False Altruism

Chapter 1. False Altruism

'Can true altruism exist, or is all behavior ultimately self-serving?'

That was the ever-present question over which I've speculated for many nights on end, especially after I've devoted my pathetic existence to my deity, my savior, my muse.

But was I doing this for him, or deep down, for myself?

I should explain what I mean by asking this question.
Hundreds of ago, a strange series of gruesome events started occurring in the area around London. Frequently after the twenty-eighth of January 1685, a severely decapitated human corpse would be discovered in the city. Some suggested a serial killer could have been the culprit because the killer clearly had medical knowledge of the human body, judging by the precise, calculated incisions in the bodies. Some believed that a feral animal might be responsible for the attacks, due to canine-like bite marks being found on the corpses as well.
Either way, the killings didn't stop, even after the law enforcement's endless efforts to bring the perpetrator to justice. Over time, even more, corpses started to appear, sometimes two bodies were recovered in a single night, and some were in such a terrible state that they could be only identified by dental records, if there even were any teeth left to work with.
Soon, a rumor started spreading about a certain somebody, that might be the entity behind the murders. That was the only real creature from Hell to be later officially recognized and labeled by the government. A Hell-spawn powerful enough to create and destroy worlds, interesting itself in our planet only for its pleasure of tormenting humans.
That was what everyone thought this creature was like.
In the early Victorian era, this devil took over an old abandoned hospital near London, in the small village of Westerham. It either took on the form of a huge, wolf-like ghoul with white fur and a freakishly elongated mouth, or the form of a young man with white hair and soulless, dark eyes. Either those two forms or more rarely, the form of an angelic woman with freckles and a voice able to mimic any other human voice perfectly. Nothing more than that was known about the legendary animal for ages, at least not in the general public.

One day around the early 2000s, the Hellhound murdered and ate a man who was a part of the London human trafficking ring, as the Hellhound did regularly, targeting the vile. The man who had been murdered had a son who was neglected and unwanted, if you can even call somebody that unloved and forgotten a son. With the father-son relationship being purely a power struggle full of abuse and mutual hatred, the deranged son felt overwhelmed by a sense of salvation towards the Hellhound, and he decided to visit the old abandoned hospital with his best friend in hopes of finding his savior and possibly returning the favor. Or even better, get mauled to death by this angel who already set him free once, to get rid of his troubles once and for all.

I'm the son, of course, and I go by my surname - Ashton. I also brought my best friend Oakley with me to meet the creature that kills for fun.

"Mate, this was a shit idea. We've been walking for seven hours now, we should've gone another day by bus and I bet we would've found ten pounds lying around somewhere for the tickets. My feet are literally bleeding."
Oakley groaned as she forced her feet to continue up the hill to the old hospital building. My legs were barely keeping up as well, and given the pain I was already feeling in them from my sudden growth spurt, the overall sensation was nothing short of comically excruciating.
"I reckon no amount of praying will bring back the quid I spent on maccies instead of the bus tickets. I really am sorry, promise I'll be wiser the next time we go hunt the devil."
I mumbled in exhaustion. As we came out of the tree line on a small forest path on the very top of the hill, we found ourselves standing on the edge of a surprisingly large meadow full of knee-tall grass.
The hospital building was in the very middle of the grass plain, every single window we saw was shattered, which made the wind whistle exceptionally loudly through the abandoned complex.
"So the rumors are true, this place looks twice as haunted as The Amityville Horror house if I do say so."
Oakley gazed at the decaying, brutalist structure.
"I'm amazed we even found it with our nonexistent geographical knowledge."
I added, rolling up a paper map of Westerham I bought with us and to properly get on Oakley's nerves, I ran the remainder of the way up to the front door of the hospital.
Oakley was successfully enraged by my stupidity, which made me very happy, and she chased after me while shouting at me about how reckless I was being.
We stopped by what was supposed to be the front door, except that the front door was completely ripped off of the hinges and lying hill drag on the concrete floor on the inside of the building, a good few feet away from the doorway. The interior of the house was very dark and cold despite it being late summer, and there was no sign of a living being even stepping foot inside the place, ever. The only thing standing out in this urbexer's paradise was the large staircase in the middle of that ground floor, that led up somewhere into the darkness above.
Oakley and I stood there for a couple of moments, trying to figure out how the house was so dark even though it was daytime. We watched the shadows for a very long time, somewhat expecting to get greeted by someone or something at any moment, but the house simply remained silent with just the wind whistling through.
"-Now why the fuck did you run straight inside this dim, devil's asshole with such confidence that nothing was waiting for you around the corner...?! You're the stereotypical white man who dies first in a horror film!!"
Oakley hissed at me after nothing new had happened in the past two minutes.
"Well, if something were waiting around the corner, then I'd much rather have it eat me first so that you'd still have the time to run!"
I defended myself, taking her words very personally.
"I'm the one who's bringing the loaded gun, you mug, if anyone should be going places first then it should be me-"
*GROWL*
A loud growl echoed from somewhere inside the building, breaking up our banter. Oak and I froze still I, who was very content with getting eaten alive, forgot how to breathe for a moment.
Oak instantly reached for her beloved handgun.
"I swear on Lizzie's golden carriage that I'll obliterate this thing if it tries anything."
Oak threatened, firmly grasping the gun with both hands.
"Oak, put it away, you're gonna intimidate it...!"
I said in a rush and took a trembly step closer to the staircase ahead.
"Are you fucking crazy?!"
She screamed at that point.
Another deep growl echoed through the nasty old hospital, and something heavy began putting a lot of pressure on the top stairs, making them creak under its weight. A shape began to form at the top of the dark staircase, something so big it almost scraped the ceiling with the top of its head.
It wasn't a physical form, most definitely not, since it was partially translucent. Or was it just my imagination?
I couldn't see it clearly at all, but it was some sort of a white mass. As it crawled down the stairs closer to us, I could slowly distinguish its shape better and I realized that it had long, white fur all over its body, bony paws that had claws the size of chainsaws, and its face was that of the truly most hideous, Hell-spawned hound far beyond the human conception.
"Oh, fuck that-"
Oakley cursed and dragged me back by the wrist.
The demon hound's head extended closer to us by its freakishly long neck, and its nose bumped into my chest.
It was dripping with its disgusting fluids right onto my shirt, and I couldn't bear to look at its damp, glistening, black nose any further without feeling sick, so I instead decided to do the logical thing and look directly into its eyes. Those were more snake-like than anything, their pupils just thin, black slants in their otherwise small and round, white-colored irises.
"Whoa there, big guy, why are you getting all up in my personal space? Do you reckon if I kiss your nose, you'll turn into a pretty princess? The one with the white hair and freckles?"
I started to joke around to ease my nerves. Oakley just stared at me blankly.
Getting no reaction to my comment, I went ahead and grabbed the dog's huge, dripping nose and gently brushed my lips against it, being more disgusted than afraid of it at that moment.
"ASH!!!"
Oakley screamed and kicked me away from the demon with one powerful kick to my side, by which I got shoved to the ground a foot away from where I had previously stood.
In reaction to the scream and my very loud fall, the Hellhound jerked his head back and wanted to jump further away from us. Given how absolutely massive it was, it instead ended up accidentally smashing its head into the ceiling which created a massive dust cloud of falling debris and chunks of broken-off concrete.
In that moment in which I couldn't see nor breathe, I found that I wanted to be devoured quite like I had never before. Maybe because the dust cloud would prevent Oakley from watching, or maybe because I was just too greedy and getting ahead of myself again.
I held my breath and waited, relaxing my tense muscles as I lay there, wishing for the sensation of its warm breath on my skin.
"...Come on, what's the hold-up? Don't you wanna kill me?"
I whispered as quietly as I could with the last bits of remaining air in my lungs, and I opened one of my eyes to see if I could spot anything at all.
To my disappointment, the asbestos had settled down on the floor already and both Oakley and I could see again.
However, we were both shocked to see that the wolf was no longer there. In its place was a human figure on all fours, rubbing its head from the head-to-ceiling impact with its very much human hand. They had white hair, white clothes, tanned and slightly grey skin, and they sounded to be cursing under their breath.
"H-hey, what was that all about?"
I stuttered, perched up on my forearms as I still somewhat laid there on my back.
"Why didn't you kill us when you had the chance?"
I called out to them again. Oakley frowned at me, and the look she gave me told me that I better keep my mouth shut from now on. She knew me, she knew me from my very early years and she was also most probably aware of what my ulterior motives were with The Hellhound. Still, she was generous enough to accompany me on this journey and do her best to prevent me from getting my way.
The person turned their head upwards to face us, and the two of us locked eyes first.
No one will ever be able to knock the wind out of me like that again. Not like that. Not like he did with just a single glance.
This being was truly nothing that this planet could've created, he must've been made purely out of my imagination's concept of what perfection was. If that was what the devil looked like, then may God forgive me for turning my back on the Heavens.
"Ew, it's a man. I thought you've promised me a princess, where is she?"
Oakley's eyes narrowed even more since nothing at all was going according to her plan so far. The Hellhound stood up.
"I beg your finest pardon?"
The young man that manifested from the wolf spoke, and his voice sounded oh-so angelic and melodic. It sent shivers down my spine, and I was very caught off guard at first, but then it made more sense to me given that he had the altered form of a canine with such a majestic howl.
Eyeing both Oak and me, he very cautiously made his way over to Oak.
"You're in my house. Do you know what that means?"
He nodded at her nervously, the corners of his mouth perking up to reveal his fangs as he stood uncomfortably close to Oakley. I scrambled onto my feet as quickly as I could.
"H-HI!!"
I screamed and stared at the white-haired man intently. He just turned to look at me accusingly.
"As for you, you smell just like that cunt named Ashton I ate last Thursday. You're his kid, aren't you?"
The demon gritted through his teeth at me.
"Came to seek revenge, kiddo?"
He added, and while he was turned away, Oakley took a discreet step away from him.
"I'm sorry- I... couldn't decide if I should introduce myself or scream in fear."
I apologized awkwardly, kicking myself for being so socially ungraceful.
"And you are right, my name's Ashton, I was his son."
I continued to explain, slowly growing more sure of what I wanted to say.
However, the Hellhound remained silent and sternly walked over to me. Then he extended his hand, wanting to put it on top of my head, so I slightly bowed down for him to reach it. He was about 5'8 feet tall, since I was 6'1 and when he came closer to me, his eyes were on my chin level.
"Right. I'll make sure that you'll see your father really soon, so don't bother with any last words."
He continued, his fingertips buried in my black hair.
"I just wanted to say thank you for eating my father."
I smiled.
"Huh? Are you joking?"
He laughed.
"I'm not. I want to return the favor. You see, the fact that you... did what you did means that I'm finally free from the pain that was constant for these past eighteen years. Until you murdered him, I wanted to do it myself, or at least get rid of my own life to escape that hell, so genuinely, thank you so much, I can't put it into words. I mean, after so many years-"
I began absolutely rambling and I could've gone on for another four hours, but the Hellhound cut me off.
"Yeah fine, I get it, shut up now. You say you want to return the favor, huh? I've got a job for you then, say - what university do you go to?"
He inquired.
"Blackfields College, both of us. Why do you want to know that, may I ask?"
Oak spoke up.
"Oh- WAIT! Seriously..!?"
He gasped and his eyes glimmered with excitement. Oakley and I both just stared at him with utter confusion.
"Hahaha~ so, this may sound strange, but I'm currently working on a ...thing."
He grinned at me.
"Not helping, sir."
I shook my head lightly, trying to stay polite despite my total lack of understanding of what he was trying to say.
"Well, you already know that I am the beloved and celebrated Hellhound of London, and what you don't know is that I also belong to the government."
He smiled and closed his eyes. The change in his demeanor from bloodthirsty to cheerful was concerning.
"In the sense that I act upon their commands and they have somewhat of a custody over me, providing me with care and support. In recent years, there has been a successful attempt to clone me by our science team in case I were to die unexpectedly, even though I am technically immortal, unless... never mind, that's unlikely. Anyway, some dumbass leaked this information about the cloning of the Hellhound and now there are several secret labs scattered over the UK where teams of nerds try to illegally make another lethal, human-like weapon such as myself, and if they succeed, they're gonna sell them to my higher-ups and who knows what would happen to me then..."
He slowly retracted his hand from the top of my head, his eyes turning to the ground to calm the tension.
"I call bullshit."
Oakley grinned.
"What do you mean, 'who knows what'? Like, would they replace you or something?"
I asked, ignoring Oak's previous comment.
"Ahh, don't even say that..!"
He hissed and turned his whole head away in dread. I wasn't sure what to do at that point, so I waited for some further explanation.
"..No, I mean yeah, they might do that... but that would be worse than death to me, I don't want to be abandoned again, not again."
He continued, running his hand through his hair anxiously.
"Well, we won't let that happen, okay? Look, I do believe you with everything you said and we'll help you do... whatever it is you want us to do, isn't that right, Oak?"
I looked over at Oak, and she returned my gaze, but much more skeptically.
"Yeah, no, there's no way you're being serious right now. I think you should maybe get some new meds because whatever you're on right now isn't working very well for you."
She addressed him again, looking the Hellhound up and down.
"Why don't you believe me? You've met the devil, things will only get more insane from now on. You're gonna need an open mind, darling."
He nodded his head somewhere into the darkness, gesturing to go that way with a friendly smile. Oakley looked at me nervously, waiting for me to say something.
"Are you asking us to go with you? Into the darkness?"
I asked after the Hellhound took a step towards the staircase.
"Yes, yes, come along now."
He repeated and disappeared into the shadows, so there was nothing left for us than to follow him.