24Tal stares at his hands, thinking to himself. His hands are calloused, rough, and dirty. But still human. For now. What was he thinking, he was anything BUT human.
He didn't want to be like this. All he wanted was to be normal.
"But who am I kidding," he chuckled softly but sadly to himself, "that's not going to happen."
After all, his family was dead. It wasn't all his fault but he wasn't completely blameless. Either way, Tal wasn't at peace with his. . . condition.
Standing up from the doorway that he'd been sitting in, Tal pushed his wet hair out of his eyes and looked up at the clouds that were illuminated by the lights from the city. It was slightly poetic, actually. His whole life was basically clouds. Every once in a while it would stop pouring and only mist a bit. Then things would get bad and pour again.
What else could go wrong, he didn't know. Without warning, an imp slammed into him, throwing him to the ground.
With a growl that was deeper than his own voice, Tal's face and nose stretched and lengthened, the small natural hair on his cheeks growing long and fuzzy till it became fur. He became a werewolf. Not completely, just partially, as fear and anger flooded him. His hands grew long nails, canines grew until he had fangs that snapped at the unlucky imp.
With a shriek, it threw itself off of him and disappeared into the night. Werewolf Tal chased after it, his canine instincts kicking in before the human part of him could protest. Diving down the streets, Tal's partially morphed feet slipped out of the shoes he was wearing and he scrabbled at the walls with his hands as he turned a sharp corner. Without warning, a bright light overwhelmed his senses and he fell to the ground, his hands morphing back to normal as he rubbed at his pained eyes.
When he opened them again, he found only a paper lying in the corner where the imp had been huddled not a moment beforehand.
Picking it up, carefully, he smelled traces of imp on it. Very, very, carefully he opened the paper ready to run if the imp had booby-trapped it.
Instead, the parchment paper had written on it:
Are you lonely? Tired of being chased around cities?
Well come on over to the Haunted Hotel and relax. Meet other terrors of the night, enjoy our complimentary suites for the scary, and enjoy yourself.
We are waiting.
Tal stared at it again, not sure what to do.
What was an imp doing with a flyer? He hadn't seen it carrying anything but then again he hadn't seen much about the imp before he was blinded. Turning the paper around he found an address on the bottom corner. And, although he didn't want to admit it, he was tired.
But would he be going into a trap? Would he endanger others if he went?
He didn't know. Yet it was an option. One he could choose to take. Or not take.
Tal shoved the flyer into his back pocket. He would go. And if things went South, he'd go North and get out. One way or the other.