Moth

Amon looked down at the streetlight, and the moth buzzing around it. It had been a regular evening, like any other evening. He had come home from work, and sat down to listen to one of his old Jazz records, and re-think some of the incidents of the day. It had been a regular day like any other day.

He had gotten on the bus, and made his way to work. His job was fairly ordinary. He entered data for a living. Everyday, he entered thousands of numbers into a computer, always making sure they were accurate. He couldn’t afford to mess up. Why he did it, he didn’t know. But it kept his mind free to think. That was what he did for most of his time. Think. 

A single moth flitted around the streetlight, its photovoltaic wings glistening against the darkness. A street sweeper bot walked past, disturbing the still of the night, as it appeared to jump from light to light, disappearing into the shadows in between.

The moth unfortunately, got caught in a gust thrown up by the street sweeper, and was thrown into the light. Its wings singed, it fell to the ground in a smoky pile, giving off a few last sparks of life.

Unseen to Amon however, it was about to meet an even worse fate, being crushed under the heel of a delivery man, who, on his final delivery of the day, had had enough. Enough of his crappy job enough of his overbearing, micro-managing boss, and enough of his monotonous life. In about five minutes, his wishes would be fulfilled, his life would change forever. But one last delivery awaited him.

A knock on the door startled Amon. He was deep in thought, and had forgotten about his order. "Chinese Food!" shouted the delivery man. Amon opened the door, but as he did so, he froze. He could feel a presence.

He didn’t know why, or how, but from the time he was a child, he could sense it. He was unique. The only one who could sense it. To everyone else, this presence was as invisible as the street-sweeper in the darkness. That made this presence dangerous. It made Amon dangerous too.

What he spent his day thinking about was a micro-drive given to him to safe-guard. One which could never fall into the wrong hands. Or the right ones, depending on who you asked. Everyone wanted it. Mostly because no one knew what was on it. It looked like any other memory chip, but he had no way of decrypting it. Nobody else knew how to either. Yet, it only passed through the safest of hands, and was always under watch. Someone always paid for its safe-keeping. And just like the what and the why, no one knew who. It was time for him to earn his keep.

A Daemon manifested before him. A swath of black pixels, they travelled through the shadows of another realm, entering this one through digital portals to carry out their deeds. Everyone had a portal on them, or in them, making these Ninjas far more dangerous than anything from this world. Except to him.

By the time the pixelated black figure appeared behind the delivery man, Amon had already armed and dropped an EMP. But it went off a second too late. A quick swipe of silver and grey pixels ended the delivery man's fatigue and frustration, before the pixels destroyed themselves in a multi-colored, glitch-y mess.

From the back of his belt, he pulled out a pair of Uzis, and began firing towards the windows, revealing another mass of dead pixels. They had found him. He grabbed the drive, and jumped out the now shattered window, as an explosion purged his apartment of any evidence or links to him, digital or physical. 

He ran down the street, away from his apartment, away from the street sweeper, and away from the mess. Behind him, a third Ninja appeared, teleporting ahead a few meters at a time. It was a race he knew he couldn’t win.

He began firing towards the Ninja, though the Ninja dodged and deflected with ease. He then began running horizontally along the walls, attempting to disorient his pursuer. It didn't work, and the soon enough, the Ninja was just a few meters behind him, He knew he had to hide the device. He reached for the only thing around: A moth.

He grabbed the moth from the air, pulled its memory bank, and inserted the micro-drive in its place. A definite click, and a glowing light assured him the switch had worked. And just in time, as the Ninja attacked, and Amon and the moth both fell off the side of the building, and onto the sidewalk below. The Ninja reached down, grabbed the memory chip in Amon's hand, and disappeared into the darkness from which he had appeared.

The moth rose up towards the streetlight, its photovoltaic wings reflecting the warm glow of the light. The smallest of creatures, now held the biggest secret of them all.