“Dumbest idea ever.” Marie was laying down on the leathery couch of the empty reading room while I was standing next to the small window, alternating between looking outside and at her.

“Could have gone better, I’ll admit.” I agreed.

The Yür was back in the forest, trapping us again.

After having fled the coast, I had reached the house long before it, even with Marie on my back. She had woken up soon after.

That it had soothed my mind was an understatement.

“So, what did you find out?” She asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You said you found a way to get rid of it.”

“Oh? You heard that?”

“Yup.”

“I know why the Yür isn’t used that often.” I began. “Or well, I’ve got a theory.”

“Wasn’t it used sporadically because it is hard to create?”

“Since when are spells ‘hard’?” I retorted. “Either you know them and can use them, either you don’t know them or can’t.”

“You still need to learn to control a spell, learn to get proficient in using it, and this one needs ingredients to work. What’s more, it is not a spell but a curse.”

“How are those different from one another?” I countered.

“I have no idea.” Marie honestly answered.

“Henry told us, everything ‘magic’ is based on this dark energy thing, a curse shouldn’t be different. For sure, having to sacrifice multiple humans to hunt one or two humans is costly, but Alik doesn’t strike me as the kind to mind much about that kind of price. What’s more, I don’t believe it needs living humans. Just human blood. Would explain the smell if the blood constituting it was rotten for months.”

“You’re reaching, Gray.” Marie noted.

“Maybe. In any case, let’s assume it’s not that hard to create, that it’s super useful, that you can control it from long distances, that it’s virtually invincible and has no thoughts of its own, so on and so on.”

Marie shook her head. “No, that’s illogical. The Yür would be something commonly used if it was so good, Astarte and Henry would have been much more knowledgeable about it. The Encyclopedia wouldn’t be so vague! Even the chapter after it, about a mythical serpent monster that no one has ever seen, is more detailed than the one about the Yür!”

“Exactly.” I agreed. “Which means…”

“…which means you’re wrong. I’m sorry Gray but…”

“Or that it actually has such a glaring weakness, vampires and witches who know the spell don’t want to use it often.” I interrupted her.

Marie gave me a quizzical look. “Ok…that’s possible. They don’t want to use it, because each time they do, it risks revealing a method to render it completely useless.”

“That would also explain the lack of details in the Encyclopedia. It gives enough for people to be scared and not ask questions…”

This theory made sense to me, and considering Marie’s face, it was beginning to make sense to her as well.

“…because if they tried to remove every info about it completely, it would be suspicious…” She finished my sentence for me.

“See where I’m going with this?” I asked.

“Let’s say you’re right. What would that weakness be?” Marie inquired back.

“Pictures. They use pictures. That’s the weakness.”

Marie’s raised an eyebrow. “All right, I’ll play; Of course not, Ray, that is the discovery that made the curse stronger.” She said with a deadpan voice.

“Ah come on, sarcasm.”

“Gray, I’m deadly tired, I almost drowned, and I haven’t had sex in almost three days.”

I grinned: “Fine, I’ll stop torturing you then. You were right Marie, the Yür’s hunting method, somehow, is based purely on physical appearance.”

“Oh! So, the creature sees the picture, but it doesn’t hunt the picture…”

“…because the Yür has to hunt what constitutes it, in this case, human blood.” I approved before continuing: “So, it hunts the only thing that looks like the picture AND that has human blood.”

“Its new prey.” Marie concluded.

We stared at each other in silence for a short instant.

Marie scratched her left temple. “That would be a pretty glaring weakness, but I don’t suppose a fake mustache would be enough…”

“Astarte said that, after twenty years, it just vanished. It can follow you wherever you are, so disguises would probably not work, but maybe the natural changes in your body and face would be enough.”

“Isn’t Astarte immortal? She doesn’t change.”

“She is immortal, yes. But cannot change? I don’t know. Maybe she has an alternative form as a seagull, we never asked.”

Marie’s gaze rose to the ceiling. “A seagull? That’s the best you could find?”

“The Yür stopped going after me when I was wolf, you said it yourself. They didn’t have a picture of wolf-me. And even then, the Yür doesn’t have wolf blood, so it won’t register me as potential prey. So, when I’m a wolf, it has only one prey left, you. Which means…”

“Aha, you want to transform me into a werewolf! I knew this was coming! Noooo, don’t bite me foul creature!” She dramatically countered.

“…I’ve bitten you already…a lot. Didn’t seem to work then.”

“Mhh. True, I forgot.” Marie lied ostensibly.

“As if. Pervert.”

“I heard that!”

“I wasn’t really whispering it.”

“Meany.”

We looked at each other.

Marie broke the silence.

“So, what is your plan?”

“Erm…” I squirmed.

“Oh no.” Marie sighed. “This expression…I’m not going to like this at all.”

“Well…if the Yür has only one prey left when I’m wolf, if it finishes hunting it, it should transform into ashes, right?”

“…right?”

“And we’ve hypothesized that it’s not hunting you, it is just hunting something that looks like you and that has human blood.”

“…yes?”

“So why not just take a picture of you, put some of your blood on it, and throw it at the creature?”

“…”

I coughed.

“That’s your brilliant way of getting rid of it?” Marie stared at me.

“I guess?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Whatever…” She sighed again. “Why not. We use your phone, though. Also, lets try a picture of the both of us with my blood on it. Should work the same, right?”

“Erm…” I thought about it. “It should, but why?”

“Because I won’t be able to throw your phone precisely at the Yür from a safe distance. You’ll have to handle that part. I can’t imagine your wolf-self doing that. You know, no hands?”

“Oh. Hadn’t thought of that.”

“Great, I am still needed for something.” Marie closed her eyes.

“Don’t say that.”

“I’m not serious, at least not completely. If this dumbassery works though…I’ll really feel like an idiot.”

“You don’t think it will work?”

“I’m certain it will. How could something so dumb fail? Your phone though. It is more recent, makes better pictures, and, well, it is your idea, I’m not taking responsibility.

I laughed at the profound lack of confidence

“Selfie time?”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“Yup.”

“Aouch.” Marie said painfully.

“Sorry.”

“Not too much, you don’t want to break your phone.” She remarked.

I had made a small cut on her hand. Blood was pouring on the electronic device. I didn’t like the liquid to be there. It belonged inside my girlfriend. Still, I covered my phone with it. It was turned on, showing a picture of the both of us, looking completely deadly tired over a nice leather couch in a blank room.

“It is waterproof.” I informed her.

“I doubt they tested that feature with blood.” She retorted.

“It is enough, I think.” I informed her.

“Perfect. Go then, nothing stopping you.” Marie urged me.

“I’d prefer if you came with me.” I commented.

“When I was there last time, we almost died. You’ll just be gone to throw the phone, see what happens, then come back. You were gone away longer hunting rabbits.”

“I was closer to you then.”

“You decide Gray. But I think if something goes wrong, I better not be in your way.”

I thought about it for a few seconds.

“Ok. You stay. I’ll be back soon.” I kissed her. “It’s not hurting too much?”

“Pfrrr, this?” She showed me her cut hand. “It’s already stopped bleeding; I’ve done much worse to summon Satan in the past.”

I laughed. “I knew it.”

“Shhh, it’s a secret, don’t tell my mom.”

“Stop kidding, she definitely helped you.”

It was Marie’s turn to laugh. “Go save the day, wolf.”

She kissed me back, and I was gone.

I ran as fast as I could. Every second I was away from her filled me with anxiety.

The Yür had moved a bit. It was slightly closer to us than before, and significantly bigger. It was still stuck in place by Marak’s energy. The witch had to have gotten help somehow. A magic item? He couldn’t be controlling it all this time. Maybe he could share custody?

I sighed, my questions wouldn’t be answered and were a waste of energy right now.

I unlocked my phone, making sure the picture was well lit. I had set it as my background image and my lock screen image.

It was still covered in blood.

“Well, good, I guess.” I said to myself.

I got closer to the Yür.

I wasn’t going to throw the phone, that would be too dangerous.

Now that Marie wasn’t there, I had free reign in my movements.

I jumped towards it.

It raised its arms, once again, trying to knock me out with its tendrils.

Seems Marak couldn’t stop its cursed murderous nature completely.

This time though, I would not be hit nor grazed.

I tried hiding, just to test what would happen. The Yür didn’t care, aiming its fleshy tendrils towards me like guided missiles.

The tree trunk I had used as cover exploded into chunks of wood.

I was already gone.

My fun over, I fused straight towards it, to a normal bystander, it would have seemed like I just phased next to it. Then, I punched its insides.

However unnatural and weird this thing was, it couldn’t react to my speed at all. It did nothing to attack or dodge my strike.

It didn’t need to.

The fleshy, coagulated blood became pure liquid around my fist.

I simply opened my hand.

I dodged tendrils getting out of its core, trying to grab me. My backflip was clearly over the top, no one was even there to admire it.

The Yür pulsed, trying to reach me again, then stopped mid-course.

“No way.” I said out loud.

Inside it, I saw my phone getting pierced and filled with the reddish monstrous goop. It didn’t last long.

The Yür squirmed.

Like a broken pool, its red and brown blood oozed out, falling with giant lumps of flesh on the grassy, mossy ground.

Then it burst into ashes.

“Extraordinary. It worked. Talk about being anticlimactic.” I was almost disappointed.

This had been way too easy.

Remembering this was only the distraction part of Alik’s plan, I ran back to the house, we needed to plan for our next move.

“Hey Marie!...” I began as I entered the house.

Silence.

Her smell was still there, but only weakly.

She wasn’t in the house.

Another smell reached my nose.

Natasha’s.

“What…?”

I followed the scent outside. Our comatose, potentially paralyzed friend had stood on the bottom of those stairs. Marie had gone to meet her, of course, back to the road where… Nothing. No scent at all.

“No no no no no no.” This felt just like Natasha’s apartment.

Did she betray us? No, her wounds were real, she should not even be awake, so…Compulsion? Were vampires capable of something like this? I couldn’t be sure.

In any case, they had kidnapped Marie.

Obviously to bring me to this trap they had taken so long to prepare.

A ringtone in Jeanne’s home.

In less than a heartbeat, I was next to the landline. It had no electricity, and had clearly been disconnected, but still, it rang.

I felt the magical energy around it. It was Marak’s, once again.

I could see the link of magic, piercing the ground, coming from…somewhere up north.

I didn’t pick up the phone.

“WE HUNT.”

Marie

What an idiot.

To my defense, I had barely eaten and slept for days and almost drowned two hours earlier. Still, I had to admit I had done a rather imbecile thing.

I had heard Natasha calling out to me, and after checking outside, saw her alone at the bottom of the marble stairs that led to the house. I’m not proud to admit that, tired as I was, I hadn’t even thought for a second that this was weird. I just happily waltzed out right in the open.

The three vampire goons that were hidden next to her hadn’t hurt me at all, but they hadn’t left me any time to react either.

I was now live bait.

Gagged with a leather stripe, sitting in the back of a moving military jeep, with an enormous costume-wearing bloodsucker on my left, and on my right, Nat.

Looking at her was hurting me.

She wasn’t there. Not mentally at least. Her eyes were blank, and she was still dressed in a simple hospital gown. The only thing you could see on her face was the expression of tremendous pain.

She should not even be standing, and they had made her walk.

What they did to her, it was so painful that even unconscious, her eyes were full of tears.

I took her hand and squeezed gently.

They had used her to bring me out in the open. Why though? I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself against this paranormal military operation in any way.

Security? To prevent me from killing myself?

I couldn’t be sure. I was trying to guess a plan created by a being with centuries more experience than me.

We were driving…north? I grit my teeth as Natasha let out an agonizing cry. Still expressionless, but tears falling down her cheeks.

After fifteen minutes on the sinuous asphalt road, the jeep took a sharp right, following a muddy trail in the vegetation towards the center of the forest.

Every bump made Natasha cry out more.

I began tearing up as well.

After much too long, the sun lowering through the horizon, we arrived at the edge of the forest, in what seemed a man-made, or maybe vampire-made, glade.

They pulled me and Natasha out of the car. The grip of the vampire goons felt like a vice, and my left arm was almost ripped off its joints. Once barely standing outside, they let me go.

I didn’t believe for one second that I would be able to flee.

A young boy in a magnificent dark suit teleported right in front of me.

“Hello…Marie.” Alik said with his usual calm and contained voice.

I tried looking at my surroundings before facing the Elder. Multiple jeeps were parked around me, and between them was…Astarte?

“Heya Mar, sorry about that, seems I’ve been had.” The millennia creature honestly apologized as she saw me look at her.

My roommate was pinned on her knees. Half of her body was holes, where big metallic chains passed through, at their end, harpoons were stuck in the ground. She didn’t show any semblance of pain despite the horrible state of her body.

“HH mm gdd, rte?” I tried to say through the gag.

“Oh, yes, of course.” Alik removed the gag from my mouth. “Welcome.”

I felt relief at my mouth being able to close again.

I looked at Astarte again, but then focused my attention on Alik.

“You’ve done a terrible mistake.” I said to him with a trembling voice.

He smirked. “Really? I’m surprised, I would have expected torrents of insults.”

“Gray doesn’t like those; I’m trying to contain myself. Feel free to feel thoroughly insulted.” My eyes darted towards the unresponsive Natasha, still standing there, like a robot awaiting orders.

“Don’t worry about your witch friend, I won’t kill her, she’ll have her uses.” The vampire child had followed my gaze.

“You can thank me for that.” A dark-skinned witch said from afar.

Belfor Marak was standing in a large circle, surrounded by other witches, some looked at me with disgust in their eyes, but the others felt as unresponsive as Nat.

I saw Illy and Rose, but they had their back turned towards me.

“Unfortunately, we have no time for speeches. Elder, the Beast is coming, fast.” Marak announced.

The Elder acquiesced, then, without losing any time with speeches, just turned around to face me once again.

“Walk inside the circle.” He ordered me.

“I’m inclined to say no.” I answered.

“Walk inside the circle.” Power in his voice forced me to move against my will.

I couldn’t stop my steps and approached the circle.

I looked at the witches as I got closer to them, most of them seemed…stuck in time? Illy and Rose were not moving at all.

I heard shouting inside one of the jeeps. I recognized Henry.

I looked at the circle where I was heading against my will.

Bloody glyphs had been painted directly on the cut vegetation. It was hard to decipher, but I was certain this was the death ritual Illy had warned us about.

They wanted to rid me and Gray of our soul itself, our inner magic.

I stopped moving once at the center of the ritualistic circle.

I tried my best to resist, but compulsion forced me to stay inside.

“Perfect. Now, with this, the monster should not be able to move her.” Marak explained to no one as he moved his hand.

My whole body felt suddenly clutched and frozen in place.

I could barely breathe.

“Licky Licky.” Astarte spoke as if half her body wasn’t missing.

“Shut up, this will work, and we will have saved our world.” The Elder responded with anger at the nickname.

“And what now?” The imprisoned God-Child asked.

“Now we wait for the animal to save its mate.”