Sylar didn't show it, but he was enjoying this little game of intimidation. Mutants tended to be a little too defiant for his taste, but humans were all too easy to terrify, and why wouldn't they be? Sylar was literally designed to prey upon man, a step above them on the food chain they once dominated. Wouldn't that terrify anyone? Sylar could see every aspect of Shelby's fear down here in the dark, his senses and sight able to pierce this darkness just like her's would have the daylight in the surface world.

The girl hit the ground with a thud, and eagerly gave into Sylar's demand this time. His claw lifted from the wrecked camera, some of the film pulling free as he did, before he advanced again, coming closer to Shelby, a bare few uncomfortable feet away in fact. He glared down at her, his features hidden in the dark again, leaving only the monstrous silhouette of the Boogeyman of New York.

"Are you afraid human?" He asked, a bit of sadism sneaking into his words, his inner monster feeding on Shelby's fear of him. He didn't actually intend to harm the girl, Sylar didn't like humans but he was still a long ways from being openly violent towards them, at least fatally so. Suddenly Sylar lurched forward, dropping down to the ground and placing his face at Shelby's level on the ground. "A little old to be scared of the Boogeyman aren't you?" He smiled a bit, a terrifying display he was doing to purposely frighten Shelby more.

Time to send her running for the hills and telling all her friends to never go near the sewers again. His voice lost it's cruel tone, suddenly switched to a more taciturn androgynous sound. "This is the part where you run human." He whispered to her.

She meant to nod vigorously, but it only came off as a jerk of her chin. She couldn't take her eyes off of him; she was too scared too. As long as she had him in her sight in some small way she felt a little safer.

He jerked forward and in the dark it took a few moments longer than it should have for her brain to comprehend the movement. When it did, she dropped back flat, smacking her skull soundly on the cement as she did so. The little hiss of pain she gave was her only indication of the pain, but she refused to lift her arms to rub the pain away. Any quick movements felt like she'd draw more attention to herself, incite his anger further.

Then, he hissed the words she had been waiting to hear only moments before. Run. Run. Running meant escape. It meant freedom. Her pupils dilated slightly as a flash of relief washed through her... but it quickly died.

"...I... M-my legs won't work..." Try as she might, every signal she sent then to move resulted in a twitch and a jerk. They just weren't syncing up in her terror.

Sylar stared at the girl for a moment, his brain trying to process just how defenseless this human was. Her response has nearly broken his mask and caused the cruel boy to laugh a bit, but he resisted the urge and thought for a moment. He wanted the girl out of his sewers, but if he just carried her out and left her safely on the surface she'd clearly think he wasn't dangerous or that she could come back down here and pester him again in the future which would negate all his work scaring her. Sylar tail began to stir, slithering from behind the boy's back and coming towards Shelby like a snake readying it's strike.

However the tail didn't thrust forward and end the girl's life, or even slash at her, instead it simplyed inched close enough for her to eye the blade. "You're making this really easy you know, like too easy." Sylar whispered into the darkness, his cold voice echoing off the walls. "Do you want to actually see what I use all the claws for? It's not pretty ya know." The boy said as if he were a seasoned killer, when in reality Sylar's only kill had been not nearly as scary as you'd think he was capable. Though the boy could be plenty vicious if he'd really let go of his human restraints.

His tail crept forward a bit more, the tip of it about to press gently against the girl, a dangerous weapon hovering just above her skin. "How about this human. I'll make you a little deal, you go back top side." The boy pointed his clawed finger up, which was barely a finger at all and more like a living kitchen knife. "And you tell all your little tabloid friends, or dumb kids or whoever will listen. I don't like your kind, and I don't like you in my tunnels. Stay out, and I won't have show you want the inside of my stomach looks like. Sound fair?"

Yeah, this was a great threat. Sylar was really playing the part of a thug and a bully, maybe he'd picked up on a bit of confidence and aggression from his time with Megan, a certain mutant girl who had plenty of attitude that made her tough as nails. With this he'd have an excuse not to murder some human girl and they'd be even more afraid of him, the rest of her kind that was. Sylar smiled, a real smile this time, which would have looked sort of odd compared to his earlier "monstrous" expressions, that was if Shelby could see his face anyways.

Oh god. She was going to die. She was going to get stabbed in the face, soil herself, and die in a sewer and it wouldn't matter because everything smelled like s#%t.

She would have nodded her head, but she was fairly certain there was something sharp and pointy in her personal space bubble- then again he was in her personal space bubble and everything on him looked sharp and pointy. Instead she just squeaked out a simple- "Yes sir!"

If he wanted her to tell everyone she knew about him and his terrifying poo lair, she'd do it. She'd even toss in some tears and therapy sessions for free! Bonuses all around. See? Totally worth letting her live.

"Sounds brilliant! I-i'll tell everyone I know." Including Jen Damn her and her actually true tall tales. 

The girl was meek and agreeable, oh how Sylar preferred human girls to mutant ones. They were so much easier to deal with and control when he had to play rough. The monster boy slowly reached his claw out, and gently patted the girl on her head like an adult would a child. "Good, aren't you smart for a pink skin." His words were demeaning, but his tone wasn't really discriminatory but more approving of her attitude. He pulled back from the girl quickly, his agility nearly mind boggling as he managed to meld into the darkness and nearly vanish.

Watching her from the safety of the dark, Sylar continued on to order the girl from his home. "Now human, I'd suggest you make your legs work, collect yourself, and leave my home." The emphasis on the word leave was strong, as Sylar wanted to burn a fear of this place into her, to write into her very instincts that the sewers, maybe even just the dark in general was a place to be avoided at all costs. Her kind got to have the rest of the world, what right did she have dipping into his?

His tail wagged back and forth, the blade laying slack as Sylar vented whatever aggression he had earlier since he'd won this little encounter. He was feeling quite happy with himself and would have to tell Roach about this sometime. He was becoming far more confident with himself...and more dangerous as his mentor molded him into an effective enforcer. The girl seemed to be still moving far too slow. "Well? Get to it human!" He ordered.

He touched her and it took every ounce of restraint in her body not to shriek in terror. Instead, she mewled quietly and bit down on her tongue. No screaming. What if he didn't like screaming? Did that count as talking back?

She was dragged from her frantic thoughts by his suggestion, and his sudden departure from her personal space. Had she blinked, which she hadn't because she was still fairly certain taking her eyes off of him meant certain death, she would have missed his movement. He was quick. Lightning fast. She was 100% certain that if she didn't do as he said she'd meet a quick, painful end. And probably be eaten if his earlier thread held any merit.

"Sir yes sir, thankyousirimgoingnow" She was rambling now. Her brain was calculating the fastest route back out to the surface. Jerkily she got her legs working as a surge of energy filled her. Jolting to her feet, and stumbling at first, she bolted back down the tunnel the way she had come. The fading light from her broken camera cast the barest hint of a shadow where she was supposed to turn, enabling her to skip around the corner without falling sideways into the river of muck. She could see a glow of light from the manhole she had entered in- freedom was so close she could taste it.

Sprinting toward it like a child feeling toward the safety of their bedroom from a dark hallway, she didn't look back once. The hair on the back of her neck was raised, she was stalked by the feeling that he was right on her heels-- even if he wasn't. She reached the dirty ladder and started hauling herself up faster than she had every thought herself capable, but didn't notice. One hand over the other, don't slip don't slip, can't afford to fall.

Behind her, where he purse had spilled out, her phone screen flickered on. The device vibrated once as the picture of a grumpy looking feline popped onto the screen, before the ominous music of her ringtone blared to life. Dun dun... dun dun... dun dun... The kind of piano music that was usually paired with shark attacks in movies.

Jen was calling to see where she was, a check in if you will.

Sylar watched as the girl fled from his presence, like a rabbit dashing off after something spooked it. Sylar didn't care for hurting people, even the humans. But scaring the bajesus out of them was quite fun, this one especially. He walked at a normal pace after the girl as she fled, the sewer boy just making sure she was really leaving and staying gone. Unaware his venom was doing an excellent job of scaring the pants off the girl and creating fictitious sounds and sights to keep pushing her away from him.

And then the phone went off, a brand new sound within Sylar's bubble of perception. The boy growled and quickly found the source, a phone which had been dropped by the girl at some point it seemed. He grabbed her purse, lifting the somewhat soggy accessory into the air and clawing at it to find the phone. His fingers weren't so good at delicate searches, so they tore into and snagged on the material as he found the phone. Considering the boy was blind and hadn't really used cell phones much, he had no idea how to turn the thing off. "Shut up you stupid phone." He mumbled into the darkness before happening to click the phone shut and hanging up on Shelby's friend.

He sneered and carried the remains of Shelby's purse towards the manhole where the girl had scrabbled up to escape his world. Sylar climbed up as well and tossed her junk to the surface, speaking a decree after Shelby. "And keep your crap out of my sewers too human!" His voice was assertive and unlike his usual androgynous tone. He couldn't leave just yet though, he had to make sure this girl was gone and wasn't going to come right back with some annoying police who Sylar would have to deal with.

Scrambling on all fours out of the sewers, like some kind of rabid beast from the depths of the earth, she dropped onto the wet pavement and gasped for air. She hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath the whole way up. The panic still had a full grip on her- the fear that the monster behind her was going to crawl out after her ever present in the back of her thoughts.

She crawled forward on her hands and knees, fighting off a panic attack and the possibility of hyperventilating, when she finally noticed voices not far off.

No more than 40 feet away from her position stood three figures, men if she could glean any clues from the baggy clothes and slouched postures. There were huddled around one another as if the closeness would keep them any shielded from the rain, and their attention was now focused solely on the Ginger haired, wild eyed woman who had just randomly scrambled out of a man hole.

It was a curious sight, for sure.

"RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Even more so when she started screeching at them. Exchanging glances, the three men started toward her at a meandering pace. She wasn't in the right mind to recognize the bottle shaped, wrinkled paper bags each had in hand. Obviously, the three of them had been drinking.

She was too busy heroically trying to save their lives. Or so she thought. "NO! RUN! Don't come any closer!"

Her purse, wallet, broken phone, and other belongings came shooting out of the hole behind her, scattering around her in a tempting mess. Paper bills from the meager wad of cash she always had on her for emergencies glared at the men in the dim light, and they exchanged glances again. She wasn't making any sense to them, and from the looks of it they could score a little easy cash from her. The crazies were always easy pickings.

None of them really paused to consider where her belongings had come from so suddenly, or who had tossed them up. Fools would be fools, after all.

Her protests were quickly cut off when she realized they weren't leaving, and she couldn't get her legs to work fast enough to haul herself up from the ground. The first male who came close enough reeked of cheep beer and hadn't shaved in a week or two from the looks of it. He kneeled so he could look her in the face easier.

"Whats a pretty thing like you doing out here at this time of night? You been drinking doll face?" She sputtered something incoherent back at him.

"We could look after ya if you want." Another offered, his gravelly voice sickly sweet. "....Might cost ya though."

Humankind was a merciless species, eagerly preying upon it's own weakness whenever given the chance. A girl crawls from the sewers trembling in fear and rather than inspire kindness these men saw only a carnal opportunity. Sylar hadn't noticed them at first, eager to be done with this girl he'd scared off. But he heard the voices of other humans, male voices and the smell of alcohol quickly hit him even through the rank stink of his sewer home. He disliked this smell, it was like a predator sniffing out diseased prey, people like this were unappetizing even to him.

He remained hidden below the man hole, his instincts and brain fighting over the thought of what to do. She wasn't his friend, and she wasn't his responsibility. Leave her to her own kind, humans were all like this, eager to hurt one another for their own gain and hate anyone who didn't fit in. But even as alien as Sylar was, nearly half of him was still human, and it seemed his heart was still human enough to find disgust in the thought of leaving a weakened girl to drunkards. He growled a bit and then sighed, was he really about to ruin his entire act by going up there? Maybe he could play it off as spooking them off too, yeah, that would work.

Having satisfied his own sense of pride with an excuse, Sylar hopped up and let his claws dig into the world above, the obsidian weapons quickly cutting into the aspalt as he prepared to pull himself up. The men were continuing to jostle her, talking about payment and some fun they could have. Sylar would show them fun, a bloody good time in fact.

With all of them distracted it was unlikely anyone would notice Sylar pull his dark form from the sewers and the rain began to patter against his armored flesh, creating an odd thumping sound. "She warned you vermin...Now lets see how you pay the price." The boy grinned, wicked fangs gleaming behind his lips before he jumped forward like a panther, smashing the man who'd been in Shelby's face to the ground with a heavy thud.

One of the men tried to react, mouthing "What the f..." Before the serpent attached to Sylar's waste lashed out and wrapped around his throat and lifted him off the ground with a gurgling noise escaping his throat. Two of them were trapped and attacked by a monster while the third tried to work his mind through the drunken haze and rising fear. "This girl is MINE!" Sylar pressed his claws into the throat of the man below him, his claws starting to cut the flesh and the warmth of blood sticking to his skin.

However, being drunk tended to do two things to humans. First it made them exceedingly stupid, even stupid enough to stand up to a absurdly powerful mutant, and the second was it dulled pain. The man beneath him fought back against Sylar, holding his attention as the boy continued to strangle him and gave the third a chance to raise his drink bottle up and realize he had a weapon.

And all of this had happened in just a moment, leaving poor Shelby barely anytime to register that she was either being saved, or doomed to an even worse fate by Sylar's presence.

A voice struck up from behind. A very familiar voice. Fear rippled up her spine and she found herself holding her breath again as she fought back a wave of sheer terror. The rational part of her brain surely would have been screaming out at her that she shouldn't be this afraid... not to the point that it crippled her. She should have been able to rationally think of an escape- she should have ignored the men and made a run for it rather than try and foolishly warn them. But that rational part of her was currently buried behind oodles and oodles of sheer unadulterated fear.

The monster leapt past her in a blur and suddenly the man who had been in front of her was gone. Instead he was on his back with Sewer-beast-man on top of him, while another unfortunate fellow was wriggling around trying to escape the terrifying tail.

She whined low in her throat, her mind gripping onto the monsters previous words an repeating them like broken record inside her head unmercifully. She's mine... she's mine... she's mine

She was gonna die.

Breathing was suddenly hard. Each intake a sharp, shallow gasp that was starting to make her chest burn. She was getting dizzy. shitshitshit. Her limbs tingled with fear and adrenaline. She could do this... she could escape! She just needed to get up and--

The sound of shattering glass broke her train of thought and drew her attention to the third man-- who was hushing at her. A hand was in her hair, gripping it painfully, and she was dragged flush against his chest with the sharp, jagged edges of a broken bottle nestled against her throat. She couldn't even fight him off since she was still fighting her own bloody body.

"Let em' go! Let em' go right now or I slit her goddamn throat!" Quite inebriated by alcohol and fear, the third man who'd taken her hostage had mistakenly assumed that when Sylar had claimed the girl as his that meant she was worth something to him, and he fully intended to use her as a bargaining chip to get his buds safely away from danger.

Shelby, on the other hand, wanted to scream at him that he was an idiot-- that the monster had just threatened to EAT her no more than five minutes before hand... and that his ploy wasn't going to work. Of course it came out as another weak whine, but beggars can't be choosers.

She'd be lucky to escape with all her parts intact, let alone alive.

Sylar had nearly let it slip past him that there had been three men. His hands gripping a throat and the tail around another had satisfied his inner beast as if he'd snagged two free meals. Though you couldn't pay Sylar to eat these men, the rank stench of alcohol leaking through their pores nearly made him sick to his stomach. The sound of shattering glass brought him back from his attach, the boy's head jutting to the left and staring at the last man holding the girl.

For just a moment his body tensed and his eyes opened wide, a sign of worry that was gone just as fast as it had shown. Not enough for some drunk to catch it though, Sylar would have to play this one real cool now, or this man would waste all this effort and force the boy to eat the girl anyways. Not to mention actually murder these three idiots, which really he didn't want to do. Every kill would whittle away at the cage and let the monster out, he knew that now, and without Roach to guide him it would be bad to lose it here.

The boy sent a signal down his spine, his tail whipping back and hurling the man against the wall of a building with a heavy slam while he stood up still holding the other, the short boy that Sylar was easily lifting a grown man off the ground like he was a doll. He faced the last man, and then spoke. "Sure." He said stoically as he released his grip on the man, who fell to the ground with a thud and grasped at his bleeding neck as the poison began to set in. The man gurgled out words, something along the lines of "Oh god...god it's a monster...it's after me!"

The other would wouldn't pose further problems, both of them disabled and leaving Sylar to confront just this man...and his hostage. This girl was turning out to be just as much trouble as any other, at this rate Sylar was not only going to have no interest in women, but down right hate them for all the problems they brought him. "You can kill her if you like human." He snarled, his voice full of ferocity and a lack of concern. "After all that's what I'm going to do to her." He kept going, playing up the heartless monster role as best he could. Humans were all the same, eager to play the predator, but quick to cower and run when the real predator showed up.

"But see...that's my favorite part. And if you kill her...then I'll just have to settle for a different toy...you'll do." Sylar said, raising his hand up and pointing a claw at the man, drawing his attention. The entire time he was speaking though, his tail had dropped low to the ground, slithering forward as close as it could to Shelby and the drunk. If Sylar played his cards right, he could stab the man and probably save the girl, or maybe bash the both of them into a wall.

He really had wanted this night to end simply, a tremendously successful scare, and new rumors about the scary monster for all the humans to run from. And now he was stuck in some Mexican standoff with a drunk and a girl so scared she was probably about to pee her pants. And Sylar really hoped she didn't, his nose was already rank with alcohol and fear, the last thing he needed was another awful smell to ruin his night.

Her captor stiffened, an action that had him inadvertently jerk his hand against her throat. The cut left behind was shallow, but did bleed a little. She squeezed her eyes shut but refused to budge a muscle. She wasn't a hero... she didn't have any killer moves to get herself out the the situation. She was a normal human girl who happened to do something entirely to reckless and stupid for her own good... and man was she paying the price for it.

The monsters threat did't fall on deaf ears though. No sooner had the words left his mouth and he quirked a dangerous looking claw in the drunks direction, the man lost it. He all but shoved Shelby forward toward Sylar, before turning to make a run for it. His buddies were both out of the count as far as he was concerned, and since it was just him and the girl he was more than willing to let her deal with her monster on her own.

Dropping to her knees, she ignored the small wound on her throat and instantly curled into herself. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I tried to tell them... I tried to tell them..." He had told her to tell everyone she came across to leave his sewers alone... she had tried to do exactly that. It hadn't really been her fault specifically that the people she'd happened to encounter hadn't been the nicest bunch, or the most willing to listen.

"I'm so so sorry." Surprisingly she hadn't cried at all yet. She was pretty good usually at keeping her emotions down and in control... well, when there weren't other forces at work, anyway. Now however, she was pretty much numb from the fear. She hoped that if she stayed small enough, apologized enough, that maybe... just maybe he wouldn't actually kill her.

Sylar would have smirked at the success of his ploy if he hadn't had to worry about nearly catching the girl. He bent forward for a moment, his clawed hands extending to grab her, a move that probably ready to the man or Shelby if she'd been looking as terrifying, but was actually just meant to catch her if she'd fallen a bit more forward. The drunk bolted, heading out of the alley eager to rant about the monster that had attacked him or find another drink to forget just that. Either way Sylar didn't care, he took a moment to assess the situation.

The girl was here, on the ground pretty much fine though he smelled blood on her, and not a drunk person's blood. The man he'd strangled as still barely conscious and grasping at his throat as invisible demons plagued him, and the other was just out from lack of oxygen. Both were alive, but probably scared for life and doomed to an even more crushing dependency on alcohol.

The girl began to mumble apologies at him, oh geeze he'd really screwed her up now too. Sylar figured most people got over being scared by him once they were gone, but she was practically hyperventilating his words back at him. He knelt down, and stared at her, his black eyes unable to truly see the fear on her, though his other senses could all easily analyze each sign of fear. He spoke to her once more, but this voice wasn't that of the monster or the boy playing one, it was a human voice, boyish but not enough to be a man. In fact if you didn't know better it could even pass for a bit feminine.

The smell of her blood started to prickle at a certain instinct deep in Sylar's gut but he ignored it. "You alright girl? I smell blood on you." He said softly, though it barely registered with his nose, like a shark it was one thing Sylar could easily pick up on. Especially when adrenaline was boiling it and your heart was racing a mile a minute to move it. "And I know you did, I heard you." It wasn't comforting to hear Sylar console you after he'd just hammered the idea he was a flesh eating monster into you, but he at least wasn't murdering the girl right now.

That was a plus for her right? "You did fine human, You just...have exceptionally bad luck." That reminded him of another girl he knew, a mutant one who had a knack for walking right into trouble like she was a moth rushing to a flame. Really Sylar wanted to just leave her here and head home, but when Shelby was looking this weak, even Sylar couldn't ignore his human instinct to care for a woman, what a lame night he thought.

She felt the overbearing weight of his mere presence crushing in on her and huddled further into herself. Was fear supposed to make her feel this paranoid? This... this aware of just how scary everything was?

She'd never been so scared in all her life so she didn't have anything to compare the feeling too. Like she was slowly going completely bonkers and she couldn't stop it. Every shadow made her flinch. Every noise set her nerves on fire. The very fact that he was squatted down on her level and yet he wasn't choking her to death or eating her face off or whatever was even more terrifying than if he was actually doing it. The expectation, the anticipation, of it was killing her.

She nodded her head once at him in response, quick and jerkily, not wanting to piss him off by ignoring his question. She internally agreed with him, the part of her that was still struggling for some semblance of sanity that is. She did have terrible luck. Always had. This incident was just a wider, deeper notch on its belt.

"I'm sorry... i'm sorry. I didn't know you were real... Jen said you were but I didn't believe her... I should have.. I should have believed her.. " Oh lord there were the tears... fight it! Don't cry! Don't let him see you crying! She squeezed her eyes shut and fought against her protesting lungs for air.

"I'm so sorry, I won't ever do it again. I promise! I never break my promises!"

Though her voice had barely carried, the emotion and fear in it could be easily heard. She was one fraying nerve away from breaking completely. Autopilot was telling her to do whatever she had to do to survive, even if that mean cowering and begging for forgiveness from the mutant.

That awareness Shelby felt was the culmination and ultimate effect of Sylar's new power. The toxin saturating her blood had accumulated in her amygdala, an older portion of the brain which controlled the fear reaction. It inhibits the nerve cells there, and blocks out normal signals replacing them with "Sylar" signals, forcibly implanting a phobic fear of him in her, and turns everything that might be scary into somehow relating to Sylar's presence. And so long as he was here, to cement her fear as reality, it'd leave her a whimpering child. She was the first human to ever truly feel the effects, and she would surely never want to see or think of him again after this night.

Aware that the girl was scared nearly senseless, Sylar had to figure out a way to properly send her on her way, so he wouldn't have to worry about her. She had already forced him to beat up some other humans, and he didn't like sending too many of them running at once. Scare one human and they tell stories, scare a few and they start finding friends, scare too many and you get angry mobs or police. The girl was mumbling about another human, practically begging him to forgive her, it had been fun most of the time but this was even starting to make Sylar feel a tad guilty about it.

He lifted a claw to her face, as if to place it on her lips. "Shhhh human. Now you know exactly what I am. And you know better than to ever step into the darkness again. Every time you see a shadow, you'll know I might be there. Remember, you tell them all. The Boogeyman is very real." He said, smiling to himself as he still really enjoyed that name. The deity of children's fear, thinking of himself like that made Sylar feel confident and powerful, and seeing her so afraid did as well. It was much better to be the scary one, than the scared.

"Oh, and I'll remember this girl, so I hope you mean it about keeping a promise." He laughed just a bit, a normal human sound, but somehow coming from Sylar it was almost demonic. He stood up and back a few steps away from her. "Now I'm done with you, go on, git!" He pointed towards the street, the lit and welcoming streets of her world, just beyond the edge of this horrific alley she'd come up in. Oh yeah, Sylar remembered one last thing. "And take your phone too." He'd picked it up before jumping up to save her, and he didn't like the idea of this thing going off at random and waking him up. He tossed it towards the edge of the alley, landing on the ground with a thud. Hopefully the rain wouldn't destroy it before she grabbed it, though she probably didn't even care about that little device at this point.