He had been texting with his cousin Aeliana all through the night when she said she needed to go because she heard howling. It seemed like she didn't think it was wolves, but rather a Marked. The Marked were very dangerous, and Alba couldn't help but worry about his family member and best friend. She was trained just like him to hunt and kill the Marked, but it had been illegal for three years now.
He couldn't help but worry since she hadn't come back to her phone. They were all grown up and capable of many things, but still... The light from his phone was starting to wear on his eyes, so he was forced to put it down instead of continuing to stare at it and squint like a moron.
He pulled the covers up over himself, setting his phone under his pillow after plugging it in. He had found a few years ago that when he did this, his phone charged much faster. No reason why that he could find, it just happened. So, he did it as a routine. Once a few minutes had passed, his mind gave in to sleep and he ended up dreaming. Tomorrow would be difficult, as he would have to meet with Aeliana's second cousin. Family relations and bloodlines were too hard for him to keep track of, so he preferred not to.
Time passed, the sun rose in the sky, and Alba's alarm went off. He felt the vibrations before he heard the irritating noises coming from his phone under his pillow. He had made it more difficult to turn off his alarm, requiring his phone to be unlocked, and he had to go INTO the app to turn it off. This was because he always seemed to sleep through alarms.
Alba managed to silence his alarm and, with that, got up from bed. He sleepily walked into the kitchen, which was rather big and daunting. He pulled out a metal sheet pan, thin and almost rusty-looking. It worked well, and there was no rust on it, so that was good. He grabbed chicken nuggets from the freezer after setting the sheet pan on the oven top, shaking the bag over it and spreading out the chicken nuggets accordingly. He set the oven to bake at 425°F.
He left the kitchen and flopped back into bed. His method for cooking was to wait until the beep from the oven, and they always seemed to be perfectly cooked that way. He laid there for the better part of the time, but he did pull himself up from the bed and managed to get dressed in his usual light grey shirt, which showed off his muscles until he pulled a black hoodie over his head. It had a zipper, but he wasn't thinking and just did what he did with the other ones, sliding it up and over his head. Alba grabbed a random pair of black sweatpants that fit him perfectly and pulled those on as quickly as possible. At this point, he heard the beep of the oven and decided to rush.
He ran, not really but close enough, to the oven and took the nuggets out. He set them carefully back onto the stove top. He got a plate and put it under the thin sheet pan, sliding the chicken nuggets one or two at a time onto his plate. He grabbed a ketchup bottle and a mustard bottle and squirted a medium amount of each beside each other on his plate. He let them cool down there as he went back to his room.
Alba rummaged around his closet. The feeling of different fabrics was normally disorienting to him, but his own clothes were always picked out perfectly for him and him alone, which meant this time it was feeling pretty nice. It was soft, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. He was already late, which was what he planned for. He slipped on his usual silver rings onto his fingers, brushed his hair a bit, and ruffled it up to make it fall effortlessly into place.
He felt like that was good enough and walked back to the kitchen where his now cool chicken nuggets were sitting. Alba sat himself down at a wooden table. He was quiet as he ate, thoughts wandering towards Aeliana again. He hadn't gotten any new texts from her. Maybe Samara had something to do with it? He didn't know how the two felt about each other, but he got some bad vibes from Samara Harlow. He always just assumed it was because they had very different lineage, but maybe there was more to it?
Alba gracefully slid his way over to the sink counter, placing his plate and fork there to clean later. He moved quickly to the front door, picking his combat boots up off the floor and sliding them onto his feet. He grabbed a black jacket, not leather but gave the appearance of such material, and slung it over his shoulders. He grabbed his keys, phone, and his smaller weapons, such as a few knives. He hid the weapons under his jacket in various inside hidden pockets. They were made by him, Alba himself. When you start being a Stalker, you usually have a mentor, and that mentor took Alba to make his own weaponry, even his swords, which were staying at home for this trip.
Alba left his house and began his walk towards Samara and their meeting place. She wasn't clear about what she had been talking about when they set up the meeting, but Alba was more than happy to try out his puzzle-solving skills. He assumed the way he was supposed to go was down North Street and up a bit to Wildsprite Park. Wildsprite was known best for having a large forest and for a case long ago where Marked stole passersby and left them in the forest. That was just the story though; many think it was made up to scare children and show how horrible the Marked can end up being. It wasn't wrong, but he did feel a slight ick towards the fairytale.
He took his phone out of his pocket, briefly powering it up and checking the directions again. He looked up, checking where he was going and back down to his phone as he walked. This pattern went on for more than thirty minutes until he finally arrived. He walked down the dirt path many people had walked down. He couldn't help but admire the trees and just how pretty it looked at this time of day.
"Samara!" Alba called. Where could she be? This place was huge! He turned around, back to the front, looking for her on end. Suddenly, his senses were telling him this was a bad idea. Only a second after that, he heard the flapping of giant black wings behind him, and before he could think, he was tackled down to the ground. He was pressed down hard and fast, disorienting him. He blacked out after something was pressed over his face, and when he woke up... everything was different.
It felt as if quite a bit of time had passed, maybe a few days? He had no phone with him anymore, and he was lying on his stomach. He couldn't help but groan in pain and wince when he rolled over—there were wings on his back! He was now startled up and standing, wings spread out reactively in fear. It seemed like a bad version of the owl threat posture on a human. His wings were white like an owl's too...
He almost screamed, covering his mouth to stop himself. 'I've been turned!' His thoughts were reeling. He had no idea that a Marked could turn a human into one of them. This was bad. This was REALLY bad! He couldn't go home after this. He couldn't even see Aeliana again after this incident. His whole world was crushed now; all he knew were Stalkers, and they would kill him on sight even if it was illegal...
He felt a pair of eyes on his back, and when he turned to face them, he was met with menacing light blue eyes staring him down—a woman in silver armour who seemed to want to kill him.
Winter 
Night 
Clear Moon: 
