The Witch From Laramie Valley

Bad Decisions

The ogre moved surprisingly quickly down the dark back alleys, though he bumped into buildings and dumpsters as he moved, never stopping. A few glances behind him was enough to know the vampire was still right on him, so he cut right, then right again, then left, then straight a ways. Veka itself was like a maze, and there was no way he could really lose this vampire in here. No, he needed to make it out, to the rest of Orphelia, and cause more of a disturbance, that way the vampire would get distracted – or hopefully dead. Ekor grinned as his mind was made up, and he put everything he could into his speed, aiming for the neon lights he could barely see of downtown.

Perry noted the change in direction – and that the ogre was gaining speed. An odd combination, he remembered thinking later, but at this point the tunnel vision had taken over him, and he was more about the hunt than he was about critical thinking.

The two continued like this, the small vampire chasing the large, wide ogre, catching at him every once in a while. A chase like this, though, was more a marathon than a sprint, Perry knew; ogres were slow, which worked in his favor, but they were also big and tough. There was no way one single vampire could take down an ogre on his own. No, he couldn't take on Ekor in a one-on-one fight, but he could tire the jerk out on a suspenseful jog through the neighborhood. Veka wasn't in such great shape that anyone would really care what happened there, not even really the citizens who lived there.

His plan was good, but thanks to the tunnel vision his hunting instincts had left him with, it took several minutes before he realized that they had left Veka. Perry's eyes widened as he recognized the signs and streets leading toward downtown, and he knew it was too late to get the ogre back to Veka, but he could at least steer him away from downtown. He'd lost control of his hunt, and Perry cursed under his breath as he leapt onto a building to the left before pushing off the wall to come at Ekor. The ogre growled and batted him away like nothing, but it did the trick of forcing him to change course. Instead of downtown, they headed into a quieter part of Orphelia: District 4. It was less residential and commercial than it was institutional. District 4 held multiple grand research facilities, large and stoic and made of very stable concrete.

A much better venue for an ogre chase than the busy, glitzy downtown area, Perry thought.

As though Ekor knew his plan was ruined, he started becoming more frenzied, grabbing trash cans and ripping up street lights to throw back at Perry. The vampire dodged everything with ease, but he was trying to pay more attention to his surroundings now, after the mess up earlier. These were minor damages that could be easily repaired, so he wasn't too worried yet.

Finally, the ogre seemed like he was slowing down, and just in time, too; right up ahead was a dead end, a District 4 alley that dead-ended at the entrance to an underground parking garage. Thankfully, it was thoroughly locked up, and the ogre had nowhere to go. As Ekor slowed to a stop, Perry did too, several feet away.

He held up his hands and steeled himself for more confrontation. “Easy there, big guy,” he told the ogre, trying to make his voice relaxing. Ekor was definitely out of breath, trying to hide his panting under snorts and snarls as he looked around for an escape, but they were surrounded by tall, concrete buildings on every side. The only opening was the way they came, behind Perry at this point, and if the ogre was smart, he would've made a go of it, knowing that Perry would jump out of the way.

To be honest, though, ogres aren't really all that smart either. If they were, Ekor would have recognized the fact that he was screwed as soon as he realized a vampire was on his trail and given up right then and there. But he didn't, and here they were.

But what Ekor himself lacked in brain power, Perry was about to find out, he more than made up for in persistence. He turned to the vampire, gave one last angry snarl with a glare, before turning back to the concrete building sitting atop the underground parking garage they'd stopped at, and he jumped up. He wasn't nearly as graceful as Perry, but it did the trick. Ekor grabbed fistfuls of the wall, yanking himself up higher and higher as quickly as he could, grunting the entire time.

For a second, Perry just sat down on the asphalt, hanging his head between his raised knees in exasperation. Why wouldn't the ogre just come quietly? Where did he honestly think he was gonna be able to go from here?

Thankfully he was slow, so Perry could take a minute to work out his frustration and think. These were all government and privately run research buildings, including the one Ekor was not so quietly scaling, and there was no telling what top secret things went on inside them. All of the buildings in District 4 were unmarked for privacy reasons, so he couldn't tell exactly where they were.

With a sigh, Perry got back to his feet. He would just have to keep following the ogre until he passed out, apparently. And hopefully it wouldn't happen on top of any of these fancy research buildings.

By this point, Ekor was reaching the top of the building, his grubby hands grabbing hold of the roof's edge to pull himself up. He grappled and flailed a little, but he got his large, round body up over the edge, turning to sneer down at Perry a moment in triumph – but his expression faded when he saw that the vampire was slow clapping down on the street, gazing up at him with unimpressed eyes.

Suddenly, Perry was shooting up the side of the building like lightning, so fast the ogre couldn't track with his eyes. The vampire swooped up onto the same roof right in front of Ekor, who backtracked unconsciously in surprise. He'd had no idea that vampires could move like that. Enraged again, he spun around, throwing himself across the rooftop – which, neither of the two had noticed before, had a rather large skylight taking up most of it.

As Ekor went to continue the chase, Perry dove after him, and the two fell through the skylight together.