He didn't know what else to do.

His inexperience counted against him in the form of battle. He knew he'd put up a pretty good fight to fend off his elders, but there was only one of him and too many of them. He stood no chance. The hunter instinct inside of him recoiled in disregard as his feet skimmed across the snow covered soil, his legs carrying him swiftly across the rough terrain to the lair where he'd been created not too long ago. Despite the burning desire he had to turn around and try again to turn the game around and be the one doing the hunting, he knew it would be futile. He was too badly wounded, his strength dented.

He narrowed his gaze as he quickly approached the lair ahead of him, looming like a golden dome of refuge in the stark blackness of the world. He glared when Gahiji appeared in his path, blocking the entrance. Putting more energy into his feet and quickening his pace, he braced himself and put his head down.

The impact was loud and sent sparks of pain shooting through him. He rolled off his elder quickly, a glimmer of gleeful triumph bubbling up inside of him when he noticed he was inside the lair. He quickly backtracked up against the wall and glared furiously back at his elder.

"You are uninvited, get out!" Gahiji roared but stopped short when the echoing sound of a sharp slap cut through the room.

The girl glared at Gahiji with eyes as hot and scorching as fire, her hand resting on his chest where she'd hit him. She was literally fuming – he could nearly make out the curls of steam rising from her golden skin.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She shouted, her voice soaked in venom and her tone dangerous.

It was a moment before he realized she wasn't shouting at Gahiji but at him. He returned her gaze malevolently. He'd at least have expected his creator to have a bit more compassion for him, but then it was wrong that he would even think that at all – there was no warmth in this world, no place where he could possibly be safe, nothing he could rely on for his survival except for his own power, and at that moment he was so badly weakened he could barely stand.

The girl stepped away when Gahiji snickered maliciously.

He flattened himself against the wall as she stepped up to him. It was no mystery how shadow men tamed and taught their own creations, though she didn't rip into him as he'd expected, not physically at least. Her small hands were surprisingly firm when she cupped his chin roughly and her eyes were smouldering with anger as she studied his face.

"They tore off your wings, did they?" She frowned angrily and yanked his face closer to hers. "I did not create a weakling. You are not their toy."

Their eyes locked. Understanding dawned on him. He didn't have to play their game – he simply had to cut it short. He could sense the determination, the rage vibrating off the petite girl before him. At him. She wasn't angry at his elders for messing him up – she was angry at him for not stepping up to the plate. She knew better than he did what he was capable of. She created him, after all, he could hide nothing from her. Just like he couldn't mask the overwhelming urge he now had to step outside, weakened as he was, and show his elders a thing or two. His palms tingled in anticipation, and as though his creator could sense the sudden change in him, she stepped aside. He felt her eyes on him as he brushed past Gahiji, giving the older shadow man a glowering look before stepping out into the whirlwind of flashing teeth and reaching claws that awaited him hungrily.

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Taking a deep steady breath he breezed into his lair – a gothic castle of sorts with each room and hallway decorated in another theme, from a space ship to a desert and even a forest. He loved his lair because it was so massively varied. He could change his appearance to suit whichever setting he 

stepped into. Though right that moment, he was too full and tired to shift into anything other than the red cloak he was wearing.

He spotted his ghostly wolf trailing behind him down the hallway and brought forth a fresh human leg from behind his back like a magic trick. His pet had done well in his last game – it deserved a treat. He whipped the leg into the air where it stayed, suspended. He watched in amusement as the Lurker jumped again and again to try reach it, snarling canines snapping at it hungrily. It wasn't long before the pleasure he got out of the game became dull and he lost interest. The leg was released from its suspended position and the wolf locked it into its powerful jaws before it could hit the ground. He watched the wolf slip down the hallway and out of sight before he turned and stepped through the mahogany door beside him, gargoyles carved beautifully into the wood and eyeing him wearily as he drifted past.

Smiling in morbid satisfaction, he reflected on his latest game. His appetite had been insatiable as of late so when he was summoned by a group of seven children who were curious about the things in the dark, it had been convenient. He tricked them and lured them into the shadow world; it wasn't that difficult to trick humans. Especially the children, who were so dumbly innocent that they were the prime target for many shadow men. The adults had a bit more sense but humans were curious by nature. He himself had his own share of human adults throughout time, but it was so much more entertaining to play with the children.

He'd simply gone on the knowledge of a fairytale their parents had told them the night before and played on that. He'd been the wolf disguised as their 'mother', and he'd taken immense pleasure in dragging out the game of hide and seek once they were fooled and 'allowed' him into their house.

He pulled the first child out from under the most obvious hiding place, the table, and enjoyed tearing into the human flesh, the painful screams of the child filling the room. He could still hear the ghostly echoes of the screams in the back of his mind. The other children had been too afraid to move from their hiding spots, but he found them, one by one.

The second child he'd set his wolf upon, and the Lurker had delighted in biting through the covers of the bed, mutilating the child trapped beneath the sheets. The third child had for some ridiculous reason hidden inside the oven and he'd turned it on, crouched down, and watched in twisted amusement as the child baked and roasted to death, the squealing screams slightly muffled by the thick oven door that he'd firmly kept closed. The fourth child had been huddled into a paralyzed ball in the corner of the kitchen, staring in blind terror, and seeing no challenge in killing that one he merely set the Creeper upon it, watching sadistically as the phantom snake painfully slowly swallowed down the child.

The fifth child had been hiding in the cupboard and he had taken great pleasure in suddenly appearing in the dark beside the child who, to his disappointment, seemed to convulse into some comatose state before dropping dead. The sixth child had been cowering beneath the washbasin and had been quite the sport, demanding what he wanted from them and attempting to negotiate. He'd listened indifferently to the child's bribes before sinking his teeth into it after his stomach gave another rumbling warning. The seventh child had been hilarious, however, hiding inside the grandfather clock case. It had leapt from its hiding post before he could even make his way toward it and fell to floor by his feet, begging and pleading in a sobbing wreck for mercy before it promptly scrambled to its feet and tried to run. He'd been laughing as he chased the child, which he eventually trapped in a corner and somehow the hunt had made that last one all the more tastier.

He crossed the crimson oriental rug in the spacious room and halted abruptly when he heard a heavy sigh. He turned and eyed the girl spread out on the two-seater couch. She was dressed in a white gown that flowed softly around her and contrasted against the wine red of the goth-style couch. She was running a distracted finger across the base legs of the couch, admiring the halogen lights curiously.

"What have you been up to?" Faye asked lazily.

"Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein." He answered, studying her for another moment before settling himself on a couch opposite her.



Her gaze was sharp when she looked up at him and she grimaced at him. "Wipe your mouth, Julian, for crying out loud, you're not an animal."

"Aren't I?" Julian grinned nastily but did as she asked. He observed her crucially. "Did you lose a game to Gahiji or something?"

"No." Her reply was curt and she didn't look at him. Instead she covered her face with her hands and her shoulders heaved. She mumbled something under her breath, and he caught her words.

"What do you mean you don't know what you are anymore?" Julian snorted and Faye lifted a troubled gaze to stare back at him. "You're one of us – you're like me. Just... a little different." Julian frowned hard and sat up, wringing his hands together. "Alright then. Who did what, I'll go put them in their place."

"Aljunnu, please don't be stupid." Faye groaned, slumping back into the couch. "You're very naive. Nothing is wrong. This is just the way that I am."

Julian held his hands up in mock surrender but his gaze didn't leave her. Something was definitely wrong. She met his gaze evenly and sighed.

"The Wolf and the Seven Young Children?" Faye pressed lightly. "Isn't that a German fairytale or something? Was it someone's nightmare?"

"No. I was the wolf." Julian replied and arched his eyebrows animatedly when Faye looked sick for a moment. "I was hungry," He said in a defence.

"Something tells me the fairytale didn't end with the mother returning home and cutting open the wolf to free her children." Faye wrinkled her nose. "How could you eat goats anyway? Do they taste nice?"

Julian burst into laughter until he realized she was serious. "Why would I eat a goat when there's a bunch of perfectly juicy human children just for me?"

"Oh." Faye went gravely pale for a second before she stormed from the room.

Julian cursed inwardly and rose to his feet, wondering furiously what he'd done now to upset his elder. She was always pushing him to be better at everything. He'd thought she would be congratulating him on the blood feast he'd just bathed in, unless she had expected him to bring her some of his prey and share. Which was a foolish thought in essence since Julian didn't like sharing.

He found Faye standing in the hallway, leaning her forehead against the glass and peering at the world outside. She looked so forlorn and he felt so helpless. What could he do, though? His prey was gone, unless he went for the next imbecile who summoned him and brought them back specially for her, but he found it hard to even contemplate doing something so...selfless.

"Faye, if..." Julian caught himself, confusion breaking lose within him like a dangerous riptide as he seized her wrist when she reached up to her face. She looked at him sharply, tense, still. He reached out and caught the drop of water that had run from her eye across her cheek and brought it to his lips. Warm and salty. Tears.

"Release my hand, Julian." She rapped out sternly.

For the first time in his existence, Julian didn't obey, staring at her as something ugly writhed inside of him, threatening to spill out and rip the girl before him into shreds.

"Our kind don't shed tears." Julian responded coldly.

"Is that so? Well did you ever think that maybe I'm different from your kind? Have you looked around and noticed that I'm the only female in this damned world, Julian? Have you ever thought why?" Faye wrenched her hand free of his grasp and glared at him. "You'd never understand. I can't leave here, not like you. I can't be summoned. I can't get out no matter what I do! I hate this place." She sobbed before she fled his lair.

It never was a secret to anyone that Faye was indeed different from all the other shadow men. For one, she was the only female as she'd pointed out – the second was that she had never created another shadow man apart from Julian, which was absurd seeing as he'd created several throughout the years.

He resolved to bring back a prey for Faye in his next summoning, believing that she was upset because she was unable to hunt herself. The fact that she'd cried was still disturbing to him but she 

was his creator. It didn't need to be said that he wanted her approval. It would be a peace trade between them, Julian decided. To make up for whatever she found lacking in him.

When another portal opened as another prey summoned his kind, Julian didn't think twice about racing his elders to get to it. He got through with a few others and there had been the momentary bewilderment when he stood face to face with an elder human man shouting something oddly familiar and pointing a trembling finger at a closet.

Julian scanned the basement, briefly taking in the magical objects that defied the old man as a sorcerer and watching from the corner of his eye as one by one his elders backed up into the closet at each word the man uttered. Julian took a startled step back when he realized what the sorcerer was shouting and what his intentions were.

Julian tried to take on solid shape but his hands were still just a shadowy blur. If he could ground himself, connect to the Earth before... He knew it was too late and with this realization, he prepared himself to launch at the old man. He was not going to allow a human to trap him.

A primal growl rose from his lips in outrage when he smacked into some magical shield that seemed to surround the sorcerer. He noticed the shield buckle at the impact and again he lashed out with all his strength, ignoring the blistering pain it caused him.

I. Would. Rather. Die. Julian thought as he gritted his teeth and rammed into the shield with each word resounding in his head.

He watched the last of his elders backing up into the closet by the powerful spell. He glared at the sorcerer and for a moment their eyes met. He thought he was going to get out of this when the sorcerer didn't seem able to move or speak. That's the effect the appearances of the shadow men had on humans – it left them breathless in fear and captivated, like deer trapped in the headlights of a car. He was taking on his solid form, the shadowy blur slowly defining his outline.

It wasn't until there was the sound of a doorknob rattling and a child's voice floated down the basement steps that the sorcerer seemed to be ripped from the hypnotic trance Julian had ceased him in.

"Grandpa, Zachary won't play nicely..." A little girl's voice floated through the room.

"Nauthiz!" The sorcerer whispered, snapping his finger in the direction of the closet.

Julian was helpless as the force knocked him back and the closet door slammed shut with a final bang. Darkness all around. His elders were hissing but none were as furious as Julian, who had never before been trapped and found it appalling that any human should dare succeed.

"Jenny-kins, what have I told you about coming down here while I'm working?" Julian heard the sorcerer scolding the child outside the closet door.

There was the sound of footsteps as the child explained how she'd thought it was okay since he needed a break anyway and then the pleas for him to help them make mud cakes. Julian moved to the back corner of the closet and sank down onto his haunches furiously.

Just wait until he got out... just wait...