((ST NOTE: Transferred from the old forum))
Narration:
Jack had spent the past two days checking out what he could of the girl he'd agreed to harm in exchange for a well-defended place to stay and to provide himself an opportunity to turn the situation into more than that. The intelligence he'd been given by the mysterious man who had given Jack the assignment was helpful in this regard, because while he couldn't keep track of her movements during the day, he went into the mission with a very good idea where she most often tended to be at night.
It was abundantly clear that trying to get to Jada Franklin inside her home would be a difficult proposition at best. Her father, who worked for the mayor's office, had spared no expense when it came to home security. The fence surrounding the house was sturdy and was covered at the top with razors that had been hidden in the design but would nonetheless be damaging; the yard was landscaped in a manner so as to provide no covered approach; the security camera system looked top notch; and then there were the two Rotweillers that prowled the yard by night. All the windows were solidly barred and security stripped, and from what he could tell the door was quite solid and had excellent locks. Jack wondered if the man was mostly afraid of the sort of reprisal Jack had been assigned to inflict, or if he was simply paranoid.
A slightly better proposition was the idea of striking while she was over at a friend's home, something that appeared - both by what Jack had been given and per his own observations - to be a fairly frequent occurrence. This home was sturdy and had fairly good security, but it wasn't a fortress like the Franklin home, and some of the upper-floor windows were often kept open at night. It was still risky, though, because the neighborhood ranked regular police patrols.
Probably the best bet, Jack decided, would be to act while the girl was going to or leaving the studio where she took dance lessions and practiced several times a week. The studio was located in an upper middle class business district, and the office building across the street would offer an excellent view of both the front door - where Jada was dropped off and picked up by her mother, her father or both - and the parking lot. This had the added advantage of providing for the possibility that one or both of the girl's parents might be able to observe her being crippled, as his employer would prefer. The disadvantage was that the office building looked to be of the climate-controlled sort with no opening windows, which left mostly the roof as a place from which to shoot, and from 12 stories, the angle would be a sharp one, limiting his options at hitting the girl in the knees, as requested. There were other buildings, but none with so good a view, and there were also possibilities like waiting in a car or doing a walk-by, but the first was too likely to attract notice and the second offered very little in the way of time to aim and prepare.
There were other options, of course. Trying to get inside the dance studio and complete the assignment there, for instance. But all of them carried other risks, and he'd not yet had time to look into any of them. Perhaps that would be the next step.
During the course of all this, Jack had plenty of opportunity to develop an impression of Jada and her parents. The father seemed a dour and frankly cold sort of person - pretty unlikeable, really - except when it came to his daughter. The mother, on the other hand, was friendly and appeared witty. And the girl, Jada Franklin, seemed always happy, often excited and full of life and energy.
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Jack had went through the options available. In his current state, Breaking and entering the girls house that might as well have been a fortress was one quick way to do something that would breech the masquerade. Number two had less risks, but there was still that threat of revealing himself to the police and the prince would be pissed if there were any casualties, so those two options were out.
While he might have been weak, he could probably go on top of that building across the street and shoot her from there. But his body wasn't very responsive and that would put him at a disadvantage. So for the moment, Jack would have to find someone to feed off. He had time, the girl's lesion didn't end for some time.
With that decision, Jack left his rifle in its canvas bag propped up against the wall of the building. He looked around for a moment and tried to see if he could find someone to 'help' his affliction.
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Narration:
Many of the nearby shops are closed now, but some - a coffee shop, some trendy restaurants serving Asian and Central American cuisine, a bookstore, a women's boutique - are still open, though Jack knows from past observation some of them they will be closing soon. The office building across from the dance studio has traffic at all hours and many of the businesses there never close, but everywhere with people will be busy enough that feeding would be risky.
There are also some pedestrians, mostly traveling in groups of two or more... shoppers, people heading to or from restaurants or bars, and so forth. Jack also notices an attractive, tanned young woman jogging, dressed in blue running shorts and cut-off sports top, her blonde ponytail bobbing as she runs.
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Now that is something I wouldn't mind having so time alone with. He thought with a smile. He did find it a little odd that someone was jogging around at this time of night, but then again past experience had taught him that Americans were a little strange.
He took a brief moment to stand up straight and adjusted his cap. No need to come off 'creepy'. With that done, he did the typical thing for him to meet someone good looking running down the street.
He walked right in her way just as she was about to run right past him.
spoiler
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Narration:
Jack steps in front of the young woman without being too obvious of his intent. She manages to pull up short ands top before running into him, but does not look happy about it.
Meeting his eye, she says simply "Excuse me," clearly expecting him to get out of her way.
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Jack stumbled a little, managing to feign surprise in the process. "Oh sorry about that. I didn't see you there. You alright?" As he spoke, he started pouring in that tell tail charm of his, none of it natural to anyone other that Kindred.
Spoiler
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The young woman is about to walk around Jack, but stops in her tracks as he pours on the Majesty. She gives him the once over and says "Yeah, I guess I'm okay" while wiping sweat from her forehead.
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"Bit late to be running around the city at this time. Not very safe." Jack said. He was going to have to get her out of view of everyone before he could feed. The Beast inside was starting to scratching his insides, needing the blood this woman has. Better act quickly or else this is going to be a disaster.
"You look exhausted. You might need to take a break."
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"I can take care of myself," she says, smiling, and quicker than Jack can react, she switches to a sort of boxing stance and tosses a punch, stopping it only a hair's breadth from Jack's left cheekbone. "Muay Thai 4 nights a week." Up close to her hand, Jack can see she has callouses on her knuckles, and some healed scars on her hands.
"I'm thirsty, though. Least a guy can do when he almost runs into a woman is buy her a drink." She points down the street. "That coffee place, they have bottled water."
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Jack took a step back when he saw the woman's fist coming towards his face. Fuck me dead again! it took him a brief second to compose himself. "Well, at least no one is going to screw with you any time soon." This one is going to be harder than I thought.
"Sure, I have some spare cash on me." He said with a small smile as he gestured her to follow.
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"Australia, huh?" the woman asks as she walks with Jack into the shop, which looks about to close for the night. "Business trip or living here, and do you know if the job market is any better there than here?"
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Jack smiled. It always amazed him how the accent caught everyones attention."Yep, I'm an aussie. Been traveling America, always wanted to see the world. And I think the job market back home is good, but things are starting to go downhill." It was always smart to find out what was going on home, it really helped in making conversation. They reached the store and went inside.
"What about you? What do you do? Other than running down the streets at night."
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Once inside, the young woman grabs a couple napkins from a table and wipes sweat off her face. "I'm unemployed right now. I was working for a pharmaceutical research firm, but I got downsized. So, the past 4 months, I've been blowing my severance on getting back in shape after too much time sitting on my ass in a lab. Got back into the kickboxing after a couple years away from that." She takes a bottled water from a standing cooler and puts it on the counter.
((ST Note: Jack's turn))
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