Etienne

First Encounter

 Milo walked down the street amongst the chaos. It didn't bother him though. He wasn't afraid. What exactly did he have to be afraid of? None of these people were concerned with him. Most of them hadn't even seen him. And if they had seen him and by the off chance did want to mess with him that wasn't going to get them very far either.

Milo wasn't like the other men walking the street. He was an observer of time, shackled to it with no real opinion about the nature of his curse. Experiencing the changes going on around him yet wholly separate from what was going on no matter how much he adapted to his surroundings.

A scream caught Milo's attention. He was sure nobody had even noticed the noise. It would have been like trying to point out a specific bird chirping in a flock of them. He followed the screaming that had turned into crying down the street to an apartment on the base level. The window was broken on one of the units and this was the one that he flocked toward.

Three men stood in the house, a body lay on the floor whose heartbeat was faint to the point of not beating at all. There was also a child crying over the body. The one who was responsible for the scream Milo assumed.

"Shut that kid up," One of the men snapped to the other while the third ransacked the place.

"That's awfully rude," Milo stated. He was now leaning against the wall on the inside of the domicile.

"Where did you come from?" The man making orders asked jolted by his presence.

"You were making so much noise I had to check it out."

"Well, mind your own business! The whole town is losing their minds after those attacks."

The attacks were what brought Milo to the town as well. He never brought excessive attention to his difference from those around him, but that didn't make it everybody's path to take. It was uncommon though. Most like him didn't want to draw attention to themselves so they fell into the background and remained invisible or as close to it as they could, and they were fine with that. The attacks were somebody or a couple of those who were not so keen to stay in shadows. Milo wasn't here to stop anybody he was just here to observe. See what they found so fascinating to go on their rampage.

"And that justifies taking the life of that poor child's mother?"

"Hey, that body was already here whenever we got here. We're just taking advantage of the situation. So, scram!"

"Actually, I think I'm going to take advantage of the situation as well."

Within a few moments, all three of the men dropped to the floor.

The small child was blind to the situation around her. She had been terrified when the men came in, but now that they were distracted her eyes fell back on her mother, completely engrossed by her. What happened? Her mother had been upset and she had been scared but everything seemed to happen so fast.

You shouldn't have gotten upset, a voice inside curtly scolded her.

Tears pooled out of her eyes at this regret of her's, though she wasn't sure exactly what the feeling was. She could see the ring of light that she always saw around her mother dimming rapidly and this scared her. She had seen lights go out on other people around her, but her mother's light had always been so bright like it was a star guiding her when she felt lost. What was supposed to guide her now?

"Mommy please." She cried kneeling down. "Please come back mommy,"

Milo suddenly stood over the child and the body. He kneeled down so that he was more on eye level with the crying child.

"Oh, my dear I am so sorry," He stated, reaching over and wiping her cheek.

The child looked at him and with no hesitation threw herself on him wrapping her arms around his neck.

Milo stiffened at the action. The scent of her blood nearly overwhelming him since he wasn't expecting the closeness. Despite his surprise, he reached up and put one of his arms around her.

"Do you have any other family, child?" He asked.

The question was only answered with more sobs.

Another moment passed and he stood up with the child still in his arms.

"Come on darling we will figure something out later."

And with that he was off, holding the child closely as he quickly sped out of the house and down the street to get to a safer place.