The night was chilly, not that it was unexpected. The weather sayers had predicted a cold front approaching, and more than that, Jess had sensed it. She had always been able to do that, to feel the changes in the air, the mood swings of the winds and the minute changes in pressure long before that manifested themselves. A trick she had reveled in as a child, and even now it brought her a deep joy to feel the magic in the air. To marvel at the warm tingle of it as it washed over her, dancing around her as though it was a living thing.

She had, at one point, worried about her natural talents, about her Fey given gifts for magic. And more so what would become of her using them without….. without her friend to watch her back and to stare down, or outright fight, the more vocal critics of her heritage.
Of course those feelings had been fading over the last month. Her new friends supported her, and the almost separate world that was the university proved far friendlier than her high school days had implied.

Two of said new friends, Max and Merry, were chatting away conspiratorially. As had become common over the last week, that they would be found discussing the ritualistic killings, the murder of several hunters, and many other dark and uncomfortable topics.
Jess didn't mind. For some there was a fascination to be found in the macabre, but she wasn't interested recently. All the death and the killing, it was depressing. All of it seemed so pointless, so useless. She was much happier to hang back with Aden and simply monitor the conversation, letting the buzzing of the busy street and the movement and warmth of close pressed humanity carry her along.

Aden, for his part, was quiet tonight as he strode next to her. Normally people didn't enjoy walking with her, at five foot ten she had a long stride that often made others uncomfortable. Something she did her best to account for but still never quite mastered once she was on the move.
Of course she knew why he stayed close. Aden was perceptive, and she knew he had noticed her mood a few days ago, seen the rut she was digging herself into. And to his eternal credit, he had been there every day to help her through.
Not necessarily to talk or to do anything, but just as a comforting presence. Merry and Max had been doing much the same thing, though in a far clumsier and much more talkative way. Not that she minded, just knowing they were making the effort on her behalf was more than enough to warm her heart and brighten her mood. It would have been easy to cloister herself away and not bother with people. But she was glad she hadn’t.

This little outing was her effort to give back in some small way. It wasn't that Jess felt she never offered anything, or that the group would slowly exclude her if she didn't join them..... It was just that she didn't want them to feel they couldn't ask her. If she said no too many times, never made the effort to get back into life…. Well she would still be huddled under her blankets staring blankly at the wall as she had been after the official announcement of Ellie's death…..

With a sad smile she pushed away that thought. She missed her, might never stop missing her, regretting time unspent and words unsaid. But there was time to grieve, and she had done plenty of that. Tonight was a night for enjoying, to celebrate life and relax, to step back out into the world with her new friends and make memories her future self could smile at.
So she followed the pair of miscreants through the doors, Aden at her side. 

The moment she crossed the threshold she felt something was off, something in the air felt heavy, wrong. Much like how she could feel the gathering storm. But unlike  the weather she couldn't place it. This sensation here was new, new but startlingly familiar. She had felt it somewhere before, but still found it impossible to place. As though it were a song played off key. And yet….. it also felt as though something about it, the magic ever present in the air now influenced by whatever this feeling was, it was clinging desperately at her very soul. Seeming seeking her affinity for life and healing over whatever the feeling of the room indicated.

She felt a scowl growing on her face as she scanned the room. 
Where had she felt this? Why was it so frustratingly familiar yet horribly distant? 

Slowly the feeling solidified and became focused. Her eyes were drawn to it, to the railing above her. There, for the briefest moment, a snapshot of a person in motion. A picture caught in slow motion, of bright blond hair, of shining green eyes, pale skin, a black jacket.
Her thoughts froze, her pulse quickened.

Ellie……

Just as quick as she was there she was gone. Jessica shook her head, she wasn’t sure what she had seen when she stepped through the door. A shadow, an illusion maybe? It felt for a moment like those awful first weeks when she had snapped her attention to every blonde, ran to every voice that could possibly have been hers. Had let the hallucinations and hope control her.

Adrenaline was still pumping in her veins as it did every time she had experienced this, and with an effort she willed it to stop. It wasn’t needed, she was here to have a good time and support her friends, not chase half seen ghosts…...
Of course Jess knew that she was about to enter a slump, just like every other time. She was tempted, not for the first time, to fiddle with her brain chemistry. To make herself happy for a few hours so she didn’t have to think about the loss. But that was a dangerous and slippery slope, one she refused to allow herself to go down, one she knew Ellie would have warned her off.

Aden bumped her shoulder lightly. Following the slightly shorter women's eyes to the second floor, before looking back at her with a searching, concerned, gaze.
“You alright?”

She swallowed, taking a deep breath and stepping after Max and Merry. Determined to not spoil the evening for the rest of them.
“I’m fine… just thought I saw something.”

Aden raised an eyebrow.
“The one with the “hawk-like vision”, as Miss Valin so kindly puts it, she “thinks” she saw something?”

She winced slightly. Valin, their training instructor, had a habit of pointing out her peculiarities. Not in a cruel way, always to praise, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth to have the differences between her and a full blooded human so blatantly pointed to in public. If Ellie were around the two would likely have exchanged some very heated words by now.
“Yeah…. Just, don’t worry about it…. But we should see if there’s any seating upstairs.”

Aden gave a thin smile that all but confirmed he was indeed worrying about it. But he knew well enough not to push. Jess was a strong and sociable person, but she had her moments like anyone else, and the best he could do was try and steer her out of the inevitable depression that would soon follow.
“I can get behind that.” He leaned forwards and poked max in the shoulder. Interrupting another pointless plan he and Merry had been concocting. “Hey! Order for us something? We’ll try and grab a table upstairs.”

“I guess I’m paying?”
Max muttered, fishing his wallet out of a pocket.

“Well Merry never does, and if you stopped cheating at cards you won’t have to.”

Max just rolled his eyes and turned back to his conversation with Merry, ignoring the comment about his miraculous luck in games of chance.

Aden smiled and turned back to the redhead of the group.
“Ok, let’s go-“

He didn’t get to finish his sentence as he was interrupted by a shout from above. A loud and angered male voice yelling on the second floor.
“What the fuck dude!”
Another man’s voice responded with a shout of “Fuck you!” And the sound of a fist hitting flesh.

Everyone in the group looked up, just in time to see a large man slam into, and through the balcony above the bar. Splintered wood and the remnants of a chair fell into the crowd. Aden only just scrambling out of the way of the falling patron, dragging Jess with him. The heavy thump of impact seemed to stun the crowd for a moment, before the pained groan of the man snapped them out of it.

People immediately started yelling, a woman screamed, and as could only be expected, chaos rained.
The man who had started it was still upstairs brawling with someone else. Security and staff were on the move as various members of the crowd tried to scatter while others tried to press forwards to get a closer look at the disturbance.

The group of student hunters hadn't even noticed as they closed ranks. Training kicked in as they formed a loose cordon around the injured man. Jess, seeing that she was covered, dropped to her knees to start a primary examination.

“Are you alright?” She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder and letting magic gently prod its way through him in search of problems or injuries.

The man groaned and tried to sit up, only making it to his elbows.
“Yeah…. Just give me a minute.”

Jess nodded. Technically what she had just done was a massive breach of privacy, but she found nothing more worrying than some bruising and slight alcohol poisoning, so she retracted her magic. Her instincts had been, as always, to jump to the assistance of the wounded man, to make sure he wasn’t hurt. In this case she was lucky her friends had her back. In the past it was always Ellie who guarded her. After her death Jess had lost a lot of confidence, and to some extent that willingness, to rushing in to help. But recently the role of guardian had been taken back up by her new group.

“Is he ok?”

Jess looked up at one of the staff who had apparently just finished talking to Aden. A small medical kit in her hands and they knelt down beside her.
“Some bruises but that’s it. What abo-“
She cut herself off, her voice hitching. In the crowd, no, just behind them. A flash of shoulder length blonde hair curled, pointed, and wild, the edge of a wide green eye, and a sad smile on her sharp features that seemed to be far too at home in the chaos. A shadow of a figure dashing past the crowd as they gathered and for a moment, only a moment, she saw her face. It was odd. She could recognise Ellie anywhere, could never mistake that face. And even now, as she saw it, she knew who it was. But this was like an artist rendition of her. As though a painter had gone over her friend's face and removed every minute blemish, every small fault. It was uncanny, strange. Almost too well sculpted to be human and yet undeniably, it was the woman she had known her whole life.

In moments she was on her feet, heart hammering in her ears, Jess burst past her friends. Cursing her height as she weaved and pushed through the crowd with completely uncharacteristic disregard for those around her. Soon, far sooner than any of her companions could manage she was on the street, looking around frantically for any sighs, anything that might be her, be Ellie. But there was nothing, no streak of blond, do signs of running. Absolutely nothing as though whatever she has seen was never real to begin with, like a ghost.

There was desperation in her eyes as her friends appeared from the bar. A slightly feral look that none had seen in her before. All of them concerned for her as they tried to figure out what had just happened. Merry was the first to speak up, taking a few steps forwards and looking around one last time, a hand suspiciously resting under her jacket.
“We good? All clear and all that jazz?”

“I- we’re good just-” Jess took a long breath, fists clenched at her sides, willing her frustration and tears to salty away. “Just thought I saw something.” 

The Feyborn was conflicted at best, on the one hand she didn’t want to undo all her work to recover from the loss of her friend. On the other, moments after she spots what could be Ellie, all hell breaks loose. Exactly as would be expected if Ellie was there and wanting to not be seen…... And then there was whoever was fleeing the scene.
She shook her head, despite what her psychologist said, she just couldn’t let go. And moments like this definitely didn’t help.
Swallowing the tears that threatened her eyes, she turned to her friends and slowly returned to the bar. She would cry later. Do the healthy thing and let it out when she was alone. But not now.
“Let’s just double check on the guy who got hit…. Then maybe we just call it a night? I don’t feel much like staying out.”

Merry and Max shared a look before nodding. Max shrugged dramatically and turned back into the bar. “Well I don’t think the vibe will be right here anyway, besides, we can definitely find something better.”

Aden put a hand on Merry's shoulder and led her at the back of the group.
“Please tell me you’re not currently holding a gun under there.”

The young woman put on her best look of indignation, raising her chin and turning away.
“It’s a free city.”

Aden sighed, keeping a careful eye on Jess as she again knelt down by the man, the fight upstairs having apparently come to an end as two large security types held a very clearly drunk individual to the side of the bar.
“You didn’t bring that because you’re planning on chasing Max’s vampires? Hmm?”

Merry coughed, pulling her hand from her jacked and straightening out her clothes.
“I'm still betting it's not vampires. And no? It's just good sense to be armed… with you know, young women being brutally murdered? And whatever happened to Jesse's friend… speaking of. Do you think this is…..”

She left the question unfinished but the implications were clear enough. Furrowing his brows Aden answered.
“If it is related. If. Then we're going to be good friends and keep our mouths shut. Jessica has been through enough without us sticking our noses in and speculating on Ellie's death, disappearance, or anything else with her around.”

“No shit. Unlike you I’ve never bought it up….. I’m just saying it all very….. Odd? Connected? What's the word?”

“Coincidental?” He smiled, “And yeah I agree…. But not a word about that to her, ok?”

Merii waved him off as they pushed through the loose corden of people around the wounded man.
“I’m not stupid. She's my friend too.”

As they closed the last few feet the found max knelt down next to the fallen man. A hand on his shoulder as he spoke to him, apparently trying out some of the investigation and public relation skills they were forced to learn.
“...so he just hit you out of nowhere?”

The man groaned as Jess pressed her fingertips over the back of his skull, seemingly looking for anything to indicate severe trauma. Aden of course knew she had already established his health. So it wasn't a stretch to assume her theatrics were more to explain away her assessment without admitting the magical violation of ethics. 

“Yeah. We came out here… him and his girl and me. Then out of nowhere he yells about me kissen' her or some shit….. Fucked if i know.”

“YOU FUCKING DID KISS HER!”
They all turned to face the man currently held at the bar as he thrashed against the two security looking types who hand there arms locked on his wrists.
“THE LADY SAID SHE SAW YOU! SHE SAID YOU WERE JEALOUS!”

A woman made herself known in the crowd, some feet from the thrashing mam.
“Saints sake Joal! He didn't kiss me, or touch me, or look at me! Calm down. I don't know what gotten into you….”

Looking closely at the man he almost seemed dazed. If Aden had to guess, he would say the smear of blood running from the mans mouth had come from a whatever punch had clearly knocked the light from his eyes.

Maybe it would be a good idea to call it an early night.