In the darkness of the night sky, a man in an all-black outfit, including gloves to hide fingerprints and a hair-net covered by a hat under a hoodie to protect against potentially being identified with hair, wandered through the streets.
He went around a neighborhood, sneaking around houses and attempting to find unlocked windows. He did not succeed when it came to the first house. But on his second time around, the man attempted to enter a house with two stories.
The lower windows were locked, but as he quietly leapt up, he climbed over the small ledge and climbed on the roof, trying the upper windows. After some fidgeting, he managed to open them up. Sliding the window, his shadow cast into the room as he climbed through the window pane.
He saw a little boy in his bed, standing inside the well-decorated room of a child. The man watched the child for a few seconds, before seeing slight movement in the head, to which he ducked down and crouched.
He crawled on the floor, his movements silent. Gently, he opened the door, with even the creaking of the door being muffled.
He moved silently throughout the house, going to the master's bedroom and looking down. In the bed, there was a father and a mother, who he watched over. He did not make any attempts at their life, he did not speak or do any actions.
Simply, he stood there, watching.
Even if the father or mother were to open their eyes, they would hardly see anything out of the ordinary. He blended in nearly perfectly with the background—such would be a lie. Instead, it was as though he were a phantom, something that simply wasn't present.
In darkness, the mind of any who saw him would have difficulty truly accepting that he was there, as if even the idea of his existence was something which was unrecognizable to the brain.
"..."
Minutes passed, and the man gently extended his hand. He poked the father on the cheek lightly, giving a gentle touch meant only to awaken the man. The father opened his eyes, and did not close them for several seconds.
His face contorted in confusion, unable to fully identify what exactly was occurring before him.
"Natalie…?" The father whispered, looking up at the man. The darkness did not move, nor was there even a faint trace of noise. It was indescribably unassuming.
He felt behind him, sensing the warmth of a human. He looked back, seeing his wife in bed with him still.
The father once more attempted to look at whatever was before him. His body ran cold with sweat, his heart racing and his brain suddenly becoming a lot more conscious, as he sat up and looked into the darkness.
His eyes tried their best to understand what was before him, but it was not possible. No matter what, his eyes absolutely could not figure out what was before him. It was an indecipherable puzzle.
His body instinctively felt there was something before him, yet his mind would not allow him to understand. His heart accepted, his mind refused.
Slowly, he extended his hand, and with that, he finally saw the darkness move. Not a lot, not even enough to judge that something was definitely present, but it did move.
His hand reached to the nightstand, turning it on and seeing a black figure before him. Within an instant, the figure bolted from the room, travelling at inhuman speeds. The human body needed some kind of momentum to drive forward; going from standing to a sprint in an instant was something that should not have been possible by a human being.
Yet, the darkness undeniably did that.
The father yelled, but the figure had already vanished, slamming the door silently behind it. The wife finally woke up, not delayed in her awakening but outpaced by the darkness.
The father rushed out of his room, going to his son's bedroom and finding an open window, accompanied by frosty haze upon the glass, a sharply cold chill going down his spine.
…
Let's hope I haven't been caught.
Walking home, Aubrey had explicitly targeted a neighborhood where the surveillance wasn't too heavy, though he wasn't so foolish as to expect that private cameras wouldn't be present.
That was a pretty good test. The windows and doors should've made more noise, but they didn't. Even the creaking floors were practically silent.
Aubrey continued walking, hands in his pockets.
It took a while for that man to figure out I was there. Whether it's because I'm dressed in all black or not is honestly up for debate, but I'm pretty satisfied with the silence.
Also, I think I'm quieter the faster I move. As I bolted out the door, it didn't make any noise as far as I can tell. Hopefully this makes being a true hunter a bit easier.
The cold and dark night, brought on by the wendigo, ran across the whole neighborhood, as somewhat of one final "prank."
…
Warm sunshine placed upon the new couple, they walked into a mall. Aubrey looked up and around the area, seeing the second story.
"So Aubrey, are you new around here like I am?" A beautiful woman—Sienna, asked. For the occasion, she had picked out a pink shirt alongside knee-length jean shorts, alongside a black chain necklace.
As for Aubrey's choice in fashion, it was actually one he needed help from his friends in order to pick out. He eventually settled on what he assumed Sienna would most like; his thought process was something like:
Well, she works at a library and reads books… so that means she should like more bookworm-y guys?
And as such, he settled on quite a performative outfit. With a white button down shirt, covered up by a beige sweater, alongside baggy jeans.
So, in total, both of them were quite cute.
"Am I new 'round here? No, no, I've lived here for a while. Well, at least for a year, since I moved out for college and stuff. You're new here?"
Sienna nodded her head. "Mhm! I took a gap year for personal reasons once I finished highschool and moved here. I take it you've visited this mall often, then? It's pretty big and close to campus."
"Yeah, I've visited it pretty often. For me, it wasn't a super big move out to college, and so me and my best friend in highschool would visit this mall, simply cause it was that huge."
Sienna looked around as well as they continued walking, passing by all the stores. "That's cool! Yeah, for me, it was a pretty big move, actually. Not that I disliked it, tho'. Let's check out the stores!"
She walked around, Aubrey following as they looked around various stores. They found a store dedicated to selling cutesy merchandise and the like.
"Ooh, I wanna see this one!"
Aubrey entered, with Sienna looking around and grabbing a stuffed animal of a cat with glasses, holding it up and showing it off to Aubrey.
"Awww, isn't she so cute?"
Not as cute as you. Though, that's a bit heavy on a first date, I think.
"Pretty cute. Almost looks like you."
"Is it the glasses?"
"It's the glasses."
Sienna immediately decided to buy it, going over. Aubrey was a bit annoyed, as he didn't like paying too early. Yet, of course, it was Sienna; it was only natural he'd pay for her.
He took out his wallet, but Sienna had taken out hers and bought the stupidly overpriced stuffed animal herself. She saw Aubrey and smiled, waving her hand downwards.
"No, there's no need to pay; I wanted it, so I bought it."
"You sure? Not to flex, but I'm actually kinda rich right now—"
"I'm sure, I'm sure," she said with a laugh, "I hate being a burden to others, after all. Thank you for offering, though… It means a lot."
Aubrey put his wallet away, caught off guard by her words.
Wow…. What a wonderful girl. Seriously… Though, I'll definitely make it up to her for the next one. I'll pay for the food court stuff.
The two left the store, and continued searching.
Alright man, all's fair in love and war. I don't know what that quote actually means, but people say it a lot. What I'll take from it is that you need to be strategic in love, just like you gotta be strategic in war.
Winning is everything. No matter what happens, no matter what I have to sacrifice, in the end, I'm going to win. A smarter man said that, but anyways, I gotta be smart. Just now, she explored one of her interests, so I think I should explore one of mine, so that she can see my personality.
Aubrey continued looking for stores that piqued his interests. Yet,
Huh?
Not a single store in this entire mall fit his interests. Not because of their lack of selection, but rather that Aubrey was an uninterested—and therefore, uninteresting person.
So, something here that really shows my personality… I don't see anything here. Usually when I visit with friends, we just walk around, checking out all of the stores, but outside of the food places, I can't name a single one of these which is my favorite, or even particularly preferable.
What is my personality anyways? I mean, I like… I watch some anime with my friends, at least if they like the anime. But I hardly ever seek it out on my own. I don't particularly care about anything.
He did nice things for his friends and hung out with them often. Yet, outside of the bland trait of just being "nice," he really didn't have much of anything to him at all.
"Uhh, probably a bad time, but I gotta use the bathroom. Meet up in the food court?" Aubrey suggested, intentionally making his voice a little worried to really sell the "needing to use the bathroom" act.
"Oh, sure! You want anything while you're gone, or…?"
"No, I'll just look around or whatever; feel free to get whatever you like while I'm gone, though."
Aubrey went to the bathroom near the foodcourt, entering inside and looking into the mirror.
If I kept walking around with her, I would have to talk, and I wouldn't be able to strategize. So, right now, I think I just got hit with the realization that as a person, I'm actually really boring.
Let's lay out everything I do in a day. I wake up, go to class, and on break I eat lunch with my friends. Then, when school's over, I usually stayed inside and watched… Youtube… unless I was going out with my roommate or other friends.
…Huh. Not much of an exciting life.
Okay, then what do I watch on Youtube?
Aubrey pulled out his phone, looking at his recommendations on Youtube.
Mostly meme compilations, songs, animation storytime videos, theories about movies and games—wait, that's it! I like movies and games!
She likes horror, right? Or, if she doesn't, it was our initial bonding thing so I think it can grow on the both of us and we can bond over it?
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that "games and movies" were the barebones interests of the 21st century. It wasn't the 90's where being called a gamer was almost like a slur; literally everyone likes video games and movies, you're seen as weird if you don't.
So, even the most interesting thing he had to him wasn't even interesting.
Well, it's better than nothing, right? Maybe she can get me into things, expand my palate, and I can actually develop a personality?
He snorted a laugh as he washed his hands and looked into the mirror, though he did not see his features.
His face was something he hardly ever looked at, and thus does not even deserve a description. His face should be ignored entirely.
Yeah, using the woman I love to get a personality… I must be so smart. Genius manipulator.
Aubrey left the bathroom, going back to the foodcourt and seeing Sienna sitting down at a table. Aubrey went over and sat down.
"Sorry about that," he said, looking down and seeing an empty table. "Did you get anything?"
"No, I figured it's better to walk around a bit more first."
Aubrey got up from the table he just sat at, finding that a bit funny, before the two continued.
They passed by a Gamestop, with Aubrey looking inside. He didn't plan on buying anything from there, so it was a simple passing glance.
"You like games?" Aubrey asked, to which Sienna nodded her head.
"Yeah, I like games! Though, I'm not that much of a gamer; I mostly play the calmer ones."
"That's respectable. Honestly, I prefer those as well myself. It's always weird when my friends get mad at an online game when they can just turn it off."
Aubrey was a complete traitor, as a matter of fact. He also got incredibly pissed when he lost at online games, and his friends tended to rage together. Though, he wasn't completely betraying himself to sound nonchalant in front of Sienna. He recognized how stupid it was to rage at games and was merely expressing himself, even if he was a hypocrite.
"Yeah, I like games that make me feel calm, y'know? Sad and scary ones are fun as well… actually, I change my mind! I like scary games more than calm ones."
Aubrey kept up a soft smile. "That so? You'll have to introduce me to those kinds; I don't play them much myself."
They kept walking, and Aubrey had the thought that perhaps the date at the mall was less about the mall itself and more about the conversations the mall gave out freely.
"Sure, sounds like fun! Should we visit the second story?" Sienna asked, and Aubrey glanced at the escalator as they passed by a bathroom.
"Yeah, let's do—"
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
From the bathroom, several screams were made clear. It was incredibly high-pitched, so Aubrey thought it was perhaps a bunch of children, male or female.
Wait, if I look cool and save some people in front of her, she'll think I'm even cooler, right?
Aubrey felt the corners of his lips form into a soft, silly smile before he looked at Sienna and shrugged his shoulders.
"I'll check it out, just cause it seemed like a bunch of kids might be hurt or something. Sorry for making you wait so much, hah."
Aubrey went inside the men's bathroom, where he assumed the scream was, before he saw three children. Their bodies shaking and fixed to the ground, they looked up with terror in the mirror.
"...Hm?"
He went over to the children, before hearing them mutter under their breaths, "S-she's here…"
Aubrey glanced at the mirror, and saw it. The image of a pale, ghostly woman in a white dress and long black hair, covered in blood was shown to him as she stepped out from the mirror and onto the bathroom sink, standing like a walking corpse.
"...Ah, is it her?"
If one says her name three times in a mirror, it's said she comes to kill them. Of course, this rule couldn't be 100% true, considering she would have already been known throughout the world if it was invariably provable she would kill whoever invoked her name.
Yet, once more, it was the strings which stitched the supernatural together, Fate, which brought her here.
"Bloody Mary… what inconvenient timing."
Without wasting any time, Aubrey summoned forth the Slit-Mouth-Scissors, and immediately kicked off the ground, aiming to behead the ghost before she could even react.