[M] 'Hunted' IC

[Auki]

Instinctively, she slapped at a coyote jumping towards her, relieved when she felt grains of sand caught between her fingers. The beast, now headless from her attack, slumped to the floor, burying her feet with its corpse. Fearfully, she kicked her legs free, feeling no desire to be trapped in the bleakness of desert. She had several cuts across her form but the animals were not difficult to defeat as long as one remained alert.

By the time she had managed to convince herself she would be okay, the attack was almost over. Jason, now little more than a bleeding lump of flesh, fell nearby and as he did, so did the coyotes make their retreat. A few glanced back long enough to make her tense, but as the minutes passed, they all collapsed and returned to the shapeless lumps of sand they’d been before.

Shaken, she steadied her pose and stared at the body of what was once the young boy. Based on his looks, Caitlin would guess he was only a few years into adulthood at the most. Some might say he was too young. She was just glad it hadn’t been her. The sickening lust for survival had her by the throat.

“Where to, leader lady?”

The only other girl shouted and Caitlin let her eyes lock back onto the huge doors. They seemed closer than they had before… A lot closer. She was not one to complain but it was another oddity to add to her unease.

“Let’s g-…”

“You killed them!”

She started as a voice called out above them, heavy with a rasp that curdled the spine.

“They were only trying to help!”

A second squawked and she felt her stomach drop as she found their owners. Esqu and Dire – At least, that was what they had called each other – dropped from the air above them to block their way. They did not appear ghostly like last time, no. They were there with her… with them.

She was angry, tired and afraid; why… why could she not just be left alone? Her voice was strong with rage even if her gut was doing back-flips.

“They weren’t trying to help! They killed Jason.”
“The boy?” Dire questioned, “Well, of course. You killed their alpha.”
“Wh-…”
“Don’t deny it.” Esqu piped in, “We were watching.”
The two cackled, almost cruelly, before he continued with, “He jumped out to greet you and you kicked him in the face.”
Dire gave a low chuckled before adding, “Then it just becomes… an eye for an eye.”

She couldn’t make head-to-tail of whether they spoke the truth but she doubted they held any value in honesty. Glancing towards the door in the near distance behind them, agitation and impatience began to boil.

“What do you want?” She asked through gritted teeth, receiving laughs from both of them.

“He asked us to take another.” One replied whilst the other said,
“We’re debating which to pick.”
“Male.”
“Female.”
“Young.”
“Old.”
“There’s too much choice,” they cawed in unison.


There was a silence that seemed to keep the world on hold; the wind that had whipped the land in her eyes remained still.

Without warning, they both spoke,
“We agree.”

And with that statement, they became like spirits again; transparent, white, yet ever disturbing.

They walked through the group calmly. Dire even passed straight through Howard without a flinch of acknowledgement.

“Edgar…” The name rolled off Esqu’s tongue, “…Freeman.”
The two avian monstrosities approached the man with starved expressions before they seemed to realise the trio of others remained.

“You three,” Dire snapped at them, “Go! If you stay, we’ll simply feast on you all.”

[V]

And then another one of them died, taken down my the sand creatures around them. Howard cried out to him but there was nothing he could do any more. The man was dead. Howard was still alive.

He felt cold.

~~~

There was three chairs in the room and they were all empty. There was a clock on the wall the time read 12:40. The light of day came in through the panel of glass. Outside the trees swayed with the wind. There was several small garden beds before the world opened to the wilderness.

There were three clicks; noises echoed peacefully despite being foreign.

The water filled the cup, spilling over, gushing down his wrist. He fumbled for the tap. Sweating he took a mouthful of the water. He set the cup down.

There was three empty chairs in the room and they were all tipped over. There was a clock that read 12:42 on the wall if one looked through the smashed glass. Through the bloodied glass, sun hit the room. Outside the trees swayed over the dead flowers.

He made forth.

Then there was a hand around his throat.


~~~


Do you know the man who attacked you?
Can your remember them?
Tell us about that day...

"Just leave me alone," he said and rolled over.

~~~

"It's a shame you couldn't remember," hissed the figure standing over him. He couldn't see who it was, just an outline against the dark sky full of grey clouds.

But he could see the hammer, see it in it's might. He groaned in agony. The figure sighed and turned away. A minute later a vehicle started and drove away.

Howard was alone.

After the brief battle all he could do was stare at the dead, another person down. He wanted someone to lead on and take them away to the Big Doors. They were close now. Before he felt lost in his own mind. So he didn't sit down to die.

Before they could move the bird creatures from the cliff appeared before them, instantly the dread returned to Howard as he listened to them. He didn't know what to believe - "A dream is not reality and neither are your memories" - but he listened without replying.

They chattered amongst themselves about which to take, he closed his eyes and hoped. But it wasn't for him. Again. One of the creatures passed through him, he shied away from it not wanting to touch it. They called to the only other surviving male, their new prey.

"You're leaving?" He asked. Howard grunted in reply. They were back on the porch after their cards game, he hadn't won anything. "You never even gave yourself a chance with her."

Howard took a drink from his beer can, "what am I to do? I've never truly spoken the her, I can't just wait around here until we get a chance."

"You've had chances, several in the last month."

"Yeah. Well."

Howard bowed his head, he was scared of death, of everything. And those fears overrode his deathly desires. Spared, he turned meekly away so he could not see the other man die. He walked toward the exit.

[Ru]

Agility was her best asset. Strength her weakness. She could never save anyone.

“Not everyone can be a hero, Lydia,” the blond man had said with a soft, reassuring smile with his hand rested beneath her chin. “Not the kind of hero you envision in your dreams and read of in your stories. A true hero is selfless and defends those they care for, and maybe others. In time, you will understand.”

Lydia ran her fingers through her course hair, mangled from the previous rain that had followed her around. When her fingers got caught and tugged at her roots it returned her to reality and that reality was another person being taken away. This strange man was another loss. All she wanted in her life was happiness, to play around, and live carefree… but it became impossible after the loss of Kiri and even more so at this moment. A part of her heart ached, decayed, and fell apart.

The side of her holding desperately onto the happy memories flashing through her mind before wanted to jump in between the beasts and save Edgar, but the woman standing before them no longer yearned to help others. No longer did she yearn to create smiles through foolish acts and no longer did she yearn to bring light into every given situation. All she cared for any longer was to live, even if she had no life to return to.

She straightened her stance, staring at the soon to be gruesome seen before her. Momentarily she did this, and then turned her back towards the exit she believed would lead her out of this insane place. “I’m sorry, Kiri….” another part cracked.

[SQJ]

"They won’t tell me what's happening," she said stepping into his quarantine room. Edgar jumped up off the chair he'd been resting on and sprinted. Using every muscle he'd trained and honed his entire life, he sprinted for more than he'd ever sprinted for his entire life. In that tiny two meter gap he's put a life time of running into all three steps. She was dressed in nothing more than a gown carrying her own IV on one of those metal stands he knew not the name of, most of the dress slipped at the back when he collided with her, wrapping himself around her tightly and burying himself into his. She gasped at the weight of being held so tightly but Edgar would not let go. Fear compelled him in a way he'd never felt before.

====

That felt different. The entire flash was unwanted, hated, an act of cruelty upon the senses. And yet the fact that it ended there felt more torturous than having seen it at all.

The bird demons, as he preferred to think them, had returned. He didn't know what a cocky or bold, what ever they were, looked like but he was sure of it. Fear was compelling him to run, run fast and leave every one and everything there. Find his beloved who's name had yet to come to him.

The same fear that had compelled him in his flash had returned but the staff in his hands forced him to be strong and ignore the blood using out of his shoulder. No one else had made note of it so the need to hide it or play it down appeared unnecessary but that didn't meant it had gone else where.

The bloody rotters had picked him to stay with them, they'd picked him to die. "No, why me!" He demanded, never looking at the others. He didn't know whether it was that they were all unsociable or watching each of the others die one at a time had desensitised them but there was little there inside him to prevent him from complaining at the choice the damn monsters had made.

Their laughs scraped at the eardrums of both Edgar and the three people now walking away from him.

“They always whine,” Esqu cackled.
“Like lambs at the slaughter,” Dire added.

As the others left them behind, the air around seemed to grow warmer, a cocoon that surrounded only the avian pair and their prey. It was not a heat that was uncomfortable; instead, it soothed at joints and aches like the light of the sun so long unseen by the fleeing humans of the demon’s world.

Like always, they started off their riddles easy, wasting no time for hesitance or pause,

“It is greater than God…” spoke Dire.
“…More evil than sin…” continued Esqu.
“…The poor have it…”
“…The rich need it…”
“…If you eat it, you'll die.”

In unison, they cawed, “What am I?”

“Answer correctly,” whispered Dire, “And we’ll allow you to ask questions of your own.”

It was hard to concentrate with the words flowing over him while his mind drew him backwards, taking him far and away from the present

====

Brendan wept for the first time in over half a decade. Crying had always been a sign of weakness if he ever saw it coming from a man. He still remembered how upsetting it had been to be see his father weep the night after his mother had left them and now his own dam was fading away to nothing and the water works flowed freely as he wept into her shoulders and she stroked his hair softly.

He wasn't sure exactly how long he'd held her but eventually the strain of having her held up raised up enough for him to drop her down. She breathed out heavily and he laughed. "I'm sorry." came his murmur between his awkward chuckle.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. Nothing at all."

"What's happening?"

"They won't tell me a thing, but we are clearly under quarantine. Must be some form of" She stopped there realising she didn't know what to add there. She was no doctor and there was no answer she could come up with that would not be some haphazard guess. "I don't think it matters as much any way Ed. What matters most is that you're with me."

He held her again, his lips touching hers softly at first but then deeper still.

There was nothing he would not do to keep her safe, nothing at all. The idea that this was all out of hands made him scream for her from deep within his chest.

=====

Nothing, the words rung loudly within his head as though someone had just screamed them through a bullhorn. Nothing he wanted more than her, nothing else in the world that her. Nothing at all. Nothing.

"Nothing" he said, raising his head to face the bird creatures. The grip on his staff tightened. The staff had transcended each plane when they had needed it to and they had managed to all hold it when they were crossing the river. This should not have been even the least bit different. When the time came, when the answers ran out, he'd have his strength back.

The bird’s skulls cracked into a grin as they ruffled their feathers and settled onto the ground.

“True,” said Dire, “That is what the humans answer.”
“Although the first line begs to be questioned,” Esqu added in a murmur.

“We uphold our word for we cannot lie.” They spoke together, “Do you have something you want answers to?”

Ed glared at them with ever reddening eyes. He wanted that woman back, he needed her back and for some reason her name would not come to her. His emotions had broken free but not the answers behind them. He needed her name, no he could live without her name if he just had her.
He rubbed his face clearing it of the water works. "How can I get back home? What do I need to do to get back home?

“A question we get asked a lot,” they mused but, true to their claim, they conceded an answer.

“Repeating what brought you here will take you back,” spoke Esqu.
“The way is near and known to all…” Dire cawed.
“But in the truth of it…”
“Few wish to walk its path.”

"What the hell does that mean?" Ed yelled at them, his grip tightening on the staff. "How do I get back. You say you cannot lie but it is clear you can't tell the truth either! I won't be a tool for you to play with if you continue to be as pointless as you are now." Ed yelled unsure of exactly what the hell he was saying.
It was stupid, suicide being pulled forwards by his ego when he needed it least.

“Just because you lack the intelligence to decipher our words…” growled Dire.
“…Does not make them any less true.” finished Esqu.

They were not baited into revealing more. If the man had known the full story, he might have considered their actions to be ones of kindness, but they were not. It was their role; nothing more.

“Now, you must answer.” The statement came from both their mouths before they rattled off their next riddle in alternation.

“If you break me…”
“…I do not stop working.”
“If you touch me…”
“…I may be snared.”
“If you lose me…”
“…Nothing will matter.”

Ed knew the answer immediately, each word that came from their hideous beaks stabbed at him hard shredding at his heart and soul. "The heart." He choked out his entire form trembling. "Now give me my full answer. Do not play with me. How do I get back to her. Please. I beg of you. If you things have any feeling at all you will tell me with the same clear words that I am using at you!" Ed said blinking fast to keep from crying yet again.

“Ask the same question, you’ll get the same answer.” Dire sneered in response to his plea, voice hoarse like stone on stone. “We have given what you asked for. We will give you what you want.”

They could give him nothing more and so they continued with their riddles.

“Beyond the reach of any man…”
“…Forever old, not often new.”
“Forgotten in the curse of age…”
“…A promise never ringing true.”

Edgar fell silent, it was neither a reflective or thoughtful silence, it was just the lack of sound that came from a complete and utter lack of movement or action within the recesses of his mind. "This is pointless."
Raising his staff up high and broke into a sprint right at Dire taking a running swing right at the bird creature's head.

The weapon collided with the demon’s skull and there was nothing more. It did feel like the bone had resisted the staff, but simply that the rod had come to a stop. There was no sound, no thud or crack; just silence. There was no reaction from the creature, or anything for that matter. Even the air did not shift at the force of the impact.

“No answer?” Esqu asked, seemingly amused as it watched the human’s attempts.

Edgar pulled backwards when nothing happened, something was supposed to have happened and yet nothing happened. There was a pause before they attacked. He gasped and took a heavy breath of fear. When they came at him he turned on their heels and he started running away, thinking of an opportunity of getting a swing.

====

"Do you remember the song you gave to me to listen to?" Edgar said looking into her eyes. He stared right into her eyes, never looking away from any of them. There was something happening on the world outside. They both could see faces, unknown faces. Uncaring faces that peered in deep warned of bad news. It was clear in her eyes that she was thinking the exact same thing.
She stared at him blankly for a moment at the question. "Let me think." She paused for a moment then smiled. "Yesterday, all our troubles seemed so far away, now it seems as though they're here to stay. Oh I believe in yesterday."

====

Screeching the cry of a hunt, the demon vultures beat their wings against the air as the environment turned deathly cold. As soon as their spindly feet left the ground, they seemed to flicker. It was confusing to the human eye, as though they were both far away and nearby simultaneously. Whilst Edgar might believe he was escaping them, bloody scratches appeared as if from nowhere across his skin, renting marks into his flesh. For now, they toyed, but anyone with sense would be able to tell the end was nearing for the man.

Edgar stopped, the song forming in his head. Why that song? Of course. He thought to himself as the history of the song, the people who sang it. When it suddenly hit him, she'd told him how many times millions of times the song played when she was born. Her mother's favourite song.
"Paula" He said grinning wide.

=====

"Why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say. I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday." His forehead to hers, their hands locked tightly the song the song once more. Whatever fate awaited them would just have to come. It wouldn't matter he'd be there for her and she'd be there for him. Those who said love was not every little thing that could enable a man to live were clearly too jaded in life to honestly know what love was.


She wept and her voice trembled but his grip tightened with what little strength he could muster.
======

He knew there was no point, there didn't have to be one anymore. This world, this reality, the hunger, the blood, the chills, the fear, the hate, the frustration was all a dream compared to the reality of the woman who lived inside of his head. This was all a joke, laughable in comparison.

Taking a deep breath his grip tightened and he swung again just as they fell on him in a flurry of bone and feathers.

…

The two demon birds looked down on the tattered corpse of Edgar Freeman without remorse or mirth.
“Find her,” Esqu muttered to his body and Dire nodded solemnly in agreement. Within the blink of an eye, the vultures were gone.

[Auki]

Caitlin followed beside the other two, the sand beneath soon turning to dirt, resisting all urges to succumb to the emotions bubbling beneath her calm expression. All she could think was that every part of the human inside of her was dead. She had left so many people to their fates that, to think differently, would make her a monster in her own eyes. The mouldy scent of the earth, the caressing chill of the breeze; she didn’t deserve to have her senses whilst others died. It would be easier for everyone if she was just…hollow. As long as she survived, that was all that mattered, wasn’t it?

Suddenly, her feet made contact with stone that hadn’t been there before she blinked. Looking up, she found that the gates were just before them, brought closer yet again by forces she couldn’t explain nor did she want to know. Black, metallic and seemingly heavy, the exit loomed. She was not afraid of it. Her beaten heart felt only relief at its sight.

She looked down towards her hands, clenched in anger she couldn’t feel. It was not clear where they were but she felt relaxed to be there. There was no more fighting, no more waiting; they would get their answers here.

“We need to…”

As she went to discuss their next course of action, the gates groaned. For a moment, they shuddered and with them, the cavern seemed to vibrate. The stone beneath their feet seemed to excite, grow electric, as the door creaked open, accompanied by a sound that reminded her only of the dying shrieks of a man. Whether it was caused by the gates themselves or by what lay within, she couldn’t tell. Fantastical hopes of a sun-filled paradise beyond were dashed as she was met with the harsh reality of a never-ending darkness. It was nothing or, at least, it was nothing that they could see now.

The fear died within her and instead there grew a yearning to continue on. It was almost a promise that everything would be okay. It was enough to keep her walking forward.

After all, where else was there to go?

Shaken and sick, she entered, barely caring if the others trailed behind. She needed to survive!

“Don’t cry.”

The memory made her pacing stutter, taking her by surprise. She had thought she had managed to block out such mental intrusions but, like before, they took her when she least expected them. It was her own voice that she heard, although to whom she was speaking, she did not know.

“I’m so sorry! Please! I’m sorry!”

She tried to be rid of them, tried to keep herself driving forward.

“Daniel, I swear it never meant anything close to what we have.” The silence to follow tore at the pieces of her heart, bruised only by her own weakness.
“We’ve been married a month and you… you…” he mumbled.
“I know. I…”
“With…him!” Her new husband continued over her.
She had never heard such a venomous tone leave his mouth but she knew she deserved so much worse. “Will you leave me?” she asked but there was no answer. He simply turned and left.

From that moment on, she knew she would always see herself as worthless.

From that moment on, she knew she deserved only the worst.

Her eyes were dry where she felt she should be crying. She hesitated, her footfalls ringing silent as she came to a halt.

“He’s not a bad man, mother.”
“You still think that after everything he’s done to you?”

Caitlin was quiet for a moment, “Everyone makes mistakes.”

In that pause, the darkness swallowed her. There was no pain, no wound, just nothing. Within the blink of an eye, the world was reduced to black and everything she knew was gone.

[V]

The sand was coarse against his bare feat, Howard thought on that with each step toward the gate. Better that then reminding himself he'd left another person to die alone. He wanted to turn around but he didn't. The gate was right there.

A moment had passed, a step, and the gate was closer. Before them it opened. Nothing more about this place could scare or confuse him. He already felt like the fear inside him was the only thing pushing him onward. Perhaps that was all that had ever driven him. The memories hadn't shown him otherwise.

From beyond the gate came the screeching, the screaming. It didn't matter what it was. There would be nothing worse ahead then what they had already faced. It didn't matter, he didn't care. He just wanted the end.

When the gate opened and Howard continued forward he expected to find himself remembering more of the past. Whether they were false memories or true it didn't matter they were all he had. None of them came to him now to dissuade him, to make him falter or stop.

He made his first steps away from his read world and into the darkness....

[Ru]

The gates called to her—beckoned her—and she longed for the freedom they granted. Soon she was to be free from this nightmare and placed wherever destiny deemed her meant to be. Suddenly the entrance to freedom appeared directly in front of her. Briefly they opened and all Lydia could hear was screeching similar to screams piercing her delicate ears causing her to wince in pain. Though her mind was entirely against the idea of proceeding her body somehow refused to stop as she was compelled to move on towards the gates ignoring better judgment.

As she continues on a darkness engulfs her and she suddenly stops. Lydia was startled to see no one else around her and she paused to get a better look around, but saw nothing around her.

“I will always be with you.”

Maybe if she had continued to press on the circumstance she was in would be different. Maybe if she had ran instead of walked or darted immediately forward instead of questioning, but what if’s were pointless to wonder when existence began to cease. Lydia’s very being began to fade away from the world and she felt invisible needles stabbing into her torso at all angles. Reality twisted and contorted into something entirely unrecognizable and soon enough she was no longer there.

Lydia Jun ceased to exist and life for others pressed on.

[Auki]

When Kenneth Burke brought forth his first definition of man, he ended with a final point that struck the hidden core of truth; humanity is rotten with the need for perfection. A rock is content to be a rock, the same a tree wants nothing more than what it is. A deer does not wish to gain wings and fly; it accepts its given build without the need for question. Man is the first to express its dissatisfaction with what the gods have granted them. We strive, we yearn, and in our endless labour, we rot.

For lust is never sated and, in its hunger, greed is born. It is this sin that is our curse and it is what brought forth our enemy eternal.

Death.

Life is the purveyor of success and of defeat, but always does it let us try again. Only when it’s snatched from us do our sins lay down to rest. We’re granted peace we didn’t know we needed.



The lights were bright inside, although the day still fiercely burned. The beds were crowded; the nurses overloaded with their work. Although they tried their best to keep relatives and crying friends outside, orders fell on ears deafened by distress.

One by one the patients were discarded as being ‘stable’, in ‘satisfactory’ condition.

Musho Misaki…
Christopher Andres…
Shiruba Ookami…
Andrew Baker…
Richard Hunt…
Jason…
Edgar Freeman…
Caitlin Davies…
Lydia Jun…

To the staff of the hospital, the list felt endless, yet even then, they could not rest.

They fought with the reaper himself, so many times convinced they had found victory in the bleakness of the situation. They were wrong, however. Harold Rider slipped away.

They would claim, of course, that it was due to his old age. The car crash had torn apart his leg; his body couldn’t survive the loss of blood. Weak, fragile… a man clearly past his prime. Fate was kind that they took him and not the younger victims that had been involved. It was a justification to the people who had toiled for so long, and still found disappointment. Yet even so…

Had you asked them in a private room, had they known you wouldn’t judge their thoughts, they would have revealed their confusion. His age might be a factor but it was not what took his life… no. What killed him was something more than what the staff could see.



For humans cannot view upon the sins of man. The greed that haunts our race, so often matured by the cynicism of growing age, that curses us until our dying day. It is the same infliction that might cause us to leave behind the innocent, to death and torture, when all we know is tested.

Should there still be hope… should the nature of our souls give rise to hesitation at our choice, then perhaps the world will grant us one more chance; life, a second try.

But should there be nothing left but what it is that makes us human, cursed are we. Our enemy eternal emerges victorious.

We find ourselves, not dead, but not alive. We are turned into the mongrels that our hearts define us as.

For every sin, repent is needed.

The hounds snapping at your heels, the coyotes made of sand; these beasts, are we. Our festering regret is what spurns our teeth and claws. Should we capture you, we can sleep assured that you will not be cursed to a fate such as ours. We are your chance at a second try should your hearts not make you pause.

‘One will survive’, the birds, they wrote.

But demons were never known for telling truth.