Veridian Shores

Chapter 01 - New in Town

Stopped.

Gliss turned from the window and made for the door, sweeping up the heavy leather satchel in one hand as she went.

Her bulky, thick-heeled boots clumped against the floor as she walked, a pair of tough stomping tools that reached up to just below her knees. Above them a series of rips and slashes patterned her black jeans, leading up to a chain-link belt with a buckle in the shape of a snarling dragon head. She straightened her hooded leather jacket with a shrug of her shoulders. The grey top she wore beneath it cut off just below her ribs and as the train doors opened she felt a tepid kiss of the cool city air against her midriff.

The smell of sea-salt and chemical fuel mingled in the air and she breathed it in – grateful to be out of the cold, frigid mountain ranges of her home. Veridian Shores was vast, warm and inviting. She stepped into the city's embrace. People spilled out of the train all around her and she let herself be swallowed up by the flow. Huge disc-shaped lights in the ceiling far above poured illumination down into the train station, and announcers boomed over the tannoy system.

She exited the station, and immediately voices rose around the dockyards, together with the cacophonous clatter of heavy machinery, loading and offloading huge cargo containers from the Land Across the Water. Gliss saw the immense cranes of the docks moving like prehistoric monsters on the skyline. People rushed everywhere she looked – young, old, tall, short – a microcosm of the world she inhabited.

Gliss turned from the hubbub, making her way toward a quiet section of the docks. The train ride had been long enough. Now she needed to feed. Striding nonchalantly along the queyside, she made no effort to quiet the echoing clack of her boots against the concrete, daring the human dregs that she knew lurked in this dingy section of waterfront to challenge her.

Her wait wasn't a long one.

The prickling sensation on the back of her neck told her that more than one set of eyes had locked onto her. She sensed no Aspect among them. These were just humans. Just prey.

She kept walking. Away from the crash and roll of the main docks the sound of the city faded away, replaced by the lapping of the ocean against the stone plateau upon which Veridian Shores sat. The smells of petrol disappeared, replaced by a stale dampness mixed with long abandoned food and alcohol.

Out of the shadows ahead of her stepped a tall, coated figure. Gliss halted, sizing the individual up. A human with pallid skin and broken dentistry, he glared through blood-shot, heavily lidded eyes. In one hand she saw the flicker of a blade and had to keep the smile off her face. This fool had no idea what he had just confronted. She dropped her bag onto the stone of the dockside.

"Out for a stroll, darlin'," he sneered, walking towards her.

She didn't answer. Feigning intimidation, she took a step back.

A pair of arms suddenly wrapped around her from behind, a flabby body pushing against her. She wrinkled her nose and couldn't even muster up a pretend gasp of surprise. But she could smell the hot pounding of his blood; feel the life coursing through him. With an effort, Gliss suppressed her natural urges. Anyone can be dangerous, if you're not careful.

"She's a nice one," the man holding her chuckled. "What brings you down the docks eh? Lookin' for a good time?"

"Something like that," she murmured as the other man stepped closer, within striking distance.

"Good to know."

She felt her supposed captor's hand wander up over her belt and onto her stomach, his hot, clammy fingers making her skin crawl. A low, alcohol-ridden chuckle filled her ear as his hand drifted further...