The security guard started his job in high spirits. Sure, EVOs were everywhere, but thanks to government forces they seemed to be under control.
As he patrolled the same corridors every night for two years the young man started to notice the sun scorning at his very presence. It started with a tingle, but when months passed it burned at him. Friends became strangers that whispered so loudly he stopped talking to them.
Food filled him less and less, until the most succulent food turned to ash and cardboard in his mouth.
The light got worse...the sun...streetlights...and during his shifts he found it difficult to patrol all but the darkest of corridors. Thieves weren't common at work, and he found he had time to realise that thought started to slip from his grasp.
One night he felt drained, as though the very air around him was sucking the life out of him. Ignoring the calls of a leaving janitor the guard stumbled his way into the quiet solace of the tiny storage room.
The roar of static of his radio made him cry out in anguish before crushing the offending appliance with wing struts that were slowly ripping out of his back.
Rest...a long, peaceful slumber held him as voices drifted towards him. Even as he slept he grew aware of the changes that shredded his clothes.
His legs fused into a jagged tail while ink-like texture covered his skin. The wing struts mutated further, turning into long foldable hooks that wrapped around him. Skin formed over them like felt, turning them into slick flexible wings. Far too feeble for flight he would later learn. The head extended as the eyes moved, revealing a large mouth that made up a featureless face that could move and twist in unnatural angles thanks to an elongated neck. Each eye grew large and black, only highlighted by yellow irises that went to his chest and back respectively. With height came bony three fingered claws that twitched as the thumbs half fused to his wrists that made them sturdy as he grasped the floor.
When awareness returned the monstrous eye gazed up at the blinding spears of light, and his cries of agony were met with yells of surprise. Knowledge of words slipped from the EVO apart from a few.
"Monster" the People cried. "Kill it"..."bad"..."EVO".
He took little heed of those words, brushing them aside with his wings as he slithered away from the searing light.
A see-through wall shattered as he sought a place of peace, making his way into a dreary manor.
Cursed the People said. Refuge the EVO learned.
Time slipped away from the creature, and so did memories. They fell away, leaving fragments. All except the important ones.
A ripped picture of a girl he kept with him, as it called to him.
The rest of what he had he threw away, leaving them as garbage.
Voices quivered along the walls he perched on.
There were no EVOs around as he killed them. Disgusting creatures. Dirty creatures. Unclean.
He slithered in the murky darkness, spying shimmering People. One moved right under him and he struck, dragging the wailing creature with him to the attic. The others ran off, leaving the victim to die.
As the shadow EVO held the shivering Person in his tail he examined it, fuelling his hunger. There was something behind its eyes he could see and he opened his mouth. His teeth were impressive, but the creature could only feel the monster's breath against its face like slick oil.
Foreign thoughts slammed into the captor, giving him memories, feelings and sanity. And with glee he siphoned those up, making the shimmering colours come to him. As he fed he felt his own thoughts return to him. But then it faded away as the Person stared through him.
Rage and grief flooded the EVO, who threw the broken creature away.
It started to wander from him and when he lost sight the rage changed into loss. Frantic he recollected the mindless creature. It stroked his head with a lazy smile on its face.
The Guest he kept was easy enough to look after. He let it sit on a seat he found there. Most of the time it stared or slept, and soon it didn't offer any mind to eat.
He had to get another.
A chance gave him a suited Person in an alley. An EVO had been there recently, and he was unprepared to share his food with the dirty creature. The Person held up more of a fight than the first one, shooting something that passed through him. The flashes of light made him hiss before swiping the weapon away, using his tail to drag the new guest to his home.
Little did he know that the Person he kidnapped had a tracking beacon on him, neither did he know that Providence was going to come for him in an hour.