When the countdown hit zero, Vince was already there.
No mist. No fog. No atmospheric buildup. Just him, three meters ahead of me, standing in the dark without disguise or pretense. Purple hair, all black, completely still.
No disguise, I thought. Which means he's not worried about witnesses. Which means he's certain nothing gets said about tonight after tonight.
Which also meant I had more time than I might have thought. Nobody kills someone without explaining why first. It's a universal truth that transcends species, apparently.
[Night mode activated.]
Night mode. I understood it the moment it landed. The darkness stopped being dark. Not bright exactly.
More like the world had been retuned, the shadows separating into layers, details sharpening, the campus reading itself to me the way the plain had read itself for twenty years except cleaner, more precise. Like someone had upgraded the instrument.
