Moments. It's all about the moments. Most people live most of their lives in a dull, half sleep. They are waiting for something they themselves can not name. They take their guilty pleasures where they can and too often these do not even look like pleasures. A heartbreak makes you feel alive, takes away the patina with which their life has been coated. A sudden win of any kind does the same. These things though are few and far between. Mostly, it is sleep.

Moments, with their edges sharply defined, that was the stuff of life. They polish the existence, they give light to dull twilight that is our slow march to death. He could taste such moments, like a rare wine, a succulent steak, a biting sauce that awakens the tastebuds. Each was unique, for each only ever came once, but they all shared a flavor palette. By definition you could never repeat a given moment, you could only savor it and then move on to the next bite.

Moments like this are what he lived for. He designed his life around finding them. He measured time as a helix of moments and the paths between them. His lips formed the faintest hint of a smile as he thought of his next moment.

It was coming soon. He had planned, and executed those plans, for months now. Everything was in place, everything prepared. This pathway on his imaginary helix was nearly complete. With the slightest of pushes, he took great pride in how light his touch could be, he had set things in motion. Things that, in a few seconds, would lead a particular man down this particular street at this exact time. He smiled again at how light his touch had been this time. No more than a feather on the wind, but it had been enough.

He heard footsteps to his right. He didn't need to look, he knew it was the man his actions had set in motion over a month before.

He awaited his next moment.