[Hide Your Kids] Tricky and Tegan [Slenderman]

Setting: A small town, nondescript. Very pleasant little vacation spot at certain times in the spring and summer. A forest is nearby, with a babbling brook and sparkling pond.
However, children are now turning up missing.
And then found dead.

Time: 6 am



Intro in a sec...

To say that Anyylen was upset would be an understatement.
She was seething. And hungry. And tired.
And she wanted a stiff drink more than anything in the world at the moment.
She walked down the dirt path with her hands in her pockets, grumbling to herself. She kicked every pebble she came by just because how dare it be in her path?
Why didn't booze grow on trees, and where was that eerie mist coming from?
She stopped glaring at the ground in front of her and looked up. She was in a sleepy little town and the morning fog was beginning to roll in. It had been a long night, and she looked around for a tavern to stay in. With any luck she'd be able to convince them to give her food and a room.

Mask yawned as he looked around the town. The time was way too early to be up and he was dragging his feet as he walked down the path. Coming to a small inn, he was glad to find the door unlocked, and swiftly entered to avoid the misty coating of the streets. This place had such an eerie feel, and he didn't like it. Although, with his luck, all he ever found was places like this. Now all it was missing was a hot chick. Jokingly to himself, he allowed a glance around the inn, but the most he found was a man passed out at the bar and a dog curled up by the fire. An old dog who didn't even raise its head when Mask entered. He sighed and walked to the bar, ignoring the worried look the inn keeper gave him. Removing his hood, and both parts of his mask, the inn keeper relaxed slightly and walked over. "What can I do you for?" he asked kindly. "A room, and something warm," Mask said sleepily.

The inn was a welcome sight to Anyylen. As she stepped inside, she realized how cold the morning air was. The door closed behind her with a quiet click. She quickly took in the view of the bar. Dog, patron, bartender, drunk. Well then. The dog wasn't going to pay for her. And the bartender didn't look the sort to give out freebees. The drunk man was unconscious, so he was right out.
She sauntered up to the bar and slid onto the stool one over from the seat the man was in.
"Wish I could give you business, bartend," she said. "But my own's been going downhill. I'm flat broke." She crossed an ankle over knee, and shot a sideways glance at the man next to her.

Within a few moments, Anyylen was sipping at a glass of the house special, a pale red drink with a shot of rum. She turned her emerald gaze to the man beside her. She uncrossed her legs. "So, any way I can repay you?" She flicked her tongue on the lip of the glass, catching a stray drop that had begun to roll down the outside. "I don't like having debts."
The glass made a light sound when she replaced it on the table. "Unless you want to treat me to enough drinks to make me forget that tonight ever happened." She smirked. It was halfway a joke. But at the same time, she would have loved to drink some more, despite the fact that there wasn't enough alcohol in the world to get her drunk enough to forget anything.

She let out a laugh. "Well then, I wish I had seen you on the streets. Could have shown you I don't really need chivalry." She moved her hip just enough for the sheath of her bart jarm dao to clank lightly. "I can take care of myself pretty well." A smirk played across her lips. "You're not from around here are you? - Hey bartend, one more!" she broke off almost before she'd even finished, holding the glass by the rim and waving it slightly as she called. And then she almost immediately turned her attention back to the man. "Name's Anyylen, if it matters," she said with what may or may not have been a genuine smile.

"I came in about when the fog did." She took a swig from the glass, apparently dropping her previous pretense of potential escort and settling into something more comfortable. "I'm something of a traveling artist, depending on who you ask and how you see my art." There was a smile on her face, not fake at all. It was smile that started a laugh. "Maybe I should stick around you and your chivalry until I find another job. Seems like if we're both traveling, we may as well happen to head in the same direction."

"I'm a poet. And I also dance." She gave the bart jarm dao at her side a loving pat. "Recently though, I'm more of what most would say is a mercenary." She finished off the drink and asked for another one, seemingly planning on having this conversation last for a while. Thoughts of a warm bed and a nice long dream had been entirely forgotten. "All this talk of me," she said sipping coyly, "how am I to know that you aren't going to try and take advantage of a woman alone on the road?" A short and dry, possibly bitter, laugh. "I hate to kill after chatting so pleasantly with someone. Even in defense."

Anyylen hummed thoughtfully, making a show of appraising him. She smirked. "The name doesn't ring any bells, if you were hoping it to. I suppose all I really want to know of you is how long you plan on staying in this town." With a glance over her shoulder, watching the passed out man stir slightly in his drunken sleep, she lowered her voice. "Because, personally, I would rather find a nice conformable rock on the side of the road twenty miles from here to use as a pillow. And if you're planning on staying any measure of time longer than you have to, then I'm sorry to say that mayhaps we won't be keeping each other company much longer."
She pretended not to notice when the bartender cast a quick glance in her direction.

Anyylen stood and gave a quick nod of thanks in the innkeeper's direction. In almost the same motion, she tilted her head towards the door in a way that she hoped said "we'll talk outside."
She didn't wait to see if he followed, but closed the door behind her and took a deep shaking breath. Her fingers traced along the golden etching of her sheaths, just as something to keep them moving. An unpleasant drizzle had moved in along the fog, which now made it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.
A middle aged woman, the only other person she saw, came out of the fog on her way to where ever she was going. She glared. Anyylen tried to smile warmly, but instead it came out more of a nervous, awkward half smile. The woman vanished back into the fog, and the elf breathed a sigh of relief.

"Payment," the Inn keeper asked. Mask who had been watching the elf leave, jumped at the man's voice. He gave the man money. "Hold the room, I may not need it," he told the inn keeper as he stood and headed out the door. He opened the wooden door in time to see the old women glare at the girl, and he was even more confused now. Why were the people here so odd? "What was that about?" he asked softly as he entered the drizzle.

"There's something wrong here. Who knows. It would be a bad crop or bandits. but something here has the townsfolk...worried. On edge. Something." She ran a hand through her hair, trying to think. "Whatever the reason, it's permeating the very air of this place. I thought I felt it when I first arrived. But just being here...it's got even me shaking a bit."
Her gaze fell to the ground, where she scuffed at a pebble. "Maybe they've just got wolves in the woods, but there's definitely something going on here. Sometimes I look for an excuse to stay longer in a town, but I never need an excuse to leave. If you want to stick around, then go right ahead." She looked at him and she didn't know if what she was feeling was fear for herself, him, or the entire town.

"Well then now that that's settled-" her ears twitched as she broke off. A high pitched sound sliced the silence. A woman screaming.
Not that far away, in front of another building, a small group of townsfolk had gathered. A young woman was on her knees, screaming and crying, her face buried in her hands, as two older women tried to comfort her. A man was holding something in a blanket, bloodstained. He was crying as well; his knuckles were white. Two more men were behind him, faces twisted in anger.
Anyylen could barely hear them.
"Third one this week."
"Nothin' just leaves 'em like that."
She turned and started walking in the opposite direction. "I'm out of here."

"That was a kid," she hissed in his ear. "The third kid, apparently. There's some kind of axe crazy murderer in the woods and unless-" she broke off for the second time in less than five minutes, but this time for a very different reason. Her eyes widened for a second as a smile spread ear to ear. "I have an idea."
She spun on her heel and walked over to the people, slowly and calmly. She kept her voice quiet, low. "Excuse me?"
Glares greeted her. Her eyes faked honesty. Sadness overtook their faces once more.
"I over heard what you were saying. I think I can help you. You see, I'm a bringer of justice." She allowed a small smile, hopeful to them, maybe.
One of the men looked at her with scrutiny. "We don't have much to reward you with..."
A bit bigger of a smile. "It's no trouble."
She'd dealt with crazies a few times before. And she knew that the townsfolk would give her more than enough payment when she brought them the body of the one killing their kids. She'd be eating good for a month in no time, she thought.

If the townsfolk had seen the look on her face as Anyylen turned away from them, they probably would have killed her on the spot.
The devilish grin on her face said everything she was thinking as she sauntered back to Mask. She placed a hand on her hip, continuing to look triumphant. "I know you said there was no reason to pay you back, but as I said, I don't like having debts. You can go back to the inn and sleep if you want, and I'll have enough money to pay you back by noon."
She breathed in deeply. "Feel that? The place is already starting to loosen up. Or it could be the alcohol."