Ch five: Becoming the hunter: Murderer

Becoming the hunter

Chapter five:

It was quiet at the ruins when Oskar first arrived several hours ago. It still is now. How the hell is he going to find someone all the way out here?
And to make things worse, the sun was shining brightly by now.

Never before, in his entire life, could he remember that the sun was so intense. The light reflected on everything around him. The stone slabs even seemed to glimmer under the deadly rays.

Because of the hole, the room was pretty lit and Oskar had to peak around while narrowing his eyes. The light really stung him.
He picked up Eli in his arms and moved away from this room, this place of torture and sorrow.
He glanced over his shoulders, taking one last look at the chains that had Eli shackled before, a look of revulsion was clearly visible on Oskar face.

He made it to the upper parts with ease, simply by jumping the distance he had descended before using a rope. Oskar knew he would never need a rope again.

His ears started to hurt. He could hear the birds whistling outside, he even heard, what could only be, mice. Moving around in the ruins and scattering up the walls.
Another spider had just caught a fly.

Oskar heard the buzzing of the fly’s wings as it struggled to break free of the web. To no avail though, the spider was about to make a meal out of the fly.

Then followed a loud bark. Oskar gently lay Eli down in a dark corridor, removing his shirt and placing it under her head like a pillow. His torso fully healed of any bruises it had sustained before, even the scars he had acquired in the past years had vanished.

He followed the noise upstairs were he saw a young couple walking a German Sheppard.
It was still a rather young dog, by the looks of it only seven months, tops. It reminded him of the dog he owned, back when he was a kid, the dog that died of an infection.
The dog was very playful and constantly hopping around the brown haired guy. The girl was laughing and Oskar could tell she was wearing perfume. It contained a hint of musk.

How remarkable he thought to himself. He never really noticed things like perfume in his life before, nor did he care. Yet now the scent prickled every inch of his fibre.
It was sweet, he enjoyed the smell and he found himself mesmerized by it.
Pulling him closer, almost into the direct sunlight.

A burning sensation quickly shook him from this state as he clasped his burned hand close to his chest that he had placed over a stone pillar that supported a balcony above him.

Oskar suddenly realised something. It wasn’t the perfume that was luring him in. It was their blood.

Both the guy and the girl were now playing with the dog, running around in circles and their heartbeat started to pound faster and faster, making their blood pump harder.
He shook his head several times to lose the trance that was almost overwhelming him.

These two would heal Eli completely, but how was he to get to them?
He looked around but they were on an open field about fifty yards away from him.

There was no way he could get to them. Even if he shouted, the chances where slim that they’d even hear him. Even if they did, who’s to say they would come into a ruined castle.
No sane person would.

Time was running short for Eli. He needed to do something, now.
His attention was suddenly drawn away from the couple as heard a loud buzzing coming from the inner courtyard.

The noise was loud and Oskar, not quite adapt to his new powers yet tried to cover his ears, to no avail.
He rushed to see what the noise was, and upon seeing it, he almost thanked god…almost.

In the courtyard stood a man dressed in a green thick jacket with underneath a brown overall.
This man was taking down thick branches of the overhanging trees with a chainsaw.
The man was rather dark in complexion, Spanish, maybe Mexican. Oskar didn’t care.

The man only several feet away from a door that led to a corridor, were the sun didn’t reach him. In a flash Oskar rushed forward to the man and grabbed him by his throat, tossing him through the door as it buckled under the weight of the impact.

Oskar felt the burning sting of the sunlight but ignored it.
He looked over to the man, who lay unconscious, between the debris of the broken door. Tossing him over his shoulder, Oskar set out towards where he left Eli.

Eli sat leaning heavily against the stone wall with her eyes closed.
The corridor was dark, yet Oskar could see perfectly.
He tossed the man to the ground and he woke up. Upon seeing Oskar standing before him, a boy of fourteen, maybe fifteen years old, he didn’t know what to think.

He then looked over to his left where Eli lay and a look of confusion crossed the frightened man’s face.
He looked back at Oskar, and got to his feet. He was quite impressively built, though he had a large belly. The man was used to working with his hands and this was clearly visible on his wrists.

Oskar tilted his head slightly, and the man, suddenly not so scared anymore, advanced on Oskar.
He started to point to Eli and back to Oskar, shouting things in a foreign language.
The man then motioned to Oskar’s shirt that lay on the floor next to the girl.
He pushed Oskar aside and walked towards Eli.

Oskar, playing along, finding this game quite exhilarating let himself land against the wall.
Then the man did the one thing he probably shouldn’t have. He bent over and lifted the almost lifeless body of Eli in his arms and turned to walk away.

A rage, almost unknown to Oskar crept up inside of him. In less then a second he stood before the man, his eyes almost entirely black.

The man dropped Eli and made a cross sign with his hand across his chest.

“El Diablo…” The man whispered and started to walk backwards. He turned to run and as he turned he found Oskar now standing there, again directly in front of him.
The fear was intoxicating, pulsating throughout every inch of the man.

“Senor, por favor…” Oskar didn’t understand. But he didn’t need to understand the words to know the man was scared out of his mind. He looked at him.
It was a middle aged man, late forties, maybe early fifties.

Oskar lifted him with one hand and as his own fangs emerged he noticed that the man had pissed himself and was shaking violently under Oskar grasp, trying to break free.

Yet this didn’t work, Oskar was stronger and pressed the man down next to Eli on his knees.

He stared at the man, who was fully brought to tears, for a second and took a deep breath.
Oskar gazed from the kneeling man back to his hunting knife.
Seeing the man on his knees and begging for his life brought back unpleasant memories of his childhood.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The snow lay thick on the courtyard of the school. The children had formed their regular groups and were busy playing games, or chatting about their favourite TV shows.

Oskar knew it was a mistake to follow his classmates outside but Conny’s older brother had just entered the toilets, and that guy was even worse then the rest.
Though he never picked on Oskar in the past, he didn’t want to take the risk and decided to take his chances outside.

He stood on his own near a large bare and snow covered tree, just watching all the kids enjoying themselves. And a part of him wished he could play and laugh with them.
He saw some of the older kids light some cigarettes.

They were hiding it of course, but how cool would it be if they got caught. Or, even better, the sleeve of the jacket would catch fire and the guy would yell and cry like a baby as his coat was burning into his skin. Yeah, that would be awesome.

He drifted on these thoughts for a minute and then snapped out of them as he saw Conny’s older brother enter the playground.

This was his chance. He crouched a little, hoping nobody noticed him, and he made his way past the benches until he reached the door to enter the building.
Oskar tried to sneak to the toilets but was spotted by Conny.

He ran to the toilets, Conny and Martin right behind him.
Just as he reached for the toilet door, he felt a sharp pain striking his spine and he tumbled into the toilets, his face meeting first with the door as it flew open and then landing hard on the tiled floor.

Conny had kicked him inside and both of them were smiling wickedly as they entered.
“You run fast little piggy, but not fast enough.” Conny mockingly teased.
Oskar raised his hand to cover his face.

He felt an urge to cry welling up, but he suppressed it.
Conny stood over him and stuck two fingers in his nose, lifting Oskar up a little.
“Squeal, come on disgusting pig! Squeal!”
“Make him do it Conny!” Martin encouraged smiling widely as he saw a tortured Oskar half raised from the floor by his nose.

“Do it! Squeal!”

Oskar couldn’t take it anymore and he felt tears running down his cheek. He made a pig like noise.

“Harder!”

Oskar did it harder, and harder. His nose started to bleed again and Conny jerked his hand out of Oskar’s nose, staring at the blood.

“You bled on me pig, if there’s one thing I hate, it’s pigs blood.” With these words Conny gave another hard kick in Oskar’s stomach who now lay crouched on the floor. And another one, and followed by another one.
This one, however, did not come from Conny, but from Martin.

Then both guys left leaving an injured Oskar crying on the floor.
How much he wished both of them to die, preferably by his knife. He picked himself up and felt in his pocket that contained his piss-ball, and yes, he wetted himself again.

As he was washing it out in the sink he stared at his bloody reflection in the mirror.
Tears of fear and pain were now rolling over his cheek.
He then started shaking and fully burst into tears.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

“I’m sorry.” With these last words Oskar grabbed the man by his hair, yanked his head back and placed the blade on the man’s jugular and sliced it open. The blood spilled onto Eli’s mouth, who still lay unconscious on the stone floor.

As the coppery tasting fluid entered Eli’s mouth she started to lick her lips and found her raising more towards the, now, dying man. His eyes opened wide in shock. Eli tasted the fear in the man’s blood. This made it taste all the sweeter.

Her fangs fully bared, she bit down deep into his throat and drank the remaining blood that the man possessed and found her strength returning with every drop.

Eli stared at Oskar, her mouth covered in blood. She saw him holding the knife, still dripping of blood, in his hand.
“Oh Oskar, I’m so sorry.”
“Why? You’re alive. We are back together, forever.”
“But at what price? What did it cost you, you took that mans life. You killed him… there was a pause that lingered as Eli stared at the dead man on the ground… to save me.”

“I would kill a lot more if it meant saving you.” These words stung, but also warmed Eli’s heart. She only now fully realised all the things Oskar did for her, he never stopped looking for her in the past years, and he killed a vampire to find out where she was. He turned himself into a vampire just to save her and confronted, even destroyed the lord, and nearly himself, just so she could live. And now he added murder to the list. Nobody in the entire world would have done such a thing, and least of all for her, a vampire. This brought her to tears.

“It’s my fault your innocence is lost.”
“Sweetheart, my dear sweetheart, my innocence has been lost for several years. The Oskar you knew is gone, not much remains of him, except his love for you.”

Eli walked over to him. She had to look up to see his eyes. He had grown much taller.
She forced a smile and placed her head on his chest.
Oskar wrapped his arms around her.

“What are we going to do now?” She softly whispered.
“We’re going home.”
“Where is home?”
“Wherever we want it to be.”
Night came quickly, and as the last rays of light disappeared.
Oskar and Eli moved out of the castle ruins. They followed the road, just walking, hand in hand under a clear pale moon.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Dust started to vibrate on the stone slab. Dirt started so seep between the cracks.
There was a loud thump coming from below the ground.
Then the soil split and explodes into pieces as a corpse like hand shot out the ground.
Most of the flesh was scorched and blackened. The nails were long and yellow.
“Eli!”
The voice that came from the ground was hollow and hoarse, and full of rage.