Chapter Text
Ilya:
Waking up in an unfamiliar city was not unexpected, but doing so on a random street corner was. What the hell is going on? Is this some sort of prank from my team? Not likely. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one on the team who knows how to have any fun. So then how did I get here?
Trying to get in touch with anyone, I fish my phone out of my pocket. It is just my luck that the stupid thing just so happens to be dead. Oh well. I pick a direction and start walking, I’ll run into someone who can tell me what's going on eventually.
I end up down near the water front when I finally meet someone.
Walking out of a houseboat is a dark skinned woman, about ten years older than me. She gives me an apprehensive look.
“Salut. Sommes-nous nouveaux ?” She looks at me expectantly before realizing her mistake. “English?”
“A little.” She nods.
“You are new to the City?”
“Yes” She nods again, thinking.
“Where is the other one?” She pauses, reading my puzzled expression before continuing. “There were two arrivals. Did you not arrive together?” It takes me a minute to translate the question.
“No. I came alone.”
“Okay. Have you found your mark yet?”
“Mark?”
“The City likes to give us power. It shows up as a word on our skin.” She taps the space behind her ear where three letters are written. “Normaly it is easier to see.” She pauses a moment before her expression changes. “Would you mind doing me a favor?” I nod, still trying to both translate and wrap my head around everything she’s said. “Could you go and help the other newcomer? They should be in that direction.” She pointed back in the direction I came from. I nod again, no longer fully sure what we are even talking about and head back towards the city.
Shane:
Suddenly appearing in the middle of a creepy-pasta was not part of my life plan. I mean, at first I thought that I was dreaming. Although this would have been a pretty weird dream. After about a day I had to reckon with the fact that this is my life now. At seventeen my life is over, all of the promise of the future ripped away the instant I arrived here. Yeah, I don't think the panic fully left.
I have been surviving here for a few weeks now. I think that there are other people here. There must be. I have seen traces of them. But I have yet to see another actual living person. Walking back to the camp I had set up, I catch a whiff of cigarette smoke. Following it around the corner into the alleyway I see a figure crouched in the corner. He is huddled near my camp, and is rooting through my supplies!
“Hey!” He turns around. A lit cigarette hangs from his mouth as he looks at me with confusion before bolting. “Wait!” I give chase. Who knows what he might have stolen. I push my body to its limits to catch up and tackle him into the asphalt.
We tumble for a moment. Why did I think it was a good idea to try and fight someone so much bigger than me? As we grapple, I end up grabbing onto a patch of fur. I swear he was wearing a hoodie. He cusses in another language and then roars.
I scramble back and What! The! FUCK! He is suddenly twice his size with patches of fur sprouting along his arms, and were those claws!?! “Fuck! Shit! Please don't kill me!!! Fuck!”
He laughs at me as my life flashes before my eyes.
“Relax,” he speaks with a heavy accent. “did not realize camp was yours.” He extends his hand to help me up. It looks normal again.
“What the hell was that?” He chuckles again.
“What? You not realize you have special powers now?” I dust myself off and flash him a look of annoyance. “I guess it would be hard to see.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You have a word that gives you special powers.” As if to offer an explanation he lifts up his shirt to reveal his bare chest. I am distracted by the angles of his musculature before noticing what he actually meant to show me.
I try to hide my blush as I focus on the aforementioned word. A collection of Russian letters is sprawled across the left side of his chest.
медведь
“What does it mean?” He smirks without giving an answer, and tugs his sweatshirt back down into place. I hate the small part of me that wishes he hadn't.
“What is yours?” I blink in surprise.
“I don't know.” I try and rack my brain, did I notice a new mark anywhere on me? He chuckles.
“Maybe, I am just special.” I give him an incredulous look before rolling up my sleeves and checking my arms. I roll up my pant legs and search. At this point I can feel him watching me.
“Do you mind?” I look up at him and realize he is standing much closer than he was a minute ago. He just looks at me with a lopsided smile. I look down to hide the slight flush in my cheeks, trying to ignore him and continue looking.
“Could be somewhere you cannot see.” Maybe I'm just stupid, and this is all an elaborate prank. I look at him as if to ask what I’m supposed to about the fact that I can't seem to find a magic word. “Take off your shirt.”
“Wha-what?” So much for hiding how red my face is.
“Could be on your back.” He shrugs as if this entire situation wasn’t weird as hell. “I can help, if you want.”
“Fine.” I roll my eyes and take off my shirt. I can’t help but feel exposed as he walks behind me. He makes some sort of humming sound as he places his finger on my left shoulder. A part of me wants him to do more, before remembering why we were doing this in the first place. Suppressing a shudder, I crane my neck to try and see the black letters sprawled across my skin.
Shadow
I look to say thank you and meet his eyes, green eyes that are full of, Nope! This is all too weird to think about right now. “Um, thanks.” I scramble away, awkwardly putting my sweatshirt back on. What am I thinking? This guy was literally just stealing from me.
“No problem. You would have found it some time.” I shrug. He starts to walk away but then stops and pulls something out of his backpack. He tosses me back my supplies. “Thought camp was empty. Sorry.”
“I’m Shane Hollander, by the way.” I call to him as he continues to walk away.
“Ilya Rozanov.” He doesn't even bother to turn around.
It is not until I get back to camp that I realize he only only gave me back half of what he took. What an asshole!