Somewhere, someplace, sometime; 23rd instalment

He tried to raise his hand to warn the woman off, but she came closer, carefully.

She saw a shimmering human form on the ground. One moment it was just a man with a black coat, the next it was a hideous creature with horns on its head and long clawed hands with a scaled skin.

She was not certain what to do, that this man needed help was obvious, but could she help him? She understood that he tried to warn her away, but that went against her nature, she was born to help people, she had done nothing else all her life until a, so called friend, had made her lose her well paid job in one of the major hospitals. She only had been out on the streets for a year or two.

The man tried to turn his back to her, but failed, he seemed unable to move.

She only had read about a case like this many years ago when a killing streak had run through the city that had ended as suddenly as it had started. She tried to remember what the file had said as she looked at the man, squinting. She knew she had to stay away from his hands so he couldn’t grab her. She was sure that that would be the end of her.

Luckily she hadn’t gone drinking her misery away so her mind was still sharp and worked perfectly, though she could use a good glass of red wine right about now.

She walked around him, thinking hard about what to do. The file had not told her what she could do to help him as the file had only told that the man/creature in the first aid had died unexpectedly and that a post mortem had not revealed anything that could tell them what had been wrong with the victim.

Quite suddenly she kicked hard against his head, hoping that would take him out.

An angry growl came from the man’s mouth, but he didn’t move a muscle.

Somewhere, someplace, sometime; 22nd instalment

Slowly he regained himself and looked down the alley. In the distant he saw a few men standing round a burning barrel for warmth.

Thinking only of things to  make him laugh he started walking, every now and then chuckling to himself. Wherever he passed some people he saw them moving out of his way with faces filled with horror, terror and disgust. Some even cried and ran away from him as fast as they could.

He didn’t care about that, he felt he was still in control. In one alley he saw a middle aged woman, that would’ve looked quite pretty if all the dirt and grime would be washed away from her.

The urge for blood raced through him and he nearly succumbed. He staggered to a wall on the side and laughed, softly at first, but harder as he felt he got control of himself again.

The woman looked up at the sound of his laughter and her eyes turned big with fear. She kind of froze up looking at him.

He only laughed as he moved towards her, she taking a step back for every step he took forward. The battle within him raged.

‘Blood, I want blood,’ the creature inside him cried. ‘I will give you anything you want, just give me blood.’

‘No,’ he screamed. ‘I will not kill for you anymore. It ends right here and now.’

He doubled over with pain and gasped as he tried to ignore it, but that wasn’t so easy.

‘Go kill her,’ the voice cried hysterically. ‘She’s an easy prey, I will stop hurting you.’

‘No you won’t,’ he said clenching his fists so hard the long yellow nails made cuts in his palms. ‘There is your blood,’ he shouted in his mind.’

‘I need strange blood,’ the voice screamed. ‘My blood is too precious to be spilled.’

The cuts in his palm healed by themselves as he walked ever closer to the terrified woman.

‘No, I will not kill.’

He fell down as the worst pain yet assaulted him. He rolled over the ground crying as tears streamed down his cheeks. He lay still when the pain stopped, gasping for air. The woman frowned and walked towards him. He wanted to tell her she shouldn’t, but no sound came from mouth.

Somewhere, someplace, sometime; 21st instalment

He was on verge of tears, he wanted this to end, he wanted his old miserable life back. He feared that when he left this place he would kill again and he didn’t want that.

The lust for blood ran wild through his system, crying out harder and harder, but he remained seated making his mind a blank. He noticed that whatever was calling out was getting more and more angry with him, he braced himself for the pain that he knew would come.

But no pain came, the coat didn’t do anything. He kept his mind as blank as he could as he got to his feet and felt in the one pocket of the coat, nothing was there. He cursed softly as he could use a glass of grinnitch right now. With the hand still in the pocket nothing stirred.

Would he dare to go outside?

He felt the coat urging him to do so, which made him decide against it. Immediately he doubled over with pain and cried out; ‘I’m not going to do it, you hear?’

Again pain raced through his body, making him spasm and roll over the floor.

Gasping he lay still and smiled to himself. At daylight he would go to the priest and see what he had found out, maybe then he could get rid of this damned piece of garment.

Again pain made him curl up and stretch out, bruising some muscles. As the bout of pain was over he started laughing, feeling that it angered whatever was inside him, so he laughed even harder until his stomach hurt and tears ran down his cheeks.

‘I got you now,’ he thought chuckling.

He jumped up, ignoring the pain in his bruised muscles and walked down the stairs to get outside and feel the drizzle on his face. The moment he stepped outside the lust for blood came in so hard and fast it made him stagger against the wall.

‘No,’ he growled. ‘I will not kill tonight.’