Across the Street (The Caern)

[Shehrazad]

Anna and Yvonne popped into the Umbra across the street from the Caern, unaware that they were at that moment being watched by a curious but friendly Spirit called Fred. Unfortunately for them, neither of the girls was particularly perceptive. That and they were preoccupied with "running away".

[Kasiya]

Little does Anna know the part Friedrich has played in her freedom. He looks on with concern, the plight of the unfortunate being his strongest tie to conscious existence. Indecision grips him, whether to warn his companion or to stop her himself. He cannot do both, looking forlornly down at his corpus he regrets the short and portly frame that he had enjoyed in life. He could never keep up with the two hale and healthy young werewolf girls. He would talk them around, yes, a few well placed words bearing the weight of experience from his fifty-seven years of life and the two would come around, heading back to the library with no-one the wiser and a healthy respect for their elders. Yes, absolutely, that was what he would do, and if it failed, he could high-tail it over to Kasiya and tattle on them. Shame at the thought fills him.
He pulls the lapels of his single breasted suit jacket straight, tucks his thumbs into his belt and puffs out his chest self importantly, then, abandons the act and strolls over to the pair.

"Hello Anna."

This is, of course bound to be an interesting experience for Yvonne, being as she can't see or hear Fred.

[Anna]

"We retrace our steps to the wall," Anna was saying, "And then we cross over again. We can't risk the Umbra at-"

She stopped. To Yvonne it would appear as if she stopped for no apparent reason, and turned and looked at no one in particular.
But Anna didn't immediately notice that Yvonne couldn't see Fred, or that Fred was dead for that matter. She did find it very diconcerting that he knew her name, though. There were many explanations for this, but Anna didn't like any of them.

"What? Who..." Anna started. "How do you know my name? No, wait. You're not real. I'm not talking to you!"

[Yvonne]

"Sure, I saw the hive from the Umbra. I don't really want to get that close again."
It takes Yvonne a few seconds to notice Anna had actually stopped, it's only when she starts talking to someone else that Yvonne reacts.
"I said... what?"
She looks around uncomfortably, this didn't sound like a good thing.
"Who isn't real?"

[Kasiya]

'Oh dear' thinks the ghost, somewhat disheartened by this unpromising beginning.

"I am real. Real enough to help rescue you earlier. As real as that brave young girl Eva who faced her fears to help you. To ensure that your fate would be different to hers, poor child. All I wish is to aid you again."

With a gift such as hers she must have drawn the dead since she was old enough to emote. Surely she must have come to terms with her gifts by now? But then, it is a dubious gift.

[Anna]

"Nothing, no one," Anna said quickly. She didn't want Yvonne to think she was nuts. She turned around to ignore him, but then he mentioned Eva, and Anna suddenly remembered what Kasiya had said about talking to the dead.

"Oh, you're one of them," she said, still sounding uncertain. "Sometimes... sometimes I'm not sure."
Some of the things that talk to me are not real. They can't be real.

"It's hard to tell the difference sometimes," she tried to explain. "Are you dead?"
That was probably insensitive, but Anna didn't have time to be sensitive. At least this was one of the explanations she could live with.

[Kasiya]

Friedrich puffs up a little at the insensetive nature of the question, but quiets himself in order to carry out his self-assigned mission.

"Indeed I am. Dare I ask, young Anna, what else you converse with that causes you such grief?"

Fred has a rather formal manner about him, having grown up in a different age, where slang was for the lower classes and a gentleman upheld himself, but he is polite with is, and rather likeable in his simple concern for the girls' wellbeing.

[Yvonne]

"Anna, what is it that I can't see you talking to?"
Yvonne was doing her best to at least act like Anna's mind hadn't just snapped. Luckily one of the few things she's good at is lying.
There was still a remote chance she just didn't understand too, that helped, although it did make her rather uncertain.

[Anna]

"Some things just shouldn't be real," Anna said in response to Fred's question. "Some things should only be allowed to exist in nightmares."
Now she really was starting to sound like she was losing it.
"Do you know what they did to them?" she said. "What they did to Eva and the other children..."

She trailed off and looked at Yvonne instead.
"He's... I talk to..." Anna was obviously having trouble explaining.
"Ghosts," she said finally, hoping that didn't sound too mad.
"We have to go now. I have to find my friends," she said to Fred.

[Kasiya]

"Oh yes, I know very well. It will take young Kasiya a long time to lay their spirits to rest unaided."

He leaves that to sink in as he attends to the more pressing issue of not letting her run off into the unknown.

"Young lady, your friends didn't risk their lives to free you just to have you turn around and get captured again. They are a very violent group of ruffians and I am sure they are returning victorious from some heinous act of barbarism as we speak."

He seems to realise how pompous that sounds, and has the grace to look ashamed.

"They love you too much to bear it if further harm should come to you."

[Yvonne]

"Ghosts..."
Well, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing.
"So why can you see them while I can't?"
This was seriously starting to unnerve Yvonne, she keeps looking towards wherever Anna is facing to try and see whatever is there and failing miserably.
"What children?"

[Anna]

Trying to keep up with both conversations at once wasn't easy. Anna turned to Yvonne first.
"I don't know," she said.
Because I'm completely insane...
"They've always talked to me," she added. "My parents made me see loads of doctors."
Because seeing things that aren't there is the first sign of being crazy.

But Fred was there, and there was nothing she could do about it. And right now, he was standing between her and finding the pack.
"But we have to go," she insisted. "If they're seriously hurt, we couldn't just stay here and wait. They would have done the same for me. They have, countless times."
She looked to Yvonne to back her up, and then remembered that Yvonne was only hearing one side of the conversation.
"If it was your pack, you'd go back for them, wouldn't you?" she said to Fred.

[Kasiya]

He sighs. The young are so impetuous, with their hormones and their peer pressure and their constant struggle to be adults.

"If I were in your position, I would not. They went to that terrible place to save you, and they have done that. It is not fair to them for you to throw their efforts back in their faces like this.
How long did it take you to cross Berlin? How many hours? What good could you do now?"

[Anna]

What good can you do now?

The more she repeated that to herself, the more she realised he was right. If they were truly in trouble, then she would be helpless do to anything. It would take hours to get back, and she was tired, both physically and mentally.
And it was when she was mentally tired that they decided to show up. Just like now.

If you're going to be listening to dead people, you might as well start listening to us too. No?

"No!" Anna practically yelled that one out. It wasn't quite obvious that she wasn't talking to Fred yet. "I'm not talking to you."

Eventually you're going to have to. You can't evade us forever.

Anna turned away from both Fred and Yvonne, and started humming something undecipherable. But it was only undecipherable because it was in Polish. It sounded a lot like a children's tune actually, because that's exactly what it was: A polish nursery rhyme.

Here we go again.

[Yvonne]

Yvonne almost starts back as Anna shouts out, she often didn't really understand what was going on but this was scaring her.
As Anna turns away, Yvonne comes to a decision and walks up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as she walks around in front of her.
"Anna, I don't understand, can you tell me what is happening?"