prompt
In a time of darkness, sometimes it's the little things that make a difference. Destiny City has its fair share of tragedies, not the least of which was the Carnival Fire of 1942. The story of a distant memory that claimed the lives of over a hundred people and injured many more recently resurfaced after an estate sale revealed the only surviving relics of the massive fire: a set of old carousel horses. A local philanthropist and historian acquired the set, some of which were badly burned, and set about restoring them. It took several months, but the project was completed and the Carousel was resurrected in memory of those who lost their life on the very grounds they lost. It stands now, open to the public, a tribute of Destiny's City past and its perseverance. The Carousel operates as to be expected, with antique horses that are perhaps a bit more frightening than need be and a tune that is almost as eerie as it is cheery. Some even say they hear distant voices, and screams, mixed into the music; others have said that as the Carousel moves the shadows of people fleeing distracts them. It's probably just a ghost story, though. Are you brave enough to find out?
Cree, cree, cree, cree...
The only sound this early in the morning was the chirping of crickets, the whip of the wind, and an eerie creaking from the nearby carousel as it settled in for the morning. It wasn't a destination on Rakovanite's usual route, but he had managed to follow that day's prey much more out of the way than he'd initially intended. Maybe he'd felt... something at seeing her: a woman out jogging well before the cusp of daybreak. He'd been in exactly her position only a few months prior.
But if Rakovanite spared a moment to think about it, little had changed, realistically. He still went out at 3AM to tend to necessary chores. The chores weren't always centered around his physical health and upkeep as they had been previously, but he was still out, tending to the needs of routine, settling into his role as an agent of the Negaverse and fulfilling the debt owed by obtaining such a power.
He drained her without terribly much issue, and once she'd collapsed and fallen into a state of unconsciousness, he had the decency to move her off the path and behind the flimsy blockaded grates of the carousel. An incapacitated person left upright but unattended was less suspicious than a limp body splayed in the middle of the jogging path.
It seemed unlikely anyone would notice her over the gaudy display of filigree and ceramic horses until whatever operator arrived to set the thing in motion in a few hours. If the woman didn't wake before then, anyway.
Rakovanite turned to leave, but the flicker of something in his peripheral vision made him turn toward the motion. He felt nothing out of the ordinary. No accompanying aura and no sound to give anything away, just a dark... flutter almost of something moving. Rakovanite's focus went more fully to the carousel. If someone else was around, it would be a pain to be seen and not know about it.
He moved to circle around, and as he did, another flicker, at the back edge of his vision again, and there was a sound this time, an accompanying creak of the carousel that nearly made him jump.
But there was nothing, no one, as far as he could tell.
A civilian wouldn't be able to outmaneuver him, and he would sense someone powered. But there was just... nothing, nothing besides the tantalizing teasing of flickering shadows and the ominous rumble of the old carousel. But if there truly was nothing and no one, Rakovanite had no reason to linger. He had already obtained what he'd come out for that morning: the smoky, glowing orb of energy from the jogger, and there was no need to continue the hunt.
Not here, with this... unpredictable array of shadow work running so rampant across the city. Even if Rakovanite scarcely believed in the benefits of fear and worked to temper his responses to it, there was always something about the unknown, about uncertainty that made even his sturdy resolution falter. Just a fraction.
He didn't waste another moment to dwell on it and departed back toward the main city streets, away from the park and carousel and the looming shadows it brought on.
