From The Ashes [#NaNoWriMo16]

Chapter Thirty Six - Quinton Mattos

It was getting dark. Quin had left the palace amidst the commotion and was walking alone down the streets of Milos with nothing but the gentle hum of noise from the ballroom floating to his ears in the wind. It was calm out here. He liked calm.

When he was a child, his parents always used to take him and his brother for late night walks in the winter. They would rug up in warm clothes and skip their way through the city without a care in the world. Kaylan and Quin would run up ahead and race each other, to see who was faster. Kaylan was always faster, and Quin knew this, but still he raced. Still he tried, because above all else, he wanted to be just like his brother. He wanted to be just as tall and handsome when he grew up, and he wanted to be just as talented and skilled. He wanted to be able to charm anyone and everyone he met, just like his older brother. Kaylan was his idol, his reason for being. It was because of Kaylan, that Quin had become what he was. A murderer.

"Kaylan!" he called from the end of the bridge. His brother was almost on the other side, still going.

"Be careful Quin, my love," he heard his mother call from behind him. "Am quo pik howk-"

"Gu ruk fuwwq, yukhiw," he called back as he started to give chase to his brother, shooting a grin over his shoulder. His grey eyes glistened beneath the moon as they landed on his parents. "A fann leklh os ku Kaylan!" So he ran, ignoring his mother's concern for him as he gained speed across the stone bridge.

"I will always beat you, Quin!" his brother shouted from out of sight. He grit his teeth and kept running.

Quin's feet dragged beneath him as he walked. He didn't know where his coat had gone; he was sure he'd abandoned it when he left the palace, but he couldn't be too sure. He didn't really need it, honestly. He couldn't remember the last time he'd really been cold. He always remembered being hot, because it was always after he'd killed someone that he started sweating. Not from the shock of taking their life, no. But from the thrill of it. The effort it takes to end someone's life, to stop their hearts from beating and their brains from thinking. The first few times were difficult. But they paved the way, and it was through that experience that he took care of his first real threat.

His legs were dangling off the balcony, where he sat on the railing. It was quiet out there, as if the whole of Milos was holding its breath. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting for the inevitable. He scanned his bright grey eyes across the horizon as the sun set in the sky, and he pondered what he was about to do. Was it the right thing to do, he wondered? He had killed before. No one knew what had happened to that lovely couple next door, thanks to his special talent in convincing people to do his bidding. No one even thought about him as a suspect, because he didn't want them to. Everything was in place. All he had to do was keep killing.

"Yq nuxi, luong quo luyi hiwi snieci?"  his mother called from the other room, and he tilted his head sideways, his eyes narrowing into pale grey slits. Slowly, he leant back on the balcony and swung his legs off the side, dropping onto the platform before poking his head into the house. His mother was standing in the kitchen, his father at the table. His brother was gone, staying at a friend's house for the night. But he knew full well whose house his brother was really staying at. He didn't mind. He would prefer his brother not to see this.

"Ah, khiwi quo ewi," his mother sighed, turning with a beautiful smile as her son entered the room. In her arms was a baby, a small thing with big grey eyes and small, playful hands. The baby giggled when it saw him, who smiled back and twinkled his fingers. He kept his left hand behind his back, hidden by the fabric of his white shirt. His father looked up from the book he was reading, smiling when he saw the interaction between his two children. He was ignored as his son held his arm out to his mother, who passed over the baby with a gentle smile.