Tony Walker

Across the park a light turned on in a house opposite.

The blinds were drawn open and a young boy stared at him.

The two exchanged much in that glance as the young boy stared at him.

This was the son of the boy, now a man he had fought all those years ago, the final key to the mystery.

he entered the home and crept upstairs to the sleeping parents he waggled a finger at the young boy who stared at him from the bedroom door so as not to approach and the young boy obeyed as if by some unknown magical law standing still like a statue

He entered the room and found the two sleeping figures blissful as sleeping babes.

He smiled, knowing what to do, an instinct as natural as breathing.

He crept over them in bed like a panther, sniffing each one, before raising his arm over them as if flinging over a cape, and a shadow grew over them both, obscuring them from view as he went to work, the same gurgling sound from the dream, now present as all else was still.

The boy remained motionless next door as if in a trance until he finished.

Both figures appeared drained like corpses.

He watched them evaporate.

As this happened his face began to change, merging with their swirling faces to form the new being once more.

His stature changed slightly and he walked out clicking his fingers as the young boy suddenly came out of the trance and ran to see his parents gone.

matthew heard wailing as he left the building feeling stronger and more purposeful as his all-black attire blended with the night he closed his eyes as memories returned in darkness he saw his winged friend and the cloaked man in the same painting as before

The final blow struck as the dark figure fell gradually in retreat.

He smiled, the breathing he had heard before murmuring like Morse code in the darkness.

It is done.

Time for work.

My rival is no more.

Suddenly he understood his new purpose with clarity.