Claire's Superhuman Transformation

Claire was a meek and mild-mannered sort with a gentle smile. She always smiled, in fact, because she was afraid if she didn't smile they would know how much it pained her to smile at them. They could see right through her fake smile, which only made matters worse, so she kept up the act as best she could.

The whole idea of smiling when she wasn't happy was only born out of necessity though; Claire was painfully shy. You might say that Claire was so shy that it was almost a physical problem for her to talk or even look at another person's face. This meant that she didn't have any friends, at least not any close ones. She never went out on weekends or had parties in her apartment after work. It meant that she didn't have a lot of experience with people in general, but she did have some good friends from college who occasionally invited her out to eat and hang out.

Unfortunately those people were all at least an hour away from where she lived now and got caught up in their own lives to ever think about her enough to make the drive just to visit. It wasn't a huge deal though, Claire had gotten used to living by herself. At least it was easier now that she had gotten a job where she didn't actually have to interact with other people too much. It was a library, which meant that most of the time she worked alone surrounded by books. All she really had to do is check them in and out without too much trouble and there were no loud phone calls or angry patrons annoying everyone else around them.

Claire's job wasn't ideal, however, because it was hard for her to get up early every morning to get ready for work and then get there on time every day when her apartment wasn't close by at all. Rather than live closer to work though (and also be further away from home) like most people would do, Claire instead chose to be two hours away from home as well as her job by moving into an apartment in the city rather than near her parents' house in the suburbs or even somewhere near downtown where the job was located. The reason why? Because those suburbs were full of people like the ones at work who made life a living hell for poor little Claire every day of her life so far: mean boys who acted tough but were really just cowards underneath it all and girls who were stuck-up rich bitches who thought they were better than everyone else because they had daddy's money behind them and not themselves.

It was late afternoon when Claire got off of work today and so she decided to walk home rather than take public transit like usual. She wanted some time alone after dealing with all of those horrible people all day long without some extra time dedicated solely to thinking about them while she walked home on foot rather than taking public transit where they could follow her around until they eventually lost interest and left her alone again (which often took hours sometimes). She hated being home alone after work but it was better than having them follow you around all day long being in your face and making sure you knew how much you sucked at your job despite how hard you tried every day or how many times you apologized for something you couldn't control about yourself when the truth was that they were just pissed off at their own pathetic lives because no one else understood them either and so they lashed out at others instead of fixing their own problems.

She quickly looked up from staring down at the sidewalk beneath her feet and realized that she must have walked too fast today because somehow during this walk home Claire ended up further away from home than usual despite starting out with plenty of time before sunset. She stopped walking and looked around nervously as though someone might be following her still despite having left work more than an hour ago now while also trying not to appear suspicious in case anyone *was* watching here right now (which seemed unlikely but hey, who knew anymore? It could happen!).

Claire decided that she'd better find somewhere safe quickly before dark so started walking again until finally finding an alleyway nearby where none of the lights worked anyway thanks to some asshole who broke them all last week while trying to rob someone he thought wouldn't fight back... which he didn't end up doing because he ran away once he saw what happened instead of staying put like a normal person would've done given such circumstances instead of acting like a fucking pussy!

Claire sat down on the ground against one wall inside this alleyway now, pressing herself against it as tightly as possible while hoping nobody would notice her sitting here in the dark once night fell completely over this place (the sun setting beyond some buildings not too far away outside right now). Her heart pounded rapidly inside her chest, knowing what would happen if someone found *her* here like this tonight instead of some dude with money on him... but then again maybe these guys wouldn't see anything wrong with attacking an innocent girl either? That thought filled Claire with even more dread than before but there was nothing else for it! She couldn't go home now - it would be too dangerous! So instead she'd stay here until morning came and then try not to die before finally reaching home once more!