The Right Way (Tosh)

[AKREE]

Overlooking the calm, murky and dirty water of the Thames Rover I was beginning to think about how much destruction such a simple thing as a city could bring to such a mighty river. It wouldn’t surprise me of some animals drank from that water and died afterwards, poisoning and whatnot. It was sad actually, to watch how something as mighty and powerful as the Thames reduced to nothing but just muddy, dirty water. But that was part of life here, I guess. No use complaining about it when such a thing would remain so, the leaders of this place could care less; werewolves could be even more destructive than humans. They were a hardy race, they could easily survive extreme environments if need be, so did vampires, we weren’t affected by temperatures. But, it still was sad. To watch our world corrode and break to pieces, slipping through our fingers until it would be too late. It would happen; it was just a matter of time. So was the way of life, they say, but enough of this depressing talk of a river and the world, it matters little to me. But, you can say I’m bored, which is why I find myself where I am now or why I think these thoughts that are horribly disgruntling. Now, you’re wondering why, if I’m bored I’m not somewhere more public? But the truth is I prefer to overlook the city from a distance –however small. I preferred to be alone, I preferred to simply watch from afar, hear the sounds of the honking, the shouting, the buzzing from the neon signs, the ripple of the murky water the horn of a distant ship, the purr of car engines, the steps of people in the distance… It was all familiar, but to be sincere, I preferred to hear it from a distance, it was easier on my sensitive hearing. Such a cacophony of sounds pressing into your head and bouncing in your skull could be such a bother.

But that’s of no concern.

I found myself leaning over the rail of Millennium Bridge, looking out into the nothing, watching how the water of the river merged into a hazy line in the horizon, almost seeming as if they were part of one another. A cigarette hung limply from my lips, every now and then smoke would ascend from the tip in white tendrils and float into the sky, being driven into oblivion. I sighed, my eyes getting too used to the hazy line that was the horizon, even though it was night, it was very early in the night, the sun had barely set and it was still hard on my eyes, but it was supportable, nothing I wasn’t used to. Still, I wished it was darker, it would be easier. I needed something to do, but what? It wasn’t like anything would just fall from the sky. I needed something to do…

Ah, but I couldn’t just idly stand here, there was work to be done. There was always work to be done, but for some reason, I just… didn’t feel like it. It was weird, I normally did anything that had to be done, but tonight, tonight I just didn’t feel like it. I felt more in a socializing mood, which was incredibly rare for me. I would prefer to have Vincent plan something that would get us both in trouble, which was incredibly strange. He was my friend, but I just didn’t want to bother him. I sighed again and gritted my teeth, realizing what I was doing. I shouldn’t be exposing such… weakness, it wasn’t like me. I guess I just needed something to eat, now that I bring the subject up, I am fairly hungry. I could use a bite, I could really use it, in fact I’m starving, I hadn’t really eaten anything this morning (night?) so I guess that’s why. I shifted my footing, my elbows on the rail. I just wanted something to eat and/or do. That simple, but still I shouldn’t feel this… bored. It was not right; I don’t want to be thinking like this. This is why I began to try to listen to everything going on around me.

The distant chirping and cawing of birds, and the distant conversation of two people, it was distant and some words faded away but it went… “I know, it’s horrible…” said the voice of a woman “Yeah, that …, I hope … gets caught.” Said a man who sounded angry, but I really couldn’t tell… “… a sudden thing, one minute the car … on flames, … it exploded, … burned…” it sounded, familiar somewhat their conversation “Yeah, he got burned … died in the hospital, I can’t even …, he was such a nice guy…” I tuned out the conversation, and turned my eyes to search for the source of the voice. It was a man and a woman, not very far from the end of the bridge. They walked away and I couldn’t catch more than that, but that brought a recent little incident to my mind. Oh well, everyone dies some time, no big deal really, especially in London. This place was a crime infested riot, nothing really new, the subject of death was.

It was something you learned to live with.

[tosh]

'Is it normal for a monster to get creped out?' The thought occurred to the young man, who had, as of late, refused to call himself a man or a boy. He wasn't human how could he be either of those things? But the reason this thought occurred to him was the bridge. He crossed that bridge the same night he'd first come into London, and it had been even creepier then. It was abandoned, or at least looked it, and it was dead quiet. Too him, it seemed as if everything, human and otherwise, had learned to stay away from the area. The river below reeked like death and sewage. He figured that human's couldn't smell it, it was faint but none the less overpowering. Tonight however, he decided he'd cross it. He was hungry, almost deadeningly so, and he decided he'd hunt on the other side of the bridge.

This wasn't too strange for him, he never hunted where he slept, he didn't know why he just didn't do it. Even if all he was feeding off of stray dogs and cats, and the occasional rat if he was hungry enough. He came upon the bridge's visage a while back, it almost stood out against the fog, as if even the fog were afraid of it. But now he was only yards from the bridge and approaching fast. He wanted, almost needed, to get across that bridge. That bridge made him hungry, no matter how much of that beautiful crimson elixir he consumed. He got a quarter of the way across before catching sight of the imposing figure of an, obviously older, vampire. He stopped dead, he didn't want to go back, but he didn't want to end up in an 'argument' with him either. He would have been pretty scary even in a normal setting, probably even more so, but with the way the fog seem to avoid the place it made it seem that the fog was in fact avoiding him.

Tosh swallowed and closed his eyes for a second. He needed to decide, the silent whiff of cigarette smoked floated past his nostrils. He'd decided. He pulled out a small rectangular brass case and opened it. Within were six cigarettes, one of which he pulled out and pursed between his dry cracked lips. He snapped the case shut and slip it back into a pocket of his black jeans. He dug into another pocket and retrieved a lighter, which he ignited, squinting his eyes, raised it to the end of the coffin-nail. He drew and dropped the lighter back into his pocket, taking the next step out onto the bridge. His sneakers squeaked slightly as he walked, he'd learned to ignore that sound when nervous, it made him think someone was following him. He passed the stranger on the bridge but three feet later his left foot slipped, at first it looked as if he'd land on his face but, instead, he managed to catch himself with his right arm, damn near pole vault over it, and landing on his feet. He smashed his cancer stick, in the process. If he would have been out there alone he probably would have tried to pull all his hair out, but he wasn't, he had to retain his composure. He tucked the smashed cigarette into his pocket and continued walking; he swallowed, hoping he'd be left alone, but in this world you never knew what was gonna happen.

[AKREE]

Ripples appeared in the water as suddenly as that, the ripples grew bigger, they spread wider and it soon had me arching a brow in question. I mean, it could be a fish, a very big fish, but there was no such thing as a very big fish in the Thames. The Thames was a horribly contaminated river; no fish lived long enough to grow that big, so it must be something else. Maybe some illegal crocodile or alligator or somewhat of that kind, but whatever it was it would die soon eventually, the water was just that bad. Dark and filled with that thick green mud that god-knows what was there. The waters probably reeked, which is why I considered myself lucky that I didn’t have to breathe. Just now as I watched those ripples grew larger and then, in the center of the rings, bubbles started to burble up, they popped as soon as they reached air, but it shook the water making colors dance across the river’s surface. Making the much in the river quite visible there shades of brown and what’s supposed to be the normal color of water shifted under the surface, spreading like smoke. There was a notable pause; everything seemed to be quiet now, then a familiar shaped head broke through the water, it looked like an alligator. It floated there for a while before sinking back into the murky waters; occasionally making ripples in the river’s surface then slinked out of sight. Now this was not strange for many reasons, rich guys bought animals like these to show off, maybe even because a little nephew asked that they wanted a pet alligator, the animals are bought young and when they grow to big are let out at rivers and since the Thames River goes right between London, what better place to take such an animal to? But still, that thing will cause some trouble before it’s caught and to think that maybe there will be a legend here concerning an alligator living in the sewers…

Anyways, back to what matters. At the time there isn’t much I can tell you. There’s a slice of the moon floating amongst a jet black sky and a small clutter of stars. There are a lot of clouds this night of nights which might mean that there will be rain soon, or, might mean that it’s already raining in some other part of London and I should worry about some of my own guys dumping a body in the river tonight, but it’s too early for that now, in any case they would wait until it was darker, easier to see for vampires but harder to see for any humans and who knows what else can crawl around London at this time and day, but if they did dump a body in this nice river tonight, there will be an alligator to feed. But that’s how it goes, though I’m quite sure there’s nothing to kill this night of nights, I haven’t heard of anything and it’s rare for anyone to work out of schedule unless they wanted their arses chewed off and handed back to them by Vince. Damn, I needed something else to think about besides Izan, it wasn’t like I had to think of Izan every damned minute of my life… then again I was Head… it was kind of my job, especially since there was no one else to fill in the position. Maybe I should go through what has to be done, but to tell you the truth, recently it has gotten quite boring over there, it’s not like there’s anything challenging now, of course it’s convenient because I have money now, much more than usual, but if there’s no challenged, what’s the fun? Either way I should stop my thoughts to direct from that general direction, it would get me to do something rash in order to make things interesting and there was no need for that sort of thing right now…

My train of thought was abruptly cut off by the sound of footsteps. I side-glanced at whoever it was, he was a male, young, late teens to be more accurate. Brown hair and he walked with a kind of… edge to him, I still couldn’t quite piece it together but there was some sort of nervous edge, not nervous… more like cautious edge to him. It was something that made him be more careful about what he did, that’s what it seemed. I risked breathing in and immediately identified him as a vampire. I also noted I was right about the water reeking like hell. Of course, other than that glance I gave him I paid no more attention to him and heard his footsteps get near and then get passed me. You would think the young man could continue walking and that would be then end of it. But there was a sudden missed stepped and then he was toppling forward, ready to make a face-plant, but he then grabbed around the edge of the bridge and managed not to make a face-plant. I think I might have actually hunched over in disappointment, I wanted this guy to do a face-plant, it would have amused me so much. But noooooo, he wanted to haul himself up, break the fall, whatever you wanted to call it. Damn him. I even mumbled a: “Damn it, he didn’t fall…” under my breath and turned my gaze away from him, hoping that when he tried to haul himself up he would fall to the river by some strange miracle.