Hunter's Legacy

Dressed in a gray sweater and slacks--hoping that I passed for a professional psychologist--I stared up at Belfort, the residential asylum, here in Irving. Looking up at the building, I had flashbacks of the day that Dylan had dropped me off at Rosling, how big and intimidating the brick building had looked.

Shaking the memories of Rosling, I continued to the building, opening the heavy door, and walking inside.

Much like Rosling, the walls were slate gray in color, and the floor a pristine, white, linoleum. Behind the front desk was a woman in a white lab coat, which covered pale blue scrubs, her hair was dark and pulled back, her facial expression severe.

“Can I help you?” she asked, startling me and causing me to jump back a bit, involuntarily.

“I’m here to see Miss Annie Granger,” I said.

“Miss Granger isn’t scheduled to have visitors today,” the woman said, pulling out a thick log book and turning to the page with the information that she had just given me.

“Her parents sent me,” I said, hoping that would convince this stern-looking woman to let me through and see Annie, “They thought that I might be able to talk to her.”

“And you are?” the nurse asked, with a raise of a sharp eyebrow.

“Elaine Cassidy,” I said, the lie running out of my mouth, smoothly.

“Are you family?” the nurse asked, looking at another book. I assumed it was a list of Annie Granger’s visitors; this place seemed more secure than Rosling ever had been. In Rosling, even though visitors were told to remove sharp objects, or anything that some patients could use as a method of strangulation, some visitors still managed to get things inside.

“Family friend,” I lied, disregarding the fact that I was supposed to pass for a psychologist, “I don’t live nearby, and when I heard that my friend Annie was here, I just had to see how she was fairing.” The nurse scrutinized me, as though she was trying to find my lie. I held my breath as she continued to look me over; finally, she turned the thick log book towards me, handing me a pen.

“Please remove any jewelry, and leave any pens, pencils and lighters with me,” she said. I nodded, but I had nothing to remove. I wrote my alias in the log book, and then followed another attendant, as they came through a set of double doors at the right.

I was led into a rec-room, one that closely resembled Rosling’s rec-room. Tables sparsely placed, on some, people were painting or coloring, on others, people were putting together puzzles or playing cards. In a corner of the room, a man was sitting in a chair, watching the TV that was placed, and a woman danced the waltz with an invisible partner. I followed the attendant over to a corner, where an overstuffed, red, armchair that sat beside a window.

In the chair, curled up, was a girl with messy blonde hair; she wore the standard white t-shirt and matching sweatpants.

“Annie, you have company,” the attendant said, softly. Annie Granger looked over at me, her gaze slightly vacant, but she gave no indication that I was a stranger to her. Giving no indication that she even saw me, Annie turned her head to look back out of the window.

“I’ll leave you alone,” the attendant said, and then he walked away.

I pulled up a plastic chair, and sat beside the overstuffed armchair.

“Hi Annie,” I said, easily, slowly. I knew that the doctors probably had Annie on all kinds of medications. The vacant look in her eyes was proof of that. “Can I talk to you?”

“About what?” Annie’s tone had changed from light and feathery to bored and cynical, “How I’m crazy? because I can assure you that I’m really not.”

“I know you’re not,” I said, leaning forward so I could talk to her in a low tone, “I wholeheartedly believe you. Will you tell me, exactly, what you saw?”

“Why? so you, whoever you are, can tell the doctors to up my medication?” she said, her tone turning hard as she narrowed her eyes at me.

“No, absolutely not,” I said, shaking my head and pausing, as and attendant passed by, before I spoke again, “I know that you aren’t crazy, because I’ve seen things too.”

I watched Annie, as she seemed to take in my comment, and then she, abruptly stood up. The attendant that had led me to Annie, bustled over, looking between us, concerned for a second.

“I would like to go for a walk in the garden with my friend,” Annie said, nodding towards me. The attendant looked between us, before nodding and then he allowed us to walk past him, and then I heard his footsteps, as he followed behind us.

The sun was out, casting the garden in a myriad of colors from the bright green bushes to the yellow tulips and orange blossoming poppies. We walked on, and I, discreetly, looked over my shoulder to see that the attendant had sat down on a bench and opened a book.

“Are you always followed?” I asked, as we walked down a path that had rose bushes positioned on either side of it.

“Yeah,” Annie said, putting her hands behind her back, as we strolled along, “They think that I’m so troubled that I will hurt myself.”

“But you haven’t?” I questioned.

“No, and I’ve been watched like a hawk since I got here,” Annie replied.

“When did you get here?” I questioned.

“Last week, a week after Samantha was killed,” she responded, looking down at her feet. It was quiet, for a second, and then she broke the silence, “You said that you knew I wasn’t crazy, how could you know that?”

“Because there are things out there,” I said, and I realized how ominous it sounded after I said it, “I know there are, because I’ve seen them.” Or, I’ve seen demons. A demon, to be precise.

“What kind of things?” Annie asked, her eyes wide and her tone held a note of hope that maybe, just maybe, someone else has seen the things that she has too. I knew that feeling. It was the feeling I had, every time I had talked to anyone about what I had seen that night; it wasn’t until I met Piper and Eddie, that I didn’t feel as though I was crazy, or that everyone thought I was crazy.

“A demon killed my parents,” I confessed. It was the first time I had uttered the words in a year. When I was in the bunker, I had barely talked to anybody, besides Piper and Eddie, so explaining my story wasn’t anything important. But, explaining it to Annie Granger was important; she needed to know that she wasn’t crazy, “I was four, and a demon came into my house, taunted my mother, and then killed both of my parents before setting my house on fire.”

“What happened after that?” Annie asked, and I heard the sympathy in her voice, as we continued walking.

“After that,” I took a deep breath, and we stopped by a fountain that had rivulets of water spouting from the top and running down its sides. We sat on the side of it, facing each other, “After that, my older brother and I were put into the custody of our grandparents. Later on, after they were unable to care for us any longer, I was put into the care of my aunt, while my brother went to college.

“I ran away one night, I was on my way to see my brother; I was about to walk into his dorm, when the demon, the same demon that killed my parents, showed up to finish me off. We fought, and I ended up in the hospital. While in the hospital, I was suffering from night terrors. When I got out of the hospital, my brother thought it was a good idea to put me in a psychiatric facility.”

“He thought you were crazy,” Annie supplied, in a low, sympathetic voice.

“Essentially,” I said, “Until a year ago, when I was broken out by Hunters.”

“Hunters?” Annie asked, quizically, “What kind of Hunters?”

“Monster Hunters,” I answered.

“Wow,” Annie breathed, staring at the ground, wide-eyed, as she seemed to take in all of this new information.

“Now, Annie,” I started, after I had given her some time to adjust to what she had heard, “This is really important, I need you to try and remember what you saw--”

“I remember everything,” she said, cutting me off, “I remember going to the night club, I remember that Sam said she was going to meet this guy she’d been seeing behind her parents’ backs...I remember going into the alley behind the club, I remember...” Annie trailed off, taking a deep breath before continuing, “I--I remember how I thought this guy was just going hit on my friend...then she was screaming, and I watched as he held a hand over her mouth, muffling her screams and then she collapsed on the ground...dead.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, instantly. I looked and saw tears pooled in her brown eyes. Tears rolled down her face, and she wiped them away with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, “I didn’t mean to--”

“Are you going to get him?” she asked, abruptly, “You said that you are a Hunter and you hunt monsters, are you going to get him and the others?”

“I’m going to do whatever it takes,” I told her, solemnly, “But you have to explain, what others? How many were there? What did they look like? Did you hear any names?”

“I didn’t hear names, but, besides the one guy, there were two others--a guy and a girl. All three of them looked to be around our age, seventeen or eighteen. Two of the guys had black hair and the girl had golden blonde hair,” Annie rattled off the information, “They all had really pale skin, like they hadn’t been outside in a long time.”

“Okay, that’s all good,” I said, and I cursed myself for not bringing a notepad with me, “Now, this is the really important part: do you remember what their eyes looked like?”

“Their eyes?” Annie questioned, “Yeah, the one guy I was talking to had dark blue eyes and they had a red ring around the iris.”

“That’s key,” I said, smiling. We stood up and made our way back to the doors that led into the facility.

“Did you have a nice walk?” the attendant said, standing up from the bench and holding the door open.

“Yes, we did,” Annie said, looking at me. We made our way back to the rec-room.

As I exited the facility, I knew that one eyewitness account of what happened--no matter how credible or uncredible--wasn’t enough, and decided to check out the place where Samantha and Annie last were.

I pulled my car into a chain-linked fenced-in structure, making sure to pull into a spot that was mostly secluded. Getting out of the car, I walked around and unlocked my trunk. In the shade of the trunk’s lid, I moved a flap over, displaying the rest of my weapons, the ones that I wasn’t using. Grabbing a case of wooden bullets, and my gun, loading it and then turning the safety on before putting it in the back of my jeans, and slipping my machete into my right, knee-high, leather boot.

After making sure that everything was well-hidden, I grabbed my leather jacket and slipped it on. I started forward, towards Irving’s residential night club, Dark Horse.

It appeared like other night clubs that I had heard about; the thumping bass of the music that beat around the room, a red dance floor sat in the middle and it was full of swaying and gyrating bodies. Strobe lights blinked over the crowd and colored light from the disco ball moved at a steady pace. A black spiraled staircase went up to, what looked like, another floor--maybe a VIP section?

Towards the right, there was a bar with a sleek black top. I wandered over to the bar, leaning against it.

A woman with tanned skin and waist-length copper colored hair moved behind the bar, mixing and serving drinks, talking to customers while shooting them dazzling smiles. She wore a white tank top with the black silhouette of a rearing horse on it.

“Hi, sugar,” she said, with an obvious southern drawl to her words, as she fixed her pearly-white smile on me, “What can I get for ya?”

“Tequila,” I said. The woman smiled and reached under the bar, before putting a small shot glass in front of me, and filling it to the brim with the golden liquid.

“Haven’t seen you around,” she observed.

“New in town,” I answered, keeping my answer simple.

“Where are you from?” she asked. I glanced up to see her staring at me with brown eyes set in a penetrating gaze.

“Deep seeking questions from a barkeep,” I said, as I tipped the shot glass between my lips, and let the alcohol flow down my throat. I made a face as it burned a path on it’s way to my stomach, warming me up the instant it landed. I put the glass down on the bar top, as the female bartender continued to stare at me.

“I ask because I know all the regulars, I never seen you in here before,” she said.

“Well, I told you, I’m new in town,” I said, trying to make my voice as pleasant as possible, “What kind of people come in here?” I positioned myself so that I could scan the crowd, but still talk to this woman. So far, all I saw was a bunch of people, with too much make-up, swaying to the beat of some techno song.

“Just the regulars,” she replied, shrugging. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath; knowing that the longer I stood there trying to figure this out, the more of a chance another vampire had to grab another person.

“And the regulars are...?” I questioned, starting to become aggravated.

“Everyone that’s here,” the bartender said, vaguely, gesturing to the dance floor. I grit my teeth, breathing through my nose and calming my temper..

“Look...” I trailed off, realizing that I never asked her name.

“Ruby,” she supplied.

“Look, Ruby, have three people been in here, lately?” I asked, realizing how vague the question sounded, “Two brunette men and a blonde woman? they were pale...” I trailed off, not sure how much more I could describe them.

“Yeah,” Ruby said, and she leaned on her forearms, closer to me, as though we were conspiring together, “But you’re describing half the people who walk in here on a nightly basis.”

“Did you notice anybody with blue eyes, and a red ring around the iris?” I asked.

“Yeah, actually,” Ruby said, leaning back as another of the bar patrons came and ordered something.

“Do you know what they talked about? Maybe they mentioned where they were staying?” I asked, and I noticed that, the more I spoke, the faster my words became.

“Yeah, I think they mentioned staying somewhere out Old Wheat Road,” Ruby said, as she mixed a drink and then served it, “Although, I don’t know why, all that’s out there is an old barn.”

“Okay, and how would one get out there?” I asked.

“Well, go to the last building in town, and then there will be a turn-off on the left,” she said.

“Thanks,” I replied, as I turned and made my way out of the club.

Sighing, and knowing that it was too late to go out to look for the vamps. I knew that I was taking a risk not going after them, but I needed to hit them when they were at their weakest--during the day, in the morning.

I loaded my car, with my weapons, as soon as I got back to my room. Doing this under the cover of darkness was much easier than it was going to be, even in the early morning. At the midnight hour, everybody in the motel was asleep, so there was no one to witness me turning the trunk of my car into my own personal arsinal. When that was finished, I walked back into my room, intending on getting a few hours of sleep.

Waking up at dawn wasn’t something I was used to, but waking up at dawn to get a jump on the monsters that have been wreaking havoc on this small town? I could get used to that.

The trees were no more than black blotches against the periwinkle sky, as the shops were mere outlines, which my headlights lit up, when I passed them. After the last shop, there was the turn-off, on the left. There was a steel pole that had a faded blue sign that said Old Wheat Road.

I turned onto the road, and saw no houses, shops, or buildings of any kind, for miles. By the time the sky had lightened a bit more, I saw the silhouette of a single building. After a few minutes, it was light enough for me to tell that the lone building was a barn.

I drove down the road, until I came to the end of a dirt driveway, which I parked at the end of. Arming myself, I knew that it would be a quick trek to the barn, and I started on it.

When I reached the end of the road, I saw that it panned out to stretch in front of the barn, which looked like it had seen better times. Now that the sun was out, I got a clearer look at the structure, than I had at daybreak. The wood looked like it was weathered, and had been there for a long while, the couple of windows I saw were coated with grime and spider webs, and the barn door looked like it was just leaning against the frame.

As I drew closer, I noticed that the door to the barn, indeed, rested at a slight vertical angle. The only things that were keeping it from falling fully was that the door was hanging by the bottom hinge and the lower right corner of the door dug into the dead grass beneath it.

Being as quiet and careful as I possibly could, I pulled the door out a bit, crouched down, and entered the barn.

The stench of death hit my nostrils as soon as I stood straight. Putting one arm over my nose and mouth, I moved towards the middle of the room, where the body of a young woman hung, suspended from chains that hung from the ceiling. Around the room, i noticed that three vampires were sleeping against old furniture, bales of hay, or the farm equipment that was sitting in the shadows.

Pulling my gun, loaded with wooden bullets, out and approached the body. There were marks on both sides of her neck, and on the insides of both elbows.

A quiet groan came from the right, and I looked over to see the silhouette of another body, suspended from chains. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it was another girl. Another groan came from her, and the chains rattled as she moved.

With my free hand, I started unwrapping the chains.

“I don’t think so,” came a southern drawl. I stopped, put both hands on my gun, and whipped around and faced the newest addition.

Ruby the bartender stalked towards me, like a predator stalking its prey.

“Not another step,” I said, holding the gun, steadily, in front of me.

“Are you gonna shoot me, sugar?” Ruby asked, sarcastically.

“Yep,” I answered, without hesitation. I was about to take the shot when I was pulled back. The wind was knocked out of me, and I laid on my back, looking up at the vaulted cobweb-infested ceiling. I moved to get up, but I was knocked back by Ruby putting her boot on my chest.

“Like I said, I don’t think so,” Ruby snarled, as she squatted over me. She growled and then opened her mouth, her canines elongating. She moved forward and I used all my strength to hold her back, and my arms were shaking as I did so. When I fell back, my gun was flung out of my hand, so I had no weapon to use against her.

While I used my one hand to hold her off, my other hand groped around the hay-littered floor for anything that I could use to get her off of me. Finally, my hand closed around something hard and cold, and then I lifted my arm, swinging towards her, hitting her square in the head. Surprisingly, to both of us, it was enough force to knock her off of me.

Again I moved to get up, but, as soon as I propped myself on my elbows, I was pulled up, swiftly, by the collar of my jacket, until I was hanging a few inches off the ground.

“Well, well, well, who do we have here?” A masculine voice reached my ears, as I hung in the grasp of another vampire. The vampire who spoke had blue eyes with a red ring around the iris--it could, possibly, be one of the vampires that Annie had seen.

“New blood,” another, lighter, feminine, voice said. Out of the corner o f my eye, I thought I saw a curtain of blonde hair. That must’ve been the lone female that was running with two males. I turned my head, giving her a quick glance; the only thing that really stood out was her nails. They were about two inches longer than normal human nails grew to be. Were they like that because she was a vampire, or because she styled them like that?

“Don’t even think about it,” I said, as I struggled, fruitlessly.

“Too late,” the voice behind me growled and I was dropped. I rolled away from them, and crawled over to my gun. I was scrambling to get the safety off, when I was scooped up. Again, I was hanging feet off the ground, kicking my feet as a pale hand wrapped its way around my throat, the base of the hand crushing my windpipe.

I scratched at the hand as I stared into the red-ringed blue eyes of the other male vampire. He stared at me, and the red in his eyes was working its way to the pupil, almost covering the iris completely.

My feet kicked out and I struggled to breathe; my feet, at some point, hit the vampire directly in the groin, to which he grunted and let go, dropping me. I gasped, like a fish out of water, and coughed as I crawled over to my fallen gun. I grabbed it long enough to pick it up and roll onto my back, firing a shot at the vampire who had been holding me--he was still curled into the fetal position and groaning--I hit him in the leg, making him cry out. I fired another shot at the other male, hitting him square in the chest and causing him to slump on the ground too; I knew that the bullets wouldn’t really do anything more than incapacitate them for a while.

I moved to take another shot, but the female stomped over and kicked the gun out of my hands. I didn’t have time to react before her boot came in contact with my face. I heard a crack--pretty sure that my nose was broken, now.

She was angry and she screamed aloud as she kicked me in the stomach. I groaned and coughed, spitting out blood, as the coughing fit subsided.

I opened my eyes, and saw a piece of broken wood. Using all the strength that I had, as the female vampire was still kicking me--screaming every time she did--I grabbed the splintered piece of wood, and plunged it into her leg, the one that she wasn’t using to assault me. She shrieked and fell back, groaning, as she put her hand over the piece of wood that as sticking out of her flesh.

With my remaining strength, I rolled over, still coughing up blood--I was sure I could add broken ribs along with a broken nose--I stood up on shaky legs and pulled the machete out of my boot. I raised it over my head and, without preamble, I brought it down swiftly, decapitating her head from her body.

I did the same to the other two, and then looked around, knowing that Ruby was still somewhere in the barn.

I started to move forward, and then I found myself face-down on the hay-covered ground, with a weight on my back. I spit hay out of my mouth, and I felt something hit the back of my head. I was rolled over, and through the stars that danced in front of my eyes, I saw Ruby sitting on top of me. She growled and snarled; I attempted to swing my machete at her, but she knocked it out of my hand, easily.

Her hands fastened around my throat and, once again, I was gasping for air. Beside me, I groped for anything that I could use as a weapon. Surprisingly, I found my gun. I grabbed it and knocked Ruby upside her head. It wasn’t enough to send her all the way off me, but it was enough to send most of her weight off me.

I had some difficulty, but I managed roll out from under her leg, which was thrown over my waist. Keeping the gun in one hand and getting my machete, I walked back over to her. Like I did with the three others, I swiftly decapitated her. I stood there for a second, watching as her body rapidly disintegrated into nothing but ash--her head did the same thing.

I remembered reading something about the older the vampire was, the faster their body disintegrates. The newer ones, take sometime--days at most. The three that I had killed first, were still lying there, the bodies whole, no sign of turning to ash.

A groan brought me back to my reality, and I looked over to the girl who was hanging from the ceiling--the live one.

With a bit of difficulty, I climbed onto the seat of a nearby tractor, as I started pulling the chains from around her hands.

“You’re okay,” I told her, as I unwound the chains, and then pulled her to me before dropping the chains to the floor. My strength was waning, but I was determined to get her out of there. I carefully stepped off the tractor, setting the girl in the seat, and then I walked around the barn. In no time I found a gas can; luckily, it was still half-full. I poured the remaining gasoline over the bodies and all over the hay. I walked back over to the girl, and pulled her onto my back.

By the door, I leaned the girl against the wall and pushed against the door, making it fall off the hinge and land in the grass. I dipped my hand into the pocket of my jeans, grabbing my zippo, and lighting it. I flung it towards the area that was soaked with gasoline, and watched as everything went up in flames.

Turning back to the girl, I pulled her onto my back again. She was a bit taller, so her feet drug across the dry grass behind us

By the time we got back to the car, I was completely out of breath. The girl seemed like she was a bit more alert than she had been.

“Where am I?” she mumbled, as I set her on the passenger seat.

“You’re okay,” I told her, “My name’s Camille, I’m going to get you back to town.” She nodded, faintly, before putting her head back against the seat. I shut the door, walked around the car, and then slid into the driver’s seat. Starting the car, I drove away from the burning barn.

When we arrived into town, the girl woke up, looked out her window and started crying. She mumbled something about not knowing if she was ever going to go home again. I pulled over and soothed her the best that I knew how, and it was a few minutes before we were back on the road. She gave me her address, and ten minutes later, I pulled up in front of a mint green one-story house.

“Are you okay to go on your own?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said, nodding and I could hear the tears in her voice, “Thank you for getting me home.”

“Yeah,” I said, and she smiled and then exited my car. I stayed, watching her walk up her pathway, and waited until the front door shut behind her.

After I had checked out of my room, packed up, I started on my way back to the bunker.