A Dark Summer?s Eve
A scarlet sun dips beneath the horizon
The world slips into blackness,
A crescent moon peeks through the dark clouds in the night sky,
Sending down white moonbeams which quickly turn silver and distorted in the thick mist
The thief,
Clad in all black
Breathes in the muggy summer air and smirks maniacally to himself
Instantly, the crickets stop chirping and every firefly light dies out
As if they sense the treachery this man carries with him
The thief scans the vicinity
At a glance seeing that he?s arrived in a poor part of town
And while he knows,
A mile south
The rich are partying
With expensive wine and luxurious food,
He finds more satisfaction in taking from people who have nothing
His eyes lock on his first target
A small yet cozy shack
He feels intrigued and repelled at the same time
However he shoves these emotions aside
Loosing them to bolt down the crumbling pavement
Once inside the house
The thief soundlessly seizes anything valuable
Before making his escape, he pulls a needle out of his pocket
Pricking his finger, he instantly draws blood
A single drop
Falls,
Onto the floor
After each robbery he leaves a trace of himself behind
He belongs nowhere,
With bits of himself scattered
Throughout all the places he has been
He catches a glimpse of his reflection
It wavers back-and-forth in the moving blood
Again he smiles,
Loving
This twisted monster he has become
He continues in the same fashion
Snatching everything he can hold in his dirt-encrusted fingers,
And each time leaving behind
A
Single
Drop
Of
Blood
Finally, he arrives at the last house on the street
Inside, he fills his sack
With every piece of silverware
Every copper penny
Everything
He takes out his needle, preparing to finish the job
But stops when he hears a sob
Its source; a tiny babe
Wheezing with each sleeping breath
Its illness appears fatal
And in this dying child,
The thief sees himself...
Dying right along with it
He could provide it medicine with his stolen wealth
Allow it to live the happy life he never had
He hesitates
Suddenly becoming shaky,
Exposed
But his heart remains broken beyond repair
He pricks his finger
Letting the drop of blood slowly fall
Onto the child?s pale forehead
Without a backwards glance, he runs off
Into the approaching dawn
The silver moon fades into nothingness,
The world becoming bathed in gentle pink light
As the world awakens,
Wailing,
And chaos
Ensue from the village,
Telling the thief his job is complete
Among the ruckus,
A single sob,
From the last house on the street
Maliciously cackling into the rising sun,
He doesn't feel the usual satisfaction
Something... is missing
But he is not the type to repent
Shrugging his sack of stolen goods over one shoulder,
He vanishes,
Without leaving a trace
The thief hides away, eagerly awaiting
The next time the moon will take reign of the sky,
The next
Summer?s Eve