Wren
Ch. 13
“He’s heading out through the Maury street exit, if you leave out the front and circle around you should be able to head him off.”
Rich nodded, and quickly walked away, towards the front of the building, glad to finally be done waiting. After exiting, he immediately turned left to go around the side of the building, not even noticing that it was now dark out. After rounding the corner, he saw the target down the road, maybe 100 feet past the exit he’d used. Rich decided to tail him for a while, and try to take him out somewhere where there weren’t people. The campus got a lot of foot traffic, even at night. They’re not people. Rich told himself, unsure if it was to reassure himself or try to figure out the blackmailer’s motives. They’re just shape changers, they’re not sapient, they may not even be sentient. And even if they were, I’ve killed people before. Not since Alex, but it’s no different. In fact, it should be easier, since these aren’t people. It was no use, Alex had changed him. He couldn’t kill people anymore without feeling guilty, as if it wasn’t enough to feel guilty about his past murders, and about falling for Alex in the first place.
The target turned down an alley. Rich stopped just around the corner from it. He was hesitant. He didn’t want to do it, and was trapped in his own thoughts. So much so, that he didn’t hear the noises from the other side of the corner. I just have to do it. I can’t think about it. It’s me or him. He jumped around the corner and stabbed the target right in the chest. But he didn’t. Coming down from his adrenaline high, he realized that the person he stabbed wasn’t the same as the shape changer he’d been tailing. The man he just stabbed was holding a dagger, and was standing in a pile of flesh colored goo. Shit. Must have been a mugging gone wrong.
The victim slumped to the ground. Rich was left holding a blood-soaked dagger. What the fuck do I do now? He wiped the blood off of his dagger with the inside of his coat. He was grateful that he was wearing a dark color. He couldn’t do much about the smell without using magic. And he couldn’t use magic to get rid of the body without aging himself nearly to death. He wasn’t sure he wanted to use magic anyway. He regretted using fifteen years to keep himself alive. He knew he’d regret spending another ten on a random mugger even more. He sheathed his dagger and thought. So I’m maybe half a mile from the university. I think south. That means… Rich closed his eyes and listened. Through the usual noises that come with any city, he could hear running water. That means I’m near the river. I just need to figure out how to get the body from here to there without anybody seeing. He walked to the opening of the alley and looked both ways. There was nobody coming. He walked over to the corpse and used a few months to close the skin over the wound. Hopefully now whoever finds him will just think he drowned. He then hoisted him onto his back. If anyone asks, he’s just drunk, and I’m taking him home. He took a few steps before feeling him shift slightly. The man was alive, or at least breathing, for the moment. Well I don’t know how to feel about this. He’s alive, so I didn’t kill someone, but I only treated the surface wound, so he’s still pretty damaged. And if he lives, he’ll be able to identify me. Still, I’d rather not have any more death on my hands than I have to. I’d better take him to a temple. And Rich started heading north towards the closest temple he knew of, the temple of Kesis, the goddess of deceit.