Twilight leaves the dark inner city alley in a phantom glow. Everything is a shadow cast by another shadow. In the dim moonlight, you can see that the girl has been beaten severely. The glimmer of tears running down her cheeks even more prominent in the dark as she meets a brick wall and turns to face the street she came from.
Four men enter the alley and march determinedly towards her. The tallest of the group in front. It's obvious that he's the leader of this gang. He's got the jewelry, the chains, the smirk that shows he knows he's going to get what he wants.
The girl, stammering and pleading presses her back to the grimy wall, as if she could somehow fall through it to the other side, away from her tormentors.
"P-please, don't... please... t-take my m-money... anything!"
"Anything's just fine, sweetheart." The thug up front said in a grossly sincere tone, to the cacophonous laughter of his crew. They closed in on her, and as the leader pinned her to the wall, he pulled a small pocket knife from his leather jacket's pocket.
"I already know what I want from you."
The boys cheered on their boss as he started tearing off the screaming girl's jacket, then her shirt. They never noticed that the alley just gained a new occupant.
"I would stop there if I were you."
All four men jerked their heads back to the entrance of the alley in surprise, almost comically so. For a second, they had trouble registering who they saw before them.
It was obviously another girl. But what she wore bordered on ridiculous. She wore an all white suit that hugged every inch of her body. A thick array of fur softer than down feathers obscured most of her outline, though. You couldn't instantly recognize her as human. And to top it off, she wore a black mask that resembled some coyote or wolf over her face. The eyeholes of which seemed to almost glow with a pale bluish flame.
She stood very politely, straight up as a board, with her hands behind her back, which were clutching a very ornate bow.
Her masked face tilted to one side, as if confused.
"You still haven't let her go. I wonder; is it from shock, or ignorance?"
The gang's leader scowled and put the frightened girl down, and she pushed herself into the corner, cowering. It was obvious that she wasn't very old. Probably high school age. Maybe.
"And what the fuck are you supposed to be, princess?" the thug demanded.
"I am one of two," the strange girl responded. "And two of many, who have sworn to do good and cast judgement."
He scowled even further. The flare of his nostrils could hold the answers to the universe.
"You're that Lamb chick, ain't'cha? You fucking heroes don't know how to have a good time. How about you leave me and my boys here to it, and I promise we won't break that pretty little body of yours too?"
The girl known as Lamb laughed. She giggled! Her voice carried and echoed throughout the small alley and onto the city block behind her. It was charming and ghostly, so out of place in the situation that drew it forth.
Her voice suddenly dropped, almost to a whisper, as she pointed to the half-naked teenager in the corner and said "The only person leaving this alley tonight will be her."
The boss grinned wickedly. Everybody in his group had drawn their handguns the moment Lamb began talking. One of them nonchalantly toyed with the trigger, whispering "pow! pow!", just loudly enough for her to hear.
"What are you gonna do if I don't want her to go, babe? My boys can drop you quick, and you ain't got no backup. You're just a bitch with a mouth, 's'all."
Lamb gently replied, "The wolf never strays far from the hunt. Are you there, dear Wolf?"
"I am, little Lamb..."
The cruel and excited voice that spoke those words came from right behind the boss. He spun on his heels and pulled his own pistol out, only to see the brick wall he had pinned the helpless girl to. To his surprise, she had gone as well. Nowhere to be found in an alley that led to nowhere.
"Wha- how?" He stammered.
Suddenly, a darkness began to seep through the cracks in the masonry. This was no darkness you may know. Light shone no outline on it, nothing reflected off this impenetrable shade as the dark fog continued to spill forward. A face emerged from the black, massive and canine. The face of which also bore a mask, pure white, with the same fiery eyes as Lamb's. A great tongue shining blue lolled from the monster's open maw as legs and a great hound's body followed this phantom form.
A deep, growling chuckle sounded deep in the beast's chest as it began to pace circles around the leader, cutting him off from his crew, who now shivered with fright.
"You reek of death," Wolf pointed out to his quarry. "I can smell the lives cut short by your hands, Elias."
"M-m-my name..!" The boss was shocked to hear this monster speak, much more know who he was.
Lamb stepped forward, closer to the four now turned five. "We have always known it," she said. "You are meant to live long, well into your eighties. Did you know that?"
"We did!" Wolf exclaimed, halting his pacing as he looked happily, straight into Elias's eyes, before returning to his steady gait.
Elias licked his lips nervously. "Oh yeah?"
Lamb sighed. "Yes, you were. And did you also know that many of the people you've killed were meant to live just as long? Those were our kills."
"They were our prey!" Wolf barked. The fur on his back rose nearly straight up. His growls sounded like burning timber, straining from the fire within.
"It's such a shame that a life as long as yours should be, must be cut so short, but you've given us no choice."
Lamb took another step and moved her bow so that it was now in front of her body. The moonlight causing the embossed designs across the weapon to glimmer beautifully.
All three of Elias's cohorts raised their guns and took aim before she spoke again.
"But you still have a choice, Elias. Whether to accept your fate and pass peacefully into death..."
"Or run and fight and deny your end!" Wolf interjected, cackling at his own humor.
Silence pierced the veil of night as everyone waited for an answer. Seconds turned to minutes, and still, no one moved. Beads of sweat rolled down Elias's brow as Wolf's heavy panting warmed his side.
A car passed by, catching Wolf's attention for half a second; but that was all Elias needed. He drove his knee into Wolf's side, sending him into the side of a nearby dumpster, and barreled towards the street with inhuman speed.
Before his crew could even react, Lamb nimbly leapt to the side to avoid the dangerously quick Elias and fired three spectral arrows, each one finding their way to the hearts of his subordinates; killing them instantly.
Lamb looked to Wolf, as he rose from the dirt where he lay. He shook himself off, as dogs do, obviously uninjured.
"He flees." Lamb spoke as if to an audience.
Wolf bared his teeth. "Then the Hunt is on!" He sprinted out onto the city street and ran after Elias, the cloudy darkness still trailing off behind him.
Lamb stood in contemplation for a second before leaping to a nearby fire escape and up onto the rooftops to give chase. Elias was charging down the middle of the street at blistering speeds, nearly fifty miles an hour. It was going to be a long chase, but that didn't bother Lamb or Wolf. The joy of the kill came from a good Hunt.