The brightness of the full moon hung high in the sky illuminating the dark streets of London. People moved about through the streets and alleys below. With a snort of hunger the beast sat upon the edge of a roof top looking at the bright lights of Trafalgar square. Drunken revelers dressing in a variety of costumes and party clothes moved around the square under the watchful eye of London police, some mounted on horseback, others on foot.

The Halloween spirit was in full swing and the smell of intoxication was mixed with a variety of lust from some and anger from others as the effect of too much alcohol coursed through their veins.

The Beast lifted his nose to the wind and savoured the smell, his clawed hands and feet digging into the stonework to assure his footing on the rooftop. Looking down into the crowds he watched carefully and looked for her, an uncontrolled shudder of anticipation ripped through his body as he waited patiently for the time to come.

Susan Bainbridge left the club. She was an attractive blonde and at first glance she looked as if she was about 22 or 23, but she carried her family’s good genes and because of that it hid the fact she was just short of her 35th birthday. She was dressed in a long black skirt which zipped up on one side and a conservative white blouse, clothes really more suited to an office than a night out, but she really did not enjoy the whole nightlife scene. She never had even when she was younger, always happier with her nose in a good book or at home curled up with a cup of hot chocolate. She was still trying to figure out why she came out tonight. She laughed out loud. “Because of my friends.” She spoke to herself drawing a few looks from several people around her. She had spent a few hours at the club and had now decided to slip away and head home and tell her work friends she had developed a headache and gone home. They were all too drunk now to notice or even care she was gone anyway.

She looked back at the club one more time, considered going back in and giving into what some people called peer pressure, but she laughed again and said to herself, “I will give in to Hunger instead.” She chuckled slightly and looked to the fast food restaurant across from the club and stumbled slightly drunker than she had thought she was towards it.

The Beast’s nose suddenly came alive and he lifted his head and sniffed the air; something had caught his attention and it was not coming from the gathered people beneath him but from Leicester Square. With a quick turn he ran across the roof and leapt between two buildings, caught momentarily in the moonlight. A single drunken reveler noticed him but looked away and then back again to make sure his mind was not playing tricks, and when nothing was there he quickly dismissed the image from his mind. And carried on his drunken way.


Susan Bainbridge entered the burger restaurant and joined one of the huge queues to order something to eat. The place was jammed packed with people- some sober but mostly drunk people. She shook her head as a giddy feeling took hold of her and she started to regret having