Midnight Walker

Calleigh's feet carried her quickly as she ran down the darkened street. Her breath rose in heavy mists as she lunged at the wall, pulling herself up to the edge of the roof top easily as she took off again.

Her nightly ritual, to run and to jump and scale any wall she came across.

She was young, no doubt, a child if you looked at her next to any of the other beings in the city of Toxia, but she had grown so much. The full moon made her pale skin glow as she ran, the tattoos that had just recently taken hold of her body glimmered a light blue as the child's hair changed from red to blue as she scaled her final challenge: the last edge of the tall Hospital.

As she lunged, she caught the edge, and pulled herself up with a strength that didn't seem suited for a girl of her age, or size. Gracefully she strode across the rooftop, gazing out over the city as she sit down gingerly; her golden eyes sparking bright blue as she looked out.

She had been in the city for what to have been a few months, but for what Calleigh knew, it had only been a few weeks...and in those few weeks, she had learned and seen so much...

She had been attacked by a Shadow as soon as the treaty between the family she had been taken into, had been shattered; that moment scarring the young and naive Calleigh...but also drove in the desire to be stronger; to redeem herself that she was not weak.

So here she was, Calleigh Constantine, Coven weakling in a not so far distant past, rose in the ranks.

But that was what frightened her.

Calleigh ducked her head as she rested her forehead on her knees. She had risen very quickly; first starting out as a curious apprentice that ran about the city without a care, listening in on random conversations, not realizing what she took in was valuable. It wasn't until an attack within the Coven...

::Flash back::

Calleigh stood next to her sisters, Pix, a girl that appeared to be a fairy, but clearly wasn't, and Bethany, the girl that had brought Calleigh before the Coven...And before them was a vampire; Lestat.

"Stand out of the way, Coven." The vampire hissed. Calleigh's eyes stayed locked as she clenched her fists tightly. She knew he'd kill her in a heart beat...but... "I said stand down!"

She didn't know what exactly happened, but she watched as the vampire wrapped a hand around Pix's throat.

"Calleigh! Do something!" Beth's voice rang in her name before...

She stepped forward, growling lowly. The crystals around her neck glowing bright red as Calleigh stepped towards the two. "Let her go." She whispered darkly.

The vampire ignored her, tightening his grip around Pix's throat. She didn't know what she was doing but...Calleigh lunged, throwing herself at the vampire's waist, throwing him off balance and knocking him away from Pix.

Calleigh smiled weakly as she closed her eyes. Yes, she was stupid. Very stupid. Her weakness...She had only one weakness: anyone that took her in and cared for her. There was so many events, so many things she didn't believe she'd live through. She couldn't say she wasn't proud; she had done so many things that few could claim to do in a life time...but some of the memories haunted her...

Something kept catching her eye as she sat in the church. Gloriana, the Coven's Storm Bringer sat her side watching the wedding quietly. It was supposed to be a happy occasion; Colleen, a Ryder that she had met only a few days before, was marrying a being that Calleigh had never met...but something kept tugging at her. She'd let her eyes scan the room, but something black up on the second floor kept gripping her attention...

It moved.

Calleigh's eyes widened as she nudged Gloriana after watching it for a moment. "What's that? I think something is here..." She pointed up, to the place where the shadow was.

She looked, frowning, replying to the young Oracle. "Keep an eye on it..." She whispered lightly, noticing it as well, but let her mind drift back to the wedding.

Calleigh sat, quietly, but something kept turning in her gut; something was wrong, terribly wrong. It had only been a few days after Dimentox had disappeared after the release of the Toxic Queen and the murder of Bella Gothly...But Calleigh didn't doubt for a moment Dimentox was gone after that...

And her fear was he was here...

She looked over to the other side of the Church, to Pix, murmuring the same thing: "Can you see that? Or am I going crazy?"

"I see it too..."

Calleigh kept her eye open, but tried to keep quiet. But she couldn't take it. She rose to her feet, planning to at least yell or shout out, but before she could he sprung...

"You shall die on your wedding day!"

Calleigh opened her eyes slowly. Watching Collen being cut down at her own wedding still killed Calleigh. Yes, Colleen was fine, hell she even went to the party after the wedding, but it was more of the fact she could've stopped it that killed Calleigh...

What was it in her that drove her to this sadness? Internally fighting herself. Yes, she was happy as she could be but, as she stepped back, she could see that she had done all these things and....she didn't seem satisfied with herself.

Calleigh brushed her neck where the old collar used to be. A tool, created by her father and step mother to keep her bound. Her world, her life before she came to Toxia, changed completly when she heard the truth...

It seemed that she couldn't escape the truth. Lunana, the fallen angel that had plauged Calleigh since the murder of her parents, had returned to Toxia. To torment her? No...Lunana had at first, hell wanted to join the Shadows...but something changed in the angel...

She joined the Righteous.

But she could remember when Lunana had reappeared, it was the first day she also met her leader. She couldn't remember much of it, but of what she did, she remembered a padded cell after fighting Lunana in a darkened ally way. Her reasons of Lunana deciding to try and kill her? She had no idea at the time...She just remembered being carried back to the shop by Pix, weak and broken from the trauma the fallen had bestowed upon the weak Calleigh. The best memory she could remember was hearing the elf's voice in her head as she faded in and out of consciousness, healed by Bethany.

Calleigh rose to her feet, staring out to the church as her eyes glimmered. She had seemed to get herself into a lot of trouble. Being kidnapped, forced to drink blood that was infected with a hex, to being a walking time bomb. She hated herself for it; why did she have to be so weak? Even after being unbound from the necklace...

She closed her eyes, inhaling the heavy air. She could taste the disgusting air in the back of her throat, but she didn't mind it anymore; it wasn't as bad as when she first had arrived.

No no, it was the challenges as of late. Shew as the Light Binder; so young and already with the rank surprised many, hell, even herself. It was this that made Calleigh worry on this night...

She had received a rank that had been known by other prominent members of the city. She knew a few Shadows had once called themselves Light Binders, Lestat amongst these as well. She closed her eyes. Each of them had seemed to fall away to...well, what she thought were darker roles. The last Light Binder had stepped down for other reasons but, still; was it the title, or the job that drove them away? Was she to follow? Dare she say it...but she had even heard that the title was more likely to corrupt the being... She didn't want to fail the family; especially her sisters Bethany and Indigo: those two meant the world to her...

She couldn't let it happen. Calleigh stared out, her eyes pale as she continued to think. She was the new generation of the Coven, but it seemed more were forming around her. Already, she knew at least seven apprentices; and she was close to most of them already...

Her eyes flashed sadly as she glanced out across the city. She wondered how the littlest one, Suki, was doing. She glanced down, watching the street below her. It was still empty as she jumped, landing on a lower ledge with grace as she then dropped to the street.

She knew she had to be strong; if not for herself to keep her sanity as she began to finely tune her ears to the whispers of the city, but for her family: the new comers that would look up to her, and the brother and sisters that already relied and watched her grow...

She couldn't fail the Coven; she'd rather die.