DAEMONIUM

Chapter One: Critter Hunt

Daemonium

Chapter One: Critter Hunt

"Hunter? Do you like to hunt?"

A wry smile and a brief rolling of my eyes answered that question for me. Fucks sake, like I haven't heard that line before in my thirty years of life. I gather the few bags of items I had purchased, nodded my thanks to the clerk behind the counter and walked outside.

The fall air hit me immediately as I exited the hardware store. The smell of rain and piles of wet leaves flooded my nose. “do I like to hunt?” well if you're asking me I'd have to say yes and no. You see I don't hunt the things other people hunt for like Deer, Elk, Turkey, shit like that is just what normal people do with too much time on their hands and a lust for violence.

No I hunt “other” things.

Things that would send most people into therapy and a life of drug addiction and alcohol...

The snap of my zippo clicking open brought me out of my thoughts. The unlit cigarette already perched between my lips out of pure habit. I hadn't realized I'd taken it out of the pack already. I should really quit. Lighting the cigarette I take a deep drag off the delicious nicotine filled smoke rushing into my lungs “yeah, I like to hunt I guess” talking to no one in particular as I exhaled the smoke slowly and began walking to my truck.

You see I'm not like normal people, Yes my name actually is Hunter and Yes I do like to hunt. It's pretty much my life's work, but I don't hunt the way most people think when they originally ask me that question. I was born with a rare genetic disorder, you may have heard of it? called “My Mom tried to overdose on crank while pregnant”... poor bitch, couldn't even do that right. And now here I am, thirty years old and a life of shitshow after shitshow already under my belt.

You see when my mother overdosed, she technically "died" for ten minutes before the EMT's were able to resuscitate her. During that time according to her she went to hell. Yup you heard me right, Demons, Devils the whole shebang.  666, Lucifer, yeah you get it, moving on. When she was brought back something followed her, clinging to her damned soul and apparently when it saw poor little innocent me trapped inside her womb I was the perfect candidate for a demonic possession. Yeah I know, a possessed baby, Not just some screaming shitfactory either, but an actual possessed baby. But hey it wasn't all bad I basically got a father figure I never had while growing up, which is just slightly less terrifying than what I imagine my real father was like. I'm told he was a real prick. One of those hard ass military types that was more at home in some third world conflict than back in the states raising a bastard kid and settling down.

Anyway I'm getting off topic, having a demon squeezing your soul like a stress ball comes with a few perks, number one, I can see and communicate with the whole crazy spectrum, Ghosts, Cryptids, Ghouls, Demons, even Angels. It's like having Google translate permanently stuck in your ear. You may not always understand it but you still get the general idea behind what they're saying. And two, I can't fucking die. I mean I've tried, my brooding teenage years saw to that. But no, the entity that's now bound to me on a level I can't begin to comprehend makes sure of that. I heal quickly from shit that would otherwise let others retire on disability within hours and if I do actually “Die” I always wake up a few days later naked laying in some random location like a fucking Costco parking lot with a wicked headache and a nice new scar to remind me not to be that stupid again. And let me tell you, I have quite a few of those. Physically and emotionally.

Oh yeah, in case you're wondering about the demon that's stuck to me, I've named him Frank, I don't know why I called him Frank exactly, it just popped in my head one day and I could tell he didn't like it much and so the name stuck. I can see Frank, I just can't hear him. I get thoughts that aren't my own pushed into my head whenever he's trying to communicate with me. An otherworldly six sense I'll call it.