PART ONE: From The Reaches Of A Dark Graveyard

JULIAN was his name, a "night dweller". Someone who lived vicariously at night but slept through most of the day. Someone who was more of a free spirit than anyone else. Someone who understood that the universe ran a different way in the middle of the night.

He had known that it was never a coincidence that in many parts of the world people prayed to their god in the period of the day when things were "different". It made sense. It was the time when he felt most in-tune with the way his life went. The night made things more memorable. Once, as a younger boy, he had gone trick-or-treating late into the night with a group of friends and he had met a girl, one he remembered until he was older. Why? She had made some sort of impression on him. Maybe it was the way the moonlight flooded down upon her hair.

Either way most people didn't seem to understand this. That was why many of them worked during the day and hung out with their friends during the day. But Julian had always loathed the sunrise. It symbolized the ending of a night well spent.

Julian had no friends. He didn't believe in friends, or love. He believed in spontaneously meeting people in the night and wherever that went, it went. Maybe it was serendipity? Maybe not. Chance was a key object. The prowl for members of the opposite sex during the say was a decrepit thought. One that didn't much appeal to him. However in the night he had many people and many of them he had spent time with. Whether it was in his hometown or under the eiffel towel in Paris drinking coffee.

He had seen much of the world at night. There was not much to be seen during the day. Specific sites were so much more amazing when they were lit up by different colored lights. The Eiffel tower was much more special with the lights going off across it. It was a sight to behold.

Now, it was night again. Julian had exited his apartment, the clock reading two thirty in the morning, and his heart beat fast.

The streetlights glowed brightly.
There were no cars.

Julian began his walk down the street, streetlight after streetlight shining down into his face and blinding him momentarily. There were some people walking across the street, holding hands. The street itself was now bathed by orange light in many areas.

"Julian right?" a voice said from behind him. Julian turned around.
"Yes," Julian replied. "We met before, right?"
"Right," the voice confirmed.

The girl had blonde hair, blue eyes that twinkled.

"4 hours till day," she said.
"That's plenty of time left."
"Indeed it is."
"Where would you like to go?"
"I was thinking the balcony at the mall."
"The malls closed."

They jumped over the gate at the mall. In the distance towers that were a thousand feet high looked down upon the two. And in the distance a big factory like building seemed to hide in the darkness, no lights on the building. The night seemed like it was just beginning.

"How long have you been a night dweller?"
"All my life."
"And you're parents?" the girl asked.
"My mom died when I was young, my dad's a night dweller just like me."
"I see."

Mentioning his father gave him a funny feeling in the deepest part of his stomach, like something was happening to his father. Something beyond his reach. Something that would...

"...Change the night," the girl said as if finishing his sentence.
"What?"
"Do you wish you could change the night?"
"No," he said. "No. I love the night. Do you wish you could change it?"
"Sometimes," she repliled. "I don't like the towers."

But the towers were there for their protection.

"So you've seen the towers too?" Julian asked.
"How can you not?"she asked. "They're as tall as the clouds. In fact they're past the clouds I think."
"Yeah," he said. "But lately I've been talking to some. They said they've never seen the towers. But they've seen a factory."

They were sitting on the balcony of the mall now, buildings sprawled below them in a sea of blurry and dreamish lights, but the towers still so high above them.

"A factory?" she asked.
"Yes. Some I've talked to said it pipes out music right before the sunset."
"I've never heard it," she said.
"Well the night plays tricks on some people who aren't used to it."
"That it does."

People ran below, night dwellers. They did their business and some even ran into each other. They all shared something on a deeper, almost spiritual level. They understood the night.

Julian's phone rang.

"Hello?" he said.
"Your fathers dead," a voice said.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Your father. He's dead he was shot an hour ago."

Julian turned to the girl.

"What's wrong?" she asked.
"My father's been shot."
"That's not possible. No night dweller would shoot another."

Julian returned to the phone call.

"Who are you?"
"I'm," the man said. "The one who killed him. I'm sorry. I thought he was someone else. Goodbye."

The man hang up.

"I can't believe this," Julian said, breathless.
"This isn't possible."

He turned again and the girl, like a dream, was gone.


1000 feet above the city, in a melon shaped tower, was X. He watched down on this tragedy that had befallen the night. So unusual. Nothing like this had happened before. X sensed that something big was about to happen. Something that would change the night forever.


to be continued...