Dawned

Chapter 1

Xavier peeked around the corner. He let out an exhausted sigh. He had finally lost the creature that was chasing him. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was out for blood. He thought about what was happening, and tried to get his thoughts straight. He looked around. He wasn't sure where he was. The cityscape that surrounded him seemed endless. He tried to think about why he was here. The only thing that he could think of was a memory of a similar beast chasing him. Fangs bared, claws slashing, both dripping with blood.

He shook his head. He had to fine right? After all, he was alive and well, other than the scapes and scratches from the creature. He saw something fly by in the air. He had no idea of where he was, so maybe he could follow whatever it was that was in the sky. Better than heading towards what it was fleeing from.

He started walking through the city. Everything looked similar; it was impossible to tell where he was. But even weirder, the buildings weren't abnormal. They all seemed to have a function, as if a group of people could go to the office and start discussing stocks. A group of three heading into the barber shop for a haircut, or heading to the gym to work out.

He imagined these scenarios, and they all seemed like the buildings could actually be used for these purposes. Unlike what he thought, this meant he wasn't in the backrooms or anything like that. It was an abnormal world, but it was a normal city.
Except for the man screaming a block away.

Xavier ran towards the cry, and saw a massive pile of rubble. On top, a man, bleeding, twisted, and broken. The man was still alive. The building must have collapsed, and the man fell with it. Xavier rushed over to help the man. He felt a icy chill as he approached, but he ignored it. The man was hurt and needed help, and Xavier was lost and needed help. As he reached down to tent to the man's wounds, surprise shocked through his body. The man's skin was hot to the touch. So hot, that Xavier was surprised that the blood and tears didn't evaporate off his body.
The man stopped for a moment, then rose, almost floating. Then he stared silently at Xavier.

Then he took a step forward.
Xavier took a step back.
The man had strings caught on him, caught in the rubble. But the man just walked past Xavier, the strings loosely floating behind him.

Xavier looked at the rubble, and to his surprise, saw thousands of insects flying around it. They were horseflies. They were tethered to the rubble, lifting it up, rebuilding what had stood there before. It was a construction site, turned into a destruction site, returned to its original state as a construction site.

He felt the a painful pang on his back, and he was knocked down. He turned around and saw the man, looming in front of him, looking ready to kill. It leapt at him, slashing and swinging. Xavier kicked it back, quickly got up, and began to run, with the monster in tow.
The monster had a bloodlust, and was aggressive and reckless. Xavier ran into the construction site. He hardly noticed the flies, and neither did the monster. As Xavier was running, he tripped. The monster took advantage of this, and lunged at him.

It missed him, flying over his head. Xavier tried to get up, but the strings were tighter now. They blocked him and would let him get back up, and so he fell back down. He looked over; the monster was struggling to get the strings off of the machine it fell in.
Then, Xavier had an idea.

He rolled to the side, avoiding the string, just as the monster got itself unstuck. He ran from it, twisting and turning. Left, right, right, forward, around the pole, turn around. The monster followed him every way he went, the strings at well.

As he was running, he turned around to see that the monster had tripped over the string. He smiled a little, and turned to run. His smile was gone when he realized: he was trapped. The string was surrounding him on every side. He tried to brush the string away, but it was sharp and it cut him. The monster sensed the blood, and it moved more frantically. Xavier looked around trying to find an escape route. The monster had freed itself, and was bounding carefully and quickly through its strings. Xavier found an escape: the stairs.

He ran up, just as the monster jumped at him, missing him barely. After a bit of running, he was at the midpoint and wanted to take a rest, but he looked back and the monster was close behind him, still in pursuit. He ran up to the top of crane, and looked for a way down. He saw a nearby building was reachable from the end of the crane, and he started towards it. But the monster got to him first, knocking him of the edge. As they fell, the monster slashed and snapped at him, causing him to to bleed more and more with blow it dealt.

They hit the midway ledge with a heavy thud. Xavier was the first to recover, and in a desperate act, he jumped off the edge. As he fell, he grabbed onto a piece of rubble being carried by flies. The flies couldn't carry him, so he and the flies quickly descended downward.

The rubble hit the ground first, breaking strings as it did so. Then came Xavier, landing halfway on the rubble, which sent a sharp pain through his body. He couldn't think or see clearly from the stress of the impact, but as soon as his vision recovered, he saw the strings tighten, recreating the web. He looked up to see the monster leaping down at him, its eyes and mind focused on his blood. He didn't have much time to think, but he knew he didn't want to close his eyes, simply because he wanted his life to flash before them. He wanted to know what had happened to lead to this.

But instead of life, he saw death.

The monster didn't weave through the string like before. Instead, it went right through it. Or rather, the string went right through it. Xavier watched in horror as the monster fell into the web, being sliced by every string it hit. Its blood fell into Xavier, and pooled around him. The pieces that remained of it scattered around him.
Xavier blinked.

The strings loosened, and floated down. Xavier tested them carefully. They were easy to break. He got up, and looked around. He wasn't sure what happened, or if it actually did happen. He looked at the construction site. The odd insects  had finished rebuilding it, and were all leaving.
All but one.
A singe bee floated down onto what remained of the man. The bee stung the piece of him once, then flew away.

Xavier wasn't sure what to think of what had just happened. He walked to the building that he was going to jump to. Inside, it was devoid of people, but it seemed like a normal apartment. He went to the nearest room and entered the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. He was covered in blood, and he was sure most of it wasn't his. He didn't like that thought.
He began by washing his face. His green eyes contrasted highly with the blood. He started rinsing his hair. The dark red hair quickly changed back to its normal brown with yellow tips. He opened the drawers of the dresser in the room. It was full of clothes of all sizes. He took a shower, and watched as his blood covered arms changed back to a tanned shade that he knew to be his. After he got dressed, he went to the lobby to grab a first aid kit from under the counter, and he began treating his wounds.

He was wondering what to do next; whether he should get some rest, or if it was too dangerous. Or if it was even safe inside this building.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash, and when he looked at the front door, he saw the wall was gone. All that was there was a black, misshapen figure with a white, mask-like face. It's head tilted, it was staring at him, deciding in which manner to kill him.