Chapter 1

Jordan crawled lazily out of his small tent, rose to his feet and took a deep breath of the cold night air. He felt the tremors in his hand starting up again, so with a grumble he marched over the chest he had hidden beneath the dirt.

"Shit, last one." He mumbled to himself, grabbing the final can of beer from the chest.

He quickly opened the can and drank down all of its contents. After finishing with a pleasured sigh, he cast the can into the ever-growing pile of rubbish against a nearby tree. The relief didn't last long however, Jordan knew it wouldn't be long before he needed more. He put on his purple winter jacket and thick, white cargo trousers and pushed his messy brown air out of his eyes. Jordan set out and pushed through the dense woods, heading to the city to get more money the best way he could. Theft.

Jordan already had his destination in mind. He picked his targets carefully and monitored their houses for days, making sure they had things worth stealing and would be gone long enough for him to strike. His target this time was a large house in a quiet neighbourhood, from the window it looked like he owned some fancy antiques. Prime pawnshop material, Jordan thought. He had learned a few things about him from intercepting mail, he was a middle-aged man named Martin who worked in a nearby university. He had long blonde hair with a matching beard and always wore the same blue clothes to work.

The crunching of frozen leaves ended as he left the woods, making it the pavement of Redborough. Jordan moved carefully through the streets, staying out of the way of any CCTV cameras and hiding his face from anyone passing by. He ducked through alleyways and climbed fences to cut through gardens, routinely looking over his shoulder the entire journey. A habit he had picked up to make sure nobody ever found his hidden home.

It didn't take him long to arrive, he ducked behind a bush across the street and peered at the house. He smiled as he saw that Martin's car was missing, he was at work just like usual. Jordan casually made his way over, knowing he had at least eight hours to get this done. Making his way to the back door, he retrieved his shiny steal lock pick from his pocket, crouched down and got started.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon." He muttered to himself.

This was taking longer than usual, Jordan thought. This lock was a higher grade than what he was used to. It actually excited him, a more expensive lock meant it was protecting more expensive goods. It only took a few more seconds for Jordan to crack it, silently open the door and slip inside.

"Let's have a good browse then." He whispered, rubbing his hands together.

Martin certainly had vintage taste, very old-fashioned furniture made up the rooms, with odd knickknacks lining the shelves. Jordan stuffed a few into his backpack and continued up the creaky stairs. Jordan raised an eyebrow as he entered Martin's bedroom, it was far different than the rest of the house. The rest seemed like they were owned by an old man but this was more like a child. Much more modern and colourful furniture, action figures and games consoles sat in the corner, with a large rack of games beside it, and posters of various bands lined the walls. Jordan shook away his confusion and got back to the task at hand, carefully unplugging and stealing the gaming equipment, then exiting the room. Just one room left and then he would be finished. He crossed the hall and entered what appeared to be a study.

This room shared the same old décor as the rest of the house. A small space with a couple bookshelves surrounding a single desk. Two objects on the desk immediately caught Jordan's eye. The first was a half-finished bottle of expensive rum, and an extremely old looking arrow.

"Jackpot." He said to himself as he inspected it. "Sammie loves this kind of stuff, bet I could get her to pay a good sum for this." Stuffing both objects into his pack, he readied to leave.

However, a sudden sound from outside cut his feeling of victory short. Jordan shut his mouth and listened carefully. It sounded like a car was pulling up outside. Jordan rushed out of the room as quickly as he could while remaining silent. He went down a few steps and peered out the window. Martin was home, and he was coming inside.

"Oh, fuck..." Jordan said aloud.

He leapt down the rest of the stairs and made a mad dash for the back door, accidently knocking over in his panic. He burst out the door and ran across the garden, quickly hopping a fence and breaking into a sprint.

Jordan's mind was racing. He was sure Martin would be gone longer, and there weren't any alarms in the house that would have brought him back. So why did he return? Jordan hated when things didn't go to plan, he spent days prepping just to make sure things always went how he wanted. This hadn't happened since his amateur days. He ducked through alleyways and an abandoned building, winding up on a quiet street. Thinking he was safe, Jordan took a minute to catch his breath, and glanced over his shoulder.

He was still in rapid pursuit, sprinting right for him. Jordan eyes widened and he got to running again but pay attention to where he was going. He planted his foot straight onto a patch of ice and crashed hard onto the floor. Jordan yelled out loudly, a piercing pain shot its way up his arm. He looked and saw that he in the fall the arrow had slashed his arm. He did his best to ignore the pain and get to his feet, the only thought in his mind was escape. But he wasn't fast enough, Martin reached out to grab him. Jordan wildly swung his fist out, Martin leaned back to dodge and raised his own fist, but suddenly stopped. His face changed to an expression of shock and fear, and he backed off quickly.

Jordan stood still, completely perplexed. Then caught site of his own fist. It was covered in bone. As if a skeleton had laid its hand on top of his own. His eyes darted over his whole body and it was the same, his whole body was covered in some kind of skeleton. Jordan saw the car next to him and looked into the window, seeing his own reflection. Even his face was now covered by a large skull, and its bones had deep engravings in it, all in the shape of a crescent moon.

"What the hell is this!" Jordan screamed.

"Precious!" Martin yelled in a booming voice.

Suddenly a large, multicoloured cube appeared next to him, it appeared as if it was made out of Lego. Jordan was overwrought with fear and confusion, and then a voice spoke to him from within his own mind.

"Drink..." It said roughly.

He didn't understand why, but somehow Jordan knew what it meant. He quickly dug through his back to retrieve the rum he had stolen. The urge to drink it was overpowering. He opened it up and drained it into his mouth. The moon engravings on the skeleton began to glow as the sweet liquid entered it. At the same time, Martin started to remodel his cube, changing its shape into that of a rifle.

"Now eat..." The voice commanded Jordan, and he knew what he had to do.

He dove to the car beside him, opening his mouth extremely wide, he latched his teeth onto the car and taking a massive bite out of it. He somehow was able to chew it with ease and swallow it just as Martin finished his gun. He aimed down its scope and pulled the trigger. A large bullet exploded out the barrel and hit straight into Jordan's leg, but simply bounced off. Jordan looked at himself once again, and this time his skin had changed. It had turned blue and metallic, just like the car, protecting him from damage. At that moment Jordan knew what to call this ability.

"Painkillers." He said quietly.

He leapt towards Martin and pulled back his first, then threw it forward into a devastating punch, but it was blocked. Martin had quickly remodelled his gun into a shield. He bashed it into Jordan's face and quickly backed away once more and began remodelling again, this time into a small pistol shape. Jordan wasn't deterred, feeling confident with his newfound power he dashed forward again, ready to take any attack. Martin finished his pistol and fired at Jordan's chest, two small rods with wires attached launched out and stuck into him. Jordan felt intense pain as electricity flowed through his entire body, sending him to the floor once again.

It took a few seconds before Martin stopped the shocks. While Jordan laid in the floor gasping for air, he walked over to where the arrow was on the floor and picked it up.

"We need to have a long talk." He stated.

To be continued...