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This story is purely fictional - no shapeshifters, punks, cars or flats were hurt in the process.
If you don't like violence, please stop reading right here - there will be weapons, drugs, manhandling and rough sex. Not all of it, not in every part of the story, put you may get hung up once you start!
Also, please excuse my English - It isn't my first language.
This story will be continued. Have fun!
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I sighed, breathing in the cool spring air. It was one of those nights, the cold, windy ones, which made me restless, made me leave my safe apartment, made me stride into the ghetto. Away, just away from the prickly clean streets of the Central District and down into the abyss of dirt, crime and poverty.
I knew I would stand out from the typical crowd as I approached the 'Philtre', one of the few nightclubs near the district borders. The entrance was crammed with waiting people, most of them wearing the typical tattered clothes of the Punk lifestyle, a few black clothed Gothics in between the mohawked folk. My violet leather jacket embossed with snake skin patterns would be the first indication that I 'wasn't from around here', but if someone saw the Versace blend on my skin tight leather trousers, I'd be done for. The ghetto people hated nothing more than the 'rich bastards from Central', and my attire screamed MONEY in capital letters.
So why was I here, I mused, watching the busy nightclub from a distance. Was it a death wish? Finally ending my existence of boredom and loneliness as I should have done many times before?
Maybe.
With flaring nostrils I started walking again, hands in the pockets of my jacket, the teased strands of pitch black hair bouncing in the spring breeze. I had just turned nineteen, a slim, elegant figure of barely male build, as sweet and innocent looking as can be. Some people thought me younger, sixteen maybe, rather a boy than a young man, but didn't all teenagers look the same?
My looks had been an advantage before, sparing me from a good few punches when I had hooked up with the wrong crowd, but right now I was pretty sure I'd get into trouble for 'looking too young'.
Approaching the bouncer, I fingered for my ID, pulling it out before the man could say anything. A ripped poster at the steel door announced the band 'Angerhammer', a fitting name for the shrieking noise coming from behind the thick felt curtain covering the door frame.
The bouncer took his time comparing the ID to my face, and I couldn't help but smile at his guarded facial expression. How often had I seen exactly that look? Finally I got motioned inside, took my ID with a purring "Thank you," and walked through the curtains.
The room smelled of sweat, beer and cigarettes, mixed with the still lingering aroma of disinfectants; an artificial, wonderful scent that buried itself deep inside my brain. It was one of the advantages/disadvantages of being a shape-shifter, to have this increased ability to smell and remember scents that made my life a sweet agony of memories and nostalgia; that made it worth living a bit longer yet.
Angerhammer still jammed and mistreated their instruments, entertaining a crammed, but small crowd of head-banging drunks, filling the room with the angry sneer of raw emotions. Just a bit too loud, and a bit too tuneless I decided, as I weaved my way through the fixated audience, striving for the bar at the other side of the room. Flashes of blue light danced over my body as I passed the stroboscope, blinded by the intensity of the small gadget. For a second I couldn't see anything but black and white specks dancing in front of my eyes, and when I ran into something solid, I didn't realize it was a person rather than the counter itself.
"How about a 'Sorry', scrap?" a slightly hoarse, but agreeable voice growled right next to my ear, while a strong hand grabbed my arm, and made me register my mistake.
Slowly my eyesight returned to normal, and I found myself in front of a slender, muscular man dressed in typical ripped black army-pants and a muscle shirt with a band logo I didn't recognize. Piercings of every known flavour adorned his nose, brows, lips and ears, fitting perfectly with the bleached blonde mohawk haircut and the utterly amused expression on his face.
It took me nearly thirty seconds to stop staring, and mutter "Sorry." before I remembered how to breathe, and more importantly, how to blush.
It wasn't that this guy had THE looks, he didn't act charming or lovely at all. Just shy of 180 cm in height he loomed over me, storm blue eyes staring down at me with a mixture of good-natured humour and just a tic of volatile intent, as if undecided as to whether he should grab me and ruffle my hair, or just break my neck. He didn't even look clean, with his tangled clothes and grazed boots and all, smelling faintly of beer, smoke and just a tickle of Axe. The piercings made him just a bit too archaic for my normal tastes, but there was something, something about the sight of that guy just got me off.
Scared with the sudden intensity of forbidden lust I shrank back emotionally and one of the dozens of social masks slipped into my demeanour.
A smile, cocky and purely kittenish crawled across my face, and with a good amount of internal horror I watched myself chirp right into the stranger's face "How about you get a beer for you an' me, and I'll pay?"
Fighting the urge to run away I watched Mohawk think, returning the solemn look with a purely charming one. I knew myself, knew this state of auto-piloting through socially awkward moments, and I knew that Mohawk there wouldn't see anything that betrayed my seemingly perfect flirtation. Nothing except a young guy, a boy, getting hot over him and overdoing the friendliness just a bit.