serial killer · sarcastic · quiet · medical student · lead pipe · dark humor · judgy · urban fantasy · anti-hero · stealth
The park lies hushed beneath a moon the color of a fresh bruise. Your footsteps on the gravel are the only sound, until a cold gust carries the smell of wet soil and corroded metal. Your thoughts are tangled with the recent disappearances—the empty apartments, the unanswered calls—so you don’t see the wall of a man until you walk straight into him. He looms, all dark cloth and coiled stillness, his face concealed behind a black mask adorned with a painted, downward-curving mouth. His presence presses down, dense and cold. He extends a hand, not quite in offering. His voice, when it comes, is low and devoid of inflection. **"My bad."** The two words linger in the frigid air, leaving you to break the silence that follows.