I woke up on soft grass. The snow around had melted under my body heat.
I had no clothes on, but something was coating my skin.
I knew what it was.
I HAVE HONORED MY WORD.
You’re a monster.
I LIVE TO HUNT.
The beast did not hide what it had done. Or maybe he could not hide it anymore since I was whole again.
I did not want to remember what happened to the two vampires. No one, not even them, deserved that.
Still, I did not feel guilty. It was their devious actions that led to their end. What truly darkened my soul were the poor woman in the house basement.
Why did you kill them?
PITY. LAW.
Because they were too weak?
YES.
What is the myth of the Conscient? I tried.
A STORY THAT WAS WRITTEN BY NO ONE.
Can’t you explain normally?
But it was gone. It had spoken more than usual, probably because it was in a good mood.
I cried in silence.
After a few minutes, I got back up and tried to get a grasp of my surroundings.
We had steered her towards a park, somewhere. Where the kill would have been more glorious than on a human-made structure.
She had been a good hunt; she deserved a good end.
At least that is how I had felt.
I was in a park now. Without clothes. Again. Except around it were only skyscrapers and houses. I would not manage to go back home unnoticed.
I knew what I needed to do.
I went back to the killing spot.
She was there, of course, her remains a testament of her violent end. I expected her to turn into ashes, but unfortunately, she had not.
It took time to find the pelvis with the right scraps of her jeans. She had to have a phone in one of the pockets. Maybe it was not broken.
It was a flip phone, how old-fashioned. I opened it. The screen was broken, but I could still turn it on and dial. Good. There was no password or other kind of protection. I walked away from the scattered remains, and tried to remember Marie’s phone number, in vain.
No one took the time to remember numbers.
Wait, my phone was still in the flat.
I dialed my number.
After a few rings, I heard a familiar voice on the other end.
“Gray?” She guessed or hoped.
“Marie? Are you okay?”
“ARE YOU OKAY!? YOU’RE ASKING ME???” She yelled.
My ears rang for a bit.
“Gray? Where are you! What happened? There are cops everywhere, some of them are in your room, they’re asking me to go back home, Stan had to go to his girlfriend's, but told me he thought he saw Igris in a BMW, and then…”
“Wow. Calm down.” Stan had been that close to us? My head throbbed, I felt sick. Maybe I was the one who needed to relax. “I’m unharmed. I… well I need clothes.”
There was silence on the other side of the line.
“Marie?”
“You’re making a bad joke.”
“No. The vampire came, into the apartment, my security detail got killed. She broke my window. I, well it’s long to explain, but I’m somewhere in the Baltimore Park, I can’t send you my position, this phone is broken.” And probably doesn’t have apps installed.
“What happened?”
“I’ll explain. But I think it’s over. Well, I’m sure some of it is.”
I heard her sigh, relieved.
“I’m coming, stay where you are. Keep that broken phone by your side, I’ll call it back when I’m there.” And she hung up.
I heard her. Then I was thinking about my last sentence. Miranda had been quite vocal that others would avenge her as she was torn into pieces. The world of the supernatural was bigger than I thought, and the Beast had broken some important rules. Well, if we considered its past, IT most likely had broken all of them.
IT had tried to keep its word, even I had recognized that. It only attacked four, even though while it was stalking its prey, it could have killed hundreds on the way.
I also had to admit, IT was an exceptional hunter. It had managed to move in a busy city as a giant wolf without being seen once, while still catching up with a running vampire, twice.
What bothered me the most was that I felt I could have done something to control him. It made the death of the two poor souls even more painful. What if I could have saved them? Part of me had agreed with the monster, that they were too far gone and that killing them was almost kind. Was that why I couldn’t stop him?
I had no way to know.
It was no use to think about now. I used some snow to wash the coagulated blood on my skin. The moon was waxing, soon it would show its glory in full.
I was in Ray’s body. Marie would be angrier seeing it naked.
I changed back to Igris’s.
The phone rang.
“Yes?”
“I’m there.”
I could hear her say that from a few yards to the east.
“I heard you, I’m coming to you.”
She was in the same direction as the remains of the body.
“Wait there.” I added, too late.
I heard a shriek through the phone and the sky.
I arrived immediately after. I had gone too far away from the body. I had not wanted to be found next to a crime scene.
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And now Marie was vomiting on the ground.
“Hey.” I got closer. “Let’s leave this place, okay. Nothing nice to see.”
“I’ve already seen enough.” She countered, but still took my arm. “You’re freezing.”
“Yeah… I had to wash in snow.”
“Oh.”
She turned her head back towards the massacre, but I held her in place.
“Don’t.”
“I could barely see; it was so dark. I just followed the smell from the main path. Was that…her?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Oh.” She repeated. “So you’re the one who...”
“No. Yes. IT took control. But I let it take it. I had no other choice. She was going straight to our flat again to pick up my phone. She was going to kill everyone there.”
She was shivering. I held her close.
“Don’t.” She pushed me away. “You smell terrible.”
I was a bit hurt but could not deny her claims. “Sorry.”
“No, I'm sorry, I could have formulated that better.”
“No, I’d do the same. I need a shower urgently.”
“Here are your clothes. It is really becoming a habit. I don’t want it to become normal.”
I dressed in the dark. She had not given me strange clothes this time, probably rushing to take anything that was close by.
“I think it’ll be the last time.” I answered.
“What happened?”
“Just as I feared, she followed the cops. She saw the security detail around the flat and concluded I was in there. But she did not recognize me.”
“Because you’re Igris all the time.”
“I’m Gray.”
“You understand me, you’re under Igris’s guise.”
“Yes. So she just decided to ask someone inside my flat where I was. And she killed the cops beforehand, so she would not be bothered again.”
“Oh God.”
I continued telling her what had happened as we left the park. She hailed a taxi and my story was cut short.
I had arrived at the chasing part, anyway.
Once our silent ride ended, Marie talked first.
“Those poor girls.”
“I...I feel horrible.”
“Good. You should. When you stop feeling bad about it, that’s when you’ll have to worry.”
“I murdered them, Marie. How can I still look at myself in the mirror, how could you?”
She sighed.
“You may have ended their lives, but the real monsters were those that kidnapped and tortured. I believe everyone can be saved, and that your doubts removed that chance is sad. Not evil, not monstrous. Just sad. It happens so often in my field of work. People who are abandoned in their broken world. ‘Nothing can be done.’ ‘Too expensive.’ At least your actions were motivated by clemency, not laziness or greed.”
“I don’t really understand what motivated ITS actions though.”
“No matter, because that may be part of you now, but it is not you. By the way, welcome to my home.”
“Wha?”
So tired, emotionally grieving, and lost in thoughts, I hadn’t even noticed the taxi was bringing us to a side of town I knew nothing about. It was a nice albeit small home, in a middle-class residential area. It had a tiny lawn and a vegetable garden.
“It’s really not the right time for me to meet your mom.”
“You already met her at the flat a few times.”
“I didn’t meet her as a girl, or as your girlfriend. I don’t even know if it’s the right word.”
She sighed.
“Yup, it’s way too complicated to be put into a single word like that. Especially as I could as well call you my boyfriend, it would be as right and wrong. But we have no choice. You are in shock Gray; I saw you blank out multiple times. Going to your parents is unthinkable, and our flat is closed. Your phone has two hundred messages or something like that, but we need to plan what to say to the police, your parents, and a detective King who’d like a drink with you?”
“Hey.”
But she did not let it go and seemed even genuinely annoyed.
“Who’s she?”
“Is it really the moment?”
“Well I…wait. Am I jealous?”
“Well, you’re acting like you are.”
She paused.
“Shit. Sorry Gray. But shit. Maybe I didn’t bring you to my mom’s just because it's logical.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
I felt warm inside.
“You know what. That makes it better, I think.”
“What does?”
“The fact that you just want me to meet your mom as your ‘it’s complicated'.”
She smiled softly.
“Let’s get inside, I’m cold.”
“Sure.”
“MOom, I’m home.”
“Marie, are you okay?” Ana, Marie’s mother, appeared out of the dining room on the left, dressed like the most stereotypical American housewife ever, oven mitten in one hand, and spatula covered in tomato sauce in the other.
Well, I hoped it was tomato sauce.
Smelled like tomato sauce.
But under her guise of charming mother, you had to remember Ana had been a single mother for years.
It could be something else.
I made myself scarce, as Ana went for a giant hug towards her daughter, dripping red sauce all over the floor.
“Oh Honey. I heard the news. How are you? How’s Ray. Are you okay? What happened.”
“I’m fine. We’re all fine.”
“Should we call the police? That crazy lady knows you’re Ray’s friend now, no? Don’t you need protection?”
“No. It’s going to be okay, she’s d…”
I coughed loudly. We were not supposed to know that already. In all likeliness, the body would only be found the next morning, when joggers would be running at hours everything else still slept.
Ana still didn’t register my presence.
“Ray though. The poor thing, he seemed so sweet, you can’t stay with him anymore, it’s too dangerous.”
“Mom.”
“I know, he's your best friend, but I won’t let anything hurt you.”
“MOM.”
Marie finally dragged herself out of her grasp.
“Calm down. Everything is going to be all right. And Gra…Ray’s okay too. I won’t leave him when he needs me. You know that.”
“Yes…yes…but…”
“And this is Igris, but she likes to be called Gray, she’s my…well she’s part of Ray’s extended family.”
“Oh.” It was nice not to be inexistent anymore, but that stare was scary.
The terminator was evaluating me right now.
“Is she your friend? Is she staying the night? She’ll need the sofa.” If I didn’t act now, I would metaphorically be crushed under a steamroller.
“Hi Miss Ana, I’m Igris, but call me Gray. I won’t stay long, but I was living in your daughter’s flat, and I needed a place to be for a short while, and a shower. I’m sorry we could not be acquainted in better conditions.”
“Living with...what about your parents?” It wasn’t rejection, just another inquisitive information to store in the death machine’s data bank.
“I would need to go to Ray’s.”
That seemed to change her mind.
“I see. That won’t do then. You can borrow a bath towel no problem. If you need to wash clothes, ask my daughter. Then, when she’ll fail at that, you can come bother me. Where did you fall into? The sewers?”
I really hated lying.
“No. Much worse. But I’d like to reiterate; your daughter is safe.”
Ana seemed pensive, she moved a reddish grey tuft of hair with her right hand, staining part of her right cheek with the potential tomato sauce.
“Go take a shower then. Have dinner with us. You’ll tell me everything there is to know about you and what your relationship with my child is, and then I’ll decide where you’ll sleep tonight.”
I laughed. “I accept your terms of surrender.” I provoked.
That made her grin.
“I like that one already. You can totally see she and Ray are related. How good kids can come out of such a family, I’ll never understand. But then again, the opposite is also true.” She changed target. “Look at you Marie. Did you pierce your lips again? Do you know how easy it is for piercings to infect? I’ll bring you to my office one day or another, that’ll make you stop wanting to put metal in your body.” She turned her attention back to me for a few seconds. “Gray, the bathroom is up the stairs on the right. You don’t have to hurry; the pizza isn’t even done yet.” Then she concentrated on pestering her daughter again.
I felt it was time for me to go shower. Marie stared at me, begging for help.
I ignored her.
As I entered the bathroom, the first thing I saw was the state of my hair. It was disheveled, to say the least, and with my somber expression, I had to credit Ana for not having called the cops.
I took a long, hot shower, and washed my hands and nails thoroughly.
Pieces of… things were stuck under them.
As I stepped out of the shower and was rid of the smell permeating my skin, the one on my clothes was much more prominent.
I had worn them less than an hour.
I sighed, draped myself in a pink bath towel, and opened the bathroom door.
“Marie?” But something else was waiting outside.
“Urh?” Barked/whined the little chihuahua.
It stood there, looking at me, undecided at what to do with me.
“Where is Jackie?” I heard Marie ask downstairs.
“Oh? I didn’t tell your friend to close the staircase door, did I? He always tries to go upstairs.”
“Mom!”
“Does she dislike dogs?”
“No but…”
Marie was coming in my direction, which was good.
The chihuahua was still blocking my way, albeit in an ineffective manner.
I stared it down.
It tried to challenge my gaze.
DISGRACEFUL. HOW LOW WE FELL.
I suddenly felt true hatred for the poor creature ten times smaller than me. I had to remember that the thing I was harboring inside myself had come from a time where dogs did not exist, and where wolves had just begun being tamed.
I agree. It is not its fault though, your anger is unjustified.
IT did not answer, but my sudden emotion flared down.
I thought it was over until I realized the chihuahua was still challenging me with his eyes. I couldn’t stop a snarl from echoing in my throat.
The little dog ran at full speed towards the staircase, and I heard Marie exclaim “Jackie? What are you…?”
She then saw me standing in the corridor.
“Oh, you met the big, bad, wolf.”
The way she looked at my almost naked body send shivers to my spine.
I licked my lips and growled.
Marie stopped dead in her tracks.
“I need new clothes.” My voice was raspy, expressed through great effort.
Marie looked dazed, then after a few seconds refocused.
“Oh. Really?”
“Those, stink.” I pointed towards the bathroom, even though she could not see what I was pointing at.
“Sure. I’ve got some clothes in my old room.” She moved towards me, then stopped as she arrived at my level.
I was still substantially taller than her.
“My room is at the end of the hallway… could you?”
I hesitated.
“Honey? Why is Jackie shivering like that? Something happened.” Shouted Ana.
I decided to let her through.
She slapped my butt.
I immediately responded in full, pinning her on the wall.
“Honey?”
“Yeah Mom, don’t worry. Gray just needs some new clothes.” She shouted back, before saying quietly towards me. “You can’t do a thing, or you’ll have my mother’s wrath directed straight at you.”
I growled again but freed her from my grasp.
“Your eyes have a golden tint.” She noticed.
“It’s because I’m hungry.”
She laughed, then left towards her room.
“Wait for me in the bathroom, I’ll bring some things. Pizza is in the oven so you probably won’t have time to dry your hair if you don’t hurry up.”
I sighed and obeyed reluctantly.