All That's Left to Hold, ;; Mike

[Roxy Stone]

It was probably a good thing that Roxy took her aggression out on the poor wall. She knew that if she didn't, there was a good chance she would have thrown a few punches Mike's way, and the last thing she should do is piss off a vampire. Though at this point, she wasn't even sure she cared. What was the worst he could do? Kill her? Oh well. She wasn't afraid to die. She'd already lost the one thing that they could hold against her.

So maybe that was why she had demanded that Mike take her to this Selma character. Because as crazy at this woman sounded, she didn't fear her. She probably should have feared her, but she didn't. What did she really have to lose? She could see from Mike's reaction that he didn't know about Julian being alive, so he obviously had nothing to do with Julian's disappearance, but that didn't let Selma off the hook. She wanted to talk to this woman and find out what she knew.

"I don't care...I'm not afraid of her," she glanced down at her hand, flexing her fingers just a bit. Her knuckles were a bit bloody and swollen, but she was pretty sure she'd be okay. It wasn't like it hurt or anything. She looked back up as Mike asked about the plans for getting there. Glancing at the clock, she walked over to the couch and grabbed her jacket, putting it on as she walked back over to the door and opened it. "We're taking a cab," she held it open, waiting for Mike to leave before locking it behind them and starting down through the lobby and outside into the street.

[Mike]

You should definitely not piss of Mike. Not that he was pissed off right now, but if Roxy began hitting him... well at first he might think it ok, but he'd get annoyed and want her to stop, and then he might hurt her. So it was probably for the best that she punched the wall and not Mike. His story angered her, clearly, which wasn't a surprise. She seemed to really care about Julian, and it was Mike's fault that he died. Or so he thought. Because apparently, Julian might not be dead. There was a chance he was still alive out there, somewhere. Mike was relieved to hear that, she had no idea!

So that's when he decided to help her find Julian. He seriously doubted Selma had anything to do with Julian's survival or disappearance from the hospital though. Selma did not care enough for that, and certainly not about a weak human like Julian. She hated most men, he knew that. And she'd probably only liked Mike because he took orders... until he was asked to kill his former friend. And maybe because Mike chose to not follow that order... Julian might still be alive. Selma wanted him dead, but he wasn't! Take that, he thought!

Roxy claimed to not be afraid of Selma, "You should be." He said and watched her look at her hand, before she took her jacket and said they'd take a cab to Selma's place. Mike nodded, "Okay." And then he followed her, talking while they were on the move to the street, "You know... I can fix that for you. Your hand. It's really best to have all your strength when you meet Selma, I think." So it wasn't because he really cared that much, maybe a tiny bit. It was also because... well, being injured as a human and going to see Selma? It just sounded like a bad idea. Plus, Roxy was bleeding. Selma would smell the blood, and that might be bad too.

[Roxy Stone]

Roxy was practically fearless, so it wasn't really that surprising that she wasn't afraid to go talk to this Selma lady that Mike spoke of. Sure, she knew that Selma was a big reason why Julian had gone to the hospital, but that didn't really mean much of anything for her. So what if the woman wanted to break her arms or kill her. Then she'd be dead. It wasn't like she'd have to deal with it. No...it was much harder trying to deal with the thought of Julian being dead. If he really was gone, she'd have to live the rest of her life knowing that she never got to admit her feelings to him. And that definitely wasn't something she wanted to deal with. So she'd find Julian. Wherever he was. And maybe Selma had some idea as to where that was.

Mike agreed to take her to the woman, though it wasn't like she gave him much of a choice. He was actually being somewhat nice...which was surprising. Maybe he felt guilty or something. But she wasn't going to complain, nor was she going to let her guard down to much. That's why they were talking a cab. She didn't trust him enough right now to let him take her to Selma the way he wanted to go.

She'd grabbed her coat and they made their way into the street walking a bit before they could actually hail a cab. Mike offered to heal her hand, which she had honestly already forgotten about until he brought it up again. She flexed her fingers again, inspecting the damage. Mike thought she should have all her strength when meeting Selma, so maybe she should just let him. If he was honestly that concerned about her hand, and was offering, why not? "Fine...if you think it's best, then we'll do it," she moved closer to the street, managing to hail a cab and climbing inside before Mike. She waited for him to give the driver the address, then held out her hand for him to fix, nodding and giving him the faintest hint of a smile.

[Mike]

Mike had been lucky, when it came to Selma, and he knew it. She could have done much worse to him, after he failed to kill Julian. And what would she do when she found out, that he failed completely, that Julian had managed to stay alive long enough to be brought to the hospital… and then he’d disappeared from there, apparently. Selma wouldn’t be pleased with Mike at all. Of course he could hope she’d take her anger out on Roxy, who’d be the one to tell the news, but he kind of didn’t really want that. And poor Roxy wasn’t even afraid, it seemed, which to Mike seemed a bit stupid… but of course, Roxy didn’t know Selma like Mike did. She’d not seen what Selma could do, she’d not been Selma’s tool to do things to others with, like Mike had.

They were on their way down to the street now to find a cab, and Mike didn’t really care to argue. Though on the way down the stairs he commented on her still injured hand, and even offered to heal it. Roxy had apparently more or less forgotten about it, as she now looked at it to inspect the damage. Once they were on the street she said he could do that, if he thought it best. “It’s definitely not a bad idea.” Mike told her, while she managed to hail a cab and jumped inside, Mike following her and closing the door. Told the driver where to take them and leaned back. Roxy was already ready to have her hand healed.

He took her warm mortal hand in his… Mike usually didn’t go around healing people on purpose, so he actually had to think about this. He ended with biting a few of his own fingers on his other hand, and smeared the blood onto her hand where he could see she had scrapes and small wounds. It seemed to work fine, the blood did its thing and soon her hand was healed. Mike smiled and let go, leaned back and stayed quiet while the cab took them to Selma’s house. It didn’t really look like a vampire house, but it did look a bit old-fashioned with the veranda and everything. Out on the sidewalk Mike waited for Roxy, and then headed up to the house to knock on the door. It did not take long before he heard Selma come to the door, on her bare feet, he imagined, she hardly ever wore shoes at home.

Selma wore a simple yellow dress tonight, nothing special, she hadn’t expected visitors. And she wasn’t smiling when she opened the door and saw Mike’s face looking at her. “Came crawling back, did you?” She asked and noticed Roxy, “With a meal and everything? I’m sorry, that kind of thing won’t work, I thought you’d know?” Selma said, leaning herself against the doorframe, not inviting any of them in just yet. The mortal woman seemed very upset, Selma thought. In fact, she could sense it, “What’s on your mind?” She asked the mortal, just to find out what she should do with this one. Mike remained quiet.

[Roxy Stone]

Roxy could have cared less about her hand at the moment. She did a lot more damage to herself in one night on stage than she just did to her hand. A few bleeding and swollen knuckles definitely were the least of her problems. But Mike thought that it would be best if they were healed before she went to meet Selma. That should have been another warning sign to what she was about to throw herself into, but again, she didn't really care.

She held out her hand to Mike once they got into the cab, figuring she should just let him do it since he wanted to. And she watched as he seemed to inspect it for a moment before biting his fingers and smearing blood over her knuckles. Once he was finished she took her hand back, flexing it for a third time and nodding in approval. "Thanks," she said softly before turning to look out the window until they finally came to a stop.

She hadn't been paying a lot of attention to where they had gone to, most of her thoughts were on Julian and where he could be. It wasn't until Mike got out of the car that she realized they had arrived. She quickly paid the driver and got out, following Mike up to front door and bracing herself when he knocked. She shot him a brief glance before the woman opened the door, taking a deep breath and trying to ignore the sudden nerves surfacing.

Once the door opened, Roxy's attention shot back to the woman standing in the doorway, taking everything about her in. Selma didn't look anything like she expected her to look. She wasn't very intimidating wearing that bright yellow dress. Then she spoke. Asking Mike if he'd come crawling back. Then she seemed to notice her...calling her a meal and telling Mike that it wouldn't work. She opened her mouth to protest, but was was cut off by the Selma asking her what was on her mind.

"First...I'm not a meal. Second, I told Mike to bring me here so that I could talk to you. And third...my name is Roxy...and I wanted to talk to you about my friend, Julian? You know...the one that you wanted Mike to kill."

[Selma]

Mike wasn’t sure what to say to Selma… and it wasn’t like she gave him much of a chance to speak at all anyway. He had Roxy with him, as promised to Roxy. Mike hadn’t planned on going to see Selma anytime soon; in fact he had hoped to not see her again in any near future, after what happened last time they met. First Selma mocked him for coming back, and then she noticed Roxy behind him. It was true; she probably didn’t look intimidating at all. Selma wasn’t very tall, and her feet were bare. Her long dark hair hung straight and lose around her shoulders, and her skin was as pale as her eyes were dark. That was probably the most intimidating thing about her, but the dress she wore tonight probably changed it all. Selma liked simple clothing, one-color usually.

She did not let Mike speak, for once she was done talking to him, and she spoke to the blood bag he had brought with him. A very pretty mortal female, but just by looking at her, Selma judged she had a temper. Probably helped by the frustration she could sense in the woman. The mortal woman then spoke, rather fiercely Selma thought. So she guessed right about her. The mortal said she was not a meal, and that she was here to talk to Selma. Her name was Roxy. What kind of a name was that? Then she mentioned Julian that Selma had wanted Mike to kill. Selma first arched a brow, Julian? Oh, the pathetic human Mike didn’t kill, making Mike just as pathetic, really. What did Roxy want to talk about then… she cared about that Julian, probably. Why? He wasn’t interesting in any way at all. He was even less interesting than Mike, and he wasn’t all that interesting either, Selma thought.

“Well…” Selma looked at Roxy while she let out a small sigh, “I guess you better come inside then, so that we can talk.” She then added, and Mike made a move to step inside, but Selma placed a hand on his chest, stopping him, “Not you… this is girl talk. And though I could easily make you count for one, you don’t at the moment. You’ll wait out here. Besides, I wouldn’t want a coward like you in my house.” Selma gave him a light push, though hard enough to make him stumble back a little, and then she stepped aside to let Roxy in. This should be interesting. By looking at Mike, she could tell he wasn’t too fond of it, but what choice did he have? He knew that standing up to Selma might get him killed – and Selma knew that Mike didn’t want to die. She smirked and waited for Roxy to get in, and then she’d close the door behind the mortal. Giving Mike a wink with her eye before the door would be entirely closed… just to tease him. It was so amusing to tease insecure people. Now she’d look at Roxy again, “So… talk?”

[Roxy Stone]

The way Selma spoke to Mike, talking down to him like he was nothing but a pile of dirty...it was a pretty good preview of how the woman could be. Even though she wasn't a vampire, she could practically feel the woman's dislike towards the male. She actually kind of hated it. Mike had been nice enough to tell her what happened and bring her here and even heal her hand and then she had to see him being treated like shit? It almost made her want to defend him. Almost. But for now she needed to pick her battles wisely. She explained to Selma who she was and what she was doing there, half expecting the woman's tone to be as harsh with her as it was with Mike.

Needless to say, Roxy was actually a bit surprised when the woman invited her in, though she also didn't expect her to disallow Mike from joining them. After Mike's warnings, it really should have made her feel uncomfortable to go into Selma's alone, but once again, she had nothing to lose. And maybe the woman would give her answers without Mike there to distract her. She briefly glanced at Mike for some sort of reassurance before stepping inside, taking a moment to look around while Selma closed the door.

Turning her attention back to the woman when addressed, she drew in a deep breath, letting it out before she spoke. "Okay...so Julian...he's a friend of mine. From what Mike has told me, you guys attacked him because he knew someone. And you wanted Mike to kill Julian...but he didn't. Well...someone found him and took him to the hospital. And while his prognosis was grim, he went missing from the hospital. Did you have something to do with it?"

[Selma]

Well to Selma at the moment, Mike was indeed nothing but a pathetic coward. The only reason she'd want him in her house now, was to mock him more, maybe torture him. And Mike didn't want that, now did he? He had tortured others with Selma, so he knew her methods. He knew what she could do. Selma knew he wasn't stupid enough to risk that. So she let him stay outside, and asked Roxy to come inside and have a girl talk, as they'd call it nowadays. Mike didn't like it. In fact, it made him very nervous, and Selma knew that he had not moved further away once she closed the door.

Inside, Roxy would be facing the simply decorated main hall of Selma's house. It was really just one big living room with a door directly opposite the front door, which lead to the garden. There were closed doors to the left and to the right, rooms for different purposes. The floor was covered by a crimson carpet with a black rose pattern, the walls were white and in a corner of the room stood Selma's big red armchair. The light she flicked on came from lamps in the corners of the large room, making it seem to glow just slightly. Selma did not pay much attention to it though, she lived here after all. She asked Roxy to talk, as she had wanted to.

Roxy inhaled a deep breath. She was a bit nervous, but not a lot, Selma thought to herself. Hadn't Mike told her about Selma? Then maybe he wasn't that smart anyway. Roxy talked about her friend Julian, and said what Mike had told happened. Then she said he didn't die, the Julian, but was brought to the hospital... from where he had now gone missing. Selma arched a brow with a smirk on her face. "And what if I did have something to do with it?" She asked. Selma had nothing to do with it at all, but Roxy didn't need to know that just yet. She seemed interesting, this mortal. Selma should enjoy playing with her and see some reactions. For now she turned and walked over towards her big red chair to sit down, and with her hand she signalled that Roxy could follow; there'd be no chair for her though. Selma sat down, crossing her legs, looking up at Roxy, "What would you do, if I did it?"

[Roxy Stone]

Roxy was trying really hard to keep her cool right now, and she thought she was doing a damn good job at it. She hated this woman for what she knew she did to Julian, yet she was talking to her about it so calmly. Maybe that was just the best route to take? Just talk about things and maybe Selma would give her answers? She wasn't asking much of the woman, just some information. She wanted to know where Julian was and since Selma and Mike had already played such an key role in all of this, and Mike didn't know anything, she thought Selma might. Someone had to have taken Julian from the hospital, and it almost had to be a vampire for the sheer fact that a human would struggle too much carrying his skinny ass out of there unnoticed.

When Selma asked, she explained the situation a bit, then asked if Selma did in fact have something to do with it. Though rather than just answer her question, the woman taunted her, then moved into the living room, beckoning at her to follow. See, now this was where things wouldn't be so pretty. Roxy was already upset and struggling to be calm, and Selma taunting her really wasn't making it any better. She balled her fists up and took a deep breath, trying to remind herself to calm down before following the woman, stopping a few feet away from the red chair.

She was so tense as she stood there, looking down at the woman, but she couldn't seem to get herself to relax. Especially when Selma asked what she would do if she did play a part in Julian being missing. Sucking in her bottom lip, she drew in a sharp breath through her nose, letting it out through her mouth before she spoke. "Did you do it?" She took a step closer to the chair, raising an eyebrow. "Because I'm not here to play games. I'm here to find my best friend. So either you know where he is, or you don't. It's really not that complicated of a question. And if you did do it? I guess you'd just have to see what I'd do about it."

[Selma]

Selma really enjoyed sensing what she made Roxy feel. The mortal was already upset and frustrated, but trying hard to stay calm. It wouldn't be easy though, for Selma would push her buttons, and she could push hard if she wanted to. It was a pity for Roxy, that she knew so little about Selma. For Selma did not care about Julian; she never did. Sure she had thought it useful to find out where her pet had gone, but that wasn't really the main reason why she made him suffer. She made him suffer because she could. Because he was a pathetic little weak human being, and Selma had enjoyed his suffering. She had laughed at it, she had thought it amusing. That's why she did it. She could hardly care less if he was alive or not, that wasn't the point. Sure she had wanted Mike to kill Julian; but more because she knew Mike would be pained by it. She'd caused them both damage. And she had liked it.

Apparently Julian was not dead though, and he had disappeared from the hospital. Selma didn't care. Roxy did. And Roxy thought that Selma might have something to do with it... how amusing! That Roxy thought Selma would care that much about a human that she'd beat up... or at least a human male. She cared a little about Halla, to be honest. More than a little, maybe. But that was Halla! That wasn't... Julian. Halla was special. Still, since she did not care about Julian, she could still get something out of this. Pain and reactions were always fun to cause, and she should tell Mike that she was thankful he brought Roxy here, just to mock him. Later maybe, when she was done. For now, she taunted Roxy, secretively asking what Roxy would do if Selma really had something to do with Julian's disappearance.

She'd gone to sit in her chair now, Roxy followed and stood before it. Roxy was very tense. Should Selma offer her a massage? With her fangs? Inwardly she had a wide smile on. Roxy asked again if Selma did it, stepped closer to the chair and said she wasn't here to play games. Selma listened quietly to Roxy's little speech. And ignored her question. "Ah, friends... it must be wonderful to have friends like that." Selma said, "Pathetic male friends, that will end up hurting you, one way or the other. Did you cry, when you heard what had happened to your Julian? You care... and because you care, you felt hurt too when you heard that?" Selma said, it would make perfect sense, a lot of mortals reacted like that. They just didn't think about it. "Think... to want to care, just to be hurt. Does the feeling of care really make up for the pain?" She looked at Roxy curiously, "Because you see, I'm not sure if it does. Did you ever tell him how much you cared?"