Aftermath (open)

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In all the years that Lydia had been up to what she had been up to, she had never even come close to being caught. This was no exception. She sat alone at a corner table in a diner in a small New Jersey town a couple hundred miles west of Trenton. Lydia liked to cause trouble in the bigger cities and then hang out for a few days at one of the nearby Mayberry-esque towns to watch the headlines. These places never had enough local news of their own so they were usually reporting on the more major cities around them as well.

She sipped quietly from the coffee cup in her hand as she calmly looked through the newspaper. She wore a golden-blonde wig that looked surprisingly pretty against her light caramel skin tone. Just because she was a few towns away didn't mean she wanted to take any chances on being recognized. She was sure she wasn't the first person to pass through from Trenton.

A sinister smile caught her lips as she finally saw it. The headline read:

Man Slaughters Family, Three Officers

Lydia's eyes moved easily back and forth as she quickly read the article. Apparently her 'date' two nights ago had decided he was tired of his wife's nagging and the incessant whining of his twelve-year-old daughter. It seemed a neighbor watched from a window while he broke the wife's neck and drowned the child in the pool and called 911. Unfortunately for them, for the police who responded to the call ended up with similar fates. Apparently Lydia's creation was still at large.

With a satisfied sigh, Lydia folded the newspaper and set it aside just as the waitress came and set her breakfast down in front of her. The witch flashed her a toothy grin and said her thanks, complimenting her on how delicious the pecan waffle and scrambled eggs looked. It wasn't a lie, really.. it did look pretty damn appetizing but she was more saying it for the benefit of seeming like a pleasant customer than anything. The waitress smiled her thanks and left Lydia alone to eat.

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[indent]A few tables over there was a weary hunter hunching over facing a notebook opened on the table with a pen on his hand, the coffee that he had ordered had gone cold. He was wearing a white shirt, black blazer and trousers, and had a messy hair. At the moment he was quite busy adding some extra notes to his journal, which was more like a scrapbook of facts, scketchs and ideas. He almost never took the time to add things on the road, so at times like this when his mind was calm and focused.[/indent]

He could take the chance to catch up on some of the facts that had been neglected from inclusion of his latest jobs. He usually found a place to stop and kept writting until he was done. He could always read back and remind himself of useful data, that was something that he did often as well. He was in the middle of amending the ghost notes. When a chubby, cheerful red headed waitress stood by his table dangling in front of his face a plate with a piece of pie on it.

"Sad news today, isn't it?"

He turned his head around with a puzzled look on his face, not often he found himself interrupted so suddenly when he was doing his thing. He eyed the blueberry pie on the plate and answered.

"What news?"

Certainly most of the times extraverted people began the convesation in a much more casual and natural way. He looked at the woman feeling amused and confused at the same time. Her face seemed jolly and upbeat and her tag label read "Sandy".

"You haven't read today's papers, or seen the news cast?" -She said with a curious look on her face, then she added waving her hand as she spoke.- "It is a total shame, some sour soul went ahead and killed his family and everyone in his way. Sad, sad, sad" -She said shaking her head at the last bit.

He raised his eyebrows at the 'kill' part of her statement. It wasn't abnormal for people to talk and gossip around about tragedies, that was a part of small towns that made relatively easy for hunters to gather intel from the locals. But he honestly felt he was being caught off guard. His car was parked outside because he was tired, and when he saw the place while he was driving by, he had to stop to rest. He really didn't came for a job, he was just passing through, he was just hanging around taking care of things and trying to figure out his next move.

"Well that's sad to hear."- he said turning his eyes back to the scrambled words on the page.

"I know, right?" -she answered almost too quickly for his taste. "People in these cities are going completely bonkers lately. That's why I love it here, just peace and quiet, don't cha think?"

"Sure" - he answered

"You haven't touch your coffee, hon" -She said frowning scantily. "Here you go, on my account" - She said with an enlivening voice, placing the plate at the table almost between him and the book, she winked at him and before he could say anything, left his table whistling happily on her way toward the counter.

For a minute he looked at it hesitantly, but then he used the spoon and took a bite, it was good and the lady had said it was on her behalf. The pleasure of pie to go with his cold coffee had broken a good state of focus, but somewhat he felt it was worth it. Before he was good and ready to go he wanted to make a quick stop by the bathroom, as he walked his eyes wandered as he caught a glimpse of a fold newspaper:

"Man slaugh..."

He turned his head distracted and bumped into a man who was walking out, his journal fell to the floor under the table.