Steps in the Dark.
It was a long September, one too long to remember, the lights were dim but not yet dead, a child sleeping in his bed would soon learn something that should never have been said, walking with his parents with joy in his eyes, on their way to meet their demise, they exit the building of lights and sound, in the darkness an enemy was to be found, stepping forth from the shadows, desperation in his eyes and a tongue adept at spinning lies, he steps to the father and asks for a dime but takes much more in the blink of an eye, the mother screams of fright and the boy watches out of sight, as mother and father die by the hands of a beggar, the boy will be haunted by this image forever, lying next to mother and father in a puddle of blood, shivering from the coldness that has welled up, a detective comes to take him away, give him warmth and ask for his name, the boy is gone, his eyes are dead, the picture of his slaughtered parents burned into his head, a man arrives, far past his prime and embraces the boy with tears in his eyes, he takes away the boy to an empty home, no father, no mother for the rest of time, the boy is sad, he has no dad to teach him what is bad, no mom to teach him what is wrong, only an old man past his prime, the boy is filled with hate and rage, he will avenge them at all cost, he travels the world training his body, he seeks monks to train his soul and shaman to strengthen his mind, when the boy returns he is a man, but not just any man he is what the evil of the world will come to know, a symbol that can never be broken, those who do harm will come to fear the sound of the steps in the dark from the immortal demon dressed as a bat.