LIGHTNOVELONLINE V1CH37 Prelude To The End
After a trek through the woods, we arrived at a luxury home in the middle of the woods. As everyone knows, there are only two kinds of high-end homes in the woods: the log cabin and the kind that you don’t throw stones in. No idea why that is the case, but it is. To our good fortune it was the wooden kind, so they might not see us coming.
Turning to my partner, “So, what are we dealing with here?”
“You’re gonna have to tell me. All we know is that a cop went missing while investigating a string of missing persons” Olivia responded.
And that’s my cue. With a raise of my hand and a flash of my ring away I went.
***
I lived quite a nice life. I had a beautiful wife, Honey, that loved me and the family we built together. I had five children that I loved more than life itself. The twins Mary Sue and Annabelle, co-captains of the local cheerleading troop. My youngest son, Samuel, is a mathlete. A middle son, Robert, who, while a stoner, I still loved. And my eldest son Ulysses Jr, the star linebacker.
I also provided for my family by running a very successful hedge fund. Which allowed us to live in a luxurious forested mansion outside Sunset City.
One day I started hearing a voice in my head that kept whispering promises. About immortality. About pleasure. About enhanced abilities. I was not interested. If there was one thing I learned from a lifetime of investing: know when to be happy with what you have. If there’s two: know when a deal is too good to be true.
When I ignored the whispers, then came the screaming. Sometimes it was what I assume was its victims’ pleas. Sometimes it was indiscriminate screaming. Sometimes it shouted its story.
It was a passenger on one of the first ships to America from Britain. That group was ill prepared for the winter. The wendigo back when his name was still James did not listen to the indigenous people as he believed them to be superstitious savages. As a result of both facts, James consumed those who died from starvation or the harsh conditions.
At first the meat did little more than fill his stomach, but eventually he started noticing changes. He grew stronger, faster, smarter, but most importantly hungrier. His form shifted and he gained grey eyes ringed with a fiery orange, a mouth full of black fangs, and sharp claws. Soon he was the only one left in his settlement. He then set his sights on the tribe. While the tribe knew what they were dealing with, James, who was now the wendigo, was already too powerful for their shamans.
After he was done with the tribe, he set his sights on the world. In the wider world he quickly learned that he was far from the biggest fish in a sea that was infested with sharks. Afterwards he stuck to the shadows and ate when he could. Over the centuries, he grew more powerful, and his form shifted more. Eventually he became a monstrous giant. Which severely hampered his hunting abilities, giving him no choice but to recruit helpers.
It told me that if I kept refusing, it would move on to my family. When I heard that I gave in. I went into town and picked up a day laborer. It’s a sad fact that few would miss him and those few were not in any position of power. I took a couple of bites from the man’s arm and then gave the rest to my new master. To my shame those few bites were pure ecstasy.
Eventually my hunger grew and not just the physical kind. I’m ashamed to admit I grew quite addicted. I’m even more ashamed to admit that I wanted to share my power and addiction with my family. I started sneaking it into our food saying that it was pork.
By the time my family found out what I was doing, they had already grown to enjoy our new diet. From then on, my hunts were family events, we would run through the woods enjoying our new abilities and the hunt itself.
We were so careful, and we got away with it for long time due to that.
People kept going missing in the area.
As one of the only houses in the area, we were questioned, but no one suspected the hedge fund manager and his family. And it would have stayed that way except in a later interview that was just seeing if they saw anything a detective noticed something.
A single drop of blood on the hem of my lovely wife’s sundress.
Just goes to show you no matter how careful you are or how long it is, it only takes the slightest of slipups for it all to be meaningless. Unfortunately for him, he was quite a bad actor. We followed his eyes and noticed what he did. He noticed that we noticed and went for his gun. My little belle, who was closest, tore out his throat with her teeth before the Glock even cleared his holster.
He became the appetizer for dinner that night.
***
“Wendigos. The entire family.” I told my partner.
_
The Ford Family
“The family that stays together, decays together”
Grade C
_
“You mind if I get this one?” She said hoisting her riot shotgun.
“Why not.”
I followed her up the driveway to the front door. She rang the bell and we waited. My senses told me it was Senior coming. The door opened just a crack when Olivia leveled her shotgun against it at chest height and pulled the trigger.
Senior was sent flying back with a huge hole in his chest. We heard a screech emanating from the kitchen off to the left side.
“BABY!!!!!!!!!!!”
We turned and looked at the source of the scream.
There stood Honey Ford with a six-foot-tall willowy frame and platinum blond hair accompanied by blue eyes. Well at least her eyes used to be blue, they were now grey with a reddish orange outer ring. She also grew claws on her fingers and toes. Her lips and teeth turned jet black, and her transformed mouth was entirely filled with long sharp fangs.
She charged and then went head over heels due to a shot gun blast. She joined her husband on the floor.
Two teenaged versions of Honey, fangs and all, dropped from the second story balcony. They didn’t even reach the floor. Well, I mean I guess they did reach the floor just dead and without throats or heads.
Robert came running on all fours down the stairs and was blasted against the wall. He slumped against the cracked plaster.
A little gremlin came scurrying in from the living room. The resulting blast took off the entire top half of the corrupted child. Looks like we can cross Samuel off the list.
A huge ogre slowly stomped down the stairs.
“Out of bullets.” The figure grunted out.
”You can count? Consider me impressed” My partner countered.
*roar*
With that roar, the creature charged us. Olivia created a wooden chi infused sword and bisected it.
After a clap of my hands, “Well that’s that.”
*Deafening roar coming from outside the house*
“Something tells me it’s not.” Olivia said with a nervous chuckle knowing how powerful wendigo can get.