Chapter 1: Welcome to the New World

"Yeah they are on their way meeting them at mine since we've got band practice later on today" She answered casually. "Eager to meet the rest of the gang?"

With the exception of James, everyone else said 'yes'. He simply shrugged and said "Sure, should be good. So are we heading to your house or is there somewhere else?"

"My place since that's where they are going to be" Lauren explained to them.

"Oh, alright then," James said while Chris was grinning ear to ear and Amy looked like she finally got a new computer. "So wanna stick around a little more, or did you want to head out?" Chris asked, though it was clear she wanted out.

"We could wait around here for a little while longer" Lauren teased playfully. "Okay okay let's go meet the rest of the band"

"Cool," James said. Amy turned around and made for the door, holding it open for the others as they started to leave.

Lauren passed through the open door. "Thank you" She said to Amy as she went through.

Both James and Chris also said thanks to Amy for holding the door as they followed Lauren out. "So, what kind of house have you moved into anyway?" James asked. "Since around here it's mostly apartments and condos." "Not true," Chris said. "There's still my house which is larger, an actual house I mean."

Lauren shrugged her shoulders and mumbled something inaudible.

"What?" James asked. "Didn't hear you there."

"I said an apartment building" Lauren looked distinctly uncomfortable in saying so.

"Well that's not so bad," James said. "Living in an apartment isn't the end of the world Lauren."

"No I mean it was an apartment, well a massive house divided in apartments..." She explained to them awkwardly. "But my stepdad bought them all and made them into one giant house again"

"Oh.....OH," James said in realization, while Chris said "Holy fuck. So you've got.....what a penthouse essentially? Or a villa?"

Lauren nodded slowly. "Yeah... Kinda hard to say your not wealthy when you have a successful band and your stepdad has more money than god does Angels"

"Well....nothing wrong with being rich," Amy said. "Just so long as you don't abuse it, or make yourself an ass as a result of it."

"I'll try not to money never bought my happiness though it does mean you can do some good with it such as buy what you like or better give it to charities to do with animals" Lauren replied beginning the walk to her house.

As they walked, James decided to stay quiet and let Chris and Amy do the talking, Chris already engaging Lauren in a conversation about animals. For the moment, he talked with Gestalt. So why was it that I didn't suffer.....an attack, during the fight with the robbers, or at the warehouse? Both had police.

Unknown. Perhaps you were just....in the moment?

The journey home seemed shorter with company, besides the massive house would be empty as her mom and stepdad where out for a while still, possibly a few days. They had beaten her band there which was no surprise to Lauren, they where not due to arrive for another fifteen or so minutes.
Lauren's home was a massive house that had clearly once been a rich somebody's home in the past before being divided into apartments within it.

However it was now back to massive house with expansive rooms since Lauren's stepdad had got hold of it. It looked rather intimidating.

Hmm.....maybe. Well let's keep an eye on it for now. In the meantime, we're here, James said to Gestalt while he gazed at the house and said "Wow.....nice place." Chris shared the same sentiment, while Amy made a small gasp of awe.

"Thanks... I wish it wasn't as imposing but... Hey not really much I can do about it" Lauren replied. "We can either wait outside or you can come in?" She offered.

"Only if it's okay with you," Chris said. "Beats standing out here in the chill of October."

"It is fine with me but I thought you guys might be cold out here" Lauren replied folding her arms. "There is food within as well plus it is warmer much warmer"

"All you had to say was warmer," Chris said as she started walking towards the door. James chuckled, following her behind Amy, as they each said 'thanks' to Lauren....until they found the door was locked. Amy smiled a little, rubbing the back of her head and saying "Uh, we should probably have waited for you to unlock the door first huh?"

Lauren had a clearly amused look on her face and she was trying hard not to laugh. "Perhaps in time you will get your own keys until then you'll need mine" She walked past them and produced a set of keys with numerous key rings on out of her pocket. She pushed the key into the lock and twisted it, unlocking the door with a clunk. She turned the old, iron door handle and opened the door, entering first but holding the door open for her hopefully friends.

Inside revealed a massive room with high arching ceilings, fancy looking sculpted columns, walls bedecked with movie, music and gaming memorabilia as well as beautiful artworks that clearly must have cost a ton of money. Gentle music played quietly giving it a whole lobby appeal, despite this clearly being part of the living room. A gigantic tv took up most of one wall with surround sound and several beautiful black leather sofas (couches). "So yeah welcome to my humble home" Lauren said with clear irony.

James was the first inside, walking to what may have been the center as he spun around slowly, taking it all in. He looked square at Lauren and said "It's too small."

"Yeah tell me about it" Lauren replied closing the door and locking it. The house was clearly huge, easily bigger than most peoples especially considering the current climate. "So... Make yourself at home just don't break anything please"

Chris and Amy rushed inside just to start looking around at everything like it was a museum, while James simply plopped down onto the sofa and nearly sank into the cushions. "Oh yeah.....this is comfy," he said, to which Chris said "Don't let him sit there for too long, otherwise he'll just sleep and merge with the couch."

"Great if he falls asleep Mom will think I have a boyfriend" Lauren rolled her eyes. "Not exactly the best way for her to meet some of my new classmates and friends" For Chris and Amy this must have been like a dream come true, for them the day must have kept getting better and better.
"You guys want anything?" She asked.

"Water for me," Amy said. Chris said "Same thing." From the couch, James said in a very awake tone "I'll have a coke."

"Don't run off while I am gone" Lauren called over her shoulder as she disappeared down a hallway to where the kitchen might possibly be. "Or fall asleep for that matter"

"Promise we won't run off, but as for the sleep.....depends on James really," Chris said, to which James shot back "Hey I've still got plenty of energy to avoid falling asleep." Amy chuckled and said "Do I need to go alphabetically or chronologically for all the times you've fallen asleep?" His only response was a sour expression, and the words "Oh pish posh."

Lauren returned a few minutes later with four glass of water balanced on a metal tray that was quite possibly silver, with water in a delicate looking glass jug and a coke in another similar jug. She set them down on a coffee table sculpted to look like numerous scenes of the natural world and stood back, letting out a breath she had been holding. "Drinks served ladies and gentleman"

"Oh ho ho," James chortled in glee as he grabbed a glass and poured himself some of the cold coke, while Chris and Amy joined him on the couch to grab their own drinks. "So.....how long do you think you'll be living here?" Amy asked after a sip of water.

"That depends on Mom's and my Stepdad's work goes..." She answered taking the fourth glass and pouring herself some coke. "How long have you all been living in the US then?"

"Well......all our lives really," James said. "I mean we've lived in the US since we were born, but not all of us lived here together for the same amount of time." Amy nodded and said "Yeah, both Chris and James are natives here; I've only been living in Brooklyn for the past eight." Chris pitched in and said "And we've all been friends since then, though James and I have known each other since Kindergarten."

Lauren listened nodding slowly. "A bit like me, Mike, Thomas and Samantha then in being friends for a long, long time department" She took a sip of her drink before speaking again. "Still feels weird being in the US"

"Heh, if our roles were reversed we'd be saying the same thing," Chris said while James took another long drink. "You get used to it eventually....if you live there long enough of course."

"Hopefully well I've got to settle into a new school, new house and prepare for an upcoming concert so it is all up in the air at the moment for me" She replied taking a swig of her drink.

Police arrived at house just off of Arlington Avenue, a 911 emergency call had been made. The officer on the line had heard gunshots before the line went dead, so a few cruisers had been sent over to check it out, and arrest whomever had fired those shots. When they arrived, they saw that the door had been broken down and lay outside the house. The door had been broken out, not in. Glass and pieces of wood lay in the grass and blood splattered the path up to the doorway.

The officers who arrived on scene drew their pistols and flashlights, and cautiously entered the house. What they found was a wrecked house. If something could be smashed, it was smashed, and shards of glass, plates, anything breakable, littered the floor. The walls had holes in them as well. After the officers cleared the first floor, not finding anything, they waited for back-up before search the upper floor and the basement. On the second floor they found two dead bodies, and in they found what looked like a body in the basement. It wasn't until a detective and the forensic team came that the disturbing answers came to light.

The body in the basement was a 13 year old girl, she had been skinned alive and then stabbed 16 times before she died. The forensics team couldn't find the skin on the premise. Blood had been smeared on the walls of the basement, and where there was white tile, a strange symbol had been drawn with the words "I see you" written multiple times around it. There was also multiple circles drawn in blood around the basement, as well as in the room where the other two bodies were found. Blood was not found anywhere else in the house other than the basement and the upstairs bedroom.

The detective walked between these two scenes, trying to imagine what had happened here. In the middle of a thought one of the officers came up to him and told him that the house belonged to a Henry and Melinda Terlings. The two bodies found in the upstairs bedroom had been skinned as well, so visual identification was useless right now, they would have to wait for the DNA analysis to come back in order to identify them. The detective looked around the room for clues that would lead to the identification of the killer. Whoever the killer was, he was sick.

Another detective entered the building, a senior detective who immediately recognized the calling card of the Skinner - a serial killer. He always skinned his victims alive and drew things with their blood. He had more than 14 victims in the past 2 years, that they knew of. This is the first time they found a child though, a young girl of 13 years of age. They would do a basic rape kit to see if any of the women had semen or the perpetrators DNA in them still. Which was unlikely, the only thing the Skinner did to his victims was skin them alive.

The senior detective was cleanly groomed with black hair and beady little eyes. He went over every detail in the house. Like a fine tooth comb, the only unusual thing, that didn't fit the usual modus operandi of the Skinner was the state of the house, which told him that the Skinner had been here, but someone else had come here as well. Did this extra come with the skinner? before? after? He had no answers, only questions.

The police questioned the neighbors to gather any information about what might have happened, what they might have seen, if anything unusual. They all answered the same way, they knew nothing and they only heard the breaking of dishes or glass - but couldn't give a time as to when they heard it. They had very little information to go on. The house was taped off, and a police car was set to watch it, in case anyone returned to it, or sought to rob it.

Miles away, a pale and decrepit creature lay in wait, having tasted blood once already today, his thirst was far from quenched. Within the next few hours several people would find themselves victim to the Skinner. Henry was on the run from a gangster hit-man. They had finally come to collect his debt. They had rung his doorbell, and led the Skinner to his house. The mob trashed his house looking for something of obvious value, and drugged the people they found in the house - after brutally subduing them. Now Henry ran for his life in one of the many dark alleys of Brooklyn.

"It's always up in the air for a bit," James said. "Only time can make the dust settle." It was, for those that knew him best, one of the wisest things he had said and it made Chris blink and ask "Are you sure you're the same James I know and love?" Chuckling, he responded "Pretty sure I am."

A long time later, long enough for my food to get cold, I stumbled away from the computer to the kitchen, plopping down in front of what I assumed was my food. "Hey...what'd you make?" I said, somewhat slurred as I tried reaching for it.

"it's an omlette and you need to stop pushing yourself so much or your going to crash again"

"I'm not gonna crash again." My fingers brush against the silverware and manage to push them farther away, instead of grab them. "Shit. I'm fine, Zeru." I say, blinking and rubbing my eyes as I try again, and manage to grab my fork and knife.

"You can't run forever, Henry!" Shouted the hitman dressed in black. "We'll find you, wherever you go!" Henry didn't listen, he only ran. Fear clouded his thoughts, and so he flew into the night, eventually outrunning his pursuer. When he could look over his shoulder and see no one following he stopped running. He was sweating and smelled of fear. How little he knew of the horror he had walked into. More than one evil, one darkness, crept about that night.

To the misfortune of Henry, that darkness smelled him and was drawn to him. The name of this evil, was more of a title, a Shadow of A Man. He was as fear incarnate when he crept upon the unsuspecting and tired Henry. In the lamplight, all that Henry could see as he looked up from his panting, was the silhouette of a man. The panic he had felt before had returned tenfold, but he was too tired to run now, too tired to fight. The darkness smiled at him, and laughed as he walked towards him. The last thing Henry heard, was the sound of a small bell being rung 13 times.

Lauren just nodded before her phone vibrated. "Oh... That's right locked the door and the band cannot get in" She rushed over to the door fumbling with the lock to let her friends in.

"Oh they're here?" Amy said in excitement. "This is going to be amazing," she said as she sat with Chris, James simply turning his head to see what was going to happen next.

Lauren opened the door and her friends entered, rather noisily. "About time" Samantha complained. "It was just starting to rain"
"First time you've had a shower in years Sam" Thomas muttered loud enough to be heard.
"What was that?"
"I... Hey Lauren so these are your guests?" Thomas pointed out distracted from the brewing argument with his twin sister.
"Yeah these are them guys go say hi they don't bite" Lauren said with a smile as she closed the door and her friends entered, greeting Lauren's guests.

Chris and Amy immediately stood up and headed over, clearly excited and eager to shake hands with their favorite band. James also, as a courtesy in his mind anyway, stood up but hung back, hiding his arm behind his back. It was childish in this day and age but he still felt embarrassed about showing his arm in front of so many people in a personal space; public was fine because he didn't care much, but among people being friendly....it was an awkward feeling.

Lauren introduced everyone in turn, before noticing that James was hanging back slightly. "Come on James" She said as she made her way over to him. "They don't bite... Well Samantha does on occasion but she is friendly" Lauren explained. "The guys don't worry about them either they are kind even if they like to pretend to be nothing more than advanced eating machines"