#tfc mc

The rain pelted against your windshield as you drove through the dark and deserted backroads that you had decided to take instead of the highway to get back home. You had gone on a trip to visit some conventions and catch up with old friends. It had been fun and now you were on your way back home, longing for your apartment and bed. You jump slightly as the boom of thunder roars out, and you let out a sigh as you grip the steering wheel tighter while trying to peer through the stormy dark depths of the road beyond your headlights. 

A small bit of unease had crept over you by this point, “Should have stayed at that Motel a few miles back and waited for the storm to pass…” you murmur to yourself as you pass by a road marker that you could just barely make out which told you that you were going in the right direction. You continued to drive along with nothing but the vague outlines of the trees on either side of the road, you couldn't even turn on the radio to cut through the near total silence due to the storm reducing anything that came out into a garble static mess. Yawning, you rubbed at your eyes and glanced at the clock on the dash board which display 12:31am, before glancing back forward, then something came into the sight of your headlights, you had been going slower due to the storm and the lack of other drivers so you were able to lean forward and squint at what was left on the side of the road. It appeared at first it seemed like someone had dumped a white mannequin dressed in black and red but as your car drew closer there seemed to be some sort of red liquid coming from the mannequin. You suddenly slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to a halt as shock and concern welled up in you as you realized, It wasn't as a mannequin. It was an injured person!

Exiting the car, ignoring the way the rain was quickly soaking your clothes and body you quickly made it over to the person. Now that you were close the person turned out to be a very tall looking man with long silvery hair dressed in red and black, a white mask covering his face and he looked in a horrible state rips along his clothes that revealed cuts and what looked like claw marks that bled and your blood froze as you saw three large curved things coming out of the man's head, oh god. Was he dead? Being stabbed in the head was near fatal let alone three times. Movement broke you out of your panic and you looked down to see the man shift and the sound of a low pained groan was just audible over the rain, the guy was still alive, “S-Sir! Don't worry, I'll get you some help! Just hang on!” To call out to the man as you get up and rush over to the trunk of your car, opening it you pulled out some towels and the large med kit you kept stashed in there for emergencies.

You laid the towels out in the back seat and medkit on the central console before rushing back to the injured man, “Sir, if you can hear me I'm going to move you and do as much as I can, just… bare with me.” You say as you try and attempt to carry the man onto your back. While you didn't think you weren't particularly out of shape, you couldn't help but huff and pant as you moved the much larger male to basically be limply draped onto your back. Hobbling on wobbly legs you moved the man to your car and as gently as you could laid him onto the towel covered backseat. Placing the medkit in your lap and sitting on the console between the two front seats you took a deep breath, rolling up your now very damp sleeves and pushing freshly wet hair out of your eyes as you tried to assess the man's injuries, “Okay… uh… gloves let's get those off.” you lean in and carefully pick up one of the man's arms, you glance at the man's attire as you start tugging at the gloves. While torn and looked like it was missing parts, it seemed like it was some sort of clown or jester ensemble? Was this guy coming from a Renaissance Fair or something? You finally pull off the glove and look down at the man's exposed lower arm.

You stare, then blink, then blink harder, but the sight stays the same as the words left your mouth on instinct, “What the…?” you had been expecting to see a normal human hand but, you were met with the man's hand which was near pitch black, with sharp animal like claws at the end of each finger. With your mind still reeling, you pulled off the other glove with the other hand matching its counterpart, swallowing you looked away from the strange sight and looked at the various rips along the costume that showed various cuts that matched the tears and rips, the largest seeming to be a claw marks that ran along the side of his waist. You realize that you'd probably have to remove the man's entire top to get to the wounds, you glanced at the unconscious man's masked face, “Sorry… I have to get to the wounds.” You say as you pop open the medkit and pull out the trauma shears that one of your friends had gifted for you, something as a small joke but now you'd actually get to use it. Carefully you cut up along the man's sleeves and along the front, you glance at the man's legs seeing a cut along the man's knee. Opting to wait to peel off the cut up sections man's top, you awkwardly cut around the upper thigh of the guy's pants to try and attempt to let the man keep his dignity by turning his pants into makeshift shorts and afterwards you untied the man's boots and started to pull the left boot off, the man let out a pained whine in his unconscious state and you wince and much more carefully you slid the boot off. The man's foot was also near pitch black with small claws, covered in what appeared to be fur and it looked wrong, it looked like a strange combination of a human foot and dog foot, “... What am I looking at?” You stare dumbfounded, and now you're facing the notion that this man, as insane as it sounded, might not be human.

You now moved on mental autopilot as you removed the cut off parts of clothing and the other boot and had taken care of the man's various cuts, sprained left ankle and the nasty bump along the man's head now you sat and stared at the sight before you. He wasn't human, the man. Beast? Man-beast? Whatever he was, he wasn't human. The being had a humanoid body, but his skin was a dark ashen color with a thin layer of fur running along its shoulders, upper back, lower legs and feet. The three protrusions coming from his head were not rocks, branches or random debris stabbed into his head, no, they grew from his head, they were horns. At this point you assumed his hair was naturally silvery white, and the mask…. You were even sure it was fully a mask or not but it was stark white and had two streaks running above and below the eyes while on the left side of the mask had a teardrop like design, “... What are you? And how did you end up like this?” you murmured in disbelief.

You took a deep breath, ok. You picked up some unknown injured cryptid with a circus mask from the side of a road in the middle of the boonies and now have him in the back of your car…. What the fuck was even your life right now? You let out a deep breath as you placed the medkit into the front passenger seat, and picked up one of the large towels still on the floor of the car and covered the stranger with it like a blanket before you climbed back into the driver seat, running a hand through your still damp hair you cautiously started to drive again and wonder just what to do with your unintended passenger.

As you drove, you took periodic glances at the rearview mirror to check on the man, who still remained unconscious. You yawn, exhausted from the small adrenaline rush as you tried to figure out what to do next, you couldn't bring him to a hospital. You'd both probably be kidnapped by the government and you would probably be made to work for the government under maximum surveillance till the day you died, and that was far from appealing. Dropping him off somewhere was not an option, you literally just picked him up from the side of the road, you groaned in frustration as you watched as a streak of lightning arched across the cloudy night sky. You were preoccupied that you didn't notice the stirring behind you until you heard a small sharp inhale. You tensed, your hands gripping the wheel as you slowly glanced up at the rearview mirror, and were met with a pair of gold colored glowing eyes staring back at you.

Some hours earlier….

Pierrot stomped through the woods outside of the town that the circus was currently staying at, his expression turned into a scowl, it was unfair! It was so unfair! As Pierrot thought about what happened moments earlier. They had closed early due to an oncoming storm that evening, during his last performance for the day, Harlequin had decided to interrupt his performance in a surprise duo act and in the end it left Pierrot as the butt of the joke in the performance all while the crowd laughed and cheered, afterwards Harlequin had come up to him and stated how the crowd clearly knew who was the real star performer was and who was the Fool. It was that statement that made Pierrot finally lash out and it ended with the two being separated by Jester, with Harlequin being left in a somewhat disheveled state and despite Harlequin having goaded Pierrot into the fight Pierrot was getting punished as well. Why was he being punished when Harlequin was clearly wrong? Pierrot clenched his fists tighter as he remembered trying to defend his actions only for Jester to raise a hand and tell him that they'd talk about a suitable punishment later.

Thus here he was, having stormed off from the circus and into the woods to let out his anger. The sun low in the increasingly cloudy sky, of which was cast in a fading mix of orange, purple, and darkening blue as the distant sound of thunder sounded out. Pierrot was unable to appreciate the beauty of it all as he stomped through the woods and occasionally lashed his claws at random trees leaving deep marks in the bark as he passed. Eventually Pierrot made it to a clearing and clawed at a large rock, eventually Pierrot stopped as the anger faded and the red clad performer stared at the multiple claw marks he had left on the rock. Pierrot panted as he flexed his fingers, sighing as he turned away from the rock and opted to finally look up at the sky staring up at the slowly fading colors, the only sounds being the breeze around him and the distant rumble of thunder. Pierrot blinked, that's right, a storm would be passing through soon and Pierrot knew that he'd have to return back to the circus before the downpour came. Pierrot started back in the direction he came until… The loud low growl made itself audible behind Pierrot, he tensed before he turned and was met with the sight of a large brown bear that had entered the clearing while Pierrot wasn't looking and now was staring down at the red performer. Pierrot stared back at the large bear, completely on high alert. Animals didn't generally take kindly to him, the others in the troupe or anyone from their species for that matter, no doubt because of their own animalistic presence and now he was in the worst possible position, far from the circus, from the others and up against a very powerful animal.

Pierrot stood still as he gazed back at the large creature who made a growl of displeasure, He took a slow step back then immediately dove of out the way as the bear let out a furious roar and lunged and swiped at him, Pierrot hissed in pain and looked down to see the yellow sash around his waist falling to the ground and a set of claw marks that now adorned the side of his waist that oozed his blood as stumbled before he regained his footing and looked back in alarm as the animal skidded across the ground before it turned its furious gaze back on Pierrot. With wide eyes Pierrot turned and rushed into the woods, the furious thumping and growls of the bear thundering behind him as the animal gave chase. Pierrot’s body soon was joined with more marks as the Bear managed to land a few strikes at him, a few on his legs and arms along with much of his outfit was now in tatters, his ruff collar having been ripped off a little ways back. Pierrot in turn had swiped and slashed at the bear with his own claws and managed to get some ground away from the bears as he ran through the woods, his gaze snapping left and right unfortunately he had ran deeper into the forest after the bear had first lunged at him, he spun back around still back peddling as he heard the distant roar of the bear again. Pierrot flexed his clawed gloves that were coated crimson with the bear’s blood, ready to fight back again… only for one of his feet to suddenly fall freely down followed by his whole body as he unknowingly stepped off a sizable steep slope, Pierrot gasped as he tumbled through the air, before he smacked painfully onto a rock ledge. Pierrot’s body bounced off, and free fell a little more before smacking into another rocky ledge before he fell again, and Pierrot’s vision was swimming before he looked down to see the ground rushing up to meet him, Pierrot hit the ground hard his head smacking against a rock and was knocked completely unconscious, his three tailed cap that had fallen off after hitting the first ledge soon hit the ground in a muffled thud and jingle of bells before total silence…

Darkness and numbness, that’s all that he could see and feel… then wetness, cold and rapid, His eyes snapped open as a thunderous boom rang out through his ears. Pain, the previous numbness was now gone and replaced by pain that was everywhere on his body. He blinked as he pulled himself onto shaking feet, as rain poured down, soaking his body. His vision pulsed and came in and out of focus as he could barely make out his surroundings, trees, many of them. Why was he in a forest? Where was he…. Who… who was he? Home, he wanted to go home, but where was home? He forced himself to limp through the trees, as rain pelted down, soaking him, thunder booming overhead with the flash of lightning briefly illuminating the way. His breath came out raspy and heavy, everything hurt and he was scared. He continued on further until he couldn't, his legs finally gave out as he entered what seemed to be a long clearing that stretched out far on either side of him. He blinked as tears slid down his cheeks and mixed with the rain, before slowly his eyes closed and everything started to dull out and fade. Then a voice, muffled, panicked then dull twinges of pain, then the cold was gone replaced by warmth, and more of that muffled voice talking. Slowly, feeling came back to him as he stirred from unconsciousness. He blinked, and stared up at the fabric roof of a car, muffled rain as he glanced around. He was in a car and flushed as he realized he was near naked save for his cut up pants now turned shorts. He looked over his now bandaged body in confusion before he paused and slowly looked at the driver seat of the car, He sharply inhaled as he saw the Human, who then tensed and then looked back at him in the small rearview mirror.