(First: https://redd.it/13p8kaf )
I called the sheriff saying I was going to finally take care of my Harry and Hank problem. I told him where to meet me in the woods and hung up. I then called Harry and told him where I wanted to meet him, giving him a time a few minutes before the sheriff would arrive. I also threatened to come to his house and take care of things if he didn’t arrive on time. He lived with his mother and I assumed he didn’t want me snapping and hurting her.
If Harry was going to be there, Hank would be as well. They were going to shoot me that day. But for some reason got scared and ran off before they could. I wanted them to pick a fight with me. It gave me a reason to either fight back or have the sheriff arrest them for assault. It all depended on what they did or if everyone arrived on time. My gun was only to buy time until they got arrested, or as a last resort. I checked in on Graves one last time and headed out wondering when I would see him again.
I parked outside the trail and quickly went off into the woods to a spot that all the locals knew about. There was a clearing with a large tree stump most people used for camping spot or teens for drinking. I didn’t enter the clearing but waited behind a tree, watching. I knew what direction they would come from and kept out of sight. I heard the twigs snapping behind me far too late.
Someone got behind me and knocked the back of my head hard. I fell forwards and a strong hand grabbed my wrist to pin it behind my back. A large body pressed mine against a rough tree, the smell of bad breath and old coffee coming from the person. I struggled to find this person who had more of a size advantage and I couldn’t move.
Hank and Harry arrived, a scared to death expression ion their faces. If they were here, then who the hell ambushed me? I twisted around just enough to see the man holding my arms behind my back. He reached down and found my gun, tossing it to the other men in the clearing.
“Sheriff?” I choked out, head swimming.
He forced me by the stump and with one hand on my neck. He put my left arm on the wooden surface.
“We gave you a chance to leave for years. None of us wants your kind here but you didn’t get any hints. Harry, get your ass over here! We need to cover the costs of the bullet you morons stole! Hurry up and chop off pieces of this one to sell.” The older man said in a drawl of a voice that normally sounded friendly.
My vision became unfocused. I didn’t understand what the sheriff was saying. He’d never been overly unkind to me. How could he be on their side? I shook my head thinking this was just a nightmare. I hated myself as much as the sheriff at that moment. It was clear that he’d been covering for those two all these years and I’d just never seen it.
Harry whimpered, knife in hand. I refused to let him do anything to me. I struggled to get free and Hank needed to come over to keep me pinned down. With a great deal of effort, they kept my arm still enough for Harry to press the blade of the knife against my left thumb, ready to slice it off. I stopped moving, my heart beating and I’ve never been more afraid in my entire life. My entire focus was on the light the knife gave off and nothing else.
Then that odd feeling of heat came from my stomach. I felt it rise to my face and the growl came. I only saw red and with strength, I didn’t know I had, tossed the two men off my back. As quickly as the anger came, it faded leaving me feeling dizzy and swaying on my feet. The sheriff picked up Hank’s rifle and rudely smashed the butt of it into my face making me topple over. I kept my eyes close, my nose bleeding.
“Is he out?” Harry asked in a shaky voice.
One of them walked over and picked up my arm. I let it fall limp to my face, forcing myself not to flinch when it came down.
“Yeah. He’s out. We should get him to-” The sheriff got cut off by a loud sound of a large person or an animal coming crashing into the clearing.
I risked opening my eyes just enough to see. My heart sank when I saw who arrived. Graves had charged over, knocking over the sheriff but that used up most of his energy. His face was pale he barely stayed on his feet facing the three men between them and myself. Harry and Hank screamed like little girls and darted away. The sheriff got up, shouting at them to stay still.
“He can’t do jack shit unless he’s ordered and paid to do so! Since you’re both still breathing that means no one has given him a job! He’s harmless, just shoot him!” The older man shouted at his two useless friends.
A weird feeling came over me. It was like I already knew all of that but forced myself to forget it. My friend put all his effort into staying on his feet. He did look harmless. He glanced over to see if I was dead or not. Worry on his pale face. I opened my eyes but didn’t sit up. My face hurt like hell and scared to death. Graves started to shake his head not wanting me to go through what I was about to say.
“Take care of all three of them.” I told him.
An expression of regret came over his face. He didn’t want to burden me with the deaths of three people. He could have offered his services at any time but refused to bring it up. He never spoke of his job or how often he hurt others wanting me to be blissfully unaware of who I let into my house. I understood all of this and yet asked him the one thing he never wanted from me. I already fed him and that counted as a payment.
Bullets started to fly as the three men understood what kind of trouble they were now in. Graves was faster. He used his body as a shield to protect me. Us being in that position felt familiar. A memory came from the back of my mind. I’d gotten lost in the woods when I was younger. My father and Graves both came to find me. Then why did Graves need to protect me all those years ago?
The men needed to reload and my protector broke off. His form no longer restrained from whatever rules he’d been burdened with. His face changed with countless shapes coming from it. So many animal heads of different stages of decomposition came down on Harry first. His high-pitched scream turned into a garbled mess. All those animals baring teeth to rip him apart. The other two men fled into the forest and I sat watching Graves eat, seeing a part of what he’d kept hidden.
White lights came from the eyes of the dead animals. I looked around and noticed so many more of those white lights watching from the woods. The sun starting to set making it hard to make out what kind of rotting animals those lights belonged to. A smell of death came between the choking scent of blood.
Even though I knew Graves was on my side, I still felt terrified by what was in the woods. I stayed to watch his face finally return to a human one but he didn’t stop eating. On his hands and knees, he buried his entire head inside the hollowed-out ribcage that belonged to a man that tormented me for most of my life. He jerked back, dragging along a piece of flesh, and ate it down. His face dripped with blood and his breathing came out fast. I stood up, rubbing my bloody nose with the back of my hand.
The sound attracted his attention. His eyes were on mine with that white light shining for a second. His senses returned when I stopped in front of him. I nearly got sick seeing the gory remains of Harry and knowing Graves was the one who did this. Under all that blood, he almost looked sorry over how things turned out. I reached out a hand and he carefully rested a stained cheek in my palm, feeling the warmth of living flesh against his cold skin.
“I never wanted to burden you with this kiddo.” Graves admitted in a low voice.
I knew that. I’ve always known that. Using him to take care of my problems was the first step to losing my humanity. My mother never wanted that for me. And Graves never wanted me to sink to his level either. I got down on my knees to wrap my arms around his neck. The blood on his clothing soaked into my own. Being a very lonely person, he wrapped his arms around me wishing we never got into this situation. Faintly I wondered what my life would have been like if he stayed with my mother. He left us thinking someone like him shouldn’t stain our family with the blood on his hands.
“Make sure they can’t hurt anyone else.” I whispered and felt his head nod.
His form changed in my arms and moved away. Something long and sleek moved too fast to get a good look at it. It ran into the woods followed by so many other creatures. All of them looked grey and rotten. Their bodies moved in unnatural ways and their shining eyes looked for the other two targets.
I wasn’t going to leave him alone. I followed behind, ready to see this until the end. I ran through the woods, night falling around the trees. The lights of the eyes showed me the way. The blood on my clothing turned cold and stuck my sweater to my skin. I still ran and only stopped when I heard a scream off in the distance. It was Hank finally getting caught. Only a few smaller of the undead creatures stayed nearby. The rest of the hoard fell teeth first on the hunted man. Another sound came making me jump.
A gun went off. I moved and looked around to see the sheriff, rifle in hand and a weird symbol painted on his forehead. A warmth came from my stomach. Looking down, I saw my blood-stained sweater get darker in a small area. I pressed my hand against my stomach feeling an odd pressure, then my legs gave out. The smaller animals made screeching sounds. They charged at the sheriff but were shot down.
In the distance, I heard the mangled cry of different creatures. I knew it was Graves screaming because I’d been shot. He started back in our direction but got there too late. The other man stood above me, gun in hand and a few scratches on his body from the undead animals getting attacks in.
I couldn’t do a thing to stop him from firing another shot into my chest. My lungs filled up with the same warmth as blood started to drown me from the inside. He knew he wouldn’t get out of the woods alive so he wanted to take down at least one target. If he fired one more shot, he might have done so.
A mass of rotten flesh came out of the woods and on top of him. So many claws tore him apart, spraying the area with blood. I expected the teeth to come out but Graves didn’t have time for a meal. The rotten flesh, fur, and bones turned back into the person I knew. Scared over my well-being. He collapsed to his knees beside me, saying something I wasn’t able to hear.
My body felt heavy. Somehow, I didn’t feel the pain of the bullets slowly taking my life. I felt his hands over my chest trying to see where I’d been hit. I didn’t want him to see me like this. In those few moments, a memory came back. One of my father’s body in the forest clearing and Graves standing over him, face bloody from where he tore into the other man’s stomach. I think I’ve always known Graves was the one who killed my father. I pushed it back, refusing to think about it. I didn’t hate him for something like that though. I only would hate him if he didn’t kill that monster of a man.
Something came into my body. A painful heat through the palms of my hands. It felt like fiery acid just was injected into my veins to travel through my body. I screamed and kicked trying to get away from the pain. It felt like it went on for years before finally I blacked out.
I thought I’d died. I got shot twice so I really should have. I woke up, weak and unable to move. Graves had placed me on his back as he rushed through the woods. He adjusted my legs and I gripped his neck tighter to show I was awake. He slowed down a little to make the trip less jarring.
“I’m going to get you to a doctor. I need to use a door but can’t make one out in the woods.” He said as if the last part made sense.
“I got shot.” I replied, voice hoarse.
“I’m sorry. Those three were monster hunters. The sheriff avoided my sight and you got hurt because of it. You never should have gone through any of this.”
He refused to look at me when he spoke. He felt guilty that I’d gotten hurt and that I even asked for his help in the first place.
“I’m not dead. Is that because… I’m not human?” I asked, finally asking something that my mother wanted to keep hidden.
He paused, breathing hard, unsure of how to answer my question.
“Your mother was human. Your father was… something else. I’m not even certain of what he was. Those three were scared to death of him and never really tried to kill you because they feared parts of your father got passed down. That wasn’t the case. You need to understand that. You’re nothing like him. You’re alive because I healed you with some magic from the forest. But you’re literally not out of the woods and I need to bring you to be treated.”
I nodded and held him tighter, a weird lump forming in my throat. I kept thinking about my friend when I was six. Those men killed him because he was the same as me. Someone with a monster for a parent. His mother and father died in a house fire shortly after he was shot in the woods. I imagine it wasn’t an accident. How many others did they kill just because they were born different?
I fell asleep again while being carried. My head swimming with so many questions I didn’t have answer for just yet.
I woke up in a clinic. The doctor said after I ate breakfast I could head home and stay on bed rest for a week. I needed to choke down some blood pudding and sweet tea. The black-haired doctor said the pudding was made for half-breeds like me to recover faster. Graves agreed to do some landscaping outside the clinic to help pay for my stay. I smiled a little seeing him with gloves and covered in dirt from chores. He was dismissed to take me back home but needed to head back after to keep working off my medical debt.
The doctor drew a circle beside a door with some odd writing. When he opened it, I saw my house just outside. Even knowing monsters were real, seeing a magic door for the first time baffled me. I stepped out and found myself coming out of my open car door and not the open clinic door I walked inside. Graves followed behind to make sure I got up the porch. I stopped to stare at the blood stain he left behind the day before. I needed to clean that up but wanted to talk to him before he left.
“The night my father died… You killed him, didn’t you?” I asked him point blank.
He stood at the base of the stairs and looked away; hands stuffed in his pockets.
“I hoped you forgot all about that.” He admitted.
“I wasn’t lost in the woods. He… He snapped. I lured him out there to try and save my mother. He was going to kill one of us and I decided I wanted it to be me.”
I only had a handful of memories left of that night. I heard my mother screaming and saw my father turning into something else. His body was a beast instead of the man who raised me. He always had anger issues but I never thought he would threaten to kill either of us. My mother covered up the small bruises and pretended as if nothing happened. She loved him. I knew that. She always loved that man.
“She… she could have left him sooner but-” I started, tears about to take over.
“Kiddo, you don’t need to think about stuff like this.” Graves said and it pissed me off.
“Don’t treat me like a child!” I snapped at him.
After everything I wanted to face the truth. He took my anger and a little smirk came over his face.
“You’ll always be a kid to me.” He said, the smile making wrinkles appear at the corner of his eyes.
I relaxed and lower my head. I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hands. I still needed to confirm something and he was the only one still alive that knew the answers.
“My mother said to always treat you well because she owed you something. If you killed my father it makes me think that she was the one who asked you to do it. But that wasn’t the case, was it? She loved him. She had so many chances to leave. She risked both of our lives for that love… I was the one who asked you for help, wasn’t I?”
I didn’t remember asking Graves to do such a thing for me. I wanted him to save my mother even if she loved her husband more than her child. And what did I pay him to do a job like that? I was a child. I didn’t have anything of my own.
The other man nodded grimly, confirming my theory. That was one of the reasons why he left and refused to stay for very long. He felt as if it was his fault he put a child through seeing their dead father. And now that he came back for a day, three people were dead. I could never blame him but I’ve learned people can’t accept forgiveness from others if they can’t forgive themselves.
“What did I pay you back then? A cool rock?” I asked, wondering about one of the last questions I had.
He shuffled his foot around almost embarrassed. Looking around, he checked to see if anyone would be listening. Or course, no one else was around. Hell, I could keep the blood on my porch for a year without anyone seeing it.
“I made you promise me that I could tell you something when you got older without laughing when you heard it.” He admitted making me even more confused.
I didn’t have the faintest idea of what he was talking about. I watched him straighten up, one of the rare times I’ve seen him not slouched over. His face looked more human than it ever had before.
“I love you, kiddo.”
I think if anyone else watched a middle-aged man say those words so proudly they might be tempted to laugh, or at least smile. I did smile at first then my vision became blurry with tears I couldn’t stop. He could say those words a hundred times but it didn’t change the fact he couldn’t stay. If he did, I wouldn’t be human any longer. I still had a chance at living a normal life like my mother wanted. She may have loved my father more than either of us, but that didn’t matter. I loved her. I never hated her for the choices she made and missed her more than I would ever say out loud. I wanted to live the way she wanted at the risk of not having a different relationship with someone I cared about. I picked the dead over Graves and deep down I think that’s why he saw me as worth something. I kept rubbing my eyes trying to get my tears under control. Graves kicked at the ground awkwardly waiting for me to calm down.
“If you’re ever in this area again you better stay over.” I said, unsure of what else to tell him.
“Alright, but we’re ordering takeout next time. Your meatloaf was so greasy it almost killed me.” Graves replied, his normal lazy tone returning.
I took a few steps across the porch, threatening to knock some sense into him for that comment. He laughed and raised his hands in defense. Both of us knew he needed to go and neither was sure when he would come back, if ever. I wasn’t certain if I would see him again so I returned the words he asked to say as payment all those years ago just before he left through the still-open magic doorway. He didn’t need to answer. We both already said everything that was needed.
I settled back into a normal routine after recovering from getting shot. It took a week of working from my bed before I could walk around for more than five minutes without pain. People asked about the three missing men, but no one found any traces of them. No cops came to my place asking questions and a new sheriff took over. Everything started to feel so normal it almost hurt. I had a stable job and the house I lived my entire life. This life was the one both my parents wanted for me. It was peaceful and I decided I was perfectly content listening to my parents’ wishes.