Fear for your life tainted soul, if you have a bounty on your head. For the Murder will come, and put you to bed.

You can run, but cannot hide, the scent of guilt is his guide. You may persuade, but will never convince, he shows no mercy and sees through all tricks.

He is the shadow that you cast during the day, reminding you of sin that you can atone. He is the paranoia that haunts you at night, reminding you that you are never alone.

He does not target every sinner, for everyone has evil in their soul. But when the bad outweighs the good, well... You must pay a toll.

If one gains a reputation he may catch wind, and target that who has sinned. He will find them and make them pay in fear and blood, then leave their lifeless corpse to rot in a shallow grave of mud.

You will know if you've been targeted, for he will appear with a murder of crow. He will introduce himself and grant you two two choices, stay and accept fate, or go.

Those who choose to stay are spared of hell's damnation, and are sent to heaven with a painless decapitation. But to those who choose go... They cannot be saved, by choosing to run from him they have sealed their fate.

Those who run are given one last day of life, but it does not come without a price. At exactly 24 hours from then, the Murder will reveal himself... But, he won't be as nice.

He will capture you, and he will kill you in the most morbid way. Your soul will be sent to hell... And he will tell you, 'You should have chose stay...'

Within the city of Manehatten, a pony named Gear Head resides... Gear Head was a simple mechanic, fixing things that needed to be fixed, but he also lived another life...

He was a Serial Killer.

Right now, you're probably wondering why he's such a thing. Well, he's a mentally disturbed lunatic! But he hides it very well, no one ever suspects the tinkerer..... But, why he does it? Well... He just gets a kick out of murdering. I don't know why he does, but he does...

Today, he's been a little on-edge. Yesterday he was met with a strange sight, a tall... Thing? Greeted him, wearing an ominous cloak that covered all but it's eyes, and it held a black, rusty lantern in it's left hand which was lit with a blue flame. It called itself, the Murder... Not only that, but it knew Gear's name, and what he's... Well, been doing. It said that he wasn't long for this world, and it asked if he would like to stay and accept fate, or go. Naturally, Gear ran away, it didn't have evidence on him, and who'd listen to a tall freak like him anyway?

But still, ever since he met that thing he's been jumpy. For instance, there's this stupid crow that's been following him, squawking and flying overhead until it needed to roost. Ponies gave him strange looks, all because of that damn bird, and he couldn't kill anyone because of it's constant squawking! He also feels like he's always being watched... But every instance he tried to look for a culprit, there were none. Gear just couldn't work like this, it's maddening! "Grrr... Stupid freak..." The ring of his door bell snapped him out of his grumbling, there was a little filly with a broken toy plane.

"Mister? Could you fix my toy?"

"(Hmm..... Maybe I just need to relieve some stress...)" The crow wasn't around... Gear gained a warm smile. "Why certainly, little filly!" He motioned her into the back room, opening it with his horn. "Come, I'll have it fixed in a jiffy!" The clueless little filly went into the room, and he followed closely behind with a knife in his saddlebag.

The filly was never seen again after that...

(Sunset)

Gear Head was at the harbor, carrying a large sack over his back. He threw it into the ocean, watching as it sank into the murky depths. "Hmph, should have stayed at home, kid..." He turned to leave, when he saw he wasn't alone. That creature from yesterday was there... Just staring at him. "You!" He heard the sounds of flapping, and when he looked around there were dozens of crows. They dotted the tops of the boat houses and storage units, and there was one crow perched on the creature's shoulder... They all stared at Gear, no, glared at him. He could feel their piercing eyes, staring into his very soul... "What the hell..." He could hear his heart race, the constant thumping against his ear growing faster and faster as the seconds passed. Those eyes were mocking him, he could hear the word 'monster' from a voice inside his head, echoing again and again. He was starting to sweat very heavily, and shake with rage. "I'M NOT A MONSTER!" He screamed at the creature, it just continued to stare, and the voice grew in numbers and in volume. "JUST STOP THE VOICES! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Gear tried to cover his ears, but it did no help. He curled up into a ball, shaking and crying. The voices started calling him different things now, like murderer, lunatic, or crazy. He closed his eyes to try and force them out, but that didn't help. "STOP IT! STOP IT! STOOOOOP!!!"

The voices... Ceased..... He opened his eyes and the creature was standing, no, floating over him, mere inches from his shaking form... It didn't have any feet. The being looked down at him with an emotionless gaze. "....... Mortal..." The being's deep voice spoke in Gear's head. "Do you know whose voices those were...?"

Gear just stared at him.

"..... Those were the cries of your numerous victims... All of them, prematurely ended by your hooves." The creature shook it's head in pity. "Such a tragedy. Twas not their time to depart for the spirit world... Tell me, mortal, do you know what becomes of a spirit who is not ready to leave this world...?"

Gear said nothing, he was too freaked-out to say anything.

"..... They do not ascend to the cloud city you mortals call 'Heaven'... Nor do they fall into the blazing inferno you mortals call 'hell'" The creature scratched the neck of the little crow perched on it's shoulder, it seemed to be enjoying the attention. "They turn into Black Harbingers..... Or, as you mortals like to call them, Crows."

"........ I..... I don't-"

"Understand?... I told you before, mortal, I am the Murder. An Arch-Angel sent to cleanse this filthy world... I also told you that you will die soon, and I gave you two choices, either to stay and accept your fate or flee and delay the inedible... You chose to flee, which means you will be sent to the blazing inferno where you belong..."

"The Murder... World of the living...... You're no angel!" Gear claimed. "Angels are at least pleasant to look at, and they certainly do NOT kill! What are you really? A demon!? A wandering ghost!?"

"..... Angel... What do you know about Angels, mortal?" The Murder questioned with a glare. "Not only that, but how would you, you of all mortals, claim to know what an Angel should look like?"

Gear just stared at him with an evil eye "..... What are you, and why do you torment me like this?"

"....... Mortal..." the Murder spoke, it's speaking voice deep and powerful. "I am the Murder, an Arch-Angel sent to cleanse this filthy world..." The crows started gliding down, circling Gear. "..... This world... Riddled with disgusting stains... It makes me sick to think that blemishes like you would ruin the beauty of life..... Hmm, speaking of disgusting stains, I believe it's time to... Clean-up your act." The crows all took too the sky, the orange glow of sunset was engulfed by the murder of crows, turning the skies black. "......... Gear Head..... You will die here, at the talons of all you have wronged... They shall exact revenge upon you, and send you to the blazing inferno... The Murder turned away. "You should have just stayed when you were given the option... I would have been much less painless than your harbinger-turned victims." The crows dived onto the stallion, tearing his skin, poking his eyes out, and maiming him with sharp talons. He screamed and kicked, but after taking enough pain he passed-out, and eventually he died... After hours of kaws and flapping, the crows flew their separate ways. As for Gear Head, only a skeleton remained, picked clean of any meat... Later, after the officials found what was left of him, they went to investigate his workshop. They found photos of all the missing victims, along with bloody rut-sacks and multiple hair samples.

Manehatten lost a lot of ponies to that criminal... Most never questioned why he was found like he was, after what he did they thought he deserved as much.

Author's Note

[Photo coming soon, sorry.] He sounds like Black Doom from Shadow the Hedgehog.