Otto was sitting in his chair, the one with the high back in his study.
He was watching the window as the last beams of sunlight faded from view, leaving the clouds in the sky looking like formless black holes drifting over the starlight night.
The fingers on his left hand was drumming on the armrest of the chair.
This was silly, Otto could feel his thoughts slipping down into a hole and he couldn't stop them from sliding.
Feeling uneasy 'cos of a little darkness - and at his age, it wasn't like he was that young anymore, granted age had a different meaning when you were most likely going to life forever but still.
Otto Turned his head and looked at the expensive coffin with the elaborate wood carvings that stod in the alcove in the wall, he should have been resting in it all day but when he had tried he had felt uneasy and been wondering if he had remembered to check for the monster under the "bed", ofcourse he had, twice and even a third time before he had given up and chosen the trusted chair.
Silly, he thought again, i'm the monster monsters should be afraid of and here i am scared of a little darkness and monsters.
He decided to get a drink and went into the next room and headed for the bar cabinet in the corner, he reached out for a glass but had to steady his hand for a second first, it was shaking because he was so angry with himself.
At last he succeeded, and poured himself a glass of old port, tawny ofcourse.
He looked at it with a hint of disgust, it wasn't like he even liked it anymore, in fact he was so tired of the taste that if he ever had to drink it again it would be too soon, but he knew it beat the alternative, real blood.
After he'd drunk the contents of the glass, and let two more like it do it company, he felt a little better maybe even good enough to go out and get some fresh night air instead of this stale scent of old books that haunted his Villa.
As he got outside he started walking towards the downtown area in the hope the all the neon sign would keep the dark at bay a bit.
The streets were quiet but not completely empty, from time to time he would see one of these desolate persons roaming about on gods know what errand of their own, and he would keep to the dark corners and shadowy patches and watch a bit before continuing onward when he'd made certain that noone were giving him any attention.
It wasn't nessesary he knew that, most people have a tendency to overlook things their brain does not believe in all on their own, especially if the "thing" like him had elongated canines and a smile so cold that it would make even a tiger cringe.
The few that did not just look fast, moved on and decided to be rational and explain the sight to themselves as being not at all what they thought they had seen.
Downtown he headed for his usual spot in the big antenna by the radio station, there was a ledge some way up where you could sit and look out over the entire downtown area.
It wasn't the best night for it since it was raining, but it was only a light rain.
As he got close he noticed the lights around the antenna was off for some unapparent reason and didn't wonder anymore about it, he found the maintenance ladder easy in the dark as he'd done so many a time before and started to climb.
In the wet his hands and feet slid easy on the cold metal but he kept on climbing. - oh yes he had other options for getting up there, and faster as well but he had bad experiences with bats so it would be a cold day in hell before he went there again.
His mind started flashing with memories of old Mrs Jensen and her sharp penetrating voice shouting curses at him as he tried hard to avoid her cane, she was swinging the thing like a trained warrior and had ofcourse hit him as he had never practiced his batform flying and it had cost him a fouthnight with a broken arm in a sling.
Oh no, not going there again anytime soon, so he climbed ladders like ordinary people.
Within minutes he were at his spot, he huddled down and turned up his collar trying not to get soaked in the increasing rain but to no avail.
He looked up at the sky, silently cursing the gods he knew not to exist, and saw the flash of light from the lightning just as it stuck the antenna.
The pain was unbelievable as the current made his muscles spasm this way and that.
A split second later Otto´s feet were dangling in nothing as he started plummeting the 100 or so feet towards the hard ground below.
Damned, apparently Batform wasn´t to be avoided this night so Otto started concentrating hard, willing the change to happen. He checked his arm as it was changing into a wing and eyed the ground that was coming close way too fast, Crap - he knew he should have listened better when his grandmom was trying to get him to practice his skills as a kid but he never wanted the "skills" in the first place, he just wanted to be like the other kids albeit one with a huge amount of sunblock on.
Otto was at about 60% bat when he hit the ground next to the wall of the radio station with a huge thump. He had no idea how long he was lieing there but it could not have been very long because he suddenly got hit by a beam of light from the window in the wall as the lights inside got turned on.
Just in time he regained enough of his senses to move, luckily Otto had never had a problem moving fast so in the blink of an eye he was back to the wall, keeping an eye on the window just as a face looked out of it.
The features clearly showed it was a female. Pretty he thought to his own surprise - why the hell would he think that, he didn´t even like females, you never knew what to say around them and often blushing as well which was all really stupid since he wasn´t supposed to say anything at all but just pull back their head, exposing the neck, sink his teeth in and feed.
Somehow Otto would have to learn how to prioritize and pay attention, the female was staring right at him - how long had she been doing that?
Not knowing what to do he hissed like a cat, tried to look scary and ran away, around the corner of a building leaving the female to think whatever she wanted.
He stopped to get his breathing under control in an alleyway close by, or well not IN the alleyway as such, it was way to dark and scary looking for that, but in the entrance to the alleyway.
At the other end some shadows were moving in the dark, he could just make them out in what remains of moonlight that penetrated that far, it made him uneasy that he could only see something moving but not enough to have a clue to what it might be.
one of the shadows started to move very fast and hit the ground with a terrible loud noise, by then Otto decided not to stick around but instead to scream and run off towards home again, oh how he hated the dark and all the cursed things it brought with it.
in the back of the alley, the tilted trashcan moved and the lid slid off.
inside a big one eyed cat was lumbering out seemingly confused and looking for something, from behind it came a little squeek and with feline speed the cat turned 180 and brought down it´s paw on the surprised mouse.
