It was late in the evening after Carter and Eleanor had come over. We spent the rest of the day in the living room catching up on the last ten months. We spoke at great length about my life before and after being transformed into the monster, and I have to say they took it in stride. Eleanor was especially accepting about it all. I think she just saw me as a victim of everything, like a child that she needed to protect. It was her motherly instincts that held a firm grip on me now, even though she knew what I could do physically.
"What did you do for those two years in between?" Eleanor asked. "Until you met us."
"I stayed in the factory most of the time. I'd only ever go out if I needed to kill. I always stuck to the parts of town that had the most nightlife, but it always worried me. I was always so scared I wouldn't be able to control it, and I'd kill an innocent person. So, I'd find someone who met my… standards. Then, I'd take them."
"They had to have killed someone…" Carter remembered from earlier in the day.
"Yes," I answered. However, I left out the part about me being guided to those people by the cloaked Being that had been orchestrating my life. For good or… something else. I had already told them about the visions, but I hadn't told them that I might still be guided in some way. I didn't want them to think my decisions weren't my own. I already struggled with that thought.
"When you're…" Eleanor struggled to come up with a name, "that thing, do you remember anything? Are you in control at all?"
"I'm in control, but," I added, "sometimes I feel like the monster takes over my mind and makes me think I want to do those things. Maybe I already do… I don't know. Sometimes I picture it like a separate entity altogether. All I know for sure is that, when I find someone who has done those things that bring them to my attention, I don't feel regret or remorse."
"Have you ever thought that it's just you?"
"All the time. Sometimes I worry that it's getting easier to accept, or justify it to myself," I answered. "People like them need to be stopped, but I never wanted to be a killer. Yet here I am."
"And you have to kill…" Carter said, going over what we talked about earlier.
"Yes. The only thing I can control is the small window of time I can hold out until I do."
"But you're afraid that if you wait too long, then you might kill someone who doesn't deserve it?" Eleanor asked more to reiterate to herself what they had learned throughout our conversation.
"Exactly," I said.
It was oddly liberating to talk about this so openly with them. They took everything pretty well, but I could tell they still had questions. They both knew I killed humans as well as monsters. They didn't justify it to themselves as anything else. Still, they had a similar outlook on the evilest of human beings the world could spit out. Carter and Eleanor knew they needed to be stopped.
"If you see it again," I said, speaking of my other half, "do you think you'll look at me the same?" I asked them both.
Eleanor didn't answer right away. She actually thought about it, "I don't remember a lot of detail about that night, because of the venom I had inside of me, but when I was in the dirt… seeing all the fire and chaos already…" she tried to get her thoughts out. "I can't describe what I felt when I saw you for the first time." She reiterated, "The thing you turn into… I'm sure I'd be just as shocked and scared initially… but knowing it's you behind that thing…" She nodded to herself. "It's still you in there."
It was more than I could have ever hoped to hear from them. I just hoped that it was true.
"I'm going to say something, and I don't want you guys to take it the wrong way," I tried to prepare them for my statement.
They were both silently waiting for my words.
"I know what I am now, figuratively, and what I'll have to do when those times come, that won't change. There's no way out anymore. With that being said, I know who you guys are. If at any point you want to separate your family from me… do it. Don't be afraid of what I'll do, or what I'll think. I'll understand, and I won't stop you from protecting your family from a threat. I'll leave if that's what you think is best."
The seriousness and fear from their memories of me as the monster, and of our extensive conversation, made them both take what I said very seriously. Carter actually nodded as he understood exactly what I was saying. Eleanor didn't say a word. I could tell she didn't like the idea, but she knew I just wanted to keep their family safe… even from myself when I was too selfish to notice the damage I could cause. She didn't challenge my words like I thought she would.
"It's going to be a little harder for us to stay out much longer," Carter said, glancing at the clock on his phone.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"Oh no," Eleanor said, mirroring her husband's movements with her own device. "We should probably get back before they realize something's off. We told everyone we were going out of town to meet a new supplier. They think we're doing things for the company." Eleanor seemed uneasy about being secretive with the family.
"Oh," I realized. "You don't want them to know?"
She looked at me quickly, "No, it's not that… it's just," she composed herself. "We weren't sure what to expect, so we didn't want anyone to try and stop us. We'll talk to everyone afterward."
"Everyone?" I asked. I could tell she meant something by it.
"We have some cousins who have been coming in and out of town lately. After everything that happened with Eleanor, and now that Allen is back. They came for about a week a few months ago, after our scare with El, but once we told them Allen was alive, they came straight back. We haven't told them we know you're around again," Carter told me.
"Annabelle was pretty adamant about giving you space. She doesn't want to push you like we did the first time you came around," Eleanor explained. "Although she doesn't know we are here… or maybe she does, I don't know. Carter didn't tell her about this place either," her annoyance peeked through her eyes, "but you know her. There's no telling how much she knows already."
We all stood and made our way out of the front door of Martin's safe house back into the thick brush that grew on top of it. I pushed the brush and poison ivy away for them as we made it out to their black Suburban. The sun was setting, and the faintest of light was still lighting the sky.
"I'm sorry we have to leave so suddenly. Honestly, time flew by here with you today," Carter lightly chuckled. "I'm glad we got to talk. I've been wanting to have some time with you since everything happened. More to come, I hope…" he left his statement open-ended like a question.
"Oh, Sam's not going anywhere," Eleanor smiled as she reached up to hug my neck again like she had in the morning. "Are you Sam?" she asked almost with a threatening tone that made me laugh.
"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere," I played like her threat actually scared me. "At least, not of my own choice. If he calls me… I can't stop the visions."
"Do what you have to, Sam," Carter offered.
Eleanor patted my back, "Just give us some time and we'll work everything out with the rest of the family. Maybe we can have you over sometime soon… try and meet with the others, if they're open to the idea. Plus, I know Frank will be beyond excited to see you again."
I nodded.
"We'll see you again soon, Sam," Carter said.
"Call me if you need anything. I'll be around."
Eleanor nodded, unfortunately. Then, they both got inside the SUV and buckled up for their drive home. I stood beside the passenger door, and Eleanor rolled down her window.
"I'm not sure when we'll be able to get away again once we tell our cousins, but we'll try soon," she said as they slowly pulled away from me.
"No worries. I'll be standing by," I smiled. "My schedule's wide open."
She rolled her window up with a light grin as they backed out onto the small road. In only moments, they were on their way home, and I was alone again.
When they were out of sight, I turned and walked back to the front door. As I turned the knob, I heard the caw of a bird. I turned slightly as I opened the door and saw a black bird sitting on a tree branch in the darkening sky. It seemed like it was looking right at me.
I paced back inside the house, smelling the Chasses' scents throughout like they were still there. I hoped it would last for a while since I wasn't sure when I'd see them again.
I walked back into my bedroom to find some clothes for an outing into the city. I liked the way my hoodie concealed my face in the dark of the night when I lurked through the shadows. No matter how much the Chasses knew about me, I still had to hide from the rest of the world. After all, I was supposed to be dead.
I took my old clothes to the small laundry machine that was tucked away in the back closet of the small house. They sat in place for so long that they all accumulated a good layer of dust. I got a load going and let the machine do its thing. It was funny how little chores like laundry or dishes brought back memories of my old life.
I pictured myself back in my first house with Vicky: doing the laundry, the dishes, folding clothes, and all manner of household chores. I started to think about what Carter and Eleanor had asked me again. Would I ever go back? I wanted to believe I never would, but I wasn't so sure, especially after my last trip home.
When I saw the picture of Allen and knew he was alive, I had formulated a plan that required me to go home, back to Dallas. It was there that I saw my family again. I visited Vicky, Ben, and little Caydee that day. They were happy, and they seemed totally fine in life. I remember the relief I felt. It was everything I wanted for them to have after I had been ripped from my normal life. I stayed there for a long time, not wanting to leave, but knowing I couldn't stay. I wouldn't fit into their lives anymore. I watched Vicky and Ben taking care of little Caydee for most of the early evening I was there.
After that, I went to my parents' house and looked in on them. They were exactly as I remembered them. They sat in their living room, watching a game show and swiping through social media on a tablet. At one point, Dad saw something hilarious, a real knee-slapper of a video online that made him cackle out like a hyena. He was laughing so loud that Mom cut her eyes over at him and told him to shut up. They were just the same as I remembered, and I missed them. It was getting harder to leave each house as the night went on.
I saw both of my sisters and their families. My oldest sister had another baby, and I had another nephew. They were all asleep, but from my sleuthing outside, I came to the conclusion that his name was Gage. Big colorful letters on the nursery wall gave it away. He looked exactly like pictures of my sister from when she was a baby. A lot had happened since I had been gone from their lives.
Then, I made the trip to my brother, Seth's, house. I had to linger in the trees about a half-mile from his home. I waited there until it was dark enough, and most of the neighborhood was asleep. I was like a cat burglar, in and out without ever making a sound. I was there for one thing: Seth's passport. I needed it if I wanted to make my way in and out of the country, and seeing as I was dead, I was just going to have to impersonate my twin brother.
I looked in on him while he slept in his bed beside his wife, Sheila. He looked exactly the same, just like me. I had a lot more solid, compacted muscle than he did, but he was always bigger than me when I was a human. He lifted weights a lot more than I did, and I always liked to tell him that his extra size was just his baby fat that stayed around too long. I used to try and convince old friends, who hadn't seen either of us in a while, that he had totally let himself go and had put on a thick layer of lard around his whole body. It pissed him off when he'd run into people and they'd congratulate him on all the weight he must have lost. But he really was a lot stronger than me back then. Now… not so much.
Seeing him again was… hard, to say the least. I missed him so much. I think I had just gotten so good at going numb and not thinking about the hard things that I never confronted the feelings of not being around my twin brother anymore. I wondered what it was like for him. I could catch a glimpse of what I'd feel when I thought about it a little, so I quickly put the wall back up. If he felt what I tucked away… I couldn't think about him being in so much silent agony. I know he'd never show it to anyone. I was just glad he had the rest of our family to be with him in the hard times.
Sometimes, one of the best ways for me to continue after losing everything I had was to realize that at least it didn't happen to Seth. If he had to go through all this… I don't know how I'd be able to handle that. Just the thought of him out here in the supernatural world… all alone. It was one of the reasons I thought it best for them all to think I was dead. The pain of the truth would be worse. The lie… it was a mercy. At least that's what I told myself.
After I collected myself in Seth's house, I grabbed the passport out of his drawer, where I knew he kept his most important items, and headed out. This wasn't the hardest time I had to leave my family, but it rocked me more than I expected it to.
It wasn't long before I found myself boarding a flight in Texas, hitting multiple layovers until I was on a plane soaring across the ocean to France. I used Seth's passport with no issue, paying cash for my ticket. I had to give an address for some reason, even though I gave cash. The lady at the ticket counter seemed new, or maybe she was just petrified by the feeling she got from looking me in the face, so I was just trying to get the interaction over with as fast as possible. I almost froze up when she asked, but suddenly I remembered the Chasse's address. I put it down instantly, not overthinking it. It shouldn't have been an issue.
It wasn't until I found Allen and watched him for a few days that I discovered he was a werewolf. This changed my plan on how to get him back to America. While I studied his movements, I surfed the web on my cellphone for ways back home. Then, luckily, I found the cargo plane that was due to fly across to Norfolk. It was a fast and loose plan, so I was playing most of it by the hour, but somehow everything panned out exactly the way I needed it to.
We all snuck onto the plane, so I didn't have to use the passport again. The plane was massive and lightly manned, making it easy to monitor and elude the few workers who roamed the aircraft. I noted this option just in case the need to cross the sea ever presented itself to me again.
Strangely, pretending to be my twin brother made me feel oddly close to him. I still had his passport in my new hideout. I was going to give it back eventually since he might need it, but I was honestly scared to go back. I didn't want to see them again. It made me have thoughts of the possibilities if I went back. I couldn't do that. I had made the decision, and I had to stay away.
After having those moments of memories, I shut the door behind me, locking the deadbolt until my return. I was going to get out and roam the city. I needed to go see Martin and let him know I was back, if the Chasses hadn't already done so.
When I turned from the door, I looked upon a startling sight; and that's saying something since most things didn't scare me anymore. No longer was one crow watching me there in the trees. A murder of crows was lingering in-between the branches of the trees as I stepped out of the house. I looked outside my property and saw nothing else like this in the surrounding area. They were in my trees, on my motorcycle, and even spaced out across the roof of the house. These crows had all congregated and swarmed my house. They weren't doing anything except watching me. Randomly, one of the various birds would call out across the area in a series of harsh caws, followed by another crow repeating the same series of noises.
This was probably one of the strangest things I had ever seen to date. It wasn't normal. I started to wonder if they were being drawn to me for some reason.
"Not a single one of you… takes a shit right now," I said out loud to them. I couldn't even imagine the mess.
Then, as soon as I stepped off the porch stairs, they all shot out of the trees in a tornado of wings and shrill cries, all of them now cawing as they dispersed. In a few short moments of the black whirlwind, they were gone. I didn't know what to make of it.
I came to my new motorcycle, which was thankfully free of any bird shit. When I returned to the city, I found that my old motorcycle was straight up gone. I'd have to ask Martin about that. I left it at the house. Maybe he trashed it if he thought I wasn't coming back. But my new one was way nicer, so I didn't care about the old one. I stole it from a small town just outside of Indianapolis after I bailed from a train on my way back to help after Allen's call. I felt bad about it, but my need was more urgent than the poor guy I stole it from. When I plucked him from the bike, I tossed him into some lush bushes. It looked soft enough, and he shot right up, screaming at me as I rode away. I'm sure it was all very confusing for him.
One single crow was sitting there, perched upon one of the handlebars. His talons clacking across the metal of the bike as he hopped across the different perch points. As I came closer to the bike, he flew off the black gas tank and into the street. I got on my bike and started the engine, the roar splitting across the area so loud that the crow flew off a little further down the road. I revved the engine and pulled out onto the road right as the black bird flew off quickly down the street a bit further again. As I made my way out of the twisting roads to the main highway, the crow flew in front of me every straight and turn until we got out of the trees. It was weird, like he was going everywhere I was going to go. Once we were on the highway, he could have gone in any direction. He had three hundred and sixty degrees to choose from, yet he flew down the road in the same direction I was going. He rose higher and higher into the sky, always staying in front of me as I rode into St. Louis.
Once I was back in the city, I hit a four-way stop, and that fucking crow landed right on top of the stop sign beside me. It cawed at me so loud I could hear it over the rumble of my motorcycle. It took off fast, flying away rapidly down a street. For some reason, I thought it wanted me to follow it, and at this point, it had done things that would qualify for a circus act, so I chased after it. I followed it steadily through the darkening city for about an hour. We made it to the far side of town, opposite where the Chasses lived, closer to where the factory was situated.
The crow never touched the ground as I followed it to the river. The road we were on was vacant and hardly used anymore. This was a once-industrial area that had been mostly abandoned by previous businesses. It was only used now as storage for trucks and heavy equipment that looked like they hadn't been used in years. It was well past business hours for any kind of normal company, so I didn't need to worry about any prying eyes for whatever I was getting myself into.
The single crow landed in a tree at the edge of some dark woods. I pulled to a stop and let the motorcycle continue its rumble as the crow perched upon the branch, watching me. We sat there for a moment, staring back at one another. It lasted for a few minutes.
"What the fuck am I doing?" I asked myself out loud. I revved the engine, about to turn back onto the road and leave all of this nonsense behind.
Then, the bird flew down out of the tree to the ground. It flapped off the ground for a few seconds, then it would land, and then flutter only a foot or so off the ground again.
I was taken aback. "Huh," I let out a curious sigh.
I flipped out the kickstand on the side of that empty road and killed the engine. I walked out to the tree line that cloaked the river. As soon as I came within ten feet of the black bird, he took off into the sparse trees. He stayed low, guiding me every few feet to a new location in the random path we were on. We didn't follow straight lines; we jaggedly made our way to a very isolated riverbank of the Mississippi. It didn't take long before I smelled it. That same smell that stayed in my mind, the one I knew all too well. It was the smell of death.
I followed the stench over to a small patch of shrubs there on the water's edge. There, hidden inside the greenery, was a sight that was impossible to forget. It was a little boy. As soon as I saw him, I felt like I was hit by a ton of bricks. He was so small; he had to be only five, maybe six. He had black hair that was tied back into cornrows. He was wearing a red St. Louis Cardinals shirt and blue jean shorts. I actually stumbled through the rocky gravel that made up this part of the riverbank. My knees weakened at the sight of him; this little soul that was snuffed out… it was too much.
I fell to the ground beside him and just sat there, my hands shaking at the scene in front of me. Thoughts of Caydee came up… what if this happened to her? What would I do if I knew she was lying alone like this, all by herself out in the middle of nowhere? What would Vicky do? I twisted and pulled the plants away from him without moving the body. I didn't want to disturb anything yet, but I felt like he should be uncovered. I felt the knot in my throat growing hard and painful as I looked at him. The crow cawed only once as it landed beside me, looking at the boy.
It was a good while that I sat out there under the rising moon. I just looked at his face and thought about this innocent boy's life, his parents, and what he could have been. Everything he could have had or experienced was just ripped away from him. Who could do this to a child?
I had no words. I just sat in silence.
Then, I was up, and I was moving. My eyes pulsed to black in the cool night air. There was no wind blowing, making the scents settle in place, becoming stronger with time. My senses picked up to higher levels as I called upon the parts of the beast that I needed. I stalked around the scene as I looked for clues. My voided eyes examined every surface of every small stone beneath my feet. My nose studied and memorized every scent and trail that I picked up around him. I smelled a faint hint of gunpowder. As my enhanced optics adjusted into the deepest versions of the monster's eyes. I noticed the almost invisible markings of burnt gunpowder on the back of the boy's shirt. It would be impossible for the human eye to see it, but I could. There was a single hole in his shirt where a bullet tore through him. As the monster's eyes examined and memorized every detail, my human side let a few tears drip out and down my face. This little boy… he deserved so much more than this. He deserved everything… the whole world. He was pure and innocent.
Then, I looked at the crow. It cawed two times, looking straight at me, and then flew away. It disappeared over the trees within seconds, and he was finally gone. It wanted me to see this.
Somebody shot this little boy in the back, so I'd say that's as cold-blooded as you can get. Thinking about his little feet standing where I stood, waiting in the rocks with a gun trained on him, set me into a rage like I've rarely felt in this monstrous life.
I felt the shift happening, my body yearning to let it out. The monster in me wanted to rip forth and hunt down this gunman and tear him limb from limb. I stumbled around the area, trying to contain it from getting out. Even though it was already nighttime, I couldn't just go rampaging through town as the behemoth. I had to be in control. I fought and struggled with the urges to kill. My black talons were already slicing their way out of my fingertips. I was bulky and disproportionate in this weird half-transformational state I was fighting off.
"No," I yelled. "I'm in control," I assured myself, but I also said it more like a command for the monster to get back inside its cage.
Slowly, the urge eased off, and I fell back into my normal proportionally human form. I breathed easily, long, and slow, as I retraced the area for clues. Then, only moments after regaining control, I caught a scent. It was over by the last tree that grew closest to the river. Somebody had leaned on it, rubbing their skin against the bark. The oils of their skin had been absorbed into the organic matter and were so faint any other creature was sure to have missed it out there in the wilderness. I stepped up to it, literally touching my nose to the bark, and sucked in the deepest breath I could take. I analyzed and memorized it as the most critical thing in my life at the moment. I'd find them… and I'd kill them.
This person wasn't going to face justice. They were going to meet my wrath. I'd reset the balance and put things back as close to order as I could. My only question now was, why did the entity not take care of this itself? If he wanted to send me, why didn't he give me the vision or a name? Why was it a crow that led me to this place?
I had my lead, but I didn't know what to do. I knew that this boy's parents would want to have peace. They'd want to know their child's ultimate fate, bad or worse. Just knowing that he wasn't out there somewhere still suffering might give them some sort of peace.
So, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and made the call. It was only three rings until I heard the familiar voice I had spoken to only a little bit earlier.
"Sam," Carter answered like he was around other people, pretending it was the first time we'd spoken. He sounded worried. "How are you?"
"Carter…" I said, trying to find the words. "I need help."
Everything happened over the phone pretty quickly, but Carter would call his contact inside the police department and give him the location I described to him over the phone. Detective Ames, the officer who had seen glimpses of the supernatural world, would make sure that the right people found out where the missing boy was. Carter had questions, of course.
"Sam… are you alright? You sound… different?" he asked hesitantly, hearing the struggle for control in my voice.
He tried to speak again, but his voice was cut out as I hung up. I think he wanted to calm me down, but I had to go. I had to find this killer and make them feel the fear that this little boy felt. I was going to kill them.
It had been two whole days of searching. I walked every street and skulked every alley until I found it. The scent I had memorized from the horrific scene had once again touched my senses. It was probably about ten o'clock, and the sky had blackened the city, giving me endless shadows to meld in and out of as I searched for the killer.
Carter called me multiple times after I had reached out; he had questions. Eleanor called as well after Carter had told her of our conversation. She was worried. They both were. I couldn't text or call back at all. I was so focused on the search for those two days that I never stepped away from the hunt. I had to find this guy.
I was standing amongst a few sparse trees in the green expanse of the Gateway Arch National Park. There were only a few souls that lingered past sunset after the monument closed. I looked up at the massive metal arch, remembering something Carter had told me once. Their family company, CWT Construction, had modified the monument with silver many years ago to act as a massive deterrent to supernatural creatures over the years. Nobody knew it, but the city had a massive object that basically set off creatures' self-preservation. It told them to stay away. They wouldn't know what it was, but they'd feel weaker near the structure, but I felt fine. In fact, it was right beneath the structure where I found the scent of the killer.
I actually began to wonder; if the arch wasn't a deterrent, how many supernatural creatures would be in the city? What were other massive cities like that that didn't have something like the arch? I bet I wouldn't have an issue finding kills in a place like that if I stayed long enough.
I followed the trail from the park through the nightlife of Laclede's Landing, down sidewalks, through parking garages, and finally to a large coffee shop on the corner of St. Charles and 10th Street. The path was winding and incoherent. It didn't seem to be following any kind of agenda. It was a winding walk that seemed to just spread throughout the area like they were searching for something. The fear hit me when I thought that the person was hunting for more children.
I waited at the top level of the Convention Center Hotel Garage, watching the front door of the coffee place. At about eleven-thirty, I caught the scent of my target on the move. I looked down at the closing doors and saw a man standing in the entry, lighting up a cigarette on the lightly populated sidewalk. He wore a jacket too heavy for his build. It was probably to conceal the weapons I knew he had hidden. He began pacing away from the place as he smoked his cancer stick.
He looked like something I expected; worn from a harder life, yet unapologetic about his actions or decisions. He seemed like the type who didn't accept the responsibility of his own actions and wanted to blame someone else for where he was in life. Although this was my own mind wandering down roads and possibilities that I didn't know for certain yet. However, I was usually pretty good at figuring people out. He was probably late twenties, early thirties, with haggard brown hair that hadn't been cut or maintained in a while. It wasn't long, but uneven and rough enough to know he didn't take care of himself. The scent rolled off him and onto the night breeze that blew past my face. It was him; I was certain. This was the man who leaned against the tree at the scene of the small boy's murder.
I jumped from the parking garage where I was watching to the lower level of the next building. Then, I quickly leaped over the street to the top of the little bistro he passed in his meandering. I was just above his head… death waiting to pluck him from the earth. But… not here. Still too many people.
It seemed like he was walking the city on this random path. I was ready to make a move at any moment as I soon realized he was on the hunt for something. I wasn't sure exactly what he was doing, but I had this feeling like he was looking for more kids. I couldn't let anyone else's children become a victim of this piece of shit.
I followed him well into the night, waiting for the people of the city to go to fucking sleep so I could slaughter his ass in seclusion. Our path came to an end in a street-level parking lot that was dead empty at three in the morning. There literally wasn't a single car in the parking lot beside the one that this asshole was unlocking. As he scraped around the door searching for the lock, my feet entered the parking lot. It was time.
I stepped loudly and heavily to alert him to my presence. I wanted the fear to crawl up his back in the night that surrounded him. Every placement of my feet was purposefully loud and heavier than usual. I saw his head cock back to see where the noise was originating. He saw a figure behind him, a good distance away. He wasn't too worried, not yet. So, I walked straight to him… slowly. My feet thudded against the pavement as I stepped closer and closer to him. He turned his head again, looking for my position. His hands jingled the keys more frantically, searching for the lock. He was scared, but he didn't want to look over quickly and overreact… not yet. Plus, he was a tough guy, he couldn't bitch out in front of anyone. He couldn't look weak.
The crow appeared above him, on top of the tall light that brightened up the area. Its shrill caw agreed with the man I identified as the child's killer. I stepped right behind him, and he knew I was there. It was a split second before he turned around to my presence.
"You couldn't find anyone tonight, could you?" I asked as he started to shake subtly with fear. "No little kids out late tonight? No one to take, none to kill?"
He spun around quickly and planted a knife right into my left oblique, no warning. The knife seared its way into me with its thrust, sending pain and fire through my nervous system. I looked down at his hands and then back to his face, unmoved.
"Did you really think it would be that easy?" I asked.
I grabbed his skull with one hand and lifted his feet from the ground, slamming his face into his windshield before throwing him across the parking lot. The windshield spiderwebbed, and then every little crack in the glass was filled with blood. His body slid across the coarse asphalt, ripping his clothes and shredding his skin. He was panicking after the assault, trying to just breathe through the stress that came with it all. The blood coming from his forehead was running into his eyes, causing more panic and fear.
Lightning crashed overhead as I slowly stepped towards this fucking monster. It felt like the whole world was going to explode as I taunted and horrified this creep. I could smell his scent. There was no mistaking him. He was the one who had been leaning against the tree the same day that the little boy was killed. I needed no other proof.
"Wait," he begged from underneath his cowering fear. "Please, don't kill me!"
I just paced over to him and picked him up by the neck, lifting him above my face.
"Why? Why should I give you a chance when you didn't give him one?"
"Who?" he asked, petrified and bleeding.
"That little boy," I said. "Down on the river."
"Fuck," he exclaimed. "How do you know about that?" He was stressed to the extreme. "Look, I didn't want to do that; he made me. The kid… he was chosen. I was just there… I."
His explanation had me interested. It almost seemed like he meant someone put him up to it. Someone wanted the little boy for a reason. I had to figure it out. If it meant saving other little children like the boy, then I'd do it.
"Who?" I asked plainly.
"Who?" he asked back. "Don't you realize that if I tell you, he'll kill me too," the struggling dipshit tried to bargain.
I reached down and pulled the blade from my stomach. It came out very slowly, to show him he had no power to harm or stop me. He knew the knife meant nothing to me.
"If you don't tell me who, then I won't kill you," I told him. Then I explained, "I'm not making a threat. I really want you to know that, if you don't give me what I want, then I will do something. Once I start, I won't stop. I'm not going to kill… I'm going to maim. There is going to be a point very early on that you're going to wish I'd just kill you, but I won't. I'm going to keep you alive so you can live on after I'm done," I added, "you won't ever be the same after that. You're going to pray for death, but it won't come." My eyes pulsed to the blackest voids possible.
His eyes were so full of fear that I actually wondered if he would die of a heart attack. His panic was so thick that he actually couldn't put the words together once he decided to talk. He couldn't speak quickly enough.
"It's not just trafficking anymore," he exclaimed. "They're not just taking kids. We're taking anyone we can for them. It's not like it used to be. The one in control now don't sell people like we used to. We take more and more by the week, and they all end up dead in a ditch somewhere. He kills them for something… I'm not sure what. He's… not human." He told me, looking down at my stab wound. "He's like you."
"I doubt that," I sincerely told him. "Where?" I asked.
"I'm just for this side of town," he explained. "There are other people spread out around the city. They find people, the younger the better, and they take them for him."
"Where do they take them?" I closed my fist around his windpipe.
He struggled under pressure, "Warehouses… around the city." I backed off my grip. He choked out in a cough. "Then, they take them underground somewhere, deep beneath the city. After that, they're gone. If they show up again after that, it's only as a body."
"Why did you shoot that boy?" I asked with blackened eyes.
"He made me do it. He needed me to do it for some reason… I think he got something out of it, but he couldn't do it himself," he explained.
"So, you just killed him?" my question laced by the inhuman sound of my changing voice. I tightened my grip.
"I…I couldn't…let him go… even if I wanted to…" My grip was killing him. He couldn't breathe.
"Who is it?" I asked. "Who wants the kids?" I had many more questions.
"I don't know a name. If I did, I'd tell you. I swear," he choked out. "But I do know he has powers. He can do things… things that… you wouldn't believe." I squeezed ever so slightly harder. "HIS EYES… THEY'RE GREEN! LIKE NEON FUCKING LIGHTS, GREEN!"
A lot had been revealed to me in the short expanse of time, but the main goal had been sorted. I found the killer, and I even figured out why he did it. I eased off my grip, setting the bloodied man down on his feet. He stumbled and slumped over on the hood of his car. He coughed and choked the blood out of his throat, realizing that he was alive and could see another day.
He was wrong. I just wanted this cold-blooded killer to feel hope before I ripped it away. This wasn't mercy… this was vengeance for the little boy. I was here to take payment.
"Thank you," he said as he fumbled towards the door of his car.
"No," I said, "thank you." My voice was fully warped and deepened by the monster's approach.
Then, a wave of wrath overflowed from me. My questions didn't matter as much as the vengeance that was demanded for the little boy. I tore into him with the knife he had stabbed me with. I put that thing into his chest so many times before he hit the ground, and then I stuck it into the top of his skull, slumping him to his knees. He made a sound on the second stab, but then he fell silent.
He wasn't moving… he was dead. The crow flapped from the top of the light and landed on top of the man's fresh corpse. It slowly began pecking at him, ripping off pieces of his flesh immediately. It ate on him for a few moments, and then it cried out in the night only once, and then vanished into the black sky. The sound of the crow's wings was in my ears longer than I could see it. Its presence was strange and otherworldly. It was as if it had thoughts or a purpose, guiding me somehow. Or something else was guiding it. Was it the Entity?
The monster took in a deep breath and almost let out a sigh from within the walls of my human frame. The satisfaction from the kill was legendary compared to the previous kills in my life. This hunt felt different, too. Righting this wrong, balancing this scale after it had been tilted by such a vain and inhuman act, felt indescribable. When I killed him, it felt… powerful. It wasn't just killing, it was… annihilation.
Lightning roared overhead, cracking and arcing across the night sky of St. Louis. I felt all of the needs subside from my immediate mind, and I was okay again. It felt as if the world around me was as charged as I was on the inside. The thunderous crashes of power in the sky mirrored the rage and dominating power I let out in a short glimpse to the world.
I left the corpse leaning against his car for the authorities to find. Once found, word would eventually spread of the brutal killing of this man. I left him as a warning to whoever he spoke about. I wanted the fear to build. They'd wonder who got to one of their guys. It would grow until I found them… and I would rain down on them all like a plague. Whoever it was, whoever "he" was, would meet his end by me, powers or not.
I wandered the streets of the early morning, searching for where I had left my motorcycle, so I could go home. I needed to shower and clean the blood off my arms. More so, I wanted to escape the world for a while.
After seeing the little boy lying there the way he was… I couldn't think clearly, not after finally completing this hunt and my mind clearing from the intense focus that had distracted me.
I wanted to see the Chasses again… I wanted Autumn to be there this time. I wished I could have them right in that moment, so I could talk to someone about what I saw. The image of that boy's body was hard to shake. But I didn't have them back yet… not fully. I still didn't know how right it was. Until then, I'd head back, clean up, and escape to the unconscious realm. I could find peace in sleep… I hoped.