At the bus stop (:

[kara]

Clouds swept across the moon. Smoke blanketing any stars. The roads seemed clear, but still he waited. He sat, half sitting, half perching on the bus stop seats. With his hands on his pockets he looked down. The bus was late. Again.
He resting his head backwards. The people at the bus stop complaining about the bus being late, and how un fair their pathetic existence was. Ha. They have no idea. Chris didn’t complain much, he couldn’t really, not about menial things like this.

He got up, sweeping his rucksack up from the floor and onto his shoulder, he couldn’t take it. It hadn’t been that long since leaving his dad and his group of hunters, and already he was finding it hard. Hunting and killing werewolves, vampires and god knows what else seemed so much easier than living a normal life. But still, he wasn’t going to go back.

He walked a little further down the street, to were an emptier bus stop was, there was no shelter, just a pole with a sign saying ‘bus stop’ on it. He slung his bag down again, slumping against the cold metal pole. An hour, a whole hour he had been waiting out in the cold. Hands freezing in the cold winter weather.

[Anastasia Kirilovna Marisova]

look at what you see in her face the mirror of your dreams
MAKE BELIEVE ON EVERYWHERE GET IT IN THE LINE. HIDDEN ON THE PAGES IS THE ANSWER TO
A NEVER ENDING STORY. REACH THE STARS FLY A FANTASY DREAM A DREAM AND WHAT YOU
SEE WILL BE. RHYMES THAT KEEP THEIR SECRETS -------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------- WILL UNFOLD AND THERE UPON THE RAINBOW IS THE ANSWER

The moon was high, clouds drifting lazily through the sky. There was nothing extraordinary about this night—it was like any other night. At least it wasn’t raining, or snowing. The ground was at least dry for a little while, until the next storm hit anyway. New York was the city that never seemed to sleep, so at this time of the night there were still people out and about. A lot more than any other place. Didn’t most cities have some sort of curfew? Did New York even have one? Or was it for minors? It didn’t even really matter. No one would listen to it anyway, probably. There were clubs to go to, bars to drink out, drugs to sell, and innocent young women to violate. The city couldn’t afford to sleep. How many of those people were businessmen, parents, just trying to have a good time during the weekend—or working, even? One was a single, lone girl no bigger than small teenager, but in a few days she would actually be twenty. Her long, blonde hair was down and lying around her shoulders and moving slightly as she walked. It looked as if she had gotten out of the shower, brushed it, and then just left it at that.

The terminal came into view, but she wasn’t paying much attention. Her head was down, mind buzzing with thoughts, but none of them she was actually paying much attention to. It was all just a big jumble and she couldn’t pick through any of it. She didn’t want to try. As she walked, she barely picked up her feet, just shuffling around. One would look at her and think that she seemed incredibly depressed, and she was. She was wondering around the streets of New York City, miserable. It was better than staying at the empty mansion, staring at the walls. At least out here there was white noise to drown out her misery. She knew she should do something about it instead of just moping around, but her best friend had just died: she was in grieving and it would take just a little bit of time for her to get over it. Kyla had been her only friend, and they had known each other since Anastasia had moved to America. Now, now she was just gone. With the snap of her fingers, Kyla had been taken away. And now the poor girl had nothing.

Looking up, Anastasia saw a bus stop full of people further down the street, but closer there was one little pole marking another bus stop, with only one man standing by it. Anastasia sighed quietly to herself and kept walking, picking up her feet a little more so they wouldn’t scuff against the pavement and annoy people. She walked past the man by the pole, ignoring him fully, then decided she didn’t want to walk past all those people. Across the street, there was no one. Hardly anyone wanted to take the bus at this night, and the other side at least was devoid of people. Anastasia turned slowly and started to walk across the street, not really paying close attention, lost in her own thoughts. The street was illuminated with headlights, but still Anastasia didn’t pay much attention. As she walked, the bus had finally arrived, and the poor girl was headed straight into its path. The horn blared and Anastasia looked up, her eyes growing wide as the oncoming bus got closer. The only person close enough to really do anything was the man by the bus stop, and though Anastasia was quick enough to move out of the way, the fear of being struck froze her like a deer caught in headlights.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------STATE Done
---------VOCAB 624
---------MUSE Fine
---------CHATTER Uh oh, Spaghetti-O's
---------COSTAR Christopher
---------WARDROBE She's in the middle.
---------STAGE Streets
---------CREDIT coding/banner by yours truly. lyrics by Limahl

[kara]

Chris barely looked at the girl as she passed, all he saw of her was her blonde hair and then she walked passed him. She had looked kind of depressed, but Chris didn’t think much of it. Most people looked like that about this time. People getting fired, people with kids, they all had their reasons for looking the way they did.

It was the blazing of the buses horn and a few people squealing that caught his attention. He snapped his head round, curiosity swelling him. But then it was drowned out by pure shock. The girl from earlier was standing right in the buses path, and the poor thing was standing there like a startled mouse. ‘Shit.’ He muttered, rushing over to her. He pushed her from the buses path, jumping back on the pavement just as it stopped, ‘What the fuck!’ he exclaimed over the shouting bus driver. ‘Are you okay?’

[Anastasia Kirilovna Marisova]

look at what you see in her face the mirror of your dreams
MAKE BELIEVE ON EVERYWHERE GET IT IN THE LINE. HIDDEN ON THE PAGES IS THE ANSWER TO
A NEVER ENDING STORY. REACH THE STARS FLY A FANTASY DREAM A DREAM AND WHAT YOU
SEE WILL BE. RHYMES THAT KEEP THEIR SECRETS -------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------- WILL UNFOLD AND THERE UPON THE RAINBOW IS THE ANSWER

The bus was coming, and Anastasia stood there like she was paralyzed. She would have liked to say that her life had flashed before her eyes, but it really hadn’t. All she could think of right then was that she was going to die like a bug on windshield. However, she was suddenly thrown to the sidewalk by some unseen force. Her screech of fear was drowned out by the blare of the bus horn and the screams of the people on the other side of the street who had watched her nearly get plowed over. Anastasia had lost her balance and fell over when she’d been shoved, but she was hardly irate about that. A couple scrapes on her palms wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened right then. Looking up, she saw the guy from the bus stop. Had he shoved her out of the way? He asked if she was okay, and by then Anastasia was on her feet. She was trembling and didn’t look at all like she was going to stay on her feet, and tears welled in her eyes for a second before she wiped them away. She had promised she wouldn’t cry anymore. “I—I’m fine,” she muttered quietly, slowly sinking down to her knees as they faltered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------STATE Done
---------VOCAB 216
---------MUSE Fine
---------CHATTER
---------COSTAR Chris
---------WARDROBE
---------STAGE Sidwalk
---------CREDIT coding/banner by yours truly. lyrics by Limahl

[kara]

Chris looked at the girl, tears playing at the rim of her eye. He tutted, ‘You don’t act like you’re fine.’ He went over to her as she went to her knees, ‘Damn. What were you thinking? Going into the road like that?’ He sighed, he didn’t really expect much from the sobbing form in front of him, but he needed to ask the questions. He was slightly shaky himself.
He fired a glare at the bus driver, insults still being thrown at the two, damn, he had missed his bus, and once more he would have to wait. Well, at least this girl was okay. But she seemed to have been completely out of it. And the thought that crossed his mind was it would most likely happen again, and there wouldn’t always be someone there to shove from harm’s way.
‘You really should pay attention, not everyone would risk their own neck to save you from a bus.’ Chris rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Well, at least you’re okay this time, eh?’

[Anastasia Kirilovna Marisova]

look at what you see in her face the mirror of your dreams
MAKE BELIEVE ON EVERYWHERE GET IT IN THE LINE. HIDDEN ON THE PAGES IS THE ANSWER TO
A NEVER ENDING STORY. REACH THE STARS FLY A FANTASY DREAM A DREAM AND WHAT YOU
SEE WILL BE. RHYMES THAT KEEP THEIR SECRETS -------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------- WILL UNFOLD AND THERE UPON THE RAINBOW IS THE ANSWER

“You don’t act like you’re fine.” Anastasia looked up at him, then away as she wiped away some tears and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She managed to keep herself composed instead of breaking down into tears. Everyone else was caught up in making sure they got the bus, and the man was the only one here who seemed to remotely care about her well being. “Damn. What were you thinking? Going into the road like that?” he asked her, getting down to her level. Anastasia flinched as if she was expecting to be hurt over it, but no he didn’t strike her or reprimand her. He was just flabbergasted that she hadn’t been paying any attention. Anastasia sniffled loudly and wiped her tears away again before looking up at him to answer. “I just. . . I wasn’t paying attention. I wanted to cross the street. . . forgot to look. . . I’m sorry. . . ,” she muttered, starting to get a little torn up over being such a bother to him.

There was a short silence, and Anastasia used the time to compose herself better. “You really should pay attention, not everyone would risk their own neck to save you from a bus,” he chided her, not unkindly. Slowly, Anastasia started to feel a little better and she stood up, her hands crossed over her chest as if she was trying to keep herself together. “I usually pay attention. . . I’m just. . . out of it,” she murmured. In a strange way, she was a little glad this had happened. Anastasia hadn’t had anyone to talk to since leaving Aleksei and since the Novosi guard had left her after she had become situated. He had said that he would check in on her every now and again to make sure she was doing okay, but it was near enough for her. “Well, at least you’re okay this time, eh?” Anastasia looked up at him and offered a small, sheepish smile of gratefulness. “Ah, yeah. Thank you. . . I’m sorry you missed the bus. . . I could. . . get us a ride. . . if you want. My name is Anastasia.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------STATE Done
---------VOCAB 372
---------MUSE Fine
---------CHATTER Sorry it took me a bit
---------COSTAR Chris
---------WARDROBE
---------STAGE Sidwalk
---------CREDIT coding/banner by yours truly. lyrics by Limahl

[kara]

Chris muttered something under his breath as the girl seemed to flinch as he bent down, ‘Usually when people want to cross a street they look, it’s not really something you can forget.’ He rubbed the back of his head, ‘And there’s no need to say sorry.’ Chris looked over at the people who where filtering on a bus, rolling his eyes as they seemed to have forgotten that this girl had almost gotten run over.

As the girl got up, so did he. He noticed how she stood and looked at her questioningly, why she was so-closed off, he didn’t know, yeah, she had almost gotten hit by a bus, but still...
Chris shrugged his shoulders as she spoke, ‘Eh. Makes sense. I guess some people do kinda just wander.' Chris looked over his shoulder as if expecting someone, but soon turned his head back to the girl in front of him. ‘No need for thanks.’ He waved a hand in dismissal, then nodded as the girl offered her name, ‘I’m Chris, Chris Williams. And it’s okay, I guess I could just walk.’

[Anastasia Kirilovna Marisova]

look at what you see in her face the mirror of your dreams
MAKE BELIEVE ON EVERYWHERE GET IT IN THE LINE. HIDDEN ON THE PAGES IS THE ANSWER TO
A NEVER ENDING STORY. REACH THE STARS FLY A FANTASY DREAM A DREAM AND WHAT YOU
SEE WILL BE. RHYMES THAT KEEP THEIR SECRETS -------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------- WILL UNFOLD AND THERE UPON THE RAINBOW IS THE ANSWER

“Usually when people want to cross a street they look, it’s not really something you can forget,” he continued to chide her. Anastasia hung her head like a child who was getting in trouble for eating a cookie before they’d had their dinner. “Sorry,” she muttered quietly, worrying her hands together, her shoulders hunched in a sort of defensive position. She didn’t like being told off, even if he was just trying to give her some advice and tell her to be more careful, it felt to her as if she was being told off. “There’s no need to say sorry.” Anastasia looked up at him and opened her mouth—to say sorry—but closed it again and clamped her mouth shut. She wanted to say sorry, but it would probably just make him a little angry. She was a very submissive person, and she apologized a lot because she thought it was what people wanted, was for someone to apologize. This time she had nearly gotten this man run over, so she thought it was very necessary to apologize.

Anastasia started to realize that he wasn’t too angry with her and her shoulders relaxed, falling into a less tense position. She was safe now, and the man wasn’t going to hurt her. Obviously, if he’d wanted that, he would have just let her get run over by the bus. “No need for thanks. I’m Chris, Chris Williams. And its okay, I guess I could just walk,” he said. She looked up at him and tilted her head to the side, her brows furrowed slightly. Walk? But it was dark out and who knew how far he had to walk if he was trying to take the bus. She glanced over her shoulder at the bus stop and flinched away as she saw the bus driver give her a dirty look and then looked back at Chris. “Oh. . . ah. . . are you sure? I feel. . . I feel bad for almost getting you run over,” she murmured, looking down again and bringing her hands together to fidget with her fingers, spinning the ring on her finger absent-mindedly. It was just a silver ring, a gift from her parents for one of her birthdays.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------STATE Done
---------VOCAB 377
---------MUSE Fine
---------CHATTER Sorry it took me a bit
---------COSTAR Chris
---------WARDROBE
---------STAGE Sidewalk
---------CREDIT coding/banner by yours truly. lyrics by Limahl

[kara]

Chris frowned slightly, Anastasia looking like she was going to say something, but then deciding against it. A strong wind swept passed the two of them, the cold air biting, yet again, at his fingers. He cussed, slipping his hands swiftly into his pockets. He looked over to the bus driver, the vehicle driving passed the two of them, ‘yeah, walking is fine, its...Not...That far.’ He looked in the direction the bus had driven, the frown on his face deepening as he tried to think how far it actually was. ‘Anyway. Where are you heading?’ he asked, slight worry mixing in his sentences, the frown on his face disappeared, he really didn’t want her to get hit by a car, or worse. With the way she had just zoned out anything could happen, and the streets, especially at night, where pretty harsh.

[Anastasia Kirilovna Marisova]

look at what you see in her face the mirror of your dreams
MAKE BELIEVE ON EVERYWHERE GET IT IN THE LINE. HIDDEN ON THE PAGES IS THE ANSWER TO
A NEVER ENDING STORY. REACH THE STARS FLY A FANTASY DREAM A DREAM AND WHAT YOU
SEE WILL BE. RHYMES THAT KEEP THEIR SECRETS -------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------- WILL UNFOLD AND THERE UPON THE RAINBOW IS THE ANSWER

“Yeah, walking is fine, its. . . not. . . that far,” the man replied with little conviction. Anastasia looked up at him with a frown and cocked her head to the side, following his gaze to watch the bus drive off and then disappear around a corner. She sighed and looked down, feeling awful. If she had been paying attention he probably would have made his bus and would be on his way home, and now because of her he had to walk all the way to wherever it was he was going. It might not have been to his home. “Are—are you sure?” she asked, pulling out her cell phone so she could show him that it wouldn’t be at all hard for her to get a car there in a few minutes or more. It smelled like rain, but Anastasia didn’t think it was going to be any time in the next hour. She had an umbrella, just in case. If she were to use it, she’d probably have to make him hold it, though, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to hold it up high enough to cover the both of them.

“Anyway. Where are you heading?” Anastasia looked back up at him from the ground, then looked back in the direction that the bus had been going. Honestly, she didn’t really know where she had been heading. With a vague gesture down the street, she motioned in the direction the bus had been going before it had to stop at the stop—and almost hit her, of course. Honestly, busses had breaks for a reason. “Ah. . . that way. . . I guess,” she replied, sounding a tad unsure. Where was she going? She just remembered wandering around aimlessly. She wasn’t heading home. . . her home was somewhere else. She had just been walking. Maybe she could just walk with this stranger she had just met.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------STATE Done
---------VOCAB 323
---------MUSE Meh
---------CHATTER Sorry it took me so long. ><
---------COSTAR Chris
---------WARDROBE
---------STAGE Streets
---------CREDIT coding/banner by yours truly. lyrics by Limahl

[kara]

Chris watched as the bus drove off, the deep frown from early still planted on his face. He turned his gaze to the girl, Anastasia, she seemed a little better than earlier, and slowly the frown left his face. well, just as long as she was okay he didn't mind missing the bus and walking to his home. 'Yeah.' He waved a hand, dismissing her getting a car, 'I can mange the streets, I've had to deal with worse than just some old thug. I'll be fine.' He smiled. And it was true, yeah the people that roam the streets at night were big, and sometimes scary, but no where near as scary as trying to kill a werewolf or something.
He looked up to the sky, grey clouds could be seen against the black of the night, that meant one thing. Rain. Great, just what he needed...

He looked in the direction Anastasia pointed out, 'Ah, Same way as me.' he nodded, he shrugged, 'Well, seems as we are going the same way, might as well stick together eh?'

[Anastasia Kirilovna Marisova]

look at what you see in her face the mirror of your dreams
MAKE BELIEVE ON EVERYWHERE GET IT IN THE LINE. HIDDEN ON THE PAGES IS THE ANSWER TO
A NEVER ENDING STORY. REACH THE STARS FLY A FANTASY DREAM A DREAM AND WHAT YOU
SEE WILL BE. RHYMES THAT KEEP THEIR SECRETS -------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------- WILL UNFOLD AND THERE UPON THE RAINBOW IS THE ANSWER

“Yeah, I can manage the streets. I’ve had to deal with worse than just some old thug. I’ll be fine,” the man insisted when she pulled out her phone to indicate she would call. Anastasia looked at him for a moment, wondering what he meant by that, then put her phone away in her pocket again. “If you’re sure,” she relented, adjusting the bag on her shoulder. Like most girls she carried various things in there. . . phone, pens, wallet, loose change. . . . All of the normal things you’d find in a woman’s bag. Chris continued on to tell her that if she were so inclined they could walk together since they were both heading in the same direction, and Anastasia smiled up at him, nodding her head once. The small girl really could have used some company about then. She’d very nearly joined Kyla wherever she had gone, after all. However, at this point in time, Anastasia wasn’t so sure dying was a bad thing. “That would be nice. What did you mean earlier when you said that you’d dealt with worse? Are you a cop?” she asked curiously, mostly just trying to make conversation while they started to walk down the sidewalk to their respective destinations.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------STATE Done
---------VOCAB 211
---------MUSE Meh
---------CHATTER Sorry it took me so long. ><
---------COSTAR Chris
---------WARDROBE
---------STAGE Streets
---------CREDIT coding/banner by yours truly. lyrics by Limahl