Chapter 1
Wraith of Violence (Vie)
I wasn’t a creature of the night, but I certainly enjoyed the time between sunset and sunrise. Deviant behavior wasn’t limited to times of darkness, but the lack of illumination seemed to give humans more courage to do things they knew they shouldn’t.
Take tonight, for example. I’d crossed paths with a group of young ruffians using crude language and laughing. They were a prime example of human depravity. I could smell the pain of others clinging to them. They’d hurt someone only hours ago and were looking for their next victim.
I almost licked my lips. They were my favorite kind of human to eat.
“Whatcha lookin’ at, freak?” one of them said, stepping in my path.
I’d slowed as they got closer, which must’ve drawn their attention.
If they hadn’t been looking at me, I would’ve flicked out my long tongue like a snake to taste the air.
Humans tend to give me a second look because of my seven and a half foot height, but that wasn’t so outside the realm of normal to be considered grotesque. My pale skin and white hair weren’t common either, but still within human coloring. As long as I kept my tongue hidden, there was nothing to give away my monstrous origins to the casual observer.
Unless they ended up as dinner.
I stopped and let the young men make a half circle around me with a closed store at my back. Far behind me, thumping music came from a nightclub. There were a few people coming in and out of the late-night diner across the street from us. This street was too busy for me to play with my food. Maybe I could entice these young men into taking me to a more secluded spot.
“I’m only trying to find my friends,” I said, trying to seem pathetic, despite my size.
“We’ll be your friend, you old fag!” one of the boys said, grabbing his crotch with one hand and posturing as if he was holding a gun with the other hand. “But if you try to touch me, I’ll shove a gun up your ass!”
“He’s a big motherfucker!” another one of them said. “Do you like it up the ass, fag?”
The gay slurs were probably due to this area’s gay club and reputation for prostitution. At least it had a reputation for prostitution last year before I’d eaten several brutal pimps. The prostitutes left after that, not realizing they were actually safer now.
It looked like these homophobic young men would be as tasty as those pimps. My mouth was already salivating. All I needed was a little privacy to enjoy my next meal.
“P-p-please,” I stuttered, hunching my shoulders as if scared. “Please let me go.”
“Maybe you can go, maybe not,” one of the young men said. They looked like they ranged from around twenty to twenty-five years old. They were young to stink so strongly of violence and cruelty, but that’s how it was with humans sometimes.
“What’s a big fuckin’ fag like you doing around here?” another asked. “Looking to get beat, pervert?”
I could taste their growing glee and joy as they taunted me. Several of them made threatening movements at me, trying to make me flinch. Their speed was nothing compared to a wraith. They might as well have moved in slow motion. I pretended to recoil with fear to encourage them.
I debated my next move. How did I get them into the nearby alley? It was close. All they needed to do was take a few steps, then I could feast.
My excitement got the better of me, and I felt my magic flair before I could tamp it down. One of the boys hissed and backed off.
“What the fuck is wrong with your eyes?” he asked, pulling several of the boys with him. Any build in my power could cause my eyes to glow. Damn it, you’d think I was a young wraith of only five hundred to let that happen!
“Nothing,” I said, trying hard to sound pathetic and afraid even as I tugged at the hood of my sweatshirt. “It’s the street lights. You weren’t going to hurt me, were you? I have money, you can have it.”
“Naw, guys,” one of the boys said with a shake of his head. “There’s somethin’ fuckin’ wrong with this fag. I ain’t messing with whatever the fuck it is. Fuck it, let’s go!”
His word must’ve been law because the boys flowed past me, quick to leave me behind. Upset at missing a fine meal, I moved into a nearby shadow and shifted to my fully incorporeal mist form. Floating about ten feet above the ground, I followed them.
I would’ve given up the chase if they’d gone into the diner or club, but they ignored both, except to catcall several women as they passed.
I continued to follow as the group made their way to a dark strip mall where all the stores were closed. The parking lot only had a single car and most of the overhead lights weren’t working. It was empty and dark, my favorite type of hunting ground!
Excitement almost got the better of me again. One of my feet formed into solid flesh and banged into the hood of the car before I pulled it back into my mist form.
Where was my control? I must be hungrier than I thought.
