City Of Heroes: Trick or Treat for CoV Contest & Event *update* (Virtue)

It is that time of year again when the leaves upon the trees in Paragon City turn to reds and orange hues. The air was strangely thick that night, and a cold chilling wind blew beneath a starless sky where the moon hung low like a witches eye looking on. This night in particular, there seemed as if something was amiss. Steve Michaels couldn't help but feel as if he was being watched as he made his rounds outside City Hall in Atlas Park. Only little did he know...he was right.

From the shadows, that thing which should not be, watched the guard as he walked around the side of the building, moving towards the front. For a moment Steve thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look there was nothing there...or was there? Steve reached to the radio at his belt, "Roger how's your checkpoint?" The radio hissed and crackled with life as Roger replied, "all clear here, how's yours?" Steven felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and felt as if someone had just walked over his own grave. Soon, oh so soon... he thought to himself as he watched the lone guard from the shadows.

Roger heard the crackle of his radio as Steven started to speak. "This place is..." Steven words were abruptly cut off by the sound of his own bloodcurdling scream. Screaming, screaming was all Roger could hear through the handset, which suddenly went quiet within the uneasy stillness of that night. The radio crackled and sputtered once more, and then the only sound remaining was that of the wind, it's cold foreboding chill heralding the horror of something dark and evil that had now come to pass, stirring the shadows in the night.

Roger rushed to the front of City Hall where he knew Steven had last been. There under the pale moonlight was Steven sprawled against a pillar, still clutching the radio in his twitching grasp. His eyes rolled up in his head and his face twisted in a grotesque visage of fear and horror. His body was a sickly pale white...drained of life. As Roger stood aghast at the grisly scene that lay before him he saw the flicker of a long sable cloak disappearing into the shadows. Two red pinpoints of light that burned like the slow burning embers of a roaring fire peered back out of the darkness at him, only to fade away into an abyss of shadows. Now all that remained was the sound of a shrill hollow laughter ringing out into the lonely night, and a message scrawled in fresh blood...Steven's blood.