Standing in the desolate prison that once held a monster, stood another one in the making. In front of me, towering in front of Father’s corpse, was Hunter. I looked at my far-gone friend and clenched my teeth.
“Hunter!” I said. “Stop this madness! What have you done?”
He cocked his head, slightly, and calmly replied, “Something I should’ve done a long time ago.” He then narrowed his yellow eyes. ”The real question is: What are you doing here?’
“My friend, I’m here to save you.”
Hunter gave a cynical chuckle. “There’s nothing here to save. I know exactly what I’m doing. If you’re here to save me, then that means you blame me for what I did—that you believe that what I did was wrong. Otherwise, there’s nothing to save me from.”
“My friend, I don’t blame you for a second. You inflicted one wrong against a people that have wronged you more times than God has performed miracles upon this world. I just don’t want to see you continue down this path. You can’t meet them with bloodshed and violence like this—you’ll become the very thing that they say you are.”
“Then what am I supposed to do? Just roll over and let them slaughter me? Would you recommend that I help them guide their blades into my chest, too? Should I point them in the direction of my heart? Because that’s already been killed.”
“I…I just want there to be peace.”
“Peace,” Hunter laughed. “Peace is only an option for the privileged, and you damn well know that ain’t me.” He then twirled the broken and bent, dagger-like sword in his hand, letting the valrose petal that dangled from the pommel twirl and bloom. “To them, peace means the death of me and,” he motioned his arm outwards to the open caves, “my people. So what would you choose?”
I couldn’t answer. I didn't have an answer to that question. There wasn’t a clear solution in my mind. For so long, my life had been clear-cut and there were only ever two choices in front of me. But now I had no answer on what to do. Nothing was simple. And so, I remained silent.
“That’s what I thought,” Hunter said. “You’ll never truly understand what it’s like to have been me and to be me.”
“I do understand!” I desperately yelled. My voice was less angry and more in the realm of heated denial. My words came across like the pleas of a man who was holding onto his last strings, desperately bargaining with a truth that he couldn’t face.
“No you don’t!” he screamed back at me. “You’re still human at the end of the day. A detestable one by their standards, but human nonetheless. You’d never understand.”
That was the final nail in the coffin. I hated that I couldn’t accept reality for what it was, but in that moment, I finally had to confront the truth. I did not know what it meant to live a life outside of my own. My silence, even to me, was deafening.
Hunter stepped towards me, one foot slowly in front of the other. We continued to look into each other’s eyes, unmoving. Just as he made it halfway between us, he readied his blade.
“If you want to stop me, then you know what you have to do,” he hissed.
“I know,” I replied, unsheathing my blade.
Instantly, he rushed forwards with unimaginable speed. His speed was like that of lighting and his eyes were the same, yellow color. However, they seemed duller than before. There was a darkness that clouded his once-clear irises. And in that brief moment before the storm, I couldn’t help but feel sad when I looked into them.
I drew my blade with a swiftness that rivaled his own speed. Our two swords clashed in the middle of the darkened cave. We looked into each other’s eyes with teeth clenched and muscles flexed. We remained in that stalemate for what seemed like an eternity. Sparks flew, partially illuminating the room—it was probably the first time in years that it saw such light. The shadows cast by those tiny bits of temporary light covered our faces. It made us both look more demonic and human at the same time.
Eventually, I used my overwhelming strength to push Hunter off of me, causing him to be shoved back a bit. His feet skidded across the ground, leaving two long tracks in his wake. He never broke eye contact with me and his smile widened even more.
“Huh,” he said, “I thought you’d be stronger than that.”
“Oh, I am,” I responded.
Hunter then dashed from side to side, zigzagging his way toward me. His footwork was insane. He looked as though he was lighter than air with how effortlessly he moved around. He glided across the ground with an agility that I had never seen before. It was hard for me to even follow his movements, but I was able to.
He began to use that speed to attack me from every angle. His swiftness was just on the edge of my periphery at all times. Even with his apparent weightless movement, every slash of his felt as though it had an immense weight behind it. Because of this, I was forced to stand still and defend each oncoming strike. But every time our swords would clash, it would get just a little harder for me to deflect.
“When you first came to this town, all you wanted was revenge, isn’t that right?” Hunter asked with a slight hiss.
A few more sword clashes happened in rapid succession, causing a menagerie of electrified sparks to fly around the room. Through all of those attacks, I managed to deflect each and every one of them.
“You even got to act on it,” he continued to say. “You even tried to kill me.”
Hunter’s words and actions came immediately from behind me. I turned around to face yet another blisteringly fast strike. I bought my sword up in a defensive manner, managing to catch his gnarled blade before it could hit me…but only barely.
Hunter then moved directly in front of me and crouched down in a predator-like stance. His head was in front of his body, with one hand placed on the ground and the other one behind him, holding his shortsword.
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With a long exhale, he said, “So why is it so wrong for me to want to do the same thing?”
I remained silent; both because I was concentrating and because I had no response. I had nothing to say to him because I had nothing that I could say. I was a hypocrite through and through.
Following that moment of silence, Hunter cracked his neck and charged right at me. Once again, I brought my trusted sword up to defend me, but it wasn’t enough this time. He glided his rusted weapon against mine, and then separated it with a continued strike. As soon as it was over, a gash appeared on my face. He was the one who drew first blood.
Standing up straight, a few dozen feet away from me now, Hunter just looked at me with stillness in his eyes. I reached up and felt the blood trickling from my newly acquired wound. All I did was stare back at him.
“That’s not gonna be good enough, Slayer,” Hunter said in a provocative manner. He then flicked his blade down, scattering the drops of blood that were on it. “You can’t stand in the middle forever. So what’s your answer? You have to decide eventually.”
I glanced down at my sword and back up at my maddened friend. “I know that,” I agreed. “I know that, but I also know that this cycle of hate can’t continue.
“You still don’t get it,” Hunter countered. “This isn’t just about you. Even if you were to die right now, there would still be thousands of your kind out there that haven’t yet met their grave.”
“You don’t have to do this! This doesn’t have to happen.”
“It does!” He said with clenched teeth. His eyes then looked down at his blade, specifically at the valrose petal. “Everything happens for a reason. Maybe my mother’s death was the push I needed to see the truth. It was pointless for me to try and live amongst you all, because the moment they found out what I was, regardless of who I was, they did not hesitate to turn to murder.” He then looked back up at me. “At least I know the truth now.”
With bated breath, I asked, “And what truth is that?”
He pointed his sword at me and said, “That our pain won’t go away until one side is dead.”
“That’s not—”
“Save your breath,” he interjected. “Words mean nothing to me anymore. Some come on, Slayer, show me what you really are…do not tell me.”
“I…” I started to say, but there was nothing left in me to say.
His words continued to ring within my head. I simply closed my eyes and let myself find strength within myself. I had to push aside this new layer of softness that had started to grow around me. I let myself partially return to a state that once was. Just before I opened my eyes, I saw the image of a withering valrose. It was at that moment that I realized that every defensive maneuver I made during this battle was with one hand. This time, I grabbed the sword with both hands and flexed my muscles as hard as I could.
“Those are the eyes I remember,” Hunter said with a crooked smile.
He then crouched back down into his offensive stance and charged straight at me with blinding speed. Just as he closed the distance between us, I raised my blade up high and brought it down with all the force I could. There was no intent other than to kill with that swing.
“That’s more like it,” Hunter said.
My attack came down, cracking the ground and causing a bit of indent within the stone. Hunter, however, remained untouched. He managed to move to the side at the last second, almost as if he knew it was coming.
Before I had time to react, he swung his blade to the side, cutting my hands and causing my own sword to fly out of my hands. Without a second of wasted time, he turned the tip of his blade squarely at me and thrusted it forward. I looked down to see his twisted sword buried fully into my chest.
“Hunter…” was all I could say before he pulled the blade free, causing a splattering of blood to follow along with it.
I collapsed under the weight of the pain and of my own failure. My body instantly gave out and I fell to my knees. I then closed my eyes, and for some reason, I started to cry.
What am I doing? I thought to myself. This isn’t me. Why would I return to that person? I am not a Slayer anymore…I am a man, not a monster.
I looked down at the bloody pool in front of me, still being filled from the hole in my chest. The only thoughts that occupied my mind were those of regret. I had come so far, only to throw it away at the last minute. The moment I thought about that, I then began to feel pain within my chest.
What am I? No, that does not matter. What matters is who I am. I am not a Slayer…I am Sebastian, and I won’t let that monster return again.
My eyes shot open with renewed strength. Before I even realized it, my hands were already on Bram’s whip. I had forgotten about it, and yet I found a new purpose within it. With resolve, I haggardly stood up and looked at the back of Hunter, who was walking out of the room. With one swift motion, I cracked my whip at him.
Quickly, he turned back towards me with a look of surprise in his eyes. No matter how quick his reflexes were, there was no way he could dodge this attack. And he didn’t. He only managed to move a couple of inches to his right before the drac-made tip of the whip found itself planted squarely in his left eye. I yanked the wip back to me, pulling it out of his socket.
Hunter screamed out in vengeful agony as he placed his hand on his bleeding eye. When he moved it again, I saw that his left eye was no more—only his right one remained.
With that eye, he looked at me with fury. Seething, he asked, “You just won’t die, huh?”
“Not until I can save you,” I replied, barely standing.
He gave a demonic chuckle and cracked his neck. “Go ahead and try.”
Without hesitation, he started to charge towards me. In response, I slung my whip all around him. At first, he parried each attack of mine, but the moment he got halfway toward me, I managed to land a single strike. The tip of the whip sliced down his chest, but that did not stop him. Before I could pull my whip back again, he had already gotten next to me. With one, swift movement, he sliced upwards, and my right eye went dark. I felt the pain hit and I knew that I had just lost it. I fell to the ground from sheer pain. As I looked up with my one, unfocused eye, I saw the blurred image of Hunter standing above me.
“Nice try,” he taunted. He then bent down close to me, allowing both of our single eyes to meet. “You want to save me, huh? In that case, I won’t kill you here. Think of it as thanks for not killing me back in town. But now,” he hissed, “you will never see another second of mercy from me. Next time we meet, one of us will end up dead. So go ahead and try to follow me…if you can keep up, that is.”
He then moved out of my sight. I tried to stand up to see him again, but I couldn’t. As I laid flat on my back, I had nothing left in me. My muscles wouldn’t budge and my limbs wouldn’t move. The only thing left on me that worked was my mouth. And with it, I used the rest of my fading energy.
“I’LL NEVER GIVE UP ON YOU!” I yelled out with all my might. “No matter how many days or how many nights it takes; no matter how many swords impale me; no matter how wicked the wild winds blow; no matter how many mountains I have to climb or how many oceans I have to cross; no matter what it takes, I will never abandon you!”
With that, I had given everything I had. There was nothing left within me, and so, I remained on the floor, unconscious. The last thought to leave my head was that of the stars and how ethereal they were. I thought of the night and how much potential it had. I thought of the starscape that covered it and how, given the right sky, it could become something more beautiful than anything else in the world.
If only, I thought. If only…