2021-12-04 The Beast, Freed

The Beast, Freed

Participants: Khadijah

Storyteller: Hamelin

Location: Rampart Village

Date and Time: December 4, 2021 3:14 am

Summary: Khadijah is released by the Gui Ren, and has need of immediate sustenance

It was a dizzying stagger from the fringed of Koreatown for Khadijah. She can hear the hum of the incandescent streetlights overhead, which glare a little too brightly. The sounds of humans, nearby, everywhere, laughing and talking, are picked up by her sharp, vampiric senses. It's dizzying, and it grates.

Is that the hum of those cursed streetlights, or is that a ringing in her ears, threatening to make her teeth grit, making the hairs rise up at the back of her neck?

She is so drawn, so low on stolen life, that she barely had control of the raging, ravenous Beast within. She makes her way through now-familiar streets, a long way from Iran but tread with familiarity these nights. Though they have a tilting, maddening air tonight.

She moves through a Persian neighbourhood. It's late. The stores are mostly closed, the temple shuttered. But even here, finally, a middle-aged man with a white linen shirt, and navy blue slacks that match his kufi, is coming out of a convenience store. It's midnight. He pulls the door shut firmly and twists a key in the lock. Khadijah is still a little ways away, out of his line of sight, as she watches him pull a metal door, grate-like, across the entrance and lock that too.

And then, jingling his keys in his pockets, he begins a quick-paced walk down a side street.

So very hungry. Everything feels like it has a sharp edge to it, gnawing at her psyche and threatening her mental well being, not to mention the Beast crouching low inside her, making threats to leap and pounce, out of her control, at ever opportunity it can. She needs to get this under control or things are going to go sideways very quickly.

And there he is. Her first promise of rescue from her ravenous Beast. Quickly she quiets her steps and turns sharply down the side street this man has taken. Quiet steps gradually change to longer steps, matching in time with the man's own footfalls; the sounds syncing and becoming one with each other. She's almost upon him.

The man walks along at a fairly quick pace, not dallying in the late evening's air. There is something that catches his attention, some sound behind him that is almost in pace with his strides, but not quite. The Beast won't give her the patience needed to reach him quietly - it drives her with too urgent a desire.

His pace quickens, and all at once he is running, chancing a look back over his shoulder only as he does so.

Too fast, Khadijah, too fast! She is rushing, she can feel the Beast's incessant drive trying to force her forward with its eagerness and her steps aren't in sync. Her quarry begins to run and she has no choice but to run after him as hard as she can. With a final leap, the middle-eastern vampire lunges forward and attacks the poor shop keeper from behind.

The man shows some athleticism for a middle shopkeeper that, likely, has a penchant for sweets. Khadijah closes on him quickly, though, but not so fast that he doesn't hear her coming, with her long strides devouring the space between them. As he flees, terror seizes him. She can hear his human heart, hammering in his chest as he cries out, "S-someone, help!" He's reaching into his pocket, grabbing for his phone, when she pounces at him, but off aim somewhat. He staggers with the impact, and both end up falling. They tumble across the sidewalk, broken apart from one another by the impact, and Khadijah gets the worst of it, slamming against the bottom of a light standard. The man takes a tumble, but is already scrambling, yelling, and trying to flee.

He's kicking up more of a fuss, but there's something... the Beast in Khadijah howls with its hunger. He's left a smear of blood behind, where he scuffed himself on the ground. She can smell it.

The smear of blood on the side walk is all it takes! Her Beast absolutely rages inside her, thrashing and mangling the steel bars that normally keep it safely locked away and in check. And when they give way, all her self control flies out the proverbial window. She takes off at a dead run, fueled by the preternatural strength of a Beast gone mad with insatiable hunger. When she, or It think they're close enough, her body LEAPS at the poor shop keeper, razor sharp fangs descending in the the soft flesh of his neck, rendering messy holes that bleed like a stuck pig. She sucks and gulps at the precious red stuff, and just can't get enough.

The man's yelling is cut out partway through. He falls flat on the pavement, driven down onto the sidewalk with a crumpled gasp. His phone clatters, screen fracturing, and comes to rest just outside of his reach. His screams give way to gurgles, as his hand flexes and works, trying to grasp that last lifeline. But it isn't meant to be. His throat fills with blood from the hasty, violent gashes carved by Khadijah's fangs, as she feeds until his heart stutters and stops.

She comes to, moments later, hunched over the corpse. Approaching sirens are wailing.