Prologue

Cold. What a cold, cold night. Or has it always been like this? It squirmed at the unfamiliar pressure constantly prodding its torso. Not good. Not good at all. Calm down, it told itself. It was trained for this. It heaved a long sigh, blinking so hard that veins started to appear at the face of its eyelids. Focus, it reminded itself. Focus.


It looked at the moon. So round, so peaceful. A little greyish, but still majestic. How it wished it could be--snap out of it! It cursed at its own short attention span and returned its gaze unto the park bench. Its been forever, and the chilly night breeze wasn't helping, neither were the prickly branches that were accompanying it. Such an important mission, this. It just couldn't afford to fail, nuh 'uh. Not this time.

Lightyears seemed to have passed and slowly, just very slowly, its eyelids began to fall. It was starting to get used of its surrounding-not exactly favour it-but still enough to induce slumber. Its sight dimmed and blurred and everything seemed to disappear...

'Crrrnnkkk!'

It opened its eyes as though something sharp was driven through its chest. Well, perhaps eardrums, in this case. It blinked several times to moisten its cornea and with the curiosity of a back alley cat, it scanned the area for the source of the sudden noise and eventually noticed a silhouette. A figure, shambling clumsily along the pathway, was approaching the shrubbery where it was hiding. And with natural instinct, its heart rate began to race like sodium in sheer, cold water.