Into the Night

It gets cold at night. Everywhere, all over the world, every place he’s been, has that in common. His body had adapted to his preferred working conditions and kept itself at a low, but survivable, temperature. Abruptly, he became aware of the irksome feeling of rugged tree bark beneath his palm. It was as if the earth was telling him to refocus. Footsteps echoed in the air and he departed from the tree's branch to follow in silence.

It was an odd thing he learned how to do: to walk in complete silence. To become part of the darkness. It was a fun party trick, but simultaneously his greatest weapon. It amazed both friends and enemies alike how he was able to melt away into the shadows and reappear in a different location. Even with a cape down to his ankles, his every move was silent. As such, the man he was following had no clue he had passed him and was now waiting in the darkness ahead. 

Miraculous as it sounds, it was quite simple, to him at least. All he had to do was slow his breath and lower his heart rate. When nothing could be heard, not even the pattern of his breathing or the beating of his heart, that's when absolute silence had been achieved. Once at an accurate distance, his fingers gingerly brushed the cool steel of his knife. The feeling of frigid metal against wintry skin sent sparks of anticipation through his fingertips and to his nerves. His fingers wrapped around the knife's grip and he slowly raised it into the air. The knife disembarked from a steady hand and the silence he had so carefully crafted was torn by the quiet whistling of a blade splicing air. 

He stared down at the twitching body with a knife between its eyes. He sunk down to remove his knife from the gash in the man's face. Blood touched his skin, causing  him to exhale slowly. Warm blood on cold skin was a pleasant feeling. It drew the adrenaline from his body and reminded him to breathe. As he removed the knife, his eyes met those of his victim. 

Eyes that looked up at him, wide and exasperated. Eyes that realized, as he stood there, how his eyes were pale yellow and glowed like the moon that radiated around his head like a halo. Eyes that wondered how they somehow didn’t notice those glowing, stalking moons. 

The darkness had become so routine for him that he had almost forgotten the most important part: He did this all with his eyes closed.