Written By: Ranie & A Dreamers Wonderland:

Whispers of Time, a city that comes alive at night, and during the day those known as the other beings hide amongst the rest. Other beings are not always nice and choose to make their own paths no matter what the outcome. Some know what their paths bring and others have no idea what follows. Nonetheless, if there are other beings causing problems, then those against them will stand up as Shadow Hunters. Shadow Hunters are hated and feared by those who know them. A Shadow Hunter's job is to take out the other beings that cause problems or create a scene to be revealed to humans. Most Shadow Hunters are humans and kill demons, though there are others who hunt anything non-human or non-animals, and not all Shadow Hunters have to be human.

Erin stood at the top of a city building with the large moon on his back keeping him within the light. Two others known as Raven and Miranda, twin sisters, were standing with him. Erin was a Shadow Hunter like the twins, though they kept together in a group so that no one would dare attack them otherwise. Watching the empty and dark streets of the city that seemed so dead yet so alive at the same time. "Any sight of the others?" Erin asked as the twins said "No" in unison. Raven had short black hair with a purple tint and her eyes were purple as well matching her sister's eyes. Miranda's hair was to her mid back and her bangs pulled back, she might have seemed like the beautiful type, however, she was far more dangerous by herself than with Raven. They were six feet tall, slim yet built like models, but, their personalities were colder than expected when first meeting them.

There were different groups of Shadow Hunters along the city, some believed in peace, others believed in exposure, however, there was a fine line in knowledge that had to be kept in order to keep the balance and not start any wars. Erin kept his eyes on the street as the twins did the same, he was athletically built with short dirty blonde hair that was a bit spiky looking, though it was soften than it looked. He stood about five foot eight and his bright blue eyes looked silver under the moonlight making him stand out, yet, it created more fear in others.

“I gave you two a simple task and you went and destroyed a civilian home! Do you know how hard it is to cover that up?” Richard lectured the two siblings that gave him unnecessary trouble with their haphazardly execution of slaying the creatures that went bump in the night.

“Well you see… it was all out of self defense sir. We had no choice,” replied the eldest of the two and the cockiest, Lawrence.
It wasn’t uncommon for Lawrence to talk back to their superior especially their tutor Richard and challenge every complaint that they got. At times it worked very well but in most cases it resulted in another mundane task and worst of all, chores. If Richard had nothing else to give the siblings Richard and Gwen he forced them to clean the institute as punishment.

“Seems that lady luck is on your side for once. You two are to meet with Erin, Raven and Miranda. I need you all to go investigate a local club that has been having, suspicious activity. I want you all to go since I don’t know what will await you all there and stay out of trouble,” he ordered after hearing Lawrence’s excuse.
Even though the two siblings frustrated him to no end, they were valuable assets to the institution and he loved them dearly like all of the other residents he took the time to train. On top of that he wouldn’t have entrusted them with such a task if he didn’t know they were capable of succeeding. He knew his shadow hunters skills and weakness but knew that together they were a force like no other.

Lawrence turned to look at his little sister Gwen who simply smiled at him. Gwen was always quiet and was always lumped together with her brother. Whenever he got in trouble so did she even if she wasn’t involved. However, Gwen would never complain because her brother and her had incredibly close bond after growing up in the institute together. With no parents they started to rely on each other and seemed to be attached to the hip even though Gwen was four years younger than her brother.

“I am ready whenever you are,” Gwen stated as she brushed a hand through her brown hair and pushed it back away from her green eyes.
At only the age of nineteen Gwen acted a lot more mature than her twenty-three year old brother and out of the two of them she was the respectable one because she would make sure the task they were assigned got done. Either way her brother still found a way to make things difficult at times.
“You seriously need a haircut… “ she commented walking past her brother towards the entrance to the institute.

“What? You don’t like the scruffy look?” he mocked in love with his new look even if it made them look similar because they both had green eyes and brown hair.

“I have no comment, lets just find the others,” Gwen stated ending that conversation before it got too far and headed out to find their companions.
Out in the city streets Gwen pulled her leather jacket tighter around her petite frame as her brother, standing at six foot two towed over her since she was only five foot six and hadn't gained the tall genes in the family. The both of them walked quietly as they stayed alert in the chilly night not wanting to get caught off guard by anything. As shadow hunters, and young ones at that Gwen and Lawrence knew better than to walk around alone at night, that just made you a prime target for attack. However, on special occasions Gwen would do just that to lure out demons but her brother was never far from her side ready to strict when things got critical.

"Alright here they come, get ready, and girls" Erin said turning back to the twins as they glanced over at him "You two will be partners tonight, don't worry about me, and keep an eye on each other" Erin figured tonight would get messy, crazy, or even just both combined. He focused down at the streets below them where he saw the figures walking and talking. Before he could get down to them he said "Shadow Twins, on your guard" it seemed that they were not alone considering alot of shadows of others began to surround them "JUMP" Erin yelled as he ran to the edge with the twins in tow jumping off the building.

The rush of the wind whipped by their faces as their hair moved with the movement and luckily with the help of the twins, Erin made it down to the ground in front of the two they were looking for safely. "Incoming" Erin stated at the two they just appeared in front of as others jumped down from the buildings above. The twins had the abilities to control balance, one with light, and one with dark, however, nothing was ever what it seemed with those two. So you never knew who had what ability as sometimes they could swap if they really needed to.

Erin watched as there were eight figures around them outnumbering them; Erin didn't say a word when they each attacked with their own powers, and then he knew what they were up against. Simple and low rank demons who wanted to get to a higher place by taking out a Shadow Hunter. Erin smirked, he wasn't about to take pity on those who threatened his or his comrade's lives. Erin didn't bother to use his ability, as far as anyone including the twins knew, he had no abilities, and his fighting skills had kept him alive this far.

Miranda fought equally with her sister Raven taking down the two they had chosen to fight which in their case was easy to defeat. Three figures went after the siblings charging them to over power them as the other three charged at Erin. One pulled out a blade about the time Erin noticed and knocked it out of their hand punching them in the stomach making them cripple over, but, not fall. The one demon with dark orange eyes attacked again despite being hit in the stomach trying to punch Erin back. Erin evaded the attack as the moonlight shadowed their group fight for no one to see. Though other demons were watching, they wouldn't intervene.

Erin turned around kicking the demon off guard as the demon laid on the ground unmoved. The other two attacked at once, one of them kicking Erin back a bit, but, he return the favor of pain by thrusting his right palm right into their throat making them fall backwards trying to catch their breath. The last one took off running not realizing the twins appeared in front of him tripping and making the runaway demon fall face first into a wall.

The siblings instantly unsheathed their weapons when Erin yelled, “Incoming!” knowing exactly what he meant. After being around their fellow shadow hunters for long enough they knew the vocal queues and gestures that indicated that hostiles were in the vicinity. Every night there were always demons trying to fight them but they were also always hunting them and throwing their plans in disarray. It was a vicious cycle that at least made every night interesting in one way or another.

As the demon lunged at Gwen she already had her curved daggers out and quickly went to work on the low level demon. Gwen wasn’t incredibly strong but she was fast and had quick reflexes, which was why she used daggers. Being up close and personal with the demons was how she loved to fight. So a bow was something she had no idea how to use or any long-range weapon for that matter. Quickly the demon was riddled with deep cuts and wasn’t going to bleed to death just the way Gwen wanted the fight to go down.

On the other hand Lawrence used a large sword because he gained the strength and had incredibly brute force. So together the siblings easily balanced each other out and rarely every used their powers when they were fighting together. With a wide swing of his sword he plowed it through the demon that decided to come at him. In only three swings the demon was killed and the siblings were left with only one more who decided to run since all his comrades were dropping like flies.

“Gwen.” Lawrence said looking at his little sister.

“On it.” She replied before she seemingly disappeared and then reappeared in front of the demon with a grin.

“Where do you think you are headed?” she asked playfully.
As Gwen cut the demon off Lawrence made his advance coming up from the back as his little sister who twirled her blades in her hands distracted the demon. The distraction was just long enough that when the demon turned to flee Lawrence cleaved off its head.

“You’ll really know how to greet someone,” Lawrence stated grinning at his comrades, Erin, Raven and Miranda before continuing to speak, “We got orders from Richard to go check out a club because there is suspicious activity occurring there.”
As he explained the situation he had sheathed his sword and was headed in the direction of the club. The last thing he wanted was to waste time or to watch the night slip away from them

The club they were headed to was a newer one that had just opened up and right on the sign was a the symbol of a rune that only shadow hunters and the creatures that went bump in the night could see. It was also the rune that bestowed a shadow hunter the fearless trait, a rune that made Lawrence chuckle a bit at the sight of it since he knew it was the word needed to get into the club.

Erin stopped to yawn at the end "Alright, let's get going, that wasn't a bad wake up call" he moved with the twins not caring that they just killed some people which later the news would sound like they got attacked by something. This city they were in were known for it's mass random murders and deadly attacks. Cops from anyone wouldn't be able to set foot and stay alive if they got too in deep with the nightlies which were just another word for creatures or hunters. Usually they would end up loosing their lives or becoming their servants also known as pets.

"Camille said something was stirring up the night clubs, but, she didn't know what" Erin said as they walked down the dark, endless street to a popular club, he hadn't cared about the study of runes to know what they meant or did "So what's it say?" he asked not caring if anyone knew he didn't know much about them. Camille was actually a couple hundred years old known as the Immortal Blood Witch whom had been feared by just about everyone, species and all. She could have bothered with clearing this all up herself, but, thoughts of such things would just endlessly bore her.

Camille might have been immortal, impossible to kill, but, she didn't go around showing it off. She had only one way to die and only she knew that. Well, Erin did too since he was almost...well they had their own history together, and he knew what could kill her. Camille was a the type of woman who didn't believe in death no matter what the reason, and would refuse to accept it.

“You should honestly study ruins Erin, they could benefit you.” Gwen stated as she walked up to the bouncer and spoke the password in his native tongue. Unlike Erin, Gwen studied the runes extensively and had tattooed the gift of tongues, agility, strength and many others onto her skin. With that she also memorized the rune for heal in case she ever injured herself in battle and it was why she had no scars on her skin. Lawrence on the other hand had plenty of scars because he liked to show of his battle wounds and he usually used Gwen to teach him the runes he needed. That was their sibling dynamic though, Gwen was the brain and Lawrence was the brute force.

As the bouncer moved to let them in Gwen took the lead since she explained that everyone with her was her group. Inside the club the music was loud and the amount of people was unnerving if they needed to escape at any point.
“I suggest we split up, cover more ground.” Lawrence started, “Gwen you can go with Erin and I can go with the twins or alone. I want to get this done quickly than return to the sanctuary and tell Richard the verdict,” he finished looking amongst everyone.
This was a waste of time to Lawrence and stupidly dangerous since they were in a club filled with demons, vampires, werewolves and every other creature that had a thing against them for the most part. Since they walked in on their own they would luckily be ignored as long as they didn’t do anything rash.

Back at the sanctuary Richard stayed in the study mulling over all his books so he could keep all the information in his head their permanently. If any of the shadow hunters had questions he wanted to have the answer. That is why he wasn’t off killing demons anymore, his studied had made his skills rusty and he decided it was time to retire so the younger generation could have their time to shine.

Within the club the demons and other creatures did glance at the shadow hunters but ignored them for the most part. They were at the club to enjoy themselves; they were not there to fight. However, as Richard and Camille assumed something was afoot and it was bigger than either of them most likely imagined. In the club they were particularly in some notorious demons were having a meeting in a private sectioned off area. The meeting consisted of gaining potential recruits in the club for something much bigger but anytime demons were forming groups wasn’t a good thing and meant something unpleasant would happen if wasn’t stopped.

Raven was the spiritual power of the twins, she could focus without even trying, and her mental including emotional state was very strong. Her physical abilities were not the best and even though she had high spiritual energy, she was not the smartest; Miranda on the other hand knew alot about Runes like Raven did, that is why they were always paired up with Erin. Miranda dealt with acting on impulse and speed more than anything else, though she was quite knowledgeable depending on what was going on at that time.

Erin looked at Gwen, the female of the two obviously, and quite charming, but, Erin wasn't he to think. Just to focus, work or both; Erin was hated among alot of people for ignoring the old ways to do things and inventing his own options. He never did like listening to others, taking advice, or being told what to do. One thing you never do is hit him in the face...that would be a very bad move considering he snaps right into...battle mode, you could say.

Raven and Miranda looked at each other with matching grins, they never did like to be split up, and as twins they could be quite mischievous when working together. "Come on then boy, let's begin this game" Raven said as the girls always took it as a game and Raven was the one who started calling it that. Soon Erin saw it as a game too since he didn't have anyone to protect anymore besides his team mates and even then sacrificing people wasn't his way of doing things.

Erin moved towards the back of the club, usually that or right in the middle was where the low life demons would be, or just be doing deeds they shouldn't be. Of course, no one realized yet that they were being watched, and it wasn't by a someone. It was by a something...the walls had ears, so to speak, and the crowd had many eyes to get past. Even if some or most ignored them, there would be others that wouldn't, and that could cause some problems or fun.

alright, sadly this is closed now, lock it if you wish.