Wes Parker: Monster Hunter (Volume Two)



  Wes Parker

  Monster Hunter

  Volume Two

  Short Stories

  By C.J. Pike

  Copyright © 2014 by C.J. Pike

  This collection is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are draw from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely accidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any forms or means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

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  A Quick Note

  This book is a collection of short stories

  that were originally posted on my blog.

  You can visit there for more hunting.

  I was feeling pretty gloomy after my run in with Raymond and his bunch. It brought up a lot of bad feelings from the past and there were a couple things that were bothering me. One of them was I had no idea who had warned me about the werewolves and why, and why was he building an army? It just seemed strange that it was all happening now. Although he could have been turning people for the past five or six years for all I know. Anyway, I was back out on the road.

  Wes Parker here. For those of you that may not know me I am a paladin, which means I’m pretty much a badass, I’m 17 and I hunt monsters. That’s my life. It’s not the greatest life but it is mine. I recently ran into one of the werewolves that killed my parents and that was what I was talking about before. So, with the help of Kelly, someone that works for an agency of humans that hunt monsters, we blew the town right off the map, literally. It was kind of awesome.

  I was driving as far away from that town as I could and ended up in Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains. It was cold and everything was covered in snow, so on the way I had traded my bike out for my car. Driving in snow with a motorcycle is not safe, even for me.

  There wasn’t anywhere in particular that I was heading, considering that I didn’t really hear about anything or catch wind of any monster. That was until I was about six hours into the state when I felt it, something pulling at me, beckoning me to follow it. The next town was about five miles and that was obviously where I needed to go.

  It was a nice town, which was a good change of pace from my last stop, and a little more populated, too. I searched about the town on the Internet and didn’t find anything that caught my attention, nothing out of the ordinary, but why did I feel something close by?

  I pulled into a general parking area and decided to walk around town, see if anything came up. It was a real touristy town so I figured I would fit right in. It was a Thursday afternoon but it was winter vacation so it was pretty busy. People were walking about and everyone seemed very happy. If they only knew the crap that was really out there.

  There was a really cute girl walking down the street toward me and the moment she saw me she smiled. I felt that it was only right that I returned the gesture. Plus I couldn’t stop myself from doing it even if I wanted to. She had crimson hair, perfectly white teeth and a white winter hat. She looked amazing and actually looked like she was a couple years older than me.

  “Hi,” she said as we walked by each other.

  “Hi,” I replied and continued walking.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m not really sure.”

  “Not too far I hope.” Her smile broadened.

  “You have any suggestions?”

  “I was just going to the Coffee House.”

  “Sounds like a good place to be.” Whatever was in this town could wait. It wasn’t like anything bad had happened yet.

  “Let’s go then.”

  I listened to her and started following her to the so-called Coffee house.

  “You’re not from around here, are you?” she asked me.

  “No,” I said. “I’m guessing you are?”

  “Yeah. It’s funny, there really hasn’t been any outsiders in a while.”

  I looked around. “It seems like this town is pretty full, though.”

  “Everyone seems to be sticking around.”

  “What?” I asked her, now very intrigued.

  “Yeah,” she replied.

  “Do tourists usually stick around here long?”

  “A week maybe but not for a month.”

  I stopped. “A month?”

  “Yeah. Plus there is all the weird stuff.”

  “What weird stuff?”

  “Nothing bad. Just cars flipped upside down and peoples’ laundry spread out in the front yard spelling names.”

  Uh oh.

  “That doesn’t bother you?” I asked.

  “Not really,” she replied.

  “I gotta go.” I took off without saying another word. I chanced a quick look back and she didn’t seem like she cared.

  If there were flipped cars, discarded laundry and other weird things going on in this town up in the Rocky Mountains then that meant only one thing: Elves.

  Elves are awful. At first all they really do is cause a lot of trouble and do a lot of property damage but eventually it gets ugly. They have some sort of spell that makes everyone in the town that they invade careless of what’s going on around them. No one ever leaves and no one gets in. Then the little devils get what they need: just one kill.

  I needed to get out of the town before they realized I was there. Being a paladin I can come and go as I please, unless they know I am there and put a little more magic into their wall they put up around the town. Yeah, they can do magic. I don’t have any other explanation. If I was in their containment bubble I couldn’t make any calls or anything. If I could draw them outside of the town then I would have a much easier time. All I would have to do was cook a big batch of baked beans. It is catnip for them and they can’t resist. I can do that in the town and probably would but they are much stronger in their magic bubble.

  Elves are small with the stereotypical pointy ears, but they are fast and strong thanks to their magic. They look normal, just like Santa’s elves.

  When I reached the border of the town I could see the wall was already there. Most of the time they know I’m there before I have a chance to get out because they can sense me. The only thing I could do at that point was go back into town.

  I needed to find out more about when they arrived, that way I would know how much time I had before they were going to kill someone. Usually they travel in packs of five. They need to kill a human and, well uh, consume them. When they do that it replenishes their magic, I guess. I don’t know how it works. I really hate the little rats.

  The Coffee Shop was located in the center of the town and I found the redhead sitting alone sipping on what I assume was a coffee.

  “Well, look who’s back,” she said.

  “Sorry about that,” I replied. “I had to do something.”

  “It’s no biggy.”

  “This place is nice.”

  “I ‘spose.”

  “When did all this weird stuff start happening?”

  “Do you want something?”

  “Huh?”

  “Do you want something to drink? It’s on me.”

  “Oh. Yeah sure.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Cappuccino.”

  “OK. Be right back.”

  “Wait.” It didn’t matter. She was already gone.

  I sat there waiting rather impatiently for her to come back. The elves had this effect on people
. They didn’t care what was happening and when I asked about it they usually just ignored me.

  A few minutes later she finally came back. She placed my drink gently in front of me and to be honest it smelled pretty good.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “No problem,” she responded.

  “Anyway, when did the weird stuff start happening?”

  “I’m not really sure. I didn’t really believe anyone until I woke up one morning and my dad’s lawnmower was hanging from a tree.”

  “When was that?”

  “Last Thursday.”

  If that was when it started that would mean I would have a lot of time but she said that there were people that had been there for a month.

  “Can you remember when someone first mentioned something?” I asked.

  “Well,” she began, “I guess it was that crazy girl that no one likes. It was about a month ago.”

  “Do you remember the date?”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “It just does.”

  “OK.” She thought for a moment. “December 19. I only remember because it was the day of my last final.”

  That was one month ago. The meant that they were going to kill someone that night.

  It was a really good thing I ended up wandering into this area when I did because these people were in trouble. I had until the end of the day to save whoever it was they were going to kill and eat. No pressure, Wes.

  I didn’t realize it but I had been silent for almost a minute and the girl was just staring at me.

  “You OK?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “Sorry. Where does that girl live?”

  “What girl?”

  “The crazy one.”

  “She lives at 555 Pinebrook Avenue.”

  “OK. Thanks.”

  I got up and walked toward the door.

  “Wait,” the girl stopped me. I still didn’t get her name.

  “Yeah?” I said as I turned around.

  “Don’t you want my number?”

  I stared at her for a second. “You don’t want me to have it.”

  As I walked out the door she still didn’t seem to care, which was good because without the elves’ magic I’m sure she would have been very angry.

  I needed to go to the girl’s house where the elves supposedly started making trouble. I stopped by a store to buy some baked beans and a pan to cook them in. The elves will usually hang out near the first person they harass and that was usually the person they were going to eat too. I had to lure them away from her and take care of them before that night.

  The street was conveniently quiet and the houses were scarce. I found a trail off the side of the road that was big enough for my car to travel down, so I traveled far enough where no one would see me.

  After I found an adequate spot to set up a fire I stepped out of my car and got to work. It was difficult to find some dry wood but I managed. Once the beans started cooking the smell filled the air I knew it would only be a matter of time before they would show up. I didn’t see the point in trying to hide considering they knew I was there anyway so I just stood by the fire, with my axes in hand, and waited.

  It didn’t take long for them to show up. At least they were nice enough to not attack me when they showed up. The first one popped up from behind a tree.

  “Beans?” it said.

  “Beans?” another said behind me.

  “Beans,” a third one confirmed.

  “That’s right you little jackals,” I told them. “Come and eat it.”

  “Wes?” a fourth one said.

  “Wes Parker,” another confirmed. That makes five. I wasn’t too happy that they knew my name. I’d seen these five before.

  “You’re not getting away this time,” I told them.

  “You can’t stop us,” number one said. I’m going to label them by numbers.

  “You got lucky last time.”

  “No luck,” number three said.

  “Magic,” four pointed out.

  “Beans.” Number five was still stuck on the food. They all started to shout and move closer.

  “Beans.”

  “Beans.”

  “You little monsters can’t even focus,” I blurted. “I’m going to kill all five of you while you eat.”

  “Five?” three asked.

  “Not five,” said four.

  “No,” one agreed. “Much more.”

  “More?” I asked.

  All of sudden more of them started popping up from behind the trees and bushes. There were a lot more than five. After 15 I stopped counting. I had never seen so many elves at once.

  “Much more,” said five.

  The Elves were slowly walking towards me. They were getting close and my options of getting away were very limited. Fighting an elf is tough, considering they can do magic. No matter how small and physically weak they may be they were incredibly hard to fight, and given the fact that there was a whole bunch of them it was pretty safe to say I was in trouble.

  The first bunch was within a few feet from me and it was seconds before they were going to attack me.

  “Beans,” said one.

  “Beans,” two agreed.

  That’s right! I had a full pot of beans sitting on a fire right next to me. I kicked the pot over sending the beans everywhere. I had never seen anything move so fast in my entire life. All of the elves jumped on the beans like their lives depended on it, every single one of them.

  I jumped out of the way and started running. I didn’t stand much of a chance against more than 40 elves. Running as fast as I could, I headed back to my car so I might be able to get away from them. It was a short-lived hope, though, because I hadn’t really made enough beans for all the elves and that meant they were going to be angry as well.

  Within 20 seconds the first elf had reached me. Actually it was the giant wrecking ball that reached me. I know. It’s strange to have a random wrecking ball in the middle of the woods. That’s the power of magic. God, that was lame.

  I flew through the air and hit softly against a tree, and then fell carelessly to the ground. Just kidding. The impact was so hard that my body broke right through the tree. It didn’t feel very pleasant.

  As I tried to stand up a bull was running at me. It lowered its head, took my legs out, and sent me flipping over the giant beast. I rolled off its back and fell to the ground. When I looked back up it was already gone. I was annoyed.

  From there it was hit after hit of something completely ridiculous, like a snowman attacked me or a giant fist made out of ice knocked me right off my feet. I couldn’t even get a hit in.

  Eventually they stopped using things to attack me and started hitting me themselves. Like I said before, they used magic so each hit made me think I was fighting a troll, but with them coming into my reach I was finally able to make a stand.

  One of the elves was flying through the air at me with their arm held back, ready to drill it into my face. Once it was within two feet of me I sidestepped and ducked so it passed right by. When it reached the perfect position I brought my axe in an arc over my head and chopped its head right off. It fell to the ground and orange blood spilled onto the snow.

  No. Stop it. Do not feel bad for these things. Yes, they look like something from the North Pole and when they talk it sounds cutesy but they are monsters and they eat people. So if I don’t kill them you better believe that they will kill you. So you can shove your morals where the sun don’t shine.

  All of the elves stopped running around and looked at me in awe. I don’t know why they were so surprised but when I thought about it the last time I faced the elves here they got away and I didn’t kill any of them. They probably weren’t used to being killed. In fact I’ve only ever ran into elves that time and another time with Drake—my mentor and trainer—and I’m pretty sure they got away that time, too. I was knocked unconscious and Drake seemed pretty mad about how it all went down.

  I looked
around at all the elves and they seemed like they didn’t know what to do.

  “He killed us,” one of them said. I realized the one whose head I just chopped off was number three.

  “How?” said another.

  “Why?”

  “What do we do?”

  “Run?”

  “Run.”

  Poof. They were all gone. Sometimes I wish I could do that and just get away but I was left with doing it the normal way. I had to walk or run away, or drive.

  I waited around for five minutes in case the things returned but apparently I had scared them enough that they weren’t coming back. It was doubtful that they had left for good but at least I gave myself some breathing room.

  When I got back to my car I decided that I had to get to the girl and warn her about what was coming. I don’t think it was going to be easy to stop all of these elves from taking her considering I was barely able to get away by myself. That’s when it occurred to me: five elves eat one person. How many would over 40 of them need to eat? Gulp.

  The girl’s house was kind of a crapshoot. I know I’m not really one to talk because I don’t even have a home. Now I’m really depressed.

  I walked up to the front door and knocked. It occurred to me that I wasn’t even sure what I was going to say to her or even what I could do. If it was just the five elves I would still have a chance but with this many there was no way I was going to be able to stop all of them. We couldn’t just blow up the town either, because it was actually populated with humans and I couldn’t reach out to Kelly.

  I knocked on the door and waited. It wasn’t too long, though, until a small timid girl answered the door. She wasn’t young but short. She was around my age. Her skin was ghost white and her auburn hair covered half of her face. I frightened her, which makes sense since I was covered in cuts and bruises. It wasn’t a very welcoming look. I had tried to clean myself up as best I could but there was only so much that I could do.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “Hi,” she replied in a small, mouse-like voice.

  “I know this seems strange and honestly when someone looking like me shows up on your front door you should probably call the cops but I’m begging you to hear me out.”

  I waited for her to respond or run away but she just stood there, waiting for me to continue.

  “There are elves terrorizing you,” I said. Honesty sometimes is the best option. “All the weird stuff that has been going on is caused by them, by their magic. They cause a bunch of havoc and then they eat someone.” I needed her to understand the urgency of the situation. “It’s usually the first person that experiences the mischief they cause. My name is Wes Parker and I can protect you.”

  For several seconds she stared at me. Then she stepped out of the way and allowed me to walk through, which I did.

  The house was just as sloppy on the inside as it was on the outside. There were no sign of any adults and quite frankly that concerned me. This girl just let a man—OK, fine, young man—in the house that is bloody and has an axe attached to his hip. For all she knew I could be there to murder her. I’m not, of course, but she had no way of knowing that.

  “Water?” she asked me.

  “Yeah,” I said, realizing how thirsty I was. “I’d love some.”

  She walked out of the room and into the kitchen. When she returned she had a small glass of water in her hand.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  We both sat down on what could be considered a couch.

  “So,” I started, “do you mind telling me what happened?”

  She shook her head. “I woke up one morning and got out of my bed.”

  I stared at her waiting for more. “That’s not very strange.”

  “I was on the roof.”

  “Oh.” That wasn’t normal.

  “Yeah.”

  “Did it stop at that?”

  “No.”

  “What else happened?”

  “My cat disappeared, and the kitchen was completely rearranged.”

  “Did they make your parents disappear?” That question seemed like it stung a little bit.

  “No,” she said. “I haven’t seen my dad in months.”

  “Oh,” I responded. “Sorry.”

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  “That started about a month ago?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “OK, then. That means we have until tonight.”

  “Are they going to kill me?”

  “They are going to try, but no.”

  “OK.” Oddly she seemed to believe me. I wasn’t sure if I believe me. “What do we do now?”

  I turned to answer her when it hit me. I always had a solution. There was always a way to win, whether it was setting the monster on fire or blowing up a town, but this time I could honestly say that I had no idea.

  She was waiting for an answer but I didn’t have one. I couldn’t take her out of the town because we were trapped here, thanks to the elves’ magic. So that really only left us with one option.

  “We wait,” I finally said.

  “Is it safe?” she asked.

  “Sort of.”

  “Can they not enter the house?”

  “That’s vampires, and that’s not true either. Seriously if you ever run into a vampire don’t assume they can’t come into your house.”

  “There are vampires, too?”

  Crap. “Yeah.”

  “Wow.” She didn’t seem very frightened by the idea of it.

  I shouldn’t have told her about that but in all honesty she wasn’t going to remember any of this once it was over. That was of course assuming we both made it through this.

  There was a knock at the front door.

  “You expecting someone?” I asked her.

  “No,” she answered.

  I walked to the front door and slowly opened it. There was no one there. As I closed it there was another knock from the back door.

  “Crap,” I said out loud.

  “What?” she asked me.

  “They’re here.”

  “What do we do?”

  I just shook my head, showing her that I wasn’t very confident in the situation, which wasn’t a good thing. The last thing that I wanted to do right there was let her think that I couldn’t save her.

  “We should get down to the basement,” I suggested.

  “There isn’t one,” she informed me.

  “Oh, OK, then. We can just wait right here.”

  There was laughing. It sounded very innocent but I knew it was not. The amount of laughter was increasing by the second and that meant they had the house completely surrounded.

  “We should run,” the girl said.

  “No,” I told her. “We wouldn’t get far and it would be a wasted effort.”

  “What then?”

  “Well,” I started, but I was lifted off of the ground and tossed across the room, crashing into a shelf with a bunch of hunting pictures on it.

  “WES!” she shouted.

  “Crap,” I strained.

  As I looked up there was an elf standing right in front of my face.

  “Hello,” he said right as he kicked me in the face. The force was so hard it nearly snapped my neck. My nose would be bleeding any second for sure.

  “Wes, help!” the girl screamed.

  There were a group of elves surrounding her and were picking her up off the ground.

  “You can’t have her,” I said.

  “Too late,” one of them said.

  “We already have her,” another confirmed.

  I stood up and went to charge them, but I was stopped short by a bus that crashed right into me.

  When I woke up I was lying on the ground outside with pieces of the house spread out around me, and the sun was starting to set. It was a new experience for me, getting hit by a bus in the middle of a house. I could tell it did quite a bit of damage inside but I was the only thing that passed through the wall. I was a littl
e sore but I would get over it.

  The girl was gone and it started to sink in that the sun was setting, which meant that the elves were going to be eating very soon. Time was very short and I had no plan. Well, I had a plan. I just don’t think it was a good one, at all.

  I had to go to the store again and grab some baked beans. Knowing how many elves I was dealing with I cleared the store out. Unfortunately there weren’t as many cans as I was hoping for but it is what it is.

  Before I could start heating the beans up I needed to find out where they had taken the girl and that was a bit tricky. I was told it was almost always right near where the victim lives but when they know we—paladins—know where that is then they will seek out a different spot. They could be anywhere in the town and it was a pretty large town.

  The town seemed a lot quieter now and that was because right before they ate the person they had chosen they put everyone else in a trance just so they wouldn’t interrupt them. Not that anyone could stop them anyway. There were no cars and no one walking around.

  “Where the heck are they?” I asked out loud.

  “Who?” someone asked.

  I turned around and there was girl was standing behind me. She was probably about 11 years old, with black hair.

  “Oh,” I stammered. “I’m looking for some friends of mine.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “You feel OK?”

  “Yeah. Everyone else is acting really weird around here, though.”

  “It would appear that way.” Why didn’t she seem affected? She didn’t seem scared either. Not that she was clueless but just not scared.

  “I’m Alexandra,” the girl said, sticking out her hand. Even though I was kind of panicking I was impressed by her courtesy. “Alex.”

  “Wes,” I replied while shaking her hand.

  “Do you know why everyone is acting like this?”

  “Sort of. Have you seen a bunch of people dressed like elves running around?”

  She looked at me like I was kind of crazy. I knew it would be a long shot but Alex seemed a little more aware than everyone else.

  “Yes,” she answered reluctantly.

  “Really?” I asked.

  She nodded her head.

  “Do you remember where you saw them?”

  “Yeah. I can show you.”

  “My friends aren’t really the friendly type and I’d rather you didn’t come with me. Do you think you can point me in the right direction?”

  “I’m not afraid.”

  “I know but I’d rather you didn’t come with me.”

  “I’m not good with directions.”

  I let out a long sigh.

  “Fine,” I said, “but when I say go, you go.”

  “OK. We can walk there.”

  “Lead the way.”

  She started walking and I followed her. I wasn’t quite sure what it was but she looked very familiar. I couldn’t figure it out, though.

  “You grow up here?” I asked her.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “Born too?”

  “I don’t know. I was adopted.”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  “No need to be.”

  We walked for about five more minutes until she finally stopped.

  “It’s right up ahead,” she told me.

  “There?” I asked, pointing into the woods.

  “Yeah just walk down that path.”

  “OK. I need you to go now.”

  “OK.” She left.

  I walked down the path for a little while until I eventually came to a clearing. My heart hit the ground. In the clearing the girl was hanging from the tree upside down. The thing was, there were nine other people as well.

  There was a small part of me that had expected there to be more than one person but I honestly didn’t think there was going to be 10 of them. It should have been obvious, though, considering how many elves were there. Clearly one person wasn’t going to be enough to stifle their hunger.

  I walked around the site trying to find a good path to go down to start heating up the beans. I needed to get them away from those victims and I had no idea how much time there was before they were going to start eating. I still didn’t know what I was even going to do.

  On the other side of the site from which I started there was a path that looked like it may be a good one. So, I headed down it hoping that none of the elves had seen or heard me. When I was passing in between two relatively close trees I was suddenly standing right in front of the people hanging upside down. They were all unconscious.

  “Wes,” one of the elves said.

  “You came,” called out another.

  “We were hoping you would.”

  “We’re hungry.

  “Hungry.”

  “Thanks for the beans.”

  “Beans.”

  “We want you to see this.”

  So much for sneaking in unnoticed, and they got the beans from me. Not only did I not get to distract them, but they were going to get the beans anyway.

  “You know I can’t just let you guys eat these people, right?” I asked them.

  “You can’t stop us,” one of them promised.

  “Haven’t you tried already?” another asked me.

  “I really hate you guys,” I said.

  “We know.”

  “So, I guess we get to you guys doing ridiculous things and tossing me around?”

  “Yep.”

  “Great.”

  I charged after the closest elf and took a low swing at its head. When the axe was inches from the elf’s head it was stopped short by a giant metal pole. I’m not really sure why my axe didn’t cut right through it but then again, they were elves.

  Before I had time to get over the initial shock another one of the elves came over and punted me right in the face. I jerked and landed right on my back. The elf that had blocked my axe brought the pole up that he used to stop me and swung it right into my stomach. All the air left my lungs and I gasped trying to get it all back.

  I was really starting to get aggravated and I felt a surge of adrenaline surge through my entire body. As one of the elves came over and tried to drop a giant boulder on me I whipped out one of my guns and shot him right in the chest. He dropped the boulder and it crushed the thing like it was nothing. Once again all of the elves were shocked that I managed to kill one of them.

  “Another one,” one of them said.

  “There’s more where that came from,” I taunted them.

  “Kill him.”

  “Try it.”

  They all flew at me and I wasn’t going to let them get the better of me this time. I swung my axes around like a mad man, killing one after another.

  “Stop him,” two of them yelled at the same time. I was getting to them.

  “We must.”

  “We have to eat.”

  “He will ruin everything.”

  “You little shits don’t like being on this side of the fight, do you?”

  “Time to sleep, Wes.”

  “Huh?”

  I didn’t really have a chance to ponder what the elf said. Something hit me in the back of the head and then I was out.

  I woke up with the biggest headache. To be honest I was surprised that I wasn’t dead. As my sight started to come back I saw there was a man standing in front of me. At least it looked like the size and shape of a man but my vision was a little too fuzzy to tell.

  “Wake up, Wes,” the man said.

  I wasn’t very happy that he knew who I was and had a very big advantage over me at that moment.

  “Get up,” he said again more sternly.

  I pushed myself up into a kneeling position and he started to come into focus. It was the same man that I saw when I was back in my hometown. He had on the same trench coat and hat. So, added with the dark of night, I couldn’t see his face.

  “Who are you?” I asked him.

  “Just someone who knows you,” he replied. />
  I wasn’t sure if I should be scared or not. Whoever he was he just saved me. I could see there were a few elves lying dead that I didn’t kill so he couldn’t be that bad, but the fact that he could just disappear in the blink of an eye made me uncomfortable. The last time I saw him he just vanished. It was a very brief meeting.

  “I’ve had my eye on you for a very long time,” he informed me.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked. “That’s creepy.”

  “Nope. Just being observant.”

  “Yeah, creepy.”

  He chuckled but I could tell it was the kind of chuckle that might end up with him punching me in the face. Trust me, I know.

  “You are funny,” he said.

  “Some don’t think so,” I replied.

  “No one really does, Wes.”

  “Cool.”

  “You’re quite good at what you do.”

  “What is it exactly that you do?”

  “Come on now. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you. I promise you’ll find out when the time comes.”

  My vision was clearing up but I still couldn’t see his face. Something was telling me that I knew him but at the same time I had no idea.

  “Are you going to at least give me a name?” I asked, not bothering to press him about what he was doing.

  “Just call me Larry,” he said.

  I looked at him a little disappointed. “Larry?”

  “Yes.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Couldn’t you have a cooler name like Hunter or Slash, or even Bob?”

  “Do you have a problem with my name?” He sounded angry.

  “No, no. It’s great. Larry works.”

  There was a lot of blood around me and I wasn’t sure if it was the elves or mine. I didn’t think it was mine but then again I was feeling a little bit woozy, so who knows.

  “So you’re not going to tell me what you’re doing, Larry?” I asked him.

  “No,” he replied.

  “OK, then will you at least tell me why you saved me and these people?”

  He just laughed, a very evil laugh that told me I was naïve. I can be very perceptive sometimes.

  “Is something funny?” I probably shouldn’t have bothered asking.

  “Wes,” he started, “who said anything about me saving anyone.”

  “Huh?”

  I turned around and hadn’t been so horrified in such a long time. I have hunted a lot of monsters in my day and one thing was always the same, in the end I always won. What I saw when I turned around was what was left of the people I was trying to save. The elves had eaten them.

  I was at a loss for words. I was supposed to protect these people and I had failed, badly. There was barely even a fight between the elves and I before they knocked me out. Larry didn’t do anything to save those people but he obviously came in and saved me. There was no way the elves would just let me live. They would have wanted to eat me.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Why what?” Larry replied.

  “Why did you save me and not these people?”

  “I’m sure you would like me to say it’s because by the time I arrived they were already dead, but in reality I just didn’t want to.”

  “Then why save me?”

  He leaned in real close. I couldn’t see his face still but his breath was horrendous. “I have plans for you.”

  I was really uncomfortable with that answer but I knew he wasn’t going to tell me what those plans were.

  “But,” he started as he stood back up straight, “I’m not going to tell you yet.” See?

  I couldn’t even respond to him.

  “Well,” he said. “Even though this conversation is very riveting I have things to attend to.”

  “I don’t know who or what you are,” I began, “but I can promise that one day I am going to kill you.”

  He simply laughed.

  “I don’t think so, Wes,” he said. “See you later.”

  Puff. He was gone just like before.

  I looked at all the carnage around me and had no idea what I was supposed to do. It wasn’t like I could just leave and let everyone see this but the friends and family of these people were going to wonder where they all went. Even still, there wasn’t really much to identify anyone with and I’m sure everyone’s blood was all mixed together by now. I couldn’t leave everything like this.

  The next two hours were spent cleaning up the entire area. Any left over body parts were thrown into a pit I dug and burnt to ashes. When I was just about done I heard someone walking up behind me. Relying completely on reflexes I whipped out one of my Desert Eagles and pointed it directly at the would-be attacker.

  “Alex,” I sighed.

  It was hard to tell if she was scared of me.

  “I thought I told you to go home?” I pointed out.

  “I didn’t,” she said. She was stunned; baffled by everything she had obviously just seen.

  “How long have you been there?”

  She just shook her head.

  “The whole time?” I asked her.

  “Yeah,” she replied.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It was horrible.”

  “I can you promise that this won’t haunt you.”

  “How can you promise that?”

  “I’m going to erase your memory.”

  “What?”

  I flashed my beam of light before she could say anything more. After the light faded and she regained her wits she just stared at me.

  “What happened?” she asked me.

  “I found you wandering in the woods here,” I lied.

  She looked at me like she didn’t know what to say, like she was confused, which was understandable.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Nobody,” I replied. “Let me take you home.”

  I brought her back to my car and then brought her home. When she got out of my car she looked back a couple of times and still seemed very confused. There was something very odd about her.

  While I was heading out of the town I felt severely depressed. It seems unlikely but I have honestly never let someone die on my watch. I felt wrong. I felt really bad. I was going to make sure that didn’t happen ever again.