Without hesitating, Kiki ran as fast as her legs would allow. She clutched the hand of the strange young man who led her through the door whence she came. The creature followed swiftly, casting away its human ruse. The flesh seemed to dissolve behind the indigo scales of its true form. Kiki and the man ran past the paramedics that had just recently arrived; the creature disregarded them, however. They bolted through the front doors into the middle of the street and then the man suddenly stopped.
"This is perfect!" He spoke with such elation as he looked up at the sky. Kiki's fingernails dug in to the young man's hand as the creature stopped in front of them. "Three… Two… One." As the countdown reached its end, a cloud slowly floated away in the sky releasing a beam of sunlight. In an instant, the creature was doubled over in pain. Its body became covered in a deep-blue foam and it shrieked ear-piercingly at the young man, as if cursing him. Moments passed and the shrieking ceased, the foam dissolved and the creature was no more.
Kiki fell to her knees and released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "What… What was that?" she gasped. She releases the young man's hand as he crouched next to where the creature had died. "And—and… Just who are you?" she yelped.
The young man stood and offered Kiki his hand. "I'm the Doctor. Pleased to meet you." He grinned at Kiki the same way he did in the library. For some reason, it was relieving to Kiki; to see a smile after something so vile.
"Doctor? Doctor who?" Kiki's eyebrows twitched in confusion.
"Just 'the Doctor'." Another grin. "As for him," the Doctor gestured the ground, "This was a life form known as a Vitaphagia. Literally a life-eating creature; it sucks the life out of its victims and adds it to its own lifespan. They aren't the brightest things, though. They're quite gullible, really. Did you see how easily we fooled this one?"
"Fooled it? How? And if it's not human, then why did it have a human face… and human skin, even?" Kiki's voice shook.
"Well, it uses the shell of the life-form it drains as a type of armor, so to speak. See, your sun gives off a type of UV radiation—a radiation that the Vitaphagia cannot withstand. It's poison to them, really. Your human skin can withstand that radiation. And so…" The Doctor, again, nodded to the ground. "…they wear your skin. Not bad for low intelligence creatures." The Doctor cleared his throat. "When this one chased after us, it removed its armor to intimidate us. However, that worked against him, as you can see. Not the brightest, eh?"
Just then, the paramedics met with Kiki and the Doctor. One was a short stocky man who reeked of ham and the other was a tall, slender man who had stubble that thinly covered his face. The two looked at the Doctor expectantly and then to Kiki. "You mind telling us what the hell that was?" The stocky man yelled as the slender man looked at where the creature used to be.
"That… was… um… That was—" The Doctor itched behind his ear as he tried to formulate a story in his mind.
"Special effects for my student film. See, my brother," Kiki nudged the Doctor, "is helping me out and… Well, we're sorry for the scare. Anyhow, as for Ms. Winchester, the librarian, over there, she offered to be an extra, but she slipped and bumped her head." Kiki chimed in. It was a believable story. The Doctor nodded in agreement.
The Doctor began to pat himself down. With worry on his face, he looked to Kiki. "Do you have the camera?"
Kiki feigned surprise—though she hardly had to considering her heart was still racing. "No, I thought you had it. Don't tell me you're going to make me do the scene over!" She began to follow the Doctor back into the library. Looking back to the paramedics she said: "Again, sorry about the scare! And thank you for showing up so quickly!"
"Student film, eh? Glad they bought it. Nice thinking, by the way." The Doctor said as Kiki caught up with him. The front doors of the library were slightly off of their hinges and there were large scrapes decorating the ground and the door's frame.
"Yeah, well… A lot of the people around here are film nuts. Probably because we're so close to Hollywood, so it's not that hard to believe." Kiki laughed nervously. This man who called himself "the Doctor"… Kiki was unsure if she should be afraid of him or not. This man led that creature to its death and thought nothing of it afterwards. "My name is Kiki, by the way." She said.
"Kiki, eh? Well, Kiki, I suspect that there are more Vitaphagia still hanging around here… but what is it that they want…?" the Doctor was mumbling to himself.
Kiki took a deep breath, she wanted with all of her heart to trust this young man. He saved her life, why should she fear him? "So what are you going to do now?" she asked.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder. "Oh, wait until another one of these Vitaphagia shows up… Try to reason with it; get it to leave. Why do you ask?"
"It's just that I've never seen you around here before… and my mother is making stew for supper. She always makes too much and, well, would you mind joining us for supper? I mean, you did just save my life, I want to thank you properly." Kiki smiled hopefully. And it would be nice to have three people at supper again, she thought.
"Ah… Mmm…" The Doctor sighed. "All right, but just this once." Kiki felt elated; as if a weight that had been set upon her for such a long time had been lifted. She happily began to lead the Doctor back to her home.
They walked beside each other in silence for a long while, breathing in the crisp Autumn air. Kiki would sometimes look up at the Doctor, taking in his odd clothing—a grey button-down under a plaid orange sweater-vest with a navy blue suit over top of it all—his deep brown hair, and most of all, his eyes. His eyes mesmerized Kiki; they were such old, wise eyes… perhaps not even human eyes. "So how did you know what that creature was, anyway?"
"Oh, well, you know." The Doctor looked at Kiki and scratched behind his head. "I, umm, let's just say I travel around a lot. I've seen a lot of places, met people and things you've never even heard of." He grinned. "Rest assured I'm not one of them."
"A traveler called 'The Doctor'…" Kiki mumbled. "Well, here's my building! My mom and I live on the top floor—that apartment there with the orchids on the balcony."