The subway train glided through the underground tunnels of Vitalis.
Fluorescent lights cast sterile white across the passengers heading from Sanctus Quarter to the Commercial District.
A young boy aged maybe seven sat at the back clutching an action figure of Hermon Cross.
He made swooshing sounds, flying the figure through imaginary battles.
"Take that, you ugly variant!" The boy swung the figure in a wide arc....
And smacked his grandfather in the arm.
The boy froze and the action figure dropped from his fingers.
His whole body went cold, waiting for a similar beating to the one that always accompanied the slightest transgression against his mom.
Instead...
A gentle hand patted his head.
"Be more careful next time," his grandfather said softly. The old man's eyes were kind and weathered by years but warm.
"I know how it was with your deceased mother and Violence is a disease, little one. You don't cure people by spreading it."
The boy's eyes opened, wet with relief. "Sorry, Grandpa."
"Nothing to be sorry for." His grandfather smiled.
"Just remember that when you grow up and become a big, strong Toppler."
The boy nodded, wiping his eyes. He climbed onto his seat, pressing his face against the window to watch the tunnel walls blur past.
That's when he noticed the lights tripping.
On.
Off.
On.
Off.
And in the darkness between each trip
A shadow stood outside the train out on the subway.
"Grandpa?" The boy's voice was small. "There's something....."
The lights cut out completely.
Passengers groaned, pulling out phones for illumination.
"Probably just a power surge," someone muttered.
The lights came back on.
And the figure was inside the train.
Standing in the center aisle, a hole melted through the roof of the train. It's edges still glowing red-hot and metal dripping like candle wax.
The figures hands dripped with something that hissed when it touched the trains floor, burning through the metal that coated it.
People were starting to panic when the lights went out again.
Someone screamed.
When they lights came back on, the figure had moved, closer to the front of the car.
A woman was on the ground, her face and chest gone.
Melted and dissolved.
The lights cut out again
Screaming, So much screaming from all four corners of the train now.
When they returned, three more bodies, four five.
The figure moved each time the lights went out and when they came back on, more and more bodies turned to ash.
Passengers stampeded toward the rear, trampling each other, clawing at locked emergency exits that wouldn't open on a moving train.
The grandfather pulled his grandson close, turning his back to shield the boy. His large hands covered the child's eyes.
"Don't look," he whispered. "Just listen to my voice, we're going to be okay. Just keep your eyes closed and..."
The lights went out.
Came back on.
The figure stood directly behind the boy's grandfather now, close enough to touch.
Its hand, if you could call it that reached forward.
Fingers dripping with that horrible substance.
"Grandpa, I'm scared"
"Shh, shh. I've got you. I've got—"
The hand punched through the grandfather's skull.
Almost gently, the old man's head just... dissolved, his flesh running like water, and bone quickly turning liquid.
His body stayed upright for a moment longer, his hands still covering his grandson's eyes before it collapsed.
The boy's eyes opened.
He tried to scream but no sound came out.
His whole body shook, teeth chattering and tears streaming down his face.
The figure's hand hovered in front of him. Inches from his face.
The boy couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't do anything but stare at the....
The hand moved, Grabbing the boy's face.
And the lights went out one final time.
days passed afterward and since then several incidents of the same manner had occured all over Vitalis.
Toplars and the Arcanum division were on site but by the time they arrived, the murderer had already fled.
Serial killers were not an uncommon occurrence in Vitalis, but the perculiarity of this one held to many mysteries.
At the scene of all the crimes, one thing in particular stood out. It was a symbol melted into the wall, ceilings or what ever solid area the figure in the White robe found suitable.
The symbol of the seventh seal.