Crimson Claws & Fangs ch.03

    In the darkness, in the blue circle of light Mike looks on as with a wave of his hand Rhuen causes the dimensional window to shrink and vanish from view. Mike had watched Peter Jones’s interrogation, and being locked away. All of this he had seen from start to finish yet it seemed to go by quickly in this world with out any other stimulus.

   “Nice fellas huh?” Rhuen stated interrupting Mike’s train of thought, “Even I gave someone as undeserving as you a little blue night light. Then again your friend there will have a ceiling light on during the day time & meals, rather than being some dead & forgotten spirit like you.”

   “however,” continued Rhuen as he starts pacing as though addressing a way ward student, “you have learned as much as you can here so its time for phase two. You shall live once more, but not as you were. You shall be cursed with a demon side that reflects the real you. If you should improve in character in could become a great asset, however if you remain as you are or become worse in character it will become a horrible bane on your existence. If nothing else it will show you just how loyal your order friends really are.”

     With a wave of his hand Rhuen creates a blinding blue light that envelops Mike. Mike finds himself in the middle of a park standing on the green grass blinking against the bright sun light as he backs up under a nearby tree to shade his eyes from the sudden onslaught of light. He sees a couple walking along a cement walkway through the park, and approaches them to ask them where he is. However as he walks up to them the young woman screams at him to get away from them or else she is calling the cops. Mike backs off as the man with her glares at him as they quickly walk away. Mike looks down at himself and realizes just why they were frightened by his appearance. His cloths while clearly the same thing he was wearing in the dark zone are ragged, and covered in dirt as though they had been buried in the dirt and decayed for over a year. He realizes also a burnt smell coming from them, he opens the coat to see that the entire inside lining is burnt. He remembers that the last thing he saw before being in the dark zone was a blast of light. He had been killed and now had been rebuilt, but these cloths were clearly made inferior as though the burnt remnants of his old cloths had been merged with the spirit cloths he was wearing in the dark zone, and dirt thrown on just for fun.

   “twisted ass hole.” Thinks Mike as he realized all that, “so his plan was to make me look like a bum, and let me guess he brought me back to life. So this means everyone I knew will think I was dead and am a zombie now, a clone, or some lunatic claiming to be me. And this bum outfit without any I.D. or money doesn’t help any. So this was what that demon meant by test loyalties?”

    Mike thinks over what Rhuen said and his predicaments as he wanders through the park and cleans off the cloths as much as possible in the park restrooms. His thoughts of what he is going to do after nightfall when the park closes however are short lived as the sun sets.

   Mike is suddenly hit by a massive cramping and burning sensation through out his whole body. He hunches over in pain as his body distorts and deforms. His muscles bulge up to body builder proportions and his skin turns grey. His fingernails grow and become claws, his feet turn digitride with only four clawed toes. His eyes become red orbs and the hair on his head turns clown red and become brittle looking as it sticks straight back from his head in an odd cone shape giving his scalp a bald look. The cone of red hair is almost two feet long and on top of his gargoyle like grey skinned muscled caveman like appearance sticks out like some strange Halloween costume gone wrong. This creature with Mike’s mind trapped inside sniffs the air and to Mike’s horror the beast he has become is thirsty for blood.