Alexander walked nervously back to his house, his cane clicking on the cobbles being the only sound to be heard as he walked down the side street, the fog had thickened, rolling like wave as it crashed down in the city, muffling sound and making travellers lose their way. Alexander had taken a wrong turn in the fog and was now in a seedy part of London, where drunks lay in a stupor in the gutter and people recently evicted from the nearest den sat in the centre of the road gibbering to themselves or in a wide eyed, smiling fairyland as they lived in the little fantasy world the substances had brought to them. A few had grabbed at Alexander, trying to pull him down but he warded them off with a swift whack with the cane, "poor devils, if it were not for the fact they brought it upon themselves I would feel sorry for them."
"They get what's coming to them," Michael said, he had hitherto been silent since the arrival of the fog, he was still looking about with eyes that could not see, as if he expected something to jump from the fog. "If they wish to waste their mortal lives on something as menial as the pursuit of imaginary sheep, then let them, but they deserve everything that comes at them because of it, the madness, the sadness and the badness."
"No, that is not right, we should not let them end up like this, otherwise they are just wasting their existence."
Michael smiled broadly, "oh Alex, you can hear me," he shouted grabbing for Alexander, but his hands passed straight through him, Michael looked at his hands and tried to grabbed Alexander again, he frowned, "still can't touch ya though." Alexander cursed himself for acknowledging the apparition.
There was the sound of footsteps on cobbles heading towards Alexander from the direction he just came, he turned to see who it was, it was a man, a man in a suit and a top hat, but he could not see the face, it was hidden by the brim of the hat and the turned up collar of the scruffy coat, but that coat was familiar, that coat was splattered with blood, that coat belonged to a murderer. Faster than he could process what was going on, Alexander had gun in hand and cane at the ready, no-one would hear him from this narrow little road and if they did, they would assume him to be one of the bemused.
"Good morning," the voice that had haunted his nightmare the night before said, "I hear you've been telling tales on me,that's not very nice, you don't want to get involved in my affairs boy, this is more than you could imagine."
"I don't know what you are talking about," Alexander said, cringing at his wavering voice and his wavering pistol, "but you're a murderer and I'm going to take you to the Aurors."
The figure smiled, revealing sharp teeth, teeth for a carnivore, teeth that looked like they would soon be going for his neck, "that's a shame Alexander," Alexander started at the use of his name.
"How... how do you know my name?" Alexander fumbled.
The smile got larger, reminding Alexander of a shark that he once saw at Robert Gordon's museum, "I have my friends young man, it's a shame you are so stubborn, you have so much potential," he did not sound sad, in fact he sounded giddy with excitement. "You're going to die unnamed in this cobbled nowhere, then I will get that meal I wanted when you interrupted me," he lunged at Alexander, his nails outstretched, Alexander yelped and slipped on a cobble as he tried to dodge the maniac, Michael had vanished entirely. Alexander landed heavily on the cobblestones, his cane knocked from his wrist, he yelled in pain as his tailbone hit a cobble. From his seated position, Alexander pointed his gun at the cannibal and fired, but the man saw it coming and jumped high into the air, giving Alexander enough time to painfully get to his feet. Alexander took stock of his situation, he had five bullets left in his gun, his cane was in the fog, his wrist not holding the gun had hit something and was now in pain and he could not run away as his injured posterior did not allow for fast movement. He heard something land to his left, he whirled to face the sound, but could see nothing through the hated fog. Something hit him in the back of his left knee, forcing it to give way, Alexander collapsed to one knee, something hit him in the side of the head, sending him skidding across the slick cobbles.
Alexander was barely registering what happened as his his senses stopped, except for vision, which dulled, it looked like a misty twilight, which clouded both sight and mind. He watched as a shape he vaguely recognised walked towards him, he was a man in a suit, Alexander got the feeling he should be running, but could not remember why, so he ignored it as the usual stranger danger, he watched as the figure stopped in front of him so that his boots were by his nose.
Suddenly the boots turned and were knocked over, the figure fell and rolled into a crouching position, he growled at the new arrival, he was a man in a long, loose, tanned, leather jacket, the kind worn in the days of his father, the jacket was hooded and under the hood was a pair of glowing purely green eyes. There was a sudden roar as Alexander's hearing returned, he could hear the two men arguing, "you are not need here Nyctalope," the first said, "this mage is of no concern to you."
"Wrong," the newly identified Nyctalope said, his voice was deep and sounded like he was talking through a tin can, "you were attempting to kill him Jack, that is concern enough to me." He aimed a pistol at Jack, "now leave, or I'll shoot and I don't miss," Jack growled but sauntered away, without his hat, which he had lost at some point. Nyctalope walked over to Alexander, he picked three objects off the ground, a hat, a gun and a cane, he turned to Alexander, he pulled something from his coat pocket and suddenly there was a sharp prick in his neck and Alexander drifted into a dreamless unconsciousness.
