The breeze picked up the last of the scented smoke, sending it to the darkness that cowered beneath the canopy of the trees. In the full moon, it was like a wraith as it vanished to the blackness, to be parted and lost in whatever lay beyond. But this image was lost on the young man, even as the cool breeze swept over him, taunting him into movement. He sat perfectly still, eyes closed, body frozen. And all around him was still, as though it were a snapshot, the elements falling to rest at his command. In the moonlight, his hair and skin were silver, but his eyes were two dark pools that gazed unseeing into the sparkling sky.
The city glowed on the horizon, its pale aura disrupting the serenity of the black abyss. But he gazed far past that. Breath rhythmic and steady, he could have been out here for hours further, not noticing as time slipped calmly by. Indeed, time didn't care about the sole man in the wild, outside of town, away from it all. Him alone with the full moon beaming down.
Presently Riso stirred, like an animal awaking from its slumber. Albeit slow, his movements were graceful as he rose and crossed the field to the bench, pulling the collar of his jacket closer. The incense had died in a pile of white ash on the bronze dish. He put the whole thing back into its plastic bag where it belonged, and reached for his phone. It was 12:46AM. The moon was still very high. A ring lay beside the phone, and beside that, a knife. He collected them all, returning them to their rightful places. And then he reached for his backpack and hoisted it onto his shoulders, turning to gaze up at the sky one more time. The stars twinkled down at him. He smiled as if to say goodbye. There was no need to speak, and Riso turned to the trail leading back to the town. It was well lit enough for him to walk without the flash light. For now... there were clouds on the horizon, but they were a long ways off. He would be back by then, hopefully.
A large full moon gleamed white overhead--a round silver coin carelessly tossed into the sky. Around it, stars sparkled like beads of water, scattered randomly as if from a fountain. The city sprawled out below, glinting unnaturally with it's own lights. Yellows, sickly orange, the dull and man-made rainbow cast by thousands of bulbs.
They say the full moon is what made him do it. They say it's unearthly light is what drove him mad. This was no werewolf, no supernatural monster. This was only a man. A man who could not stand to gaze upon such pure, pure light as it shone out over an impure world. So he snapped.
And he killed them all...
Romax paged through the notebook the girl had had on her, lifting an eyebrow at her still figure as he did so. "Well, someone enjoys horror stories, don't they?" he asked rhetorically, before replacing the book in the bag it had fallen out of when he'd grabbed her. He'd fed from her, but she wasn't dead. Just asleep. When she woke up she wouldn't remember a thing.
He set her bag down beside her, standing in the pool of moonlight. Tipping his head back to gaze up at the sky, he decided he rather liked her description of it. Not her story, sorry, it pretty much sucked, but the visuals. After taking a moment to reflect, he continued on, his solid six-foot figure oddly silent as he followed the path through the neatly manicured woods.
It was a park after all.
Right about then, he caught a peculiar scent in the air. Pungent, but unidentifiable. His curiosity piqued, he followed it and spotted the man. Shrugging, Romax decided to do the straightforward thing. He circled and headed towards the guy, deliberately walking right into him. "Whoa, sorry about that. Didn't realize anyone else'd be out here at this time."
