Rend was never used to the nightly hunts; there was just something about listening intently for the deep guttural growls of the beasts as he patrolled the dim coffin covered streets of Eton that sent shivers up his spine. He reached into his right inner coat pocket with his left hand and withdrew a silver pocket watch. It had almost become habit that Rend check his watch, which had the picture of his daughter behind its cover. It was just another distraction to take his mind off of all the recent beast appearances. Just last night, in front of his very eyes, Miller's daughter, Rend’s daughter’s playmate, turned. The worst part was that Rend could the sanity slowly trickle out of her eyes, like the sand in an hourglass. You could see her deep blue irises slowly darken to a charcoal grey, and her pupils slowly expanding like a balloon.
“Daddy? It hurts so much! Make it stop!” The girl had cried as the hair on her arms and legs grew like black summer weeds. Her nails had slowly elongated to the length of butter knives as they carved up the wooden floor from the frantic flailing of their owner. The girl's face, a twisted mess from the pain, had started to deform as her almost pristine white teeth were pushed out by the hideous rows of canine fangs.
At the time Rend was on duty and had only one choice. He remembered staring into Miller’s dull tear filled eyes and pushed him from the girl’s side. He remembered drawing his flintlock pistol and squatting down beside the girl.
“M-mister are you here…*Growl*... to h-help me?” She had asked with her now malformed tongue. He remembered swallowing only dry air as he pulled backed the hammer of the pistol.
“Yes child, I am here to help you.” Rend had said gently, feeling every word, like barbed whips, tearing his chest open.
“May the maker guide you child.” He had said pulling on the trigger.
Then all Rend could recall was the color red, as the silver round, made expressly to penetrate the stone like hide of the beasts, tore through the girl’s deformed head boring a 3 inch wide hole.
“From dust to dust, from water to water, from rock to rock, and from the father’s side to his side again. May the maker watch over your journey to the great beyond.” Rend chanted the age old prayer, his words had felt hollow and his face was twisted in agony and sorrow.
Before snapping the lid of his pocket watch closed, an action which symbolized his return to the present and the end of his mental escape, Rend chanted the prayer once more in the girl's memory. He gingerly placed his watch back into his coat pocket and once again began his patrol down the the dimly lit street: old cathedral lane. The street was one of the first to be built in Eton, constructed long ago, before Eton had achieved town status. As its name implies, the lane leads to the old cathedral, and was once the most populated street of the town. As a child, Rend had remembered his mother would always take him up the street to the old cathedral for Sunday morning mass, before buying his favorite sweet, raisin cakes, from Mrs. Henry's stall.
Rend drew his pistol and cocked the hammer back. Those beautiful days had all ended during The Night of the Beast, after which the old Church was reduced no more than mere rubble. He tightened his grasp around the steel and leather handle fearing that he would fumble the weapon. There was much need for this excessive caution, the once densely populated street was now a breeding and festering ground for the beasts. The street lanterns which had been constantly kept alight even throughout the night were now in complete disrepair; some posts were rusted, while others had been cleanly snapped off. Coffins containing most of the old cathedral district’s citizens littered the town streets like iron dust on a blacksmith’s floor. There were so many that it would take months to count every coffin on the street alone; then there were still the side alleys, which were made impassable by the sheer number of the wooden caskets.
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Rend took a deep breath, inhaling the damp musty and decaying air, as he tried to calm his nerves. His index finger twitching as it moved back and forth between the trigger and the handle. Looking up from his pistol to scan the street, Rend saw something amiss in the distance that made him raise his gun and draw his saber. He would not have spotted this anomaly if not for the light of the full moon which glanced off the still intact stained glass on the old cathedral western wall. The stained glass which decorated the first contact the maker had made with us, had a giant black smear plastered across it. At least from a first glance it looked as if it was a smear, but from the eyes of a watcher Rend knew it was a beast. As he approached the cathedral the beast’s appearance slowly became more defined; rather than the shape of a wolf-human hybrid, this beast was much closer to a spider. The whole body of the creature was huge spanning tens of meters long and at least five meters tall. Its carapace a matted black which the moonlight could not reflect off of. Needle like hairs covering its body, whilst its two giant fangs twitched and grinded against each other as the spider devoured whatever was inside its maw. On top of the head of the monster there was a gap in the carapace where a black humanoid mess was attached. The ‘thing’ on top of the beast’s head, would closely resemble a human if not for its black skin and the large amount of bones, which protruded from its body like a human pincushion.
Knowing this monster was not something he could handle, Rend released the hammer of his pistol. Then, after sheathing his sword, he used his right hand and pressed a lever on the pistol’s side. With a click, the barrel of the pistol, which is now only attached to the receiver by a pivot, swung down to reveal a cone shaped silver bullet. Rend pried the projectile out of its chamber and, drew a larger, dark metallic grey round from his coat pocket. He loaded the pistol with the new bullet and swung the barrel back up, sighing in resignation as he heard the click of the barrel locking into place. With his left hand he pointed towards the sky and pulled back the hammer; with his right hand he drew his pocket watch once more and flicked it open. He slowly placed his finger on the trigger and squeezed off the round.
A blazing white light shot up into the air from the pistol’s muzzle. The round flew while making a high pitched whirring noise that startled the spider-like beast and deafened Rend. As the bullet reached its apex it exploded, creating a blinding flash that for the briefest of moments could even overpowered the light of the sun.
AN: Hello everyone so this is something that I spend quite some time planing, it will begin slow as I wish to do some world building before hand so the story won't seem hollow. I hope you guys will humor me. So I am still pretty new to writing fictional works so I have a few questions for you guys!
1) how many words should each chapter be?
2) how long should I wait before I release the next chapter? Since I want to be on a schedule.
3) What can I do to improve my writing?
*Side note: for comments I am OK with any criticism but please tell me the reason. Since something like: "THIS IS SHIT" won't help me! But something like: "YOUR GRAMMAR IS SHIT" will help me! So yeah! Thanks guys and I hope you'll come along for the ride?