<em>'Gee, I don't have to call the police? Well, of <span class="bbc_u">course</span>, if the freaking <strong>rat monster</strong>...talking...man...says so!'</em>Reggy thought, only mildly hysterical now. The fire escape continued to rattle until a tall, grossly malnourished figure flung itself -- no, himself, it was<em>definitely</em>a 'he' -- over the railing and sat on the ledge, just barely outside Reggy's narrow field of vision. In what might have qualified as the bravest moment of his life to date, Reginald pushed the door open a little further and risked a better look at the...'person', he guessed would be a decent enough term; it sounded reasonably inclusive, and besides he didn't know if a creature that switched forms could really be called a 'man.'<br/><br/>As he realized the ridiculousness of his train of thought, Reggy took the book and thumped it against his forehead.<em>'I'm having the most surreal conversation of my entire life with someone who just changed shape from a, a giant rat-thing to a human, about whether or not I know how to use a magic book properly and all I can think about is finding the least inoffensive PC term to call him in my own head! What the <strong>hell</strong> is wrong with me?!'</em><br/><br/>"Um...I'm Reggy...well, Reginald, but I mean you can call me Reggy," he said, his shaky voice slowly growing more comfortable with the idea of actual conversation. He let go of the door and it swung open a little further, and he glanced back down at the book again. Midnight? Backwards? He'd never even suspected. He had a feeling he wasn't that gifted, however, and resolved to stand by Silas' warning.<br/><br/>"Well, I don't...I mean, I haven't, um, tried to...no," Reggy said weakly. "I, um, I didn't even really consider, you know...reading it backwards...just, just the regular way, really. Are you...I mean, would you really..." He began to ask, more than a little discomfitted by Silas' nakedness, but before he could finish his question the--<br/><br/><em>'man, just look at him, he's clearly a man, dammit!'</em><br/><br/>--man turned toward downtown and spoke again. His voice suddenly held much more authority and Reggy half-expected him to strike some sort of superhero pose before he fled back down into the alley below.<br/><br/>With barely more than a second thought, Reggy flung the door wide open and rushed after him to the ledge. He looked down just in time to see a small rodent scampering out the mouth of the alley, dark wet fur bristling. Suddenly, Reg felt exhausted. He spun back to face the exit and sank down to the cement, drawing his knees up beneath himself and hugging the book tight to his stomache as the rain came down.<br/><br/><em>'What...what just happened, here?'</em>Reggy thought, dazed and disoriented. It felt like the whole world was spinning as he turned the encounter over and over in his mind. Did he really just talk to some kind of a, a were-rat? About magic? Did he, Reginald Barker, just have a genuine, honest-to-God paranormal experience?<br/><br/><em>'No...no way, it couldn't be. Those guys, I bet it was those jerks from earlier, they-they-they're just messing with me somehow, or they beat me up, yeah, maybe they really hurt me and I cracked my skull and I'm just hallucinating, delusional, in a coma or something...this is all just a dream, it's not real, I...I'm not...'</em><br/><br/>Reggy rocked himself slowly back and forth, his breathing fast and shallow, and squeezed the book in his fingers as he scrunched his eyes shut. It was real. It had all been real, it had really happened, there was no denying it and that meant that it really was all real. There really were monsters in the dark, and just because one of them didn't want to eat him tonight didn't mean others wouldn't. The world suddenly felt huge around him, vast and unexplainable and wholly terrifying, and he'd never felt so small in his whole life.<br/><br/>Thunder rolled overhead, the rain poured harder, and for the first time in almost four years, Reggy broke down and cried.