Monster

It was late in the evening, the hours slipping by unnoticed as Carter and Eleanor lingered, listening intently as I unraveled the story of my life. The parts I didn’t want to keep secret, at least. We had spent most of the day in the living room, piecing together the fragments of the last ten months. We spoke about the time before, and everything that came after the transformation that had turned me into the killer I had become. I watched their faces closely, half-expecting the unease to surface, but they kept their expressions measured, cautious, as if testing the weight of every word I spoke.

Carter nodded occasionally, his eyes flickering with a restrained uncertainty, but it was Eleanor who surprised me most. She absorbed every detail, her gaze soft yet searching, like she was trying to reconcile the person she knew with the twisted reality before her. I could see the concern etched into her features, the way she clung to the idea that I was still someone to be protected, not feared. It was as if her motherly instincts refused to let go, wrapping around me tightly, trying to shield me from a world that now recoiled at the mere thought of what I had become. But beneath her accepting exterior, I sensed her apprehension… an unspoken fear of what I was tied to, and of the power she knew I wielded. And yet, she held on, teetering between the urge to protect and the quiet dread of what protecting me really meant.

“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 that met my… standards. Then, I’d take them.”

“They had to have killed someone…” Carter remembered from earlier in the day.

“Yeah,” 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 was worried the thought of the being would be the tipping point. I left out a lot about him… it, or whatever the fuck that thing was.

“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. Like… I’m still me, and that thing is something else. Over the past few months though… I feel like that thought is slipping. Maybe it’s just me.” I fell silent for a second. “All I know for sure is that, when I find someone who has done things that bring them to my attention, I feel no remorse.”

“Are you scared that it is 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. But… I just can’t seem to stop…”

“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.

“Exactly,” I said.

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, but the way I did it was… unsettling; I could see it in their eyes.

“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. But as I laid 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. “That might make it easier.”

“I’m going to say something, and I don’t want you to take it the wrong way,” I tried to prepare them for my statement.

They were both silently waiting for my words.

I knew all too well that the force driving me could pull me into far darker depths than I’d yet seen, and I couldn’t let my friends be dragged into that abyss. I had to ensure that, if the shadows around me loomed too close again, they had a way to cut me loose. A chance to turn away if they needed, without hesitation or guilt. I wasn’t running from family or friends anymore, not when they’d become the anchor to what little humanity I still clung to.

I think it was getting harder and harder for me to tell where normal human beings shouldn’t be, where the human world and the unknown should divide to not bring down irreversible consequences. There had to be a line in the sand, and I didn’t think it was me that should decide where it was.

“I know what I am now, and what I’ll have to do when those times come. That won’t change. 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.”

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. She didn’t challenge my words like I thought she would.

They both sat in silence, looking at each other for a few moments like they were having some kind of internal dialogue. I said nothing, letting my words sink in.

“Speaking of threats… there’s another reason we hoped to find you,” Carter’s voice broke through, low and weighted. “It’s not just about reconnecting.” He paused, a shadow crossing his expression. “What did you see that night at Cliff Cave? Did you notice anything… anyone… with glowing green eyes?”

I squinted, thrown by the sudden shift in his tone. “No. Should I have?”

Carter’s gaze darkened, and Eleanor looked away, her face tight with unease. “There was something out there,” Carter said slowly, like every word tasted bitter. “Someone was controlling the bat. The Olitiau… it obeyed, like it was bound to some will stronger than its own. We all heard it… a voice from the woods, laughing, mocking us.”

A chill ran down my spine as I searched my memory. “No, I didn’t hear any voice. But…” The memory resurfaced, a faint flicker of something I’d dismissed. “There was this… presence. It felt like eyes on my back, something lurking in the shadows, watching. But I didn’t think much of it. I was too focused on the attack.” My voice trailed off, tinged with uncertainty. “What does that mean?”

“We don’t know,” Carter admitted, his frustration barely contained. “But Allen and Eloise… they’ve been on edge ever since. They’ve got this… feeling. They say it reminds them of France, back when the curse first took hold.”

Eleanor cut in; her voice edged with worry. “Bartley and Annabelle are looking into it, trying to dig up anything they can. But whatever it is… it’s not something we’re used to facing.”

Carter’s jaw clenched, his voice hardening. “We deal with flesh and blood threats. But this? This feels different. Something twisted. It’s like it’s crawling out of a nightmare, keeping us looking over our shoulders.”

Eleanor leaned closer, her voice almost a whisper. “We want you to come to the house, meet with everyone. We need you with us if this thing makes a move on us again.”

I could feel the weight of their fear, the unspoken dread hovering between us. “Allen and Eloise think something followed them,” Eleanor said, hesitant. “From France.”

“That’s impossible,” I snapped, though even as the words left my mouth, doubt crept in. “Nothing could’ve followed us the way we left...”

Carter’s eyes were cold, unblinking. “This thing… whatever it is, it’s like Annabelle. Maybe worse. It completely negated our weapons in seconds; took away our escape. But… it didn’t strike directly. It used the bat. That means it’s afraid to face us head-on.”

I looked between them, feeling the pull of old loyalties and new fears. “So, you want me back in, to hunt this thing down?”

Eleanor opened her mouth to speak, but Carter’s voice cut through. “We need you. This isn’t just a threat…it’s the first warning. It wants us to know it sees us.”

Eleanor cut in after a moment, “But that’s not the only reason, Sam. We do want you back, in whatever way this new dynamic will work.”

Carter nodded, his expression shifting suddenly as if he’d remembered something urgent. He glanced at his phone, his jaw tightening. “Damn… we’ve gotta wrap this up soon. We can’t stay here much longer.”

I furrowed my brow, sensing the tension in his voice. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Oh no,” Eleanor muttered, her own eyes glued to her screen. She looked visibly tense, her movements quick and anxious. “We’ve really got to get back. We told everyone we were meeting a new supplier out of town for the company. They think we’re on a business trip… if we don’t show up soon, they’ll start asking questions.”

“You’re hiding this meeting from them?” I asked, the realization dawning on me.

Eleanor’s eyes darted up to meet mine, a flicker of guilt crossing her face. “No, it’s not like that. It’s just…” She took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. “We need to be careful about how we handle this. Things have been… complicated these past few months. Everyone’s been on edge. I just don’t know if they’re ready for your return yet.”

“Who’s everyone?” I pressed, sensing there was more to her hesitation.

Carter sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “We’ve had some family in and out of town lately. Our cousins showed up right after the whole thing with Eloise… the scare. We may have portrayed it more a s a near death scenario. When Allen’s situation popped up, they rushed back. And now, we’ve got them constantly hovering, trying to ‘help’ with the aftermath.”

Eleanor nodded, frustration seeping into her voice. “Annabelle’s been particularly insistent about giving you space. She doesn’t want to overwhelm you like last time. She’s trying to be careful, but she doesn’t know we’re here. Or maybe she does. It’s hard to tell with her… You know how she is, always three steps ahead of the rest of us, whether we like it or not.”

Carter shot a weary glance at Eleanor, then back to me. “It’s not just about hiding you. It’s about managing the chaos. Everyone’s on edge, and we’re trying to keep things from boiling over within the family.”

We stepped outside, weaving through the thick underbrush that concealed Martin’s safe house. Poison ivy and tangled vines clung to the entrance, and I held back the branches, clearing the way as we moved toward their black Suburban. The sky was painted in the fading hues of twilight, a thin line of light still lingering on the horizon.

Carter paused by the car, his shoulders sagging as he turned back to me. “I’m sorry we have to cut this short. Honestly, it’s been… good, talking with you. I’ve wanted to catch up for a while now, ever since the first night.” He chuckled softly, though it was tinged with a hint of regret. “I just… I hope we get more time. There’s a lot we still need to figure out.” His words hung in the air, a question wrapped in a hope, and I could feel the weight of what wasn’t being said. There was more to come, but nothing about it was going to be easy.

“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 it calls me… I can’t stop the visions.”

“Do what you have to, Sam. Once you’re done, come back,” Carter offered.

Eleanor patted my back, “Just give us some time and we’ll work everything out with the rest of the family. Once we figure something out, we’ll reach out.”

I nodded.

“Sorry again that we have to leave so quick, Sam,” Carter said. “If you go out around town, keep your ear to the ground. Let us know if you find anything out about the Olitiau, or the other person out there. There’s always talk, maybe seek out Martin, and his place.”

“It’s okay,” I assured them. “Do what you have to; don’t worry about me. I’ll be here, or somewhere in the city. I’ll see what I can find out.”

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, now that our cousins know, but we’ll try,” she said as they slowly pulled away from me.

“No worries. I’ll be standing by,” I smiled. “My schedule is wide open.”

She rolled her window up with a light grin as they backed out onto the small road. In only a few 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 of the house, smelling the Chasses scents all throughout like they were still there. I hoped it would last for a while since I wasn’t sure when I’d actually 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, stashed clothes to the small laundry machine that was tucked away in a back closet of the small house. They sat in this place for so long 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, from the shadows of the surrounding woods. 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 in their lives. 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 different apps on a tablet. At one point, Dad saw something hilarious, a real knee slapper 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 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’s house. I had to linger in the trees about a half mile from his home. I waited there until it was late 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 and muscle was just his baby fat that stayed around too long, 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 on 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. I was at peace, in my final rest. 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. I think they were trying to get me signed up for frequent flyer bullshit. 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. I almost froze up when she asked, but suddenly I remembered the Chasses 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 searched the web for ways back home. Then luckily, I found the cargo plane that was due to fly across to Norfolk. I did a lot of my signature detective work, listening in on conversations, sneaking into where I didn’t belong and stuff. Commercial cargo was lightly secured. 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 them 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 that roamed the aircraft in flight. 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. Just thinking those thoughts made me feel like a piece of shit.

After having those moments of memories in Martin’s place, 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 as I stepped out of the house. I looked outside of my property and saw nothing else like this in the surrounding area. They were in my trees and even spaced out across the roof of the house. These crows had all congregated in my area 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 better take 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 stair, 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. I stole it from a small town just outside of Indianapolis after I bailed off a train. 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 did toss 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. I ditched it here once I made it to St. Louis so I could make a stealthier approach. I couldn’t just ride up on the Chasses while they battled a gigantic bat monster. Although, as I thought about it, that would have looked pretty cool… talk about an entrance.

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 and into the street. I got on my motorcycle 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 night sky, always staying in front of me as I rode into the city.

Once I was back into the city limits, 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 night city for about an hour. We made it to the far side of town, opposite where the Chasses lived, closer to where my old factory was seated.

The crow never touched the ground as I followed it all the way 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.

The single crow landed in a tree at the edge of some dark woods, bordering the Mississippi River. 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 huffed 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 of the ground for a few seconds, then it would land, and then flutter only a foot or so off of the ground again. It looked like it was trying to get my attention.

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, each step pulling me closer to something I already knew would haunt me. It led me to a small patch of shrubs on the water’s edge, half-hidden beneath a tangle of green. I pushed through the branches, my heart thundering, and that’s when I saw him—a little boy lying lifeless among the leaves. The sight hit me like a freight train, stealing the breath from my lungs. He couldn’t have been more than five or six, his small frame swallowed up by the oversized red St. Louis Cardinals shirt and worn blue jean shorts. His black hair, neatly braided into cornrows, told a story of someone who had cared for him, once. Now, he was just here, alone.

My knees buckled, and I stumbled on the gravel, barely catching myself as I dropped to the ground beside him. I couldn’t process it; couldn’t make sense of this tiny, snuffed-out life lying in front of me. It was like the world around me had collapsed into a muffled hum; every detail burned into my mind with cruel clarity. The way his hand was curled, as if still holding onto something, the stillness that clung to him like a shadow. I felt my throat tighten, a hard, unrelenting knot of grief that I couldn’t swallow.

I reached out with trembling hands, pulling back the tangled branches that hid him from view. I didn’t touch him… I couldn’t, not yet. But I couldn’t bear to see him covered up, forgotten in the dirt. As I sat there, staring at his small, lifeless body, thoughts of Caydee crashed over me, sharp and unforgiving. What if this had been her? What if Caydee, so full of life, ended up lost and alone like this, her laughter silenced, and her bright eyes closed forever? I pictured Vicky’s face, her agony, and it tore through me like a blade. I could barely stand the image of my daughter, of any child, abandoned to the cold and the dark. The thought of it made my chest feel like it was caving in.

I felt the weight of the actions that took place to make this happen. It was someone sick… someone I should have stopped. I should have been there to stop this before it ever began. Instead, I was just another person arriving too late for this little boy. The knot in my throat grew tighter, jagged and painful, until I thought it would choke me.

A crow landed beside me, its harsh caw breaking the suffocating silence. It stared at the boy, its black eyes reflecting the same cold indifference as the world around us, and I felt a sudden, overwhelming rage at how everything could keep moving forward when this small life had been cut short.

I wanted to scream, to tear the murderer open and demand an answer. But there was only the soft rustle of the river and the boy’s stillness, a reminder that no matter what I did now, it would change nothing.

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 muggy air of the summer night. 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 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.

Somebody shot this little boy in the back. 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 him 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 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 of its cage.

Slowly, the urge eased off, and I fell back into my normal proportionally human form. I breathed easy, 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 the 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 was 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 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 spoke. 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 of the police department and give him the location I described to him over the phone. Detective Ames, the officer that 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.

“No,” I answered simply. “I’m going to find the person that did this, and I’m going to kill them. Not the monster… ME!” I hung up after that, unable to control myself.

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 fear like 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' sense of 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 didn’t have something like the arch, or a family of hunters working day and night to quell the numbers of dark predators? 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. The scent 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. A storm was approaching. I could smell the rain coming. 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 down on the lightly populated sidewalk. He wore a jacket too heavy for the current weather. 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 that 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 that leaned against the tree at the scene of the small boy’s murder.

I jumped from the parking garage where I watched, 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 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 loud and heavy 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 black bird 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 his thrust, sending pain and fire through my nervous system. I looked down at his hands and then back to his face, unmoved.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked.

I grabbed his skull with one hand and lifted his feet from the ground, slamming his face into his own 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 in the distance 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 on the river, 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 slow, 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 going to kill… I’m going to maim you… change you… forever. 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 directly,” 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.”

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 of my grip, setting the bloodied man down to 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 would 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 balance the scales.

“Thank you,” he said as he fumbled towards the door of his car.

“No,” I said, “thank you.”

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 repeatedly. 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 as I continued my assault. I’m not sure at what point he died… I was lost in fury.

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 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 like it had thoughts… 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.

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. 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 me. 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. 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.