Although Fen wouldn't exactly call himself a expert on the concept of window jumping, he'd thought he'd steeled himself quite admirably, considering the situation.
He was wrong.
The main problem was the pain. Fen had expected it, but hadn't exactly thought it would happen so early - he knew the ground that already seemed to be rushing prematurely towards him would cause quite a lot of it, but had failed to realise that glass wasn't exactly pleasant to smash through.
Despite the broken, jagged spikes tearing into his skin, Fen did not want to die. Sure, he didn't particually have much to live for, but people who needed a reason to live had never really made sense to Fen - surely life itself is such a reason? Therefore, gasping for air, Fen slid midair onto to his side and hoped.
'Landing on your side is optimal right?'
A sinking feeling beginning to appear in his stomach, Fen knew he was certainly about to find out.
It was worse than he expected.
His ribs cracked under the impact, and his nose almost certainly broken after being brutally slammed into a tree stump, Fen wasn't exactly in a rush to get up.
Nevertheless, he did, gasping for air and grabbing onto the nearest support he could find - a railing. His vision still almost completely blurred, Fen couldn't make up much in his daze. From what he could tell though, he had been very lucky, falling into a bush within a rather swampy garden - for once the Southern Quadrent's weather didn't seem completely horrible.
It also seemed his gamble had paid of - despite his rather dramatic exit, Fen had not been dillusioned enough to believe he could outrun the shadowy wraith any longer than he already had, broken ribs or not. Instead, he had hoped to gamble on his rather flawed idea that the man would be constrained by the limitation of domains, specifically rift creatures domains.
It was pretty much unanimously known in the Southern Quadrent that supernatural creatures came through something called rifts - believed to be tears in reality by most people, Fen included. However not as many knew that said creatures were occasionally limited in their movement - being granted immense power within their place of dwelling, however constraining them to it - creatures who dwelled in domains, or who had ascended along a path were also the only beings - other than very powerful humans - able to use any kind of ability's. Whatever the man had used to keep up with Fen had certainly seemed like such an ability, so he had decided that there was a very good chance the creature would not be able to follow him out of block twelve - or he would be dead anyway, so what was there to lose?
Despite what seemed to be a successful escape, Fen still didn't exactly want to stick around. Grimacing, he pulled himself along the railing and down a set of stairs, before setting himself down on a half-broken slightly chipped wall, glancing over himself and his surroundings.
The first thing Fen realised, was that he was a complete mess. His nose bleeding, ribs aching and a layer of mud covering his body, he really needed to see a doctor.
And perhaps a shower.
This was going to prove difficult - the shower was obtainable, he could certainly find somewhere with running water that he could break into, but a doctor? He wasn't sure if there were any left in the Southern Quadrent by now, after all pretty much anyone with such a valued profession would have had the opportunity to move to a habitable zone.
Glancing up at the monolith that was block twelve, Fen chuckled. He really had been lucky, such a fall would be risky even for humans with opened cores. Then again, such a human might of simply been able to stand and fight.
Fen doubted it though.
Letting out a slight moan of pain, Fen began to move further away from block twelve - his first priority was to find somewhere to sleep - Fen had been asleep longer than he earlier thought, and the sun was beginning to set. Even in peak condition, Fen was a bit too wary to stick around the Southern Quadrent alone past sunset.
The pain was excruciating. Every step he felt like he would simply fall down and die, but he kept moving. Somehow. Eventually, the pain begin to disappear. Even his terrible hunger and thirst began to fade away. This wasn't a good sign.
Breathing heavily, Fen slumped himself down against a wall in a fairy well lit area - a somewhat surprising sight to see in the Southern Quadrent. Groaning, he forced himself awake, knowing that if he lost consciousness out in the open like this, he most likely wouldn't ever wake to regret it.
The soft embrace of slumber didn't stay an option for long.
It was replaced by a much more primal, a much fiercer embrace of terror.
Fen didn't even have to force his battered body to swivel around to face him. He knew he was there.
Fen still turned.
The man was standing there. Devoid of everything and anything. A beacon of darkness, of everything wrong with the world.
It was all for nothing.
The street suddenly seemed a lot darker.
A woman briskly strolled past, her expensive heels clicking against the cold concrete. She didn't even seem to see Fen, nor the man.
He was alone.
Like usual.
The man drifted closer. Fen didn't even try to move, even if he managed the impossible and somehow escaped again, it wouldn't be for long, and it wasn't like he'd last long once night fell even if the man decided two visits was enough.
'Maybe he'll offer me a nice, long holiday'
A little unlikely, but stranger things had probably happened before.
Maybe?
Swallowing his terror, and his pain, and every dark, hopeless feeling the man seem to exude into Fen, he pushed himself up and matched what Fen imagined was a soul piercing gaze.
"I admit it - I am rather handsome, but there's really no need to stare like that - anyone might think you're some kind of stalker!"
Unsurprisingly, the man didn't even acknowledge the statement. He simply drifted further closer, now almost upon Fen.
Sighing, Fen yet again steeled himself. He didn't even know how he managed to stand up, nevermind speak, but he supposed something about dying in terror on the ground didn't exactly fit his style - although dieing at all wouldn't exactly of been on his agenda.
After what seemed like an eternity, the man arrived - For a second, it seemed like he was simply just going to stand there, watching. A moment later however, Fen swore he saw a slight emotion, however infinitesimal, register across the man's being. Fen didn't even know how a creature like that could even show emotion, never mind how Fen could pick it up among the swirling shadow, but he did. Fen's eyes opened a little wider.
The man allowed his slight pause to last a moment longer, before plunging his freezing, incomprehensible hand into Fen's stomach.