Introduction
The fog blanketed the streets of Los Angeles, making visibility limited. The only things that could be seen were the street lamps, which looked like large lightning bugs flying above. A full moon glanced over the city like a hawk, stalking its next prey, and grey storm clouds hovered slowly by, the crackling of thunder begging to escape inside of them. A young couple slowly walks home, a boy and a girl, arm in arm after a night of partying and drinking at a local club. The sound of the girl's heels clicking and clacking against the pavement echoes miles down the street, no other sound to interrupt it. The couple laugh and giggle as they happily reminisce about the fun they've had. Suddenly, the sound of tapping against the pavement is heard behind them and a chilling breeze blows mysteriously from the south.
"What was that?" Gasps the girl as she jumps into the arms of her love. He simply chuckles at his girlfriend's fear and says,
"Probably just a possum," and they continue walking. But the girl is not convinced. She stays close against her lover as she walks, looking back a few times to make sure they aren't being followed. Just when she feels as though she has nothing to fear, a tiny scratch is felt on her ankle and the sound of quick tapping against the pavement zooms past their backs. She lets out a wince and pulls her boyfriend to a stop.
"Johnny, it's not a possum!" She says frightened. "Something's out here and it scratched me!" Her boyfriend laughs and yet again disregards her fears as nothing. Before they begin to walk again, a chuckle in the distance echoes down the street. Now he believes her. The boyfriend grasps his significant other tightly in his arms, hopelessly trying to protect her from any approaching danger. They stand like that for a few moments, surveying the area around them for a possible mugger or worse, but nothing comes. The boyfriend sighs with relief and caresses his girlfriend's cheek to comfort her. She smiles and chuckles, laughing at her foolish and childish fear. The boyfriend laughs too, playfully shoving and mocking his girlfriend to hide his own fear. Suddenly, the lamp light above them shatters to pieces. The couple gasps and covers their heads to shield themselves from the falling glass. The girlfriend clings to her boyfriend as the lamp lights behind and ahead of them all burst, leaving the couple in pitch blackness.
"I'm scared!" Cries the girl into her boyfriend's chest. He sweats profusely and gulps, his eyes darting left and right, as he pets his girlfriend's hair, trying to be the hero.
"I-It's going to be fine," he stutters, not believing his own words, "p-probably just a short in the electrical system." As the girl clings to her boyfriend, something grabs her ankles and pulls her down onto the pavement. She screams as her boyfriend grips onto her hands as tightly as he can, promising not to let her go as she cries. But the force is too strong. Her fingertips slip away from his and he loses his grip. She shrieks as she gets pulled away into the fog by something invisible to his eye. The boy panics and cries out for his girlfriend, her screams dying out in the distance. He runs in the direction he believes she was pulled, hoping to run into her. However, he has no real knowledge of where he's going, nothing but darkness is behind or ahead of him. He pants and his eyes tear up as he screams his girlfriend's name one last time, yet still no answer. He is alone now...or so he thinks. The sound of music catches his ear. It's singing.
"Help!," he thinks, "Maybe they can help me!" He follows the sound of the music, a melodious tone so pure and sweet like rich honey. As he gets closer, the enchanting singing grows louder and louder, his memory begins to fade with the silence. By the time he reaches the source of the sound, he has completely forgotten his girlfriend and why he was chasing the music in the first place. He pants and stares down a seemingly empty alleyway.
"Hello?" He calls, his voice echoing back at him, no response but his own. The boy feels an usual sense of heartbreak and sighs disappointed. However, before he can walk away, a pair of glowing yellow eyes appears out of the darkness. The boy smiles reflexively and takes a step closer. "You're the one who sings, right?" The eyes move up and down, nodding yes to the boy's question. "Then please," begs the boy as he drops to his knees, making him eye level to the mysterious glowing eyes, "come into the moonlight so I can see you." The shadowy figure shakes its head no. "Why not?" Asks the boy in desperation, "You don't have to be scared of me."
"I'm not." The figure's voice is quiet and as smooth as cream, yet deep enough for the boy to recognize it as masculine. The boy tilts his head in confusion.
"Then why won't you let me see you?" A low growl comes from the shadowy figure.
"Then you'll be scared." The boy laughs and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out his iPhone and turns up the brightness all the way.
"With a voice as beautiful as yours, how could anyone be scared?" The boy shines his light in the direction of the figure, giving him a crystal clear view of the figure's true appearance. The creature in front of him is half-formed, a pile of bones and skin. Half of its face is covered with skin that looks like a plastic covering, peeling and crinkling at the edges, while the other half bares no skin at all, nothing but cracked and dusty bone. Two small horns stick out of the creature's forehead, yellow and pointed at their edges. The creatures teeth are exposed on this side, long and sharp enough to cut anything even at the slightest touch. The creature lifts itself up, revealing its skeletal chest, giving view to all its organs twitching as they continue to do their jobs. Wilted black wings that are losing their feathers outstretch from behind the creature's back and a long reptilian tail creeps up beside them. The boy freezes in fear, his body in shock. The creature reaches out its skeletal hand and caresses the boy's cheek gently.
"Told you so." The beast pounces on the boy faster than any living predator could and rips his throat open. Blood spews from the boy's neck and he is killed instantly. The creature tears through the boy's skin and muscle with ease and feasts upon the body without a sound. The creature purrs quietly as its long snake-like forked tongue licks the remaining blood off the bones of the young boy. The creature groans with a smile as the skin on its bones begins to regenerate. The pearl colored bone becomes soft pale flesh and the creature laughs as it feels its powers returning from a long period of weakness. It looks at itself in a nearby puddle and smirks. The creature's red hair sparkles in the moonlight, its newly formed flesh practically glowing. The creature's once bony lips now are perfectly plump pink lips and shrouds of purple and red surround the creature's yellow eyes. It admires its horns, now longer than they once were, and chuckles as it stares down at its new adonis-like body.
"It is so good to be back," it purrs in satisfaction. The creature steals the clothes of the young boy and puts them on to cover its naked body. It winces and groans in agony as it disguises its unnatural features. Its horns hide themselves inside his forehead, its tail vanishes inside its body, the black, now newly formed, wings push themselves deep inside the creature's back, the creature's red hair turns black, and finally, its skin turns a normal shade of caucasian. The creature smiles and twirls, admiring its new youthful self. "It's been so long," it says looking down at its hands, "now the feed can begin again." The creature clenches its fists tight and looks up, kicking the bones of both the boy and the girl underneath a nearby dumpster. It walks ahead along the same street the couple once walked upon on their way home, never to arrive. The creature hums a tune only it knows as it walks, a tune it has repeated several times before to lure unsuspecting passers by into their doom. It was weak before, but now it has all the power it needs to feed upon the naive and the innocent.
That is the life of this creature, one of many names throughout many lifetimes. The boto, the demon, the incubus, the siren. No matter what name this creature takes, it lives for the same purpose. An eternal lifetime of feeding and bloodshed to maintain its youth and satisfy its vanity. For thousands of years, nothing had existed to stop this creature...until now.