Carved by Fire

Prologue

People rushed around the darkened streets trying to avoid the chill, a plague that dwelled within the bones of any unfortunate enough to feel it. The figure wasn't at all disrupted by it, his mind consumed.

He stared at the building consuming his sight, lit yellow in the dark of night. It stood momentous in front of his eyes, detail etched heavily, turrets standing at the corners gazing across London.

A chime resonated nearby, a large tower the source of the noise. The clock-face atop the tower stood still, its lengthy hand pointing skyward, while its shorter cousin only nearly so. It was time.

The figure stole forward through the arched entry of the illuminated building pushing the huge black iron gate forward, creeping further into the abode of the villains he fought to stop.

Once inside, he continued through the building atop patterned tiles spelling a history of the building they belonged to, whirls and spirals of black and white within a world where nothing was so.

"Sir, you really must go home" The figure slowed knowing the target was only a few paces away, a feeling of anticipation shot through his veins, yet there was a voice in his ear asking whether this was the right path to take, he stopped listening to the voices.

He thought back to that night many years ago, the anger and the betrayal he felt when his fathers' nature had been cemented within his mind, no this is the right path to take he thought.

He waited until a man in a black suit and tie whispered out of the office and down the hall, steps growing ever quieter.

When there was silence he slid inside, a grand wooden desk sat in the center like an ever watching gargoyle consuming the room.

The figure looked at the trinkets dotted around the wall, one was a photo of a smiling man and woman with a background of a harsh rocky coast and a choppy sea.

He looked at the man, he was in his mid-thirties but already had a grey hair.

"I believe you knew my father" The man standing behind the desk glanced up, the picture of fear on his face. Mouth open and eyes wide, shoulders hunched and body shrunk. A flicker of pleasure jolted through the figures' veins until he remembered who he was facing.

"What do you want Hunt?" The man's voice trembled in fear. He took a step back away from the desk and towards a massive window.

"After my father was arrested, I made a vow' He said ignoring the question. He reached forward with his arm pointing his palm at the man. He loved stretching things out and enjoying the palpable fear on which he thrived.

"What vow?" The man's voice quavered more than before, his body shaking in spasms that echoed across his body like a massive earthquake atop an already crumbling earth.

He flicked his hand forward, flinging the man out the window into the concrete several stories below.

"That one." He ran, jumping out and diving back into the dark night and chilling air outside. A few meters to go he evened out and pointed his hands down. Landing without a sound.

He looked at the man's mangled body, shattered bone poking through the skin, crimson blood pouring out into a massive puddle. It brought satisfaction to him, he'd rid the world of one like his father.

He had no worry's, he hadn't been seen but by the deceased and no one knew he was out. He knew he'd made the death unsolvable, but knew it was only the first of many.

14 MONTHS LATER...