@iscariotsdeputy ❛ It’s very different in the night. It’s different in the dark. ❜
hill house starters || accepting
He’d been on the creature’s trail since the moon had reached its zenith. Which wasn’t exactly a difficult thing -- even in the thick of the forest, a hulking lupine figure of that stature was easy to track. It wasn’t trying to be subtle. At first he’d assumed it to be a Vulpe, one of the lesser Vulkods like a Skal was to an Ekon, but there was something about the pitch of its pulse and the scent of it that seemed... different. Granted, it had been some time since the hunter had last sought out such prey. Monsters of the modern era tended to value the art of camouflage -- blending in with humanity so as not to attract undue attention. Secrecy was harder and harder to come by as technology and viral news shrank the world with each passing year. Those inhuman beings that had survived thus far usually did so because they were too good to get caught.
Fumbling newborns usually weren’t long for the world. After observing this one for scarcely more than a few hours, that was what Geoffrey determined he had on his hands. Such a thought hardly stopped him. Beasts of its kind had no room in their minds for rationality, the rage and hunger eclipsing all else. Even if it wasn’t vampiric in nature, the thing was still violent. Dangerous. It had dragged a man from the roadside past the treeline, was all but dismembering him when Geoffrey came across the grisly scene. Something either spooked or attracted it, and it went tearing off into the dark before Geoffrey could aim more than a glancing blow and its retreating mass.
The victim was more than obviously dead, and so the hunt was on. It was in the midst of pursuit, however, that Geoffrey determined he wasn’t dealing with a vampire. Still, though, the sun was rising. Either the thing would balk at the light, or at the very least it would be cornered away from its den.
Imagine the hunter’s surprise, then, when sunrise filtered through the woods and what stood in its place was a man. Or something humanoid, at least. Congealed blood stained his face and hands where it had once matted the fur of muzzle and claws. Geoffrey was without his sword, but the pistol he aimed at the stranger would -- hopefully -- prove just as effective a deterrent.
“What are you?” Geoffrey barked, and for a moment only wide and slightly glassy eyes stared back at him. “What are you?” he repeated, louder. “Speak, or I shoot. It might not kill you, but a bullet between the eyes leaves a nasty headache. And that makes ending you easier for me.”
And speak he did -- though his words offered next to nothing in the way of explanation. He muttered something about the night, the dark, how different it was. Geoffrey’s scowl deepened, and he thumbed the pistol’s hammer until it clicked into place. “You killed a man. Tore him to pieces. Do you remember that, beast?”