xp_logs | Bedlam

"The Magician and his children had many enemies, and they tried may times to destroy them." Her fingers move across the wall, leaving dark streaks. "The enemies always failed, because of the children's magic. So the enemies decided to try something else. There was a man, a man with a terrible curse - he could become a monster, fearsome and awful and hungry for the kill." The awkward strokes become the outline of a beast, a wolf with sharp teeth and black fur. "The enemies sent him to the Magician under the guise of a spell, a spell that hid his nature and his mission, to kill everyone in the Magician's house. They knew the Magician couldn't turn away someone who asked for help, and so that's what the wolf did. The Magician let him in, never realising the danger."

Still no red chalk, but she has something else that will work. Upending the ketchup bottle, she dips her finger in the resulting puddle. Once, twice she presses it to the wall, until the wolf has two red eyes gleaming wetly out of the surrounding shadow of its features. "But then something happened. The wolf fell in love with one of the Magician's daughters. She was one of the most beautiful, with eyes and hair the colour of clover. She broke the spell and the curse, and he became a man again." Mint sauce this time, for the hair...

"Here! What are you doing! Stop that, you daft bitch!" A hand smacks into hers and she whirls around, hands coming up defensively.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieks, or means to - it comes out as a cracked whisper. Then she becomes aware that she is in a small cafe, the all-night sort favoured by taxi drivers just across the road from Liverpool Street Station, and all eyes are on her. Glancing over her shoulder she realises she's covered a good part of the pristine white wall with scribbles, the table in front of her coated with the condiments she's been using as paint. The wolf's red eyes glower at her, somehow... disappointed? "I didn't mean, I'm sorry, I didn't know..." she babbles, sliding away from the irate cafe owner, a large man in stained cook's whites. His red hair is shiny with grease in the harsh lights. "I'm sorry," she says again, voice high and afraid. There's a whisper in her ear - "One twitch, one little HINT you're trying to feed off me like some parasite, and so help me god, it'll take a damn microscope to find what's left, get me?" - and she flees, dodging away from the hands outstretched to grab her.