Clara Moore and the Creatures of the Night

"There's never a dull day on the subway"

CHAPTER 1 

Sunlight shone through the tree branches, casting patterns of light onto the cracked pavement. As a light breeze blew across the street, the golden leaves began to rustle, causing the patterns to dance like fairies on the sidewalk. The faint sound of tyres on concrete filled the street as a boy on a blue bike came around the corner. Peddling along the pavement, he passed the rows of trees and terrace houses that lined the street. On the opposite side of the road, a black cat meowed and slinked it's way across a cast iron fence, to perch itself statue-like on the column at the end. The wind picked up and blew again, moving fallen leaves and rustling the trees to sound like a screaming crowd. By now the boy had peddled to the end of the street and turned the corner out of sight.

In that same moment, the wind dropped off and the street succumbed to silence once more. Several minutes of peace passed, before a door from one of the terrace houses flew open and a girl came bounding down the steps. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back as she swung out onto the pavement and began running down the footpath. The rhythmic beat of her suede boots filled the street with a drum-like sound. As she continued to run past the row of houses, the black cat perched high on the column hissed at her and scarpered. Fast on her feet, she took to the corner, whipping her long hair after her. She continued to run down the next street, her gold pleated skirt and crinkled band tee clinging to her body as the wind passed by. She ran on, only to slow as she turned the corners. She took one right, two lefts before she slipped between two tall bricked buildings, and once more fell out of sight. The clack of her boots on the pavement slowed as she began to walk down the dim alley. A moist stench of rubbish filled her nostrils as she passed the over-flowing dumpster. Light began to flood the alley as she neared the end, opening up to a bustling avenue.

The girl knew that when the clock hand stuck five each day, the streets of Brooklyn came alive with workers and businessmen as they began their daily commute home from work. The last few customers sat in almost empty cafes, some reading the daily news with the faint smell of coffee wafting in the air. Others raced to hail a yellow taxi. Further down the street, a crowd of men and women in mostly business attire hastened to make their way down the stairs where a green subway sign read "Bedford Avenue Station". The girl began towards the station, commencing down the steps to disappear inside the subway. An orderly chaos filled the tiled walls, each person moving with a purpose. A large group gathered around a ticketing box, where a man dressed in blue uniform called "Next!" over the loud murmur of the crowd. Slowly, a queue descended down the escalator stairs to their platforms. A shrill voice from the overhead speaker notified that the 5:10 train was due in two minutes, creating a stir as people hustled to catch it.

The blonde haired girl was amongst the panicked hustlers, dodging a particularly rowdy group of workers to catch her train. She raced to Platform Four, where only seconds later the train slowed to a halt. Breathing a sigh of relief, she stepped into the carriage and began to search for a spare seat. The train increasingly picked up speed, and light flickered through windows as it passed under tunnel lights. The cabin was almost full, people stood hanging onto rails and others sat on the benches that stretched along opposite walls. The girl looked around, and found a spare seat amongst a group who appeared to be in deep conversation. In the time she had been in New York, she had found there was never a dull day on the subway. Something eventful always caught her eye, and today she had grown intrigued by the strangers next to her.

There were two females and a male who looked around her age, about seventeen. They all wore black clothing from head to toe. The guy's hair was a bubblegum blue mohawk, and he had a large fang tooth earring. One of the girls, the one who was talking, had hair that reminded her of Cruella De Ville. Half was black and the other was white, and it was in dreadlocks. She had extremely dark eye makeup on, so much that her eyes were hardly seen. The girl who sat across from her appeared the most normal out of all of them. She had no visible makeup on and her short hair was a natural, dark brown colour. She looked over at the girl, who had to stop herself from gasping in shock. Her eyes were a fiery red, which burnt with intensity as she fixed the girl with a piercing stare. In disbelief, the girl dropped her gaze. After several seconds she glanced back to see a pair of black shades now covering her eyes, and the glimpse of a tattoo which snaked up her neck.