a little less dandy, a little more take this spike to my heart

vi

"Any chance you're gonna tell me where I'm going?" Awsten asks once again and isn't answered by the guy again. Instead he grumbles something along the lines of "kill me now" as they turn another grimy corner of the perpetual hallway.

While the guy's slightly distracted, Awsten tries to subtly call Geoff and Otto. It doesn't work though; all he gets is static noise and another minor addition to his headache. They stop abruptly in front of a less shabby looking door compared to the others he's seen after he turns off his earpiece.

"Oh, would you look at that, we're here." the guy says, extremely relieved. He swishes open the rusty door in front of them energetically, shoves Awsten in, and slams it shut.

"Thanks Butcher, you the man!" someone inside the room says cheerily. Awsten eyes him and he's standing extremely tall, head almost hitting the ceiling with a shit eating grin on his face. But the other thing striking the most about him is the dotted bite marks on his neck peeking out of his suit.

It hits Awsten pretty quick.

"Your name doesn't happen to be Gabe, right?"

He looks a little surprised for a second, but he goes back to looking smug. "Yep, that's me. Never met you before though, but it's cool."

Fuck. "I heard about this. You gonna show me what's goin on?"

"Okay, damn chill, dude, you just came a lil earlier than I thought, but it's cool. You'll just have to wait it out, man." Gabe saunters over to the strikingly clean desk in the midst of the moldy room.

"Right." Awsten stares around the room. "So what's this gonna be like?"

"Well," Gabe begins, jumping backwards into a leather chair. "This is supposed to be a surprise kinda thing for guests here, but you'll find out soon. Don't stress or anything, Bilvy's a real pro and the whole thing just leaves you tingly."

"Bilvy?" Awsten repeats as Gabe motions him to sit in a chair in front of the desk.

"Well yeah, he's this bud of mine, we go waaaay back. He's part of some fancy ass spa thing or something and I may or may not've convinced him to pull some of his shit here because his shit's like, top rated and keeps everyone coming back here. Bilvy's a busy bastard and it's expensive hence the whole exclusive thing."

Then Gabe goes off on a tangent about Bilvy and since he doesn't sound like he's going to stop talking anytime soon, Awsten decides to ignore Gabe in favor of looking around the room. It's more rundown than the entrance of the place and the contrast of the clean furniture showcases it. There's more crosses covering most of the wall area since a giant, erie portrait of Jesus bleeding out from a crown of thorns is hung up. Jesus's big, gloomy eyes feel like they're judging his moral compass. Awsten decidedly looks elsewhere.

Scanning the room, his vision catches sight of a clock reading 8:32. Fuck. He almost forgot about transforming. The faint churn, the itch in his guts was growing in him; a sign he should probably get some information quickly before he goes feral. It probably won't be too hard though considering Gabe doesn't know how to shut the fuck up.

"I see you like the whole church theme here." Awsten talks over Gabe, who shuts up once he's heard.

Gabe looks back up at him with an almost childlike grin. "I know, right? Catholics are like, fuckin' insane, but the aesthetic's totally off the walls. I mean, I'm Jewish, but I had this vision from this snake about these angels 'n synthpop and crosses and I kinda just put that shit on this place."

"Uh huh." Awsten interjects for a lack of words.

"Ok, yeah you look pretty confused right now, but I don't blame you." Gabe notes, spinning in his chair. "Billy boy's the one who suggested I put my churchy vision here even though he's real anti-religion. Apparently, calling something a church keeps cops off you and also makes some good ad hype."