Guns, Bullets & Bones [Tokyo Ghoul]

Ch. 2 ~ The Strangers

    Dylan cursed himself over and over again for letting his hunger win out. The thought of sweets and cakes always got the better of him. But still, he wasn't over keen on traversing the brook.

    The brook was an alleyway, stretching all the way through the 15th ward, and could get you to anywhere you wanted with various break off alleys, if you dared enter. Most respectable folk didn't use it, and for good reason. It was dark and run down, and often dangerous. Hide insisted it in fact wasn't, he apparently used it all the time when he came to the 15th ward, but the frequent ghoul attacks did nothing to ease Dylan's nerves.

    It was dull, but still light enough that Dylan felt somewhat reassured. He cursed himself once more and glanced back at the various people bustling down the main road, not a single one casting a glance towards the brook. He sighed and turned back, continuing on his way.

   It had a dank, dusty smell, and Dylan expected the floors to be pilled with rubbish, but as he continued down the alleyways, the only sign of disrepair was the graffiti sprawled across the walls. The floor seemed disturbingly clean.

     He continued going, and turned a corner, only to half knock into someone, and he gasped in surprize. He took a step back to see two people, in fact, and was rather intimidated by the unusual pair.

    The man, who's back he had walked into, wore a bright red suit and had garish purple hair and when the turned to look at the disturbance, had matching eyes, which Dylan noted was endlessly weird. The man was tall and held an odd look on his face, Dylan wouldn't be at all surprised if he'd been on an episode of 'catfish'.

      A few paces over was a girl, much taller than himself, Dylan noted. The harsh look in her icy blue eyes was startling and he shrank back when his eyes met hers. Her hair too matched her eyes to some degree, having a shocking pastel blue dye job. Despite the frilly maid outfit, she still seemed rather intimidating.

    "Oh? What do we have here?" The man spoke with traces of a French accent, a wolfish grin crossing his features. Dylan took another step back.

    "I-I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was g-goin-" Dylan cursed that his stutter had returned again. He'd had one since a young child, but his speech therapist had mostly helped him through it. Though in some situations...

   "Ah, fresh meat.~" The man said, as if Dylan hadn't uttered a word. Alarm bells rung in his head and the word sent shocks of fear through his nerves. 'he definitely belongs on catfish...'

    "A-Ah, I need to get going-" Dylan uttered, his head down and he turned to continue on his way. He didn't feel like spending another second with this creep. But his chest collided with an arm and he looked up to realise his path had been blocked by the very same creep.

   "Leaving so soon? Don't you have time to stay and chat?" The way his voice hissed slightly as he said 'chat' gave Dylan the idea that chatting wasn't all the man had in mind. Dylan wound his hands tighter around the strap of his backpack as his heartrate picked up and his palms began to sweat.

   "Tsukiyama." He girl finally spoke up and the man looked over at her in annoyance. "You're going to scare the poor kid." Despite her words seemingly helping him, she didn't sound particularly interested, or caring at all. She sounded bored.

    "Ah, I'm just having some harmless fun, Mon Cherie ~" He made extravagant hand motions as he spoke, and seemed rather distracted by the girl, and Dylan debated whether now would be a good time to try and slip away.

    "Your idea of fun is vastly different from mine, and probably his." She looked at him in disgust and the wolfish grin became almost predatory, but she paid no heed to it. "I need to get to work, anyway, my shift is about to start. Kid, where are you headed?"

   Dylan tensed, he had turned and made it a few paces away when she spoke to him again. He was vaguely annoyed that he was being called a kid, she looked barely a year older than him, but fear won out and he turned and looked sheepishly over his shoulder.

   "I, uh.... My friend told me about this sweets place...." He trailed away, reluctant to tell them anything more of where he was headed, he didn't want any more involvement with these weirdos.

     ".... Cats Cradle?" She asked after a moment, raising a light eyebrow and folding her arms. His face heated up, yet he wasn't so sure why. The embarrassment which coloured his cheeks seemed to come from no where yet everywhere.

   "Yeah..." He said quietly. 'great, now these weirdos could end up following me..'

    "I'm guessing you haven't been there before." She said, walking towards, then past him, motioning for him to follow on down the brook, which he did, rather hesitantly. He shook his head. "I can tell. I work there, I haven't seen you there before."

     He quietly sighed in relief. Her explanation seemed plausible, and not that of a creepy stalker. Though, she seemed intimidating and tough, she didn't seem like the stalker type. She turned the corner and went down a split off alleyway, and Dylan paused to watch her for a moment, then turned to glance over his shoulder, back where he'd came. He wondered about giving up today, trying again another day when he wouldn't have to deal with this girl, then he remembered the strange man back there.

    He'd rather take his chances with the girl, than with the guy. However, as he looked back over his shoulder, the strange purple haired man was no where to be seen. He should have felt relieved, but the thought that this man could now be anywhere, lurking behind any corner did nothing to ease the swarm of anxious butterflies fluttering in his chest.

    "Are you coming, or not?" The girl's voice made him jump and he spun back to her, a look of annoyance plastered on her face, making him shrink back slightly.

    "I, uh... Yeah.." He awkwardly cleared his throat and cautiously walked along next to her, after she watched him intently as he caught up to her side. He wanted to maintain a comfortable distance, but she stayed closer than he felt comfortable with. Discretely, he tried to move away.

     "I don't bite, you know." She said and he jumped once more. He looked to her, noting she wore a grin on her face, he wasn't sure if it was teasing, or smug, but either way Dylan couldn't feel at ease yet.

    He just gave an awkward laugh in reply.

~