Tony Walker

sometimes during life, sometimes at its end, often the bearer of the former.

He continued his walk through the park, tall trees lining either side in intervals to partially obscure the rich townhouses on either side, encircling this bastion of nature, now aglow in the moonlight.

He moved closer to a bench ahead, the mist now thickening to a fog over the entire park in which the cloaked man glided through like a phantom.

Alone sat on this bench.

A tall man-like figure lay motionless.

He was huge, much bigger than the cloaked man, and still like a statue.

He lay bent over, with no clothes or discernible features on which the moonlight reflected any semblance of character.

He was poised in a painting, the long claw-like hands still as the marbled grey skin radiated no hint of life within.

The bald head gave a primeval appearance as the man in black approached.

He grinned, reaching out his hand like a puppeteer, and suddenly, as if on cue, the figure sparked to life like an old machine now switching on for the first time.

Its claws were the first to move, suddenly jarring into life, before the head suddenly rose.

It had no eyes, stitches in place, as it turned to face him.

Good.

Very good.

A deep, richly textured voice broke the silence as he moved towards the phantom, now standing upright and towering over him in the fog.

A giant in the eyes of its creator.

He bore no discernible features of a man or a woman, simply a giant statue at the beck and call of an otherworldly phantom.

Now, let us see to our business.

The cloaked man clicked his fingers and the figure nodded, moving off silently into the fog, as his master watched like a proud father.

he sat on the same bench looking at his finger-nails occasionally as if out of boredom the occasional whistle haunting the midnight air after an eternity the figure approached now carrying the body of a young woman in its arms the cloaked man stared at him and grinned very good very good little one now see to the other that i have work to finish