Welcome to Adulthood Kiddo!

I had turned eighteen today and had spent most of the daylight hours with my grandmother and grandfather. They had taken me in when I was very young after my parents had vanished into the unknown. Their bodies were never found and had been assumed dead, though my grandparents would often say that those two were harder to kill than a cockroach.

My family is a little strange, but I love them even so.

After birthday celebrations with my family, my friends and I had decided to go to one of the local clubs to enjoy the first night of officially being an adult - being the youngest in the group, we had elected to hold off on any club-going until I was able to legally drink and with growing up in the United Kingdom, this meant that we didn't have to wait until we were twenty-one in order to enjoy a drink… or three!

Loud music pumped into the club-room and most of us had found dance partners. Some of them with old friends from school or from their part-time jobs. It was a group celebration, after all, not just mine and I was perfectly fine with this arrangement. I wasn't too much of a social butterfly, but now and then on special occasions, like today, I didn't mind stepping out of my comfort zone to make my friends happy.

After a few drinks and as the time grew late, my friends eventually began to make their way home, almost all of them travelling in groups. It wasn't dangerous where we lived, but we were always careful either way. One of my close friends, Rem walked halfway with me. He was far more intoxicated than I was. I couldn't help but laugh as he began to belt out one of our old school musical numbers - you know, those silly songs kids sing on the playground? I hadn't heard it since we were five or something.

The song lasted as long as it took to reach his house, luckily not a moment longer or his neighbours might have complained about the awful out of tune singing we were both doing by this point. After saying our goodbyes, I continued on to my grandparents' house. It was at least another fifteen-minute walk if I rushed but tonight was lovely out. It was clear and a full moon was shining brightly above.

I admit the moon was always something I loved to gaze at. It was not only beautiful but I always felt somewhat at ease whenever I looked at it. Perhaps that's why I hadn't noticed the figure that almost materialized out of nowhere.

“Ah, I am so sorry!” I quickly apologized to the man before me. They were wide-shouldered, older and not overly attractive at all. Shaved head, a scowl glued to their face. The type that had obviously been drinking and was now in a bad mood for whatever reason.

“Watch where yer goin' idiot,” the man slurred at me. I was glad I was not this sort of drunk. He seemed ready to throw down at the slightest provocation so I figured it was best to give him a reasonable distance to which the two of us could step around the other and made sure to hold my hands up to show that I was no threat to him.

“Again, I am very sorry!” I offered again, just to be sure he wasn't willing to pick a fight. I didn't like confrontations all that much and although my grandparents forced me to take self-defence classes, I really didn't want to have to take part in using that knowledge.

Sadly for me, this guy wasn't going to be kind about the accident. He stepped closer to me with one of those snarls of his. I took a breath in, hoping he would merely trip over his own feet or something, but kept my distance as much as I could until I knew I could leg it without worry that he'd catch me as I tried to get past him.

The man swung, missed and ended up face-first on the ground. I couldn't help but laugh a little. “Are you alright?” I asked, tentatively not wanting to get closer and ready to dash off at the slightest sense of danger from him. He grumbled his reply to me but made no further attempt to fight. He seemed confused but unharmed and I made my escape before he remembered he was angry at me.

As I continued on my way, having sobered up slightly thanks to my little dance with another drinker on the streets, I elected to not stare up at the moon too much this time. Perhaps I should have?

Someone's voice spoke out above me somewhere, though in what language, I couldn't tell you. I had no clue what they had said and at first, I thought it was merely someone with a window open and the tv on some random channel. Looking up, I didn't see anything at all. At least, not at first.

The voice spoke again and this time, I could pinpoint the location a little better. Confused, I lifted my head up to the ceiling of one of the nearby houses. Two silvery eyes peered down at me and at first, I thought it was an animal, a cat perhaps, that was, until it spoke a third time in that strange language.

I tried to put aside the three strange facts about this person as I called up to them politely, “sorry mate, no idea what you're saying.” Perhaps he was drunk too and the 'language' was just drunk babbling?

The shadowy figure seemed to smile at me before they stood up and lowered themself down to the ground. The roof they were on wasn't particularly high up, but it was still a fair distance that even I winced when they landed on the ground.

Now that I could see them better, I could tell that this person was male and that they roughly stood about six or so feet tall, perhaps a little bit taller. I myself stood relatively short, truth be told. I barely made it past five-foot, give or take a few inches. This man also had shoulder-length hair, though it was tied up in a ponytail out of the way and it was a deep red tone. Someone obviously enjoyed dying their hair, I thought to myself.

“That was an impressive jump,” I told the man, wary of what they wanted from me, or if they could even understand what I was saying. Whoever it was, made my skin crawl. They were handsome enough, sure, but there was something creepy about him.