Chapter 1 Beginning of Prologue

"What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters."

‒ Charles Baudelaire.

Time 10:33 pm

Tyrese a young African American boy age 17, 5'10 with twist done to his hair and hazel brown eyes, wearing a white hoodie and black joggers, with a pair of Nike sneakers, steps off an airplane that had landed in New York City. Taking a deep breath as a slight breeze kicks up, his facial expression went from that of excitement to one of disgust as he had smelt what was quite possibly sewage water.

"Ahh I don't really miss this place anymore" Tyrese said to himself. 

Leaving the airport lobby Tyrese sees his taxi driver parked outside. He walks up to the taxi and gets inside giving the driver a note with the location of his destination the driver starts the vehicle driving off.

11:46 pm

An hour later the taxi reaches their destination an apartment complex and Tyrese gets out then hands the man his toll money. Tyrese goes to the apartment room he has written on the note and knocks on the door waiting for a response. After a few mins the door opens and a middle aged women with long curly hair in a nightgown and of mixed race comes out and ask Tyrese "who are you?". Tyrese replies "Oh hello Mrs. Daniels I'm sorry for being so late but I have no where to stay, I'm truly sorry for the surprise visit". Mrs. Daniels looks Tyrese up and down confused as to who he was but then she remembers him to be the same young boy who had left years ago. She unexpectedly hugs him saying "Tyrese you've gotten so big and tall last time I saw you you couldn't even stand pass the dining room table". Tyrese laughs to himself upon the bad memory of him bumping into that same table knocking himself out many years ago nervously saying "Yeah the good old days"

Mrs. Daniels brings Tyrese in and ask him if Dimitri knows he's there.

Tyrese says "no Dimitri  doesn't know of me coming back to the city. Speaking of where is Dimitri and the others?".

Mrs. Daniels says "They're all sleeping right now i'm a light sleeper so I am the only one that heard the knocking".

Mrs. Daniels wakes up the rest of the family to show them that Tyrese was going to be staying there for a bit. Mr. Daniels a tall bald headed Barbadian man and his children come out their rooms. Danielle a little girl the youngest of the family 10 years old in her pajamas, Deandre the eldest of the three siblings a girl 18 years old Dimitri, they were all very surprised to see Tyrese. One of the children more excited than anyone else Dimitri a boy of mixed race age 16 with short curly hair wearing pajamas and a pair of glasses, runs up to Tyrese and hugs him but Tyrese losing his balance falls back to the ground.

Tyrese saying "Hey Dimitri you might break me and send me to the hospital instead"

Dimitri picks himself up and pulls up Tyrese saying "It's been 6 years Tyrese, you just stopped showing up to visit, sorry if the little kid in me just got all excited."

Tyrese laughs and says "it's ok and I'm sorry for leaving without a warning like that."

Mr. Daniels says "It's no problem and that it must've been something important if it was so sudden."

The family and Tyrese sit down at the dinner table and chat catching up on old times. Mr Daniels remembers it's a school night and tells the children they could do more catching up tomorrow let's go back to bed for now. Tyrese is lead to the guest bedroom by Deandre. As Tyrese enters he remembers it being much bigger but then thinks to himself "I was just 11 back then"

Deandre leaves him to put down his bags and get comfortable shutting the door as she left. Tyrese plops onto the bed and tired from both the flight and today's events he falls into a deep sleep.

Next day 5:58 am

Dimitri is getting ready to go to school following his same everyday morning routine. as he puts on his clothes a nice fitted red T-shirt, a pair of navy blue Jean's and a pair of red sneakers, he runs outside into the hallway on his way to catch the bus forgetting his glasses on his bedroom study table.

Tyrese feeling the morning sun rays gleam upon his skin, slowly opening his eyes, he sits up stretching his arms out and yawns as he looks around the room. Tyrese gets out of bed and walks out the room. Walking around the apartment, Tyrese reminisces on the times he had spent in there playing with Dimitri when they were younger. Picking up and feeling on the objects that were there from before he left.

Tyrese looks in awe at the newer items he had not recognize saying to himself "I shouldn't expect them to have not change around a few things, after all it has been a few years".

Tyrese wonders by Dimitri's room knocking on it and getting no response. Tyrese twist the doorknob and enters the room. Seeing Dimitri hasn't  really changed his room up that much he walks up to Dimitri's study desk and picks up the glasses Dimitri had left behind.

Tyrese asking Deandre "How long do you plan on sneaking around behind me?"

Deandre replying "How'd you know I was following you".

Tyrese looks back at her saying "It's your perfume but doesn't Dimitri need these glasses?".

Deandre "Yeah he sometimes forgets them when he's in a rush but he should be ok without them" 

Tyrese ask Deandre where Dimitri's school is and she tells him the location as Tyrese walks past her. Tyrese walks out the apartment and leaves Deandre by herself. Deandre thinks to herself what perfume was Tyrese talking about she hadn't worn it for at least two days.

6:37 AM

Dimitri on his bus to school remembers about his glasses checking his bag to see if he had placed them in there and says to himself "shit I must've left them back at home"

As the bus nears the school Dimitri sees a person in familiar clothing infront the school sitting on the steps. The bus doors swing open letting off the passengers and Dimitri runs up the person as he had gotten closer he recognized it was Tyrese. Tyrese hands Dimitri his glasses saying "I was waiting here for like 5 minutes now, you forgot these at home". Dimitri over excitedly says "Thank you so much Tyrese".

Tyrese walks down the steps and says he'll be running back to the apartment. Dimitri walks through the school doors and ask himself how did Tyrese make it to his school in such a short time. "Did he run here? he said he was going to run back home, but that's a 6 mile run back and forth. Not only that he out ran the bus there wasn't much traffic nor many people catching the bus so how'd he catch up to a bus and have time to sit down for 5 minutes".

Dimitri bumps into another student knocking a smoothie the other student had in his hand on both of them. Dimitri immediately apologize and is struck in his face by the other student. One of the the students friends helps up Dimitri and tells his friend "that was uncalled for, it was an accident".

The other student name scoffs in disbelief at his friend taking the side of Dimitri and walks to the bathroom to clean himself off. Dimitri thanks the person who helped him back up to his feet.

"My name is Angelo im sorry about my friend's behavior" Angelo says.

Dimitri replies saying "That's no problem I took harder hits from other people before"

They both walk to clean up Dimitri of his dirty clothes.

Meanwhile

On his way to the apartment, Tyrese is walking by an alleyway and notices the distinct smell of blood through it. He walks through the alley looking around for the source of the blood and it was coming from within a Garbage bin. As Tyrese gets closer to the bin, he lifts the cover and sees a young Asain looking girl eating a human arm. She looks towards Tyrese and leaps out of the bin attacking him with what seems like a crab claw. Tyrese jumps back dodging the attack and while doing so, his feet begin to be enveloped by a black and red mist like cloud, dissipating to reveal bird like clawed feet. With a swift kick Tyrese launched the young girl back in the direction of the bin, the cracking of her ribs could be heard as it was a loud snap, flying back hitting the bin the girl coughs up blood upon impact.

Tyrese saying "I'm not here to fight over your food kid, I was just passing by when I smelt the blood"

The girl grasping her mid section with the crab arm as it dissipates looks at Tyrese and says "Could've fooled me why are you checking on the smell if you weren't interested in taking it?"

Tyrese replied "It's because I had thought someone was injured and I wanted to check on them, but seems like you're the one hurt now. Sorry for interrupting your meal." Tyrese turns around and walks back to the direction he came from while his feet also return to normal.

The girl angry but still hungry climbs back into the garbage bin to continue eating the rest of the corpse. Tyrese thinks to himself it was reckless to make such a risky move like that for what he had thought would have been an easy meal.

"I need to eat something in a few more days before I get hungry like her to" Tyrese says to himself on his way to the apartment.

"Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring."

‒ Bram Stoker.