Chapter One:
Hero took in the last drag of her cigarette and exhaling the smoke from her lungs slowly in a sigh that could only be interpreted as frustration. The smoke clung to the air around her as she extinguished the remaining nub in her burger, which she had nibbled at before deciding the nausea and anxiety made it impossible to eat her feelings away, and that drinking copious amounts of alcohol was a far better solution. A folded letter sat open on the table next to her clenched fist:
"Dear Miss Sutton,
We regret to inform you that your application to The University of Bournmouthe has been declined. We thank you for your interest in our school."
After having looked over letter multiple times, she chuckled to herself and dumped the remaining contents of her beer bottle over it; maybe the puddle of rotting hops would wash away the shame of yet another disappointing reply as it did the sting of disappointment. Hero gathered her belongings and left the pub, venturing out into the night. The misery of her failure was slightly alleviated by the tepid misty night air which swirled around her, and the wonderful buzz which had started to creep up on her. Yet, Hero could think only about the disappointment of her parents, the obligation to shelter her as she made ends meet week after week, month after month. The thought of another day performing unpleasant, menial tasks for the hordes of ungrateful consumers; was this really the final product of all she had dreamed of doing, was this to be her life? Her friends had all flown the nest, and her neighbors had all slowly escaped the cul-de-sac and had started new lives and careers for themselves; Hero Sutton remained stagnant, stuck in a world filled with commercial hair products, dog food, and vitamins. She laughed at herself, thinking of the thousands in hard-earned money her parents wasted putting her through private school, providing their little art prodigy her with the best education that she might someday become the voice of the next generation. What a joke.
She stumbled listlessly down the road, through alleyways to her flat, the drunkenness amplifying as her miseries faded into the back of her mind.
She was a few feet away from home, at the point of being barely coherent when she saw a rather curious thing; the lawn of her neighbor was littered with a variety of cherub statues. How could she not have noticed them before? Perhaps being slightly inebriated was causing her to see more than there actually were. Hero's subconscious told here to keep moving towards the safety of her house, so she moved quickly to the front stoop, when she thought she heard the sound of small feet running and laughter behind her. Hero turned sharply only to find no one there. She was pressed up against the front door, her breath grew jagged, and a shiver rose from the ground, through her spine, to the top of her head. Though it was fear that made her stomach churn, it also stirred curiosity willing her feet to move towards a dark alleyway just around the corner where she pinpointed the sound of a garbage can spilling over. Her feet reached the edge of the shadows where she paused momentarily to process what was actually happening. Perhaps it was an urban fox scavenging in the cover of night, or a stray. There was no need for her to linger on drunken delusions.
The pitter-patter of small feet running across pavement echoed out of the black; another shiver rolled up Hero's body.
Something was moving in the dark.
Hero inched forward, unable to shake the feeling something might snatch her and pull her into the darkness; unable to resist finding out the source of her fears. She was jarred from her thoughts by the feeling of a hand grasping her wrist tightly and abruptly jerking her backwards causing her to stumble backwards onto her arse. Startled, Hero looked up to see a curious looking fellow standing in front of her.
He was rather tall and awkward looking, with brown tufts of hair sticking up everywhere. He was wearing a pinstriped suit which would look rather dashing had he not been wearing a pair of dirty trainers. The expression on his face was rather curious: wide brown eyes filled with pure terror and a small hint of glee, accented by the lifting of his left eyebrow. He breathed heavily through clenched teeth showing that he had run a considerable distance to get to her. He was staring pensively into the dark alley.
"Oi! What's your problem, mate?" Hero shouted at him.
Keeping his eyes fixed on the alley, he swiftly lifted his index finger to his lips, "Shhhh! I'm not here to harm you, I'm here to help." He paused a moment, as small chortles and more footsteps spilled out of the blackness. The funny-looking man then continued, "In that alley is something terrible, one of the worst creatures imaginable."
"What? What do you mean? What's in there?" Hero asked standing up.
"Never mind that right now. If you want to get out of this alive, I need you to help me"
"Are you mental," Hero retorted, walking up behind him "Why would I-"
The funny man, clapped his hand over her mouth. His large eyes remained straight forward, unblinking, "That really wasn't a request. I need you do listen closely; look straight into the alley, and when I say run, we run, okay? " Hero nodded at him daftly. "Oh, and I cannot stress this point enough, but…DO NOT BLINK!"
Hero felt a long pair of limbs wrap around her legs and lift her off of the ground. Hero screeched in shock as she was flung over the man's shoulders. The Alley was suddenly shrinking away as they darted through the night.
"What the hell? What are you doing?! Get off me!" Hero cranked her neck around to see where they were going.
"GYYYAAHHH, KEEP LOOKING AT THE ALLEY, DON'T LOOK AWAY! LOOKLOOKLOOK!"
"Okay, geeze, you psycho." Hero looked back, a cherub statue was suddenly a short distance behind them in the middle of the street. "What is that?!"
"Just keep looking at it, and don't blink I'll get us to a safe place," the man panted, running as fast as their combined weights would allow.
"Don't blink? That is a hell of a lot more difficult than it sounds."
Hero tried to ignore the stinging in her eyes. The night air rushed all around her, the sound of shoes hitting pavement filled her ears, and despite the nausea caused by the bouncing created by the man running with her draping over his shoulder, Hero Sutton had never felt so alive.