[CupcakeDolly]

City of Shadows

The great walled city of Atticus is cast in perpetual darkness. Were it not for the looming clock face of the Kingsford Tower, one might never have known that night had fallen. The lights at the center of the city illuminate the near constant revelry of the high gentry, the governors and nobles safely ensconced in their tower of pleasure and freedom.

In the slums along the outer ring of the city the common folk have retreated to the relative safety of their homes, barring the doors from the inside to discourage entry by the desperate and the unscrupulous. On the outside of the ramshackle houses are hung various trinkets believed to ward off the invisible and silent scourge that has claimed countless lives over the many years.

Unknown to the slumbering citizens, a more pressing danger has appeared within the walls of the city.

Stumbling and groggy, a common man makes his way home through the alleys, his face flushed and his vision blurry. The small amount of light cast by the moon above is suddenly obscured, and the man squints into the darkness, searching for the exit to the alley that was visible to him only a moment before. Realizing that the shadow obstructing his path is higher than he first though, he cranes his neck up, and up... Until he meets the cold, unfeeling gaze of the beast before him.

A scream pierces the quiet night, followed by the bone-rattling bellow the likes of which the frightened city has never heard.

What will you do now?