When rain falls on Midnight, it never wants to stop.\u00c2\u00a0 It comes in torrents, and rushes down the mountainsides in normally dry waterfalls.\u00c2\u00a0 Lightning dances between the mountaintops, a dark, electric ballet.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Thunder rumbles and roils until it\u2019s one ceaseless note so deep it hurts your teeth.<\/p>\n
When rain falls on Midnight, it flows into storm water runoffs underground, weaving beneath subway tracks, through residential districts, around sewage lines and access tunnels and forgotten catacombs and dusty basements and subbasements and vaults.<\/p>\n
Rain sluices off the rooftops, washing them clean, displacing secrets sometimes, upsetting crows\u2019 nests, disturbing the entire culture of roof dwellers.\u00c2\u00a0 They hide in air conditioning ducts and canvas tents and, sometimes, sacrilege, seek shelter indoors.<\/p>\n
Storms awaken emotions in even the stoniest of hearts.\u00c2\u00a0 They encourage fear and inspire; they weaken the weak and embolden the strong.\u00c2\u00a0 And storms, sometimes, when perhaps the stars are improperly aligned, or an incantation has been inadvertently or unadvisedly uttered–sometimes, under those kinds of circumstances, the sheer power of storm unleashes something.<\/p>\n
Day and night, the City of Night burns with a million lights, tiny diamonds on the streets and in the windows, visible even from homes in the very mountains themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 Streetlamps and headlights and urban Will-o-the-wisps, neon and fluorescent and halogen, and–except for during storms like this–the constellations.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes the moon.\u00c2\u00a0 Never the sun.\u00c2\u00a0 The City of Night glows and sparkles and twinkles and burns.\u00c2\u00a0 Ominously.\u00c2\u00a0 Dreadfully.\u00c2\u00a0 Beautifully.<\/p>\n
The city between two mountains opens onto forest in the north, dense and ancient woodland filled with ghosts and gypsies and ghouls.\u00c2\u00a0 The storm clears dead limbs from the treetops and adds nobility to the streams and feeds the monsters.<\/p>\n
In the forest, something awakens.<\/p>\n
It is old and huge and hungry.\u00c2\u00a0 A million hearts beat within the city.\u00c2\u00a0 A million voices entice and implore and invite.\u00c2\u00a0 It has a million reasons to pull itself from the ground, from the depths, from the abysmal nightmares of wretches and sinners.\u00c2\u00a0 When it breathes, Midnight trembles.<\/p>\n
At the gate, which cannot properly be called a gate, a man alone stands and looks to the north.\u00c2\u00a0 He feels the chill wind.\u00c2\u00a0 Falling rain like spikes pummel him.\u00c2\u00a0 The city lights are at his back; he peers into the gloom.\u00c2\u00a0 He sees what has awakened.\u00c2\u00a0 He knows what it is.\u00c2\u00a0 He has read books of prophecy, of apocalypse, of sulfuric deluges and demonic gales.\u00c2\u00a0 He dares the old, huge, and hungry to come nearer to his city.\u00c2\u00a0 He breathes calmly.<\/p>\n
When the storm finally subsides, the creature, the beast, the otherworldly behemoth, retreats back to its slumber.<\/p>\n
At the gate, satisfied, the Wandering Reverend returns to his city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When rain falls on Midnight, it never wants to stop.\u00c2\u00a0 It comes in torrents, and rushes down the mountainsides in normally dry waterfalls.\u00c2\u00a0 Lightning dances […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,6,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}