A man swiftly stood up from the back of the bus and made his way to the lady that screamed. His face was quite expressionless but it was obvious he was as tense as everybody else around him.

"What happened?" he asked the lady who had been screaming seconds before. He glanced around the bus and noticed that some people looked panicked, others scared and some couldn't care less.

What a strange situation...

The woman was a brunette with a bit of overweight. She may be in her late thirties. "My boy, an 11-year-old," the woman said, suddenly seizing the man from the neck of the cloak as if she may lose balance. "The boy with the Quidditch shirt. Have you seen him?"

At this point, she was asking the person on the seats behind the man. She was trying to cross the lenght of the bus, kneeling to check behind the seats as if that were any logical. "Baby! Baby, where are you, Thomas!" To which point, she tried to lung through the croud to the exit, and another man was there to catch her before she could flee.

"Now wait a moment, all you!" the new man, of a white mustache, baldie behind his hat, said, "keep calm and inside the vehicle." It was the driver of the knightbus, the uniform revealed. "How many of the children are missing? How many and which are their names? We will look for them -"

A few of the parents shouted names in a chaotic pace. The first woman had pretty much knocked herself against the bus pole trying to break free before a nearby couple helped her to a seat.

Could I be a student seer by the name of Nelida Halid, heres a bio



Name: Nelida Halid

Age: 14

House: Ravenclaw

Bio: Nelida Halid was born to Melinda and Ross Halid and grew up a fairly normal life for a witch knowing about her powers from a fairly young age but there was one power that was more of a mystery. At age 8 she started to see certain strange things in her head and it freaked her out when those things came true. She told her parents about it and they told she was seer but wondered how she aqured that ability. They looked on the Halid and Foria (mothers maiden name) family tree and found on her mothers side about 6 generations back there was one seer. It's still quite the mystery how the gene had skipped 4 generations. Nelida wondered how she was the lucky or rather unlucky at times to have such an ability. Now at 14 she has come to terms with her seer ability and worked with her Divinations professor to make it even stronger to forsee things in time to change someones fate.

Could I join you're RP with this bio

"Mummy?" a voice echoed through the dark, damp long room, almost like a corridor. "Mummy? Where are you?" The boy waited for what felt like forever, the fear growing inside of him in the darkness. "Mummy? MUMMY? MUUUUUUMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!!!"

Thomas wasn't usually found screaming for his mum but this event, well, it was scary to say the least. The day had started off well. He and his mother had planned to take the knightbus to Avalon where she had promised that there would be plenty of other children like him to spend time with, as possibly play Quidditch with too. He had worn his favourite Pride of Portree shirt, hoping to find other avid fans to discuss the prides with.

The last thing he remembered was sitting on the bus, looking at his mother. She had winked at him, as if she was as excited as he was, before turning away to look out of the window at something. He had closed his eyes for a few moments, no longer, and opened them to find he was no longer on the bus.

Thomas had no idea where he was, he just wanted to be back next to his mum, even if that did mean calling for her like he was a 5-year old.

Laying in a slumber upon one of the old beds in the West Park Hospital, Amelie was awoken by the sent of young blood, mixing with the usual smell of decay. Her own cold blood began to pump in her ears, as her keen eyes pierced well through the darkness. Sitting up in the bed, sniffing, she stood up annoyed that her rest was disturbed.

Then a small boys voice emitted through the many corridors like an echo. Narrowing her keen eyes Amelie stalked through the corridors, her heals clicking, as she headed towards the sound of the voice that was disturbing her peace!

Locating the small boy and stepping in front of him she looked down. Her beauty was sure to stun, that's what it was for in the first place, a trap. Pushing her tongue along her fangs, her keen eyes pierced the boys face. Ignoring the smell of his blood that was drifting through her nostrils, she tapped a slender foot. "Look, would you stop yelling?!" Amelie snapped. "How am I supposed to sleep with you carrying on like that? What are you doing here anyway?"

The man who had addressed the older woman moved over to the side to let her pass through and followed behind her, looking for the kids. He pushed his black hair out of his eyes every couple of seconds. His hair had a strange tendency of growing twice as fast as your average human... though he had no idea why.

He began looking underneath the seats, but there was nothing. It was as if the kids had simply disappeared into thin air! As he moved from seat to seat, he noticed a shadow flying by so quickly that it was almost impossible to spot unless you were paying really close attention to the window at the time.

"I think... I saw something moving in the hospital," he murmured and moved closer to the bus' window. He squinted at the West Park Hospital and there it stood, nothing too out of the ordinary about it. This almost made him seem a little crazy, but everyone else was already going crazy looking for the kids at this point, so it wouldn't make a difference at this point.

The knightbus driver turned around and gave the man with the black hair a dark look before glancing over to the hospital. "That's impossible," he commented. "They were with us in the bus just seconds ago! People don't just disappear out of thin air! And there's no way they could have disapparated, they're far too young!"

At this point, he sounded outraged and yet oddly terrified at the thought.

"Is it possible that someone kidnapped them?"

A woman that was seated towards the back of the bus shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Ilie, the man with the black hair, noticed the sudden movement, narrowed his eyes at the woman but said nothing.

He had no idea what to make of the whole thing.

You learned their names were Thomas, Sebastian, Costantine, Nelia, Ellias and Byrd. [ooc: if you want your own missing kid character, PM me.]

There were five of them children who have disappeared that they knew of. The knighbus driver took the responsibility of writing them down in a piece of paper.

"Chances are, they just sneaked out and went back to play inside the hospital," the driver offered. "We just need to call them back, and serve them a severe punishment." He offered eagerly.


"Yes, yes... if they were only just here, don't you think it's odd?" another one man, white blond, agreed; this one looked uncomfortable with the situation in a way that was not sympathetic with the parents' worries, "If they didn't just leave, maybe it's something more. Maybe we should go back to London to the Auror Department -"

"We can't let those boys there alone in the dark!" a thin, fragile-looking man with spectacles said. "Someone should at least stay here to find them!"

Most of the parents agreed with that. They wouldn't leave the building until they found their kids.



"Five little birdies, flying around our door,
The blue one flew away and then there were four."

The voice suddenly echoed around the perimeter. Through the room of the flooded floor, it quivered along the ripples of water. It was the voice of a kid too. The adjacent door to that of Thomas and Amelie led to the laundry room. It might be coming from there,

"Four little birdies sitting in a tree,
The yellow one flew away and then there were three."

But it was not a single voice. Another one giggle in the background further from there, nearer the entrance. And all around, people, mostly young little people, seemed to be waking, appearing, in the previously empty place. So could be perceived, for example, when a shadow passed right behind the door. And outside,

"The little birdies didn't know what to do,
So the red one flew away, and then there were two.
Two little birdies sitting in the sun,
The Brown one flew away, and there was one.”

They were tangible, they wore white robes; the stalked around the perimeter as if nothing was the matter. It was as if the hospital was back at work, buzzing with life... so to speak.

“The little green birdie felt so all alone,
He flew away and then there was none."

"The last time I was here, I was alone with my little girl," the woman from the back of the bus that had shifted uncomfortably earlier, noted. "This was fifteen years ago," she added, in a pained voice, making it obvious that her little girl was never to be seen again. And to think of it, they had just gone there sightseeing and to convince her little girl that nothing bad was going to happen if you passed by the West Park Hospital, unlike what legends said.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Ilie asked, with a sense of urgency in his voice. He was almost sure he didn't even want to hear the answer at this point because he already knew it...

"I don't know," the woman said as tears started pouring down her face. "It's as if she just... vanished... into... thin air..." she said, gasping for air while sobbing.

There they were, those words again...

Vanished into thin air...

How in the world does someone vanish into thin air?

Ilie paced up and down the bus, wondering what to do. After a few moments, he let out a short sigh and spoke in a somewhat shaky voice, but it was only noticeable if you were really paying close attention.

"We need to go in there and we need to find them," he said firmly. "There is no other place they could have disappeared to and even if there is, the hospital is the first place we should check. Something just doesn't feel right in there and you all know it, even if no one is willing to admit it."

The moment that the words came out of Ilie's mouth, the talking got louder and louder until it was at the point where people were yelling at each other whether or not they should go in there.

"I DON'T CARE, I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS IN THERE! I JUST WANT TO LEAVE!" a lady screeched at the top of her lungs.

"Anyone who doesn't want to go inside, get off the bus now," the bus driver instructed. "I'm going in the hospital to search for the kids, though in all honesty I suggest that we all stick together."

The lady who had been screaming earlier gave a loud scoff and stomped out of the bus, along with two other men. Once they had left, Ilie turned his attention back on the older woman who had originally realized that all the kids were missing.

"Does he know how to defend himself, even in the most basic form?" Ilie asked grimly.

"I don't think we should," the driver started, drying his temple with a dirty handkerchief, "I mean, if there's something wrong with this children, the aurors should be informed immediately. Maybe some of us should go to London -"

Of course, he was afraid to be hold responsible for this disappearances if he did not inform the authorities right away.

"It's a disaster," the pale-blond man said, "just get the kids and let's leave. I say we go to London and let the Aurors deal with it. Maybe I can still catch the King Cross train before midnight."

Again, it was an uproar. None of the parents were to receive this suggestion too happily. One of the women actually burst out crying.

"T-then, I'll tell you what," the fragile man was saying again, he was re-accomodating his glasses as if that gave him a boost of confidence, but made him even more unimpressive in other people's eyes, "Let a group stay here and look for the kids. The rest can go to London and tell them what's been happening..."


ooc-- reminder: not all the kids, only those who came with their parents

Pandemonium is such a pretty word. It sounds like a flower.

This is what Anachrovica Didymus was thinking to herself as sweat began to prick pale brows and voices began to crack. She sat in the back of the bus, a long, pale, pretty blonde thing with very nice shoes and a very nice bag. Her eyes were vaguely cabbage colored - a little green, a little grey and her nails were bitten. When she stood up, it was with a slight wobble, although the bus had stopped completely by then. When she spoke, it was also with a wobble, although she had no children missing.

"I say, that chappie there is quite right, what?" Anachrovica always sounded as if an entire branch of her family were high-class chinless wonders with rather too formidable ear genes. A languid gesture of a white hand towards the fragile man and the raising of one blonde brow. It was an extremely effective gesture, although applied with all the force of the scent of magnolia. It should have been, considering the amount of plucking that went towards making the eyebrow arch like that. "I suggest some of us get into a group thingummy and the others might as well catch the whatchamacallittrain. No sense in us all getting - hurt."

By this time, Anachrovica had swayed towards the front of the bus, as if she were rocking back and forth in time to the motion of a train. Those wavering eyes travelled towards the Asylum and her pale, long mouth pursed, consideringly. "So who's going to be a jolly good fellow and be up for the jaunt, then?" she said, chirpily, for her. "I'm sure you're all gagging for a go!"

"Are you suggesting we will get hurt?" The man of the pale-blond hair had a sudden expression gripping his face between outraged and striken with fear. "Don't be making accusations like that, or do you mean us all to get - I mean, the women to get scared."

T-the nerve of some people... Will you look at that? Even in his thoughts, his fear was transparent. The man re-positioned himself, cross-legged on his seat, as if that gave him a greater feeling of confidence. Right now it wasn't doing much. Just making him look oddly twist-seated and look a bit constipated.

"I'll go!" said the man of the glasses stepping forwards , as frail-looking as ever. But resolute, even valiantly. You would think he was the Harry Potter of their times... with not a bit of (*coughQuidditch-tannedcough*) muscle, though.

The bus driver was over there, hesitating, with a handkerchief still scrubbing about his face. "You'll see, I would need to go to London, now..." he said in a low voice, appologetically. He seemed to be talking directly to the man in the glasses.

The woman from before, who looked nearly about to have a stroke, made about to stand with haste, but was stopped by the couple from before. They suggested she stayed, that the men would look at this and bring her son back. The blond man made no motion to stand.

One minute Nelida was sitting next to her mother on the knight bus on her way to Avalon and the next she was she was in some sort of dark dingy room and had a splitting headache. She started to see visions of pure white just as she heard a boy she had rcognized from the night bus screaming for his mom. She wondered if these visions were coming from her splitting headache. She shrugged it off as she went over to conffort the boy and said, :It's okay, we'll both be back with our families soon". She had no idea how but she thought it better to appease such a young boy. Nelids then started to walk around and explore a little and found the door and found it to be locked, and thought uh oh. She then to took a stroll to the back of the room and found a tiny window and looked out to see the bus and realized they were somewhere locked within Avalon. Nelida started to wonder who was doing this and why but knew they must have known about her abilities and hit her in the head to give her a headache strong enough to prevent proper visions. Nelids started to feel another splitting headache come on and started to feel light headed. She tried her hardest to stay up but failed fallingback right onto the hard the floor knocked out cold. ( With her splitting headache she was not seeing things completely clearly)

"Tut! Forsooth! And most certainly tch!" said Anachrovica said, her hands fluttering like pale butterflies through the air as she made as if to pat down fears and anxieties. "There's nothing in that old, run-down doohickey to worry about, what?

"All we need to do," Anachrovica sing-songed, "is restore the kiddies vis a vis their loving families etcetera. Why, a quick in and out job - everything will be perfectly totsy."

Anachrovica beamed, a little dizzily at the frail man, whose glasses really were glinting rather heroically. "There's a good chappie!" she said. "I must say, that's absolutely ripping of you!

"I'll come with, of course," she added brightly, an incongruously lanky figure with her hinge-y elbows and knees, poking out of the well-tailored corners of her tweed suit. "Now who else is up for a jolly good adventure?

She beamed through her thick, blunt bangs; white-gold hair falling past her shoulders, swinging and shaggy, looking for all the world as if she were ready to tell some doubtless crestfallen would-be adventurer that she was dreadfully sorry, but they'd filled the necessary quota of people to go on a dangerous and deadly mission to rescue brats who probably played their music too loudly and refused to eat spinach. That anyone might refuse did not, for a moment, cross her mind. Anachrovica Didymus was used to, by virtue of her old name ("Why, the Didymuses, darling. They came over with William the C.!")and odd, incongruous (blue) blood mixing through her veins and gap-toothed smile, to being refused nothing - much less someone's health, safety and sanity.

Well, that looked a lot more like tiny, underfed octopi to the pale-blondie. He had a look on his face of apprehension and, plain disgust.

He couldn't help it. The man looked down at his pants when the lady worded it that way.

"Oh, um... thanks," he said, pulling his glasses back up his nose, offering a kind of childish bright smile.

At that was cue for the blond guy from before... to sink further into the cushioned bus seats. Honestly, when will the busdriver take out the beds? Then he could pretend already to be asleep. No way in the seven hells they will see him getting involved in that little boyscouts trip.

Slowly, a numer of people stood from their seats - parents the most of them. Mostly men trying to sway their mates to stay as they took charge for the both of them. Not the man in the twisted-position. He looked right back at the eyes that were fixed on him and snapped, "What?!"

"Now look want you've done you stupid child," Amelie snapped at the small boy that was standing in front of her. Due to not being one for niceties, she was hardly ever polite, and she was not about to start now. This boy had completely ruined everything.

Amelie stood still as the children began to come to life, swarming the halls of West Park Hospital. As a gust of wind blew through, her near black hair flew up around her, then cascaded back down her back. Amelie was a petite, pale, 5'2" one hundred year old trapped in an eighteen year olds body. That was one of the unique traits that came with the territory of being a vampire.

"Children it is hardly night time, I need my rest," Amelie Julliette Leveque bellowed with a hiss. Being accustomed to sharing her home with many noisy, ghostly children she was used to their nonsense. Yet, how was she ever going to get any rest now? Usually they did not awaken until it was night, until Amelie herself was also awake.

Glaring at the child that was still standing in front of her, the smell of his blood once again wafted up her nose. This was unbearable. Usually there was nothing living in this place, usually it was just the noisy ghostly figures. Licking her lips and bearing her fangs, Amelie began to lean down toward the boy, a hungry look in her eyes.

Nelida woke up abruptly to someone complaining about the boy and hundreds of kids coming from no where swarming the halls of the old hospital. Everything was open and she was seeing more clearly but she still had a splitting headache. She looked toward the women who hwas yelling at the boy and was about to tell her off as she saw the fangs and the hungry look in her eyes and grabbed the boy and took off running not knowing what else to do or even if they would get find a way out. She saw another flash of white vission in her head but this time it looked like a tv that was out but still on. She had no time to ponder what that meant as her splitting headache came back and she started to feel faint espscially with the weight of the boy. She somehow managed push open a door to one of the doors desprate to get them both to safety and went in and locked it before she fainted again.

Thomas was overcome with what was going on around him. He had stopped shouting for his mum as soon as the beautiful woman began talking to him. He opened his mouth to answer the woman infront of him when he heard singing voices. Thomas stopped and listened, shaking in his place.

He had never thought that beauty and uglyness could reside in one body, but as the woman (which he very quickly realised was a vampire) leaned towards him, he saw both. His breathing quickened and shaking increased. He felt like he was stuck to the floor by a spell, but it was just his fear rooting him to the spot. The warm dampness he suddenly felt around his crotch looking into the womans eyes were the last of his worries right now.

Thomas felt a sudden pull on his arm and found himself running, being pulled along by a girl. Was she a real girl or one of the ghosts? Where was he going? Where was he in the first place? Many questions ran through his mind as he and the girl weaved their way through the ghostly children playing their ghostly games.

As they went through a door and the girl locked it, only 2 questions remained. What was this room they were in? It looked almost like a hospital ward, with beds either side of the room, set apart from each other with tattered curtains between them. Thomas rested against the wall next to the door and looked at the girl who had fainted. She seemed real enough. He looked down to his trousers and realised the damp on him was also real, unfortunantly. The second question in his mind came out of his mouth as a low mutter. "Where can I get new pants and trousers?"

The intensive care unit. Ghostly white curtains bellowed against the wind coming from a broken window. The windows looked into a thick, leafy garden. The beds poles were rusty and grey, smelling rotten; you could feel the metalic taste in your mouth. A clock is hanging from its cord on its side. It does not appear to be working.

There’s so much fungus in the walls and surface, the large desk on the east side of the room had grown its own garden. Rows of glass, green bottles are lying on the floor. There's a door on each side of the room. One is the one you came from, the other at the end of the passageway made by the beds, is shut (and if you try it, locked).

Then, behind a billowing curtain, you see something - a person. The apparently empty room was not empty at all. A boy, this time older than 15, tall and gaunt, of a black dirty hair is sitting in one of the beds. He is staring back at the two - at least the boy, who is still able to see him. He's wearing old students clothes, his shoelaces are untied, and he's swinging his feet from side to side where they do not reach the floor from the bed.

He says nothing, does not move, but it becomes clear to you, alas, they were clearly not spectrums. Not of the transparent, unsubstantial type at least.


As for the now alone lady in the corridor-like room, she is left apparently undisturbed. As undisturbed as she could be with the little people running around like shadows or walking in a slow glowing pace dragging their feet, in a stumped perpetual daze. Like programmed so. They had not appeared before now... but the woman had not stayed many nights in the Hospital to tell. Younger people that had spread about, appeared behind walls and peeking through cracks. Another gust of air seemed to convey a secret message in whisper, "The night is just starting, come to play..."

"The little ones come first," said a man. Not just a man, a man that was standing all along behind the young woman. "Pardon if we startle you."

An older man. Forty, maybe fifty. A tense, bored-looking man. From the whole of the people over here, each absorted into their own activities, this one person seemed the sanest. "Welcome my dear. You'll have to excuse them. It was long since we had visitors."

You could catch a furtive glimpace of them at times, watching. Most laughing from private jokes. Also, from this distance, Amelie noticed it too: they were fairly physical for ghosts.

Ilie watched as people sorted themselves out into the ones who wanted to go and the ones that didn't. It made more sense to only leave some people here and have the rest go back and get help from the Aurors.

The lady at the back of the bus that told the story earlier decided to join the people who would stay behind to search the hospital, along with another older man, with white hair and a long, gray beard. He seemed fragile but at the same time, you couldn't help but wonder if there was more to him than meets the eye.

Ilie joined the woman, the older man and the rest of the people who wanted to stay. He took his wand out and he noticed his hand was shaking only slightly.

"Ready?" he asked, his breathing short and shallow.

"Marvellous!" declared Anachrovica as she smiled blissfully, clattering down the stairs of the bus in her utterly impractical shoes. She paused for a moment, as she eyed the rotting flanks of the asylum and then frowned. One did have the uncanny feeling that something had been forgotten... now what was it? Breath mints, check. Her very nice mascara, a classic shade of lipgloss, her toothbrush, all present and correct. Facial wipes - oh, there they were, hiding behind a little bottle of Miss Dior Cherie (Lovely!).

Anachrovica rootled through her bag a little further and then beamed as she pulled out her wand (12", ash, veela liver. Family heirloom, darling. What's left of grandmaman.) "Ah! There we are!" she trilled. "Pip pip, tallyho!"

They were still staring at him. Will they be staring at him ALL the way back to London? Like hell he had any obligation to stay so why should he--

"You are a bunch of crazy people, you know that?" said the blond man, grumpily, descending from the bus behind the man with spectacles. Seriously, though. He had jumped into his feet before you could say 'pancakes' running from the girl who was sitting right before him - who turned back and was staring at him fixedly, like wishing his hair was on fire.

The girl just stared at him. The little prat freaked him out! The time under her stare ticked away second by second. For a moment he was convinced it was the freakiest thing out there. Then he was off the bus and damned it all to hell.



Why the hell did he need to do this?! Just because he was of the male gender, because his mother had drawn a little circle or a tick in his birth certificate, only because he was BORN genetically one, he had to go chase around a couple of kids?! Did he look like a nanny to you!

The nerve.

"Whatever," the blond man mumbled. He had taken off his wand from his robes only in so much haste it had stuck in a knot of black fabric for a couple of good-lasting frustrating minutes.



Passing him with his own wand raised, the thin man in the glasses was walking forwards to be of the firsts to walk in. It was not so much that he was unafraid and bold: the sheer bigness of the front look was enough to intimidate him, and there was something peculiar with this situation that he did not like at all. But his kid was in that place. There was absolutely no way he would not stay to look for him.

Along followed others...



They were back at the place they had started off, of the colorful flooded room and peeled-off walls. The Hall. You felt very tiny. It was a tremendous hall, specially since it was made off the second and third floor which had apparently caved in at some point. You had a direct view at the roof of the third floor. You were in this amazing gigantic room where walls appeared to talk to each other.

Amelie stared at the two men, her piercing blue eyes narrowing. "One, you didn't startle me, not much does since well, this," she said pointing to her appearance, not that that would explain a great deal. "And two," she continued, "What was I, invisible the past few days that I've been sleeping here?!" At this point Amelia had begun to yell. It was bad enough she hardly had any sleep, and it was bad enough that her meal had just gotten away, what was she meant to do, be kind? Hah, don't think so.

Heaving an out of the ordinary sigh, she looked closer at the men and realised that they were whole? Yet, she couldn't smell the faintest sent of blood. Great, just another abnormal creature, like herself. "Little ones come first before what, before you?" She asked looking at them pecularly. All she wanted was her meal back, she didn't get to eat much due to not many victims being alone. Then she looked around the room, "I can very much tell that it's been a long time since you've had visitors," Amelie said with a nod, taking in the decay walls that lined the place. "Although, I must say, I like how you've left the place," she said with all honesty. Decaying walls, plants growing, imperfection, they appealed to Amelie, always had, always would.

"Look, did you see where my food went? Because I haven't had a meal in two nights," Amelie asked, attempting a pleasant tone, running her teeth along her fangs. The sent of blood was still in her nostrils, that girl, whoever she was, was certainly going to pay.

The man (ooc: singular =P pardon if it was confusing) smiled at her, a smile that seemed rare in his face: of true amusement. "We have seen you. We have been observing you. But don't you worry. This place is big and some of them never wake unless in new or full moon.

"I and some others, however," he gestured up in an aloof, even bored gesture, "have been awake the whole time. We just have never crossed paths."

"Before the big ones, of course." He smiled simply.

He had begun walking past her. "Yes, it's a very appropriate location. The light may never reach us." He went down a corridor, expecting her to follow.

As they went, they passed by one person wearing a bucket for a hat ("As I was going to sell my eggs, I met a man with bandy legs, bandy legs and crooked toes, I tripped up his heels, and he fell on his nose.")

They entered a new room. This one looked like the principal's office. It sat on the center, a big dark desk; plus a knocked over metal file cabinet, a broken pendulum clock striking 2:32pm and more water.

There was another occupant. A gaunt, thin old woman holding something wrapped on blankets on her arms. She had a kind of lost look on her face, and quickly turned away and to a corner when she saw the two, still rocketing the thing on her arms.

The man walked up to her and, gently, guided her back to the middle of the room. Then lead her to a chair to sit her down. He addressed the young woman now, "I'll treat you tonight."

The woman had teeth marks on the side of her neck.

Anachrovica's shoes made subdued clicking noises as she loped up the stairs with a smile. "Oh, I say!" she exclaimed in vague delight, looking about the enormous entrance hall that yawned above them. "Absolutely splendid atmosphere, what? Makes one feel all tingly and myffic and things." By which cryptic remark, she meant that the cavernous room, with its tattered hangings and schrapnel-strewn floor reminded her of the sea and the night sky when a breeze was quick and cold, tossing the scent of blood about like a silver ball in a god's game of 'monkey in the middle'.

Anachrovica looked around again, her heavy blonde hair swishing this way and that as she turned her head. Not a strand fell out of place as she finally grew still, eyeing the fragile man before sticking her bony elbow right into the ribs of the blonde whiner. "What ho!" she said, nodding towards the thin, skinny figure in front of them. "Absolutely ripping fellow, wouldn't you say? All heroic and thingummy! D'you happen to know his name? The Introductions and Who's Who and Britain's Best And Brightest quite slipped right out of my right ear," incongruously, she tapped her left, "when the poor biddy started bawling, youknowwotImean?"