Hurriedly a lone figure rushed down one of the many back streets of Chicago, panting heavily as they dashed down another alleyway and turned another corner. "I'm going to be fucking late," the young man grumbled under his breath, his heart pounding to the same rhythm as his sneakers smacking against the pavement. Another back street, another set of alleys, and in the distance the sound of sirens blared through the twilit air. Skidding to a stop, the runner halted himself as he realized the sirens were growing closer, and jumped back at the sight of a car speeding down the alley he was about to turn onto.
"Maniac!" the runner screamed in frustration as the vehicle whipped by, narrowly avoiding everything in the alley before it swerved out onto a road. Further angered by the delay, the lone figure chose to wait a few more moments and let the lagging police cars whiz by in the same fashion the law breaker had before resuming his journey. Even with all that time to stop and think, the poor man hadn't noticed the shadow lurking just behind him.
Another back street, another set of dumpsters and stagnant puddles to avoid, and it all brought the runner closer to his goal. He'd never needed to take this many short cuts before; only today had the metro been delayed and it was his last chance to prove he could be on time for work. If there was such a thing as luck, his had run out just today and sadly the lurking shadows knew this would cost him dearly.
Up ahead a set of trash cans crashed out into the middle of the alleyway, forcefully knocked over by some unseen force. The runner was having none of it, ready to jump over the cylinders and even kick whatever raccoon had knocked the damn things over. As he neared the trash cans though, it was no raccoon that showed it's face.
Lurching out from directly behind the trash cans, a massive wall of shadow surged out onto the pavement and swelled to blockade the entire alley. Huge black talons dug into the asphalt as bristled hairs scrapped the buildings on either side of the titanic beast that has suddenly taken form. It's jaws practically ripped open as a primal roar escaped it, a soulless void peering out into the world from within the creature's maw. It's eyes burned like dying stars, whiter than the ghostly face of the runner that stood before it. Slowly it began to rear up, massive paws oozing shadow as the creature swelled to an even greater size.
Unable to scream, the lone man turned on his heels and bolted, urine running down his pant leg as he nearly leaped with each starting step. Fear engulfed him, fueling his escape as he sprinted back the way he came. Running as fast as he was, the poor guy had no time to react when from around the corner a pole flew out to clothesline him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Dumbass," Paxton snickered, standing over his now unconscious victim. He was a young man, maybe 20 years old or so, and had clearly been in very good shape to hit the ground as hard as he had. We was wearing some shitty one piece uniform that bore the colours of the gas station a few blocks from here, and he had a bag with him- score.
Paxton grunted unhappily, rolling his shoulder where he'd felt his muscle give when he'd been holding out his staff to intercept his target. The kid had quite the set of legs on him, and it had gotten his head a one way ticket onto the pavement where a slow trickle of blood had begun to run off into a nearby, garbage filled puddle. Bleeding out like that, he'd be dead soon. Kneeling down to better examine his work, Paxton began to rummage through the runner's bag and pockets, instantly stowing anything he found to be valuable in one of his many coat pockets. A wallet, keys to an apartment, some cheap cell phone, some cash, and a pen. Everything else Paxton saw as trash- the school work he'd dug out being stuffed back into the bag before the bag itself was hurled into a nearby dumpster.
From down the alley, a loud screech sounded and Paxton looked up from the body beneath him to see a rapidly shrinking shadow approaching. In a puff of ash, the shadow congealed into the familiar form of a grey parrot which was quickly flapping over to where Paxton was crouched down. The bird landed on his shoulder in a practiced motion, squawking noisily as it's feathers ruffled up.
"Yes, you did well!" Paxton shouted angrily, lifting his hands to cover his ears in response to the bird's shriek.
"Well?" the bird mimicked, cocking it's head expectantly.
"You can eat one of his fingers once we're home. I don't have any treats for you right now," Paxton spat bitterly, his mood still sour due to the pain in his shoulder and now ears.
"Home!" the bird mimicked once more, spreading it's wings and taking off down the alleyway. The beating of it's wings quickly grew distant, and Paxton sighed as the ambiance of the city filled the slowly darkening air. Even if it wasn't the first time he'd moved a body, Paxton knew it was hard to be inconspicuous even with glamours. Putting his staff down, Paxton sighed as he began to mutter a few words in a language foreign to anyone born of this world. The syllables snapped out of his mouth and fizzled as they contacted the air, and as Paxton's chanting quickened he placed a hand on the body laying before him. A slight shimmer worked it's way through the air and around the quickly cooling corpse, and Paxton grinned. It was a simple glamour- nobody wanted to see a body, so they'd see whatever they thought made sense. So long as he didn't get any second glances, nobody would notice or care as Paxton lugged his freshly made corpse back to his apartment.
