Hunting

Originally written on January 2017. These are one-shots part of a series of challenges I did with a close friend. She did the

It was almost night, even with the sun no longer visible on the sky, the remaining light was nothing but a blur between the clouds, and city lights turning on one by one until the skyline resembled a cluster of yellow and red dots.

The place hadn’t always been like that. Before there weren’t many buildings, many fake lights, the houses weren’t so tall either, the streets were quieter, not with those unintelligible noises. How long had it been? Twenty, fifty, a hundred years ago? It had to be more than that. Time wasn’t that relevant anymore, one moment the paths were covered in dirt and manure, then in asphalt and tar.

The faint sound of whatever insects buzzed nearby had stopped, even the barking of stray dogs had long ceased. There was no spring breeze, instead a dry night overcoming the hours, the place too quiet to be an open field, a silence that would set anyone else on edge, like a dreadful tension that would tense the nerves of the human body.

But not for him, he didn’t feel a difference nor a twitch from the eeriness; he didn’t care about how the sky was void of moonlight or stars, instead a black wall of cloud covering it. All he wanted to focus on, all he was paying attention to was that faint trace. The one only constant that remained in the changing world.

Magic didn’t seem to have to suffer a drastic change in centuries, was that lingering energy, the vibe that would spike every now and then, only to become a hum for years until it’d rise again, high and low but always present, sometimes too close it felt like an easy gift.

It was a scent from the right? No, from the left, but it was fading, soon to be vanished between smog and dry dirt. He took some steps to the left, ten, twenty steps, his legs were now moving on their own accord, following that magic scent, ignoring the clouds of dirt forming behind, and only to stop in a halt when the scent hit him as if he had ran right into a brick wall.

His prey was being careless, that was a perk. Some didn’t know, no, they weren’t aware of what it implied to show off their abilities, their energy, they made it almost too easy for him to track. A turn to the right, speed increased, trace was getting clearer, no change in the scent, no trace of fear in it; his prey had no idea what was hunting him. It was a golden opportunity. He hadn’t had one of those in probably a decade.

A smirk showed on his face when he stopped, not needing to follow a trace anymore when his prey was right in front of him, unaware of being followed. He took a quick look at the target, shorter than him for sure, a somewhat quick pace, probably heading towards their home.

Lights flickered above him, just realizing he was back in the city with its tall buildings. Glances around him made him aware of how no one else was around, but it wouldn’t be like that for long, he had to act fast, before his prey noticed him and tried to run away.