I sit, silent in the night.
The full moon casts its faint glow across my face. Below me, the city moves. Breathes. Lives.
Lights, windows, lives all shining, all vibrant. Shadows cross them, but the light beats them back.
Beauty.
Around me, darkness.
Shades of black and grey.
Hideous figures arise before me and about me, carved faces alive in the passing flickers, mouths stretched out, ready to devour.
Massive stone wings beat the air, as they rise, silently, and the wind roars by as they swoop, turn, plunge, alight once more on the ledge that is their home, their prison.
Eyes plead, cold in the faint illumination around us, full of sorrow and rage.
Painful beauty fills them with souls they will never possess. They are me, and I am them.
We sit still, silent, cold figures atop the ledge.
Darkness is our home.
We live, thrive in it. Without it, we could not exist.
It wraps around us comfortingly, sheds its cloak on us menacingly.
It comforts me, and frightens me.
I see below me.
People, the true lights of the city, move, laugh, talk, walk, run. A little boy, with his two parents.
A wonderful sight.
My heart rends with longing. Family. A family.
True family.
I look around me.
They sit, silent, judging. They know my weakness. They cast in into the light, out of our darkness.
It belongs in the light.
A gasp.
An angry voice.
A reply.
A shot.
A scream.
A shot.
Stammer.
Fear.
Footsteps.
Sobs.
I see the boy. He sits on the pavement.
The two with him lay beside him.
Cold.
Stone.
No light exists there anymore.
Bitter sobs wrack the air.
And a boy becomes an enemy of the dark.
He joins the dark.
He joins us.
He joins me.
And we sit, stone, cloaked in darkness, watching, protecting the light.
"Stone"
Written by The Mighty Floyd
Batman created by Bob Kane and DC Comics
