Night fell upon Liverpool and an ominous darkness consumed the last drops of daylight.
Rosa was sunk into the couch, the TV blasting in the background while she read over the same bestiary pages for the seventh time. The direhound had two pages dedicated to it, filled with information that Rosa assumed was extremely useful to a hunter. However, all she could interpret was that the monster was huge, strong, had unnervingly big claws and a natural, murderous instinct to kill humankind. Oh and how could she forget, she now knew she'd had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting one. From that one experience she could verify everything the bestiary claimed. If anything she thought the pages watered the Direhound down. Compared to some of the other chapters she'd read, it was as if the Direhounds were just a common pest or annoyance hunters had to deal with. In just the 'Lycanthrope' section alone, what she'd glanced over about the different types of werewolves made the direhound seem like a poorly made horror film.
'This has to be one of the worse decisions in history,' Rosa thought for the hundredth time. She closed the book with a heavy slam just as Louie entered the living room.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
"Does my answer matter?" Rosa muttered.
"No," Louie admitted.
He picked up the remote and switched off the TV, allowing her to see their reflections in the glassy, black surface. God, she looked miserable … a tad terrified too. But she quickly decided that was alright. She was about to have to face a monster whose only desire was to tear her apart and feast upon her corpse. When considering that her reaction actually seemed quite reasonable.
"This is an awful idea," Rosa grumbled.
"Probably," Louie nodded. "Come on, let's go."
At the front door was a large black rucksack. Louie knelt down and unzipped the bag and pulled out a short, black cloak made from a thick, aged cloth. Despite its frayed edges the cloak still seemed quite smooth and soft.
"Here," Louie said passing it to her. It was surprisingly light for its size and thickness.
"What's this?" Rosa asked.
She held up the cloak to get a full view of its full size. It'd probably come down to just below her waist.
"It's for you," Louie said. "Put it on."
Rosa winced. "I don't … think it's my style."
"I couldn't care less. It's enchanted, put it on," Louie grumbled.
Rosa's brows furrowed. "Enchanted?"
"It'll offer you a form of protection. It's not exactly the same as wearing full mail but it's better than nothing," Louie explained. His brows then shot up, "Oh, I guess you should also take this."
He pulled out a black, leather sheath with an exposed cloth wrapped handle. It appeared be about as long as her forearm. Cautiously Rosa accepted it and slowly pulled out the handle revealing a glistening obsidian dagger. It had smooth surface and razor-sharp jagged edge. An exotic, unintelligible scripture was engraved in white along the blade's face.
Rosa stared up at Louie, lost for words.
"You said I wouldn't be hunting," Rosa said in disbelief.
"You won't be. It's just a precaution. The dagger is enchanted, it'll will harm anything that tries to kill you," Louie informed. "It also costs a fortune, so make sure you don't lose it."
This was ridiculous. Rosa shook her head and quickly offered the dagger back to him however, he just raised his hand.
"Take it," he said firmly. "You won't need to use it. Like I said just a precaution."
Reluctantly, Rosa accepted both the dagger and the cloak. She quickly slipped the cloak over her clothes and slid the sheath into the waist of her pants.
"This isn't very responsible," Rosa mumbled.
"I never claimed to be responsible" Louie countered. "Let's go".
Rosa sat quietly in the passenger seat, her eyes locked onto the dagger placed delicately across her lap. They drove in complete silence across the city, Rosa noticed there was barley ever another soul in sight. Her eyes wandered over to the car's display to see that it was approaching midnight. Rosa quickly began to grow to dislike the deathly silence that filled the car. It made her feel on edge, like insects where constantly crawling over her body no matter how much she scratched.
"Did you ever look over the other cases?" she asked, after finally hitting her limit.
"I did."
"Even my father's case?"
"I have. I'm assuming you want to know its contents."
Rosa nodded.
"Fair enough. Long story short, hunters have been getting slaughtered across the country. The murders have been forming a sort of trail up country, seemingly heading in the direction of Liverpool."
'Killing hunters?!'
"When will it get here?" Rosa questioned concerned.
"A week ago," Louie said gravely.
Rosa shivered. "What do you think it is?"
"My best guess, it's vampiric in nature," Louie said. "Most hunters will probably think it's some savage beast but everything seems too fabricated. I'd say it's something powerful, something intelligent pretending to be a mindless beast."
Rosa stared stunned. 'He got all that from a quick glance at a case file.'
Before Rosa could continue the conversation, they pulled up alongside the pavement. Suddenly, her heart began to powerfully thump as she remembered why they were here.
Looking out the window at their surroundings, she could see they'd parked up on a desolate, isolated road. All that could be seen was a construction site however, it looked to be abandoned like the project had lost funding near its beginning. Towering, rusty scaffolding had been left up, and partly constructed floors, walls and stairs had been left to crumble, steel bars peeking out where the workers had yet coat them in concrete.
Louie switched off his car and stepped out into the night. He opened up the back seat where he'd placed his rucksack earlier and rapidly searched its insides. He pulled out the same long black case Rosa had seen him with earlier as well as a small box and what looked to be some kind of whip forged from silver chains. He then efficiently unpacked the cases, revealing a pair of large, silver pistols that vanished behind his back as well as a shinning sword. Rosa's gaze locked onto the weapon's guard, it stretched out onto the base of blade and had that strange symbol carved into the steel, the same one she'd seen at both the HQ and on the Bestiary. The symbol glowed a subtle white and its shape somewhat resembled a crucifix, with small curves at its centre and sides and two sharp bent lines emerging from the top and bottom.
"What's that?" Rosa asked, pointing at the marking.
"It's the mark of the Hunters," Louie informed her.
He then sheathed the blade upon his back and attached the coiled, chained whip onto his waist.
"Reminds me of a crucifix. Are the hunters a religious organisation?" Rosa inquired.
"No."
Rosa frowned, "Just a coincidence then."
"Not quite, they are related. It's just the hunters came first," Louie stated. He then lowered himself to where she had a full view of his body through the door. "Are you coming in or staying here?" Louie asked.
"I'll stay here," Rosa quickly decided.
Louie nodded and tossed the car's keys onto her lap. "You can lock the car if you want. I'd just recommend you don't turn on the car's radio," he told her.
Louie then shut the door and wandered across the road towards the construction site. Rosa lowered herself down into her seat, hiding her body. She watched him enter the abandoned structure through the shadow shrouded door hole it called an entrance. He took a left turn and then was gone.
Rosa settled into her car seat and sunk into the cloak draped around her upper body. She sat motionless, the dagger heavy on lap as she stared into the shadows that had engulfed Louie.
'How long did a hunt like this usually take?' she wondered. She probably should've asked Louie that before he left.
Rosa continued to patiently wait in an eerie silence. Every moment she expected to hear a fight break out. Expected to hear the roar and snarls of a monster, the eruption of gunshots, the cries of a dying beast or even just getting a glimpse of gunfire. But there was nothing, only silence, sometimes the occasional howling wind rushed along the car's exterior. Rosa continued to wait, her eyes locked onto the digital clock on the car's display. Minute after minute passed and nothing changed. She glanced back to the construction site. The building was big but Rosa didn't think it so large for nothing to have happened yet.
'Surely it shouldn't be taking this long.' Rosa had witnessed how fast Louie kill the direhound the other day and as a result didn't believe that something would happen it him. Maybe it's hiding and he's unable to track it down? Maybe it moved territory?
'No,' Rosa decided. Louie didn't seem like the type to make such a mistake and he definitely had the capabilities to track the monster down.
'So why is it taking so long?' she questioned again.
Wait. What if the monster is no longer in the building? The thought suddenly burst into her mind. What if Louie actually can't find his prey because it's no longer inside and instead out here … hunting her.
Fear brewed. Rosa quickly locked the car and huddled down into her chair, her grip around the dagger tightening. Keeping low, she scanned around the car. She didn't catch sight of anything. But then again it wasn't like she could see anything anyway. The street they'd found themselves on had extremely sparse lighting directed only near the construction site. Resultingly, darkness consumed anything more than a few metres away from the car. Something could currently be watching her and she wouldn't be the wiser. Especially to her right, there was a tree line where you couldn't see anything past their shadowed trunks. She thought back to the bestiary pages, didn't direhounds have night vision? Rosa tried to get control of her breathing but it was no use, it grew erratic as her paranoia flourished. The louder the silence got the further her fright festered.
She crouched down even further to the point where only her back was on the car seat, her legs kneeling against the bottom of the car. She couldn't stay here, her fear fuelled mind decided, she was just a lamb waiting for slaughter. Rosa removed the dagger's sheath and brandished its blade. She steadily raised herself up to where she could see out the car's windows. Again there was nothing. She continued to carefully scan around. Her gaze found its way to the back of car where it came to a halt. Her eyes locked onto the darkness, at the shadows of trees and shrubbery playing beside the road's edge.
'This felt familiar,' Rosa realised. Suddenly her mouth went dry and something overcame her body. Rosa unlocked the vehicle and dived across the driver's seat and out the car. She rolled as she hit the ground and launched herself into a full power sprint towards the construction site. She charged her way inside and instantly spun holding out her dagger towards the entrance, waiting for something to follow.
Nothing came in.
Slowly Rosa lowered the blade. Something heavy powerfully dropped down behind her. Instantly Rosa spun around. She was greeted with the ferocious eyes of a direhound.
She pointed the dagger at the monster and a guttural growl escaped from its frothing maw. The monster slowly began to stalk forward, its gaze locked onto to her every movement searching for an opening around her dagger.
Well at least she knew it wasn't outside stalking her.
'Oh god, I'm going to die because I gaslit myself.'
The memory of her hiding under the stairs flashed in her eyes, she remembered the helplessness she felt. No she couldn't die, not here, not yet.
"Mierda," Rosa muttered as she slowly backed away, never lowering her blade. The bestiary pages she realised, Louie told her they'd explain everything she needed. She felt her fear began to waver, in fact she sensed something new burning inside her soul. Rage.
Rosa stopped retreating back and stood her ground. She couldn't risk triggering the monster's predatory instincts, before she was ready. Rosa began only stepping back when the direhound approached, constantly making sure to stand her ground. The bestiary described them as quite simple creatures, stating they have the potential to be dangerous however, possess a low level of intellect and are driven, pretty much, only by their murderous nature. Rosa could take advantage of that. Soon the direhound began to grow restless and its movements grew impatient, just likes the book said it would.
It pounced, its jaws open aiming directly for her throat. However, Rosa predicted its behaviour. She managed to move first, ducking under its bite and thrusting the dagger deep into the creatures neck. Despite the thick muscle and fur the dagger tore through it all with ease, Rosa felt like she was stabbing into water. She quickly put all her weight into the blade, the stab wound wouldn't be enough, she needed to slice open the monster's throat. However, faster than she could react the direhound started to back away. Damn, she was too late. The monster recoiled back with such force Rosa was lifted off her feet, luckily the knife slid out before the direhound could throw her. She landed back on the ground and practically jumped away, narrowly avoiding five razor sharp claws. Blood leaked from the smoking stab wound however, the beast was seemingly unharmed, all she'd accomplished was pissing it off. Rosa bit her lip, she'd wasted her one opportunity, even if the direhound wasn't very intelligent she doubted it would let her do that again. The beast charged, in a panic Rosa held up the knife praying it would just run into it. Suddenly she felt something grab the back of her cloak.
Rosa was dragged away, leaving the direhound to maul empty air. She turned to see Louie.
"I thought you wanted nothing to do with hunting?" he questioned.
The monster snarled and pounced. Before Rosa could even process the situation, she was lifted onto Louie's shoulder and he sprang across the room. He placed her down on the ground before drawing his sword. Without hesitation, he charged directly at the beast with inhuman speed. The direhound attempted to tear him apart but Louie weaved between its slashes with ease. Rosa stared amazed, she couldn't believe what she was witnessing. The direhound couldn't hit him no matter how many times its swung its claws or snapped its jaws. Louie made the monster look like child play, he practically danced around it with an unnerving sadistic smile, his sword majestically spinning and twirling through the air like it was an extension of his own body. The direhound roared as it wound back its arm however, in a silver flash the arm was suddenly severed from its body. Before the beast could even register the pain Louie's sword tore through the air separating the direhound's head from its body. Rosa watched breathlessly as the monster's limp body slammed into the ground. Slowly she stood as Louie gave his sword a fast swipe in the air removing all blood from its blade. Instantly the monster's smoke and slowly dissipate to ash and dust.
"That was amazing," Rosa exclaimed as he sheathed his weapon.
He turned and gave her the expression he'd been using all day, a mix between amusement and confusion. Maybe she should give it a name? Amusion possibly?
She felt her cheeks flush slightly. "I just meant the way you fought … it was very professional."
She winced at her own comment. What the hell was she saying?
Louie grinned. "Thanks," he glanced down at the dagger in her hand, "I saw the wound you put in its neck, not bad at kid. Plus you didn't lose it."
Rosa felt a small smile grow on her face and Louie walked away and pulled out his phone. She wandered over to the decomposing corpse. Even with its humongous frame and weaponry, it looked so pathetic now. She stared into its lifeless eyes, that only desired to end her, moments ago and felt nothing. Her eyes found the small wound in the side of its neck. She'd almost done it. All on her own, she'd threw aside her terror and acted, almost killing the monster on her own. Rosa felt a strange sensation in her chest. Was she proud?
"Come on Rosa we're done here," Louie announced.
Rosa quickly nodded and stood. "Thanks for saving me by the way," Rosa said. She offered the dagger back to him.
"Keep it," Louie said. "I'll need to get you a proper sheath for it though, can't have you sticking in it your pants."