Chapter 1 - The Turning of Jimmy Micks

The story starts here, James Issac Micks was your average 20 year old collage student. Well in many aspects above average, he was tall around 6'3 and rail thin with pale skin. Shorter thick black curly hair with slight stubble, with thick rectangular glasses adorning his face. Most people would consider James or Jimmy as he liked to be called as conventionally attractive. What he lacked was confidence, being an ugly ducking he wasn't treated favorably by his peers. After a growth spurt and graduating highschool he decided to move as far away from his home town of Myers Creek, Alabama as possible. The small sleepy collage town of Whispering Oaks, Oregon felt right to him.

The seemingly constant rain felt like a comfort especially without the south's hellish humidity. Despite the new found looks and fresh location nothing about him felt different, same deal different town. Some things felt new but it was more like a new coat of paint than anything else, the new roommate that acted just like his old friends, new bullies that acted like his hometown's group of good ol' boys, and like always not a girl interested in him in sight. Then everything went south, "You need to move out, we both do." Jimmy's roommate Chuck said on an unusually cold October morning, "My dad's selling the apartment."

Jimmy almost choked on his morning coffee, a worried "How long do we have?" was all he was able to get out after wiping the access coffee dripping from his lips. "Until Halloween. Maybe we can go apartment hunting this weekend man, I'm sorry." Jimmy and Chuck were unlikely friends brought together by sharing an apartment but they found they had more in common than originally thought. Their physical appearances were polar opposites Jimmy toward over Chuck's 5'6 frame but what Chuck lacked in height he made up for in muscle. Chuck spent his time at the gym most days, not out of some vanity driven image of what his body should look like but for his mental health.

The two of them got along like peas in the pod, from big common interest like horror movies and kicking ass at trivia to smaller commonalities like disliking the sound of marker on paper . Sure Jimmy had friends but Chuck was his first best friend and he wasn't the best at maintaining relationships. As Jimmy was pondering his current dilemma he noticed it was 7am, meaning once again he was late to work at the Holland collage library.

As Jimmy was walking out the door Chuck yelled behind him "Hey we're still on for movie night right? I was thinking of inviting Lyle if thats ok." Chuck's boyfriend Lyle was a thorn in Jimmy's side at times, not because of romantic tension between the two roommates but because Jimmy often felt like a third wheel when he was around. "Yea man thats fine I'll have to text you about the details later."

After the short walk to the school library Jimmy clocked in when the elderly head librarian Edwin Cushing called for him from the main desk. "You're late again James, if you're not serious about the position you've taken here I can find another student in one of the writing classes to fill your place." Jimmy sank his head down joining his mentor in organizing books on the return cart. "I'm sorry Mr. Cushing, I had some trouble this morning. I'm getting kick out of my place, land lord is selling." While Edwin wasn't a cold hearted person and he did feel sorry for Jimmy he tried to keep a wall of professionalism between the young man and himself.

"I'm sorry James but that is no excuse for tardiness. Please be more mindful of the time from now on." After that the two had little to do with the other aside from the occasional barking order from Edwin. By the final few minutes of his shift Jimmy was exhausted, the larger than average library had him constantly walking down long isles of books and climbing ladders. "Mr. Cushing I've finished putting the history books up. I'm going to head out since it's already 3."

Edwin turned a corner talking to a woman about Jimmy's age. "Wait James, I wanted to introduce you to my neighbors niece. She's studying creative writing just like you and I thought you too would get along nicely." Jimmy's eyes turned from the 70 year old man to the woman beside him, around 5'5 with a willow like slim frame James was captivated. As his eyes traveled upward he took into account her slightly wider hips and smaller breast. She looked to be of Indian decent from her brown skin and this was confirmed when her hand shot forward for a hand shake.

"Hi I'm April Khatri." It was only after hearing her smooth honey like voice that Jimmy took notice of her face. He could only think of one word mousy, big round glasses in front of deep brown eyes being held up by a button nose with frizzy hair that seemed like it fought and almost won any and all attempts to tame it. He was in love. "Mr. Cushing let me read your paper on HP Lovecraft and his use of sea imagery in his work and I wanted to talk more about it." She said as it took Jimmy's a minute to respond and when he finally did he suggested a local coffee place.

After their good byes to Edwin the two started walking expanding the conversation from just Lovecraft, the two spend about 2 hours talking in the coffee shop when April's phone rang. "Ah damn it, I have to run to my Trig 2 class. Maybe we can hang out later?" she asked handing him her phone "You can put your number in if you want." Before she turned to walk away Jimmy caught her attention again "Actually I know this might be a bit to soon but if you want my roommate, his boyfriend and I are watching some horror movies tonight and you're more than welcome to come if you want that is." he awkwardly rambled at the end.

"I would love to Jimmy but I gotta warn you I'm a big scaredy cat. just text me the details." she said before walking out of the coffee shop. This was a confusing day, lost my place but gained a potential love interest, speaking of gaining there was that appropriately sized elephant in the room. Feedism, this kink had been a sore spot for Jimmy all of his life. He would mostly describe himself as asexual outside of it, it weighed on him heavily no pun intended and had stoped him from pursuing relationships in the past.

As Jimmy was lost in thought while texting April the apartment address he didn't notice the dark ally he walked himself into. As he turned to exit the dead end ally he saw a figure wearing a trench coat and an ivy cap. Jimmy thought it was weird and nothing more than that, he probably lived in one of the buildings connected to the ally. That was until he tried stepping past the figure and was stopped by the man’s hand in his trench coat pocket stretching outward blocking his path.
The confused Jimmy looked at the figure and noticed that he was a good-looking middle-aged man, maybe mid 40's. He looked in good health with height and hair similar to Jimmy's but a bit taller and longer respectively.

"Tell me kid" the figure spoke "Do you know fear?" Jimmy panicked "No no no no no no I can't die not tonight, not right now, not like this!" was all he could think frozen. The figure shined what looked like fangs at Jimmy and then everything went dark.