Fantasy ignore this

[Melon Bomb]

Night fell like a curtain.

When the Great Eye of the moon opens, there are only a precious few seconds of sunlight left before darkness captures the city. A.M., P.M., there was none of that. Either the eye was open, or it wasn't.

And when night falls, the devils come out to hunt.

***

The harsh buzz of neon hummed from above and the sign mounted upon the storefront read in glaring blue, "LAST STOP". A pair of small hands pushed against the door, but was met with an abrupt jolt. Her eyes glanced to the 'pull' label. Well. Another day in the life of an idiot. Not like anybody was watching. This time she opened the door like an intelligent person, feeling the cold night wind fade from her back and the low buzz replaced with a tinny pop song playing over the speakers. A cursory look around the convenience store showed that it was mostly empty - people-wise and food-wise. The only sign of life was someone, or something, standing behind the counter.

A seven foot tall mascot character stood idly at the register, staring at her as she walked in but otherwise remaining silent. She didn't waste time perusing, she opened the fridge in the back and grabbed a few cold water bottles, cradling them in her arm. The gaze of the dog mascot needled into her as her eyes darted between it and the door. She could theoretically just walk away with her goods, but. . .

She dumped the bottles on the counter and slapped a crumpled bill down. The thing took the bill, with some difficulty given its large unwieldy paw hands, and processed the transaction.

Slowly.
Very slowly.
Incredibly slowly.
Holy shit, hurry up.

As its pudgy finger repeatedly hit the wrong buttons on the register, Terumi decided to pull out her phone while she waited.

[Alert: Assembling followers of NIGHTMARE. If the mark of the pentagram has chosen YOU, convene at 211 West Morrow St.
This is announcement is for your own safety - know that you have now become a prime target for other devils, we must work
together to survive this! We will be expecting you at our new safe zone.]

Huh.

Targeted? she thought, looking down at the pentagram on her hand. What for--
The phone buzzed with a new message.

[Th1rty: i see you]

She blinked.
'I see you?'

Suddenly registering what it said, she hastily turned to face the window, poorly concealing herself behind one of the racks. It was too dark to see clearly outside so she didn't know if anyone was actually watching her, but it sure put her on edge. With one hand, she unfastened her holster and drew her gun, leaning from behind cover and squinting into the night.

Great. Now she was unsure about going outside. It's probably just some punk screwing with random numbers. She briefly looked back to the cashier.
Looks like he's done.

Terumi let out a quiet sigh. She hurriedly crammed the bottles into her backpack while keeping her eye on the windows expecting the worst.

So, it shouldn't have surprised her when something suddenly slammed into the glass with tremendous force. Startled, she fumbled over the bottles and they bounced against the floor, rolling between the different racks - she paid them no mind and quickly trained her gun toward the door, gripping her weapon with both hands. She still saw nothing outside, but there was definitely something there. This timing was awfully suspect, but it didn't look like she had a choice at the moment. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she slowly made her way to the entrance, pushing the door open with one hand and aiming her pistol with the other. Cold air rushed back into her face, fiercer than before.

Time to go on a walk.

 

[Morzone]

Aiden Mairu and Ayla Semang
Western Edge of the City of Blood
Affected RP'ers: N/A

The Dog meat smelled terrible. And yet, to Aiden's rumbling stomach, so delectable. Most scavengers wouldn't even think of eating the demonic dogs, but Aiden didn't have many options. Besides, he'd been getting good at cooking the meat over an open fire.

"That smells terrible. I'm not even connected to your sense of smell right now and it smells terrible." an annoyed voice sounded in Aiden's head. Ayla was in a mood.

"Don't pretend to smell it then. If you wanted something better you should have accepted the first deal." He replied. He'd had to offer up control of parts of his body in order to use Ayla's abilities to catch the dogs. They tended to carry off his knives if he couldn't take them down in one hit.

"I was not going to give you quick-death acid powers for merely linking to your smell and taste! You're lucky I accepted what I did!

"Oh come on, you were hungry too. You're not getting any life energy from me if I'm too starving to have any energy anyway. Control over my hearing for the next day is risky enough as it is."

Aiden pulled the dog meat from the end of his knife and plonked it down on the old metal camping mess kit plate in his other hand. "MMmm delicious protein."

"Blech. I wish I could close your eyes so I wouldn't have to look at it."

"Oh yeah, you're still linked to my eyes from yesterday. How much longer do you have?"

"Few hours, and I get to spend it looking at this mess."

"You know, you could have just come out in your partial walker form and helped me."

"Don't start that again Aiden, you've gotten enough freebies as it is. Honestly, you'd be dead already without me. Sometimes I wonder why I don't just kill you and get out of this accursed contract."

"whamthvemn" Aiden mumbled through a mouthful of tough Dog meat. He'd been skirting the western edges of the City for some time now. There weren't as many demon out here, but that meant more scavengers, more survivors to fight for food and loot. He was lucky to have found a safe spot to set up a campfire and cook the meat he'd hunted down. The nearby survivor pack had been dealing with the demon dogs for a while apparently and they'd been quite happy to let Aiden hang around if he could kill a few. They'd tried to get him to join them, at least for a short time, but he'd refused. Aiden already knew what Ayla would have done to them if they'd tried to offer him a roof to sleep under.

"There's a sound."

Ayla's warning brought Aiden to feet in a second, his half finished plate falling to the ground -though carefully enough to make sure the food stayed off the ground. "What is it." He asked, drawing on of his knifes. He still had some time before the quick-death acid power ore off, but he'd already given his hearing over to Ayla. He'd have to go into any fight deaf.

"Something was making a Ruckus in the alley, Sounded demonic but I can't pinpoint anything. It certainly wasn't being sneaky, but its all quiet now."

Aiden moved slowly over to the window, a broken hole in the wall that had lost any semblance of fine craftsmanship long ago. Peering silently over the ledge, Aiden surveyed the alleyway below. Nothing. No one was there. Except- was there something on the wall? Could have been a survivor putting up some graffiti message. If that was the case he'd need to see what it said in case he needed to vacate the area ASAP.

Drawing his second knife, Aiden hopped through the hole in the wall and fell a floor to land silently and squatly in the street below. Straightening back into a standing position, Aiden turned and got a good look at the message on the wall. "Ayla-"

"I see it. Looks like we're finally going to get some answers."

the wall contained only two things: An address and a symbol. The first told him to convene at 211 West Morrow St. The Symbol depicted a large pentagram eye, the same eye that had just recently appeared on Aiden's and Ayla's bodies without apparent cause.