Sam put one last rock on top of the old man’s grave, a flat one, big enough to cover all of his face. She had spend the last couple of minutes building a small cross out of wooden pieces, which she had placed carefully on top of the hill of house remains.
It was his wish to die here, so it’s fine if I leave him here, she thought.
She made sure all of the rocks were placed in the right way. He was supposed to at least have a slightly honourable tomb.
“Sorry that I can’t do more than that for you. You really deserve more than this.”
A thought snapped back inside of her mind. She had almost forgotten.
She rummaged around inside of the side pocket of her coat, pulled out a small box, then placed it down next to the cross. “I promised you to give them back to you once we defeated that thing. I’m sure you would have been able to make it… you know… stop smoking.” A single tear hit the box and got absorbed by it, lightly changing the colour of the brand names logo printed onto it. “I know you tried to better yourself”
A gentle heartbeat filled the silence: “Ba-dump. Ba-dump.”
First, it was only a gentle melody, a quiet rhythmical humming in a repeating pattern. Then, it got louder.
Sam, who had been caught up in her emotions, noticed this sound a couple of seconds later, its intensity slowly towering higher as she turned around.
Inside the middle of the room, surrounded by slow circling waves of sand dragging themselves across the floor, the pile of gore and remains slowly emerged, spiralling upwards in a snake like shape, spinning and twisting around itself. It twitched and pulsed, dozens if not hundreds of human innards moving and jerking while it towered higher and higher.
All of the organs spread across the room, intact or not, slowly crawled towards the centre, moving to the beat of the heart. They added themselves to the pile, fastening its growth as the winds grew faster.
Sam raised her gun, aimed at the centre where she expected the heartbeat to come from. Her breathing was calm this time, her aim focused. She pulled the trigger.
“Bang!”
The bullet pierced through the centre, jerking the mass backwards at impact. A demonic screeching emerged as it stumbled and turned for a couple of seconds, then regained its balance.
Sam planted hesitant steps backwards. The sharp stench of gore filled her nostrils. She kept backing off, let the firearm fall to the floor. How was it able to survive the attack from earlier? And how the fuck didn’t it die by a shot through the heart? Did I miss? Sam’s thoughts circled.
For a slight moment, Sam was able to get a glimpse of vision between the howling winds, and she was able to glance upon the creature in front of her.
So this thing killed Pat?
The pulsing mass had extended its shape to something which roughly resembled a human figure. Thin arms, covered in veins and muscles. Dozens of exposed lungs hanging off its lower chest area, inflating and deflating in differently fast paces. Its lower body was consisting of a mash of red mass, probably the organs which weren’t usable otherwise and were now in charge of moving it forward. Its disproportionately long arms got dragged over the floor as it rolled forwards slowly, collecting the remaining parts of its mass.
The sound of beating heart got louder and louder. The wind and sand whipped across the room at a fastening pace, blocking Sam’s vision more and more.
Her senses got attacked from different sources and her body wanted to give in, yet she noticed a detail which she had missed before. Something that might be a shimmering glint of hope in the black blizzard of sand and dust.
She grabbed her knife from underneath her coat, gripped it tight and pushed forward. The strong winds pushed her backwards, the dry sand making it hard to even breathe. One step at a time, she battled the forces of nature.
She could literally feel the sand dry out her skin, roughly wearing it down and making it more pale and vulnerable. Her shaking hand clenched onto the knife as if it was, quite literally, her life line.
Another step forward.
The beating of the heart had reached deafening sounds. It hammered against her eardrums, violated her senses. The pattern remained steady, the same pace as before. But the jerking of the mass stayed inconsistent, like each of the organs were working at a different pace of their own.
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This must be it!
Through the force of whipping sand only a rough shape was visible. The sand blocked most of Sam’s vision, her glasses being slowly worn down. She shut her eyes almost entirely, trying to keep her vision while strutting closer with heavy steps.
Her legs almost gave in, her stamina rapidly declining. She manifested her last strength and kept moving forward. It was Pat’s last wish for her to stay alive, to keep going. And she would do so, whatever it took.
Then, with one final step, she managed to fall inside of the eye of the storm.
Silence.
An area about as big as 4 metres in diameter, a cylindrical shape of calmness. In the middle of it, the pulsing creature stood inside of its hell. The organic mass had started rooting on the ground, slowly embedding itself inside of the concrete to break lose small pieces of rocks. The small rocks were fed into the storm, probably adding to the mass of sand.
Sam checked if her knife was still there... it was. A parched swallow followed by a step forward. She glanced upon the creature, said: “I see. This is how he almost killed you…”
The being had grown in size significantly while she had been fighting against the currents of the storm. It had used this time to collect all of the organs and blood off the walls, which had now been added to its main body. The most of the organs were severely damaged, useless, but some held that thing together and working.
The thoughts circled inside of Sam’s head, If this thing really got hit by the explosion it should have died.
A cough-like rattling was audible across the eye of the storm. The creature leaned forward, as if to keep Sam away. Its fleshy parts kept growing together – especially close to its chest area – as if to build an armor out of flesh.
Sam had seen enough. This thing deserves to die.
She leaped closer to the epitome of horror, tensed her fingers around the grip of the knife. She pushed away all of her fears, fixed her gaze on the creature and started cutting away pieces of it.
Stab by stab, cut by cut, piece by piece, getting closer to the deafening pulsing sound of a heartbeat.
It was as if every fibre of her body commanded her to keep going, to keep slicing, to take revenge for her fallen friend. She know knew – its body itself was useless and weak.
Its only purpose is to keep it alive. The sand is the danger, it uses it to kill, to harvest. The organs are its bounty, its purpose.
A big piece of vein got cut through as the figure stumbled on its place, still being rooted on the ground. The deepest parts of the demon were now exposed – Dozens of hearts, all beating in different rhythms.
One of them though, matched the beating of the deafening sound.
Sam held her knife with two hands and let out a scream of anger which even drowned out the beating. She brought the blade down, impaling the heart and leaving it shivering for one last second before it ceased to beat.
The room got silent.
The winds stopped.
The demon collapsed into a pile of dead meat.
“This time, stay dead.”
---
5 Years later
Sam readjusted her rather worn down black leather jacket. Today is the big day, might as well look good while making the first impression, she thought.
She walked down the hallway of the office building. Familiar faces greeted her, gesturing in a friendly manner. A handful of hunters were currently having coffee break, discussing on what their most honourable hunt was.
Two minutes, one coffee in hand more and a couple of words spoken later, she found herself in front of the boss’s door. She cleared her throat, made sure her haircut was in shape.
She knocked, awaited an answer.
A lightly muffled voice could be made out, “Ah, yes. Come in.”
Sam pressed the doorknob inwards, swinging the door open.
“All of the details will get explained to you as soon as your training starts. Don’t worry, Sam is an experienced hunter. You will be in good hands.”
The boss nodded into Sam’s direction, suggesting the male next to him to pay attention. “There she is already, two minutes to late… as usual.”
“Sorry boss, th–”
“Yea, yea. Coffee first, then work. I get it.” The boss managed a dense smile.
The younger male approached Sam, held out a hand. “Hello miss, my name is Henry. I am going to be your student from today on. I already heard a lot of stories about you.”
“Oh really?” Sam raised a brow, said, “Hope they didn’t tell you the butcher one, that one really sucked. Anyways, just call me Sam. I’m gonna kick your ass, but I’m sure we will get along,” she shook his hand with firm grip.
The boss sat down on his expensive looking office chair, leaned back. He raised his voice, said, “Sam is one of our highest ranked hunters. One of the best in this association actually.”
He lit up a cigar, put it between his lips as he continued speaking, “She once joined here as an orphan as well, but she eventually managed to climb up the ladder to success.”
“Learned from the best…” a sad smile painted Sam’s face as she responded.
“Well, now,” she gestured towards the door, “let’s get out of this boring office. We have some paranormal ass to kick.”
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