back to the beginning (open)

[Chris]

I know that I've been told
My integrity was sold
Priced and placed upon a shelf
It's worth its weight in gold

Blood. Sweat. Tears
All replacing the most inner
fears that represent the present and the past.
All of which, time is moving to fast
for the person to comprehend all of the tasks
that were assigned for that one to react.
But all of the following stories that were made to be this way,

This is their tale.

Ever since Chris was a child, he had always been different. He was treated different, was acted different in public, was even raised different than all of the kids at school. Everything was different, catered to his own need...that was until all hell was released. Demons surrounding the area, blacking everything out. All was quiet until that very moment. All hell broke loose, and chaos erupted. Nothing was safe. No one, nothing, nowhere was safe. It was all a danger zone. It wasn't until Rachel and Chris made it safely away. That was the beginning of the family.

Back to reality

Sweat dripping down the back of his neck, Chris continued to maul the punch bag. One of the few that was not broken. Taking one last spin kick, he flew in the air and knocked the bag right off of the chain. His breath came in short, sharp spurts after finishing up two hours of working out. His arms were tired, lactic acid was building up throughout his entire body. Everything just seemed to be slowing down. But he didn't quit. Quickly flashing an energy ball at one of the completely broken punching bag that Luke had broken the other day.

With a groan, his breathing slowed before he stood up, hands gripping his hair as he fought with the thoughts that had been haunting him for too long. It had been a couple of days now, and everything just seemed to stay there in his mind. They wouldn't escape. He was a demon himself, but the inner emotional demons that took the toll on him was enough to make him go down to his knees and beg them to leave. But even that wasn't enough. He had to wait and see what all of the trauma that he had endured the past couple of years. None of this was worth the pain. None of it was worth the suffering.

No one had caught his eye yet. There was no love. There was just....him. And his family. Chloe...she was one of the two people who he really connected with in the house. She was his favorite sister, and when combined with Danny, the three of them were inseperable. Danny...he had always been there for Chris. When they picked him up and took him in, Chris had still been distracted by what had happened, and Danny was his rock. He had always been his rock, and nothing had ever changed. All of the teens were close because there was constant danger in Belview. But they always had to maintain in constant vigilance. They were hated throughout. Being a Stryker demon wasn't easy. Not only was his head on a bounty already, but most demons hated him. If they just merely saw him, he would have to either shimmer away or run. Like they always did. It's either run or fight.

They all were cowards. But it was what they do best, and what they knew how to do best. Getting up, he roared before punching the bag with all of his strength, tearing a hole right through it. A satisfied smirk rested upon his lips before he took a quick chug of water and let the salt from the sweat finally drip down to the ground. All actions have a reaction.

Standing there with his fists clenched, he looked down at the ground, attempting to fight all of the inner demons mentally. All of which was a constant battle between good and evil.

[ghost]

It was a dizzy floating feeling, It was bright almost too bright. She was running fast out of breathe. But she was happy, happier than she'd been in a long time. She was about to turn to see whom she was running from when she was tackled to the ground. She looked up and felt a knot at her throught, for the person above her, tickle monstering her was David. She couldn't help but laugh and roll around trying to escape his grasp. Then suddenly it turned dark, almost black. They both stood up and they were sorrounded by Strykers. "Go" he told her "Not without you!" The familiarity of those words would haunt her forever. An energy ball came flying in their direction and hit David right in the chest. "Daviiiiiiiid"

Her eyes opened quickly. "Shit!" There were tears flowing down her cheeks. She angrily wiped them away. Rachel Carson did not cry. She hadn't cried since she was captured. She refused to let anyone see any weakness in her, and crying was a weakness. She got up off her bed and paced the room. There was a punching bag in her room and she hit it fiercley every time she passed it. She decided this was not enough, she had to let out her anger before it effected her powers. Her powers were a sure sign at how she was feeling, when her moods were askew her powers were on the fritz. She couldn't afford her powers fouling up on her.

She grabbed her IPOD and made her way out the room and down the stairs to the basement where there training room was. She was blaring 'Pain' by Three Days Grace and didn't even notice the room was occupied until it was too late. She held in a gasp and took off the head phones. "You" she said when she saw Chris there sweating and just out of it.

She never liked Chris. It was his family who captured and killed her family. Sure he helped her escape and for that she would always be indebted to him, but she hated that, being in debt to someone. But that's the way life was, and she had to take it. She stood there waiting to see if he'd leave the room or not. She was hoping to just let loose, go crazy and just feel.

[Chris]

It is impossible to never tell the truth
But the reality is I'm getting away with murder
Getting away, getting away, getting away

The inner demons inside Chris had become so violent with each other that it made his face twist in anguish. They had become so furious with each other and with himself that they made every muscle in his body quiver with anger. Body shaking, he looked up from the ground as he grit his teeth. Everything had become so infuriating that all he could do was stand there. He was in a catatonic state as his mind raced over the memories and as he trying to fight back with the inner foul Stryker demon within him. He couldn't help the sour feelings that he had for himself, for his family, for everyone else who was even close to him. They had to deal with a murderous person who basically helped his family kill another person of his new family. How Rachel put up with him, he would never know. As Chris finally came out of his catatonic state, Hands clenching and unclenching, he knew that the next person who would show up would get the down side of Chris's anger. It wasn't something pretty to see..let's just put it that way.

"You." he heard a familiar voice say with a harsh tone.

His eyes immediately turning the jet black color of his anger, he turned around, his arms extended as his hands flickered. Energy balls flickered as they shot rapidly towards her direction, but before they flew through the air he managed to move his hands just barely away from her. Thankfully they hit the mat behind her, and his eyes remained the dark color, his breathing coming in short pants. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Rachel, seriously pissed. Yes, they didn't agree all the time, and they didn't exactly care for each other so much, but they were family. They had to look after each other.

Chris, a while ago, had saved Rachel from the slaughter his parents had done to her own parents. Ever since then, she has had this hate towards him, but it never really bothered him. She was a witch, and he was a demon. They were naturally not really supposed to like each other anyway. With a grunt, he set his arms down to his sides as he looked at her straight in the eyes, trying to see past the guard that she always put up when she was around him. He knew that something was bothering her because her eyes were deceiving, but he could see the pain behind them. Yes, he was concerned, but he wouldn't dare vocalize anything.

"Oh. Hi, Rachel. What are you doing down here?" he asked her in a monotonous voice, his tone unyielding anything.

He grabbed another quick drink of water before turning away from her to face the sandbag. Swinging his leg, he kicked the bag with a force that almost sent it flying. With kicks and punches, he continued to wait for Rachel's answer, but for the time being, he was only half paying attention. The anger was still boiling underneath him despite the fact that on the outside he appeared just as calm as hell...well, except for the whole eye thing. It was just something that gave him away, and it made him as frustrated as hell for it. Elbowing, punching, even kicking the bag had helped him release very little, something that was not good with Chris. He needed to release his anger somehow. Otherwise, it would be bad.

And it was really starting to get bad...

((Ick. I did NOT like that post....))

[Alisson Reed]

Allison's Outfit

Allison stared up at the ceiling as she rested in her loft. Her walls were bare, alternating between black and white, so that was two white walls, and two black. Allison had chosen the smallest room because, well, she was the smallest. And Allison had never been comfortable in large rooms. It made her feel that much smaller, and if she was any smaller, she’d be a stick. Allison knew she did not look healthy. Blamed it on her mother and biological father, both druggies. Her mother had actually upped her dosage when she found out that she was pregnant with Allison. Because, surprise surprise, Elizabeth Reed was already married to someone else! Allison’s life had been all downhill even before she had been born. Her mother had tried to kill her discreetly – being married to a pastor made abortion near impossible – which had resulted in the defect in Allison’s digestive system. She was unable to absorb a good amount of the nutrients that passed through her body. While she now took a multitude of pills to cover that now, as a child, it had led to her eating chalk, brittle nails, dry hair and skin, and the occasional bout of delusion and insomnia, and that was only from her calcium deficiency. No wonder her legal father thought of her as a devil child.

Sitting up, Allison swung her legs over the side of the loft, sliding off the edge and landing with a thud on her floor. That was good, the pills were working if she could land that without her knees, hips, ankles, and every other joint in her body hurting. Which meant that her body was getting more Vitamin C. Yay. Allison decided that she should probably head down to the basement to practice clinging. Exchanging her tank for a green with black sleeves Volcom baseball tee, she pulled on her stone washed grey jeans. Slipping into her black Vans, Allison nearly tripped over herself as she doubled back to grab her fingerless gloves. The knuckles had small studs on them, giving her a little help in fights. The gloves also seemed to help her stick better, but she guessed it was because they had a friction grip on them. Whatever it was, Allison was glad for them.

Allison ducked her head to check the basement before she entered. If someone was down here, she didn’t want to embarrass herself falling from the ceiling when she practiced a new trick. There was someone down in the basement, but it was Chris, and he was like a big brother to her. She’d embarrass herself no matter what she did in front of him. At least he wouldn’t tell the whole damn world about it. Then again, he might. But, oh well. Chris didn’t seem too happy at the moment, so she snuck around along the wall, trying to get to the back of the punching bag he was killing. When their seemed to be a break in his punching spree, Allison took hold of the punching bag, sticking her hands to it and her feet to the ground. ”Hey Chris,”

[Chris]

Drowning deep in my sea of lonely
Broken, your servant I am
It seems what's left of my human side
Is slowly changing in me

Everything changed after that one day. What was normal for him became foreign. The people who he thought were his friends became enemies. And today was the one year anniversary of the beginning of the madness.

Chris and Rachel had been walking back home from school talking about where they were thinking about for college. Little did they know, however, that their fates would be linked sooner than they had expected. As the two of them stood on her front door steps, Chris's heart fluttered in anticipation. The two of them had been dating for about a month now, and never before had he kissed Rachel. He wanted to so badly now though. Just as their lips were about to touch, a tortured mix of a cry and shriek came from inside the door and into the backyard. They both rushed back to see a shocking sight.

Blood spatter and pools of blood lied underneath the shredded and mangled (alive) bodies of Rachel's parents. You could see the flesh swollen and bleeding. Not surprisingly though, Chris's parents in their demon form - their full-fledged demon form - had the crimson liquid dripping down from their claws. Standing there in shock, the two teenagers gawked at the horrible sight, and with a feeling of dread knotting up in his stomach, Chris muttered,

"Shit." Taking Rachel's hand, he sprinted in an all-out run konwing that there would be consequences if she saw any more. Chris felt that she was slowing down, and just as he picked her up into his arm, a strangled scream was suddenly cut off. Instantly, Chris knew what that meant: his parents had devoured the souls of Rachel's parents. It was one of the few powerful gifts that are rarely possessed in some Stryker demons. But only a few hundred yards later, he gently set her down. Rachel crumpeled into a ball and started punching Chris with an intensity as tears of anger and grief rand down her cheeks. She looked up at Chris with a glare that would scare the pants off of a normal person. The only thing was that with Chris, it was a normal looking glare so it really didn't bother him all that much that she was glaring at him.

"You," she growled. "You knew who th-they were. Tell me right now, Chris, or so help me..."

"They," he paused for a second before drawing in a shaky breath, "are my parents. They are mis padres."

[/b]

And right then was when the chaos started. That exact conversation began the sparked and heated feud between the two teenagers.[/i]

Returning back to reality, Chris's breathing had become erratic from simply the flashback. He knew that the feeling was powerful, but he didn't know that it had grown to be as bad as it was. Looking down at his hands, he groaned when he saw the bruisees and blood on his bare knuckles. He had seen so much blood that it tortured him on the inside know that he was the spawn of creatures that thrived, lived, and even enjoyed killing others. It made Chris sick to his stomach. He sat down, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Allison peeking out from behind the punch bag, giving him a quick hello. He looked back up at her, attempting to at least give her a half-hearted smile, but failing miserably. After how much Allison had opened up to him recently, he couldn't hide that today was torturing him more than usual.

"Oh, hey, Allison. What're you still doing up?" Chris inquired quietly, his eyes traveling down her body towards the ground. Oh god was he having a bad day...[/blockquote][/blockquote]

((Sorry it's kinda bad. I was having a low muse day. ))

[Alisson Reed]

Allison waited for Chris to come to. She knew that Chris had a rough life. She was pretty sure every demon had a rough life. In comparison, her life had been easy. A few corporal punishments dished out by her legal father, a little more than a handful of run-ins with the law, rehabilitation for attempted suicide and nutrition deficiency was nothing to Chris’ life. Okay, so mebbe it was up there, but she could say that Chris’ life was worse easily. At the very least, it took her mind away from her own problems, if only for a moment. And right now, Chris did not seem to be in a very happy mood. Hmm, maybe she should’ve waited for him to leave before she came down here. But then again, if she waited for him to leave, she might never get to practice.

Seeing that he was no longer going to kill the punching bag, she released her feet, what she’d been using to keep from flying if he’d slammed another fist into the bag. Flying wasn’t fun, especially when it was Chris that helped her get airborne. Chris sat down, giving Allison a look at his knuckles which looked like good pieces of meat. She rolled her eyes. ”I can’t tell who won – you or the punching bag.” Allison muttered, more to herself than to Chris, but he probably heard, nonetheless. She walked forward, not even thinking about her hands still stuck to the bag. So she obviously didn’t get far. Her cheeks reddened. ”Dammit…” Allison jerked her hands away, but they stuck. Great. She gave it a few more tugs before she gave up. Allison leaned against the punching bag, annoyed at it. She glared at it, hoping her hands would unstick themselves if she glared death at them long enough.

”Oh hey, Allison. What’re you still doing up?” Allison looked into Chris’ face, blinking. ”Is it really that late?” she asked childishly. Allison easily lost track of time, as she liked to sleep a lot during the day. This usually accounted for Rachel yelling at her when Allison tried to get out of the house so late and head for the clubs, or for a run. Not many people understood her liking for midnight runs. Allison didn’t really understand it either, but she just felt more safe running late at night, instead of in the middle of the day. And right now, she was so sick of Rachel scolding her that she’d just thought to spite her and come down here and train.

Allison shrugged, giving one more tug at her hands. This time, she went tumbling back to the floor with a hard ‘thud’. She glared childishly at her hands, then at the bag. Standing up, she gave it a good kick, as if to show it who was boss. She turned her attention back to Chris, stuffing her hands into her pockets. ”Something up, Chris?” Allison asked, turning the conversation away from herself. Chris really didn’t look so hott right now. Allison narrowed her eyes at him before taking a step towards him. She crouched down in front of him, placing a hand on one side of his face to make his look up at her, her other one came down to slap him lightly across the face. ”Snap out of it, Christopher Devonshire.” Allison told him with a no-nonsense look on her face.

As she went to stand, Allison felt that the hand she had put against his face was not moving with her. She tried to lift a finger off, but it didn’t budge. ”And I suggest not moving unless you want to have a new face.”.

[Chris]

If you just realized what I just realized
That we'd be perfect for each other and we'll never find another.
Just realize what I just realized
We'd never have to wonder if we missed out on each other now

The wounds on his knuckles burned, blazed with such an intensity that it made Chris grit his teeth. The blood just kept pulsating, the muscles desperately trying to heal themselves, but this time it wouldn't take as fast as it normally would. It would be slow, painful, something he wasn't used to. Okay, so it wouldn't be THAT painful, but it would still be a pain in the ass to hvae something heal so slow. He wasn't exactly used to it, mainly because he had accelerated healing as one of his powers, but he wasn't one for the uncomfortable feeling. Clenching and unclenching his fists as he attempted to regain control of his emotions, he sat there, feeling his heart pounding with an intensity. He could hear his blood rushing through his veins, roaring through his ears as his heart rate sped from beat to beat, trying to find a steady rhythm.

And that's when he saw Allison's sweet, not-so-innocent face, but it always made him smile. She was the one person who he could open up to....kind of. Danny was the real person who he could open up to, but that was kind of obvious if you just saw how the two of them interacted with each other. He looked up at her eyes and felt a wave of sadness wash over him. He wanted to protect her. From everything. It was just who he was, but he knew that he could never truly do that all the time. There was no way in hell (okay, bad choice of words) that he could. Confusion and curiousity filled her eyes just as soon as he showed her that he was hurting. That he was really hurting bad.

Even though he cared so much about Rachel, she betrayed him. She hated him with every single fiber of his body, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He wanted her, he needed her...she used to be perfect. But now, there was nothing. There was no chance ever again. He would never be able to kiss her soft lips. He would never be able to gaze into her eyes and tell her that he could see stars. There was nothing more...there is nothing more that could solve this issue.

And then all of a sudden....

"Snap out of it, Christopher Devonshire!" followed by a light thwap and then a gentle tugging and then oh god... "And I suggest not moving unless you want to have a new face."

Great. They were stuck together like two pieces of boards stuck by a super sticky glue or something like that. Her clinging ability was wonderful in some cases....and not so much in the other. Like right now. With a grumble, he looked up at her, gave her a light glare and merely told her,

"Thanks, Allison. Thank you very much. That just made my day ten times better...."

Sarcasm is always a charm.