a late night stroll [Open]

[Quinn Remington]

It was late, it was dark and Quinn was exhausted. For whatever reason everything that could have gone wrong in the duration of a day seemed to have. She was held past her sixteen hour shift because Dr. Sinclair had called in sick. There was a car accident, a snowboarding incident and a very interesting and serious animal attack. Every time she thought she would get a chance to breathe some other chaotic event occurred. If hadn’t been for the other people keeping her on her toes she probably would have passed out hours ago. That wasn’t the case though because they simply handed her a cup of coffee and pushed her to finish the shift.

About half way through she got a call from her mother telling her that her brother had disappeared again. Every time Hartley went missing Martha freaked out, forcing Quinn to remind her that he was probably off somewhere doing something new and exciting. Hartley said he was going leave all the time but it was an empty threat, he came back every time. After calming her mother down they went on to talk about family dinner until Quinn finally managed to get her off the phone. “Mom, I have to get back to work, can we talk about this later?”

Remington’s always did family dinner on Friday. It was as if Martha Remington thought her children would forget about her if they didn’t. She was paranoid for reasons that Quinn couldn’t understand but she just went with it. She learned a long time ago there was no reasoning with her mother. Martha operated on some twisted sort of logic she couldn’t pretend to understand.

Quinn hung her lab coat up in her locker as she grabbed her keys and phone. She barely noticed the other people coming into the staff locker room and only barely managed to keep up with the conversation at hand. Ever since she had gotten the call from her mother Hartley’s latest exploits were lingering in the back of her mind. She found herself wondering what he could possibly be doing this time. It was probably more interesting and less gory than her day had been but there was no way of knowing for sure. She made a mental note to ask him whenever he resurfaced. He would probably give her the short and sweet version – for her own good – but that was better than being oblivious. At least that’s what she told herself. For whatever reason Hartley had a different set of rules than everyone else in her world, it wasn’t fair but that’s the way it was.

She gave her co-workers a quick goodbye as she left the hospital that night with a cheery “see you Wednesday.” Quinn loved her job, it was what she had wanted to do for as long as she could remember but there was something that meant far more to her than her job and that was her research. Any time she got a string of days off she used them for one thing and that was trying to unlock Hartley’s genetic code. A lot of people said she lived a flat one track life, that she was boring and predictable but Quinn didn’t let it get to her. She didn’t care if other people found her interesting. All that mattered was that she accomplished what she set out too. Some things in life were more important than being interesting.

The humid evening air hit her like a ton of bricks. It was always so cool and dry inside the hospital that it was easy to forget about the sweltering weather outside. It had been warmer than usual as of late and whether that was the reason or not the hospital had been much busier. It usually was around this time, when kids were out of school and people were vacationing or being reckless. The paycheck was always great, the medical state of the city remained questionable.

Quinn crossed the street before coming to one of the many paths that led through the park. Most people called her insane when they found out she passed through Grey Luis alone at night. They all said how dangerous it was and how much trouble she could get herself into there. Normally she agreed and would walk around the park but tonight she just couldn’t be bothered too. The fastest way to the subway station was through the park and so that was the way she was going. Normally she didn’t run into much trouble crossing through the park anyways.

She would joke to herself that the criminals had more interesting things to do than waste their time on boring old Quinn. In fact they probably wouldn’t know who she was at all. She doubted she even knew a criminal by name. Sure one of them might have filtered through the hospital but none of them seemed too memorable. No, she resolved, nothing terrible was going to happen to her in the park that night. It was just like every other occasion where she passed through without a bother. Her life was boring and predictable just as this night promised to be. Strangely she preferred it that way. Her family couldn’t seem to understand why but they didn’t really understand her either.

[Jericho Gayanelo]

Echo picked up a dead squirrel and placed it inside a canvas rucksack before moving on to the next tree and hoping he was lucky enough to find another dead animal. In all honesty, he never would have guessed that he’d spend his time like this, scavenging the carcasses of little woodland creatures…in the park. But then again, a few years ago and he would never have guessed that he was a witch, and that werewolves, and vampires existed. He walked a few meters to the next tree and of all things found an alley cat feasting on a bird of some sort, maybe a pigeon. Echo shooed the feline away before lifting the still warm bird carcass, shaking away its excess blood, and also shoving it into the rucksack. It was beginning to smell something terrible but that wasn’t what caused the disapproving expression on the face of the old Native American that had been following Echo around the entire night.

The man was built broadly, his face austere and even more creased because he frowned. He had two white braids draped over each shoulder, and a traditional woven band above his brow. He was dressed in the traditional garb of an Apache shaman. People would have stopped and stared at the sight of him, but the fact of it was only Echo could see him. His name was Black Sun and he was Echo’s paternal grandfather and one of the most dangerous and powerful skin walkers of the century. His ghost was no bound to Echo’s soul, by a ritual of his own doing. He refused to see the end of the powerful line of skinwalkers and something as pointless as death would not be a hindrance. However, he did not count on his grandson’s personal moral compass being quite so troublesome. He let out an audible click of his tongue as he looked away from the rucksack full of dead animals, disgusted.

“Yeah, the smell is getting pretty bad isn’t it?” remarked Echo in mock-ignorance. He knew that wasn’t what bothered his grandfather’s ghost, hell he didn’t even know if ghosts could still smell things.

“It is not the smell that bothers me you stubborn ungrateful boy. I am deeply offended to see the ancient arts of our family reduced to such pathetic conditions. To think, sacred bone powder created from the remains of small animals? Our ancestors are rolling in their graves as I am.” He flickered out of visibility as he returned to his bones to rest.

Echo let out a snorting laugh; he kind of enjoyed messing with his grandfather like that. Often the old ghost would get so annoyed that he’d disappear for days. But he always returned after a while, no matter how much he detested Echo’s treatment of the magical discipline, the idea of having the skinwalker magical line die out was unbearable.

Echo checked the bottom of the sack, the wax lining was holding pretty well, which meant that blood wasn’t looking out from the bag. Aside from the smell, nobody would have been able to guess what was inside. These little animals would provide Echo with the ingredients he needed to create Bone Powder, which was essentially a powerful magical substance that Skinwalkers used for their spells. Human bones were traditionally used, and the bones having once been saturated in living soul made them extremely potent. Echo’s bone powder was made from dead animals and was therefore quite weak. Their magical quality was pitiful and often he needed twice as much of the powder to perform even the simplest of spells. But Echo had his principles and he wasn’t going to go out grave-robbing like his grandfather adamantly suggested.

He pulled the strings of the sack as tightly as he could, before he slung it over his shoulder and made his way to the nearest park exit. That would be the one towards Arc General Hospital. A stray thought entered Echo’s mind, what exactly did they do with the amputated limbs of people? Perhaps that would be a legit source of bones and flesh? He shook the thought away, in whatever way he took it, the notion seemed to close to grave-robbing for Echo to feel comfortable with it.

He continued on the path until he saw someone enter the park. Echo blinked a couple of times before he was sure that he recognized the woman. She was a doctor, not that unbelievable considering that the largest hospital in the city stood not even a hundred meters across the street from him. But she was a particularly pretty doctor; one that he remembered stitched him up on one quite memorable occasion. She made it a point back then to tell him that emergency medicine wasn’t her forte, but how different was suturing an incision on the scalp than… anywhere else in the body? In Echo’s opinion, it was loads different since her patients were usually asleep and didn’t mind being manhandled so much.

He walked up towards her and flashing a smile decided to strike up a conversation. “Hey Doc. Remember me?" his voice wasn't exactly ecstatic, but there was a flippant sort of fuck-everything charm that came with it. "I’m that cop who took a bullet to the ass. You did some pretty good work too, my butt’s all better now.” yeah, unfortunately he had to moon her on their first ever meeting. It made for a decent enough conversation starter though.

[Quinn Remington]

Countless people came through the revolving doors of Arc General every day. To say any one personal was memorable more than any other was a stretch but Quinn liked to think her ability to recall faces wasn’t too dreadful. Most of this time it was true but on days like this it was a miracle she could even remember her own name. She always felt that patients got the easier end of the deal when it came to out of hospital encounters. They only had to remember the one person who treated them and could always fall back on Doc. She didn’t have that luxury though and she got the feeling that calling him ‘Mr’ wouldn’t have been too well received. Fortunately he mentioned the nature of his treatment and something in her head clicked.


Quinn could confidently say she hadn’t stitched up too many people’s butts. In fact, now that he brought it up there was a chance he was the only one. She had stitched up countless people before sure, just not in that same area. The memory made her laugh, he was particularly good humored for someone in his situation. “Good to know, I wouldn’t want to hear that I put a cop out of commission because of bad stitching,” she said with a small smile. In a brief review session her mind went over the ways stitches could go bad. By now she had done sutures so many times she could probably do them blindfolded but it was important to remember the risks. Her mind always seemed to be learning something new or reviewing something old. The only time it ever seemed to rest was when she was sleeping and even then it was a struggle to turn off her thoughts.


Looking about she took note of their surroundings and his burlap sack. It seemed out of place but she wasn’t the type to pry. For a moment she thought she could smell the unmistakable scent of iron in the air. That particular smell always reminded her of blood but she just shook it off. Considering she had just left the hospital it didn’t surprise her that smell was still in her nose. It only persisted for a moment though before a light breeze washed in the scent of the nearby flowers. For the first time Quinn took into account that he had probably went out of his way to approach. Seeing as he seemed to have appeared out of nowhere it made sense. “So, what brings you out this late,” she asked trying to hold a casual conversation.

The casual conversation was a cover more than anything. Quinn knew it would be safer if she didn’t walk through the park alone, especially if her company was a cop. Not that her curiosity wasn’t genuine but the first rule of medicine was safety first, a guideline that seemed to seep into the other areas of her life more often than not. The last thing she wanted was to put herself in some stupid reckless situation. She had worked too long and too hard to get where she was in life. Quinn had a lot more to lose than most people her age which was why she wasn’t willing to risk anything.

Admittedly though, it was nice to have company. Sometimes things got so busy in her life that she blocked the rest of the world out, whatever it took to get the job done. Her mother was always telling her how she missed all these social opportunities. As supportive as Martha was, she never really understood why Quinn refused to be like other women her age. The pair of them bickered about it all the time but nothing ever changed in the end. They just went on as things had always been. What was the point in fixing something that wasn’t broke? Besides that Quinn was a stubborn as the best of them. There was no hearing reasoning once her mind was made up. Quinn pushed aside all the thoughts of her mother and tried her best to focus on the present. After all, it was a nice night and he wasn’t exactly bad looking, even if she couldn’t seem to recall his name.

[Jericho Gayanelo]

Her laugh was a good sign, she seemed to find him funny even thought it wasn’t completely his intention to try and be. He was actually just really trying to strike up a conversation with her. But her laugh was one of those contagious ones and soon enough he found himself chuckling with her.

“Good to know, I wouldn’t want to hear that I put a cop out of commission because of bad stitching,” she said. And Echo smiled and scratched the back of his head in a gesture of mock-embarrassment. Okay sure to some level it was embarrassing that of all places he got shot in the ass, but she didn’t seem to mind and Echo even remembered somebody remarking that his tush was as sweet as any dessert. She was a really pretty one, Echo guessed that even without their memorable first encounter, he would still have recognized her either way. Admittedly, he was quite the Cassanova, the Don Juan, the Lady chaser, but he did wish to find one of those special girls to settle down with. Echo’s thoughts were nowhere near that far down the line yet of course, but this lady doctor was one of those women, who exuded that subconscious “take home to your mother” vibe for Echo.

“So, what brings you out this late,” it was nice that she made the effort to continue their conversation, but he was put in a spot where he would need to lie. He doubted explaining that he was collecting little dead critters to create a magical powder would fit well into her doctor science world view, but there was the bag to animal carcasses to account for. The burlap sack was closed tightly, but the smell was still beginning to seep out of it. He couldn’t exactly tell her that he had his lunch or his laundry inside the bag, that wouldn’t help his case at all. But what else could he say? He watched as she looked at him, waiting for an answer that was too long in arriving. He made a spur of the moment decision to tell the truth.

“I was…um…picking up dead animals in the park.” He said. The expression on her face quickly showed her being weirded out by his answer. And he gave a nervous smile while he tried to hide the bag behind him. “It’s because of…um…rabies?” his bullshit reason just leaked out of his mouth like word vomit, but he already said it so he had to stick by it. Damn, he should have dropped the sack before even talking to her. He wracked his brain for any information about rabies and found that he came up short. He just knew that people got them when they got bit by a sick dog, and he had heard that other animals like squirrels could catch it to. There were a couple of squirrels in his sack, maybe a story could be made from that? He opened his mouth, the alibi not really formed yet, but Echo knew that he tended to work better under pressure anyway.

“Yeah, aside from the force I also work part-time at animal control. Just to make a little extra cash. The rabies cases kind of increased, so we’re making sure other animals don’t catch it.” Okay the story seemed more fleshed out and believable now. He had always had a knack for improvisation, both on the field and apparently in making up stories in front of pretty girls. “It’s all pretty disgusting; I don’t think you’d want to hear about it.” He smiled at her again, trying to leak back charm into the situation in order to overpower the entire rabies spiel.

“How about you? You shouldn’t really be walking through the park alone at night.” He began; he was getting his bearings up bringing the charm back on as best as he could. The rucksack of dead animals was still there, but he’d try his best to turn it into a fashion statement of anything else. “There are a lot of bad blood in this city. I’m a pretty good cop, but I can’t promise you that I’ve caught them all.” he kept his smile as he spoke. It was a joke, but in more ways than one it was true. She shouldn’t be walking in the park all alone at night, in a city like this muggers and rapists were the least of your worries.