He wasn't used to the city life. Nathaniel's small town growing up had been the sort of place that everyone knew everyone else and there were a lot of arguments about whether Sadie Jimpson's pecan pie was better than Patricia Ludgate's cherry pie extravaganza. He wasn't used to the cars, or the loudness, or the thrumming of music from the clubs, or the constant honking of horns, or really, as it seemed, anything at all.
Still, he wasn't averse to it. It was just...taking some time to adjust.
A lot of time.
Used to the darkened country lanes, Nathaniel was unaccustomed to walking home under the dim yellowing light of street lamps, or the sounds of people still out and about. He had spent a lot of years knowing just how safe he was when he biked back to his house, because there was no one in his old hometown that cared about someone walking home in the dark. Everyone did.
Here, it was different. He'd needed groceries, and now, here he was, walking back to his tiny little apartment, a plastic bag dangling from one hand, the other shoved into the pocket of his worn jeans. The city was still alive, vibrant with its nighttime crowd, but he was on one of the lesser traveled streets just outside the main thoroughfare.
He heard a sound; a scuffle.
Instinctively, he turned towards it, Nathaniel's curiosity getting the better of him. It was coming from down a narrow alleyway to his left. Nathaniel moved towards it cautiously, free hand curling around the brick of a crumbling building to peer around its wall, squinting down the darkened alley.
Was that - a girl?
Ghouliboo
