Slowly, with only the light of the moon to guide me, I crept down the dark alley. Creatures huddled around piles of trash, picking at their meal. Around me, shutters of houses started to close as the last of the families finished their frugal dinners. A mouse scuttled in my path and I jumped back, stifling a scream. I bit my lip while praying nobody had heard. After a couple moments of silence, I continued forward. In the distance I saw a lump, a small girl laying still at the end of the alley. The moon reflect the tears on her small red cheeks, bitten by the cold. I started to rush forward with helping her on mind, but suddenly, a boot stretched out and kicked the little girl. Something splattered on the pavement next to her, something red. I stopped in my tracks, trying to process what was happening. Another swift kick came and the little girl whimpered pitifully. My heart filled with anger.

    I heard the gruff voice of a drunk man coming from around the corner, “You stupid little good-for-nothing piece of sh-” But he never finished his sentence as I slammed my fist into his jaw. I didn’t realize I had moved until I was already watching the man fall to the ground. There was a spilt second of pain in my hand, but the adrenaline covered it up. Unfortunately my punch wasn’t enough to knock him out. The man started to drag himself back up. Knowing I didn’t have much time, I quickly scooped the little girl off the ground and sprinted back down the alleyway. Glancing behind me I could hear the haggard breath of the man chasing us as well as my own. Inch by inch, foot by foot, the man was catching up to us. I realized there wasn’t anyway to lose him. The alleyway didn’t have anything big enough to hide us both, just a rotting road with nowhere to go except straight. My mind made a split decision. Finding a nearby pile of I-don’t-know-what, I set the little girl down behind it, hiding her from sight. Then I turned around to face the man who was now only a couple feet away. As he grew closer I could see his glazed eyes and uncoordinated gait. An animal growl crawled out of his throat. Finally, he was in front of me. He threw a sluggish punch toward me. Instinctively, I ducked and then threw a hard punch of my own into his face. He staggered back with his hands on his face.

    “You (insert your favorite curse word)!” He snarled in my face. Through the moonlight, I saw the blood dripping from his nose. He swung again and I leapt backward, but I landed wrong on my foot and I tripped onto my back. Seizing his chance, he thrust his hard dirty boot into my side. The wind was knocked out of me and I rolled helplessly down the alley. I lay there in shock, gasping, trying to think of what to do. Before I could get back up, the man bent down and wrapped his callused hands around my neck. Squeezing, he lifted me up by the neck. I struggled for air, clawing at his hands to no use. I tried calling for help but it was as if my voice had disappeared. Up close, I could see the man’s face. An ugly collage of scars with small beady eyes and a swollen nose. His teeth were black and chipped and his lips weren’t any better. Black started to creep into my vision. I was almost grateful when my vision started to blur. The excruciating pain of lack of oxygen was like someone had started a fire in my chest. The fire built up until something in me snapped. My left hand started to glow a deep purple light. A black pattern appeared on my palm. Around my left hand was a black ominous aura. The man looked at my hand and let go of my neck. I fell to the ground gasping for breath.

    He stumbled back, cursing. “You’re-You’re a Sinistro! Get away from me, you monster!”

    I just looked at my hand. The black aura shifted and formed the hand of a monster, complete with claws. A feeling of terror and disgust filled my entire being. I scooted away, trying to keep my left hand away from me as much as possible. The black monster hand stretched out toward the man, looking like black flames coming out of my left hand. He gasped and backed farther away. The man looked around the alley and grabbed the closest thing he could find, a long bone that was stripped clean by the sewer rats. He started swinging frantically as the dark, black hand approached. The black aura consumed the bone, sprinkling black dust across the alley. Then it touched the man’s hand. The skin on the hand bubbled and turned black. Puffs of smoke burst from the bubbles that imploded, filling the air with the smell of death and burning skin. Then his flesh started to crumble just like the bone had, little flakes of blacken dust rained down from his body. The man gripped his disinigrating hand and screamed. The scream ripped through my body but I couldn’t tear my eyes from what was happening in front of my eyes. The black aura spread up his arm and across his body. It slowly consumed his body while he yelled and tried to run away. For some reason it seemed like this was happening in slow motion. But that wasn’t the only strange thing that happened. Everything seemed to happen up close. I could see every particle of his body being dissolved by the black aura, every dust speck fall. Before I knew it, all there was of the man was a black pile of ash strewn up and down the alley.

    Behind me, a wail distracted me from the horror I had just seen. I snapped back into reality. Behind me, the little girl I had just saved was crying in the middle of the road. She had witnessed everything that had happened to the man who was hitting her. She ran up to me and started beating me with her little fists. Her sharp nails cut my arms leaving swollen red lines. “How could you do that to Papa? I hate you! I hate Sinistros! Papa was right, Sinistros deserve to die!”

    Not realizing what I was about to do, I brought my hands up to try to explain that it wasn’t my fault, but the black flame hand was still coming from my hand. The blackness lashed out and attached itself to the little girl just as it had with the man. The little girl started screaming as her looked at her hand disappearing. Suddenly, she was quiet like she had given up. She slowly raised her head and looked at my face with lifeless eyes. “What are you?”

    Then she vanished. The black hand seemed to swallow her whole, leaving not even a single trace. The black aura and the purple light around my left hand disappeared with her, leaving the alleyway as dark as it had been before and even quieter. The only difference was the black dust scattered around my feet. I saw the little girl in my mind’s eye. What had I done? But it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t my fault. The father deserved it. But what had the girl done to deserve that? It wasn’t my fault. I clutched my head. It wasn’t my fault. Shadows started to lengthen and follow me. Out of the shadows came claws and the faces of the father and his daughter, laughing and hunting me. It wasn’t my fault. I turned around and fled, leaving the shadows to dance and cackle by themselves. It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t my fault, right?