Untitled Stryx AU: 1

Something was up. Jade had been avoiding almost every social interaction possible, and had barely been seen for the entire party. Bleu could only last recall seeing her shortly after they had arrived. It was almost as if she was glued to Orca’s side, like she would vanish if she wasn’t there for more than three seconds. Now that Bleu thought about it, Orca hadn’t really been acting herself either, not even since they left for the party. Where had they gone? Bleu was too curious and concerned to focus on much of anything else, finally deciding to ask around and see if anyone else had spotted the two recently.

The first ones she asked were Acer and Smokey, in which Acer was intoxicated after having quite a few drinks. Smokey seemed like the sensible one of the group they were talking to, because he was the only one sober. “Hey guys, got a minute?” Bleu tapped Smokey’s shoulder, who shook Acer violently to get her to stop laughing at the dumb joke she told. “W-What?” Acer stuttered. “Come on, Bleu wants to talk to us.” Smokey said, pulling her away from the group and over to where Bleu had moved to. “What do you want?” Acer asked, annoyed at being away from the fun. “Have either of you seen Jade or Orca recently? They’ve been gone for quite a while, I haven’t seen them since we got here.” Bleu could tell that the concern in her voice was obvious, seeing Smokey furrow his eyebrows, possibly in confusion. “Why do you care? Just have fun! They’ve probably gone off to have some fun, like the rest of us are trying to have.” Acer says, clearly ticked off. “No, we haven’t seen them. Maybe someone else has? We’ve been over by the bar all night, pretty far from any exits they could’ve left through.” Smokey said, lightly smacking Acer on the top of the head, earning a light hiss from the Gryph. “Alright, thanks anyway.” Bleu waved to Smokey and Acer as she walked away, who headed back to their group of drunk friends.

Bleu searched the crowd for more familiar faces, finally settling on a rather blue one. Blue Jeans was looking around restlessly, perhaps looking for someone? “What’s up? Expecting someone else?” Bleu asked him, making the Harpia jump. He fumbled with the phone in his hands before answering her. “Y-yeah, well, not exactly, actually. Hershey left a little bit ago to grab some drinks for us, but that was about 10 minutes ago.” Blue Jeans said, looking behind Bleu at the bar room, hoping to spot his loved one. Bleu only grew more confused than before. Why was Hershey missing, too? Had they planned an activity and not told anyone where they were going? “Was Hershey acting weird, by any chance? Before she left?” Bleu asked after a moment of contemplation. Blue Jeans nodded, opening his mouth to speak. Before he could utter a word, the lights began to flicker. Bleu looked up, only to be met with darkness, as the lights went completely out. Screams rang out throughout the building, caused by the sudden power outage. Many small lights came on within the crowd, most likely coming from others turning on their phone’s flashlight. Blue Jeans did the same, looking over at Bleu with fear in his eyes. A loud thud echoed throughout the building, making the whole ground shake.

“What’s going on, are you guys alright?” Smokey had dragged Acer over to the two, and was holding onto her arm to prevent her from escaping. “Yeah, we’re fine. I’m more worried about the others, we don’t know where they are, and apparently Jade and Orca aren’t the only ones missing.” Bleu said all at once. “Shit. Well, I’m going to take Acer out to the car, maybe she’ll keep still in there. I’ll be back to help you find them soon.” With that, Smokey dragged Acer away, out the front door. Bleu grabbed Blue Jeans’ arm, leading him to the back of the building and out the door. “We’ve got to find them, who knows who else may be missing. I just want to make sure they’re safe, and not pulling some elaborate prank on everyone.” Bleu shouted over the cold winds outside. It had just stopped snowing, but the wind had not calmed down. She stepped off of the landing, into the cold snow. It crept in through the opening in the top of her shoes, where her leg wasn’t flush with the material. Bleu disregarded it though, having bigger concerns at the moment. She felt Blue Jeans shiver next to her, having left his jacket inside on the coat rack. They trudged along, out into the parking lot of the store next to them. The lights inside were off. Bleu looked around, suddenly noticing that all the lights in buildings around them were off as well, making the night even darker than it seemed. “There must’ve been a power outage from the storm.” Bleu said, barely heard over the wind. “Look! The lines are down, a tree fell on them!” Blue Jeans pointed off into the distance, where Bleu could hardly see due to the darkness, but managed to spot the downed power lines, where a large tree had indeed fallen on them. The wind had to have knocked it down, nothing else could pull a tree of that size over so easily. Looking closer, Bleu could see faint shadows moving around the tree. Maybe they were just construction workers, trying to move the tree to start repairs? But there were no cars around, how would they have gotten there by walking? “Let’s go check it out!” Bleu shouted again, grabbing Blue Jeans by the wrist and leading him across the huge parking lot to the other side of the road.

The woods were dark, causing fear to well in Bleu’s chest. She couldn’t see anyone nearby anymore, but something felt off. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her gut. Blue Jeans must’ve felt it too, because he moved closer to her. Although, she didn’t know whether it was due to seeking heat, or comfort from the fear. Bleu let go of his wrist, walking around to the back of the fallen tree. The trunk looked burnt where it had snapped. Bleu reached out to touch it. The scorch marks were still warm. Suddenly, a loud crack came from the forest. Bleu whipped her head around to find the cause of the noise. A branch fell from a tree. Looking up, Bleu spotted something moving very quickly out of sight, taking shelter in the darkness of the tree’s branches. Bleu’s stomach dropped. Someone was watching them, maybe more than one. Blue Jeans approached Bleu, shivering much more severely. “Come on let’s head back. You’ll get frostbite, or at least a bad cold being out here.” Bleu turned away from the tree, and took a few steps forward. A sharp pain struck her shoulder. She winced, freezing in her tracks. Reaching behind her back, she plucked a small, fluid-filled dart from her back. Suddenly, her face went cold, and she started having tunnel vision. She stumbled around for a moment, out into the road. Something very bright was rapidly approaching from her left. The sound of screeching tires filled her ears, before she was knocked off her feet in a whirl of sensory overload and pain. She flew through the air, finally landing painfully in the snow, blood staining it a dark crimson. She could barely hear when multiple others approached her. “Bleu! Bleu! Come on, respond, dammit!” Blue Jeans gripped her face in both of his hands, trying to look her in the eyes. At this point, Bleu had totally blacked out.

Shit, shit! What do I do?! Blue Jeans gently lifted Bleu in his arms, being careful not to touch anything broken or damaged. He turned to the car that had stopped after hitting her, only to see a dark figure opening the driver’s side door. Blue Jeans began to yell, cursing out whoever had hit Bleu. The being didn’t move. A second being got out of the passenger side, beginning to approach Blue Jeans. “H-Hey! Stay the hell away!” Blue Jeans yelled, before he was silenced by a needle-sharp pain in his side. Turning around, Blue Jeans saw up close what had been hiding in the trees. “Hershey?” Blue Jeans only had enough energy to speak her name, before he felt woozy and tired. He lost all senses, only feeling someone lift Bleu from his arms, and then, drag him away. With the last bit of his strength, he heard a voice speak. “Great job Hershey, we’ve got two of them. Now to find some of the others.” The voice was oddly familiar.