Escape

(it's the second floor, the american second floor)

She took one brief look behind her before following suit: she jumped, felt the sharpness of the wind for several seconds, and landed hard on the ground.

Daniel was swiftly art her side helping her up "Alright let's go.." He said flicking on his flashlight to lead her down the dark street. The rusty broken down cars, massive run down building, street lights without power, and even dull grey concrete revealed by the flash light's beam must have been quite foreboding to her.

The light he provided sent long trails of shadows, fluid and ever moving down her line of vision. To her, they were darkness taken the form of snakes, illuminated to her by a stick of fire. Massive bodies of concrete and tall poles curved like the head of a snake loomed above her. She did not run much further, for everywhere she turned there were shifting darkness and dangerous beasts.

"We have to go..." Daniel didn't understand her little hiccup with the modern world in the least, his knowledge of the fae, and their world was quite limited, nor had he thought about what these things would look like if she hadn't seen them. He had been raised in this world the humans had built. To him the fae's realm sounded so strange, and foreign, to him this was all normal by default, and he had not thought about the potential of  her considering this the stranger of the stranger of the realms. So when Daniel looked back he had no idea why she had stopped.

She started when he spoke, head snapping towards him. She did not look terribly out of place in this impoverished part of the city; dirty and wild looking one might pass their eyes right over her here. But her eyes were lost and afraid and she looked at everything everyone else would know well like it is foreign to her. "I want to go back now."

"I'm taking you to someone who knows the way back, come one." Daniel said only slightly impatient with his from his perspective as incorrect and biased as it may be rather dense companion due to necessity and not annoyance as he explained in as calm and gentle a voice as possible. "It's not safe to stand around here at night. You're going to get us both killed if you don't pick up the pace. I'm taking you somewhere safe, with someone from the fae realm..."  He then continued, walking right passed the dormant cars and such.

"Tell me what these are," she demanded, gesturing to the cars and street lamps. She remained firmly still, clearly unwilling to proceed until she knew they would not kill her.

"Cars? They're just metal devices people ride around in, but these are broken, but sometimes spirits posses one and it comes alive after dark." Daniel said and then tapped an imaginary watch "Which is why we are leaving this part of town because nowhere is safe for you especially where you are standing right now..." Daniel said hoping that would get her moving.

She turned her head sharply back to him. "They what?" Fear coiled in her throat, down into her chest and dropped into her stomach. She moved towards him. "Is there no way we can get there faster?"

"Well I could, and we could if we had a car that worked, but I can't afford one sooooo" As they walked off if she looked back Dia could see a fat, bulky, shambling figure obscured by darkness and some kind of rags shambling out of the apartment building they had been in into the street, and turning a covered head to watch them walk away. The creature raised a hand extended it into the light of the one dim and functional street lamp on the whole block, long and bony with tattered flesh hanging from it, and beckoned at them to return.

A shiver rolled down her spine, and she picked up her pace quite dramatically. "What was that" she asked in a hushed whisper.

"They're these things that like to skin people alive and wear their skin, not Fleshgaits, those use skin to shapeshift, these just kind of sew them together and wear them, because they don't have any skin of there own... not sure they have a name... but they are quick sprinters but poor distance runners, so long as we stay at some distance we're perfectly safe" Daniel said as casually as if it were the weather as the creature began to follow at the speed of a power walk, its movements reminding her a bit of a slug.

"I don't like this place," she decided quite firmly. She avoided looking at it or thinking too much about it, for when she did her chest tightened and her hands shook. She just stared at the guys back as she followed. "How did you harness fire inside that stick?"

"It's just a flashlight, it's an electric thingy with a bulb you can buy it at the store."  Daniel shrugged since he had no idea how it worked, they walked for around twenty minutes with the creature following them the whole time before Daniel saw the Neon light's of the "End of the road" bar and grill, at which point the creature gave what she knew to be a look of covetous longing without even turning around and slinked off "From this point on we're pretty safe, dangerous creatures are very rare in populated areas ghost town is a pretty unique place..." Daniel explained "I need a drink, wait here for just a sec so your head doesn't explode or something I'll be right back..." he began to head inside.

"Wait, what? Don't leave, " she said, though made no move to follow him in. She stood there looking lost, squinting at the neon lights.

Daniel stopped and put a hand on her shoulder briefly "I promise I won't even be a minute..." He said and offered her the lit flashlight, hoping it would give her a sense of security, before going inside for about a minute. Leaving her outside in the calm and quiet night, to look at all the lights of the city ahead.

She took the light like she was worried it might bite her. Gentry she ran her fingers down the length of it; feeling a button, she pressed on it. The light turned off and she jumped, dropping the flash light. "Oh no..." she murmured, crouching down to feel about in the dark for it.

A minute later as she was crouched down searching for the flashlight she heard a long, loud inhuman sounding breath behind her despite having heard nothing approach.

She made a sound similar to that of a strangled cat and spun, bending her elbow in the hopes to knock whoever it is over.

"OOOF!" She heard from behind her and saw Daniel go sprawling across the ground, grinning like an asshole even as he hit the ground "hey easy there..." he chuckled "Just playing a wee joke..."

Sher hand grasped the torch finally and she threw it at him, stumbling to her feet. "Don't do that!"

"You should have seen the look on your face" Daniel chuckled as he casually caught it "Classic... so I was thinking  it may not be safe to move through here at night, and we should hunker down in one of these buildings to wait until morning." He suggested still bearing that smile, but something seemed... not quite right about it, it was a little too broad, a little too crooked, and a little too... she could think of no word other than vicious to describe such a look the longer she examined it the more out of place it seemed.

She was about to go on about his cruelty but she paused instead and peered at him. Her heart was aflutter. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"Like what..." Daniel began to ask, as the door to the bar opened behind her. When she turned to see who was walking out she saw... Daniel holding a bottle of some sort in each hand, who looked rather surprised at the situation for a moment. After several seconds of quiet the the impostor began to back off into the darkness, he was grinning the whole time as his face began to look more like a twisted parody of a human's designed by an artist with no wish to flatter the work there's was being derived from than a human's itself.