This is for cool74, considering that he is the one who pushed me to continue this. Thanks for being a fan Cool, you are too awesome!
I woke from the dream in a cold sweat, thin blankets wrapped tightly around my legs, the images and sounds fading from my mind moments before my eyes snapped open. Beams of muted light were seeping in through the fist-sized holes in the bedroom door, battling the darkness on the other side of the curtain-less, security-barred window. I stared at the slowly spinning ceiling fan for a moment, loosening myself from the blanket's grasp and rolled over to check the clock next to my bed. “Shit,” I mumbled before launching myself from the mattress and running for the living room. I stopped abruptly when I saw Alex sitting on the stained couch, feet kicked up on the barely-standing coffee table, flipping through the channels slowly. After a moment I stalked over to him and snatched the remote from his hand, turning off the TV.
Flicking the remote onto the single seater couch I smacked him on the back of the head. “You know I have a job tonight and you let me sleep this late? What is wrong with you!?”
The corners of his mouth turned up in his trademark smirk, the one that made me want to rip his head from his shoulders. “You’re a big boy now, Scott. I think you know how to set your own alarm.”
“Fuck you, Alex,” I spat, turning from him and made my way to the kitchen. Pulling a slightly cold beer from the barely running fridge I drank it down quickly, feeling the warmth spread through my body as the alcohol flowed into my bloodstream. This job tonight was a cake walk; get in, grab it, get out. Simple right? Throw in a few guards, flashlights and cameras and they call the place impenetrable. Impenetrable my ass!
I walked back into the bedroom and got changed quickly; black jeans, black sneakers, long sleeved, black shirt and shoved a black ski mask in my jeans pocket. If only they knew how simple this was for me they would have me locked up, poked, prodded, experimented on, the whole shebang. And that is why they will never catch me.
As I walked for the door I heard Alex call out behind me. “Good luck, Scott.”
A middle finger over my shoulder was my reply as I slammed the door behind me.
The street. During the day it was full of men in suits, taxi’s, mothers in their minivans and all the other things I despised. But when night falls it comes alive; my kind of people come out. Those who are fed up with the world as it is, turning to alcohol, drugs, gambling and all sorts of debauchery to soothe themselves. Not able to make it in the world of daylight, they run to the solace of the night, indulging its hidden pleasures. One such person passed me as I breathed in the night air, reveling in its chill.
“Hey Scott,” she breathed in my ear, her hand snaking towards my crotch. “Wanna have some fun tonight?” she teased, taking my earlobe between her teeth and sucking gently.
I let her grope me for a moment, feeling myself harden in her hand before. pushing her hand away and stepping around her. “No Sheila. Not tonight.”
“I’ll make it half off for ya, handsome. Twenty-five for a fuck!” she yelled at my back.
I shook my head as I walked down the dimly lit street. Normally I would have indulged in the warm pleasures she had to offer, but tonight I had work to do.
Reaching the corner of my street, I looked left and right, making sure I wasn’t being followed then ducked into an alley. The darkness sucked me in and feelings of calm and warmth rivaling Sheila’s flowed through me, causing a smile to appear spread slowly on my face. I looked up to the sky and flexed my muscles, letting the shadow consume me. After a moment I closed my eyes and stepped back further into the darkness of the alley.
From the corner of my eye I spied a deep shadow running up the side of the building, reaching the lip of the roof. With a mental command my body melted into the darkness, becoming one with the shadow and I slid up the wall at great speed. I reached my hands forward as I neared its end and my fingers entered the moonlight first, rematerializing instantaneously. Gripping the edge of the roof I used the half of my body still within the shadow to propel myself upward, back flipping onto the gravel of the rooftop.
With a smile I wasted no time, pumping my legs as fast as I could in a run for the opposite edge of the roof, then pushed off, launching myself through the air. I sailed over the fifty foot gap between the buildings, across the four lane street and landed on the roof. Never breaking stride, I ran along the tops of the buildings towards the lights of downtown, ten miles away.
Just over twenty minutes later I reached the first skyscraper and gradually slowed my speed before stopping completely. I searched for the tallest tower, my target, on the other side of the metropolitan downtown. My eyes fell on it and anticipation pumped through me. With a deep breath I stepped off the edge of the roof I was on and fell the eighty feet in the blink of an eye.
A shadow bathed the side of the building and I fell into it, melting into the darkness and everything changed. My body disappeared and I became one with the shadow, rendering me invisible, my field of vision widened and flickered from color to a monochromatic palette, sharpening everything I saw and sounds usually undetectable to the human register entered my auditory perception, extending my awareness. Turning my attention back to my target I sped along the shadows, feeling its silky fingers brush my skin as I made my way through the buildings, passing around skyscrapers at breakneck speed.
