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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lamprolign" data-source="post: 800896" data-attributes="member: 7860">In starlit nights I saw youSo cruelly you kissed meYour lips a magic worldYour sky all hung with jewelsThe killing moonWill come too soonFateUp against your willThrough the thick and thinHe will wait untilYou give yourself to him-Echo and the Bunnymen, The Killing Moon"Gabe!"  It was Chris Ebbing's voice.  "Wake up man!  You're zoning on me again."Gabe looked at the crime scene photographer, then turned his head to the side, half expecting to see Mary.  Not again, Gabe thought...."Did you...?" "Yeah," Gabe interrupted."Dude?  Are you all right?"  Chris's brows were knotted with concern for his friend.  This was just like the Abrams scene.  Gabe had stood without moving, not even blinking, his eyes unfocused, staring straight ahead.  "I'm fine," Gabe responded.  He took a deep breath and looked around the scene again. Okay, that was bizarre, Gabe thought."It was like in the dream," said Mary.  "I was standing next to you, like we were there."Yeah.  Did you see anything?"It was dark and it happened too fast."  These visions seem to leave me with more questions than answers.Gabe examined the girl's remains.   He was no coroner, but he could tell that the victim's flesh had been torn away rather than cut.  There were no clean incisions, all the edges were jagged.  He looked at her face, relatively unmarred by the devastation wrought on the rest of the body."I know her!"  Care to elaborate? Gabe thought.  He was beginning to get the hang of conversing in his head."She lived at the Haven for awhile."  Mary answered.  "The Sister thought that she might have some latent abilities but none ever showed up.  We helped her find a job and go out on her own."  Do you remember her name?  "I think it was Jenny," Mary said.  "Jenny... Matthews."Gabe filed all this away for future reference.  He would see if they found any identification in the apartment.  It would raise too many eyebrows if he just pulled the unfortunate girl's name out of thin air.  Gabe's contemplation was interrupted by the arrival of four crime scene technicians.  They began the tedious job of processing the scene.  The first thing was to map the room on graph paper.  Gabe always did this himself, directing the techs to measure the room and the relative positions of all the objects therein.  It was like an archeological dig, only still juicy in this case.His eyes traced the edge of the blood.  He noted with satisfaction that Merrick was already applying a sterile gauze pad to the blood, properly taking a sample.  Smeared, vaguely human-shaped prints traced a red-brown trail into the darkened bedroom.  Gabe carefully walked from one print to the next.  He stopped at each, examining it carefully.  A thick black fiber, stuck in the coagulated blood, caught his attention.  He stooped over to examine it.  It looked like a strand of hair, or fur.  Gabe marked the location of the hair on the graph paper.  He retrieved a set of forceps and a small zip lock evidence bag from one of the kits that the techs had brought with them.  He carefully retrieved the fiber and held it up to the light."Did she have a dog?" Gabe wondered aloud."There's no sign of one if she did," Chris answered.Gabe grunted an acknowledgement and continued to work.  He followed the smeared prints to the room's only window.  It opened onto a fire escape platform.  Gabe found the window unlocked and slid it open.  He strained to see the rusted steel mesh that formed the platform's floor.  "Pete," Gabe called.One of the techs looked up from his tasks."Light."The tech tossed a flashlight, which Gabe fumbled and almost dropped out the window before finally catching it.  Its light revealed more blood, barely visible against the ochre metal of the fire escape.  Faint prints led up the stairs.This is interesting, thought Gabe.  Bored by the painstaking process, Mary's thoughts were elsewhere.  "I wonder what Poe's doing?"*    *    *    *Poe moved across the tenement building roof.  At the edge she peered down, tracing the path of the fire escape as it snaked down the side of the building.  Something about this place seems familiar, she thought as she studied the alley below.  Her gaze shifted upward to the roof of the building across the alley, a similarly dilapidated tenement.  A small red glow caught her attention.  A tall, rangy figure stood on the roof across the alley.  The cherry on his cigarette flared brighter as he took a long drag.  The man was dressed in boxer shorts and a gray t-shirt.  He must be freezing.  As she watched, he pulled on a pair of jeans, boots and a ribbed black overshirt.    All the while, the man kept his eyes trained on a window two floors below.  Poe glanced down in time to see Gabe Ansgar's head poke from a window.  She looked back across at the man to find his gaze fixed on the investigator.Poe slipped back from the edge, moving to the far side of the roof.  She turned and looked back at the rooftop across the street.  The man was still standing there.  Silently she sprinted across the roof, leaping in a high arc from the eve to land a dozen paces from where the man stood.  The man did not react to her sudden appearance.  He continued to look at the other building, watching as Gabriel climbed out onto the fire escape.  He pulled one last time on the cigarette, burning it to a stub, then flicked it over the edge of the roof.  "Ill met by moonlight."  He spoke in a husky voice with a slight accent.  Poe felt real trepidation for the first time in many years.  The man was taller than he had appeared from afar, lean and wiry.  Thick black hair covered his head, roughly shorn at shoulder length.  Sideburns traced the edge of his square jaw.  Dark eyebrows traced a prominent brow and almost met in the middle of his forehead.  He was more than a head taller than Poe.  "That's Shakespeare, little girl.  They say he was the greatest writer in the English language."  The accent was Russian.  His expression was distant, almost wistful.  The pupils in each eye were partially obscured by a reflection of the full moon.  "Of course, there are many great authors in the mother tongue.  Dostoevsky.  Tolstoy.  Chekhov." "Chekhov?  Are you one of those trekkie geeks?  Is that why you were up here naked, waiting for the mother ship or something?"  Poe's sarcastic banter faintly masked her unease.  "You look like you'd be game for probing."  "Where I am from, little girl, such insolence is harshly punished."  In a blur he closed the distance between them.  His first blow sent Poe flying across the rooftop.  She rolled to her feet in time to receive a fist in the side of her head.  She fell again.  She rolled to a crouch, dropped back on her hands and knocked the man's legs from beneath him with a sweeping kick.He scarcely touched the asphalt roof before he was once again standing, fists held before him at ready.  He sprang forward, flipping through a handstand to bring both feet into Poe's face.  She leapt sideways, swinging her booted foot up simultaneously to connect with his midriff.  The impact abruptly changed the direction of his flip and spun him a dozen paces toward the roof's edge.  Poe felt some of her confidence returning.  She hadn't been bested in a fight since she had been turned, even against other vampires.  Her confidence was short lived.  She saw the man land nimbly on his feet and turn to face her once more.  His hands were no longer closed in fists but open, spread fingers terminating in wickedly hooked claws.  He growled deep in his throat."The stench of the grave is strong on you, little girl.  Be careful, or I'll send you back there to stay." Poe's lips pulled back in a snarl, trepidation transformed to anger.  She leapt at her assailant.  She caught his clawed hands, holding them up and away from her.  She lunged for his throat, her canines gleaming in the moonlight. He fell backwards, folding his legs between himself and Poe.  The wind was knocked from her when he kicked out, sending her up and over.  She landed flat on her back.  Shimatta!  What is this thing!  Poe felt the vibration of his charging footsteps through the roof's surface.  She flipped to her feet.  She hadn't recovered her balance when the next blow fell.  Her leather coat and vest ripped easily.  She felt hot blood running down her abdomen.  Wincing against the pain she jumped, aiming a kick to her assailant's face.  The impact staggered him.  "Playtime is over," he said with a sneering grin filled with crooked knifelike teeth.  Poe shifted to the left to barely avoid a raking swipe of his claws.  She brought both hands, clasped together, down on his passing head.  He stopped in place and spun, catching Poe off balance.  With a roar he brought his left arm up and around, raking wicked claws across her stomach.  Pain exploded through Poe's body.  The force of the blow lifted her off her feet.  She felt weightless, heard wind rushing past her ears.  Her trajectory carried her over the edge of the roof.  She was falling, her arms outstretched and her long coat flapping about her.  Above her the man stood silhouetted in the full moon, his face a shadow broken only by a toothy grin.© 2003 Austin Hale</blockquote>

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