8/3/2040.
"The corruption.."
The shadow paced around the room, hands spread.
"Forbidden tales which if mentioned make men squirm in fear.
Some believe it, and some don't, but now the truth is out, the corruption is real.
It will consume men...He will consume men" It paused, eyes focused on him.
"There is no light. For the people who seek light are cursed, for they do not know it..."
It stopped once more. "You do not know it..so you shall end up with all the rest, in the mouth of the beast, the wingman of the devil...the Jackl-
Alex! Alex!
In response to his name, Alexander Metalor snapped up.
Beads of sweat rolled down from his thick red mane down to his ebony forehead.
He panted, breathing unevenly.
His graphite eyes trailed across the room, searching for the source of the sound.
There was nothing.
Who had called him?
Suddenly the door creaked, moving a few inches, leaving a gap which his large and broad twenty one year old build could slither through.
He stared at it dumbfounded, his heart thumping a war beat.
Things were getting strange.
---
"Run"
That was the last word Hiro Holmes heard before snapping out of his nightmare.
His heart thumped loudly against his chest. Beads of sweat flowing down his forehead.
What a nightmare.
Hiro thought, sluggishly shimmering down his bed, his eyes drooping from lack of sleep.
He had stayed up for hours, knife in hand, incase whatever creature attacked came back.
He later fell asleep though, well what should've been sleep if not for his constant nightmares.
He stretched, yawning, and walked into the bathroom.
As Hiro splashed water on his face he shoved the memory of his nightmare out of his head.
He needed to focus on finding out what had happened yesterday night, what the creature was,a and what it wanted.
And he knew two places he could get information from.
Fully energized now, he quickly brushed his teeth and walked down the stairs.
He needed to figure out what to eat.
He didn't feel like cooking so that narrowed his options down to two things; leftover pizza or a day old hamburger.
He chose the latter.
Grabbing the pizza from the fridge, he shoved it in the microwave, letting it heat for a while, while whipping up some coffee.
Pizza and coffee; an odd but delightfully scrumptious combination.
Hiro carried the two to the living room setting the carton and mug on the center table.
He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.
He mentally picked between CNN, ABC, or Fox News, changing the channel to Fox.
Immediately what looked like a murder scene filled the screen.
A man lay dead on the floor, blood spilling out of somewhere in his upper back region. Police cars' lights flashed all over the place, and thier sirens blared through the screen.
Yellow tapes covered a side of the screen, men and women's panicked chatter competing against the sirens.
A reporter stood amidst the chaos, along with several police men and a little frightened boy.
The reporter yelled something into his mic, probably something relating to what happened, but Hiro wasn't listening.
His attention was on the arrow sticking out of the man's back, there was a specific symbol engraved on it that felt vaguely familiar, like a memory from another life.
He felt strangely perturbed the more he stared at it so he decided to look somewhere else, after taking a picture of course.
That's when he noticed it; pieces of skin next to the man, which was certainly not his, and what looked like a wrist and an ear.
As he paid more attention, he noticed inhuman scratches on the boy's face.
This was certainly not any normal crime scene.
Finally the reporter's voice broke through his trance.
"And the boy testifies, along with the police that it was not a man but a beast who attacked him, a picture taken by the police shows the beast running to attack..." Immediately a picture appeared at the side of the screen, and shivers ran down Hiro's spine, his heart returning to the regular war beat.
The beast was terrifying, it's fangs bared, the picture captured it in mid-run on two feet, the eyes of the beast was disturbing and he Immediately looked away.
It had a very similar appearance to the creature he fought.
He felt nauseous
The beast was what was known as the Gerenuk.
----
12/3/2040
Everyone stared as turquoise eyes met ice blue ones.
Hiro Holmes met Elizabeth Lemmings, the only woman he knew that could help him.
She, probably subconsciously, sized him up, her eyes trailing up to his face.
They both stared at each other, daring the other to say something.
Hiro stood fearlessly amidst her gang, which surrounded him like a pack of hungry wolves, waiting for their leader to give the word.
"Why are you here and what do you want?" She finally spoke, her brow raising questioningly.
"The question is "Who are you"?" He shot back, daring to size her up.
She gracefully leaped down the car she sat upon, fingering the cigarette in her hand.
"Hiro Holmes isn't it?" She stated, the question being more of a statement.
He stared for a while, before clearing his throat, crossing his arm.
"How do you know who I am?" He questioned, his eyes narrowing a bit.
"I have my ways" She shot back, gracefully strolling towards him, eradicating the distance between them.
They stood face to face, Hiro clearly inches taller than her.
Surprisingly he felt no fear standing face to face with one of the most feared women in North America, even with her pack circling him. "Now.. what do you want?" She questioned, sizing him up again.
"Now are you just trying to check me out?"
He questioned, calling attention to her actions.
She scoffed, sizing him up once more. "Go away now, or I would fucking come for you" She ordered, her pack moving closer to him, a raise of her hand stopped them in their tracks.
Hiro smirks. "That's so indecent" He says in a matter of fact tone.
She is silent for a while before surprisingly chuckling.
"Ok cut to the chase, what do you want?" She says, seriously.
"Ummm... I have a problem" He begins, ignoring her raised eyebrow.
"Can we talk somewhere more... y'know.. private" He brings up, eyeing her gang.
"What?" She questioned.
"Wait what?" She repeated,
"You come to me, complete stranger, and ask me to leave my gang that I've known for years come and talk to you, over whatever situation you're going through, how am I supposed to know you're not going to try and kill me?"
She questions once more, cocking her head to a side.
He smirks before speaking.
"First of all, I apologise, this is not a normal way people meet, and second of all I'm sure you'd probably kill me before I could even raise my hand"
She smirks at that.
"Right answer, come with me" She said, walking away.
He is about to move when a hand blocks his path.
Hiro turns around to see a large man staring daggers at him.
"Got a problem buddy?" He calmly asked, a lazy smirk plastered on his face.
"Where do you think you're going?" The man retorted.
"You deaf or something? Elizabeth just told me to follow her"
Hiro says, glancing at Elizabeth, who watched the showdown, keen on knowing who wins.
The man stared at him for a long while before mentally giving up, and Hiro grips the arm in his path shoving it to the side.
Elizabeth gave a small interested smirk and resumed walking, Hiro following close behind.
They continued walking until they got to an empty alleyway.
She made herself comfortable, leaning against the wall, while he stood trying to figure out what to begin with.
She raised her eyebrow questioningly in a 'so?' manner and he awkwardly cleared his throat and spoke.
"Some weeks ago, I spotted the silhouette of an animal near my car, from my veranda. It seemed to notice me because it hid itself. It was around midnight and I was very tired, so i thought it was just a figment of my imagination, and went back to sleep"
He paused to see her reaction to his news, she looked like she knew what was coming next.
Her eyes were distant but he knew she was listening, but there was another thing he almost didn't notice.
She was also trembling.
He decided to not say anything, and continued speaking.
"Umm so a loud growl woke me up and I saw it"
"You saw what?"
There was a slight urgency in her voice, which was weird
"I saw something like the beast, the Gerenuk but a smaller, weaker and inferior kind, so a miniature Gerenuk I guess. I've been looking for someone who could answer that, and some other questions"
"And you came to me thinking I can?"
"At least that's what I heard"
She slowly puffed out smoke, sighing and muttering something indecipherable.
She reached into her pulling what looked like mint out, unwrapping it, she plopped it into her mouth.
"So I woke this morning and checked the news, that's when I realized it looked similar to the once a dragon once a fairytale the Gerenuk"
"Oh also, there was this arrow that kept calling unto me in the man's back" he showed her the picture. "Do you by any chance know what it is?"
She stared at it for a long while before looking away in thought, like she was having a mental battle.
She sighed, probably deciding what to do.
"No I don't" She paused, staring at him with an indecipherable expression.
"But my uncle does"