growl she understood; not a warning of the Dead, but of an Unknown... literally trying to bust in. Judith stared at the other side of it for a few thick heartbeats, knocking back the flash-thought that it might be Erik coming back from his swim (she never went- she still hated deep water) as something other than himself. But a quick look through the peephole told her a very different story.
A kid- one she'd never seen before (had she?) with a mop of dark hair and one eye going batshit on her door.
"Vlad," Judith said in little more than a breath, and pat her thigh- the massive shepherd dutifully reacted, no longer growling, but standing shoulder to her thigh and looking mean as fuck when she finally threw open the door with one hand.
The other held a worn, but fully loaded and off the safety, Desert Eagle- aimed and steady at the kid's head.
"You got ten seconds to tell me who the fuck you are and what the fuck you want."