OOC - The title was too long to say this up there...but this is a solo thread for Tarin....it takes place right after he leaves Lee in the apartment.


After coming out the back door of the apartment, Tarin wandered through the streets of New York for a while before deciding exactly where it was he needed to go. It had been the very first place he'd gone after stepping off the train at New York's central station and it had been the first place he'd encountered a spirit worth talking to. In a way that spirit had been the precursor to absolutely everything that had happened in the time that had passed since Tarin had left Memphis when she'd led him to an old clock shop that had eventually become his. Besides, interesting things had always happened at the Empire State Building when Tarin had been there. Especially the last time.

The spirit who had awaited Tarin in place of the young woman Tarin usually talked to had been something completely unique and the way that the encounter had ended had been even more so. The conversation had been normal enough, as always the story had revolved around a woman, a woman the spirit had loved. Tarin winced slightly at the thought, Lee had probably left the apartment by now, and for a moment he thought about simply turning back and going home. That wasn't in the cards though and besides, after being inside so much lately, the spring weather felt nice.

As Tarin walked, he contemplated his most recent encounter with a spirit on the top of the building and the things that the spirit had told him after the young man had been sucked away by a sudden wind. It was better than thinking about Lee and it gave Tarin a chance to really consider the spirits he usually talked to. Most of them were so unconcerned with their manner of death, and as much as Tarin hated to admit it, he could kind of understand where they came from now.

In the camps, after the merge, Tarin had probably come the closest he'd ever come to death and truth be told it hadn't been nearly as terrifying or painful as he'd always feared it might be. Some of the things that had lead to the condition had been terrifying and the injuries had been painful, but at the penultimate point when he'd really thought he was slipping away, Tarin had felt nothing but peace , painless peace. If only living was as easy as that.

Hopefully the spirit would be there, she'd only been absent once, and she'd shown herself after the other spirit had left. Tarin knew he could talk these things out with her when he was there, and that she would understand him on a level that no other living person ever would. She was a very understanding spirit, compassionate and open to many things. She'd been the fist spirit that Tarin had felt was safe enough to let Lee see, to talk to Lee, and Lee had been shocked by her morbidity.

He was there now, and Tarin did his damndest to stop thinking about Lee all together, but it wasn't really to be. As he paid for his ticket and allowed himself to be slightly herded towards the elevators that lead to the observation deck he looked around at the other people in the line and caught several suspicious looks up and down his body.

It was spring, and that really wasn't surprising, Tarin was in short sleeves and shorts and people had a tendency to take his inked appearance as something of an indication that he was a thug of some kind. The doors to the elevator opened, released a load of tourists and Tarin's line moved in.

Tarin immediately moved to the back of the line, but wasn't surprised when enough people joined him to crowd the elevator, what did surprise him, however, was when a young couple took up the space right next to him and started making out.

Tarin gaped at the two, didn't they realize they were in an elevator full of people...people who might be sensitive to the romantic situation of others. Just as he was getting used to the face hoovering going on next to him, the woman came up for air and crooned, "I'm so glad we came here on our honeymoon!" then dove back into her new husband's face.

Tarin stared at them for a moment then let his head fall back against the wall of the elevator. That was just great, people did get married...he bet they weren't mutants...he bet that they hadn't had to risk life and limb simply to stay alive through a massive raid on a concentration camp. No, they'd probably had some pretty wedding on a lake front, then a reception with disposable cameras on the tables. They'd made it through their engagement without having to worry that someone would see them for what they really were. It must have been so easy.

Struggling to contain his sudden animosity towards the couple next to him, Tarin stared at the little lights above the doors of the elevator as the lit up one at a time. 31.......32......33......Please move faster.... Tarin pleaded.

The doors finally opened and Tarin actually pushed through the crowd of people to get into the outside air. People were offended by the way he moved through them and Tarin definitely didn't care. The nasty looks and whispered irritation didn't mean a thing to him, he was a man on a singular mission and as he scanned the rooftop, Tarin's shoulders sagged. The spirit was nowhere to be seen...typical.

Walking around the perimeter of the observation deck and came to the same conclusion he'd come to before. The spirit definitely wasn't there. Tarin tried to be optimistic, maybe she was just taking one of her plunges off the edge of the building and would be back soon, so he found an empty bench and sat....and sat...and sat.

It turned out that sitting alone for over an hour when one was in as low spirits as Tarin was a bad idea and his mood darkened with each passing minute. Nothing was working out for him it seemed, nobody managed to come through for him, not even the one person he thought he could really count on. Lee had left even after everything they'd been through together, after all the promises they'd made to each other. Frankly Tarin didn't know where to go from this point. Lee had been something of an anchor for him, he'd stayed longer in New York than he'd stayed anywhere else in his entire adult life. As he sat, he briefly considered simply packing up and moving, starting over....again, but quickly dismissed the idea. There really was something about New York that kept him there, and as it turned out it was more than Lee.

As he sat there though, Tarin's mood continued to darken until he wasn't sure what to do with himself at all and his mind wandered back to the thoughts he'd entertained on the way to the lookout point and he stood from his place on the bench to walk to the edge of the observation deck. Face to face with the fence, Tarin reached out and laced his fingers through the fencing, then looked down. It was a long ways, almost far enoug hto make his head spin a bit.

He stared down at the people on the street, milling around like little ants under a magnifying glass. No matter how he swung it, Tarin couldn't figure out how the woman he'd come here to see had done it, how she'd taken that step off the edge before there was a fence here to stop her. The fall must have been terrifying, but the spirit never seemed to be morose about that part of things, only about the fact that she'd never found her lost love, something that Tarin still felt bad about not being able to help with. Suicide was something that Tarn had never considered, and probably never would, but in a way he envied the woman he'd come here to find for her absolute decisiveness.

He kept looking and wondering about the spirit and her lost love, and gradually his mood lightened a bit. Eventually the sun started to set, and Tarin still had not moved from his perch atop the city. A voice materializing out of nowhere, drew his attention though and her turned to find the young woman he'd been seeking.

She stood much as she had every time he'd seen her in this spot. Pretty and young, and dressed in clothing appropriate to the time in which she'd lived, "It is an amazing view...." he said, coming up beside him and looking down, "I would be willing to say I was obsessed with it. What's happened medium? I can feel the tension and sadness in you."

Tarin was almost too relieved to see the spirit woman who haunted the observation deck. If she would have been solid enough, he would have hugged her, maybe cried on her shoulder for a couple of hours. What a strange picture that would have made...this woman in her early 20th century clothing and him in his more modern than modern clothing. That's not what happened though. Tarin simply heaved a sigh of relief and turned to look at her profile, speaking softly so nobody on the roof would hear over the almost constant breeze.

"It is a beautiful view, I have to admit I've been wondering what it was like for you when you jumped...I almost died recently and it wasn't half as terrifying as I thought it would be. A lot has happened lately that I didn't think would happen..."

The spirit tilted his head at Tarin and he wondered what she was thinking about, and as she spoke softly he nodded his head with understanding, her voice was soft, but he caught every word, "I didn't really think about what was going to happen. I was falling and my heart was pounding and all I could see was his face, feel his hands on me. I wasn't scared at all. Then I was here."

Tarin had seen everything she'd spoke of, through her eyes as she plummeted towards the groun from the top of the building. The images of her lost love hadn't been nearly as vivid, but he'd known it had been there, and he really hadn't felt any fear. Tarin supposed that's what it was like to be completely at peace with one's decision in such a matter.

"That's what I thought...." he said in response, sighing deeply as he turned around and leaned against the retaining wall.

"You're not having thoughts of a similar nature are you?" she said, tilting her head and regarding him seriously.

Tarin's head jerked to hers and he shook it curtly, "Me? No...I was just thinking about what had happened to me and wondering if it was the same for others or if there was something wrong with me."

The spirit nodded, satisfied with his answer and glanced around the rooftop, "Where is your lady love?" she asked, "I had so hoped to meet her again."

Tarin sighed and ran his hand through his hair and turned to the woman, who simply nodded with a sympathetic, "Ahhhh."

"No more explanation needed eh? Well, I'm going to give you a little...she thought I was unfaithful...found out too late that she was wrong in her assumption."

The spirit was sympathetic again and Tarin turned back to look over the city, "She was leaving with her things when I came here, she's probably gone by now."

The spirit considered this for a moment, then reached out a spectral hand and laid it on Tarin's shoulder. He could feel it, even if nobody else could see it or feel it. "All things happen for a reason medium. Is there not a saying that if you love a thing you should let it go and see if it returns to you? Don't lose hope yet, you know your love lives, and if she loved you and deserved your love she will return to you."

It reminded Tarin of a song he'd heard at some point in previous years, some R&B song with lyrics similar to the spirit's words, but he could see the wisdom in the thought. Just because Lee was leaving right now didn't mean she'd always be gone. Optimism in the current situation was too much to ask, but he wouldn't completely dismiss the idea.

....3 weeks later...

Tarin was simply exhausted, a glance at the clock showed that it was only 7:30 in the evening and that he'd only shut up the shop an hour ago, but it felt like it was midnight or later. In fact, it had felt like that all day, and the day before, and the day before. It was almost like he wasn't sleeping, but Tarin knew for a fact that he'd gone to bed at 9:30 at night the previous evening. He'd woken up at 8:00 am just like he did every day, but he could have sworn he was up all night with the way he felt. So here he was, only having been up for 11 hours, sitting on the couch in his apartment and almost falling asleep. The dreams he'd been having lately were insane too, violent, probably stemming from the problems he was having dealing with Lee leaving...but he could almost see himself hurting people...it was haunting and daunting and not something he wanted to think about...that and the slightly strange injuries that were continually surfacing on his body, bumps and bruises, scrapes and cuts, most recently a black eye and what had to have been a bloodied nose.

so he turned his mind to the only other thing it wanted to fixate on recently.

As he sat there he started thinking about all the good times he'd had with Lee. It was starting to be a habit, he was obsessed, and there really was no moving on. At least not at this point. Tarin marveled sometimes at what a short time they'd been together, and how intense their relationship had been. How amazing their relationship had been, even with the bad times they'd done something right because they were so minute in Tarin's mind as he thought about it now. Five months felt something like what five years must be like. He'd never experienced that level of comfort with another human being. He and Lee had never been one of those couples who could finish each other's sentences, but they'd been something special.

It was more than their powers, from the first they'd meshed in a way that had to have been dictated by something as strong if not stronger than fate. Tarin could remember how they'd been planning a trip to Texas, how they'd ended up there one night in a particularly detailed dream he'd had about a rolling field near his parents' house. That dream walking ability of Lee's sure was delightful sometimes.

Without even knowing it, Tarin fell asleep where he sat, completely dressed with his head tilted back against the top of the couch.

Showtime... John Erik thought as Tarin's conciousness faded and he was able to take over as seamlessly as he'd been able to the last several times. Things were progressing. After his run in with the cat, John Erik had been far more careful in his selection of victims....and he'd almost succeeded twice in getting back to where he wanted to be.

The first woman had taken too long, fought too hard and he'd taken some damage to the body he was occupying. He hadn't managed to subdue her, but he'd done some damage to her body as well. Wherever she'd managed to stumble she'd left a trail of blood. The area she'd finally made it to had been far too populous to follow though.

The second woman was still in the hospital. John Erik had heard it on the news while the medium was brooding over his lost love. The woman who had foiled his last attempt at returning to power. He would get her somehow, he just wasn't strong enough physically to battle her and her strange strength. But the second woman...he'd already started to prepare her for her death, for her transition into a tool of his transformation. He'd made several cuts when someone he heard approaching footsteps in the park. He'd ran before he could be caught. Tonight would be the night though the first of many, he'd found a better place to hide and do his work, now he just needed a victim.

John Erik rose from the mediums sleeping position on the couch and grabbed his tools from where he'd stashed them the night before. It was time to roll.

Disorientation....that was probably the best way to describe what Tarin was feeling. Isn't that usually what someone felt when they woke up in a completely different place than where they'd fallen asleep in the first place? Tarin blinked, wondering for a moment if he was still sleeping somehow, if that was the case this was an intensely weird dream. He was in the bathroom...in the bathtub...and he definitely wasn't wearing any clothes.

Moving from his reclined position to an upright one in the tub, Tarin looked around, then down into the water and shot to his feet and out of the tub, sloshing water out of the porcelain tub and onto the floor. He retreated a few steps into the bathroom then slowly made his way back to the edge of the tub and peered down. The water was a rosy shade of red, like when he cut himself shaving and the blood dripped down into the sink. Only, the whole tub of water was tinted.

Tarin did a quick check over his body, checking for injuries that he simply didn't find. That begged the question of where all the blood had come from. Hands shaking and legs feeling weak, Tarin made his way to the bathroom mirror and looked at himself in the mirror, half expecting to see someone else standing there. It was himself and while he had deep and dark circles under his eyes, nothing appeared to be wrong.

He almost hesitated to reach into the tub to drain the water, but he did, then Tarin got himself a towel from the linnen closet outside the bathroom and wrapped it around his waist as he walked to the livingroom. The TV was still on and Tarin could have sworn he'd fallen asleep in front of it earlier in the night.

The news was on now and a breaking news story dominated the programming. A murder had been committed in central park that night, a particularly grizzly murder and the police seemed to think it was related to a series of assaults that had happened over the last week and a half. Something about the story sent a harsh shiver down Tarin's spine and he ran a hand through his wet hair, thinking hard, searching himself to make sure everything was whole and right.

Moving towards the TV to shut it off, Tarin caught the end of the story, one of the women was still in the hospital and they thought that by the end of the week she'd be able to give an account of the attack and a possible rendering of the attacker. Tarin wanted to feel good about that, knowing how Lee had always loved to run in the park and wanting it to be safe for other women who wanted the same. Something kept Tarin from being happy though and as he made his way through the apartment, shutting off lights as he tried to puzzle out the incident in the tub an odd sense of foreboding washed over him.

The medium had woken up...as John Erik had lain in the tub basking in the glory of a job well done, the man had woken up. He'd let his guard down and had nearly blew things. Something that he really didn't want to do...especially now that he knew it was possible to accomplish his goals in this body. It had been marvelous, watching the blood flow out of that woman's body washing over his hands, splattering on his clothes. He'd have to wait for the medium to fall asleep again before going to the trash can and getting the clothes he'd thrown away, burning them would be far better. he'd have to wait for now...the medium was wide away, pondering what had happened and wondering if there was anyway that he was responsible for what had been in his tub. That was fine...John Erik could wait...he'd had his first great success, and his first taste of blood in an eternity. He could wait a few hours to clean up.