Salem sat shivering behind Mercy Falls' local coffee shop, propped up against a large dumpster, vigorously rubbing the cold out of his arms. He could see his breath in the air and feel the bite of the weather, the woods begging him to change and live in them. He knew that the second he stopped fighting it, it would win. He didn't want that. But he also had very little in the way of options left. He refused to panhandle, changing wasn't even an option, going "home" seemed like an almost worse idea, and for some reason no one wants to give a job to the guy shaking like a rickety tumble-dryer and looking like a straight up comic book villain. He had nowhere to turn, and his stomach was starting to hate him for it. To add insult to injury, the world's most fearless rabbit chose that moment to approach him, and look up at him as though he were going to give it food.
The rabbit either got the hint, or sensed there would be no vegetables coming his way, and casually hopped away from Salem, who took this moment to stand up and walk around the side of the building, leaning on the wall just around the corner. Convincing himself that he had some extremely vested interest in every single vehicle that passed, he fought within his very bones an urge which he worried he wouldn't be able to contain much longer.
