The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023

6| The Awakening

"You're crazy!"

"Maybe, but why should that matter now?"

Cloud scoffs. "Are you being serious! I'm not killing anyone!"

"I never asked you to." The stranger replies calmly, as if discussing a topic simpler than murder but after a long while of waiting for an answer from Cloud, he sighs, figuring out a way to overcome their impasse. "Hunter."

Cloud follows the stranger's companion with his eyes, noticing immediately how each member of the Church of Babylon shudders as the six foot two behemoth stalks towards the first person in line.

"Why is he naked?"

"Was it this funny looking man?" the blonde stranger asks without answering Cloud's question, gesturing towards the man with snot involuntary dribbling from his nose, only breaking eye contact with Cloud to pick up a bloodied shovel off the ground. "Clearly that's a no."

Cloud barely has a moment to process Hunter's fingernails growing into jet black claws before he uses them to rip out the throat of the man kneeling less than a few feet away from him. The dying man's hands immediately fly for his throat, trying desperately to cling onto life as he drowns in his own blood.

Cloud takes in short, shallow, breaths, wanting to save himself the embarrassment of throwing up at a crime scene whilst simultaneously struggling to understand what he has just witnessed.

"Hunter."

"Okay, wait, wait, wait!" Cloud pleads, holding his hands up to slow things down. "Dude, seriously, we don't have to do this! I'm alive, okay. Plus I don't even know who you are and you don't know me!"

Cloud observes the pained expression on the stranger's face, feeling perplexed about how his words could have caused such a reaction in the man who has clearly hardened himself to the world.

"I am Helel Ben Sahar...and I'd hoped we'd never have to meet again in this lifetime."

In the corner of his eye Cloud witnesses one of the cultists attempt to escape before a large, black, shape leaps into the air and strikes him down. The force behind the first snap unsettles Cloud but he officially loses it once he sees that the legs of the victim have been completely removed from his body.

He hears the dying moans of the victim as he tries to drag himself away from the beast, followed swiftly by low, thundering, growls and a definitive snap as he is mauled to death.

"What the hell is that thing?" he yells.

"It's funny you should ask." Helel replies, leaning his weight against the shovel in his hand. "Because that is a Hellhound."

The beast silhouette is formless, like a living shadow, reminding Cloud of ink in water. Every step that the Hellhound takes leaves behind scorched paw prints as hot streams of smoke steam from its wet nose. It's almost as if its body is constantly trying to reform into a canine like vessel with amber glowing veins that resemble volcanic rock.

Cloud's heart finally begins to settle when suddenly the creature bursts into electric blue flames, immediately turning into a giant pile of ash within seconds. He stares at the smoking pile, perpetually rooted to the ground, every part of him screaming to run but fearing he may share the same fate as the last guy who attempted to flee.

The ash begins to shift like sand as Hunter claws his way out, still incredibly butt naked.

Cloud averts his eyes from the steaming man before his eyes accidentally see something they shouldn't. "He was just...and now he's...did I die and wake up in looney town?"

"No Cloud, you are still very much alive. And to reference back to what you said earlier, I do need to do this." Helel replies. "Abducting you was their first mistake, and mistakes I can forgive...but then they made you bleed...blood calls for blood."

"I don't think that's what they meant when they came up with that."

Helel shrugs his shoulders. "Now, tell me, which of these men are responsible and I'll consider freeing the others."

Cloud glances towards Lucas, hating the guy even more after catching the permanent scowl plaster over his face, knowing that if looks could kill he'd already be on a one way trip to the afterlife.

It's only once Cloud realises that Helel's honey coloured eyes are no longer on him that he wishes he'd thought harder about what he was doing.

"You're the youngest of your men and yet when I look into your eyes all I see is a deep hatred." Helel utters, dragging the shovel along the soil as he approaches the ringleader. "Now I've walked this earth longer than you could ever imagine but what's your excuse boy? What makes your soul burn with such passion?"

"If you're here then you know who he is and what that means for the rest of us!"

"If you know who he is, then you know why we don't talk about it my friend." Helel replies, dropping the act he has only barely managed to keep intact up to this point.

Lucas gulps, noticing the drop In Helel's tone as he kneels in front of him, looking far more menacing up close with his alien-like eyes. "You mean the treaty?"

"Is it still intact?" Helel inquires, growling into Lucas' ear with his eyes closed, listening carefully to his skyrocketing heartbeat.

"He doesn't know, he doesn't know, I swear!"

"My friend, you wouldn't be lying to me would you?"

"No."

"No, what?" Helel asks, grabbing Lucas by the face when he drops his head, forcing the two of them to lock eyes.

"No sir." Lucas croaks, tears streaking down the sides of his face now that he has come face to face with a real demon.

Helel lets go of Lucas, shaking his head disapprovingly at the shivering puddle of a mess. "Hunter."

"What do you want me to do with him?"

Helel nods his head towards the empty cross sticking out of the ground like a sore thumb. "They worship their god in hopes that they will ascend. I say we should help by giving him the burden of wings."

"And the rest?" Hunter asks, receiving his answer once Helel silently hands him the shovel.

When Helel turns to Cloud he falters for the second time tonight, despising himself for letting the boy affect his behaviour so drastically. "Why do you look at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like I have betrayed you...have I?" he asks, shepherding him away from the ensuing carnage with a soft touch.

"You said you'd let the others go."

"I said I'd consider it and I did. Sadly for them I'm not in a very forgiving mood tonight."

Helel stops walking alongside Cloud, noticing that one of the church's members is a lot younger than the others, even younger than Lucas, around Cloud's age.

On his hands and knees he feverishly whispers prayers to a god that does not hear his repetitious pleas, sweating buckets from every pore of his body as the others are dealt with in a wet, gruesome, fashion.

Helel drags the boy up by his collar, delivering a few choice words to the young one. "Go. I don't ever want to see your ugly face again. If I do, you'll wish you would have died here tonight."

"W-why?"

"Because more will come. I want you to tell them what has happened here tonight. Can you do that for me my friend?"

The boy nods his head enthusiastically, the rate of tears coming from his eyes dwindling. "Yes, yeah, I can do that. I can do that." he replies, gulping down his swelling emotions.

Helel pushes the boy away, watching him stumble on his feet like a new-born until he catches a rhythm and starts sprinting away.

"Cloud I can lie to everyone else but with you...I have never and will never lie to you, do you understand?"

Cloud locks eyes with Helel, letting himself believe those words for a mere moment. "If that's really true, then tell me, what the hell is happening to my life?"