It's raining in London... again (RP)

"Oh, only a few times a night," Benji blithely answers Jacob, not picking up on the sarcasm.

Once they reach the spot where the demons would have appeared, Benji stops walking and tilts his head, listening. His companion’s heartbeats are as loud as drums and very… distracting, but beneath all that he hears other noises. The scurrying of insect legs, the rumble of water moving through pipes somewhere overhead, the faint electric hum of the third rail (still live). He presses his ear to the nearest wall and knocks on the brick, listening to the reverberations.

- Benji -

You hear all that... you also hear... the low growl of a dog? ... or is it another train? The sound shakes in your very bones it is so ... large.

You glance to your right (towards Green Park and the tunnel you have not yet explored) and see two red lights. Another train? Surely not! No, those look like eyes! And they are coming closer, growing larger!

What do you do?

Benji reflexively snarls back, a clear threat from one predator to another. The sound is neither human nor animal, but something skin-crawlingly other. It sounds like something straight out of a nightmare.

The 'dog' is unfazed by Benji's display and continues to approach, padding slowly along the tracks with no apparent fear. As it approaches it becomes apparent that it was further away and is much larger than it first seemed. The eyes are at chest height! And it is still coming and still getting bigger!

Everyone has noticed the dog by now!

Benji’s snarl dwindles into a tiny squeak of fear as the Dog continues to prowl closer, completely unfazed. He’s not a fighter and he would ordinarily take this as his cue to leave, but he doesn’t want to leave his friends to face this monster on their own. He hesitates, torn between the desire to flee and his reluctance to abandon his friends.

"I…I think Mark has the right of it. We should run. O-or retreat, I mean." Benji is staring at the glowing eyes like a deer in the headlights, paralysed by fear and indecision. He is clearly on the verge of bolting back to Piccadilly Circus.

- Rhiannon -

You don't want to kill the dog if you don't have to. You have fought hell-hounds before, and this one looks similar to what you encountered. Most of them were ravening beasts, but something about this one makes you hesitate.

It looks... tired? Fresh constructs, like the ones you encountered a few years ago, look sleek and healthy, this one does not, it looks... old? There are signs of past injury, scars on its hide and possibly a slight limp as it favours its right front paw.

Your party has stumbled into its demesne and it is definitely hostile right now, at least it seems intent on driving you away. Now might not be the time to try out 'dogie-training' techniques. Your companions look shaken —you might not want to admit it, but you are pretty shaken, yourself— this hell-hound is larger than any you have faced before, and possibly more experienced too.

What do you do?

At Mark’s encouragement, Benji looks inward, seeking out some inner-monster he can use to brave the Hellhound. Instead, he finds only unbearable Hunger. He quickly tries to push it down again, think of other things, but now that he is aware of it, it's all he can think about. He needs to feed. Right now. He becomes sharply aware of his human friends, standing just metres away from him, in the dark.

Desperately hanging on to his last shred of self-control, he stumbles back a few steps, away from his friends, with a hiss, and then turns and takes off down the tunnel, back toward Piccadilly Station.

Continues in It will rain again tomorrow