The First Huntsman

Distant Utopia

One eye opened on the hunter's boot, and then another, followed by a multitude until his boot was filled with black orbs of eyes, twitching madly as if searching for something beyond its sight.

And in one snap, they all looked straight at him.

His body ceased to move, no more breath nor heartbeat.

A brief shadow passed over him. His vision tilted to the right and then upside down.

The screams and voices went silent. A dull ringing filled his ears.

Ah.

Was this death? He didn't know.

He never did.

/-/

The hunter sighed beneath his bandana, not minding the specks of blood that splattered near his eye. 

He never liked killing for the sake of it. But he knew these type of people would never listen without a push. That, and he had long been desensitized of encountering death and viscera.

Flicking off the blood and matter that stuck to his saw, he walked to each of the dead bodies and closed their empty, horror-filled eyes. 

Closing the eyes of the final body, he turned his eyes towards the rest of the travelers. They all stared at him with varying degrees of disbelief and terror.

But none came close to Valerie's expression, one he was eerily familiar with.

He knew that face. The shock, and fear palpable in her pupils and sweat. The face of one that couldn't comprehend what she was seeing in front of her. He had been there, after all.

She had been gifted with insight.

The moment he looked at her, she could not stay rooted in place. She stumbled and fell on her butt, her eyes alternating between the hunter and the drawn line that was the equivalent of her life.

Every move he made, breathing, or even just a twitch of the finger, Valerie observed him if he were ever to make a move, ready to bolt away at a moment's notice.

"Leave."

The word registered in her cracked mind. Of all the knowledge and insight that had invaded her psyche, that was the only word that made sense to her.

She had to leave this presence, somewhere far where it couldn't chase her down. 

So she tucked tail and ran, leaving a puddle of urine on the soil where she once stumbled on. The rest of the travelers followed and ran screaming for their lives with frantic breathings and pale faces.