Nevertheless, there she was at 2:00 AM, mind reeling as she relived that night in the alley. The fight with the pink haired man. The glamazon that intervened. The hole in her head...The flames at her feet...Having her energy drained. Whatever that really meant. Anger bubbled up beneath the surface of her thoughts and she remembered the look in his eyes. The darkness in them that told her that her life was in danger. The chill that ran down her spine as they locked eyes.
Snap!
The woman froze in place, palming the knife she'd been hiding up her jacket sleeve. Her aunt always said nothing good happened after midnight.
The sound had come from the tree line to her right and she turned, examining the area with discerning eyes, struggling to see to very far into the shadows they cast. The bush in front of her rustled and she let out a deep breath she hadn't know she was holding as a raccoon toddled out of the bush, mouth stuffed with what looked like...marshmallows? Where did he even get them. Cute little thing.
"Hey little guy," she whispered in a gentle voice. "I'm sorry to interrupt your late night stroll. Carry on, good sir."
The raccoon stared up at her, mouth working ceaselessly on the mallows that overflowed from it before it paused, nose twitching. Then, with the rustle of leaves, it was gone the way it had come, scurrying away as fast as its little feet would take it.
"Fair enough," she said with a shrug as she began to turn and continue her walk, but something made her pause. The feel of hot breath on the back of her neck made her heart drop into her stomach. Her fingers tightened around the handle of the blade and she whipped around to face her stalker, weapon drawn, but where she expected a person to be standing, stood a...thing.
Its body heaved with the effort to breath as it loomed over her, a form made out of shadows twisting and coiling in the moonlight like smoke trapped in the rough shape of a person. It took a lumbering step forward, foot dragging across the ground agonizingly slowly. Almost tauntingly. Almost like it knew she was afraid.
Addy stepped back, knife raised, heart pounding in her ears. At worst, she expected to run into that man again, but whatever this was, she never could have anticipated. For a brief moment, she wondered if this was what happened to her aunt. The thought made tears threaten to well in her eyes, but she steeled herself. Now was no time for grief.
It cracked a grin, showing some sort of self-awareness as it bared blackened teeth that came to points like a shark's. A viscous looking liquid dripped from them onto the ground below with a thick, sickening splash. Was it...drooling?
"Stay back," she warned, trying to sound confident.
The creature proved to be a bad listening as it look another lumbering step forward, slow and steady and wholly unafraid of her weapon.
"I SAID STAY BACK!" she shouted at the thing, lashing out with her blade. It connected with the creature's arm, but it seemed unfazed. Her blood pounded in her ears.
"Christ on a ******** cracker, what in God's name ARE you?"
Amasis
Sorry this took, -checks notes-, nearly 20 days for me to write. What is time?
