Hunter of Vengeance

I couldn’t move. Every part of my body felt twenty times heavier than it did moments ago. I couldn’t so much as lift a finger if my life depended on it, Every bit of effort I could muster went immediately into the simple task of breathing in and out. I was dimly aware that the officers who had interrupted us were in the same plight just a few feet away but there was nothing at all I could do to help them. Ben, it seemed, could literally crush us like bugs and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it.

“Hunter! What’s going on?” Holly was in full-on panic mode. “Your vitals spiked and are reading off the charts. Speak to me, dammit!” I tried to talk, to tell her something but I couldn’t even force my lips to obey me. The only sound I managed was a slurred, drunken moan. Ben stood over me, staring with a grim look of determination on his face.

“Let’s make sure there are no more interruptions, shall we?” Holly’s voice cut out in mid-sentence, leaving only a brief shock of static noise followed by silence. “Poor Hunter, you kill a few hundred monsters and you started thinking you were higher up on the food chain than you really were. I guess much of what was attributed to your skill was merely luck, eh? Now. Where was I?”

He stood up backing out of my view. I could hear him resume his pacing. “Ah yes, I was strong back home. Of course, there were stronger but I had the intelligence to play them against each other. After a millennium or two it became increasingly difficult to toe the line like a good little soldier. After all, the whole reason why we were where we were was the belief that it’s better to rule in hell than be a servant in heaven. We followed that man into battle and when all was said and done nothing changed except the face spewing out the orders.”

“There was so much more to this world than just this endless battle over stray souls. It seemed like two children trying to pick up the most toys off the floor. No matter how full their arms were both always would reach for more.” He laughed ruefully. “We curried favor by bringing scraps to our lord and all he gave back was orders to get more. So I wanted to learn more about those that god had chosen over us. All in all, I can’t say I was very impressed. Humans lived short, pointless lives, struggling always for some sort of meaning to their existence that simply never arrived. Just as much knowledge was lost each generation as was gained and by the time any learned wisdom their time was up and they were gone. Then I met him.”

Ben apparently grew bored with his monologue and I felt myself bodily lifted from the floor to his chair. I could see in the doorway the SWAT members lying immobile where they had fallen. I thought one or two of them managed a twitch or two but otherwise showed no outward signs of life. The pressure holding my body down hadn’t lessoned but my head seemed to be slightly freer. I blinked my eyes a few times, only then realizing how dry they had gotten being stuck open as they were. “I’m sure even you have heard of Solomon.”

“Yeah, he was the guy with the mine that Allan Quatermain was always looking for.” I forced the words out.

“How very banal. You honestly think a little treasure would have mattered to one such as I? No. He had a purpose in every action he took. He was proud of what he had done but oft times humbled just the same. He had accrued more wisdom in twenty-five years than other great thinkers did in entire lifetimes. I was fascinated simply watching him. As he reigned I would send him situations just to see how he would deal with them. That thing with the two women and the baby, that was my idea. I thought he would debate with himself for weeks before coming to a decision but within seconds he found a solution.” Ben shook his head, deep in memory. “He was astounding. I could use a drink, you want something? I’ll get you something.” He walked off down the hall again, deftly stepping over the fallen men without missing a step.

Once he was gone I could feel the pressure on me let up just slightly and tried to move. I pulled with every ounce of strength I had and barely moved an inch. Ben hadn’t seemed violent yet but definitely unstable and with the amount of power he was showing that could mean big trouble without any type of warning. If things went south I certainly didn’t want to be anywhere near what would obviously become the center point of all that energy. As quickly as he left, however, Ben was back with two cups of steaming liquid. One he placed on the desk in front of me, as if completely forgetting that he was not allowing me to move.

“Hope you like it black.” Ben smiled with a near kindness in his eyes. “Anyway, like I was saying I had become obsessed with this flash of light called Solomon, but I let myself get too close. He trapped several of us using that fancy ring of his… forced us to work for him, building his temple. He also tried to speak to us, he was intrigued by the differences between us and learned everything he could voraciously. This gave me an excuse to speak with him for hours on end. At first, I admit, I hoped to corrupt him somehow. Get him to let us go but I think the opposite was what happened… he… corrupted me just enough. It alienated me from my own people even once the King had passed from this world. Then with the turn of the century, the gates opened and we could come and go as we pleased… without the rites we had needed to make the crossing previously. All that power released into this world at once wouldn’t suit anyone’s purposes. It would rip the fabric of reality in half and leave the tattered shreds blowing in the wind. That’s why I made the contract with them, keeping them out but I couldn’t stand to go back.”

“Sure, Ben, I get it. Everyone else is evil but you’re reformed right?” I shifted forward just a fraction. Storytime was distracting the stranglehold he had on me. “You just slam people around, hold them hostage, and send snake-monsters after them to clean up! You’re a real saint! Hope I can be at the canonization.”

“What… snake-monsters?” He looked perplexed, then his face lit up in understanding. All the things I wanted to use to throw this guy off and that is what get through to him? He turned to the SWAT guys on the floor behind him. “You four, get out of here. Tell your boss there was no one up here. Finish out your day, go home, and forget all about this whole incident.” The men stood, their limbs moving jerkily like some demented marionette as they walked back down the hall from where they came. Feeling returned to my limbs in a rush and I flexed them one at a time to reassure me they were still working.

“In the lobby… this thing none of us had ever seen before attacked.” I described the beast that sent Lisa to the hospital in as much detail as I could remember. “It can’t be a coincidence that you warn me about something big out there and then it shows up. Why bother pretending to help us in the first place?”

“You think I sent them after you, Hunter?” He chuckled to himself walking to a window on the back wall of the office and looking out over the city. “If I wanted you dead none of you would have walked out of here on your own two legs and you well know it.”

I did at that. From the past few minutes, I learned firsthand hand he likely could have snapped all three of us in half without so much effort as blinking.

“Then what the hell were those things?”

“Spindelorm. Usually, they leave no witnesses thanks to that little bubble reality trick they have. They were created centuries ago to be guardians cobbled together from people’s nightmares. The resulting chimera of creatures was stronger than was ever intended. The unnatural forces used to bind them together gave them an ease with magic hardly ever seen. Speed, strength, and more were at their beck and call but then the true problems began to set in. They were given an intelligence of their own. They developed magic of their own.” Ben turned back to me, the blue markings on his face glowing with an eerie light. “They created a way to push people and places outside of this world to hunt them and leave no evidence behind. Most of the disappearances that never get solved are simply the Spindelorm getting hungry. I’ve never heard of a mortal who saw one and lived. But you are more than what you seem, aren’t you? I just knew you would have some interesting stories to tell.”

“Yeah, maybe we can be pen-pals.” I stood up, anger filling me again but realizing that making Ben mad might turn out to be the last thing I do. “That still didn’t answer my question. If you didn’t send that thing after us then who the hell did?”

“Oh, that’s the best part.” He laughed. “If the Spindelorm are involved you can almost guarantee their masters have an eye on you. It makes a certain amount of sense, though… when things go off the rails this badly it’s normally someone’s demented plan where we can’t see the playbook. You want to talk to the vampires.”