The Night
Though it was night in the city, you would never know anything about it being a different kind of city from that of its beginning. Not unless you knew what to look for.
The greatest of differences were the rooftops. A cross here, a cross there; every place you could put one on top of a building, there was a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus, whether those who entered said structures were believers or non. The cobblestones shone in the streetlights thanks to the fog that drifted throughout the city. When it was nighttime, fog would often drift throughout the streets and alleyways, spilling into every crack and available crevice as a fine mist, giving an unearthly quality to the place.
Tonight, seemed to be rather special. The many crosses were illuminated by the light of a moon near full. The streetlights seemed to have a ghostly quality to them. All the city was asleep, but some people might still be awake. However, any stranger to the city would not know it. How could they, when all the windows were black and opaque with the absence of even candlelight. Those who might be awake did not shine any lights in their dwellings. And nobody, absolutely nobody, went outside.
It was because of what was out there. They were out there. Not like they once were. Perhaps it was the absence of their "god", their "king", or simply that those who were pure were few compared to the impure. Still, they ruled the night. At the lowest levels of the streets, there were sewer grates like those of cities in Europe of old with grating over the entrance. Growling came from within one with broken bars. Snarling, hackles raised, a dog crouched near the entrance, full of menace towards something invisible. A presence unknown, unseen; yet somehow felt. Beyond its sight. Down the street. And it was approaching.
The streetlamps were in fact crosses with light bulbs in the center. One gave a groaning creak and became all misshapen, distorted, the light at its center going out to never shine again. Crosses all over the rooftops and angles began to let out the protesting of metal against irresistible force as, one by one, every object became bent and crooked. The vines and leaves growing on outcroppings and windowsills suddenly died.
The dog gave a whimper and shrank inward upon itself with fear, low to the ground, gaze still down the road towards… that. Just at the edge of visibility, a streetlamp winked out, and then another slightly closer to it, moving up towards the sewer grate. But as the lights dimmed into nonexistence, and crosses near them also began to twist and crumble, twin orbs of light kept growing larger as they advanced up the street. They were coming closer. The dog's fears grew overwhelming, and with a wail it fled.
The cobblestones let out a rattling symphony as wheels, polished and smooth, raced along them. The constant rattle of the wheels was punctuated by the thundering clop of hooves over the stones. An ornate carriage, four beautifully designed lanterns at its four corners upon the rooftop, pulled by four horses, raced down the street at blinding speed. No driver sat at the reins, but that did not bother or impede the steeds who moved with clear knowledge of where they must go. No human would handle steeds like these unless he was brave enough to, perhaps, risk his hands. Their teeth were like those of a lion or wolf, with pronounced incisors, a single, blazing red line for eyes, and they were black as a lightless night, with hardened needles protruding from the sides of their knees.
The carriage was a nightmare of spikes and dark paint, with gold outlining and tracing its fenders. It had a most menacing air to its appearance, punctuated by many events in its passing: The crosses becoming ruined simply by its presence, the plants dying, the sudden greater intensity and stillness in the air, and the water in the fountains... it suddenly froze solid into ice, even that which was streaming into the bowels.
Inside a dwelling, a beautiful, slim, and shapely young woman with long, dark brown hair, braided upon the sides, lay soundlessly in her bed. Though she should be sleeping, her troubled expression and thoughts showed for any that might see her that she could not rest. She was kept awake by something troubling. The night itself perhaps. Maybe her private thoughts dwelt on the possibilities of dark things in the night just outside her window, her home, the city she lived in. It was possible that it was something else entirely. Her face was turned away from the window rather towards it. A small act, perhaps to shut out the night in some way, or simply in the hopes that anything that occurred outside the window would not spark dark images in her mind.
Unnoticed, unseen, perhaps unheard, the latch forming the image of a cross that shut the window… moved clockwise. It cracked open slightly towards the outside, and the roses in the vase near it shriveled into unappealing death. The young woman's hands clenched near her breast. She felt cold, like the presence of something dark was near. The mirror facing the end of her bed cracked from one end to the other.
The windows widened a little more, and then the doors blasted open with a forceful gust of wind sweeping into the room, throwing dead petals and leaves into swirling patterns near, across, and beyond the bed. The woman instantly bolted upright, her gaze upon the open window, her hair blowing back, shaking the pearls in it, rose petals brushing her cheek; and then she got a clear view outside into the night.
She let out a horrified gasp, her hazel eyes widening. A dangling image outside her window in the fog… unfurled itself into a horrifying figure of a terror of the night. She saw it all in slow motion. The terrifying shape moving towards her, and then without a sound, she collapsed. The mirror captured her limp form dangling, flowing, blue, silken nightdress draping like a curtain towards the floor, held aloft by an unseen assailant, and then her captor was moving swiftly towards the outside with her in its arms, the flutter of an elegant cape sweeping near the mirror that never could reflect it.