free_form2 The Truth Will Out - And Just Did
Boots and chicken bones... The former were Katherine's. The latter belonged to the small gathering of corpses presently decorating the seats around her. With the flavour of battered fowl doing little for her, the vampiress had let the bucket's contents stay on her victims' table. They were just statistics now. A few more college students who had met their collective end while on vacation. Right now, she was using one of those bones, cleaned of flesh and sharpened with the assistance of a knife, to leisurely clean between fangs.

Now bored, the lethargic brunette reached over for the remote control, not caring too much for what was currently flickering across the television screen. Mentally, she was bored. Physically, she could hardly be bothered to shift another inch. Film, film, cartoon, film... Bleargh. Disinterest clouded her vision until reaching the news. Katherine might be a hedonistic creature, but was also a pragmatic survivalist. More than that, she had a mercenary streak - quite literally and it paid to keep topical, every now and then. The geopolitical landscape could change in an instant. There was never any telling when a war or some natural disaster might bring opportunity her way.

Something about the commentator's turn of phrase caught her attention. A few key words, maybe. Sliding that toothpick of bone lengthwise down the nearest fang, Katherine tilted head, starting to put together a picture of what was being referred to. By the time the camera footage of caged monsters was seen, a quiet little grin was making its familiar journey across her face and the murderess uncrossed feet from the table, leaning forward. Catching sight of recent newspaper under a pile of magazines, the brunette fished it out, noticing an obvious similarity.

She had heard about this... The government getting involved in things again. Not the first time, by any means. Katherine had known her fair share of interest from the FBI, NSA and a whole alphabet soup of other agencies, both foreign and domestic. She, of course, had too much experience in covering tracks from the conventional brand of law enforcement to be contacted easily. Not that the ultimatum mattered to her. This, though - this mattered. Mattered, because the government's hand was now being forced into the public domain.

Documents had been procured. Footage had been analysed. Questions were being asked. Unless something else major happened to drown it out, this was one sensation which might yet prove to have legs.

"Well, y'know what they say," she spoke to herself, exchanging bone for a small bottle of beer and toasting it to the air. "Gun control means never having to say, 'I missed you.' Guess it's time to indulge in a little 'us versus them'."

Katherine tended to see herself as above any law - including thermodynamics. Some said her favourite childhood toy was electrified barbed wire tied to a grizzly bear. Others, that she never made threats; only predicted future occurrences of extreme violence. A few might even claim she once crocheted a working firearm. Mind you, there was always room to disagree with her, even if that room was called 'the morgue'.

If someone was declaring open season on her, then she was going to give them every opportunity to oblige. And if the US was doing it, she was sure a lot of other countries would be, too.

Hello war, my old friend.