Nightshift 37: Soccer/Recreational Field

[pleading-ngri.livejournal.com]

[from here.]

Since the recreational field was quiet tonight, Phoenix found himself pausing briefly between doors, glancing up at the sky. It was what the sky looked like on television, pitch blackness interrupted by bright points of starlight, which was what really made him stop in the first place, really. He'd spent his entire life in Los Angeles. He didn't expect anything from the night sky but a dark, dusky rose, dotted with perhaps five valiant stars, assorted satellites, and the blinking slow-motion of airplanes coming and going from LAX. Seeing the sky the way he'd always known it was supposed to look pulled at him strangely. There wasn't supposed to be a single thing about this place that was beautiful, but there were the stars, cold and twinkling and completely unfamiliar.

He turned away abruptly, walking quickly for the next door before he could stare any longer. This wasn't the time to get caught up in things like that.

[to here.]

Comments

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

When the knife was pulled from the aquila's neck it tore the wound a little wider, bringing with it a rush of blood that stained the avian's feathers a little darker. Though it would have been vindictively pleased to crush its attacker as it fell, Ren's interference denied the aquila a Pyrrhic victory.

Not that the creature was capable of much thought by this point, as weakness crept over limbs that were increasingly difficult to control. The aquila could only bleed and make uncoordinated twitching movements as it struggled in vain to right itself. The two humans seemed all but forgotten now.

[for-marian.livejournal.com]

The last thing Leon was expecting was to be swept up off the creature's back at the last moment. At first he was too stunned to respond, but once they were safely out of range of the dying bird's talons and beak Leon managed to gather the wits to demand, "Put me down! What the hell, just grabbing me like that!" How humiliating!