The two tales of a story

I don’t understand?
No, you never really understand anything, boy; just do as I tell you too
– and Theobald? Stop asking such stupid questions; you’re not supposed to think; just do as I say
The words his father had left him with before he had been sent to off on a mission to make sure that Maeve would be neutralised still rung loud and clear in his head. He was now one month in, starting to get out of his addiction to the drug his father had fed him with for over a period of two years now. Or was it longer? If he was honest, one week in the cellar had started to feel like years, whereas years–well, it had felt like an eternity.
Now that he had been stalking the area, making small talk with the lovely older woman next door when her ‘son’ or what his relation to her was, hadn’t been home. That had been the first real indicator that his father had been on to something, but he still lacked the evidence that told him that she should suffer from the consequences of what she had been given by birth. Wasn’t it also his father that had told him repeatedly that one should use the gifts for the greater good? But as soon as they weren’t in his control, it needed to be eradicated. At times like these, he knew that his older brother Nigel had been right all along. But Theo was far too stubborn ever to admit that, even if he was slowly getting there as the fog started to lift from his mind, though there was a long way to go before he could finally be himself again. If he was ever able to find the boy, he could have become, had he been granted another childhood and life.

Now it was a Sunday. For many God-fearing people, this was a day of rest, a day to go to church and be with one's family. Now, it didn’t seem like that was something the Poe’s did. Though they were a tight bunch, clearly, they valued the family above anything else–and it seemed like the kidnapping had only tightened the bond between Maeve and her family.
Another reason why her father had wanted her gone No one gets kidnapped by a demon and comes out on the other side without being messed too much with. Now that he knew it was true, but his demon didn’t come from hell–no, he was the very one that sent him out on this mission.
But instead of doing what had been expected of him, he had gotten himself cleaned up and was now walking toward the door–a few steps more and then he would be able to knock. He could feel how his hands got clammy, pushing it off as one of the side effects of him going down in dosage–but he knew better; this was because of the anxiety spreading in his heart. With emotions, everything was so much harder to navigate in. It had been far more manageable when he hadn’t felt a thing.
But despite wanting to return from where he came from, he lifted his hand and knocked three times before letting his arm fall down his side. Waiting.

“You promised!“
“I said; later. When Jonathan is home.”

Maeve Poe loved and cared a lot for her brothers but there were times there it was pure nightmare to fight with them. To deal with their tantrum and absolute self-chosen inability to listen to reason or logic. Back before she’d moved out of the house that had been her home well into her adulthood - too long as some definitely had thought if she knew them right - it had felt somewhat easier to deal with than it was now. Now it was more difficult to not get instantly annoyed. She’d made effort to come by despite everything and then when she came to spend some quality time with her family she was instead met with entitled pre-teens and their demands for ice cream. Oh! But ice cream was certainly planned for the day. Just not right at that moment where Sawyer - the second youngest of the family, an explosive and outwards-lashing boy - wanted it. Ten years growing up and being raised in the Poe family and he still lacked a handful of manners. But not all respectable training had gone in one ear and out the other it seemed.

Thunk… thunk.. thunk..

The knocking didn’t catch onto Sawyer’s attention but it did Maeve’s so when the boy began to open his mouth for another loud excuse, she’d already moved a gesturing hand with a slight pointed finger which miracualously silenced the brother immediately. A quick glance towards the entrance of the small house and then back to Sawyer. “Later,” she finished sternly before leaving the boy to fume a bit for himself and walked out of the joined kitchen-, dining and living room area and into the slim entrance hallway. “I’ll get it!” A curtesy call out through the house. Mostly for Benjamin Poe, where ever in the house he hid. The door wasn’t locked or chained anymore when the family was home, so it was an easy task to simply turn the handle and swing the door open.

Maeve Poe barely got a chance to open her mouth before stopping right in her tracks when her eyes met with the man outside, widening significantly. She had nearly had to take half a step back. What was he-… No.. Wait.. After the initial split-second where she’d been convinced she knew the man, her brows furrowed and the recognition started to fade again. This man, sure he looked like Shiloh Carr at first glance but giving him a better look-over he definitely wasn’t Shiloh Carr. And thank God for that! She’s unconsciously started to show defensive behaviour which, as soon as he realized her mistake, dissipated again. Shoulders dropping and the automated glare in her eyes returning to an approachable gleam as she broke silence: “Yes?” Naturally, her mind already started guessing what he wanted - although for the most parts in the past she’d usually ended up wrong anyway. Hadn’t thoughts distracted her, perhaps she’d have noticed movement beside her a little earlier.
“Hm?“ she faintly hummed as she in the end caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and was just about to look behind her - it could be the cat waking up and wanted out, however the shape was too large to be a cat and suddenly the younger brother came shoving passed her. And the man in the doorway hadn’t he moved out of the way on his own. “Hey!” Baffled, Maeve looked after the boy running off. Then she looked behind her again where her handbag - wide open - before hastily looking forward again. Glancing to the visitor. Slightly panicked. “I am.. really sorry,” she managed to get out while simultaneously then sticking each foot into a pair of trainers by the side of the entrance. She was just about to lose balance when sticking a finger in the heel of one of them but only just. And then she was out the door. The other shoe got on with a bit of shimmying and then a tap of the toe to the ground. “SAWYER!! Come back here!” she shouted and wasn’t she stopped, seconds later she was setting after the boy who had already gotten a good spring ahead down the street. Airy, checkered summerdress skirt fluttering after and around her legs.

Meanwhile the youngest of the family had moved from his room on the second floor and walked down the stair, standing about three steps from the button and had his eyes locked upon the stranger if he hadn’t moved from the doorway. He didn’t say anything.

He felt extremely awkward—that feeling a young boy got when he looked inside of the girl he thought particularly pretty, and for all the bravado that the Blanchard brothers boasted about their self-confidence, they were all a bunch of teenage boys that had never gotten the childhood they now craved in their adulthood—at least some of the brothers were doing better than others. Sadly, Theobald Blanchard wasn’t one of them. If one should be completely honest, given recent events, one could even say he was doing the worst of all of them.
So, when he stood there looking slightly tilted downward at the woman Maeve Poe, he felt utterly tongue-tied for a moment. He didn’t even manage to introduce himself before he saw how the boy behind her very skilfully managed to open a handbag, and by how he was looking at Maeve, he would guess he was doing something that he shouldn’t—it would have been so easy for him just to reach his hand out, place it on the shoulder of the runaway thief, make sure he didn’t get further away than just a few steps from the threshold of the home—but he didn’t. Almost frozen in place, he saw how the scene unfolded, his lips slightly parted, wanting to introduce himself and why he was here, but the sound didn’t leave before he saw how she ran after him. “I’m Theobald Blanchard”, he muttered, letting his hand find the back of his neck. The scene unfolding in front of him was so idyllic; even though he gathered that it was rather tedious to be in the situation—but to him, this was what family was about. Not growing up with a gun in your hand and being shouted in your head about how to pull the tricker and kill. If you didn’t kill it, it would kill you. The: you or them mentality was something his father had always enjoyed drilling into the poor boys' skulls. His light brown eyes turned and looked at the boy standing on the stairs not far from the doorway. “Hello,” he said with a soft smile; now kids, funnily enough, he had always had it much easier to communicate with them than with people his own age.
Theo looked down the street to see if Maeve had any luck with catching her runaway brother, but for now, he stayed respectfully by the door, not wanting to invite himself in before he had at least gotten a chance to introduce himself.

Hadn’t she been otherwise preoccupied, Maeve would undoubtedly have felt very bad for the young man and how she left him to fend for himself in even worse awkward anxiousness than he apparently was already experiencing. Luckily, for the time being, she was happily oblivious to it. Her first impression of him, following her initial reaction at first sight, had been of a rather confident individual but then again, she hadn’t had much time to notice possible clammy hands or fleeting eye contact. Nor had she had even the slightest of chance to hear his mumbling introduction.

The proper greeting was therefore left to a seven year-old. “Hello,” the boy gingerly said back and for a good long moment longer he didn’t move from the stair. When he finally did, his eyes also then finally loosened their harmless grip. He took the last few steps down with playful jump in his steps - hand holding a light support onto the railing as he did before taking a real, two-legged jump on that last step. Collin wasn’t a big kid. Not quite yet. Actually, to Maeve’s delight, the boy had yet to grow taller than her, although he’d be sure to do someday. He still had plenty of growth left to do. He was of rather normal built - not exactly skinny or pump; well, expect for his cheeks which where chubby and round and rosy. And the standard orange T-shirt hang perfectly as intended on his body. His hair was long and swept to the side as well as dark brown like the rest of the family and had an impressive, natural fullness to it that surely at least a couple of the family members were envious about. He stepped all the way up to the door and tilted his quite a ways back to look up at Theobald. “My name is Collin.” The little boy smiled brightly at the stranger as he proudly introduced himself and provoking charismatic dimples to appear. Just like he’d been taught to do it despite at the same time having forgotten another lesson of not to speak to strangers. Collin had never been good at remembering that one. He was a social kid. He liked to talk with people.
“Do you need to talk to my dad?” he asked, leading off with a look over his slender shoulder and then whipping attention right back to the man, looking at him with nearly gigantic eyes of pure childish curiosity. “My mum isn’t home right now, so you can’t talk to her. Unless you call her on her phone. Do you want some juice? It’s really warm outside and you look like you’re really warm too, mister.” For a moment Collin seemed to consider some things in his head as he but whatever it was, he never got around to express it out loud because shortly after having invited the man in for a drink he turned around and half-walked, half hurried into the all-in-one room of the house and continued into the kitchen, nooked along the wall opposite the front wall with a window to the back yard over the kitchen sink.

Even without the affirmation that the man even wanted some juice, the boy B-lined to the large silvery fridge filled with magnets and drawings and pamphlets and other miscellaneous notes and with some difficulty due to the airlock, he pulled it open with need of only one hand and started rummaging for the carton of juice. He’d seen his parents and his sister do this many times before. Offering something to drink. Always something boring like water or bitter like coffee, though. Collin thought juice was more tasty.

Theo pursed his lips for a moment, nodding when the young boy greeted him. For a moment, he was taken aback by how he sounded, very grown-up for such a young boy. But given the household he was in, it didn’t surprise him long; if anything, it was relatively common for youngsters to pick up the mannerisms of those they surrounded themselves around.
“Nice to meet you, Collin” a smile grew, and his confidence slowly regained itself; funny how he felt much more at ease standing here in the doorway talking with a seven-year-old. He shook his head when he asked if it was for his dad he was here, the smile growing when he added the fact that his mother wasn’t home, but he could call on her telephone. Once again, extremely well-spoken at such a young age. “Juice does actually sound lovely, and you are right. I am a little warm—I’m actually here to talk with your sister. Still, I guess if it's all right, I could wait in the kitchen for her return?” he asked, not wanting to overstep and just come inside without a prober invitation, even though one could argue that he had already gotten one when Collin had asked if he wanted something to drink. But the words had barely left his lips before the boy was out of his side, undoubtedly running to the kitchen to fetch them both a drink—and even though he had just thought he wouldn’t just go over the threshold, he knocked on the door “I’m coming in” he called, just wanting to let the remaining residents know, that they were getting an unannounced guest, as he stood and took in his surroundings. It seemed so perfectly normal. Precisely how he would imagine that a functional and loving family would decorate their home.
He then proceeded to walk to the kitchen, where he saw how Collin was trying to find something for them to drink. “Do you have a favourite juice, Collin? I’ve always loved cherry myself and leechee. Still, I don’t think it is so common around here,” he explained as he once again let his eyes take in the many knick-knacks and how everything seemed to have their precise place—nothing left at random, or at least that was what he gathered by his fleeting inspection before he turned his gaze back to Collin.

There was a much expected homeliness to the main home of the Poe family. Besides how the rather relaxed and non-pretentious interior design perfectly told a story of any ordinary working class - a mixture of averagely mass-produced furniture and second-hand, finer things probably handed down from family members as well as a small sprinkle of luxury from when a nice bonus from work had settle in the bank accounts - there were a lot of personal items scattered about. The drawings on the fridge were far from the only things as the walls were tastefully adorned with framed photos of the family in different stages of life and different surroundings. There were staged photos where everyone was looking at the camera and smiling - or at least there’d been an attempt to have everyone look at the camera - and there were candid ones. And that was only the living room area. The more private rooms were sure to a bit more piled since they weren’t decorated with guest visits in mind.
In the kitchen when Theobald had found the courage to walk inside, Collin had just pulled a large carton free from the shelve in the fridge door; with the help of both hands, of course. Delilah had just done the shopping the other day so it was heavy lifting for the young boy. He closed the fridge again with both his arm and hip before scurrying to the kitchen counter to place the juice before climbing a short ladder step that was conveniently ready for him. Stepping up he could then reach the cabinet with the glasses although he’d still have to stand on his toes to reach the glasses that he wanted. The big ones. Luckily, no accidents happened and he got the two glasses down, no problem at all. “Lice juice?” Collin exclaimed after having stepped down from the ladder step again and looked towards the man with a strong grimace that definitely didn’t hide how the boy had misunderstood what was being talked about. His button nose was wrinkled in unfiltered, childlike disgust and the look in his eyes was quite judgemental. Who’d drink lice juice?! “Lice are icky! You shouldn’t drink their juice. Bvard!” With that he turned back to his juice mission and with the lid off the carton the boy went silent as complete concentration was needed to lift the heavy thing of liquid and pour normal, lice-free apple juice into the glasses without spilling. Looking closely, the tip of his tongue could be seen visibly peeping from between his lips.
Another success!

The last hurdle was to bring the glasses and he might’ve been overambitious, because he grabbed a filled glass in each hand and what a balancing act it turned out to be while he slowly walked to the round dinner table just beyond the make-shift border of kitchen area to the rest - a shift in direction of the floor boards. His small hands were shaking the glasses dangerously but at least he’d only filled them up to half so even as the liquid made waves up the side of the glasses, he didn’t spill this time either. And they made it safely to the table as well. Immediately after Collin looked to his house guest with a beaming pride of himself. “I like apple juice the best. Or cranberry when I’m sick.”
As if Theobald now had become fully his visitor - and not his sister’s - he climbed up in one of the chairs and pulled one of the two glasses to him. “What do you want to talk to my sister about?” Collin asked and taking a gulp of his refreshment. “Mae Mae is very busy so she’s not home that much anymore. Not after she moved to live somewhere else. She’s even more busy than our mum. But you’re lucky that she’s home today. Since you came to see her.” Another gulp happened while his eyes wandered in the direction of the front door. Maeve was technically home but just not at the exact moment. He looked back at Theobald, curiously.

He was just about to ask if Collin needed any help, watching how he waddled over the kitchen floor with the giant carton of juice that was clearly far heavier than he should be carrying. But with a soft smile on his lips, he decided against it, mostly because at that age, he wanted to do everything himself too—that didn’t mean, however, that he wasn’t observant and ready to grab potential glasses that could fall to the floor. Couldn’t have accidents now that he had decided to enter the house while Maeve was out running after one of her other brothers—hopefully, she would be successful before he had decided to buy the entire candy store with her monthly wages.

A hearty laugh left Theo when Collin heard it as lice, as in the crawly insects that lived between the hair. That sounded undoubtedly appalling. But he didn’t have the heart to correct him, at least not at this very moment—maybe later, when they sat down with their apple juice, Collin seemed to know exactly how to pour into the glasses he successfully had gotten down from the cupboard.
Once again, he just watched very intently, making sure no accidents would occur, and while Collin brought the glasses toward the table, Theo took the carton and placed it back into the fridge only to follow over and sit down by the table—where he quickly mirrored the smile he got, it was indeed a hurdle to overcome and be very proud of. “Oh, I just wanted to know how she was doing; I know Ethan and his sister, Elenora, quite well—” okay, that was maybe a stretch, he knew Elenora because he had trained with D’Avalos back when he had been younger, but he didn’t know Ethan all that well, other than he was a mountain with a dog called Puzzles.
“I count my blessings then; I didn’t know she had moved; it just shows how hopelessly out of date I am; I’ve been in Nepal the last few years, and when I came back, I heard about what had happened, so here I am” he concluded before he took a sip of the fresh juice, now on this warm summer day he would be damned if that wasn’t a nice feeling to have something refreshing to drink.  

Hyper aware, Collin looked after the man and witness him take care of the juice, which he’d completely forgotten to put back after use. A natural spark of guilt flickered as his ‘mother’s’ voice rang in his head from countless of other times where similar things had happened but then it was very quickly quenched by how Theobald didn’t so much as comment on it. Even saved him from a possible scolding later on. He was a nice man! And Collin liked nice people. They were always so nice. “She’s doing good,” the little boy said and by extension, in a way, answered the concerns that had brought him there that day. Maeve wasn’t there - she was missing out while chasing Sawyer around - so he had to take care of things in the meantime, didn’t he? “I haven’t seen her with scratches on her neck for a long time and she used to scratch her neck all the time. And Noir says that that is a good thing.” - “Noir is my cat. He talks.” Holding his glass securely with both hands he carefully put it down to stand on the table. Sitting in one of the normal chairs without a pillow underneath made the table just a little bit too tall for him but having his arms resting on the table top, although awkward looking, didn’t seem to bother him at all. If anything it did so that if he wanted, he could just tilt the big glass of juice to his mouth rather than lifting it. But that trick was a risky one.

Light suddenly shun through the young Poe’s eyes as they looked a bit more up towards him. “Nepal?” he blurted out excitedly, scooting a bit in his seat. “That’s all the way in another country. I’ve been to other countries too. England. Italy. Uh! And Thailand! But I was very little so I don’t remember. But I’ve seen pictures.” Once more he lifted the glass to his mouth - he was already about halfway through the amount he’d poured for himself, at that point. The boy was thirsty. And he hadn’t been lying when he’d exposed that he liked apple juice; there was no doubt about it. Either that or he was being deprived of apple juice on the regular so now that he had the chance, he gulped it down.
Like in a drink commercial, Collin let out a loud and satisfied sigh after wards but then energy seemingly began to seep out of him. Just a little, as his eyes lowered and he discreetly chewed on his inner cheek. Anxiously almost. “Ethan hasn’t been around much either,” the sudden sadness revealed to be anchored. “He’s busy too.” Everyone was so busy all the time. He’d been taught to not pester people and let them be busy but he was still just a kid. He couldn’t help it. He didn’t like it when things he liked changed like that. “I m-..”

The front door opened abruptly and just as Collin had been about to continue talking, his lips clammed down and he turned in his chair to looked towards the entrance where familiar boy stormed inside - fuming! - and kept going up the stairs. Following right after came Maeve, equally heated and didn’t wait a moment before shouting: “AND TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF IN THE HOUSE!“ although it was a battle already lost before it’d even begun. Sawyer trampled down the short hallway on the floor above, so much that it could easily be heard downstairs until he eventually reached his room and slammed the door shut. And everything went quiet again.. Too quiet.
After moment or so of silent rummaging in the entrance, Maeve emerged into the living room with a deflated look to her. Her hair was slightly windblown and her cheek were flushed from the run. Her breathing was still quite breathy and one a thin pulse-tracker around her left wrist was a showcase of orange numbers slowly going down as she relaxed. She’d forgotten about the man, she’d barely had time to greet before, and that fact was a clear as day when she finally looked up and caught him casually in her home. With Collin casually sitting as if nothing was wrong. She didn’t say anything, just looked at his man - whose name she hadn’t gotten - in confusion. And some apprehension. It was Collin who broke the ice. “This is Theobald Blanchard. He likes lice juice.” Huh?!

He nodded when Collin explained that she was doing good—that was good, he guessed. Sometimes the definition of what good was could be very different. Just like ‘I’m fine’ was almost universally known to be, I’m actually not doing fine at all. So, who knew, and even though it seemed—wait, had the boy just told him that his cat talked? Theo blinked a couple of times and then leaned forward “between you and me, I’ve always wished for a talking cat, so you, my friend, might be the coolest kid I’ve ever met,” he said, and a bright smile formed over his lips, then nodding when Collin clearly got excited when hearing he had been in Nepal. It was a common thing with children; they loved hearing about things that they considered exotic, something they could brag about in school—I’ve met this really cool person this weekend; he has been in Nepal. Anyone could become a superhero in a child's eyes, well, if you knew just how to talk with them.
“It sure is, and it isn’t actually that far away from Thailand, the same part of the world” well, everything was relative, right? If you had a portal nearby, it wouldn’t take any time at all, and if you were going the regular human route, around three hours with a plane from Thailand to Nepal, which he thought was pretty close, all things considered.

They didn’t get more time to talk before the door was opened, and it was clear Sawyer and Maeve were home again. The stumping and shouting were already a great indicator that things hadn’t been pretty. He looked toward Collin and raised his brows before a soft smile formed over his lips; as she came into the kitchen, and they all sat there looking at each other, Theobald once again forgot to introduce himself. So, Collin did it for him. He laughed. “Yeah, okay, so it is pronounced lai-chee, a fruit, so not really juice produced from lice”, he chuckled, getting up on his feet, so he could walk over and hand Maeve his hand; “but the name is correct, Theobald Blanchard, or just Theo” he introduced himself feeling much more comfortable and confident than before. “I’m friends with Ethan and Elenora, I don’t think we ever met personally, but I’ve heard a great deal about you, and well, I was in the neighbourhood and wanted to make sure you were all right”, he had thought about the excuse over in his head multiple times. He knew she would know why he was here when it concerned the twins.
“Sorry to just barge in, but Collin was so kind to offer juice, and I couldn’t really resist while it was so warm outside; I hope it's okay”, he said, taking his hand back and giving her a much softer smile.

Collin’s very insightful addition to his introduction had quickly confusion dig much deeper fold in Maeve Poe’s womanly face, as it at first had taken her quite off guard and her attention got very busy looking back and forward between the little boy and the mostly unknown man. Lice juice, what?! She’d clearly missed something in the amount of time she’d been away from the house and in the lasting bits of daze from the stressful happening moment prior, her brain didn’t quite commute that it must’ve been her ‘brother’ that had heard wrong and had therefore blindly believed the information, she’d been given. That was, of course, until the man stepped forward to hastily defend himself. “Ooh! Lai-chee.” Collin was getting around it must faster than she was which in a way was kind of embarrassing  but hearing his enthusiasm that in the end brought her properly into the swing of things. And all of the sudden, she had to zip her lips and hold in a laugh that instead transformed into a sound of air leaving her nose and a humoured tug in the corners of her mouth. “A-ha. I see now.” Fully turning her eyes to him as he approached her, the hints of a smile turned into a full, proper smile to greet him. She took his hand, take it a polite shake. Theobald Blanchard. She’d never heard that name or anything really associated with it, so she thought nothing about it. Nothing more than just how regal the name ‘Theobald’ was.
It surprised her then to hear Ethan’s - and also Elenora’s - name. Even more surprised as he revealed to have heard about her. She didn’t mean to, but her smile faded a little to that. The one half of the twins was still a sore spot to hit for her, if she had to be honest. But the lingering sensation of obscurity that this stranger’s words had plucked from the atmosphere luckily dampened that hurtful feeling.

“Ehm..” Actually shaking her head this time, she forced herself to be present. “Oh no, it’s..” She looked to the little boy, still sitting in his chair with his glass of juice, big brown eyes looking their way as he absentmindedly took a sip. How could you ever get mad at that boy? She sighed into a smile. “I’m sure he did. It’s alright. It must’ve been awkward being left by the door like I did as well. I’m sorry about that,” she apologized, looking back shortly at Theobald before walking passed him over to the table.

She threw her wallet onto the table - the wallet she’d just chased down at least two streets in the neighbourhood - and put her hand on top of Collin’s thick head of hair, nuzzling it lovingly. “Hey, Collin? Can you go to your room?” He was about to open his mouth when she quickly added: “You can bring the juice with you, yea. Just be careful not to spill. Or mum will have you clean the entire house.” And he closed his mouth again, carefully inching off the chair while balancing the big glass. “I’ll be in the garden,” he announced instead and Maeve really didn’t have any objections to it so she simply nodded to confirmed she’d heard him. Collin knew of the supernatural world but still there was this feeling..
However before he walked out of the room to go down the lower floor hallway to the backdoor, he stopped for a moment to look to Theobald. “He’s sleeping right now but I can introduce you to Noir later.” Then he ran off, leaving the ‘grown ups’ in the room by themselves.
Behind them, still by the table, Maeve hadn’t been able to hold back a warming smile from witnessing the little interaction. What had they talked about? Noir, apparently. And juice. She felt a small stab in her chest from having missed it. Fortunately she hadn’t been there when they’d talked about her and her being too busy. Her heart would’ve surely sank. She waited a second after the boy had gone out of view. “I hope what you’ve heard about me has been at least mostly good,” she said, taking an opportunity to relax and lean against the table and taking a deep breath to bring down the numbers on her tracker back into the green where they then minimized to make room for a digital clock. “They - Or.. Ethan; I can’t say that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting his sister yet - But Ethan hasn’t really talked about.. you, though. How do you know each other?” How did he know where she lived? Or..used to live.

He shrugged and felt how one side of his lip tugged into a half-smile. He would lie if he hadn’t felt a little awkward at first, especially when you weren’t sure if it would be all right if you stepped inside or you should wait—for a moment, he had wondered if he should have followed her, but that had just felt even more invasive, especially since it was clearly a matter between siblings—it was a time like these where he didn’t envy the oldest of his brothers, especially with brothers like Jamie and him—they had been a handful in their own right.
“Don’t apologise; you were in the hot pursuit of catching a purse snatcher; that takes precedence?” he said with a soft chuckle, then turned when Maeve told Collin that he should go to his room, which meant that it would only be the two again—once more he could feel the slight clamminess return to his hands, how his throat bobbed as he swallowed the lump that had started to form.
“Hm”, Theobald turned and then gave Collin a bright smile as he told him that he would introduce him to Noir later; “I will look forward to it, and thank you for the juice”, he thanked and then followed the tiny human with tender eyes, only moving them from the door where he had disappeared when Maeve spoke; “we spoke mostly about juice, travel destinations and Noir his cat” he somehow didn’t have the heart to tell her, that it was clear that Collin had noticed far more about her mental health than she might think herself. At least he didn’t find it necessary enough to share what they had talked about when it came to the woman standing before him.
“I don’t think he would, just like his sister is part of a lineage of hunters; I’m from the same, so I grew up with D’Avalos kids, so you know, we know each other through that world” he said, his eyes narrowed. “I’m not really here on a social visit; rather, to give a small heads up”, he let out a small sigh “maybe if there was a place where we could talk, where no one else could overhear?” his brows pressed together, he had no intentions to suddenly spill the secrets of the supernatural, just because Maeve now knew, didn’t mean her family did—and most people, after they had been let into the secret of what kind of monsters were actually out there, tended to protect other innocence in the matter. Sometimes he, too, wished that he could have never known. Lived in blissful ignorance and just died of old age as an average human would. But instead, he learned about every horror out there, all the ghastly bedtime stories, and real nightmares—it made sure that you didn’t sleep as well as one might be able to have you not known about it.

She opened her mouth and although words explaining how she hadn’t actually meant her comment as an inquiry for what he and Collin had just been talking about were already well on their way over her tongue, they were just as quickly choked and silenced by the feeling of unnecessary relevance in the end and she simply closed her mouth again. Leaving him with a slight nod of affirmation. So, they’d talked about Noir? It wasn’t too surprising. The boy had bonded with him a lot more than she’d ever had despite everything She was happy about it! No doubt! Collin had needed a friend like that especially after she’d.. after she’d… disappeared. And of course, now that she wasn’t around every day like he’d been used to. But the boy was all too eager to tell people how Noir could talk and without Theobald having told her, she was mostly certain that he’d had the introduction. If it weren’t for how wilfully humans held on to their ignorance about anything strange and unordinary – she’d know; she’d once been one of them – and even more how easy a child’s colourful imagination could be used as an excuse, Maeve would’ve been a whole lot more concerned about it.
In a way, it concerned her more that people who know learned about it… The thought had her eyes move to the man in front of her. No. She didn’t get much of a bad feeling from him other than the switch in the air from before.

Her eyes widened as he revealed himself to her. Lineage of hunters. “You make it sound as if I should be more familiarized with the D’Avalos name than I admittedly is,” she pointed out light-heartedly. And it was true. She really only vaguely remembered it as Elenora’s family name but that was where her knowledge ended. She wasn’t exactly kept up to speed on things. Less now adays. When genuinely thinking about it, it then seemed even stranger for someone associated with those two to have stumbled by like this considering how little she’d been in contact with either of them over the last year. But not longer after the confusing realization had struck her, the hunter got further to the point of his visit. A faint chill ran across her body.

Emotions were as if painted with prominent colours in the human woman’s face, so there was no way for her to ever hide the way a sliver of worry flashed in her brown eyes. Nor in the way she promptly stopped leaning against the table in favour of standing properly on her feet. A place they could talk? “I mean – we should be able to talk just in here without being interrupted. The house doesn’t really have any secluded rooms. Unless you’d want to talk in the bathroom.” She glanced toward the window in the kitchen area that pointed to the back garden where she surely would be able to get a glimpse of Collin if she stretched her neck enough. The boy would also be out of ear shot. And Sawyer was in his room, grumping and wouldn’t care enough to eavesdrop. The only one left was her father who was busy with his work in his office.
She looked back at the hunter, only awaiting an answer for a second or so before regretting the offer and then added on: “Maybe out front, then?“ She gestured towards the entrance. “Or there’s a small local park area a couple of blocks away.” Neighbours in around the Poe residence weren’t particularly nosey but it did still depend on just how paranoid his Theobald was because there’d always be some risk of listening ears everywhere you went. Besides, it was in the middle of summer: People didn’t usually stay indoors. Either way, whatever he decides to choose she saw no reason not to follow. That being said; she wasn’t about to jump in a car and drive somewhere secluded with him. “What’s it about, anyway?” The memory of the chill came back. A few hasteful steps were then taken towards him. “Has something happened to Ethan?” She had to ask! She could be ever so hurt and mad at that mountain of a man and she’d still find herself worried about him.

He couldn’t help the smile that slowly curled over the one side of her lips, twisting it in a slight smirk, even though he hadn’t meant it that way. But he still found it rather intriguing, naïve maybe, that so many humans had little to no idea about the supernatural. That they could hear bedtime stories about monsters without instantly knowing what type of monster there was talk about. That they could sleep well at night without carrying much for proofing their doors and houses from creatures that could easily slip in and kill entire families.
Maybe it was that type of carefreeness he missed, but how could someone miss something he had never experienced before? He had been born into a long line of hunters. Men and women that had been trained since they had been able to pick up weapons. And where others had been taught ordinary classes at school, he had been expected to know each monster out there, their strengths and weaknesses. The only reason he could spell had been because he had read so much, but that too hadn’t been the top priority of skills he needed to procure in his childhood and later teenage years.
His lips folded together when she told him that the most ‘secure’ room to talk it would be the bathroom. It wasn’t really there. He had thought about sitting the woman down and telling her that her life, once again, was in danger.
“We can just talk here, whatever makes you feel the most comfortable; I just didn’t want to let anything slip that your family might not need to know”, he concluded and then quickly shook his head when she asked if something had happened with Ethan—or that was of course how you looked at it, the word was that he had now unlocked his true power together with his twin sister. But that didn’t feel like it was something he was in the position of revealing to anyone. “No, nothing out of the ordinary,” he said with a softer smile “it’s more about the threat that is on your life Maeve” he finally revealed, letting his dark hazel eyes lock with hers, allowing her to understand that he wasn’t playing around nor was he joking. Even if he could once have known to make the most inappropriate jokes, he would never do such a thing when it was about something this serious.

A surge of relief shallowed her instantly as her strong and abrupt worry for Ethan Davidson was soothed with first the shake on his head and then a pretty dismissive, if not only glossed over, assurance that  no; this had anything to do with the angelic-related hunter being in any form for trouble or state that warranted for her concern. The wrinkles between her brows smoothed out by the gentle strokes of a sigh and the faint vibration of fright visible in her brown eyes had gone away as her whole face essentially relaxed back to the normal youthfulness which the human woman was lucky to still possess. Maeve Poe hadn’t had to worry about any other monsters than the imaginary ones under a child’s bed for her entire life, not like Theobald. And in a way - it showed and not only in her mental state. Where his hands would likely be calloused, hers were soft and pristine.

However, as she’d lowered her eyes a bit and even gotten smitten by the way he smiled, her eyes then quickly looked back up. First her expression just showed an innocent surprise. A naïve face that looked very similarly to the little boy’s who’d kept him company just before. A glimmer of confusion and expectance for him to elaborate. Then she frowned as that confusion deepened and her lips grew a little tighter. What had he just said? “Threat on my life?” she repeated, sounding noticeability sceptical. In denial. For those few fleeting seconds that she took to process through that stage, she felt it to be a somewhat cruel joke. Especially from how he had presented it - too light-heartedly, something she didn’t understand as a life-long hunter’s desensitized nature - she edged feeling offended. Some things shouldn’t be-.. Then something had her breath getting caught in her throat. The way he looked at her. With how nearly forcibly he looked into her eyes it was impossible to avoid. Even for her.
The façade, she’d built to cope with what had happened to her with Borys Ignatyev, crumbled lightly then the tight lips became a light jaw instead as she tried to stay discreet with the bad fragments that started emerging in her head. Surely not. Surely not. But it was her only reference to an earlier threat to her life. She carefully took steps back to the table without making it seem that she needed to stabilize herself. It hadn’t reached that level in her just yet but leaning against the edge made it easier for her to give off a composed atmosphere. Helped get her back to containing the groundless fright. Did what therapy had installed in her to do.

She looked away from him, unconsciously searching for another more comfortable focus point. “Ehm - I'm sorry, could you maybe expand a little more on that?” How absurd she found what he’d said was pretty forward facing in her tone and more so when she lost the battle against not returning to him as the most pulling focus point. “I mean, I don’t think I quite understand. I wasn’t aware that I was in a life threatening situation.” Everything had gone smoothly. She hadn’t even had a bad encounter with drunks in the night or dangerous students lashing out at her to such extend or anything! “Is there a bounty on my head for some reason that I should know about?”
It’d make no sense.

Maybe the years of being what he was had stripped him from his humanity. Perhaps he had never been given a chance to fully grasp what it was like to feel human. Which, in a sense, was almost poetic given that hunters were raised to believe that they were the most human of all creatures, and yet, Theo was constantly reminded that sometimes he was the monster and not the savour that his so-called father wished him to believe. It was a constant struggle. They were battling each other for control like a war inside his chest and mind. Sometimes, he thought it would just be easier if he succumbed to his father’s wishes. Because even though it seemed like most of his family that had stepped away from the path they had been raised to follow was more than ready to welcome him in with open arms, it was hard for him to believe that they actually meant it. If they could ever truly believe that, he wouldn’t turn on them. Maybe it was because he couldn’t even answer that question himself. He was scared, frightened even, that when the time came, and he had to choose a side, he would be holding the gun and moving the barrel toward the people trying to save him. Even if Theobald knew that it wasn’t them that was the threat, but the very man that had brought him into all of this. Maybe that was why he was here—grasping for a lifeline in the water that was threatening to pull him under. One good deed before he would die. Because he made no illusions about his lot in life, one day he would die, and he wasn’t sure which side he would be standing on when the time came.
He could see it in her eyes, the fear that was quivering over her dark brown eyes. Beautiful fright that clearly wasn’t sure what he had meant, already moving to the darkest corners of her mind. But like the strong woman she clearly was, she managed to ground her footing and instead of running away, she demanded answers. Her way of asking him made a smile form over his lips, far more genuine than he had been able to produce for a very long time.
“Sometimes, humans are given the lot in life where they procure incredibly powerful abilities, and yours haven’t gone unnoticed”, he finally told her; the smile had disappeared almost as fast as it had managed to curl over his lips.
“I—“ he felt it incredibly hard to give away his mission, but sometimes you had to play your hand. Show them just how easy it would have been for him to kill her, but here he was warning her instead. “My father, he sent me here, to kill you—and frankly I have yet to see why, which is why I’ve come to warn you instead, to make sure that nothing happens to you, do you understand? This isn’t something that one can hide from, as soon as that door into the supernatural opens it puts everyone at risk which is why so many humans never know anything. You’re in danger, and right now more so than normal, maybe I’m being blunt, but I’ve learned that dancing around the topic doesn’t make it any easier to swallow, so I apologise for my bluntness, but I wanted you to hear the truth, the whole truth instead of lying” he could have easily done that. Lie. But he didn’t, now time would show if he had done the right thing.

Maeve’s brows shot to the sky and added on an utterly astounded expression to the wide eyes that, in that moment in time, simply looked at him. Unblinking. She couldn’t even hope to try and hide away the disbelief she felt for what she was hearing. She was still such a flawed citizen of the supernatural world – an anomaly in the anormal universe. The table suddenly moved from the unconscious weight she put against her half-sit, squeaking short and sharp, and she immediately stubbled. She nearly ended up on the floor but with a fast reflex, and a startled jump of the heart, she managed a step back to regain balance as well as tighter grip of the table’s edge to steady herself. Luckily the table had caught on a crevice in the wooden flooring and didn’t move continue to move further away from her; or she would surely have collided with the floor.
Kill you. She’d heard everything he was telling her but those words were obviously ringing the loudest in her head. And the surrealism off them! Kill you. “Ehm-..” She already hated how she repeated herself. “What?” she snapped rather sharply. Her previous stare had been broken by the sudden falling scare and she then quickly looked back up towards him again, with deep wrinkles of disarray. And then she smiled, however, the smile was not anywhere near a real one. It was unsure like a laugh that didn’t quite knew if it was welcomed. It was nervous. And it was wavering. It didn’t really settle completely on her face at any point and before long it had to give up and went away again. She’d almost started laughing because – what else was she supposed to do?

“Your father want me dead? Me? And you-..” Maeve breathed in deeply. Oh god. “But why? – No. No, you just told me that you don’t even know. Your father, he’s a hunter too, right? Maybe I only know very little of what you do and all that but -” With blinking eyes she’d fleetingly looked down as if looking at him was like looking at the sun or too long. And yet he pulled her gaze like a moth to a flame and he wasn’t without for more than maybe a second. “I haven’t done anything that I’d think would ever warrant a placement on a -.. a-..” She had trouble finding a better word than the one on the front row of her tongue. “- a hitlist!” It felt like the wrong word to use. It was what was used in movies. Not in real life. Not in her real life.

Once again – her attention sought elsewhere as she turned – or rather twirled around, the dress fluttering it’s loose shirt and giving him view to only her back while desperate eyes scanned the table. In a quick movement she reached out and just grabbed the glass of his remaining apple juice and, with no worry or even thought that a stranger’s lips had been on the rim of the glass, she drank a large chug of it before turning back around to Theobald. It hadn’t helped as she’d hoped. “Aren’t hunters like you supposed to – I don’t now – hunt dangerous beings? Does that mean that I’m dangerous?” she asked, starting to sound frightened. And aggravated. “Is it because of what you said? About ‘how my abilities haven’t gone unnoticed’?” What she was able to do was harmless! Her immunity did no harm to anything or anyone as far as she was aware of. She had to keep her hands to her self from time to time but that was only to herself from neutralizing certain enchantment. And surely the world didn’t depend on something like that. Even with what else she had capacity to do – the changing. She could change the bloody sweetness of a cookie and make it salty! That was it! Maeve Poe suddenly froze in the middle of her frantic hysteria. The way she looked at him was a surprisingly soft gesture. The same when she turned to look to the window to the back garden. Then back at him. “Oh god, I left you alone with Collin.”

Of course, it was expected for her to be surprised. Who wouldn’t be? Standing there in your own kitchen, be presented with the knowledge that not only was one’s life in danger, but the man that posed that threat to your very existence was standing there in front of you, staring into your eyes. Unrelenting. Because shouldn’t he just be honest? Shouldn’t he give her the chance to see what it felt like? Hadn’t she been the one that had been lied to her entire life? That the people around her knew what dangers she was in. Knew about the very creatures that could kill her if they wanted to. If he had to be honest, he found it rather astounding that she was still alive. Especially after what had happened with a particular soul demon that was, in all prospects, maybe one of the worst demons he had ever heard of.
It felt like her world was crumbling slowly around him as if he had taken a hammer and shattered her reality to pieces. That flicker of hope that she had found, he had just come and torn away from her desperate hands, trying to cling to some sort of normalcy that was just a lie. A safety of some sort of wool that would one day be pulled away from her eyes, making her realise that she was living not only a dream but a foolish hope that she could return to the world she had grown up in. Nothing would be the same, and the faster she learned that, the better. If not from him, then hopefully someone she trusted.
He let her talk. His eyes kept locked with hers as she tried to navigate in the information that he had given her. Not that it was easy, and even he understood why it wouldn’t be. He couldn’t, however much he wanted, keep a small smile curling over his lips as she mentioned a hitlist. It was much more complex than that, but he liked the simplification of it—and it wasn’t only the hunters that wanted her dead; there were people around her that wasn’t really people at all, only there to take her power for themselves.
“How am I any worse than the other people that you have let into your home, by the goodness of your heart?” he wondered as she realised that he had been alone with Collin; “Maeve, if I wanted you or anyone of your family dead, it would already have been done—but you have to understand, that powerful creatures are flocking around you, because of your abilities, trying to figure out how to use them for their own gain, and that in others eyes make you a just as dangerous as them, sometimes it's better just to take the piece away from the chessboard—sacrifice the one for the many” he was brutal, he knew that, but he didn’t have time to sugar-coat it, not when she was far more obsessed with the fact that he might want her harm. “You have no idea what is coming, and given that both archangels and demons are at your door, doesn’t really make you seem as innocent as one might want to believe” he finally said, his eyes still keeping in line with hers.