Night Life

Chapter 1: Park Life

Victor knew it was dark. Not because he was having to squint into the blackness. Not even because the clock on his phone told him it was 12:47am. There was just something in his mind telling him which of the places around him were dark. This was made especially strange by the fact he could still see these places. A patch of shadows lay at the bottom of the huge tree near him. There were no streetlights around and the thick canopy blocked out the moonlight, even with most of the leaves having died and fallen to the ground. He shouldn't have been able to see into this puddle of darkness, not without some kind of light. But he could. He could see the tiny form of a hedgehog, snuffling through the dead leaves and twigs. No doubt it was looking for food, preparing for a long period of hibernation over the next few months. Vic wondered what the darkness looked like for that little hedgehog. Did it see everything the same way he did? Could it tell where the shadows slowly faded into light, despite the fact that it all looked the same at first glance? 'Maybe it's different if you're born with it?' thought Vic, watching the hedgehog burrow its nose into the dirt. 'This is all he's known. He never had to learn how to adapt to it. Never had to deal with the shock of suddenly being able to see in the dark, after years of living normally.' It was nothing like the night-vision Vic was used to, from video games and TV shows. There was no green filter over his vision. No tactical overlay. It just felt...
Normal.
He could see in the dark. That was just something he could do now.

Vic took a few steps away from the tree with the hedgehog and looked around at the rest of the park. His shoes crunched through piles of fallen leaves as he stared up through the branches, most of them bare or with a few little leaves hanging on desperately. Every gust of wind seemed like it would dislodge them, but they remained firm and refused to fall. Vic felt the tips of his fingers dance around the cold metal of the zip on his hoodie, and he stopped for a moment. It was weird being out in nature. Even though the park was in the middle of the city, surrounded by huge buildings and offices, it still felt strangely free. Vic had spent the last few weeks cooped up in a tiny apartment, only occasionally coming out at night to explore the nearby streets. Now he was surrounded by grass and trees and it all felt so different. Quieter and calmer, but also strangely anxiety-inducing in its loneliness. Vic had always considered himself an introvert, but now he felt slightly ill being away from people. He hadn't realised how much the noise of the city had calmed him. How at home he felt when surrounded by crowds. Gaining night-vision had been odd, but these changes to his personality were starting to worry him.

Before Vic could interrogate his new-found hatred of being alone, he heard footsteps. Of course, there were footsteps all around, since the park was far from abandoned, but these specific steps stood out. They were heavy and strong, but arrhythmic, like the footsteps of a soldier who couldn't quite get the hang of marching in time. Without being able to see them, Vic already knew that these footsteps came from the thick, leather combat boots of Stephanie Delacour. He turned to see her making her way towards him. She kept to the shadows as she walked, leisurely side-stepping any patches of light from the street lamps. Her eyes seemed to glint in the darkness, like those of a cat at night, when illuminated by the beam of a torch. She acknowledged Victor with a short nod. Vic started to raise his hand up to reply with a wave, before thinking it would probably look a bit silly. Instead he mirrored her nod and played his raised hand off as a stretch.

"Hey. See you got here okay. Have any trouble with the cops?"
Steph sidled up to Vic, her hands in the pockets of the heavy leather jacket that hung loosely over her thin, athletic frame. Vic thought back twenty minutes, to when he'd been peeking out from behind the trunk of a large tree, anxiously waiting for the police officer to turn his back so he could dart across the gravel path and disappear into the bushes.
"Weirdly, no." Vic replied "It was actually pretty easy!"
"A lot of things are easier for you now."
Steph motioned for Vic to follow her as she pushed her way through some low branches and out into a small clearing. The park was full of these dense circles of trees, with clearings in the centre. Officially it was something to do with helping the wildlife, but in Vic's experience, they were really just convenient places for kids to meet up and pretend to enjoy the taste of shoplifted vodka so they could impress their friends. This particular clearing, however, was not full of cigarette butts, beer cans and fast food wrappers. Instead, it was a corpse that littered the ground.