SWITCH IN THE CITY

Five people I loved are dead.

The city took them.

The police couldn’t stop it.

The courts couldn’t fix it.

So I did.

They call me a killer.

Some call me a ghost.

But the truth is simple.

I only hunt monsters.

And in Richmond...

there are a lot of them.

Rain had a way of making the city feel heavier.

In Richmond, the water soaked into everything brick buildings, cracked sidewalks, rusted street signs, and the quiet spaces between streetlights where shadows stretched a little too long.

Malik Carter leaned against the wooden railing of his grandmother’s porch, watching droplets slide off the edge of the roof and splash onto the steps below.

The street was alive even at midnight.

Across the road, the corner store buzzed under flickering fluorescent lights. A couple people moved in and out of the door, shoulders hunched against the cold drizzle. A car rolled slowly past with bass shaking the windows like a heartbeat.

Malik watched everything.

He always did.

Growing up in this neighborhood taught you two things fast.

Pay attention.

And never assume the night is quiet.

Behind him, laughter burst across the porch.

“Man I swear, y’all take everything too serious.”

Trey Lawson leaned back in a plastic chair, balancing it on two legs while scrolling through his phone. The chair creaked dangerously every time he laughed.

Malik glanced over his shoulder.

“You loud as hell,” he said.

Trey grinned.

“And you quiet as hell.”

That had always been the difference between them.

Trey filled every room he stepped into.

Malik studied the room first.

They’d been friends since middle school. Back when life meant racing bikes down the block and playing basketball at the park until somebody’s mom started yelling for them to come home.

Back before the city started taking people.

Malik looked back out toward the street.

Rain dripped off the hood of an old parked car.

Somewhere in the distance a siren wailed briefly before fading away.

He knew that sound too well.

Around here, sirens usually meant one of two things.

Someone had been shot.

Or someone was about to be.

A dark sedan rolled slowly past the house.

Too slowly.

Malik’s eyes followed it immediately.

The car crawled down the block like it was searching for something.

Or someone.

Trey noticed Malik staring.

“You always watching everything,” he said.

Malik shrugged.

“That’s how you stay alive.”

The sedan turned the corner and disappeared.

For a moment the street went quiet again except for the rain.

Trey finally lowered the front legs of his chair and stretched.

“Man, I’m starving,” he said. “Corner store still open?”

“Always.”

“You coming?”

Malik shook his head.

“I’ll wait here.”

Trey stood up and pulled his hoodie tighter around his head.

“You think too much, bro,” he said before stepping down the porch stairs.

Malik watched him jog across the street and disappear into the corner store.

The neon sign buzzed overhead.

For a moment, everything felt normal.

But Malik felt something he couldn’t explain.

A tension in the air.

Like the city was holding its breath.

The store door opened again and Trey stepped back outside with a bag of chips and a drink.

He jogged halfway across the street

Then the sound split the night.

POP.

The first gunshot echoed somewhere down the block.

Everyone froze.

Another shot followed.

POP.

POP.

POP.

People on the sidewalk ducked instinctively.

A woman screamed from somewhere nearby.

But Malik didn’t move.

Neither did Trey.

They both stood still, listening.

Because growing up here meant learning the most important rule of survival.

If the bullets weren’t close...

you stayed exactly where you were.

More shots echoed in the distance.

Then silence.

For a few seconds, the neighborhood seemed to pause.

Then the sirens started.

Multiple police cars somewhere across the city.

Trey slowly walked back onto the porch, shaking his head.

“Damn,” he muttered.

Malik stared into the darkness down the street.

Something about the sound of those shots felt different tonight.

Heavy.

Like the city was keeping score.

And the number was rising.

Trey ripped open his bag of chips.

“Bet somebody getting locked up tonight.”

Malik didn’t answer.

He was still staring into the rain.

Because deep down he felt something he couldn’t explain.

A feeling that the night had shifted.

That something had started.

He just didn’t know it yet.

But before he turned twenty-one...

The city would take five people he loved.

And the last loss would turn him into something the streets had never seen before.