Xander's Cross, Oregon: a small town ringed with forbidding mountains and misty forest. The sky may be gray, but the townspeople are welcoming to people of all kinds...and things that are not quite human as well. Here the native shifters, aliens, werewolves, and witches live in peace. They have yet to find out the new business owners encroaching on the land are also vampires.
The peace has been broken by murder, however, and things in Xander's Cross are about to become quite a bit darker.
Welcome to your new home.
is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?
August 20, 2020
The mayor, Rowan Starkwood, was found dead less than a mile from his home. Rumors say his body was mutilated, but the state of the body has not yet been released to the public.
It was early. Very early. Early enough that there was no one to see Eden Ford as she strode out of the Fairgrounds and onto the Gardenview District street. Which was probably a good thing because she was naked. Her sleek, white-blonde hair hung loose to her ribs, bits of leaf still caught in the tangles. Her hands and feet were filthy and there was a smear of blood across her mouth and jaw. She seemed...unconcerned by her state of undress. In fact, she seemed rather indifferent to it despite the morning chill.
It had come upon her in the late afternoon the day before as she was hanging up her laundry. She'd been unable to hold it back any longer. Eden had barely had time to strip off her shirt and jeans before she was on all fours, covered in thick, white fur, the smell of the trees, and small furry prey calling to her. It had been easy to jump the gate and make a break for the forest surrounding the town of Xander's Cross to run and chase and hunt.
She had been putting it off for days. She always did until it was too late and the Change was upon her before she could stop it. It was almost like a game she played with herself to see how long she could go without, how long she could put it off, not wanting to bother with it, always thinking there was something better she could be doing. And, every time, she lost. Or won, depending on the perspective. That was the plus of a game with one player- you were both the winner and the loser.
Well, seeing as how she was the one now walking back to her apartment naked, one might definitively call her the loser in this situation. It'd have been easier to come back as a fox but after catching her second rabbit, she'd fallen asleep, waking up human. Too tired to Change back into a fox for such a short run back to her apartment and exhausted from having put it off for so long, Eden had shrugged off her nakedness with the same indifference she seemed to handle everything, deciding to take advantage of the early hour and the fog to simply walk back as is.
When you didn't give a shit what anyone thought, life really was very simple.
She really could use a cigarette, though.
last edited Jun 30, 2021 18:30:09 GMT -5 by Eden Ford