Chapter 9

Thrill of the Hunt

What was I thinking?

The effects of the blood had slowly worn out. The pain had returned. He felt less giddy, and his excitement for finding the Werewolf had evaporated.

But somehow, Haru still felt inclined to find the beast, despite the risk to his life.

But why?

After claiming to be on the trail of the Werewolf, Ryu led them to a lightly urban area that ended at a three-story tall building. It was surrounded by a well-cared-for garden that had recently been treated. The trees were shaved, the grass was cut, and the pathways were neat and organized. There was even a working fountain. This place was not abandoned; the question remained; were there people in there now? The interior lights were off, and the windows were scarcely spread out on the building, so not much light from the outside would shine in, meaning it would be very dark inside. On the bottom floor, one window was shattered, with glass on the carpet inside.

Maybe the wind caused that.

No, of course not.

“So, the Werewolf is here?” Haru asked, close behind Ryu.

Ryu snuffles the air before responding. “Yea, but something is covering its scent.”

Ryu had become unusually cautious; he subtly searched his surroundings. Something else he never did during this entire trip. Typically he was full of confidence, but now something hindered that.

“Hey, Haru. What’s the time?” Ryu asked under his breath.

“It’s 11:34,” Haru replied, squinting down at his watch.

Glass crunched underneath their feet as they walked through the building, observing the area for clues. They saw themselves in the main lobby. It was a small room with several chairs and a doorway leading into a bigger room filled with bookshelves and desks. This place must be either a library or an office space.

It wasn’t long until they saw evidence of the Werewolf's presence.

Several pieces of furniture were shredded apart. Tables, bookshelves, chairs, and desks are laid to waste. However, some furniture remained intact. The destroyed furnishings created a pathway plunging deeper into the floor and led to a staircase leading up.

The Werewolf was here, and it was close.

This was the first time Ryu looked nervous, Haru knew something was on his mind, but Ryu kept his mouth shut.

They stepped over the broken pieces of metal and wood as they headed upstairs. It u-turned halfway up with the railings broken with deep scrape marks on the floors and walls with tiny droplets of Werewolf blood occasionally splattered on the floor. Haru’s mouth watered at the sight, but Ryu dragged him away before Haru thought about licking it up.

Once on the second floor, a pathway of destroyed furniture led to the stairs. The monster seemed to have been guided through the building.

Growls and crashing could be heard above them. The sounds echoed throughout the entire building.

There’s no turning back now. This monster needed to be killed.

They tiptoed up the last flight of stairs to the third floor. This time everything was destroyed. Desks and bookshelves lay wrecked as significant scratch marks scored everything. It was too dark to see, but they could detail the room they were in. Windows on the far left wall led outside, and more windows to the right led to enclosed spaces meant for meetings or quiet studying sessions, and above their head was a skylight showing the cloudy night sky. Straight ahead of them, past the destroyed furnishings, multiple hallways leading to other parts of the floor. The monster was here, and it could be anywhere.

“Hey, Haru,” Ryu’s whisper spooked the frightened Haru. “This thing is near, so we have to drag it out of the darkness.” His signature grin returned to his face, sending shivers down Haru’s spine.

“I want you to do exactly what I say,” Ryu said as he reached behind him to bring out the same metal blade from before. He drifted the edge on Haru’s chest and sliced it horizontally, causing a slow waterfall of blood. The sudden sharp pain caused him to reel back in quiet agony.

“What the hell?!” Haru whispered loudly. Ryu turned his back and gave one final demand.

“Hang out here for a bit. I’ll be right back,” Ryu said, not minding his loud volume. He ambled away and disappeared into the darkness.

The sting from the cut had Haru reeling in pain. But the realization came too late. Vampire blood. Haru was dripping in Vampire blood.

After some time, growls and crashes could be heard from the shadows. Haru tried to find an exit, but the darkness was overbearing. It was impossible to find the stairs, not like it mattered; the blood would attract the wolf anyways. Haru then unintentionally pinned himself between the noises and a wall. He was now hopelessly trapped.

The noises grew louder and louder until they halted to complete silence. It was too dark to see, but two bright red eyes that glowed a blood-like crimson stared directly at Haru from the shadows.

Haru’s heart dropped as he trembled, staring back at the red eyes.

…………

A tirade of frantic stompings quickly approached.

The Werewolf came into view. Its left eye was heavily wounded as it dripped with blood.

It then roared so loud it almost shattered Haru’s ears. The beast lunged so close to him that he could feel its warm breath on his face as the horrible smell spilled into his nose. It thrust its claw into Haru’s chest before going in for an enormous bite.

But it stopped in place.

The momentum of the jab into Haru’s chest ended with a hand that reached out from the darkness.

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It was Ryu. He grabbed the monster’s arm with his right hand and used his left hand to push its face away.

But he missed.

The Werewolf got its large jaw to crunch into Ryu’s arm as he screamed in agonizing pain. The claw dislodged from Haru’s chest as he wrestled the wolf away.

Haru watched as the Werewolf dug deeper and deeper into Ryu’s arm, as blood spilled on the floor. The beasts chewed on his limb like a chicken wing, ripping away flesh and muscle as Ryu let out a blood-curdling scream loudly with every bite it took.

He bashed, punched, thrashed, and slammed its furry face as hard as possible to no prevail. The beast stuck its claws into Ryu’s arm and swiftly ripped off a massive chunk of meat, swallowing it before returning for another bite, which dug deep into Ryu’s bones. His horrified screams permeated the entire building as the sounds of his bones crushing oozed from the Werewolf’s mouth.

This was the first time Ryu started to cry. The pain must be excruciating.

Haru was distracted by a light glaring from the window leading outside. The moonlight faintly shined in from behind the clouds. An escape? Yes, an escape! He quickly stood and sprinted to the window.

“Hey! Don’t leave me! Help me, dammit!” Ryu cried out.

“You used me as bait!” Haru responded, trying not to wince at the sounds of Ryu’s bone-crunching. “Why should I stay, so you can just kill me?”

The Werewolf bit so hard that Ryu’s arm bent with a loud crack, like a stick being snapped in half. Ryu prepared to rip his arm off to free himself.

He knew Haru would feel betrayed when he left him to bait the wolf, but he hoped everything would go as planned. And now, he was dealing with the consequences of his actions.

A pair of hands reached out from behind the wolf and slowly pulled back its head to loosen the grip.

“We’re going to have a long talk after this!” Haru grunted as he pulled back as hard as possible. The chomp was still tight, but soon enough, there was room for him to wiggle his arm. It was utterly broken; flesh dripped down with pus oozing from it. But there was a chance he could save his ripped-apart arm. Ignoring the pain with a loud agonizing scream, he pulled back and freed his limb from the Werewolf’s mouth, tearing away more flesh and muscle.

Ryu rolled on the ground, shivering and gasping while cuddling his arm. It didn’t even look like an arm anymore. It looked like a chewed-up dog toy that was covered in blood.

Quickly, the beast turned his attention to Haru. It swiped its claws right into his neck, causing him to reel back and fall while bleeding as he grabbed onto his throat and choked on his blood.

The Werewolf went for another chomp before letting out a high-pitched yelp as Ryu bit down on its leg, sucking up its blood. As the wolf turned to face him, Ryo instantly shot up and struck him with his right fist, knocking the beast back into the darkness. It continued to yelp as it lost itself in the shadow, giving Ryu and Haru some time.

There was a moment of silence that felt surprisingly tranquil. Ryu used this opportunity to stand and gather himself as his arm dangled down with blood dripping and pieces of flesh peeling off. He was still in intense pain. However, the blood of the Werewolf managed to numb his distress.

The high slowly took effect as he stumbled around drunkenly, but he still remained on his feet. He looked back at Haru, still on the ground, bleeding from his slash wound.

“You wanted to talk, right, Haru? Well, let me explain myself,” Ryu said as he took a deep breath. “That’s right. I used you as bait, and I fucked up pretty bad. But I promise you, after I’m done with this wolf, I’ll give you some of its blood so you can numb off the pain”.

Haru couldn’t respond; he rolled around to meet Ryu’s glance with a look of ire on his face.

As the moon from outside slowly exposed itself from the clouds, it shined into the third-floor windows. It slowly filled the room up the bottom like rising water, and everything became easier to see. Down one of the hallways, the Werewolf watched on. It stood on its hind legs, staring down at both of them with those same bright glowing red eyes. As the light continued to fill the room, a clock on the wall lit up and became easier to see.

It was precisely midnight.

Ryu scoffed and stepped forward, holding a firm position. One leg forward and one back, as if he was bracing himself. “Fine then, wolfy, I didn’t want to do this, but you gave me no choice.”

Haru was still on the ground behind him, watching as Ryu’s ripped-up arm started to steam. He can feel the air around Ryu begin to shift.

“I didn’t want to do this!” Ryu repeated.

The Werewolf fell on all fours and dug its claws into the carpet. The floor beneath it was tearing apart from its stampeding.

“I really didn’t want to do this!” He repeated, more loudly this time.

The galloping shook the floor as if there was an earthquake, the crimson eyes never left their gaze on Ryu, and its fangs had pieces of his flesh stuck in between each tooth.

Ryu prepared for impact.

But a loud gunshot rang out through the entire building as the Werewolf collapsed on the floor underneath the skylight.

Ryu frantically looked around for the source of the sound. He noticed the window leading outside had a bullet hole surrounded by cracks.

“It’s them,” Ryu whispered to himself.

The beast slowly turned back into his human body, blood gushed out from his chest. Haru remained on the floor, staring at the man as he rose his head and caught his glance with his own. Tears were running down the man’s face. If eyes were a window into your soul, Haru could see his as clear as day.

Sadness. Regret. Despair. That was the best way to describe it. The bloodied man tried to speak, but nothing came out. All he could manage was to mouth his words.

‘Help me.’

Another gunshot.

His head collapsed as half of it was shot out by the bullet.

His eyes were filled with pain that would forever stain Haru’s memories.

There was an eerie silence, the glass from the window slowly collapsed, and the wind whispered its way inside. Ryu’s face looked dissatisfied with a scowl, but he couldn’t move with him being stiff from the pain.

“It’s them,” he mumbled once again.

……

More sounds of glass crashing filled the floor as armored men with guns broke through all the windows. There weren’t just a few; there were dozens. The lights on their weapons filled the floor as they began busting down the doors and began their search.

Clear!

Clear!

Clear!

These men cleared each room one by one as they entered them with their guns drawn. This was a raid done by incredibly highly trained soldiers, but there were no markings or identifiers on their bodies to display who they were. A few seconds later, the whole floor was filled with these men.

“It’s all clear!” One announced as the rest of the soldiers lowered their weapons. They all had either black helmets with face coverings or masks. The masks, however, looked odd. It was almost shaped like a skull. It was all black except for the orange eyes. The armor they had on was black with brown colored stripes running down the right side. Were these people the Japanese police? Or were they foreign? These people were unrecognizable to Haru.

“Take these two and isolate them for the ‘Triple I’!” One soldier yelled out as he motioned toward both Ryu and Haru. Several of them grabbed them both and split them into two different parts of the building. Ryu was dragged into a room in the hallway, and others hoisted Haru to his feet and lugged him to the opposite end of the floor.

Each soldier had already relaxed their weapons. Except for the two in charge of watching Haru, their fingers were still on the trigger. Blood still dripped down his neck and in his throat, but after a painful cough, he cleared just enough to ask his question to the mysterious group.

“Who, *cough* Who are you guys?”

One soldier turned to him, reached into his breast pocket underneath his armor, and pulled out a badge. It had an ‘identity number’ and a Japanese flag, but a strange icon next to it. Two angels held spears facing a blue shield with red roses on its bottom. On the top was a crown, and underneath it said, ‘Tenere Ignorantiam.” In the middle of the shield, there were three letters.

“We are the SRC.”