Ken didn't see the cat stepping calmly into the warehouse. Blinded by smoke, wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, he didn't see the look on the creature's face, didn't see the smile, didn't see it tear itself in two as it transformed.
He saw the thing it became, though - the light, burning and brilliant even through the flames that leapt and crackled about him, then slowly fading. Even harried and terrified as he was, he couldn't have missed that. Gasping, he stooped short, nearly stumbling and falling onto the catwalk. He snatched at the rail to catch himself, ignoring the burning heat of the metal, the scalding pain that seared through his palms: he turned, desperately casting about himself to try and find the source of that sudden, terrible light--
Found it in a figure stalking the factory floor, a figure which burned but was not itself consumed, with a brilliant pure white flame.
It was the figure of a man, but a man of fire - or it was man-shaped, at least, or nearly so. The figure was clearly too tall, curiously elongated, its limbs stretched out and too long, its fingers long and spindly: there was something unsettling about it, something that had the breath catching in Ken's throat, had him stumbling back a pace. It was as if whatever the creature was - for it wasn't human, it couldn't be that! - it had heard of men, but never seen one, and so had been forced to improvise...
He stood, and he stared, and he crossed himself. Then ran again, though to where he didn't know.
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Date: 2010-03-28 08:27 am (UTC)He saw the thing it became, though - the light, burning and brilliant even through the flames that leapt and crackled about him, then slowly fading. Even harried and terrified as he was, he couldn't have missed that. Gasping, he stooped short, nearly stumbling and falling onto the catwalk. He snatched at the rail to catch himself, ignoring the burning heat of the metal, the scalding pain that seared through his palms: he turned, desperately casting about himself to try and find the source of that sudden, terrible light--
Found it in a figure stalking the factory floor, a figure which burned but was not itself consumed, with a brilliant pure white flame.
It was the figure of a man, but a man of fire - or it was man-shaped, at least, or nearly so. The figure was clearly too tall, curiously elongated, its limbs stretched out and too long, its fingers long and spindly: there was something unsettling about it, something that had the breath catching in Ken's throat, had him stumbling back a pace. It was as if whatever the creature was - for it wasn't human, it couldn't be that! - it had heard of men, but never seen one, and so had been forced to improvise...
He stood, and he stared, and he crossed himself. Then ran again, though to where he didn't know.
Just as long as it was away, that was all--