Eyes flutter open to a dark room and for a moment she is unsure of where she was. Thick lashes blink slowly over those soft baby blues as they look over the shapes around her as slender fingers fumble blindly over the cushions of her futon. Wait... Futon? Steadily she feels her consciousness returning and at last her hand grips the smooth surface of her smartphone and she pulls it to her face, thumb pressing the button on the upper right hand side to bring up the locked homescreen as she's wondering just what time it was exactly. The phone flashes and she has to squint as baby blue eyes do their best to adjust to the sudden light. 2:13am. Slowly, she sits up and looks around her, suddenly remembering what had caused her to be here of all places instead of her warm and ever welcoming bed. She and Chika had stayed up later than normal after their dinner of chicken alfredo watching movies. A quick glance over to the television on the small entertainment set (really it was just an oak table just wide enough for the base of the twenty-five inch flat-screen with a single compartment for her dvd player, but it seemed the same purpose more or less) confirms that she had actually fallen asleep halfway through one of the few that she'd played. How or why she hadn't just felt herself getting too tired and shut off the TV and gone to bed, she wasn't sure. Truthfully, the young woman couldn't even remember which movie had been playing when she passed out. All she knew was that is was dark and she was now consequently wide awake after the small rush of feeling lost, heart racing ever so slightly. In her own apartment.

She sits there for a moment in the dark, a wide yawn ushering through her as she feels herself wake up further, knowing there was absolutely no chance now that she'd be able to climb into her bed, snuggle under the covers, and go back to sleep until a reasonable hour. Many times she had tried to, attempting to lay there and wait for her eyes to grow heavy and everything to fall away as she slipped back into the world of dreams. Nine times out of ten, such things never happened and she was stuck wide awake in the quiet blackness that was her room. Finally, she decides that there was no hope for what she truly wanted and so rises to her feet and walks carefully across the small living room to where the light switch was. Fingers skin across the textured sheetrock until they manage to find what they were seeking and with a small flick, light replaces the dark. The sleeping feline who had been peacefully curled up in her little wicker basket beside the futon happily purring away in her own warm sheets looks up through slitted eyes as if to say "hey, what gives human?" and Beylani can't help the apologetic smile that dances across her blush-colored lips."I'm sorry, girl. Didn't mean to wake you up, too", she says softly, gentle voice still tinged with grogginess. She moves into the kitchen, opening one of the few cupboards to find the canister of coffee grounds. Pulling it down and setting it on the counter, she also pulls a pale brown coffee filter from the box sitting next to where the grounds had been and closes the cupboard. There was no chance that she would be getting through today without coffee and she doubted that Inner Sanctum was open, having come to crave their caramel macchiatos lately. So, a plain homemade brew would have to suffice and she gets to work preparing her cup of good morning far too early. As the coffee pot begins to sputter and simmer while it works, she leans back against the sink and stares blankly at the clock beside the refrigerator that now says 2:34am. Time always seemed to move so slow this early... Why? Today is gonna be a long one, I can tell.

It's after her second crucial cup of energy she knows won't be able to completely see her through Monday that she glances over her shoulder from the futon, coffee cup still clasped lightly in both hands with legs folded beneath her that checks the time only to sigh. 3:53am. She turns back to gaze at the sleeping long-haired tortoiseshell who has now tucked her face beneath her tail to block out the light of the living room and the girl with loose blonde curls and milk chocolate undertones feels a small and fleeting prick of envy. If only she were so lucky to feel tired enough to sleep a little while longer. Now what? She could just turn the TV on and watch the movie she'd fallen asleep watching.... Then, she gets an idea. She could go to the park and take pictures by twilight. Back in Willowhaven, she'd done it a time or two but her mother and father were hardly keen on the idea of their daughter wandering the rural fields and pastures at night for fear an animal might take a deadly interest in her. Here in the crowded streets of Sacrosanct, she doubted there were black bears or ghost cats prowling the concrete jungle, so why shouldn't she do her best at making the most of this hour? And afterwards, the sun would rise and she so loved capturing such images of a new day only just beginning as the sun crowned distant mountains peaks in a ring of gold, although this time it would be skyscrapers instead of mountains. There is now a gleam of excitement in those baby blues as she rises from her place on the futon and quietly makes her way to the bedroom closet, careful not to walk too loudly so that she did not wake Chika or the unknown neighbor (or neighbors?) beneath her. She throws on a pale pair of bootcut jeans and a white v-neck t-shirt that quickly vanishes beneath an emerald green hoodie. She fully anticipated for it to be chilly outside, after all. Dressed comfortably and warm enough, she walks out of the bedroom and back into the living room, past the futon and sleeping feline over to the kitchen island where her nikon camera, wallet, and keys had been sat the night before. Gathering all her affects and making sure there wasn't anything she was forgetting, she quietly opens the front door and closes it behind her - careful to lock the deadbolt as silently as she could. Descending lightly down the flight of stairs with cold air touching her face, she moves over to her car and climbs in. It was time to see Sacrosanct in a new light, though little did she knew exactly what it was that awaited her.

The drive took only a fraction of the time it had previously, but then again there also were next to no cars driving around at 4:41am either because most people with common sense just stayed tucked away in their homes until morning light. Ah, but Beylani wasn't like most. A quality that was liable to get her into trouble at some point. Locking and closing the car door, she takes a deep breath of the fresh air she is always able to find here at Hyde Park, her little piece of home away from home. The sky was only just beginning to grow lighter than the east where the sun would surely rise, but that was still a ways off before sunlight would touch the world to ring in a new day. Her eyes having adjusted to the dark, the young woman now sets off down the familiar path that leads into the trees and towards the fountain she'd visited a couple times before. She stops here and there along the way, camera lifted to her face as she snaps an image of the moon breaking through a small, dark clouds that passes over her face as she bathed the brightly colored leaves in ethereal silver light. When the sun came, the trees would take on a brilliant array of color. But, beneath the moon, they seemed... enchanted. She turns to her left, and something catches her eyes that she somehow hadn't seen before. It was a small dirt trail that branched off the paved pathway, leading into the deepest parts for the trees here. Perhaps most with city smarts (or common sense) would have been weary, and to a small degree she was but her curiosity far outweighed her caution and so she follows it. To where, she did not know but she was interested to see where it would lead her.

As she moves ever farther down this path traveled by few (if any), the path slowly becomes overgrown with brambles and underbrush, but soon she arrives at the edge of a clearing and she is left breathless. The moon pours down through the trees here and it seems like a sacred place described in a fairytale. She takes a few shots from different angles here, oblivious to the company she kept until suddenly she hears the poweful stroke of wings on the wind overhead and a dark shadow is cast over the clearing. Her heart begins to beat a little faster within her breast as she shelters behind a bramble bush and she wonders just how large an owl could possibly be... It couldn't be an owl though, because she'd always been told that they were renowned for being silent flyers of the night. The sound of something brushing against bark and pushing through branches come from a tree nearby and what she sees she has no words for. A man, but not just any man. A man with massive leathery bat wings. She thinks for a moment she is dreaming but is quick to remember all to easily that she hadn't been able to go back to sleep in the safety of her Riverdale apartment. She is somewhere between mystified, confused, and fearful as she hides there behind her bush, baby blue eyes peer up at him through the branches of the tree him as he settles upon a thick limb, moving his hands behind his head and large appendages hanging down at his sides in the growing pre-dawn light. What is that!? She should have backed away silently. She should have maybe even turned and ran back to the safety of her car... But she doesn't. Instead, she does something she will unknowingly regret... Unable to resist those feelings for astonished wonder and curiosity of something that seemed only to exist in some kind of science fiction novel, she slowly lifts the camera up to her face and then... Snap.