Levi locked the library with a heavy sigh. It had been a long day at work, a hurricane of hyperactive ankle-biters had been dropped off by a group of soccer moms who promptly left to go shopping. He hated people who thought the library was a babysitting service. The unsupervised children had made short work of pulling every book off the shelf that their grubby little hands could reach, running around and generally causing chaos and more work for the librarians.

Pulling his collar up against the wind, Levi began his walk home. The streets of Durem were in the quiet lull between people coming home from work and going out for the night. He was virtually alone with his thoughts. God how he was starting to hate this.

Lately it had been getting harder and harder to ignore the emptiness he felt. A deep dissatisfaction with his life was beginning to grow inside of him and it was gnawing away at his heart. He had been so good at avoiding it before, but now it came crashing in like a tidal wave every time he had a moment to himself. Peace and tranquility were becoming far off memories as his thoughts churned with the faces from his past. Nights he remembered through a haze of alcohol, drugs and sex.

Sex, ******** sex. More and more it was becoming that the only time he didn’t feel soul-crushingly empty inside was when he was with a partner or two or three. The warmth of their bodies driving away the coldness he felt inside, the sound of their cries in the night drowning out the voices of his self-doubt. He couldn’t stop himself anymore. He didn’t just want to have sex, he needed to ********. He could feel it as a hunger inside of him, growing with every step he took. Levi had to feed the beast, or be overcome by the pain of loneliness.

By the time he got home, his demand for a ******** had transformed him into his alter-ego: Black Lace. With it came a wardrobe change, tighter pants, open shirt, artfully disheveled hair. A look that said “I may or may not have just ********, but it is what I plan to be doing in the next 10 minutes”. A final glance in the mirror, an adjustment here and there and Black Lace left the home of Levi Sprout to stalk the streets of Durem.

Because another pill, another fifth, another bed and the emptiness of lonely desperation would go away.

Wouldn’t it?

I put this on Tumblr a few months ago. I thought now would be a good time to share it with the guild since we're approaching our 1 year anniversary.