Unicorn Killer

[† RazorDan]

I have a feeling this is gonna be big. This is one to watch. LOL @ 'Dom might definitely be shady maybe'

[Pinkie Pie]

Chapter 3 is here~

When the food arrived, Jenovette crossed her arms a little and gave Dom a dark look. “If you didn’t have enough money, you could have just said something. I’ll cover this but next time tell me if I’m going to have to pay or not.” She started to eat her strawberry shortcake, which was drowning in whipped cream and chocolate shavings while Dom ate a cheese sandwich. With it, he was having carbonated rose water, a popular drink with most of the Dixites. Jenovette preferred regular cold tea. After he swallowed his bite, Dom reached across the table and laid his hand on hers. “I’m sorry, babe. It won’t happen again. So what happened to your locket? Where did it go?”

“The unicorn ate it. It healed the hole in his head.” She looked outside and sighed. “He looked so lost here in Barabei. I think he might be from Seiyuvate’s protected forests.” Dom shrugged. “Something was huntng it. Not surprising, especially because unicorns are extremely rare.” She gave him a sharp look. “You think I didn’t know that?” The response was another shrug. Jenovette sighed again and went back to her cake, which was almost gone by now. After a few minutes of silence, she heard Dom’s phone vibrate on the table. She craned her neck a little to see that the sender was someone named Sachie. Dom noticed it right away and snatched it up, attempting to hide his phone and check the message at the same time. She decided not to pursue it until he started to get agitated at her for slowly enjoying her cake.

“Come on babe, we should really get going before it gets dark. You know how this area is.” She put her fork down. “Safe and clean like everywhere else in Barabei?” He rolled his eyes. “Let’s just get a move on with all of this okay?” She shook her head again and continued to eat her cake, taking time to enjoy the sponginess of the cake and the subtle strawberry flavored sweetness of the whipped cream. Dom had long since eaten the strawberries off of her cake. After it was gone, she delicately licked the rest of the whipped cream off of her fork and finished her tea before getting out her purse. She left a mahogany plank as a tip and paid the two rosewood plank bill, digging her nails into Dom’s hand when he took it outside.

She smiled broadly at him. “Next time you do that, I’m going to flay you.” she hissed between her teeth. He gave her a sheepish look but returned the smile. Together they walked down the street, occasionally greeting the people that were busy with their day Jenovette smiled to herself. He usually caused trouble, but Dom was worth it most of the time. It would be easy to explain why she was down to half a plank of mahogany and one ivory when she got home.

But that wouldn’t last long. When they were just a block away from Jenovette’s house, Dom let her hand go and started to walk away. “Uhm excuse me, just what the hell are you doing?” He shrugged and didn’t stop walking, already knowing that he was going to pay dearly for what he’d just done. She might even leave him. But not pleasing his boss was so much more dangerous than upsetting his girlfriend. Thinking about that agent of the Chancellor, who lately had become his closest and most intimate advisor, made him break out into a cold sweat. That guy was a maniac. A true maniac. Dom wasn’t even sure what his plan was, but now he regretted being involved. When he was three blocks away from Jenovette’s house, he turned a corner and found an abandoned building that had been there since the first humans. It was so thickly covered in ivy that it was impossible to see the faded red brick that kept the building together, or the now brittle, yellowed glass of the windows.

When he was near it, he got his phone out just as it vibrated and read the message sent to him. Apparently, there was a side entrance somewhere and that was the one that he needed to use instead of the main entrance right in front of him. Well, it didn’t hurt to be careful, he thought, searching through the ivy for the door. He found a smooth doorknob and twisted it, shoving the door hard. He met resistance and pushed harder, seeing a curved white boot in the doorway. “Not this door, you idiot!” Dom jerked back and slammed it shut after grumbling an apology. More searching gave him the doorway that was far more obvious. He stopped a little before entering. Whatever was going to happen in here was sure to be terrible.

Dom turned the handle of the door and quietly slipped inside, looking down in case his boss was in there. “I’m sorry I’m late, sir.” He expected to hear something harsh but got nothing. He looked around, and saw the soft white pelts of unicorn hide hanging from the rafters, a clear box that held their crystal hooves, collection of horns, but not his boss. There were also large glass bottles of unicorn blood, all filled to the top and corked tightly. He shuddered when he saw the a few pouches of alicorn near the bottles. Grinding unicorn horns to that fine powder took days and it was hell to use the smooth stone needed to prevent the powder to stick to the stones used for grinding.

He saw a boy with side swept red hair sitting in a wooden chair with arms when he was done looking at the fruits of his boss’ efforts. . “Oh, hi Sachie.” The boy shook his head violently and coming closer, Dom saw that his arms were bound to the chair and that he had some kind of gag in his mouth. He was struggling against the binding but Dom was powerless to help him-he certainly did not want to be the next one left in a room tied to a chair and gagged. Sachie shook his head violently and madea noise in his throat when he heard the door open behind him.

“Ah Dominic. To what do I owe the pleasure of your prescence?” Dom looked up a little and saw his boss in his all multicolored glory. His hair was long and black with the ends dyed different colors and contained in a tight ponytail with peacock feathers pinned in it held by a long light green ribbon. His face was done in white makeup with his eyes covered in puple, red, and blue eye makeup with curled yellow feathers attached to the eyelashes of his left eye. He was the embodiment of a color wheel, with his shirt with long sleeves that puffed out that started dark blue and ended purple and his tight pants that started purple and ended red. Poking out under the end of his pants were the curved white boots that Dom saw earlier.

Dom took a deep breath. “You asked me to come here sir.” He felt a sharp nailed hand push his chin up. “Look at me when I am talking to you, boy.” His boss stepped back a few paces near where Sachie sat .“Why are we here today?” He saw his boss take a sip from the clear tumbler he held, that was the same dark red as the unicorn blood in the bottles. It was no small wonder how his boss managed to drink a unicorn blood cocktail from a glass like that in full makeup without a straw and manage not to ruin his face, but now wasn’t the time for theoris like that. “We’re here because I failed to report that Sachie wasn’t able to kill the unicorn.” His boss nodded.

“Very good. Not only that, he made it spill its magical blood al over some floozy of a girl that managed to heal it!” Dom bit his tongue hard to convince himself that he needed this job more than he needed to prove that no one spoke about Jenovette like that. “I’m…very unhappy to say the least. And both of you know what that means.” He left the room, his curved boots making a sharp clicking sound with every step. Dom stayed silent and didn’t move from his spot near the entrance. A few painfully silent moments later, his boss returned with a contraption that looked like a long fingernail clipper bred with a pair of pliers.

When Sachie saw it, he started to struggle violently against his binding but it was no use. Dom silently watched his boss place the end of it against his pointer finger nail, with a sharp point over lapping into the center of the nail and press a switch. The resulting shriek was muffled only slightly by the gag in Sachie’s mouth. “This one is for lying to me.” He took the nail off of the point and tossed it aside, moving the device to the next nail, his middle finger. “This-“ he pressed the switch again and waited for Sachie to stop screaming to continue speaking. “is for failing to do what I told you.” He took the nail off and moved it to his ring finger, but stopped before pressing the switch, the cogs turning in his cruel, cruel mind. He stood up and walked out, leaving Sachie in intense agony and Dom utterly speechless

“Dominic. Take this.” His boss came back in and handed Dom a container of salt with a holed lid. Whatever was about to happen wasn’t going to be pretty. His boss leaned over Sachie again. “And this is just because I like hearing you scream.” This time, he made Sachie open his mouth to take the gag out before pressing the switch. If his screams from before weren’t loud enough, this was enough to make Dom’s ears start ringing. “Is there anything you would like to tell me, Sacheverell?” Sachie tried to take a deep breath so that his voice wouldn’t be shaky when addressing his boss. “I will never disappoint you again, Lord Marcellino.”

“Good boy. You know what to do, Dominic.” Marcellino clapped twice and two people carried a white couch on tall wooden legs into the room. He sat down with his unicorn blood cocktail and leaned back, getting comfortable for the show sure to come. Dom looked down at the container of salt, then at Sachie, giving him an apologetic look. Sachie shook his head a little then Dom shrugged, tipping the container a little so that only a few grains of salt would fall into the spaces that Sachie’s nails used to belong to. But clearly Marcellino had expected this, so the lid simply came off and the entire container of salt poured out on Sachie’s hand. The unexpected gush of pain made Sachie emit a high pitched squeal that Dom wasn’t sure it was possible to make.

Dom dropped the container and looked at Marcellino. “I'll give you a brief course in pain with the back of my hand if you even think about saying anything. Untie him and both of you leave. I want information on the floozy that has my unicorn and Dominic will be the one who will deliver her to me personally.” He clapped three times and the same people from before carried the couch out with Marcellino still on it.

[Rezin King]

very nice i like the feel of the story have you thought about bringing other characters to this story

[Pinkie Pie]

I'm still setting up the dominoes at this point.

[DuLake]

I'm getting kind of excited at this point. Suspense is really starting to build and I can't wait to see the resulting conflict. Good work as usual.

Also, I like Dom even less now.

[Kinara Uzumaki]

What a nice way of introducing characters and adding some depth into them! It's starting to catch attention^^^^ I really want to see how Dom will follow Marcellino's orders on delivering Jenovette........Keep it up!!!!!

[Pinkie Pie]

Deliverance~! Here's chapter 4:

After Marcellino left, Sachie struggled hard against his binding while Dom tried to untie him. “Stop it. I can’t get you free. Stop it.” He untied the injured hand and stopped, going into his school bag for something, anything, he could find to wrap Sachie’s hand in. All he found was paper and pens. He silently cursed his unprepared ways before taking his uniform shirt off , followed by the black under shirt and wrapping it around Sachie’s fingers. He put his shirt on and didn’t button it, instead untying Sachie’s other arm. He jumped up and got his bag, knocking over a bottle of unicorn blood. He gave Dom a scared look and ran, leaving him to deal with Marcellino. But he didn’t come. Dom took this opportunity to leave as quickly and quietly as he could before Marcellino came angry.

“Sachie wait! Where are you going?” he hissed when he quietly closed the door. He saw him turn a corner and ran after him, grabbing him by the strap of his bag when he caught up. “We need to go to a hospital or your hand will get infected. Come on.” He pointed Sachie in the right direction and walked quickly down the streets, mostly sticking to alleys and backways. Being seen with an injured Sachie was sure to raise suspicions with Jenovette, and he’d rather not have to explain that he was supposed to help kill the very unicorn that she saved. He suddenly felt very cold. She was going to maim him for sure for just leaving her like that and if she thought Sachie was a cute girl instead of a tragically hip male classmate, he’d be wishing that he got his nails removed instead of Sachie.

“Why did you let her heal it? Why didn’t you stop her?” Dom shook his head. “Stop talking. Save your energy for when we’re at the hospital. I wasn’t thinking about your assignment when she let it eat her locket. I didn’t know that it would heal it.” Dom sighed and turned a corner with Sachie closely following, finding the hospital at the end of the block. This time he didn’t bother with an alley and went in through the front doors, neglecting to dip his hands in the seawater tank at the entrance and not giving Sachie the chance to. They strode across the gleaming light grey tile over to the front desk. The lady at the desk was busy typing, her red talons clicking against the keys. “The emergency room is to your left, down the long hallway.”

Dom thanked her and took Sachie down that hallway. After a few minutes of waiting in a room full of bleeding, maimed and sick people. Sachie took the shirt off of his hand and held it up to his nose when they were forced to sit next to an old man that wouldn’t stop coughing. While waiting, Dom noticed a girl with a blond bob tending to some of the waiting people, dressed in a white uniform that was a rather short dress with double breast buttons going down and white shoes.

He nudged Sachie in the ribs with his elbow. ”Hey, she’s kind of cute, isn’t she?” Sachie shrugged. “I guess. I like girls with long hair though. Fucking hell my hand hurts. Our boss is a real dick.” It was Dom’s turn to shrug. “He’s an agent of the Chancellor. Wasn’t he originally a jester or some shit? He definitely dresses like one.”

“A jester on acid maybe. From what I’ve heard from people, he’s a crazy strong general for the Dixite army. I think he’s Grand Master rank at piano and acoustic guitar, but I’m probably wrong.” Sachie shrugged again and sat up straight when the uniformed girl walked towards them, slouching back a little and attempting to be cool and injured at the same time. It didn’t work at all. Instead, he accidently hit the old man beside him with his injured hand and held it with his other, trying not to cry. “Very smooth.” He stepped on Dom’s foot hard when he laughed, which got the attention of the girl.

“Hi~ I’m a nurse here. What happened?” Sachie and Dom looked at each other sheepishly. “I uh…slammed my hand in a door really hard.” He ave her a half-smile that didn’t seem to work much. She took his hand and knelt, looking his now nail-less fingers over carefully. She looked up at him and shook her head. “That’s not a door slam. Come on. Both of you.” She stood up, still holding Sachie’s injured hand and lead them through the maze of waiting people, into a private exam room. She shut the door and barricaded it with a chair. “Okay you’re going to tell me what happened before I treat this . I won’t tell anyone of course.” She crossed her arms to prove that she was serious. Dom and Sachie looked at each other. Could she be trusted? There was only one way to find out.

“My nails were ripped out. By…someone.”

“Oh you poor thing. I’ll take care of all of it~” She turned away and gathered up a roll of bandages and a bottle of what looked like an antibacterial c ream. She put some of the cream on her fingers and gently put it on Sachie’s fingers, while he gripped Dom’s arm. “Don’t leave any marks, man!” He got a harsh look from the cute nurse, who had finished putting the cream on. She unwrapped the roll of bandages from its plastic shell and started to wrap it around Sachie’s hand, managing to wrap each finger individually then wrapping some around his entire hand to keep the loose ends together.

“There we go.” She got out a pad and wrote something down, ripping it off and giving it to him. “Take this to the pharmacy across the hallway and get this filled. I wrote my number on the back. Call me in two days so I can change your bandages.” Sachie gave Dom a devilish smile and turned the piece of paper over. “I’ll call you, Amarille. My name is Sachie by the way.”

She smiled a little. “It’s a cute name.” After she moved the door, she left the room, with Sachie and Dom following suit. Across the hallway, the pharmacist took one look at the prescription Amarille wrote an laughed his way to the back. Apparently she prescribed a powerful painkiller that required a signature and an ID. And using a school ID didn’t cut it, putting Sachie in an awkward position.

For the second time that day, Amarille showed up just in time to make things even more complicated. “You’re going to give this poor guy his pills or I’m going to go directly to Doctor Faust and you’re going to hand yourself y our head after he’s done with you!” The pharmacist shrugged and gave Sachie a little bag with the pills and the note with Amarille’s number inside. “You call me Sachie. Okay?” She smiled at him and leaned in for a hug. Dom stayed a respectable distance away from the whole scene. Sometimes he wondered if girls were just naturally insane , but he wasn’t brave enough to ever voice that.

Meanwhile, Jenovette was tearfully recounting the situation that happened in the restaurant to a friend over the phone. “I don’t know who this Sachie girl is, Sophia, but clearly she’s got Dom interested in her.” Sophia laughed a little. “Sachie is a guy. So unless Dom is suddenly playing for the other team, you have nothing to worry about. You really didn’t know that Dom and Sachie were friends? They work together.” Jenovette’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t know that Dom has a job. What does he do, exactly?”

[DuLake]

Sounds like somebody's about to be in trouble. Good job as usual and I'm interested to see what happens next.

Also, acoustic guitar, huh? Sounds like somebody's a hipster. Should've known when I saw the long crazy hair bit.

[Pinkie Pie]

Man you don't even know. Marcellino is the hippest of them all.

@Kinara: Thanks 8D

[Nero D. Ace]

Sounds like somebody's about to be in trouble. Good job as usual and I'm interested to see what happens next.

Also, acoustic guitar, huh? Sounds like somebody's a hipster. Should've known when I saw the long crazy hair bit.

haha, exactly what I was thinking. man, each chap makes me hungry for the next. This is Game of Thrones all over again >.<

[Pinkie Pie]

Chapter five is here~

Marcellino sighed and got up when he and his couch was carried into the other room, placing the empty glass tumbler on an overturned box. “I’d appreciate it if my couch made it back to my house before I did.” The men who carried it, who were dressed in full Dixite military uniform, crossed their left arm over their chest and knelt before bowing to Marcellino. “Yes Grand Master.” They picked it up and carried it out of the door, leaving Marcellino alone in the warehouse. The Dixite military uniform was quite different for the different branches. Woodwind and percussion units wore different things than the horn and string units. Marcellino was the leader of all of the string units , and with five thousand soldiers at his disposal, he usually kept one or two of the more attractive ones around to be servants in the peace after the Great War of Dix. It was usually frowned down upon to use soldiers of the state for personal things, but the pay was fabulous and most of the ones he kept around weren’t ones to complain anyway.

After making sure that the room he was in was locked, he went into the other room to lock the doors and leave. What he saw made him see double. A bottle of the precious unicorn blood, which was hard enough to extract as it was, spilled on the gound. Luckily only about a third of it spilled. He picked it up and recorked it, fishing for his keys in his pocket and locking the door while still holding the bottle. Unicorn blood by itself was salty and sour, like metallic tomato juice, so he always had it mixed with chilled spiced rum and a few drops of mint extract on ice. When he left, he walked down the rest of the block to a waiting carriage. It was obvious that it was intended for him, because it was just as colorful as he was, resembling a rainbow drop. It was pulled by black horses with peacock feathered headdresses, the driver wearing a sharp black suit that was lined with vibrant purple silk. Two soldiers lowered the steps to the carriage and held it when he stepped into the dark purple interior. Once inside, he put the bottle of unicorn blood that he swiped from the warehouse on the floor after making sure it was tightly corked and crossed his long legs, resting his hands on his top knee while he was taken to his house near the Chancellor’s palace. He smiled a little to himself when he thought of the Chancellor’s palace and the secret passage that went between his nearby mansion and the Chancellor’s bedroom.

They would have to meet soon. Today even. It needed to happen. He would have a soldier deliver the message that the Chancellor was needed. Quite urgently. After a few boring minutes, he was at the gate of his mansion. He grabbed the bottle of unicorn blood before practically stepping on the hands of the soldiers that flanked the sides of the carriage. “Tell the Chancellor that I need to meet with him, Urgently. And when he comes, allow him to find his own way to where I am.” They crossed their left arm over their chest and knelt before bowing to him, getting up only after he passed them. His small group of soldiers passed a flower garden wth many rare and violently colorful flowers that made the air around it very lightly scented. But now wasn’t the time to stop and lurk in the garden.

When he was inside of the foyer, there were two doors. One of them was a trap door that made the prospectful intruder lost in a maze full of hungry, ravenous rats while the other lead to a set of three doors. Two of them lead to the acid bath portion of the maze, while the correct door leads to a set of three more doors. All of them lead to the maze below. The real doors were hidden in the walls. A shove in the right section of the wall made it slide back, revealing the true doors, which were across from each other. One was the servent’s entry and the other was Marcellino’s entrance. All t his time, the hallways were richly decorated with vibrant purple wallpaper and luxurious white carpet.

Once inside, he let his soldiers do his bidding and walked up a set of stairs into the bathroom, beginning to undress as soon as he crossed the threshold, unbuttoning his shirt and tossing it aside, finding a bottle of bath salt before going any further. He walked over to the large bathtub after taking his boots off and turned the gilded knobs after pouring in a capful of the vanilla scented bath salt he picked. While the bubbles started to form, he untied his hair and took the peacock feathers out, laying them on top of his shirt. His hair formed a rainbow colored veil around him, with his sidebangs blending in right away. He gathered it on one of his shoulders and pushed some of it behind one of his ears before taking his pants off. After taking off his silver belt and the blue and gold scarf he wore around his hips that signaled his status as a grandmaster at more than two instruments, he slipped them off of his hips and wiggled around until the reached his knees, then kicking them off. After that, he slipped off his tall black and white diamond patterened socks and got in after taking off the feathers on his eyelashes.

He gathered up his clothes and stuffed them into a laundry chute before finding his servant summoning bell and ringing it after getting into the warm bubble bath that waited for him. Soon a soldier came. “I’d like a unicorn blood cocktail. And make it fast. I’m thirsty.” The soldier bowed and left without a word. Whike he was gone, Marcellino grabbed a sponge and started to take off his makeup, starting with the white makeup that covered his face, neck and shoulders then moving on to the rest of his face. He grabbed a hand mirror and looked into it to make sure that all of it was off, sighing a little with satisfaction when it was. Just as he put the mirror down, the soldier from before brought him the unicorn blood cocktail he requested. “The Chancellor is en route, Grand Master.” Marcellino nodded and waved signaling that he leave immediately. He leaned back until his back met the cold wall of the bathtub and drank his unicorn cocktail while looking out the large window that over looked his garden and the Chancellor’s entrance. Soon he saw a strawberry blonde figure come out of a shed and smiled to himself. Even from where he sat, Marcellino could see the light spattering of freckles that adorned his cheeks.

Soon he heard the door open. “Mar Mar what a surprise. Usually you don’t drink while you’re taking a bath.” Marcellino shrugged when he heard the voice and passed his tumbler to the owner of it. He turned and watched the Chancellor take of the decorative jeweled gauntlet that symbolized his status as something that was literally another name for king and place it on the white marble counter of the bathroom, the rest of his clothes soon following. As soon as he got into the bathtub opposite of where Marcellino sat, he handed the tumbler back to him. “I don’t understand how you can drink that. It’s so fucking sour.” Marcellino shrugged and put it back, slinking over to where the Chancellor sat. “It’s been a very…long day, Carsten.” He leaned in for a kiss that was broken only when Carsten needed air. Marcellino took that time to kiss all the freckles on his facebefore saying anything else. “So how’s the currency conversion going?” Carsten shook his head. “No politics in the bathtub.” He kissed Marcellino’s shoulder. “You know that. What’s your new project, Mar Mar?” Marcellino shook his head. “No politics in the bathtub, remember?”

Carsten shrugged and brushed through his neck length hair with his fingers. “We’ve got two hours before I have to do another closed door meeting about the currency conversion. It’s going to be a huge mess when it comes down to it.” Marcellino softly tsked. “No politics during you and me time. I don’t know about you, but I could go another day with out it.” He laughed a little, which earned a splash. “I had to relieve this kid of a few of his fingernails today.” Marcellino said, resting his head on Carsten’s shoulder. “I’d like to know the story about that one.”

“You know that I don’t take insubordination lightly. I’m not here because I’ve got a flexible tongue and stunning good looks you know.” Carsten stroked his hair a little. “I know.” Marcellino shrugged and leaned in for another kiss.

[DuLake]

Hmmm, so the chancellor knows about Marcellino's doings and doesn't seem to care (or, at least, stays preoccupied with "other things"). Intriguing.

[Pinkie Pie]

Marcellino is a hipster than knows how to get what he wants 8D

They might even be lovers~ But then again, they might not.

[Libitinarius]

Marcellino is a tyrant with a soft side, I very much enjoyed your story up to this point. Keep up the great work, I willl be checking back for sixth installment!

[Pinkie Pie]

Oh thanks *u*.

Chapter six will come either later tonight or tomorrow, guys~

[Kinara Uzumaki]

Can't wait to read the next chapter!!!!!!!! The story's is wonderful so far and I feel sorry for poor Jenovette already.

[Ankh]

Flawless Jen. <3

Glad to see others appreciated your hardwork.

[Pinkie Pie]

Thanks everyone. Chapter six is going to be a two parter, since it's going to be quite long.

Here's chapter six a~

From the other end, Sophia laughed a little. “He works for the Grand Master of Strings. I’m not sure what exactly they do, but they seem to get apid a lot for whatever it is.” Jenovette shrugged to herself. “He probably just didn’t want to make it known. There’s no shame in that I guess. He was so secretive about it though….it really bothers me. I mean, you’d think that he’d be able to tell me, of all people, right? If he can’t trust me, then why bother dating me?”

“I dunno, Jen. That’s stuff the two of you need to talk about. I can pester Sachie about it later if you’d like..?” Jenovette sighed a little and looked at the nails on her free hand idly. “That’d be cool I guess. Well, I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on with this. I’ve got to get my homework out of the way.”

“Okay. Take it easy Jen.” She hung up and gently tossed her phone to the other side of her bed, flopping backwards onto it. She stretched a little and looked at the unicorn hair bracelet on her wrist and touched it.

What burdens your heart, fair Jenovette? Tell me what burdens you so. She jumped when she heard Jerômé’s voice in her head. “I can’t. You wouldn’t understand. You’re just a unicorn. What would you know?”

Don’t underestimate my understanding of the matters of the heart. You should come see me at the pond I bought you to. I expect you there soon. I told you not to trust that man, dear human. And you refused to listen to me.

Jenovette made a small sound in her throat. “I don’t even know what he did yet. I’ll be there.” She stood up and went to her closet, taking out a pair of black skinny jeans and a fluorescent blue tank top, changing out of her school uniform to wear it. After she jumped up a little to zip her pants, she found a pair of grey and white diamond patterned canvas slip ons. After that, she found a hair tie and whisked her shoulder length light blonde hair into a bun and left after putting her phone in her pocket. Just before she left her bedroom, she stopped at the saltwater tank near her door and gently tapped the glass to attract the attention of the five clownfish inside that were busy frolicking amongst the anemone. They stopped and swam over to her, coming up to the top of the tank to eat the flakes she sprinkled inside of the tank opening. She shut it and walked down the hall, finding her mother, an aging lady with graying brown hair, sitting on the sofa with a book. When she heard Jenovette coming, she put a note into the book and closed it. “So where are you off to?” Jenovette sat down beside her and shrugged. “Sofia wanted to meet up. I won’t be out terribly late~” Her mother nodded. “Have a nice time dear. Tell Dom that I give him my regards.” Jenovette waved and left the house, passing by the tank of seawater and dipping her hands into it before leaving.

“I’m coming. I just left my house.” By now the sun was setting and it was getting dark fast. She’d need to hurry to reach the pond before dark. At this hour, the street was full of people going home from their jobs, some walking, most on horseback. Cars were deemed unnecessary by the Mermaid Goddess, so the people returned to beasts of burden descended from the kelpies of certain lochs and fjords long forgotten. Over time, they stayed the striking black, but the seaweed was soon phased out in favor of actual horse hair. Jenovette’s family decided to house their horses in the countryside and walk everywhere instead of subject them to city stabling. Jenovette often wondered why the Mermaid Goddess had deemed automobiles so bad, but didn’t put too much thought into it. She must have had a good reason to ban it. Not even Machinae used cars.

After passing a few people, she crossed the street and weaved through the passersby until she reached the street corner. Little by little as she walked, the streets darkened and the curbs started to light up. She had seen a report on how it all worked and it boiled down to gathering solar energy during the day to keep the streets lit at night. Streetlights used white-blue bulbs instead of the harsh orange of the past. The technologic feats of the Dixite chancellery wasn’t something Jeovette was in the mood to think about. Instead, her mind wandered to Jerômé and his warning about Dom. How did he know that Dom was going to pull a stunt like this? She shrugged and continued to walk. He was a unicorn, and they were magical creatures, so maybe his magic told him that it would happen.

Now she was in the park, which had the outline of te sidewalk lit up in the same electric blue glow of the streets. She followed it until she found the outlines of the weeping willows. She stepped off of the parth and went towards them, seeing Jerômé drinking from the pond. When he heard her footsteps, he looked up and walked over to her, nosing her hand. Hello Jenovette. Follow me. He walked over to the pond and knelt down, dipping his horn into the dark water. It lit up a little, the glow taking Jenovette by surprise. In the pond, she saw a glittering stream leave Jerômé’s horn. Soon he lifted his head and she sat beside where he laid, crossing her legs lengthwise to avod getting her shoes wet. In the reflection of the pond, she saw Dom walking with a boy with side swept red hair that had his left hand wrapped in bandages, each finger individually wrapped. They both looked concerned about something and Dom turned away from him, getting out his phone. A few seconds later,her phone buzzed in her pocket. She gave Jerômé a baffled look and answered it. “Oh. It’s you.”

“I deserve that Jen. Listen, I’m sorry about this afternoon. Something…came up. Are you busy right now? I’d like to meet with you.” He shoved the red haired boy hard and apparently told him to stay quiet. Jenovette looked at Jerômé, who nodded his head wildly then nosed her free hand for more petting. “Yeah I’m free. Where should we meet?”

“I’d like take you out again. It’ll be on me, I promise. I’ll explain whatever you’d like. I promise.” He sighed a little and based on the relfection of the pond, shook his head a little. “I have something I wanted to tell you before. So I’ll be at the park soon, okay?”

She sighed and shook her head. “Fine. Do whatever you want, because clearly whatever you were doing was so important that you couldn’t even tell me about it. I know, Blair. I know. I don’t know what you do with the Grand Master of Strings, but you need to knock it off.” From the pond, she saw that Dom was clearly taken aback from hearing his first name, and from hearing Jenovette say something like that. The redh aired boy was interested in what Dom heard but he got shoved again.

“It’s not like that, babe. Please just let me explain. Face to face. I’ll see you soon.” He hung up without letting her say good bye. Jenovette looked over at Jerômé and hugged his neck, feeling his nose on her back. Everything will resolve itself, fair Jenovette. Would it hurt to hear him out? She stroked his soft neck. “You tell me Jerômé. You know more than I do.” He pressed the bottom of his chin against her back in an attempt to return her embrace. I run off of vibes. I have no idea what he might actually do. He grunted a little and she let him go so that he could dip his horn into the pond again. The glittering stream that dispersed from it ito the lake gathered and went back in, the glow of the lighted pond dying quickly.

He nosed her shoulder. Come on, I will allow you to ride on my back to the place you will meet. She pet his nose and got on his back, thankful that she decided to wear pants instead of a skirt. She gripped some of his mane and he got up, going through the dropping willow branches at a brisk walk. Getting involved with Dom seemed more and more a bad idea every time Jenovette thought about it.

[Nero D. Ace]

aww, only half a chap? where's the other half at?!

*looks inside the cookie monster's mouth*

[Pinkie Pie]

OMNOMNOM IMMA EAT YOUR HEAD

It'll come tomorrow, since I'll have hours and hours all by myself.

By the way guys, I would love to hear any theories you have about what might happen. So if you have 'em, share 'em :Dv