It was dark outside. Not because it was night, it was barely 5 pm but because it was winter and Karl lived in Sweden. He had just finished up work at the studio taking photos of a couple of newlyweds and was on his way home. He normally liked his job as a wedding/portrait/child/pet photographer. Ok, he liked the child and pet part of the photography business, portraits could be either hit or miss but wedding photography almost always involved someone nitpicking his work or complaining about multiple small flaws they wanted him to "fix". Of course he could fix most of the small things they complained about but he couldn't understand why they wanted a picture that barely resembled them in the end.
Exiting the old partially abandoned building that was housing his small studio he was contemplating his Friday night plans. Like always there was some band playing. Karl didn't really like live music that much but Lucas his best friend was playing in one and if he wasn't playing himself he knew the people playing in some round about way and wanted to support them. Karl would much rather just stay at home tonight and play videogames. He was 26 years old and even if he used to go to a lot of parties and bars he no longer felt the need to fill every weekend with social interactions.
Walking through the forest that constituted the majority of his 30 min walk home he kept pondering. The location was the major selling point for his current apartment; close enough to walk to his studio just outside Stockholm the rent was cheaper then living in the city. Just the fact that he could walk to work instead of buying a monthly bus card was a major advantage in Karl’s book. The bus card was also a point in favor of staying home tonight; walking wasn't really an option if he was going to meet up with Lucas. Karl and Lucas had met first in high school and after starting a band together become fast friends. Karl had never really liked playing music but he had been 14 and tagging along on whatever his friends were doing seem reasonable at the time. He had drifted away from most of his high school friends at this point but Lucas had always remained a great friend even if their interests weren't always the same. Remembering Lucas’s band was in fact playing tonight he sighed and accepted his fate and the small economic inconvenience of having to buy a bus ticket and some beers.
Moments after coming to this seemingly life-altering decision he went around a bend in the walkway and froze. In front of him on the walkway was an old man. Karl had seen old men before and wasn't really surprised by this but that the man was bleeding on the ground was mildly concerning, and the creature in the process of doing the stabbing was the real reason for his concern.
The creature was probably around 120 cm tall just barely above Karl’s waist in height. Grey, slightly green tinted skin on a body that resembled a weird muscular kid. The reason he could notice the muscles on this weird creature was because it was completely naked except for a loincloth. Its feet only had 4 toes and its hand only 3 fingers and a thumb with one of the hands holding a dark ugly dagger with blood on it from the aforementioned stabbing.
Normally the bloody dark dagger would be the most interesting thing for Karl in such a situation but the creature’s face somehow distracted him even from that. It had a big mouth, slightly open, showing brownish teeth that could have used braces. The ears where pointy, sticking out to both sides with white hair growing sparsely on them. The same went for the top of the head with only slightly more light white hair then the ears. In the center of the face was a nose or what would remain after cutting one off at least. Lastly the creature’s eyes were small, mostly green with a dark pupil focusing on Karl.
The creature recovered from its shock faster and Karl just managed to throw himself to the side as the dagger came flying at him. 'You should never throw your weapon' was the first thought in Karl’s head but he wasn't sure it would matter since he was working overtime to make sense of the situation. 'What is happening' was the only other thought he managed before his fight of flight instinct prompted him to kick the creature in the face instead of running away. Being just over a meter tall and skinny didn't protect the creature from the kick; it flew back spinning around landing face first on the asphalt walkway.
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Karl squandered the opportunity to press his advantage and at the time he managed to get on his feet again so had the creature. It now seemed weary of Karl and it kept its distance while circling him. Just as Karl started thinking that maybe he could run it sprung towards him. He threw himself backwards while throwing a kick forward that did more to unbalance himself then it would have done any actual damage. The creature didn't continue however but sidestepped past Karl instead.
Confused over the creature’s actions Karl’s first thought was that he scared the murderer away. The relief was however short lived as the creature grabbed at the dagger that Karl had completely forgotten about. Reacting faster than he himself thought he could Karl rushed forward grabbing the arm holding the dagger and pushed it away from himself. Bared the use of its weapon the creature proved much more resourceful then Karl would have hoped as it spared no time biting the arm that was grabbing it.
Pain shot through Karl's arm and he instinctively released the creature’s arm. He instantly regretted his action as a sharp pain much worse than the one in his arm penetrated his leg.
Karl was panicking; he grabbed the creature in front of him in a desperate bid for survival. The creature seemed surprised by his sudden attack and didn't have the chance to pull out the dagger as it stumbled backwards and fell on its ass. In chaos Karl managed to slip his fingers around the creature’s small neck.
He stared into the eyes of the creature that had just killed another human in front of him and it stared back. At that moment the decision was made, Karl wasn't going to die here. He didn't know what was going on but what he did know was that only one of them was getting out of this alive and it wasn't going to be the ugly thing in front of him. He tightened his grip and it was now the creature’s turn to panic. It flailed with its arms trying to scratch at Karl’s face but his arms were longer. It could only rip at his thick winter jacket causing some slight scratches where its dirty nails managed to break through.
After what felt like an eternity the creature’s flailing slowed down and finally stopped completely. Karl was breathing heavily and didn't release his grip on the creature’s neck until it had been dead for a long time and the winter air started to seep back in, no longer chased away by adrenalin.
The pain in his arm and leg started to pulse harder too as the adrenaline was leaving his body and he suddenly felt overwhelmed. 'What was this creature I just killed?', 'This wasn't a thing that happens in real life!'. Karl just wanted to wake up from this weird dream but he also felt more awake than ever. He had just killed a humanoid creature in what amounted to a life and death struggle.
Reveling in the feeling of being alive wasn't going to get the dagger out of his leg however so he gingerly sat down next to his kill taking a look at the damage it had inflicted on him. It hurt to move a lot and when he ripped open his pants to get a better look he almost passed out. Karl wasn't overly sensitive about blood but there was something different about seeing a dagger sticking out of his own flesh.
He managed to collect himself after a deep breath and decided to pull the dagger out after some deliberation. As a rule, pulling out an object that was lodged in one’s leg is a bad idea and could cause one to bleed out but Karl didn't believe he could manage the 5 min walk back to the studio with the dagger stuck in his leg.
However, before he could act on his newfound determination a searing pain in his lower back paralyzed him. He barely felt the knife cutting his throat and as he fell back staring up at the tree crowns above he saw a face smiling down at him.
'What an ugly face' was the last thought Karl had on 5:27 pm on a Friday night in early December just outside Stockholm.