Freak Hunters

Note from the author: Like The Vow, this story is very much a work in progress. I really like this story personally. I'm not sure where it came from, but it really hit me and I love writing it. I actually think it would do really well with another media, like as a comic. So if any aspriring artists out there read it and like it, drop me a line!

I am 10 years old again, listening to my grandfather tell me his fantastic stories. They were always so wonderful, how he talked on about ghosts and magical creatures; even then I didn’t believe his stories could be true. I had no idea how much truth there was behind his tales. He gets up, saying he needs to get something from the bedroom. I sit calmly on the couch, trying to back this weird feeling that something bad is going to happen. Then, I hear my grandfather scream. I rush as fast as I can down the hallway to his room and throw the door open. That’s when I see it. It’s holding my grandfather a few feet in the air by some long, claw like appendage thrust right through his heart. The thing isn’t much bigger than a man, but it has no discernable shape, it’s like a mass of blackness with two crimson dots near the top. My grandfather yells for me to run, then the creature drops him, and he starts turning pale, as ash white as the creature is pitch black. I scream and the creature leaps at me. All I can see is its darkness and those two crimson eyes, and all I can hear is a piercing wail, like hundreds of nails scraping across a blackboard. That’s when I always wake up.

Every time I have that dream, I am soon set face to face with a new danger. Some mysterious thing that can’t be explained by science comes my way, and I have to stop it. The strangest thing is: I wasn’t with my grandfather when he died; I heard he died of a heart attack, that’s all I ever knew. It’s been happening since I was 15, and I found a whole horde of tarzu in my neighbor’s cellar. My introduction to this world was the gurgled death of my neighbor as he was killed over the phone line, begging for my help. I burst through the front door, wielding my grandfathers WWII era katana. I cut through at least 10 of the deformed rat like creatures. Reaching the cellar, I found the mother. I tried to cut through it as it jumped at me, but it was at least twice the size of the other tarzu. It grabbed my curved blade between its yellow fangs, and snapped it. I scrambled my way to the back of the room, surrounded by the hairless, long fanged creatures. The mother was leaning it’s maw towards my neck, when I screamed and held out my hand. I felt something hot well up inside me and burst out through my hands. The tarzu was surrounded in white light and was suddenly a rat again, as were all of its offspring. That was my first, impromptu job in the world of hunting freaks.

Suppose for a minute that every thing you believe to be made up, figments of your imagination and the subject of fairy tales was actually true, somewhere, sometime. The shadows you swear you see, the noises you swear you heard, the monster you swore lived under you bed when you were 8, suppose all those were really there. That’s the world I live in. Those monsters are not found for two main reasons, normal people don’t want to find them, and they don’t want to be found. They can live so much easier when only a few believe they really exist. They can pick off the random person without much suspicion. But there are some dangerous ones out there two who would gladly give up their lives of solitude and hiding, they want it all, and those are the ones we have to stop. My name is Vincent, and my power is called “Nullification”. I have come to terms with my power, and my duty to use it, but no one ever said I had to be happy about it.
. . .
Since then, I have slowly discovered the extent of this world beneath the norm. I have become a freelance PLASB Hunter. Paranormal life forms and spiritual beings is the official name for anything inhuman with some sort of paranormal abilities. Most people just refer to PLASB and people with paranormal abilities, or abnormals, as freaks. It’s a name we have come to cherish, and wear as a badge of honor rather than an insult. You could try to call me a freak in a demeaning tone, but all I would say is “Damn right, I’m as freaky as they come.” All people classified as “abnormals” register with the PLASB Council. The PLASB Council is a large underground association dedicated to keeping the freaks from becoming tomorrow’s headlines. To those ends, they have people like me who can hunt down and eliminate those freaks that have stepped outside their bounds and may prove a threat. The Hunter is one part detective, one part spy, and one part bounty hunter. We always have to be on our toes, as we don’t know what kind of job might come our way next

Today, I had an offer from an old friend of mine. Pavel Dumskiy sits across from me in the darkened, seedy basement bar. We are the only customers, and the owner is a well known conjurer, so we can talk freely. Smoke hovers over the table from Pavel’s thick cigar. His slim tanned face is covered in wrinkles but I can still see the scowl formed on his thin lips. He takes a large drag from his cigar and tosses a thick manila envelope across the table to me.

“No small talk, Pavel? We haven’t seen each other for almost a year; I thought we could catch up. So what’s keeping you out of the grave these days you old goat?”

Pavel took the large cigar out of his mouth and barked at me in his thick Russian accent, “I’d appreciate it if you kept that wit of yours in check for once Vincent. This job is personal for me.”

I opened the envelope and pulled out an 8x10 of a young woman, probably around 18 with long brown hair and a small, cute face. “Who’s the cutie?”

“She’s my daughter.” Pavel pushed his long graying hair out of his eyes and shot me a stare that could freeze your blood.

“You aren’t going to hit me now, are you?”

“No, I’m not going to hit you, now shut up and I will describe the job to you.”

This was going to be a rescue mission. Pavel’s daughter had been captured by a crazed lunatic from Pavel’s psychic days. The man was a wizard named Demetre who had had quite a few schemes foiled by Pavel. They had been like arch enemies in Pavel’s younger days and Demetre seemed to want one last fight. Pavel was embarrassed to admit it, but he was losing his psychic abilities, he could barely levitate his cigar from his mouth to the ashtray as he talked with his hands. As he was, he was no match for Demetre, who, while crazy, still had control over his ability and a horde of creatures and flunkies at his disposal. Pavel had set up a meeting with Demetre in an old abandoned warehouse at the ports. Grace City was a port city on the east coast and was probably one of the biggest paranormal hot spots in the US. That’s why people like Pavel and I called it home. The plan was that I would disguise myself in an all black cloak that covered my face and use an electronic voice modulator that did a reasonable job of making me sound at least as old as Pavel. This would just be a temporary ruse however, my job would be to secure the girl and get out of there. Killing Demetre was not a priority, but the guy was worth a lot dead to the Council, so I was at least going to try. Well past midnight, I had positioned myself in the rotting rafters of the old building and waited for my target to arrive. I heard the car pull up and 4 doors open one at a time, and four doors closed again. I saw four figures enter the old, crumbling warehouse. One seemed to be complaining about everything, the mold, the cold, the broken glass and discarded trash. He went on and on in a raspy voice, practically whispering to the two larger figures at his sides. The last followed slowly, the figures hands were cuffed and she was wearing an intricate metal band around her forehead. The band blocked psychic powers from being used by the wearer; she was most defiantly the target. The rasping old man spoke up: “Pavel, are you here?”

Switching on the voice changer and stepping out of the shadows, I addressed the four figures about 20 feet below me, “I’m here Demetre, now release my daughter and we will get this over with.”

“Who the hell are you?! You aren’t Pavel!”
“Who else would I be?”
“Don’t play dumb with me; as long as I have known him, Pavel has been afraid of heights! If you were really my old nemesis, you would never be up that high. Rocco, Bruno, shoot that imposter!”

In the five years that I have known Pavel, he has never mentioned a fear of heights, but the ruse was up. The two large men at Demetre’s side had removed black Desert Eagles from their overcoats and opened fire at my position. Barely reacting fast enough, I dove to my left and began to scramble down the stairs back into the shadows. I knew the bodyguards had lost track of me when they stopped firing. I used the crates on the right side of the building as I made my way over to them. Moving slowly, I made almost no noise. I was just to their left, when Demetre seemed ready to loose it and started yelling obscenities. Among his incoherent ramblings, he managed to say that if I didn’t come out, he would shoot the girl. I was only about 10 feet from them now, and withdrew one of my favorite little items from my coat. It’s a small, fist sized orb that creates a massive burst of light about 1 second after striking the ground hard enough. Tossing it over the crate I was hiding behind, I shut my eyes as tight as I could. A second later the entire room was bathed in light and all four of the other occupants of the warehouse were left rubbing their eyes in pain. Even I was not saved from the light orb, even with my hands over my eyes I was still dazed from the bright 1 second burst. Wasting no time though, I disarmed both the guards and gave them each a good elbow to the gut for good measure. The guards thusly pacified, I grabbed the girl and ran out the door.

“Don’t worry, the blindness is only temporary” I removed the band blocking the girls telepathy. That was a bad idea though, as soon as the band was off, the girl instinctively activated her powers. She formed a huge telekinetic field, throwing myself, the limo they had arrived in and at least 30 pounds of miscilanious junk back about 25 feet. I had avoided falling off the pier into the river and the flying limousine, but the field still left me dazed. Looking up, I saw the figure of Demetre emerge from the warehouse and grab Natasha. She screamed and tried to break free, but the old man was larger than her and she was exhausted from letting out so much of her power.

“Unless you want to see this girl torched, I suggest you stand up slowly and remove any other nasty surprises you might be hiding.” The old man formed a small ball of flame as he talked, and held it dangerously close to the girl’s face. The girl was still blind, but she instinctively cringed away from the intense heat of the fireball.

“You should still be blind.” I started to slowly remove the weapons I had brought with me, a belt full of the light orbs, my personalized Colt .45s armed with magically created bullets that burst into flame when they exited the gun, my long Japanese sword, forged strong enough to cut through solid steel. I dropped each of them to the slimy ground in front of me.

“Hmph, that blindness threw me for a loop, I’ admit, but it was easy enough to counter. When you live as long as me, you learn a few tricks of the mages trade.”

“I knew I should have used my power on you when I had the chance.”
“Hah! A power you say?! You have bitten off way more than you can chew boy, you have one power, and I have hundreds of powers! What power do you think could stop me! You’ve got me interested kid, just what is your little trick? Telekinesis? Pyrokineses? Those don’t work on someone like me.”

“Are you sure about that?” It was the girl who spoke, suddenly, a large shard of glass wrenched itself free of the warehouses windows. The old man released the girl, and stopped the shard in mid air with a raise of his hand. Taking this opportunity, I brought my energy up from deep within my body and felt it extend into my hands. Pointing them at the old man, I released all I could muster. The wave of power hit the old man hard, and his own powers faded, the glass shard he had stopped wrenched back into motion, piercing him through the neck. He gurgled a curse and fell to the floor.

Rushing over to the girl, who had collapsed onto the slick concrete I picked her up in my arms. She was barely conscious and still blind. “What was that wave of energy I felt?”

“My power, it has the ability to strip another person of their powers.”
“Amazing.”
“You’re pretty amazing yourself, controlling that glass shard when you couldn’t even see.”
“Oh, I’m chock full of surprises, you just wait and see.”
. . .

The door to the small office Natasha and I shared slammed shut and Natasha came into the room like a 5’4” brunette hurricane. She threw her coat onto the ugly brown couch and slumped into her office chair. Throwing her heavy black purse onto the desk, she gave me an angry scowl.

Reclining in my own wooden chair, I flashed a smile, and asked probably the dumbest question I could at that point, “Something wrong?”

“You could say that. You know that Durras job I went to collect the fee for?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, this is our payment.” Natasha withdrew a large rock, it was smooth and black and a little bigger than a fist.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. The punk said it was magical.”
“Didn’t he have any cash?”
“If he did, I would have taken it. This was all he had. If I find out this thing is bogus, I’m gonna kill that little snot. Those Durras nearly tore us apart, and all we get is a lousy rock?!”
“Just don’t go scaring off any more potential clients.”

At that moment, the apartment speaker buzzed, signaling someone was downstairs. Natasha jumped up and clicked on the button. “Vincent and Natasha’s Detective Services, how may I help you? Really? A job? Let me buzz you in.” Natasha hit the other black button on the small speaker, opening the front door of the large apartment complex to the prospective client.

“I hope this one has cash.”
“Shoosh Vincent, and sit up straight, we don’t want to give a bad impression to t he client. He sounded pretty important.” There was a knock at the door, and Natasha let the young man in and seated him on the couch. His name was Elijah and he was quite young, probably 18. No older than Natasha was when we decided to become partners. He had a long, intricate tattoo running down his right arm, so I figured he was a mage. Other than the tattoo he looked like an average prep school kid. He had dark rimmed glasses, a suit jacket and a slicked back hair cut. He explained that he was being hunted by a malevolent creature called the Stalker. The Stalker hunted people with large amounts of paranormal ability and drained their life force. It was rare, but powerful. It was going to be our job to kill it, and keep it from killing him. We took the job, and staked out a large, abandoned Victorian home for the night the Stalker was going to attack. The creature could only attack on nights of the new moon.

. . .

Tonight would be the night. We decided against using the office as a safe house, it was too small and I might end up breaking something valuable. Natasha had scouted out an old abandoned house in the suburbs and we would be taking Elijah there. The plan was simple enough, we would wait for the Stalker to show up, and then kill the crap out of it. We were loaded for a war too; I brought every magical item I could find that might cause some damage. We even brought the weird black rock, though we still had not figured out what it did.

“I don’t even know if it does ANYTHING!” Natasha was staring at the rock, turning it over, trying to find something like it in a book on mysterious artifacts.

“Well, I could try hitting it with my power, if it reacts, it must be special.”

“You would probably end up blowing it up or something.”

Elijah spoke up suddenly. “It’s a soul stone from the plane of shadow! It’s used to bind dark spirits.”
“So it’s pretty powerful then?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think it would work on our awaited guest?”
“Maybe, I have never seen one in action so I’m not sure how it works exactly”

“Bah, you two can figure that out, I’m going outside for a smoke, don’t start the party without me.” I ruffled Elijah’s hair as I left the room; he never seemed to like that. He reminded me of myself at his age, a boy desperately trying to be accepted as a man. I closed the rotting wooden door behind me and went around to the side of the house. Picking a spot near the living room window, from there I could hear what was going on without being seen.

“So, um, are you and Vincent, you know…more than partners?”
“Me and Vincent?! Yeah, he wishes!” Dream on!
“I was just thinking though, you argue like my parents used to…”
“Please, we argue cause we hate each other. We may need each other as partners, but that’s the extent of it.” Hah! If that’s the case, maybe I should fire you and hire Elijah as my partner! “Besides, how could I like someone who is such an egotistical…”

She’s a self centered,
“dumb as a rock....”
maniacal psychopath!
“pompous buffoon!”
With her voices, and her feelings, and her fits of rage…
“Him, with his big overcoat and long hair, and all those weapons!”
She’s always getting us into trouble
“He never thinks anything through.”
She belongs in a mental institution!
“He acts like a damn cartoon character sometimes!”
How could I like someone like that?!
“Tell me, Elijah how could I ever like someone like him… but, um, did he say anything about me to you…”
I wonder though…

At that moment my thoughts were cut short though. A wave of malice suddenly swept over me, it felt the same as in my dream, it made my blood boil and my adrenaline start to rise. I knew the spirit was here. I dashed into the house and saw it; it looked exactly like my dream, a mass of shadow with two red eyes. It was like a man shaped black cloud, lurching towards Elijah and Natasha in the corner. I yelled to get its attention and threw my commando knife, it went right through where the beast’s heart would have been, and came out the other side, sinking into the rotten wooden floor behind it. Not missing a beat, I grabbed the closest weapon: a mythical Japanese sword forged with the strength of a dragon. It had the ability to cut through steel and was rumored to even cut the barriers between dimensions. It also passed right through the Stalker. I attacked with every sword maneuver I knew, but nothing worked, the blade passed through the Stalker again and again, but it just ignored me.

If the Dragon Spirit To’ couldn’t hurt it, nothing could, I looked on in horror as the Stalker punched it’s long, shadowy arm through Elijah and Natasha’s psychic barrier and wrapped itself around him. He started turning a pale, ash white and even I could feel the poor kid’s life ebbing away. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, it wasn’t supposed to be this strong. I reached deep inside myself, and sent out all the power I could towards the creature. The creature dropped Elijah, who had turned a shade of white I didn’t think was possible, his eyes and face were vacant, and it didn’t look like he was breathing. The creature let out a wail that cracked the windows, and I could hear its hissing, snake like voice echoing in my mind.

So, what do we have hear? A couple extra meals before I leave this plane?
“Why, why doesn’t my power work on you?”
Fool, your powers are useless because I am no longer anchored by this world. I am beyond it, I am shadow. What you see here is just a minor extension, your power hits with all the force of a mosquito bite.

“Don’t listen to it Vincent, if you hit it hard enough, something should happen!”

Fool girl, you don’t comprehend what you are up against. I am no mere spirit, I am pure darkness! Your soul is my sustenance! Give in, and I will make things quick, and painful!

The creatures dark tentacles shot forward and I could see Natasha putting all her energies forth to keep them back. It was worthless though, the creature pierced her psychic barrier and I was it raise her off the floor. I watched in horror as she started to turn white. Her breathing was slowing down and she looked back at me and mouthed “I’m sorry.” Feeling around on the ground, I felt the black rock. Grabbing it, I threw it at the Stalker. Unlike everything else that hit his body, the rock stuck, sinking deep into the shadows of his body. The Stalker started to grow in size, and was howling with what sounded like delight. I could feel its voice inside my head, thanking me. Screaming, I did the only thing I could think of. I released all the power I could. My power still seemed to pass harmlessly through the Stalker as I fired blast after blast, but then one hit the rock inside him. The rock cracked, and shattered within his body. As suddenly as he had grown he shrunk back down, the chunks of the rock falling to the floor. The Stalker turned a bright white and started to change. Somehow, nullifying the rock had cut off the beasts powers, and it appeared now as an ancient looking man. It couldn’t hold Natasha any longer, and she dropped to the floor. It began to howl in pain.

“What have you done to me?! I’m, I’m, physical! How did this happen?! I can’t feel the sway of the dark plane anymore; it’s like before my death…”

The creature was real now; it was no longer a mass of untouchable black mist. I grabbed my sword, and brought it down on the creature’s head. The sharp blade struck true this time. The Stalker gave little resistance, and the blade passed through completely with my downward cut, splitting its body down the middle. I felt its voice in my mind; it cursed my name, and swore it would be back. The body dissolved before hitting the ground, the white skin and bones turning into a pile of dust on the floor.

I rushed over to Natasha, she was barely breathing, and I could feel my tears start to well up as a held her head in my arms. Her eyes opened and she looked up at me.

“Vincent, are…those…tears…for me?”
“Natasha! Please, don’t die Natasha! Just…JUST DON’T DIE ON ME!”
“So, did we…win?”
“Another mission accomplished.”
“Vincent, you shouldn’t cry for me, I’ll be just fine….”
“NATASHA! DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES! NO!”

“Vincent, why are you yelling like that? I’m fine.” The voice came from behind me, and I saw her, or at least most of her. Natasha was behind me, standing up, a translucent figure. I had seen this several times, and knew what it was, she wasn’t technically dead, but her spirit was not in her body anymore. “Vincent, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Oh man, this is not good.”