SoulCoil

((Putting in a introductory starter, riiiight here. Feel free to reply. :^) ))

Finally, it was gone….well, most of it at least.

Kai stepped down from the fire escape and landed on the pavement of the alley. His heart was pounding, his lungs screaming for air, his head hurt like hell, and he honestly needed to lie down someplace for awhile and wait out the pain―it was fine though. He could go home and rest easy for now. But before he could head back, the first thing he checked was his glasses; and he took them from his face and inspected the lenses. They looked alright. Once he saw that they were clean, he promptly returned them to their rightful place.

This game was dark. He definitely knew he had problems before, but, this thing, it had unlocked something he never thought he possessed. His brows furrowed ever so slightly as he realized this.

“Huh…. I’m a murderer now.”

One of the more less anticipated reactions, definitely. But Kai had harbored this sort of deep, dark hatred for that one person for a long, long while. So much so that it might have gotten out of hand once or twice, and he vaguely thought about doing unspeakable things to them. It was really only a matter of time before he could finally get his chance. ….But, now that it was done, there was a whole bunch of other competition he had to think about. His life couldn’t get any better, could it? There was no use in sulking about it now. All he had to do was lay low and strike out when he needed to. As numerous thoughts and possibilities set in his mind, his head turned slightly towards the deeper, more shadowed parts of the alley. His gaze met with a pair of glowing, blue eyes.

“....Are you just going to sit there and stare at me? Or do you have any suggestions?” It was clear that he was a little bit out of it, since he only just killed a person and all. The eyes moved forward, and from the shadows a large, silver tiger had appeared.

“If you have a clear goal in mind….” The Revenant trailed off.

He only shook his head slightly. “I don’t have a wish. Not yet, anyways. I’ll think about it.” Without saying another word, he turned and headed out of the alley and onto the open sidewalk. His Revenant stayed silent, and only followed. They might have walked about a block or two in complete quiet, with the only sounds not being their words, but the ambient noises of the city at night.

Sooner or later, Kai slowed down. “The contestants are randomly chosen. What sort of people do you think are in the game, Yawen?”

There was a moment of silence before he only received a slight shrug in response from her.

“Hmm, figured that much.” With that, they kept walking along with no clear destination in mind.

All these weeks. So many sleepless nights and caution and all the pretending. He'd been so careful not to stare at any of the strange things he'd seen.

And here he was, standing on the street, gawking at ghost flames. Not the tiger they were attached to - apparently that was fine. But the fire... What the hell was happening to him?

A boy was talking to the Revenant, Enri finally noted, and he seemed a bit off. Not like that Vera girl. More like...

Heh. He looks like I did after my first job.

Sense screamed at Enri to keep his head down. To walk the other way. Run the other fucking way.

Too bad his mouth wasn't listening.
"Hey, there!" He waved to the boy from across the street. "Can you tell me the time? Phone's dead and my watch wound down a few days ago."

The two were about to turn the corner when they heard someone calling from a couple of feet away. Kai turned, adjusting his glasses a bit and saw someone on the sidewalk across the street waving to him. First he glanced down at Yawen, then back to the man.

Yawen narrowed her eyes. "....He wants the time."

Kai frowned ever so slightly. "I heard what he said." He pulled his phone from his pocket, quickly checking the time before looking up to the man across the street. "It's ten thirty-four!" He made sure his voice was raised enough so the other could hear.

In the time the boy took to answer, Enri did his best to commit his face to memory. Young, though not quite a boy like Enri originally thought. Dark hair, glasses, reserved style that made Enri suddenly very aware of how one side of his own coat was caught on the seam of his jeans and rumpled asymmetrically.

The corner of his mouth pulled slightly as he fought the urge to frown.

"Ten thirty-four?" He repeated, then nodded. "Thanks."

He let his eyes slide past the Revenant without focusing on it, though they almost paused on those flames again. Then he nodded one last time, waved, and turned as though to head down a side street.

He too studied the man with a close, critical eye. The most prominent feature that stood out to him was the man's eyes. What an unnatural color.... Putting his phone back into his pocket, he gave a nod as the man thanked him.

"Yawen," Kai began. "Call me crazy; I thought I just saw him look right at you."

During that whole interaction, the tiger's eyes never left the man. "....It isn't too far fetched. I thought I saw it too."

"Assumptions will get us nowhere, though." He turned away again, continuing to go on his way. "Let's get home. I'm tired." There was a pause before Yawen turned as well and followed behind him.

Once down the street a little ways and sure he wasn't followed, Enri finally exhaled and pressed his back against a wall. He let himself slide down it until he rested in a deep squat, staring at the ground.

The hell were you thinking? You could've been killed! And then where would you be? Nostalgia's no excuse to throw good sense out the window! ¡Pendejo!

After a few deep breaths, he leaned back and slid the rest of the way down to take a proper seat. "Lucky they didn't follow, I guess."

And for the briefest moment, his brain toyed with the idea of following them.
Thankfully, it was tossed aside and he got back to his feet. He'd done enough 'bold' bullshit for the night. Time to head back.

"Won't this be something to tell the cat," he mused.