Dark clouds were hanging menacingly above the strange town. Slight drizzle was falling down from them to dot the streets with a silent rhythm, giving the town a murky look. A lonely figure was walking through the streets of this place, which was very foreign to him. He kept glancing around his surroundings, looking completely lost. He knew the name of the town, since he had passed a sign that had revealed to him where he had ended up. It was called Olden Shadow Town. An odd name, he had thought, but then again, everything in this world was strange to him. And he probably was odd to the dwellers of this world as well. His constant glancing around caught the attention of many people he came across and they gave him odd looks. However, that was all they did and let the lone man do his weird thing.
Street lights were shedding their pale light on his way as he proceeded further into the foreign town. A cold wind started to blow through the streets and tried to attack the man with its frigid bite. The man took a better hold of his long black jacket, attempting to protect himself against the sudden freezing gust. He pushed against this invisible force, but perhaps it did manage to chill his heart a little, as it suddenly felt heavier. And no wonder, it was broken and prone to be infected. However, he had the will to carry on, it didn't matter what kind of chaos was raging inside his soul.
Since the man had never been in this town and because he had no specific destination in mind, he eventually managed to get lost in the dark streets. The open spaces turned into narrow alleyways where the light was scarce and trash were piling up in many corners of the complex part of the town where you definitely didn't want to get lost. The man did pass some people that looked at him with a calculating look in their eyes as if they were pondering whether he was a great target to mug. But there was something in his steel gray eyes that made those kinds of men stay away from him. He knew that he would easily overpower them, so it was better for their own safety that they let him walk through without interruption.
Then he came to a remarkably dark alley. There was a street light nearby, but it was flickering repetitively, in quite an eerie way. The man stopped on his tracks and looked into the darkness ahead of him. It was weird, he could feel a presence in there and felt mildly curious about it too.
“You seem lost.” A voice pierced through the veil of darkness. It was actually a beautiful voice of a woman, which was very unexpected in this situation.
And even more surprised the man was when he saw a figure who came forth from the shadows.
He had never seen anything like the entity standing before him – though, it was no wonder, he had stayed in this world for a relatively short time. The creature was quite short and her anatomy somewhat resembled a humanoid. But her skin… she looked like an eyeless bird that was decaying, with three horns crowning her head. Despite this grotesque look, she had a clean and sleek suit on, giving her a professional look. She was a peculiar sight indeed.
She tilted slightly her bird-like head and it did give the man a strange feeling; even though she had no eyes, it still seemed like she was staring right at his soul. “Who may you be?”
“Me?” the man said with a quiet voice, having a pained expression on his face. “I'm… no one…”
“I see, I see…” The creature was nodding her head. “You have a troubled mind, indeed.”
“How do you know?” the man asked, and there was a slight tone of irritation in his voice.
“I'm a demon, we can sense stuff like that”, the eyeless entity responded. “Of course you didn't know that, and I don't blame you. It seems like you're not from around here.”
“I'm sorry, but I have to go”, the man blurted out and managed to take a few steps in order to leave, but the demon quickly placed her hand on his shoulder, stopping his going.
“Come with me”, the demon suggested. “I'll give you a safe place to rest tonight.”
The man turned to face her. Thoughts were out of control in his mind as he tried to piece together what could be the best course of action in this situation. He was lost, confused and utterly heartbroken, and having a little break from it all felt really tempting. He had nowhere to go, had no one to trust. The circumstances couldn't possibly get worse, right? Besides, he didn't really care at that moment what would happen to him.
“Fine, lead the way”, he consented.
“Excellent”, the demon replied. “Just follow me.”
She left the shadows behind her and the man tagged along as she started to make her way out of the labyrinth of the alleyways. The demon guided him back to some better corner of the town, somewhere that didn't feel as hostile. It was still a somewhat remote part of the settlement, there wasn't much traffic, at least not this late hour. There were mostly multi-storey buildings, standing tall and somber, and few vehicles were sleeping in front of the structures. The man was curiously glancing around his surroundings, and he strangely felt at ease as he was walking through the street along with the demon. It sort of felt like he had arrived at home, for some reason even he didn't understand. Finally, his guide led him inside one of the buildings, the door creaking open, then closing behind them to keep the night out of indoors.
The interior had seen better days. There were scratch-marks on the floor, stains covering various different surfaces and the sickly yellow paint on the walls had cracked. The demon signaled by waving her hand that they should take the stairs to an upper floor and so the duo began their ascend. The man didn't really keep count on how many floors they bypassed, he just followed the demon. However, he did notice how consistent the number of apartment doors were, until they came to some of the upper floors where this wasn't true. It was strange, usually there had been like six doors on every floor, but then they arrived at one where there were only three. And since the demon had stopped heading to the next set of stairs, it seemed like they had arrived at their destination. But instead of trying to open any of the doors on this floor, the demon stepped in front of a wall, which obviously confused the man for a second. Then she began to scratch the wall with her long finger nail from one spot to downwards, which seemed to initiate some kind of mechanism, and suddenly, yet another door appeared. The man was a little stunned by this.
“Welcome home”, the demon spoke softly while she opened the door, holding it gaping so the man could walk inside. Once he had done so, she followed behind and as soon as the door closed again, it disappeared from the sight of the outside world.
They had entered into darkness, until the demon flipped a light switch, a pale light now filling the apartment. The man looked around curiously, he had never been inside of someone's home. The place was in a clean and neat condition, everything was in order and there wasn't trash lying around anywhere. But then again, the demon was dressed in a suit, so it made sense that her home would look tidy as well.
“You can stay as long as you want”, the demon said and guided the man to the living room. “I don't usually have guests, so pardon, but you have to sleep on the couch.”
“It's okay”, the man replied. “Thank you for your kindness.”
“My pleasure”, the demon assured.
The living room was neatly furnished, just like the rest of the apartment. The man's gaze shifted from object to object around the room, most notable being a bookcase that was standing in one corner, a low table that was basically in the center of everything, a comfy-looking leather couch and a TV. There was also a wide window that offered a view to the quiet part of the town.
“You seem tired, so I leave you to rest”, the demon said as she was heading to another room. “Oh, and by the way, you can call me Chandler. Well, goodnight!”
Then she vanished, flipping another light switch, thus snatching the light with her. The man was left alone and he eyed the couch for a little while. Well, it definitely was better than nothing, and it did look comfortable enough. He took off his jacket to use it as his blanket and he lied down on the couch; he was a pretty tall person so he had a little bit trouble with fitting on the furniture, but in the end he found a comfortable position. He had been more exhausted than he had realized and he drifted into sleep almost as soon as he had closed his eyes.
But in his dreams, he had no peace. The moments that had ultimately led to the decision of leaving his homeland were spiraling in his head. He had been betrayed by the one he had loved more than anything else, resulting in a heartbreak, and after that he knew there was nothing else left for him in that world. He was still feeling perplexed, not knowing what to do or where to go. But he was a survivor, a fighter, and had been all his life. Although he didn't know it yet, he had made the best possible choice for leaving everything behind him.
The man woke up to a sound he hadn't heard before. Still feeling sleepy, he raised his body up a little so he was now sitting on the couch. It was like something was bubbling. He decided to get on his feet and followed the sound to some other room. Chandler was there, sitting by a table, and then the man realized that the sound was coming from some sort of machine, though he didn't know exactly what it was doing.
“Oh, good morning! Did you sleep well?” It still weirded out the man that the demon was looking in his direction with her eyeless head, and yet seemed like she was staring at him.
“Not really”, the man mumbled a reply and decided to take a seat as well.
“That's too bad”, Chandler said. “Would you like some coffee?”
“What's coffee?” the man asked. While he was, in his opinion, fairly knowledgeable about the various objects, devices and other stuff in this world already, there were still new things to him.
“Oh, you'll love it!” the demon exclaimed. “It's a miraculous substance that makes your morning better!”
She stood up and walked to the machine that had been making the bubbling sound. The man followed with his gaze what the demon was doing. She opened one of the cabinets and picked up two mugs from there and placed them on the table. Then she grabbed part of the machine, a transparent kettle of some sort that had dark liquid in it, and she poured that liquid into the mugs. She brought them to the table, offering one to the man and keeping the other one for herself.
The man stared at the contents of his mug. The steaming hot beverage smelled good, he had to admit that. Carefully he blew into the mug and took a little sip of the liquid. It tasted bitter, but strangely pleasant at the same time. He kind of liked it and took another sip from his dark drink.
“I knew you'd like it”, Chandler said, sounding very pleased with herself. “I only get the greatest brand, I can't stand for cheap garbage that is mostly sold around! This is the best coffee you can get.”
“I see.” Then the man focused only on drinking his coffee. And for a little while, they sat there in silence, both enjoying their drinks.
“So, what are you planning next?” Chandler asked suddenly, breaking the silence.
The man looked confused. “I… I don't know.”
He had no direction where to go, no purpose or goal in mind. His heart felt heavy and he looked miserable again, not even trying to cover it from the demon.
“Well, if you ask me”, the demon spoke, “you should take it easy. Go outside, explore this town! Get yourself acquainted with the place.”
“You think so?” the man said, staring absent-mindedly at the last remains of his coffee.
“Yes! Trust me, this is a nice town”, Chandler said as she went to take another cup of coffee. “You'll learn the ways of this world easily if you just look around.”
“Huh… Maybe I should do that, then.”
Soon after drinking his coffee, the man had snatched his black jacket from the couch and put it on again. Then he had left Chandler's apartment, and as soon as he found himself standing in the hallway, he glanced back to witness how the door slowly faded away. The demon had told him that he just had to use his finger and draw a line to a specific spot on the wall and the door would come accessible again. There was a faint hint of the spot, a thin mark left by a peeling paint, and the man memorized this detail before heading to the stairway and began his descent.
When he had managed to get outside, he took a deep breath. He inhaled the fresh morning air and basked in the golden rays of the early sun. He looked around him, hearing the noises of an awakening town, coming from all directions. He wasn't too familiar, yet, with how the everyday life of humans worked, so just like Chandler had suggested, he began to explore Olden Shadow Town.
As he strolled through the streets, he noted that a lot of people seemed to be in a hurry. What were their lives like, he had wondered as he passed by. He also noticed that there were other demons around, though they all looked very different from Chandler. Often the gazes of these demons met the man's eyes, and they seemed to be as curious about him as he was of them. Meanwhile, the humans mostly ignored his existence. This was an interesting observation, he had noted. Perhaps it had something to do with demons sensing things, just like Chandler had mentioned. Did they detect that he wasn't from this world and that's why they were so interested in him? But the man brushed it off, since the incoming demons left him be and didn't cause any kind of hindrance.
For many hours the man wandered around, observing the life of humans – and demons. These two races were so different and yet, they co-existed in almost perfect harmony. Even though the man had followed the every-day life of the residents of Olden Shadow Town just for a little while, he had already started to comprehend how things worked in this place. Everyone had their own role, their own story, and they were allowed to live how they wanted. It was so fascinating to the man. He wondered if he could be part of this world as well. With a light heart he had returned to Chandler's apartment, however, he planned to go outside and explore more tomorrow.
The next few days the man spent by going around and checking out different corners of the town. Strangely, his confidence only grew as he wandered and observed the busy life of Olden Shadow Town. If he didn't understand something, he would seek answers for these puzzling things from Chandler, who was helpful and ready to explain how everything worked. Bit by bit the man started to feel like that his place could become his home; in here, he was free, not hunted and he didn't have to be starved for long periods of time… and he was allowed to be flawed. It was like he was always meant to be human. It was then when he decided that he would leave his previous life in the past and turn into a human who belonged in this world.
But what was his part? One night, it was introduced to him and as a result, he took a path that was stained with blood.
Chandler had made him take a seat at the table, offering him beer. While the man was drinking, the demon spoke: “You know, I've been thinking… For a while I have been looking for a business partner and you, my friend, I see potential in you.”
“What kind of potential?” the man asked while taking another swig from his drink.
“You have magical abilities. It's a very rare talent nowadays, especially among humans.” The demon tilted her bird-like head a little bit. “But that's not all. I think you have other qualities as well, for you are strong-willed, confident and fearless. I think you would be a perfect person for the jobs I have in mind.”
“What do these so-called jobs contain?” The man's voice was stern, but in his steel grey eyes he had a curious look.
Chandler had an ugly smile on her face. “Oh, just erasing people from existence, kidnapping, bodyguarding, a little shady stuff like that.”
The man raised his eyebrow. He remained quiet, but indeed, he had got a little interested in this job the demon was describing.
“Look, I know the ugly side of the town”, Chandler continued to speak. “And let me tell you, we would be a perfect team! I'll handle the money and arrange the things with our clients and you'll execute the job! With your outstanding abilities, we would surely earn tons of money!”
Maybe the man hadn't fully grasped the concept of money just yet, or he simply didn't have much interest in it in general, but otherwise what the demon was suggesting was really tempting to him. He was a beast from a heart, no matter how hard he tried to cover it by pretending to be human, and spilling blood was the one thing beasts like him were excellent at.
“I'm interested”, the man said while scratching his goatee.
“I knew I could count on you”, the demon responded. Then her hand trailed somewhere behind her, it seemed like she was looking for something, and soon she pulled an object and dropped it onto the table. It was a handgun, brand-new and its barrel had runes engraved into it. “Here, a little gift for you. Use it well.”
The man picked up the weapon from the table and held it in his hand. Somehow it felt right to wield it, it was almost like a new and trusty friend. He smiled a little as he admired the gun, turning it around so he could inspect every part of it. Yes, it felt like it had always belonged to him. With this, he could certainly do great things.
That night was the beginning of a well-known mercenary of the underworld. That night was the beginning of a man called Sin Vulpes.
