The time is night. The moon, full. The place, London. The weather, foreboding. The outcome, death.

Tick tock, tick tock… ‘7 seconds… 10 seconds…’ Kiran thought to himself from atop a tree.

The moonlight swayed with the night clouds, a spotlight manned by nature itself, it cast its eyes over and over with the consistency of a human. As if in time with the guards that Kiran were planning to get passed, it shone over the path Kiran wanted, it no doubt made the mission more difficult. As one may suspect, from the dark clothes he wore and the way he blended in with the surroundings, Kiran was not a simple man. He is an assassin.

Trained in the arts of the craft at an early age, he became the top of his craft in a matter of years. In a span of 2 decades, he had risen to sit with the best in the world. He has taken missions around the globe, businessman, politicians, beggars, they were all the same to him. If they were a target it did not matter, Kiran had even taken on a president once. To him, the world was the limit.

‘8 seconds…’ Kiran thought to himself again. That was the time the 2 patrolling guards offered for him to make it into the first floor window of this mansion. The distance was around 100 metres as his eyes narrowed for the chance. Who could anticipate someone being faster than the world record?

Now. He dashed from atop his tree over the wall in a smooth swift motion and landed, a sound so soft it was masked by the wind of the night. Without so much as a stop, he dashed to the target window. His stance low, his speed fast, his eyes determined.

He was about 15 metres away from the window when out of the corner of his eyes he could see the guard making the corner, he had to get up quick. His stance steepened even further as he suddenly placed his hand on the ground in a cartwheel and backflipped himself perfectly unto the first floor window just as the guard turned the corner.

The window slowly opened as he pushed it forward, the lock lifted by itself. Kiran silently made his way into the room, empty. He placed himself against the wall and opened the door just enough to hear. Hallway, empty.

He moved swiftly as he opened the door and shut it behind him without a single sound. Like a ghost moving, he glided through the doorway to his target. A businessman who hadn’t done anything wrong, just had a competitor who wanted him out the picture. Ten million for a life.

Soon he stopped, in front of him was a double door, he was inside. Kiran leaned against the wall, his ears opened, he could capture the sounds in his room. The parchment of paper crumpling against the pen, the slow unconscious breathing of a man.

His hand reached down to his side, his other for the door.

The door opened silently, and in the smallest of gaps within a millisecond of the door opening, a dagger flew in the air and impaled itself within the man’s heart. The man looked at the knife in astonishment, his hand still holding his pen. The door once again closed behind Kiran without even a noise having escaped the room. On the outside, it almost seemed as though the door barely moved.

In the room, Kiran stood looking at the man, dead in the chair. A quick confirmation until he scanned the room and was about to leave when an amulet across the man’s table caught his attention. The paper read,

Amulet found from the ruins of…

He didn’t quite get to finish.

Every time Kiran would finish a mission, he wasted no time in leaving and erasing all the traces of him. But this time, it was different. He eyed the amulet, a sense of bewilderment at his interest and unease. Kiran was never interested in artefacts of such a nature. It was shocking, this made him uneasy. And when a predator is uneasy, he unconsciously releases his aura.

Yes, humanity has long since lost its primal instincts. One of which was the perpetual instinct of survival, killing instinct. Man has long since forgotten what it was to face death every day, to kill or be killed. Only certain individuals in specific environments remembers, and Kiran was one of them. And with the instinct, comes the intent. Accumulated through the blood on a person’s hand, the instinct becomes so amplified that it evolves and could be described as an aura, killing intent.

The instinct is bought about with the need to survive. The intent can only be accumulated through the deaths of hundreds and thousands of bodies laid beneath a person’s feet. And Kiran, being one of them, had a considerable amount of killing intent he could unleash. The simple unease he felt released a small percentage of that intent and woke the entire world. So to speak.

Lights flickered on in all room as alarm bells rang. The mansion was now as bright as day as spotlights illuminated the courtyard unto the walls of the mansion.

A rich businessman would at least have a decent enough bodyguard to recognize killing intent, Kiran concluded. Even though it was only a second that Kiran lost control of himself, it was enough to wake the suspicion of at least one of the guards in the mansion.

Kiran eyed his escape route, just before he made off his expression winced as he clenched his jaws. If any from the assassin world were to see this, they’d be amazed. The Kiran who, during training as a child never even changed at torture after a year was making an expression of pain. What people would pay to see this.

Kiran dashed quickly back to the table and grabbed the amulet and headed for the exit. His speed formidable as he made his way across the room when suddenly a burning sensation tugged at his arm and spread through his body like wildfire.

The pain was immense, torture could not even compare as he grimaced in pain. His body bright red as the amulet shone a purple light. If the bright spotlights outside were not shining in everything, people would be able to see a bright purple light shining from out of the room.

Kiran could not sense anything, the pain was too powerful. He tried to let go of the amulet but it was stuck to his hand. At last, the pain was too great and he let off a large shout.

The doors busted open in the study as men in suits stormed into the room with guns. They fanned out across the room as a man hurriedly rushed to the chair to take the pulse of the businessman. He shook his head to his colleagues. Their faces drenched of colour as a man broke the circle and walked to the middle of the room.

He bent down and picked up the fallen amulet. Its jewel cracked and devoid of colour.

‘Wasn’t this… purple…’ he thought to himself, but soon shook his head. 10 ex-military bodyguards and they couldn’t even notice the assassin. ‘Their reputation would be tarnished’, he thought as he gestured for the team to contact the authorities, ‘But what’s the point, they’d find nothing from someone of this calibre.’ As they left carrying the dead body, he glanced back, then turned again and left the empty room.

Thousands of miles above, a grey ball of mist flew above the atmosphere and into space. A spark of purple could be seen around it every now and then. Yes, the grey mist was Kiran.

Kiran was still struggling to believe what had happened. The amulet had combusted him into nothing, or rather this grey mist the size of a ping pong ball. He understood that the world wasn’t as simple as everyone believed. Of course, only the top few percentile of the world ever saw or know of these unexplainable events or people. Kiran was one of those few. It was exactly how he had open the window and into the mansion. Chi, an ancient Chinese way of channelling energy. Kiran had learnt it and spent years or honing it. His body became stronger, sharper but he was still human. This was different.

Kiran soon realized he couldn’t do much, his mind was still sound as he travelled through the empty expanse but he could not control it. As he looked on at his home getting further and further away, he felt a tinge of sadness. But only a tinge. He didn’t really have any attachment to it anyway. Soon, he relaxed himself and allowed things to run its due course.

Suddenly the purple spark, having been unable to breach the grey mist (Kiran), rammed into the middle the mist. If Kiran could describe it, it would be like swallowing a large amount of food and having it stuck down your throat.

Slowly, the grey mist enclosed the purple spark and soon, the spark was no more. But Kiran could feel it, he could feel that something was different. His body was, or rather the mist was, he was…bigger.

The mist had increased in size and he could feel he was a little stronger. Even though he couldn’t test it, he felt he was. This fact made his eyes shine with a light. If he had eyes it would. Strength and power was everything Kiran sought in his life, and knowing that he could be strong, was everything. Because if there’s one thing that Kiran learnt, is that you could never rely on anyone, only yourself, the strong rules the weak, because in the end, the only one who you can count on, is you. With this mentality he was able to rise above everyone else, and if he could do it once, he could do it twice.

And so, Kiran flew aimlessly with a purpose. However, not everything worked out. For hours, no weeks? Months? He didn’t know how long had passed but not once did he happen upon another spark. Though he did capture a few white mists along the way but although he felt it made him grow, it was not as sufficient as the purple spark.

Days, months and years went by as Kiran flew across space. Most of the time he lay dormant, but once in a while he would encounter the mists or sparks and immediately attempt to devour them. Through the years, he had grown from the size of a ping pong ball to the size of a watermelon. The grey mist was more of a dense fog, a more concentrated form than before.

Suddenly Kiran lit with excitement, a distance away from him was another grey mist. He had never seen another grey mist before. He had encountered white mist, purple sparks and a multitude of other coloured mists but never a grey one.

As if by will, Kiran increased in speed towards the grey mist which was only the size of a fist. Just as Kiran got close and ready to consume it as he had always done, the grey mist shot away to his surprise. It had never happened before, it’s like it could sense his intent to eat him.

Kiran, loving the interaction, chased him around and so two balls of grey mist flew as one chased the other in space. Kiran, obviously bigger in size, had a little fun chasing and soon felt it was time. All along Kiran could have devoured him instantly but he did crave a little interaction.

Within seconds Kiran was upon the small ball and with no hesitation began to eat him. As the grey mist slowly became a part of him, he could feel an increase in power he hadn’t felt before. It was significantly higher than the ones he had had before. A joy rushed to his face that soon became fear.

The grey mist (Kiran), shot at an incredibly fast pace towards a direction, Kiran couldn’t tell but it was many times faster than he had been before. Stars, planets passed at a blur. But this wasn’t what Kiran was worried about. It was his mind. He was drowsy and tired. It was as if he was drugged, it was costing him all his willpower to stay awake.

Soon he could no longer hold it and a planet came into view. He was slowing down, he was finally reaching a destination but he couldn’t quite make it out. Just before he closed his eyes, he thought he saw he had seen a similar planet. Ah, that’s right. Earth.

‘Where…’

‘Where am i?...’ the question reverberated in the air as Kiran became conscious.

Kiran looked around himself, it was dark, as dark as space, but different. He could feel a warmth around him, like he was in a bubble. He had never felt this warmth before, it was almost… a motherly warmth.

‘Maybe…’

He put the thought out of his mind. He could sense he had his limbs back, or in a sense anyway, he couldn’t quite tell as it was pitch black darkness. But he knew he was stronger, more so than before. How long would it be till he saw daylight, he wondered. Maybe… it wouldn’t be too long.

He closed his eyes once again.

The next time he woke he could feel movement, not himself, but someone was carrying him. Then he suddenly realized the warmth he was feeling, it was much more prominent. It was… a weird sensation.

He wanted to find out what it was but his eyes felt heavy. ‘Weird… I can feel I’m getting much stronger but… why am I so tired…’ he wondered as he drifted off once again. The last thought in his mind before he drifted ‘Why… why do I feel like a child?...’

Time passed when suddenly one day, Kiran’s consciousness awoke with a startle, his eyes were wide open and alert. He knew, rather he had a feeling, that today was the day. The day he returned.

As if not wasting a single moment, he could feel the fluid, the warmth around him being drained away. A single slit of light shone in at him, and slowly but surely it became bigger and bigger as he struggled his head out. And then light enveloped him.

He opened his eyes, well he tried, but shut it immediately as it was too bright. He let out a loud cry, as if to signify his return. That Kiran is back.

His eyes adjusted slowly, and once again he opened them, fully this time and took in everything before him.

He froze.

‘What…what the…’