The man is dead.
His body lies alone on the asphalt, the warm glow of the streetlight illuminating the body.
A shadow falls over the corpse.
A boy stands over the dead man, his stare cold as ice. There is blood on his hands and blood on his shirt. In his hand, he holds a knife.
Slowly, the boy lowers himself to the ground, admiring his handiwork. Red grins at him, an open wound across the man's throat. A red flower blooms where the first throwing star landed, the sticky red substance now clotted and dry.
The man's hollow eyes stare back at him. The same eyes that seconds earlier had made contact with the boy's own, a myriad of emotions playing across those lenses – shock, anger, followed by fear as the man's fate dawned on him – at the end he would soon meet.
A single motion was all it took. A blade swiftly drawn across his throat, slicing open skin, muscle and tissue, severing millions of blood vessels – and he was no more. The light in his eyes slowly dying out as the boy took a step back, watching as the man took his final breath.
Gingerly, the boy picks out the throwing star embedded in the man's flesh. The metal winks at him, yellowed light reflecting off the smooth surface of the star.
This is right, he thinks to himself. Things are as they should be.
Sheathing his knife, he gets to his feet and places one careful foot in front of the other. His silent footsteps do not make so much as a sound. The boy walks away. Away from the body, and away from the fearful eyes behind tinted windows, watching his every step.
He takes a turn, venturing into the dark alleyways of the street. His footsteps lead him deeper and deeper into the darkness of the alleyway. Then he vanishes into the dead of the night.
Under the streetlight, the dead man's skin sizzles. A mark, still fresh, is branded into his skin. The acrid smell of burnt skin wafts through the street, damaged skin and clotted blood bubbling.
The mark is a message.
The people know it by heart. It is engraved into their minds with fear.
The only rule of this city. A rule that must never be broken.
SILENCE.
YOU ARE READING
A Silent World
AçãoThis is the story of a boy who wished the world would shut up. Leo hails from a world filled with noise. A world where speech has gone wild, and no one listens. Then Leo stumbles upon another world -- one the complete opposite of his, shrouded in s...
