Evil

So you see, Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each individual human being.

Paulo Coelho, The Devil and Miss Prym

There's a sharp crack across the empty, foggy streets, echoing between buildings and fading before reaching any listening ears.
All the better, Levi thought as he lowered his hand, slipping it into his coat pocket and stepping into the darkened wound in the fog. It happened fairly frequently; a stowaway, a pickpocket, a drunkard -- they saw him. They shouldn't have seen him; not in the sense that he was going to silence them if they did, but that he should have been invisible. He should have been unseen.

But the Shroud didn't always work as intended. It grew thin in places, nearly nonexistent, revealing those behind bad luck and ill intentions.

Levi was one of those individuals. He pulled strings, nudged mindsets into disregarding morals, acted as the devil on the shoulder. His job was a fun one, and he particularly delighted in the smaller, pettier sins. Arson was a rush and politicians were demons in their own right, but those who preferred it never got the rush of adrenaline of petty thievery or reveling in sleight of hand. The reward was never magnificent to his puppet, but it was all worth it to imp.

And when someone got a good look at him, well... He'd smile, tip his hat, and disappear into the fog.
And perhaps, in the next week or two, an accident would occur. No one would know how it happened, of course, certainly a great tragedy.

The resulting new hire behind the Shroud was certainly a good thing, at least.

Coding, writing, and overlay by Juke
Background image by Vlado Grčić