The Scavenger

Eirene Morrison. She is a rather average girl. She is not busty, nor curvy, nor tall. She is, in fact, the opposite. Being built more like an eight year old boy then a fifteen year old girl. She is not clever, or quick or strong, she is barely average in all things. She does like sports, but is bad at them. She likes science, but is bad at it. The list of things she likes goes on and on, and is, in fact, the same list of things she is bad at. She is not popular at school, but she is not viciously mocked either. She is teased by the other girls for her, let's say, 'under-developed' figure, and teased by the boys for her, for lack of a better term 'shit skills' at any given sport. Her family life was, on the other hand, terrible. Her father a drunk, and abusive at that, her mother a hooker, quite literally in fact, her siblings, and she had many given her mother's career choice, were all terrible to her, and each other. Most days, despite this Eirene tended to stay positive. Most days.

This day Eirene's report card came in, and she had barely passed all her classes, the exception being math, to which she lacked one point. It was late in the evening when she was to be scolded, but as she was called down, something inside her had told her to run, and she did. She was glad to because as she exited her home she heard gun shots, she turned back for just a moment to see her father shouting before taking aim again. She had never been very fast, but then again she'd never had a gun being fired at her either and it seemed to pump enough adrenaline into her that she managed to get into the next town and into a dim lit alleyway before her legs finally gave out. She had leaned against the wall, panting and crying softly, scared to death to move. She had nowhere to go, no friends she was close enough to stay with, no extended family anywhere near where she was, and there's no way in hell she could go back home. What a 'home' it was in the first place anyway. It was only moments after she'd managed to stop her cries that she'd heard someone else enter the alleyway. He was a man, probably mid forties, balding a bit and he smelled rancid, like rotting meat and whiskey mixed with piss and vomit and allowed to stew for three days in a pot of nasty B.O. He grinned at the sight of the small girl, eyes still wet with her tears. He produced a knife from his pocket and made his way to her, and Eirene was terrified. She knew what this man wanted, that he was not after money, but she couldn't force herself to move, be it from fear or exhaustion. She let out a few choked sobs when she felt the knife against her throat, she hadn't even realized she was crying again. Something in her snapped a bit when she felt the man's filthy hand try to work it's way into her shorts, in the only act of protest she could manage she kicked him right between his legs and scooted into the corner as far as she could. He raised his fist, a look of pure rage on his face. She shut her eyes tight and waited for the pain of being struck and then taken against her will.

This never came. What came instead was a gurgled scream cut short and a splash of warm liquid. It had gotten on Eirene, on her face and clothes. She had to wipe her eyes before she could open them, when she did she saw a strange, shadowy figure. Eirene decided it was a woman after closer inspection. She was tall and slender, with pale peach skin, like it had never seen the sunlight. Her hair was dark black, shaggy and very choppy, like she had cut it herself with no mirror. She wore what looked like a ripped up, patched up straight jacket from a mental hospital. The ends of the sleeves and tail of the shirt were practically torn to shreds. Her pants seemed to be in the same state of torn up, with several patches, one hole was not patched up yet, and bloody bandages could be seen underneath it. The ends of her pants were also frayed. Light, faded blood stains could be seen on her garments, as well as fresh ones still wet. She wore an odd black eye mask which had a long nose, like the beak of a bird, which extended from her face at least a good six inches. From frayed sleeves it was easy to notice long black blades dripping with blood, set on her hands like claws or talons. Her lips were covered in blood that dried black.

She had slayed the man in front of Eirene, had almost completely severed his head with her blades. Black lips pulled up into a twisted grin as she examined her work, sharp animal like teeth gleaming in the light of a nearby street lamp. She had yet to notice the girl behind her, shaking in fear until she had by mistake let out a whimper. Eirene flinched and tried to hide further in the corner, hoping that the monster of a woman before her hadn't heard the soft cry that had escaped her throat. To her dismay, the woman turned, her grin only widened when she saw the girl cowering in the corner like a frightened little rabbit. Slowly, the woman knelt down to eye level with the girl, not that her eyes were visible in the dark behind the mask. She reached out one bandaged and clawed hand, gently touching the girl's face, claws clanking against the wall behind her head, and she began stroking her cheek in an almost too-soothing way, given the situation.

"Oh my, what a cute little thing you are." The woman said in a voice that was raw, scratchy like it wasn't used to being used. The moving of her lips caused some of the long dried blood to crack and peel like old paint, this is what kept Eirene focused on the murderer and not her words.

"W-who are you?!" Eirene stuttered out, eyes once again brimming with tears. "I am a scavenger." The woman replied, her grin seeming to only grow wider at the girl's befuddled expression. Not even a second after she said that did she stand, quickly scooping up the corpse of the man from before and tossed it over her shoulder. For the first time since entering that alleyway Eirene had managed to scramble to her feet. "What are you doing? You can't just leave me here!" She called after the scavenger. The woman stopped dead in her tracks and turned her head, to stare at the girl from the corner of her eye.

"You're absolutely right." It was only at this point where her grin dropped from her face, instead her mouth now formed a twisted snarl. She lifted her free arm gently, bloodied claws gleaming in the dim light. "I can't just leave witnesses like that, what was I thinking?" It was at that comment Eirene's heart stopped for a second before going into overdrive and she backed away into the wall behind her.

"N-no! Please no! Th-that isn't what I mean!!" Eirene cried, tears falling down her cheeks again. The Scavenger stepped closer to the girl, black shadows where her eyes should be peered into her face. "Then tell me child, what do you mean?" To be honest, Eirene had no clue what she had meant. She started stuttering a bit before taking a deep breath and just blurted the first thing that had come into her mind. "T-Take me with you!! I'm sure I can be of some use!" She had no clue why she said that. She really hoped it would work, since the Scavenger had seemed willing to leave her alone before she opened her dumb mouth, and she had called her cute...Maybe she'd take her...What ever this woman did couldn't be too bad...right?

The Scavenger grinned widely and roughly took the girls right hand in her left. "Come on then." She said, dragging her roughly from the alley, over to a forest path. The girl followed behind best as she could with the fast pace of the older woman. Though, it made perfect sense that she was walking so fast, she was holding a dead man after all. Remembering that made Eirene shiver and feel sick. Would she have to help her kill people? Help her hide the bodies? Or would what she'd have to do be...different? The thoughts of what her duties could be made her mind race for what seemed like hours. Her thoughts only interrupted when she walked face first into the Scavenger's back, not noticing that the woman had stopped. Eirene couldn't help the rush of heat in her face as she took a step back. She quickly looked away from the woman's grin, finding they were in front of what looked like an old, burnt out and abandoned storage building. She stared at the building for a few moments before she managed to croak out a "W-Where are we?"

"Why, silly girl we're home!" The Scavenger giggled before pulling her into the old building. The inside was littered with body parts, a lot of them rotting, the freshest seemed to be those of infants.... Eirene had recalled hearing something about babies being taken from their cribs at night...She felt a little sick, having to fight the urge to vomit. She'd have to have a stronger stomach, this was her life now. "Sorry I didn't have time to clean up a bit, I wasn't expecting a little angel to come and join me~" The older woman said in an excited tone as she tossed the dead man onto a large metal table. That threw the young girl off a bit. "A...Angel?" She muttered.

"My own sweet little perfect angel, just for me~" The Scavenger giggled, pulling out a scalpel and began to cut the dead man up, pulling out his organs, putting them into one of two bins. Eirene cleared her throat, she'd have to know how this worked, right? She decided to speak up and ask. "S..So what exactly are you doing? Why separate them?" She tried her best to keep her voice steady, to not crack or stutter.

"Well, we've got to eat~" The woman grinned and cackled. Instead of focusing on that and getting sick she decided to ignore it for now. "So what do you do with the rest, then?" She managed not to stutter or cry. She felt proud of herself for that. "Sell them." She answered simply. These answers weren't coming quickly enough for Eirene so she cleared her throat and spoke a little louder. "Please, explain to me what you do. Where do you get all these people? You couldn't have killed them all without getting noticed." That seemed to strike a chord with the woman, her actions ceased for a moment before she started to saw the mans limbs off.

"I rob from the cradle, and I rob from the grave." She said, moving the limbs, once removed, to one side of the table. "It's just human traffic, and I'm just a slave to the medical community." She paused, as if debating to tell more. "They...Gave me my start...They pay by the part...So, I'll throw in the heart." She grinned, pulling the dead mans heart from one of the bins before tossing it into the other, most likely the 'selling bin'.

Before she realized she was tired, Eirene let out a long yawn, causing the Scavenger to glance up from her work again before pointing to a doorway opposite of the girl. "There's a bed in there, sleep." She said before going back to her work. Nodding, Eirene walked into the room she was directed too. It was small, and dusty. The bed was just a mattress on the moldy ground and a cover, but it looked good enough to use itself. Besides, what other choice did she have, sleeping on the ground? Before she even tried to contemplate that she lied down on the small mattress and pulled the thin cover around herself. 'This isn't too bad', She told herself. 'It's not like my own bed was much better...' With those thoughts she felt herself drifting quickly.

Eirene awoke with a start to the sound of someone stumbling around in the first room of the building. The person was tripping and cursing, their tone clearly agitated. She knew in an instant who it was and ran out of the small dusty bedroom to be met with the Scavenger, toppled over on the ground, badly injured and bleeding quite a lot, covering her stomach which held what seemed to be a knife wound. Her head was also bleeding a large amount, like she was hit with something blunt. What ever she had been doing clearly did not go well.

Eirene flinched at the sight of the woman in front of her before running over to her side and helped the older woman up best she could before bringing her into the dusty bedroom and helping her sit on the mattress. "Have you got a medical kit?" The young girl asked in a hurry, finding herself extremely worried for this woman for some reason. The Scavenger nodded, groaning slightly. "Out the d...door...to your...left...keep walking...you'll find it...." Eirene nodded before running out of the room, to her left and straight. She ran through another doorway and into a small room which had only a small coffee table as furnishing. On said table was a sewing kit, needle soaked with blood and a medical kit. She grabbed both before rushing back. When the girl returned, the Scavenger had her back pressed against the wall for support, panting loudly, her clothes were sort of... messy and uneven, same goes for her mask. Eirene sighed a bit, walking over, deciding she would bandage her stomach first. She quickly undid the straps on the woman's shirt before opening it and pushing it down her shoulders. The woman was thin, very thin, her ribs, collar and hip bones jutting outwards. Eirene took note that the woman had her chest bandaged, but they were clean. She bandaged her chest for some reason... Moving on, she looked at the wound, taking some disinfectant from the med kit, she poured some on a cotton swab before cleaning the wound, making the woman flinch and hiss with every dab. Once cleaned it looked much better, though it would still need stitching. Eirene looked at the sewing needle and thread. It wasn't what doctor's used but it should be fine. She'd never stitched up a person before, but it can't be too hard, right?

She took the needle and began to stitch up the wound on the woman's stomach. She'd done this a million times with her clothes, but it was different with a human... Once done she pulled out a roll of bandages and used all of it on the wound, glad there was more. She'd be needing them for the head wound. With a sigh, she reached up to the woman's mask, making her flinch away further into the corner. Eirene pulled her hands back a bit, staring at her for a moment before sighing again.

"I'm going to have to take it off to bandage your head." She said before moving her hands back to the mask. The Scavenger flinched again, only slightly this time though and relaxed after a moment. The young girl took this as an OK and removed her odd, black crow like mask and set it on the ground beside the bed. When she looked up from the mask, what she saw shocked her ever so slightly.

What she saw was not the ever-grinning, black eyed demon she had expected, instead was something almost gentle looking. Now that Eirene could see her face, she took it all in. She had light brown eyes, almost golden even in the dim light, and long, thick eyelashes. Under her eyes were dark purple circles, indicating her lack of sleep which, when noticed, caused the young girl to sigh in disapproval. Her nose was thin, and fit perfect on her face except for the slight crookedness it held, indicating it had been broken once or twice in the past. Her lips were full and held a sharp, wicked cupid's bow. All in all, the woman was beautiful, in a broken doll sort of way. The girl blushed slightly at her thoughts before sighing, standing on her knees to gently wash and bandage the head wound, thankful it needed no stitching.

Once she had finished, Eirene had been going to put the kits back up, but the Scavenger's arms snaked their way around her waist, and the older woman pressed her face in the crook of the young girl's neck. The woman's skin was so cold, only then did the girl remember the murderer's shirt had been discarded onto the dusty floor. Eriene blushed a bit before sighing and hugging the woman back, gently rubbing the back of her head down to her mid back before laying down with her on the bed. She pulled the thin cover around them, promising the older woman she would be fine like one would a child. Eirene fell asleep first and rather quickly, her breathing slow and steady. The Scavenger chuckled softly, nuzzling her face into the girls neck. "Thank you, my sweet angel. Good night." She said, before she drifted into sleep as well.

The next time the young girl awoke it was to a scream of bloody murder. Eirene sat up and looked around, realizing she was alone in the room, and she really did not want to see what made such a horrendous sound. She gulped as she stood, walking over to the doorway, barely noticing when she stepped on discarded bloody bandages. Slowly, she willed her legs to carry her from the tiny bedroom and back into the main part of the building, where the stench of rotting meat made the air almost impossible to breathe.

Making her way into the main room, she saw the woman she'd come to know as 'The Scavenger' dancing around the metal table, singing almost, as she spoke to a young girl, no older than Eirene herself strapped down, struggling to break free of her binds, with tears streaming down her face and violent sobs ripping through her body. Between the sobs and the giggly speech of the Scavenger, no one noticed Eirene's presence. Not just yet anyway.

"Surely you understand, it isn't your diamonds that I'm after~" The Scavenger sang as she continued to dance around the table. "But, I'll take them~" She gently dragged her claws along the girl's face, being careful not to break the skin. "Don't mind if I do~ They'll mean nothing to you~!" She sang, laughing a bit in her dry and scratchy voice, gently plucking a necklace from the girl.

"And surely you understand, it isn't your kisses that your here for~" The woman continued and laughed more before leaning down and quickly pressing her lips to the younger girl's. "But I'll take them~" And again. "Wouldn't want to waste them~!" And again. "Why shouldn't I taste them?" She stood back up, licking her lips, chuckling again.

For a moment all was still before the woman took the girl's shirt and pulled it up far beyond her chest, up past her throat, then used one of her claws to cut down from the girls collar bone to her pants line. The poor girl's screams echoed and resonated in the walls like a terrible symphony of agony, mixed with the manic laughter of the Scavenger as she wormed her fingers into the cut before ripping her open, causing a reprise of the first song before Eirene's own screams found their way into the music.

This made the scavenger pause in her macabre playtime as she looked over to the blond girl, shaking as she stared wide-eyed at the scene before her, before her eyes caught with the Scavenger's. That's when another scream bubbled it's way from her throat and she took off running, she ran to the room with the sewing and medical kits before slamming and locking the door and hid under the table.

The Scavenger stared, slightly slack-jawed in the general direction her angel had ran too. After a moment, she clenched her teeth with a 'snap' and turned to look at her latest victim, still struggling for life. She glared at the girl before her letting a growl rip it's way up her chest and throat until it was bouncing off the walls. She glared at the girl. She glared at her olive skin and her chocolate colored curls. Her sapphire blue eyes, and her delicately freckled cheeks streaked with tears...This was all her fault! This tart's screams had scared her little angel! She grabbed the girl's chin, looking her in the eyes before she couldn't help but unleash her rage.

"This is your fault you tart!!" This outburst caused a whole new wave of fear to wash over the brunette. What had she done?! The Scavenger hissed. She couldn't punish this brat enough for what she had done, as she needed her organs in good condition to eat and sell. The woman smirked a bit though and began carving the girl up with her claws so she could pull the organs out. "You've been bad, you know? And bad girl's need to get punished!" She said, laughing as she pulled the cut free organs out before ripping out the remaining. The young girl couldn't hear anything over her own screams as she thrashed.

"There is no punishment fit for your behavior." The woman tsk'd her, shaking her head. "You're lucky I need your organs, or your punishment would be far worse." She scoffed before reaching her hand into the girls chest cavity, stabbing her muscles multiple times in the process as she wrapped her hand around the girl's still beating heart. "You're lucky this is the end, you brat." She ripped out the organ, laughing again as she watched the life drain from the girl's sapphire orbs before biting into her heart. The sound of the muscle getting ripped into by the woman's sharp echoed oddly loud as she consumed the organ happily, it was her favorite treat, after all.

After finishing her snack she unbound the girl's corpse, though left it there as she followed the path Eirene had taken and knocked on the door. No answer. She wasn't gone, there's no way that was a possibility, not with the door locked as it is, and no window in that room to speak of. She sighed. Her angel was scared of her again. She sighed and shoved her claw into the lock, breaking it, then kicked the door open.

Eirene needed to calm down, she had already decided she was going to live this way! That she was going to do what the Scavenger did! But for some reason, she couldn't stop shaking. It didn't help that she was starving... She took a few deep breathes, but that didn't help. Sighing, she stood up, about to unlock the door and leave the small room when it flew open, leaving the girl a bit startled. She stared, wide eyed and still shaking at the Scavenger who had just kicked the door open. There was a moment of nothing before the Scavenger grabbed Eirene's arm and began to somewhat gently drag her into the main room. The gentleness of the pulling did nothing to stop Eirene's imagination from going into over drive, fearing she was the next victim of the woman before her, shaking more once she was pulled into a stop in the main room, by the body of the girl with curly chocolate brown hair.

She was shaking and shivering until something green was shoved into her line of vision. She looked down at it, to see that the woman had shoved a roll of cash at her, a large amount too by looking at it. Gently the blonde took it before looking up at the woman, confused. "Um...What is thi-" "We're headed into town today, I'll be dropping something off and selling the organs, and you will use this money to buy yourself some food. We will meet up in the alley in which we met. Any questions?" The woman spoke, almost like a drill sergeant as she scratched the back of her head a bit as Eirene stared at her, blinking a bit when she thought she noticed a pink tinge on the older woman's cheeks. She ignored it, deciding it must be her imagination. She shook her head 'no' even though her head swam with many questions. And they did just what the Scavenger had said they would, doing so and getting back rather soon.

Over the next couple of months, Eirene had stopped fearing the Scavenger all together, though she did not relish in the kills as the older woman did. She learned that the older woman would dump the body of her victims in the yard of their family's. She said it was out of respect, that it was returning the body to them for a proper burial. Eirene had realized she was loosing her mind as she found that made sense. She, unlike the scavenger, never acquired the taste for human, so when the woman went to sell the organs and return the bodies, she went to buy herself some food. This was such common practice that the people in the shop knew her by name, and recognized the Scavenger as well, though only as the girl's caretaker. They had no clue she was a monster like she was. And they tended to meet up in that alley again. Sometimes the Scavenger would tire of waiting and find her at the shop, which is how everyone recognized her too.

Today was one of those days as the Scavenger found herself walking into the shop after an hour and a half of waiting. She found herself stewing in discomfort as she had to pass a line of policemen before she could enter the store. Once in she found herself being greeted by one of the clerks, who asked if she was looking for Eirene, to which the woman nodded vigorously, almost loosing her mask in the process. They waved her over and explained that the girl was attacked, by someone who claimed to be her father and had to be taken to the hospital. The Scavenger paled considerably as she said a rushed thanks before running out of the shop, ignoring all the police and their sirens, though caught eyes with a man struggling in their grip.

Once at the hospital she found her way to Eirene's room quickly and hissed at what the clipboard on the end of the bed said. "Coma". She found herself with tears steaming down her pale cheeks for the first time in a decade. She jumped out the window, screaming, and ran before finding herself back in the building she and her angel had called 'home'. She looked around the main room, smiling to herself as she remembered her angel. She'd come home one day and found the girl cleaning everything, saying she couldn't live in this mess any longer. The Scavenger had chuckled at that, saying that the place did need a 'woman's touch'. Though that made her angel frown, saying 'you're a woman too y'know' and handed her some cleaning supplies and made her clean as well.

Remembering her angel only made her cry even more, and she did for hours until something hit her. Her angel was comatose, yes. But comatose isn't dead. She would not loose hope on her angel, she knew she would wake up.

Three years down the line, doctors were still perplexed by Eirene Morrison's file. A delicate young girl, clearly from an abusive house-hold goes missing only to turn up months later in a shop after being nearly beaten to death by her drunkard of a father and to slip into a coma, where someone, though no one is sure who, keeps paying the bill to keep her plugged in. Even more so, somehow someone keeps getting in at night and carving in the walls of her room with what seems to be claws, though no one is sure how as they never appear on the camera (clearly the footage is edited, but again, no one knows by who). What is carved into the walls is clearly a message for the doctors. "WAKE HER UP", "WAKE UP MY ANGEL", "SAVE HER", things of that nature litter every wall and the door, and on occasion, there are flowers next to the girl.

This night, the doctors converse over her odd time line, simply full of mysteries as they monitor her heart rate and breathing. In the middle of their conversation, the girl's heart speeds up for a second before flat lining. Of course the doctor's ran to her room fast as they could, however once they got there, the girl was gone, unplugged from everything, as though she had never been there... The only thing visibly touched was the window, left wide open as he curtains billowed around it.