Chapter Text
It was almost deafening. The eerie silence of the night, the stillness in the air, as if everything were frozen in time. The red leaves were unmoving in their branches, the animals quietly hidden away in their dens and burrows. The crunching of the slightly frosted grass and rotten leaves underneath Adam’s boots with each careful step he took were the only sounds in the vicinity, the only proof that time hadn’t stopped in its tracks. Winter has always been silent, especially in remote places deep in the countryside, but this was simply unnatural, as if death had seeped its very essence into the ground and claimed this place as its own.
Rumours spread amongst the townsfolk about a group of people that went into the mountains, something about a pilgrimage and offerings for their gods, Adam didn’t particularly care about such details. The only important detail was that they had been gone for almost two months now and not a single word from any of them. Not a single person came back, no letters from carrier pigeons, nothing but silence from the group. Concerning, but not an uncommon occurrence, something Adam wouldn’t normally bother himself with. But when the rumours only intensified and a troubled atmosphere enveloped the gossiping folks, Adam couldn’t help but ask one of the women for clarity. It wasn’t necessarily the fact that a group of people had gone missing that had them worried, but instead the fact that those people went missing in that place. The townsfolk had apparently warned the group about that place, a long abandoned village, cursed with death ever since a plague claimed every soul in that village about 200 years ago. Ever since then, life could not take place in the village as something evil had taken root in it. Or at least according to the townspeople. Simply put, the abandoned village was not the ideal place for religious activities. It was, however, an ideal place for a hunter to investigate.
So here was Adam, pistol in one hand, his lantern in the other. It had taken him nearly a month to reach this place, its remote location meant that no roads travelled here, and the steep and rocky landscape meant that horses were no good either. Needless to say, after almost three months, those pilgrims were, without a doubt, dead. Adam was no hero, that was a fact, but that didn’t mean he was going to simply stand by and let creatures of the night have their fill at devouring innocent people. At the very least, he would slay the filthy creatures and avenge its victims.
The sun had set about an hour ago, and yet, the darkness of the early night seemed to have consumed every speck of light. His own lantern wavered every so often, trembling either from the biting cold or fear from the encompassing darkness. Still, he marched on, his steps quieter as he went further into the village. The silence in the air would have anyone believe that this place was as abandoned as the rumours said, and even Adam was nearly inclined to believe it after hearing of nothing, sensing of nothing despite his keen senses, honed by years of successful hunts. But then, he finally heard something not from his own. An amused hum accompanied by soft whimpers. Adam took another quiet step towards the new source of sound. Crack. The sound did not come from him. Then an all too familiar crunch echoed in the air. Without wasting another breath, Adam shot his pistol in the direction of the sound, his lantern tossed in front of him as he grabbed his axe from the strap on his back, ready to strike.
Under the blanket of the night, there stood in front of Adam a beautiful man surrounded by corpses. It was almost serene looking, the way caramel waves framed its pale face as it cascaded down its back, its attire neat and ornate like that of a nobleman. But worst of all was its face – a cheery smile beneath the blood. The body of a man fell limp onto the pile as the creature released its clawed fingers from the victim’s twisted neck, before proceeding to casually plunge its own sharp claws through the fine shirt it wore and the flesh of its own shoulder, digging around between the muscles in search of something.
“There we go,” its voice calm and friendly as it pulled out a bullet from its bloody flesh. “Silver huh?” it mused, turning the bullet around between its fingers, as its shoulder swiftly mended itself back to how it was before, pale and pristine without so much of a scar. Its gaze turned towards Adam, green eyes glowing in the dark, one hand outstretched with the silver bullet in its palm. “They’re not easy to come by. Want them back?”
It was the worst case scenario for Adam. Vampires were tough creatures to deal with, nearly impossible to destroy for most hunters, especially newer ones. But Adam had slain a few in the past, the creatures had left him bedridden for weeks, but he survived them. His experience with the few vampires he had encountered made him aware of a few of its tricks, and in turn, he gained a few of his own. Vampires he could deal with. But this. Even amongst the most experienced and skilled hunters, such a creature was thought of as merely a myth. A bed time story to scare the new hunters into caution. A metaphor for the wickedness of the creatures of the night. But there it stood, in front of Adam, unharmed by the silver bullet that now sat on its open palm.
A demon.
The demon tilted its head to the side, its red stained lips curving up in amusement, glowing green eyes never leaving Adam. “No–”
Before it could utter another word, Adam shot out a barrage of bullets towards the demon and sprinted closer towards it, hoping to use the element of surprise to decapitate the creature and end its miserable existence. His axe collided against something that he was sure of, the impact, however, did not feel like the familiar slice of a blade through flesh. Instead, he found the sharp edge of his axe stopped by a mere forearm, a relaxed one at that. The axe cut through the silk fabric just fine, but all it managed to do against the skin underneath it was a small, thin cut so shallow that only a smidgen of red graced the sharp edge. A mere paper cut.
“Oh, you actually cut me.”
The demon had the audacity to act surprised, bringing its barely grazed forearm closer for inspection. Adam, on the other hand, had already jumped away from the demon, watching the small cut he made swiftly fade back into smooth, pale skin as if nothing ever happened. He took another step back, barely able to stop his hands from trembling as the direness of his situation finally, truly seeped into his skin.
“You really need to stop wasting such precious resources,” the demon playfully tutted as if scolding a misbehaving child. “Here, you can have them back,” it said as it opened its right palm out towards Adam, all of the silver bullets he had fired resting unbloodied on it.
It was then that Adam knew he wasn’t making it out of this place alive.
How long had he been struggling against this demon? Adam wasn’t sure anymore as he dodged around in the darkness, his lantern on the ground barely providing any illumination. His movements had become weaker and slower as he blocked and barely dodged powerful strikes, his stamina depleting by the minute and his injuries worsening with every movement. Worst of all, he was sure the demon wasn’t even trying to end him, at least not immediately. Adam knew it could be so much faster, so much stronger, it could end him whenever it wished to. And yet, here it was, hitting him with half hearted strikes that still left nasty bruises and fractured bones, purposely slowing its movements just so Adam could just barely keep up. It was dragging out this entire thing, a fight for survival for Adam, but merely a game for the demon. Just something to pass the boredom of the quiet night.
Normally, in situations such as this, Adam would be the one to drag the fight out. If his strength was not enough to kill a monster, he was confident that his stamina and endurance would last them until sunrise, where the night creature would then burn to ash. This time, however, he wasn’t sure he could last much longer. Every defensive move he made was a life saving one albeit one that took a hard toll on his mortal body. His heightened senses, every skill and every experience he had gained throughout his years as a hunter paled in comparison to the sheer power of a demon merely playing with its food. But still, Adam was not one to simply give up. Arrogance would eventually lead to mistakes, a demon would be no exception; Adam just had to wait for the opportunity, then he would strike.
With every strike from the demon that sent tremors from his axe to arms, Adam’s blocks and parries slowed down. He slowed down quicker than normally would’ve, though with purpose. It was risky, taking on even the smallest of strikes and nicks, but it seemed that his ploy was working. The demon, still intent on playing around, also slowed and weakened its attacks to match Adam’s own. Knowing that the demon had taken his bait, Adam wasted no time to go for a killing blow. With sudden renewed vigour, he swiftly ducked to the left, completely avoiding the demon’s next strike, and pulled a small dagger from his belt. It was a weapon he had never really used, something he only brought along as some kind of good luck charm. Supposedly, it was consecrated; made sacred by the pure waters of the lake near the Hunters’ headquarters. Adam was never a strong believer in gods, rather he was more in tune with nature and respected its capabilities. But if demons were real, then perhaps something akin to gods might also exist. With a swift and precise strike, Adam aimed the consecrated dagger straight up towards the demon’s neck.
Then he heard a sickening crack.
It was as if everything was in slow motion and yet he couldn’t do anything to stop it. The tip of his blade, barely touching the skin of the demon’s neck, suddenly swerved away to the right drawing a thin red line. His forearm went along with the blade, bent in a way that shouldn’t be. Before he could even fully register what had been done to his arm, an impact suddenly collided directly against his left side, and he swore he heard his ribs crack as he was sent flying into a small, wooden house.
The dilapidated house crumbled with his crash, rotten beams of wood and stone tiles collapsed on top of him, sending a thick cloud of dust into the cold night air. Everything was a blur and the warm liquid that slowly dripped down his eye only made his vision worse. The world felt like it was spinning around Adam but his body was stuck to… whatever it was he had landed on. Breathing was increasingly becoming difficult as dust collected atop of him and an unbearable pain, both sharp and dull, covered his entire body. He barely had a moment of reprieve before he heard the clatter of stone tiles and pieces of wood move around him. Suddenly the air around him became more crisp as a cold hand wrapped tight around his neck and easily lifted him out of the debris. Through his blurred vision, he saw a pair of green eyes looking almost pitifully down on him, thin lips that curved just slightly up.
“You cut me again,” the demon said, sounding pleasantly surprised, as its fingers traced along the ghost of the cut that Adam inflicted earlier. “Good aim too!”
The demon then pulled Adam closer towards it, its grip on his throat becoming tighter and tighter every second, quickly depriving him of much needed oxygen. “You might just be the strongest human that I would ever kill. Be proud of yourself.”
The world was quickly slipping away from Adam’s consciousness as that same cold hand slowly closed his airways, claws digging into the skin of his neck until red trickled down his neck. Adam was swiftly losing his senses as darkness crept up the edges of his vision. He was going to die. In an abandoned village in the middle of nowhere. He wouldn’t even get the grace of being buried as he was about to be eaten by a demon. Not that it mattered. No one would be able to find him here, and no one would come looking anyway. He did what he could, that was all that mattered.
Adam had accepted his fate, and as his eyes were slowly welcoming the darkness, a blur of white surfaced from the edges of his vision and he thought he saw the demon in front of him look genuinely surprised for once.
And then the world fell.