Soul hated this place. Just about everything about it he hated. He hated how everyone looked at him as someone's younger brother. He hated living in someone's shadow, even if that person was nice to him. He hated how everyone, even his own parents, didn't pay any attention to him except to say that he wasn't as talented as his brother Wes.

He needed to get out of here, and not just out of the mansion, but out of the city too. Somewhere no one knows him, where he could be his own person without having to live up to someone's expectations of him.

He was trying to study in his room when he heard a violin sticking up the beginning chords to the mellow, yet hopeful American folksong Shenondoah. It really was beautiful; after all it was his brother playing it. But for some reason, the sound just irritated his nerves and made his stomach churn.

He groaned and grabbed his jacket and made his way down the many stairways to the outside in the cool autumn air. Now what was he to do? He didn't have anywhere to go, didn't have anything he needed to do besides studying. But he couldn't bear the thought of going back inside. Besides he's never liked studying anyways, so he started to just walk down the streets of Chicago.

People shoved past him as he walked down Main Street and he sighed. Even outside of his home no one paid any attention to him. But at least out here he knew that most people didn't pay any attention to anyone, so he didn't mind it so much, but still.

He continued to walk down the street when he heard a voice oozing smooth words, "Hey there girl, you wanna have a good time with me?"

Soul paused as he looked down the alley he almost passed. A tanned fit man in a navy button up shirt with several of the top buttons undone leaned over a girl with he left arm leaning against the wall with a sneer on his face. The girl looked rather frightened as she nervously said, "Um, no thanks. My friends are expecting me."

"Ah, c'mon. Your friends don't need you right now," he reached his hand over to caress her face.

"Hey, didn't you hear her? She said no, so back off and leave her alone."

They both looked over at him in surprise, and the guy glared at him. "Hey kid, we're busy. So why don't you go and play on the swings or something. Beat it."

"No I don't think I will, plus I may be younger than you, but I'm too old to play on the swings, totally not cool."

Since the guy was distracted by Soul the girl made a run for it past him. "Hey, get back here." The guy made a grab for her, but Soul stepped in front of him. "You know kid, you're starting to make me mad, and that's not a good thing for you." He reached for his back pocket and pulled out some brass knuckles.

Ah crap, just what he needed. The guy wanted to fight, but then Soul figured he should have expected that. "Nah, my work is done, see ya." He put his hands behind his head and turned and started strolling away. He didn't hear anything from the guy, so he guessed he just surprised the jerk.

"You think you can just walk away now punk?"

Damn, seemed like he wasn't surprised enough. Soul turned his head towards the guy and ducked when he swung the brass knuckles towards his head. "Dude, I'm not here to fight you know."

"Well you got a fight anyways!" he swung his hand towards Soul's stomach, and he instinctively moved his arms to block it. Damn, that was a bad idea, now he was going to get some broken arms. He wished he had a blade, of some kind. Wouldn't it be nice if one just appeared? Soul closed his eyes and braced for the impact.

The next second a strange feeling came over his arms, a cool smooth feeling, and then he heard a clang, as if metal hit metal. Then he felt pressure on his arms, and not the painful pressure of breaking arms that he was expecting. But it was just as if someone was pushing on his arms and that was it.

He opened his eyes a squint and first thing he saw was the guy's widened eyes, and gaping mouth. Then his vision focused on his arms, which were no longer arms. From the elbows to his hands they had transformed into slim curved black blades like scythes. Near the inner sharpened edge the blade it was red, jagged triangles separated the red from the black.

Huh, what happened to me? What's going on?

"What? You've got weapon blood in you? I'm out of here man." With that statement he stepped to the left of Soul and fled down the street running into people in his hast to get away.

What? Weapon blood? But no one in his family is a demon weapon, that he knew of anyways. And isn't that passed down from parent to child?

He looked at his arms again. So how do I get them to be hands again? With that thought, they smoothly transformed into his hands again. He slowly looked them over, squeezing his hands into fists then opening them. Then turned his palms up, then down again, like he's never seen them before.

Maybe he should head home and ask his family about this new development.