Two nights ago, I was face to face with fear incarnate.
Working for Casey puts me into a lot of crazy scenarios, and being “unkillable” to monsters sure is a perk in itself, but what I was assigned to track down was something I could have never been prepared for.
When Noct called me and emailed me the fileon this Darwin creature, a lot of things stuck out to me that signified I was going to have a hard time on my hands, but even then I wasn’t prepared.
“Any form of damage caused to the Darwin would leave its mark, quickly heal, and then it wouldn’t take damage from the same thing thereafter.” That fact itself gave me cause for concern that this thing wasn’t going to go down easy; but I went into this with my blood on my mind.
See, what Casey tried to tell me that day when my world changed was that my blood was special, so much so that even she couldn’t properly explain it. From what I’ve learned, my ancestors were Templars or something along that line, and they’d gone through many rituals and experiments to strengthen their bodies against these creatures they were up against. Apparently, they perfected the process so much that every man in my family has this blood that causes “unholy creatures” to be unable to kill us. They can fucking hurt us, I know this much is for certain, but they can never fataly wound us. Noct even told me that something like the Darwin, a “man-made abomination” would be considered something unholy, so that gave me confidence.
I was curious about some things though, and when Noct called me to assign me to the Darwin case, I decided to look into those curiosities. “What’s the whole deal with going against this thing? It doesn’t really seem like it’s in my wheelhouse of usual targets. Kinda sounds more like something Casey would give you.”
“Think of it as a test,” he responded unemotionally as always,”if you can get a blood sample from this thing, Casey will be looking into getting you a raise.” The chuckle at the end of the sentence gave me concern, but I already knew with Noct not to pry.
“Okay, well who made it? According to this case file, it sounds like some frankenstein kinda thing.”
I could hear the sharp inhale on the other line; Noct getting tired of the questioning already. “That’s a need to know basis which you, my friend, most certainly do not need to know. Just get it done.”
“Okay but what about-” Dial tone.
What about some tips?
So, last night I tracked the thing to a small outcropping of trees in some field two towns over from me. When I entered the town that morning, I grabbed a newspaper and saw that some kids were going missing lately and took that as enough evidence that this thing was most certainly in the vicinity. Upon checking out the home locations of each missing child, I was able to assume that this area I found myself in was more than likely where it would be found.
I set myself up in a large bush, and I waited for it to show itself. It wasn’t a large area of wood, so I knew it would have to pass me at some point tonight.
And I was right.
As the sun began to set, just as the orange and blood red of the twilight sun began to drop beyond the horizon and be replaced with the quiet, unwelcoming darkness of night, I sensed it. Something else I had was this sixth sense for when something monstrous was around, and right then and there, my compass was spinning in all directions. Every single muscle in my body tightened and twisted, preparing to be used in a millisecond notice from my brain. My eyes became hyper focused, noticing every separate leaf moving before me, and the leaves just beyond them. I could see the bugs in the dirt beginning to come up and do whatever it is that bugs do at night. I could hear the whistle of the night, welcoming my friend home into the trees.
I stayed low to the ground, the grass and twigs and dirt covering every inch of my body and I waited for this thing to show up.
And then I saw it.
Out of the side of my eye, I saw the leg coming in my direction. It was walking slowly, breathing like a rabid dog all the while as it approached my location. And then it was in front of me. I couldn’t look up far enough to see it, I could only see its long, scrawny legs in front of me and its disgustingly flat, leathery feet. I didn’t think and I didn’t really prepare for what to do here, so I did the only thing I knew I could do. Attached to my chest was a velcroed bowie knife and a small vial of gasoline; in my pocket was my Zippo. I already knew the Zippo was trustable to make a flame, I’ve taken out enough covens of witches with it already. And I knew I could get to the knife and gas just as quick. So it was time to act.
I jumped up in one swift motion, grabbing the knife and gasoline with both hands, breaking the vial off of the side of the knife and watching the liquid splash over the blade.I reached for the lighter, but I guess this thing’s reaction time kicked in because before I could even put my hand in my pocket, I felt it’s large fist come hammering down onto my head, throwing me back down to the ground. It let out this hellaciously loud roar, sounding like half of a machine, half of a demonic dog as it kicked me in the ribs, sending me flying through the air with more force than I could have expected. I was airborne for so long until I was stopped by a tree, feeling my spine crack on the impact.
I lay on the ground, motionless, waiting to recover from the injury. I could hear the thing walk up to me, snarling viciously as it approached. It must have been leaning down above me because I could feel its warm, disgusting breath on the back of my neck.
I felt my spine begin to realign; my hands regained feeling.
I noticed the blade was still in my hand, so I clutched it tight.
I quickly reached for the lighter again, this time as the thing rolled me over onto my back. I was face to face with it.
The thing looked so disgusting. Its face was twisted and contorted. One eye was completely covered by scarred flesh, as if it had already been badly burned. Its other eye was bulging out of its head and was blood red, like it was so close to just popping. Its jaw swung back and forth loosely, disconnected from its upper half.
It put its hand around my throat.
It also didn’t notice that my blade was now on fire. Without a thought, I sliced through the hand that was grabbing me, tearing it from the beast’s arm. Even with it’s mangled face, I could see the pain and terror appear upon its visage. It let out a horrendous scream as it shot upright, grabbing the bloody stump that was once its hand. I picked the hand up as I jumped to my feet, attaching it to a chain clasp I had on my pants. Also for added measure, I had a second vial on me, empty, so I scooped a little of the hands blood inside.
The thing looked at me with fear and hatred combined, wanting to come at me again, but trying to decide if that was a reasonable decision. I didn’t even have the blade in my hand now, it was somewhere on the ground behind me, thankfully not on fire anymore.
“Run, you don’t want to do this.” Was all I said to the thing.
“I don’t want to hurt you, this wasn’t personal.”
The Darwin stared at me, the pain dissipating, yet the hate continued to grow on its face, telling me it was personal to one of us now.
I put my hand up before it, signalling for it to stay as I backed away from it. It shuffled towards me, slowly as I backed up. Then it’s shuffling quickened into a walk.
And then it dashed at me.
With its good hand, the thing moved so quickly and swung at me with such a viciously rough strike that it sent me to the ground for a second time. It picked me up and it held me to its face, staring into my eyes. I tried my hardest not to show fear, but I think it saw it anyway. It then dropped me to the ground out of nowhere. I scrambled to my feet as quickly as possible and I turned to run, and that’s when I saw it.
The other Darwin.
This one was fresh, no scars on its body yet. Its skin was leathery and you could still see the human in its face. It had pale green eyes that were full of sadness and anger, empathy and destruction. I don’t know how much time this thing had before it went full monster, but the person inside was fighting to keep it together.
It looked down at me.
“Go.” It struggled so hard to get the word out, almost hissing it through barred teeth. It then looked beyond me, at the Darwin behind me. “You,” it hissed, “die. Tonight.”
The new Darwin charged in my direction and I didn’t think, I just ran. I ducked under its arm just as it began to swing. I continued to run through the woods without thinking about anything but escaping that scenario. I looked back once, and what I saw was a gruesome show of a very angry monster, one who was hateful over its fate. The fresh Darwin had the damaged one held in the air above its head, and it was ripping; it looked like it was preparing to drop it on a broken tree.
I turned back before I saw it happen, but the loud crack I heard, followed by the nightmarish scream that followed, told me the new Darwin was victorious.
I made it back home and checked the vial of blood. It was unbroken, and had a decent amount of blood within it. I also still had the hand, something Casey didn’t have to know about.
I don’t know how much I could make off of it, but it was worth finding out. I texted Noct as I came through my front door, letting him know he could pick up the vial in the morning; I then went to my computer to post the hand onto my forum.
It was weird how fast I was contacted about it. Apparently someone really wants to buy it off of me, for whatever price I set, he also said he could take it off of me whenever I wanted to meet up.
He calls himself Whistleblower, and said he has a deep connection with the Darwins.
Oh well. Don’t ask, don’t tell.