The creature’s dark, leather-like skin fit its body the same as a normal human’s would, but the teeth were all pointed like fangs and seemed to be bleached white. Its irises were black, but the whites of its eyes were just as white as its teeth. It made its eyes seem as if they could fall out of its head at any moment. Its clothes were dirty and tattered, the ends of its dark brown trench coat and black pant legs ragged as if it had been stepping on them for quite a long time. There were holes at its knees, baring more leather-like skin, and a long tear in its black shirt across its abdomen while there was still a pocket in the shirt over its heart that seemed to be intact. The cuffs of its trench coat were slightly torn and hung over its hands, of which were covered by dirty, black fingerless gloves. Ordinary gloves were out of the question with its claw-like fingers. Even its black boots and belt were filthy, the boots scuffed and worn while the silver buckle wasn’t able to shine through the filth coating it. The hat it wore was just as tattered as the rest of its clothing and resembled the shape of a straw hat, though it was made out of black leather, and sat on top of a mop of shaggy, dark hair that look as if it needed water to run through it desperately, a few locks peeking out at his forehead.
I was glued to my place in panic and fear as the creature that slightly resembled a corpse turned its attention toward me while it stood at six foot three beside the sliding glass door of the cabin. Whose bright idea had it been to come to this place? Not only that, but where were Sitka and Maverick? Anybody but these other kids who were standing off at a safer distance than I was!
I felt my body trembling as the creature, a man I now noticed, grinned and bared his white fangs at me, his slightly pointed ears twitching as he probably heard my heart rate speed up. I could feel the blood running from my cheeks while my glasses clung to the end of my nose, my hazel eyes getting wider. I wanted to run, but my muscles were frozen solid. I mentally cursed my panic attack when the creature moved toward me, his grin becoming wider as he reached for my neck with his sharp, clawed fingers. I couldn’t find the strength to do anything but try to breathe and tremble where I stood.
“I like your necklace.” I was really caught off guard by the statement, but my mind was so jostled that I found myself thinking he meant the skeleton key I sometimes wore about my neck. Instead, he grabbed my gold chain with the gold Chinese dragon charm hanging from it and pulled. My dad had given me both when I had turned seventeen and I never took either off, so my first instinct was to follow the pull to keep the necklace from breaking. I wasn’t sure whether the creature had known what I would do when he grabbed the chain or not, but his grin never wavered as he led me out the door where I lost balance because he went too fast for my shorter legs. Luckily, he released my chain beforehand.
I pushed myself back so that I was sitting up, though I still had to lean forward on my hands to brace myself. My heart was still pounding in my throat as the creature grinned again. I was so scared, I was starting to feel my eyes welling up. No doubt it was obvious with my dark brown hair tied back at the nape of my neck the way it was even with the two strands left to frame my increasingly pale face.
Gods, why did I have to be such a chicken? It was different with Fern. Fern, at the very least, was human. I could put up a front in front of him and force my fear back, but these situations were different from that. This thing in front of me wasn’t human.
“I want to draw it!” I blinked, freakishly more confused than I had been, but, wanting to live through this little endeavor, I pulled the small notebook from my back pocket and handed it over. He took it, still grinning and baring those pearly white, fanged teeth, before snatching my pencil from behind my ear that I had forgotten was there in the first place.
I watched him intently as he flipped it open and scribbled something that was quite obviously not a picture, but he was quick to flip to a new page and glance up at me before starting to doodle. Every action he made was dramatized so much and made to look so outrageously ridiculous that I felt a smile tug at the corners of my lips. I raised my hand reflexively to try to hide it, but I burst into a giggle fit and practically doubled over, the unshed tears falling because of my giggling rather than my fear. I removed my glasses and giggled into the back of my hand when my glasses had nearly fallen off the rest of the way.
When I finally managed to stop giggling and look up at him again, replacing my glasses as I did, he was smiling and had knelt down in front of me, holding my notebook and pencil out to me. I was quick to replace them in their respective places before meeting the other’s eyes again. He tapped my nose with his finger, careful of his claws, as he leaned closer, which made me lean back a little.
“There's the laugh I was looking for. So, are you still scared of me, cutie?” I felt my face burn brightly at the sound of the endearment. Without thinking, I moved my hand up and flicked the brim of his hat hard enough that it fell off. He chuckled as he retrieved it while I fidgeted with my glasses and tried to remove the blush from my cheeks. I could do more than mutter curses under my breath for a few seconds.
“Why do you damnable people always find me?” I glared weakly at him once he was facing me again with his hat on his head, the rhetorical question sounding hostile even to my ears.
“Maybe it’s because you’re so damnably cute, we can’t help but find you.” I felt the burning in my cheeks again while he chuckled, seeming quite pleased with himself. I rubbed at my cheeks quickly in a weak attempt to dispel the brightening blush that was slowly spreading to my ears.
“I’m not cute!” When I removed my hands and placed them on the ground between my denim-clad knees again, he pinched my cheeks, once again being careful of his claws.
“You are so, cutie; and what would I call you if not cute?” I gritted my teeth and glared again before smacking his hands away, feeling the blush burn brighter.
“Call me Cassi then and keep your horrid opinions to yourself!” I began to fidget with my glasses again, starting to wonder how someone who looked this frightening could be this silly. All he did was smile again and wait for me to lower my hands before he leaned forward and kissed my cheek, keeping close to my ear before he spoke again.
“Well, you can call me Draven, but I’m going to continue calling you cute because you are.” He was so damn close to my ear that my face and ears turned bright red, already having grown red from the kiss he had snuck to my cheek! I shoved at his chest to get him away and moved to my feet, dusting off my jeans and button down while trying to futilely dispel the horrid blush from cheeks.
“I’m going to call you an ass instead; now, if you don’t mind, I’m going back inside to find a weapon to kill you with.” I heard him laugh as he quickly followed after me. How many more of these people would find their way into my care before I was finally forced into a madhouse?