Back at the compound, I received medical attention for that fall I took. Nothing was broken, thankfully, but I felt like I was run over by a train. The staff was on edge, the halls echoed with Deleon’s screams as Arthur took him to the interrogation chamber where he would subject someone who was like a brother to me once to the most painful torture imaginable to get answers out of him. I was disturbed, not just because of Deleon but of what Arthur said. “It’s the end of the world.”
Those words were stuck in my head like a catchy tune. In all my years knowing Arthur Quint, I had come to know the man as a no bullshit kind of guy. If he said something, he meant it, and saying it’s the end of the world is probably not hyperbole or a metaphor with him. As soon as I could stand, I got up from the infirmary bed against the nurses’ wishes. I made my way down the halls of the compound. With every step I took, I could hear the blood curdling screams getting louder.
The interrogation had been going on for hours, but Deleon would only seem to be getting louder with every moment. As I reached the interrogation chamber door, the deafening screams came to a halt. Somehow, the silence was even louder. I hesitated for a moment, every ounce in my body did not want to go into that room, and I didn’t want to see the state my once great friend had been left in after hours of torture. In the end, I swallowed hard and entered the room.
I felt my stomach sink and began to get physically sick when I saw Deleon tied to a chair, most of his fingers had been broken and twisted in every way possible, the flesh on his torso had been hacked at like a piece of meat at the hands of a butcher and Arthur stood over him, chunks of flesh still hanging from his clawed hands. Deleon’s head slumped forward. Maybe he had finally passed out due to the pain, or Arthur had killed him. “Jesus Christ, Quint!” I said as I moved towards Deleon, searching for a pulse. “He will live. Even now, the werewolf blood in him heals his injuries.” Arthur said nonchalantly as he cleaned his hands literally and metaphorically.
“Was this fucking necessary?” “Your former partner was difficult to break. The fear he had for his master made me resort to more… convincing methods.” “Did you at least get any useful information?” “Unfortunately I did. The situation is worse than I suspected.” “Are you going to elaborate this time, or are you going to torture anymore of my friends first?” “I believe it would be best if I showed you.”
We left Deleon in his chair and made our way to Arthur’s quarters. There, he poured a different drink from my usual glass of Whiskey. “Drink it, it’ll help you see.” he said while I contemplated the glass of black liquid before me. Just as I was about to drink it, Arthur said: “And once you see, please try to remember I was a different man back then.”
As I swallowed the liquid, I could feel myself get lightheaded. I felt like I was weightless, and everything went dark. When the world returned, I was somewhere else entirely. I was walking in a dark city, but these steps were not my own. I was in someone else’s body, seeing through their eyes.
“You’re in England circa 1891” I heard Arthur’s voice somehow in my head. “You’re reliving my memories, specifically the night that I met…HER.” Somewhere in the night, I heard an agonizing scream. I saw how Arthur followed the commotion to a dark alleyway. I could hear it before I saw it, the sounds of something wet, opened mouth chewing, and desperate slurping.
Hunched over something at the end of that alley was something that resembled a man dressed in black with a top hat. “I had been hunting this particular monster for a number of year’s, each time he managed to elude me and Scotland yard’s finest. Tonight would be the night I would finally confront it, unfortunately, not before it added another victim to its list.” “Good evening, Jack.” Arthur said while the thing noticed his presence and dropped the corpse of a woman it was feeding on. She had been ravaged beyond recognition.
The man stood tall and hulking, nearly 7 feet tall as it turned to Arthur. “Detective…it’s ill mannered to interrupt a man’s dinner.” He said while slowly pacing towards Arthur, like a predator stalking it’s next prey. “Luckily you’re not a man at all, are you?” Arthur pulled out a weapon from his coat, something custom, unconventional for the time and something that seemed to startle the ripper in front of him. The beast masquerading as a man cackled as some sort of violent movement began from within his black coat.
“It looks like someone finally caught on, but there is nothing you can do to stop me!” Two Enormous bat wings erupted from his back as the man leaped into the air. “I knew I couldn’t allow him to escape. Now that I uncovered his true nature, he would relocate far beyond my reach as a human and continue his massacre of innocents” Arthur aimed the weapon with speed and precision, firing a steel hook that hit the target center mass…however it didn’t stop it.
Arthur was violently pulled up into the air as the hook was still connected to his unconventional weapon. Both the winged demon and Arthur soared through the London skyline, narrowly avoiding splattering on the side of buildings multiple times. “The wind made it hard to breathe, let alone hold on to my weapon. In a few moments, I would lose my grip and fall to the ground, painting the paved streets with my blood. I was able to mutter an incantation beneath my breath that set the cable, hook, and Jack ablaze.”
The creature roared in pain and managed to crash into a building, Arthur crashing along with it moments later. Inside Jack was a charred mess that managed to impale himself on steel and wood. Arthur regained his composure and disconnected the line from his weapon, and was ready to finish this reign of terror. “I’m sorry, love, I didn’t mean to bring him here.” Jack said weakly as Arthur stood above him. “Little did I know, as I plunged a blessed harpoon into that monster’s heart, someone had been observing me from the shadows.”
Jack roared in pain as he began to fade to dust. Unexpectedly, Arthur heard clapping coming from behind him. Barely lit by the moonlight, he could see a woman of exotic features the like he’s never seen before. Her eye’s burned red in the darkness. “You are the first mortal to slay one of my kind in many, many year’s.” She slowly made her way towards Arthur, who uncharacteristically did not prepare to defend himself.
“Who are you?” he said while she had somehow gotten close enough to him to strike a mortal blow…yet somehow didn’t. “I have been known by many names through the ages, The first and shall be the last. You may know me as Morana.” Slavic for death. “From the moment I saw her, I knew she would be my doom.
She had a hold over me. I could not break with all my might, and with the seal of her kiss, she did not only steal my heart… but my soul as well.” Fire engulfed my vision. We were no longer in London, people were crying, screaming, and dying. I saw the horrors that Arthur did in service to Morana, the mountains of bodies he left in his wake. I saw how he enjoyed splitting men apart and showering in their blood. And just as I could no longer bear to watch, the fire dissipated.
I was now in a cabin, a warm bed, a woman next to me. “After year’s of losing my way, I broke away from Morana’s side. I tried to regain some semblance of humanity… I fell in love with a woman who helped me find my soul again.” Arthur turned to a beautiful woman laying on his bed. I could see the temptation in his eye’s, it was all he could do not to rip her throat out and feed on her like he had on so many others.
He jumped out of bed in frustration and desperation. He ran out of the cabin and into the snowy wood’s. After what felt like an eternity, he finally stopped running and fell to his knees and began to wail. “No matter how hard I tried, I would not be able to fight my nature. No more than I could outrun my past.”
From within the woods in front of him came Morana, who had tracked him down after much time of searching. “Poor Arthur. You look thirsty. Why deny yourself of your sustenance?” “I will not succumb, I am not the monster you are!”
Arthur lunged at Morana, who quickly subdued him, being weak from lack of ingesting blood. “We both know that’s not true, and it matters not how many wenches you lie with, how much you lie to yourself, your place will always be at my side… as my slave.” She had her foot on Arthur’s throat and proceeded to curb stomp him. Arthur regained consciousness some time later, Morana was long gone and in her wake a trail of fire and blood as it always closely followed her.
Arthur raced back to the cabin only to find it still burning and with his lover outside in the snow, in a pool of her own blood. He cradled her body in devastation. “This is the true price of immortality. Seeing everything you love and care for being taken away from you and living to regret it.” Arthur roared in pain into the night as I snapped out of my vision of the past and found myself back in Arthur’s quarters, not having moved an inch from my chair.
“How do we stop her?” Arthur, not missing a beat replied: “I’m not sure that we can. She was always dead set in ruling man’s world. In order to do that, sheetrock would need an army of dark creatures.” The realization kicked in my head.
“The werewolves? Is that why they’ve been organized?” Arthur turned on the television to a local news station. Downtown New York seemed like a war zone. Local law enforcement and national guard were fighting monsters in the streets, werewolves, vampires, skin walkers, wendigo’s… nearly every creature you wouldn’t want to fuck with was in the streets ripping innocents apart. “Oh my God.” Were the only words that I could force out of my mouth.
“Get every available agent ready and mobile. It looks like we’re going to war.” Arthur said as he finished his glass of blood.
Part 2
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