Trying to sleep the first night in a new place is always difficult, new sounds, smells, and of course waking up and not knowing where you were.  That is if you can fall asleep with so many thoughts running through your head.  It was a futile attempt he had to much energy build up, by 3 am he had given up all the normal remedies of falling asleep.  Counting sheep gave him a head ach, he never liked warm milk he wasn’t even sure there was any in the house anyway.  Great another thing to think about the shopping list he would have to create.  Getting out of bed only thing that would solve this is a night run.  It had been awhile since he had done one and this was a new city it could be dangerous but if he wanted any sleep tonight it would have to do. 

Opening his closet he pulled out some of his new clothes he had picked up at Target with this in mind.  A pair of umbro lightweight shorts, a brown t-shirt with city’s football team on it the Saints, and a black knit hat, piece of orange chalk and an also a new pair of Nike running shoes.  Slipping into all the clothes in the dark came easy to him from years of practice.  Last he slipped on an expensive looking heart monitor that could track distance, speed, pace, timer and heart rate.

Moving quietly through the house to not wake up his new roommates spooked him, Steven seemed like a nice guy but these statues of varies sizes put a chill down his spin.  In the odd lights his mind would play tricks on him; they  seemed to watch him as he moved past.  Taking his new house key he slid out the door making sure to shut it softly.  Doing a quick set of stretches on the side walk he pressed a button on the heart monitor and began jogging down the empty  street.  Three blocks down was a closed coffee shop, this would be his finish line he decided pushing another button he started off down an alley.  The first intersection he came to, he jogged in place while pulling orange chalk out and drew a crude stick figure with one arm outstretched the way he came.   No use getting lost and this would wash away with the first rain so no real vandalism done.  He repeated this at several more places on walls, mailboxes and street signs till his watch read off 2000 meters or 1 and quarter miles. 

The area he ended up was not the best part of town, it was run down with still some of the buildings condemned, even though most of the Garden District did not flood during the Katrina disaster there still were area’s that wind, and humans had damaged severely.  It was quiet on the street right now but no sane man would feel completely safe at this hour in this area alone.  Taylor however was where he wanted to be he didn’t need a weapon to make him feel safe since he was worse than any weapon.  After a bit of searching he found what he wanted a broken down and striped Nissan.  It was left in a alley forgotten once the tires, stereo, and most of the engine was taken.  The blue paint had faded in the years left in the sun and all but one window was smashed out most likely by bands of kids.  It was perfect for what he needed.

Kneeling in the darkest part of the shadows he set a timer on his new heart monitor for 4:50.  He laid his right hand on the trunk and completed the connection with his left hand; thumb to pointer.  The reddish light leaked from his right palm and flowed into the metal.  At first nothing seemed to happen but slowly small veins brownish and gold moved out in all directions started to spread over the trunk pulsing as if alive..  To him there was no change inside of him for a min except in the back of eyes there was an itch that wouldn’t go away.  Then he could start feeling the pure energy pooling in what felt like his stomach, he closed his eyes and could feel the pulsing now inside of him. 

A string of beeps made him open his eyes with a start.  He hated how that could happen, lossing time when he did this, but at least he hadn’t passed out he was getting more control slowly.  He released the power and with a start all the veins rushed back to under his palm.  The car was a pile of rust, the roof had collapsed in on itself the seats where just a soggy pile of goo, and the plastic dash had flaked apart where it hadn’t just melted to the floor boards.  Holes had appeared in much of the body where rust had eaten away  and the pale blue paint was nowhere to be seen.

Standing up Taylor eyes glittered in the moon light, now was what he waited for.  Pulling the black knit ski mask out of his pocket he sled it onto his head and down over his face.   With a playful giggle escaping his lips he leaned down in a runners start.  A mile and a quarter, he wondered to himself lets see if I can beat my time.  Pushing once more a timer started from 5 min’s.  He launched off at a blinding run down the center of the street.  The wind whipped around him as he ran muffling all sounds around him except he knew his laughter was in there high pitched and loud.  Coming up to first intersections his eyes could pick out his little drawing and cut the corner with ease.  Next little man pointed down an alley and with a small hop he jumped 5 feet into the air to run briefly along the wall till falling back to ground.  This was what real life was, rolled through his mind, this is what I should be doing.  Screw all this safety and not wanting to hurt people; If these sheep can’t take care of themselves then they deserve to be put down. 

The course he had made was wonderful with this power inside of him jumps, and long straight away he could feel every part of him moving in fluid efficiency.  Rounding the last turn he came to a stop at back door of the closed café.  10 seconds where still counting down on the timer.  Hell wasn’t his best time but it had been awhile.  He turned over a milk crate and sat down taking the ski mask off his head.  He could feel the power start to fade from him and he knew what was coming.  As last bit left, his head cleared as well, the energy always did strange things to his mind when it was active; the ideas of doing this always faded with the energy and he felt himself take back control from whatever darker thing laid dormant inside of him.  Resting his back against the wall under the one light the fatigue came on like a hungry beast.  Closing his eyes he sat there in the cool night air breathing deeply.