They are among us (PRS)

Här är tråden Daino
(Jag döpte staden de utgår från till Maidstone, var bara något som dök upp i huvudet, kan ju ändras haha)

Mallar:

Aphrodites mall:

Låter bra! Här är min mall;

Regina stroke a strand of hair from her face. She was walking through the forest, concentrating. She had now moved from the mutant territory and was advancing towards the human society. She sighed. It was all the mutants fault, after all. Melissa and her fellow Wesen had lived perfectly normal in this city, blending in with the Kehrseite like they were one of them. But then the military had started to nose around, discovering a group of mutants, which were Kehrseite with special abilities. Not long after, the Wesen society had started to become exposed. Most Wesen has fled since they tried to keep their existence a secret. Now there was not just the Grimm that was after the Wesen; Kherseite were too. Luckily, Regina had never seen a Grimm in the area, and she hadn’t heard anything about one existing here, either. They had enough problem without the existence of a Grimm.

Regina’s long, black hair was braided and hung alongside her back. The braid was swinging in the same pace she was walking. She was average height for a woman, and quite fit. She had to be; she had to be able to fight her way out of a situation if she had to. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. She turned her head, and her green eyes turned amber. As they did, all of her senses were heightened even more than they already were. She sniffed the air, and shook her head as her eyes turned green again. She was just being paranoid. The advantage of being a Wesen was that her abilities were hidden, to anyone besides the Grimm that was, and she could pass as a human as long as she didn’t woge - or partially woge - around humans. Apparently not all mutants were as lucky.

Regina had now crossed the invisible border that separated the human community with the hidden location of the area in which mutants, and some Wesen, had taken refuge in. This city was beautiful, and Regina had lived here all her life. But it now felt strange, as if it wasn’t the same that it once had been. She moved towards the big supermarket across the street, and entered it. She had to get food for her friends, and if had been her turn to collect it. They didn’t have much money left, which meant that they needed to steal most of the food. They did what they had to do to survive. Considering that some Wesen enjoyed human flesh, stealing food was a small offence comparing.

Regina’s grip around her backpack was tightening as she moved around in the aisles. She was lucky; not many people were making their shopping today. She was alone in the aisle as she as quickly as possible put down some things in her bag. She got the backpack on her back just as a few people entered the aisle, and Regina tried to look as calm as possible as she grabbed a box of cereal and a bag of flour before heading towards the cashier. She handed the cashier the flour and cereal before pulling out some cash from her trouser pocket. She paid and got out of the store. She walked around the corner and put the things down with the rest of the things in her backpack. She exhaled slowly and straightened up. She missed the city a lot, but the old city, not the one it had turned to. She looked at the newspaper stand next to her, where it was an article on how to find out if your partner was a mutant, and how to turn him or her into the authorities. Regina shuddered at the sight of it. She didn’t even want to think about what the government would do with them, mutant or Wesen. She sighed. Just a few months ago, she had been living a good life, and now she was fleeing to avoid getting hunted and killed. It wasn’t fair; she was keeping out of trouble and didn’t harm people, why was she being looked down at just because she was a Wesen? She knew the answer to that; the Kehrseite were afraid of things they didn’t understand. Which was one of the reasons their honour codex had been created, to keep Kehrseite from their society. Unfortunately, their codex had started to crack.

Elijah threw a glance behind him and stopped in his way long enough to keep the outside door open for the person following him.
“Thanks, Eli!” the guy shouted with a smile as he passed him, giving him a soft punch on the shoulder as a sign of gratitude. Eli gave a half-forced smile and let the door close behind him with a loud click.

“Let’s see if we get to use our new training tomorrow, mutant boy,” the man continued, followed by a little laugh before he continued towards the subway entrance nearby. Eli let out a short sigh as he followed the man with his amber gaze, frowning ever so slightly. He sure was no mutant, and his colleague knew that very well. He guessed it was still some sort of mock the new guy in the team ritual, but besides that he did actually feel quite welcomed. As his detection of Wesens had been noticed during basic training it did not take long for him to get a great position here in Maidstone, as they lacked any sort of Grimm from before. They had a history of quite many casualties from before, apparently as more and more mutants and Wesels were teaming up or building up more safe havens around or near the city.

Eli glanced back to see that the door to their lecture halls was closed before taking a few steps along the sidewalk. They had new lectures quite often as new mutant or Wesen abilities were discovered and which weapons were best to neutralize a hostile opponent. He had been really surprised at the different tactics they used. When storming an enemy base, they were always divided – some to neutralize fire or other elementals, some completely non-metallic, there were those focused on spotting telekinetic enemies for a quick neutralization, those focusing on different forms of Wesens, and many more. Eli had himself been assigned to the Wesen teams for quite good reasons. Even though it was a little while ago he started sensing Wesens from regular people, he was not quite used to his powers yet, but practise makes perfect.

As he straightened the strap of his backpack, he let his gaze wander the street around him. It was just starting to fill out with more people as they left work and would soon get quite busy. He checked the time from his phone before putting it back into his jacket. He had time before perhaps continuing with some self-studies and decided to take a stroll. No better way to familiarize yourself to the city than getting lost a few times, he thought, and continued down the street. He had his chance to be happy here, to build a better future and find some meaning with his life and his new work. He was sure of it.

Regina stood in the corner for a while, just watching the surroundings. It was quite empty, but she knew that soon the streets would be filled with people. Regina knew that she could easily blend in with them, she just didn’t want to take the risk. She had been taught, like all Wesen, to control her woging since she was a child, but there was always a risk it would happen whenever too strong emotions flooded over her. Not that Kehrseite would be able to see her, but she wouldn’t risk it, in case there was a Grimm among them. All Wesen had heard stories about Grimms when they were young; men and women who could see them every time they woged, and their abilities were used only to kill Wesen, and they had no mercy doing it. All scary stories always begun with a Grimm, at least in the Wesen book. Maidstone hadn’t had a Grimm for as long as Regina had lived there, but you never knew. These were other times, and it was harder for the Wesen community to keep track of what was happening among the Kehrseite.

Regina sighed before she straightened up, and walked across the street towards the park, the same route she had taken to get to the supermarket. When she was in the middle of the road, she heard fabric ripped.
“No!” she groaned as she heard how her backpack ripped open in the bottom and the content of It fell out on the road. Regina hurried to collect her things, and walked a few metres to her left. She bent over to pick up an orange which had rolled away, when she heard tires squeal. She looked up, and saw how a car, driving really fast, came towards her. The car squished the packet of milk which was still on the road before it came towards Regina herself. She let out a squeal and felt the washing feeling of herself woging. For a second, her eyes turned amber, she grew dark grey with a hint of purple fur, and jaguar ears. Her nails turned into claws and she got a pair of fangs. It was only for a second before she turned back again. She forced herself to control it, and saw how the car braked with a squeal of the wheels. She saw how the door was opened, and a man stepped out of the car.
“Are you bloody insane? What the hell are you doing on the road? I could have killed you!” he snapped, and Regina straightened up. She felt the anger starting to boil inside of her. He nearly killed her, and had the guts to blame her?
“As you can see, I dropped my things. I didn’t know that you were going to come around the corner, about 30 kilometres per hour too fast” she said with a calm voice, raising one of her eyebrows. The man stared at her as if she was insane before he turned his back towards her.
“Idiot” she was quite sure she heard him say before he got in his car and drove away. Regina scrambled up her stuff and got to the pavement. There, she sat down on her knees to look at the damage. The packet of milk was still in the middle of the road, squished and the milk was splattered in all directions. Regina sighed. Guess they had to eat dry cereal this time. She poked her hand through the hole ripped in the fabric. She wasn’t going to be able to fix the backpack now, and she had to carry all the stuff back. She flattened her backpack out on the pavement and looked at it. She bit her lip and groaned. Why didn’t she bring someone with her? She looked at the backpack, trying to figure out how to make it work.

Elijah kicked a small pebble off the pavement as he strolled down the street. It was quite a beautiful afternoon, a welcomed change from the few days of rain from before. He had not bothered checking out the parks in the area due to the gloomy weather, but it felt like now was a good opportunity to do so.

He ran a hand through his hair as a small vibration suddenly caught his attention, and he fished out the phone from his pocket again. It was the group chat that some of his colleagues had added him to, a tight gang that called themselves The Legionnaires for fun. Extremely skilled crew of women and men, all trained in different areas of supernatural control and regulation. He could pick out one or two names that were in the same Wesen squad as him, but the others were focused on mutant elements and skills. A very nice and ambitious group of people all together, but some of them seemed to take out a bit too much pleasure in their control work, or hunting as Eli recall that they called it. Any squads main purpose was always to neutralize hostile threat and capture the subjects, but it seemed that some of the group members’ teams ranked up more fatalities than others. A necessary evil and unfortunate happening, they called it, but Eli strongly doubted it.

The group was planning a small get-together at their local pub they frequently visited. A beer wouldn’t be all that bad, Eli thought, as he glanced up to check that he wasn’t walking into anything or anyone as he quickly scribbled down a reply. An abrupt roaming car sound made him look up again as it hurried down the street, clearly going over the speed limit. He followed the car with his gaze as it passed him before almost dropping the phone in his hand on the sight of the young woman in the middle of the road, clearly in line with the speeding car, but no one seemed to notice the other.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, clenching his phone in his hand before the driver finally noticed the woman and slammed the brakes, tires squealing. He had the briefest moment of relief as he did not just have to witness a run-over, before holding his breath again, eyes fully concentrated on the young woman in the middle of the street. Was he mistaken? No, he couldn’t be. There, for just the slightest moment, he could swear that she transformed before his eyes. The fur, the teeth, the claws – there were no mistaking it. She transformed, or woged as he recalls Wesens calling it, right there a second ago.
A Wesen here in the middle of the city? No, according to their intel, the city should have a fairly limited mutant and Wesen presence since a few years back as they had withdrawn to outer parts. Maybe he was just tired from a full day of lectures and study material, but then again… No, he could not have imagined it.

Eli quickly put his phone away and continued down the pavement, eyes fastened on the woman in the street. As the car drove away, he quickly passed over to the street side, checking that no other cars were approaching as he closed the distance to the woman.
“Can I help you, miss?” he asked calmly, checking the situation before observing her again. It seemed that her bag was torn and some produce destroyed, but nothing else out of the ordinary.

Regina had just started to roll everything up in the destroyed backpack, and tied her scarf around it. At least it would suffice as a bag until she got back to camp. She sighed and noticed that the palm of her hand was bleeding just slightly. She had slammed it into the ground as the car had nearly hit her. She shook her hand and was just about to stand up when she heard a voice to her left. She turned her head and was surprised to see a Kehrseite looking at her. She hadn’t noticing him coming at all, which wasn’t very good. Regina usually was very aware of her surroundings, being a Balam and all, but the turmoil with the car had thrown her off her edge for just a minute. She stood up, holding her newly made bag in her left hand. She quickly studied the man, who actually seemed to genuinely wonder if she was alright.
“No, it’s alright, thank you anyway” she said with a charming smile.
“He was driving way too fast, but then maybe I shouldn’t have been in the middle of the road. But what can you do when you drop your food?” she said, holding up the backpack and shook her head.

The man before her seemed to be somewhere around her age, maybe a year older or so. Regina didn’t recognize him, but she hadn’t lived in Maidstone for a while. Most Wesen and mutants had fled the city a year ago when all hell started to break loose, but Regina had stayed put until about six months ago. She had hoped that her younger sister would have been able to finish school before they had to leave the city, but her plans had fallen through. The risk had been too great, since the government had claimed there would be random checks for Wesen by a Grimm. Later, it had shown, that had been a lie since there hadn’t been a Grimm in Maidstone. But Regina had believed it at the time, and quickly gotten her sister out of school to get out of Maidstone and join their friends at the refuge area. They had established some sort of community there, and there was even a school-like tent where another Wesen, a Fuchsbau tried to teach the younger Wesen and mutants what they were supposed to be learning if they actually went to school.

Regina still felt the adrenaline pumping through her body, and she was fighting her inside not to woge. The likelihood of the man standing before her being a Grimm was very low, but she didn’t want to find out. Regina had never met a Grimm before, but she had heard about the feeling to do so. A Wesen wouldn’t know if a person was a Grimm or not until the Wesen woged. In full, or partially, woge, looking into a Grimm’s eyes were said to be horrible but it did reveal that the person was a Grimm. Regina had heard of some Wesen that had met with a Grimm, and they had told her about the feeling of looking into the darkness of a Grimm’s eyes and seeing their own reflection, their true nature as the wild animal they were. It was supposed to feel terrible, and Regina hoped she would never have to experience that.

Regina quickly looked at her watch.
“I have to get going, thank you for your concern” she said, and gave the man a smile again before tightening her grip around the scarf which was bound around the backpack. She had taken too long now, her sister would wonder where she was. Regina had told her sister not to get out of the camp no matter what happened, but it was hard to tell someone with a Balam’s nature. Protecting your family at all cost was one of the main natures of Balams, and if Regina knew her sister correctly, she would walk out of that camp to go look for her and put herself in danger if Regina didn’t come back soon. The Kehrseite usually did daily raids around the forest where their camp was hidden, and Regina’s sister would definitely not hide her woge if she was confronted. Regina had to get back quickly.

Elijah examined her as she spoke. It was fascinating how something so dangerous could seem like the smallest threat when not in its animal form. Eli had truly never been this close to a Wesen except for when in combat, and he knew exactly how brutal it could get. He therefore couldn’t really shake off the feeling he had that it was just his imagination playing tricks on him. Perhaps she wasn’t a Wesen after all, and just a young woman getting groceries.

“I really thought it was gonna get ugly for a while,” he said as he nodded to her words about the driver. He couldn’t really say who’s at fault the most – the driver going too fast or the girl in the street. “I’m glad his brakes were working,” Eli continued as he threw a quick glance at the skid marks on the concrete. Human or not, it could have been very hard to survive a collision like that one.

Eli could hear the words of his sergeant ringing in his ears. Never lose track of the enemy. Regard every potential creature as the enemy until proven otherwise. If she really was a Wesen, a declared enemy threat to the state, he could not leave her to be just yet. The irony if she would launch an attack only for it to be discovered later that he, their newly recruited Grimm, just had a peaceful conversation with her moments earlier. It would not only be the end of him, it would be a dark mark for all the other Grimms out there. He could not let it happen. Either way, he knew that confronting a Wesen unarmed like this would just be plain stupid – he had no idea what powers she could possess, and he was not keen to find out without any sort of back-up or weaponry aid. Even though he had noticed some changes in his senses after realizing and understanding his Grimm abilities, especially in strength, speed and agility, he considered himself still quite the novice.

A small bloody mark on her scarf made him grow a slight frown between his eyebrows. She must have wounded herself at some point during the car scene. He glanced over at her and noticed the small cut on her hand that was the culprit for the mark.
“You’re wounded,” he said, nodding towards her hand. He carefully slid the backpack off his shoulder not to make too sudden moves that could startle her.
“I know you have to go, but believe me when I say that this street dirt isn’t anything you want in your wounds”. He opened the zipper to his bag and pulled out a small travel-size first aid kit and nodded to the sidewalk with a careful smile. “Let’s get off the street before we both get hit for real and get you patched up.” It was both a nice gesture and a way for him to play some time to decide how he should play his cards if this indeed is a Wesen.

Regina was just about to turn her back to the Kehrseite as he spoke. She looked down at her hand, which indeed was bleeding more than she had initially thought. It wasn’t that bad of a cut, but a cut nevertheless. Not that it would be a problem, there were some mutants back at camp with medical abilities. One of them could just heal a person by touching him och her. It was a very valuable member of their group, since they had had situations where wounded Wesen and mutants had managed to escape the clutches of the Kehrseite army.
“Oh it’s okay, I’ll –“ she begun but the Kehrseite had apparently decided to help her. He picked up a first aid pack from his backpack, and Regina wondered why he was carrying one with him. Not many Kehrseite were that careful and smart that they were actually carrying around a first aid kit.

Regina moved to the pavement and glanced at her watch again. She had now been gone for half an hour; she had promised Serena to be back in 40 minutes. Serena would probably give her at least a 10 minutes space before she went looking for her. However, it would take Regina at least 15 minutes to walk back to camp, and that was without her being stalled by the man who now wanted to treat her wound. However, she couldn’t really deny his help without drawing suspicion to herself. Who wouldn’t want help to treat a wound? People without access to magical healing, that was. The minute Regina stepped foot outside camp, she was just an ordinary Kehrseite. Regina just prayed that Serena was too busy to notice the time.

For a moment, Regina considered using her compulsion powers. As a Balam, she had the ability to make all kinds of beings, Kehrseite, other Wesen, mutants and even Grimms, to do her bidding. She could make them forget things, make them do things or just make them walk away. If this Kehseite was just a Kehrseite and not a Grimm, it would take a few seconds and she would be on her way back to camp in just a minute. However, she had already slipped with woging in front of the car and it was said that some Grimms could resist the compulsion from a Balam. Regina didn’t want to risk anything.
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you” she said instead, turning her attention to the man. She dropped the bag on the ground and held out her hand. There was some dirt in the wound, but it wasn’t very big neither deep. Hopefully it would be quick for him to treat.

She did not seem to run away, a good sign for him at least. Elijah nodded slightly and closed the zipper to his backpack. He did not want to take the chance that any notes or military information would peek out, just to be on the safe side. This potential Wesen would most likely not stand here for long if he would drop neutralization tactic notes and instructions all over her.

Eli gazed at her outheld hand as he opened the zipper to the small first aid kit, something they were all given by their squad leaders in case of sudden attacks. Not that he knew how some bandages and band aids would really help against mutant attacks, but he guessed it was more of a placebo effect they wanted to distribute, a feeling of safety perhaps. Luckily they were genetic brands and no official military or Supernatural Control Unit logos, that would have been an unfortunate giveaway.

He took out one of those small disinfection wipes from the kit and pinned the rest of the kit between his arm and his side to free up both hands. Cautious not to touch the wound, he carefully gripped her fingers to get it steady, but suddenly froze up for the ever-so-slightest moment. He couldn’t quite place the feeling, but it was almost an electric sensation, some kind of charge that ripped through his body. It was at that very moment that Elijah was more than confident that this person in front of him was nothing more than Wesen, no doubt about it. One hundred percent sure. He couldn’t quite recall what kind of Wesen she was, but it did not matter at the moment.

Not to break focus he lightly touched her wound with the wipe. “This might sting a bit,” he said quietly, thoughts flying through his head. He was quite sure that this Wesen would not show her true form unless in extreme situations, and he was rather confident that his identity had not surfaced for the Wesen in front of him. To disarm any potential nerviness, he lifted his amber gaze to look at her face, memorizing the facial features of the creature in front of him.
“How did you get that scar?” he asked her, scrutinizing the noticeable scar over her right eyebrow.