An Ancient Thing

They waited, patiently. They always had. Never allowing their hunger to rule over their need for stealth. Their absolute need to remain unknown. If the prey knew of them it would end them. The hunters would become the hunted. So they waited, ravenous. Their hunger becoming a lust towards their prey. Young, old, male, female, it made no difference to them. Although some secretly preferring the young females. Generally they were the easiest prey anyway. Their innocence was like a scent on the breeze, calling to them. Luring them from their many hiding places, to feast on the souls and the flesh of these young innocents.

The lake was a summer destination, always bringing crowds of vacationers wanting a respite from their maddening lives. The warm waters and sandy beaches filled with the sounds of laughter and waves, smells of coconut tanning lotion and hotdogs on grills.

He sat in the shade, the grassy shaded area, with a sidewalk separating the beach and the picnicking area. This bench gave him a good view of the beach and the swimming area. He looked to the passerby to be out of place. His clothing seemed better suited for cooler times and past ages. But he did not sweat. He seemed both at ease and at the same moment intensely attentive. Strangely, those that did take note of him, would, moments later dismiss him from their consciousness.

On this day though he was ruminating, he had been chasing after this one for several years. It had been able to avoid his judgment, staying one step ahead, several people falling victim to it’s sick hunger for flesh. This one had previously been traveling with an apprentice, a young man who had decided to abandon his humanity for it’s sick rituals. He had dispatched him with a single blow. His head rolling into the bushes as the blade separated it from the twitching corpse of it’s body. But this one was proving to be a more seasoned adversary. The last one like this, had taken him almost a decade to run down, finally cornering it in an old barn, it’s latest victim half eaten in front of it. It’s disguise had fallen away as it died, his blade having skewered what would normally be called a heart. It’s remains decaying before his eyes until it became dust.

Today though, he believed himself ahead of it. His experience had given him somewhat of an ability to predict where next these creatures would travel. He also had an advantage in that they didn’t know they where being hunted.

The water and the people would be too much of a draw for it to not come. In fact he had an inkling that for whatever reason a gathering may be in the works, some kind of conclave of perverse creatures gathering once every century or so. There are others like him, tracking other creatures, though he had no feelings, no raised hair sensations that they where near.

Into the afternoon he sat and watched, taking in everything. Occasionally he would unconsciously feel the hilt of his short blade, hidden under the coat. His favored weapon remained in the case back at the inn. If he had, had it with him he would have felt it waking, sensing the nearness of the vile, cursed things hiding in human form. Later he returned to the inn, to find the sword fully awake. He had never seen it so alive, it was almost pulsing with an energy, an energy reserved for just such a use. His suspicions it seemed were correct. How many were there, gathering together for what possible evil. Hopefully at least some of his brethren would also be gathering, having been drawn to this place by them.

The next morning Gwen tied up her running shoes and headed out the door for her morning run. The little bungalow just off the trail that ran along side the lake. Heading away from the small village out into the more remote state park. Earbuds in place, she was soon well away from the village and any hope of someone hearing her screams. With the music filling her ears she never heard them approaching from behind. Two of them wearing running outfits. As she rounded a bend a third stepped out from the side of the trail. She stopped only to be grabbed by the two following. Her screams and fighting soon ended with the arm around her neck making her faint. She had wet herself and a small puddle formed in the hard packed dirt. Soon it was just a wet spot, barely noticeable. One earbud had fallen out and rolled to the trails edge, and caught in the weeds.

They soon had her bundled and gagged, tossed into the back of the waiting van on the road that ran adjacent to the trail. The forth member of this group dropping the van into drive and pulling away.

It would be several hours before her absence would be noticed, her parents having slept late. By this time she was already being prepared for that night’s ritual. Her weak cries and blubbering made no difference to them.

He woke with a start, the true blade humming beside him. He knew immediately that something had accured. He dressed quickly, throwing his long hair over the back of his coat. Walking out the the door to the inn he paused. Closing his eyes he calmed himself, feeling for a tug, something to tell him which way to go.

He ran then and jumped into the car, throwing the true blade across the passenter seat. Turning the key on the old caddy. Before the starter had even stopped spinning he was spitting gravel and leaving the parking lot behind. Heading for the east end of the village and the lake. It was then that he noticed two other vehicles, old vehicles like his with carburetors and bench seats. They all converged at the beach parking lot.

With nothing more than a nod to each other they all started to walk in the same direction. Soon finding the running path. They jogged easily and without effort. Silently, their sheathed swords held in their off hand.Within minutes they had found the wet spot. Standing in a circle around it they glanced around, soon spying the earbud. Seeing the disturbed underbrush they followed the clear trail to the road. Seeing the spin out in the dirt.

It was at this time that they finally spoke to each other. It was decided that they would take the caddy, the tank being full and the trunk was well stocked. Ten minutes later they were barreling out of town, continuing east. The conversation was sparse, the consensus soon came to the only thing that they could hope for. A certain spot that they all knew was somehow special to these vermin. And so they drove, stopping very briefly for sustenance and nature.

By evening they had arrived at a trailhead. There were several other vehicles parked off the road there, including a van. It ran back 20 miles or so to another lake, higher in the mountains. A waterfall in a glen feeding the lake beyond. They wasted no time setting out, they knew what would happen at midnight.

They knew there would be sentries, they didn’t know how many or where they would be. Underlings not high enough in their ranks to be allowed into the ritual. Their blades would warn them though when they were near.

They found the first two just sitting on a boulder, about 10 miles in. It was about 10 pm by this time. By the time these two saw the blades, their heads were leaving their bodies. The trio walked on as their bodies turned to dust.

The going was tough, in the dark although the full moon was rising above the mountain. Silently they moved, hundreds of years of practice honing their abilities. The last sentry was sleeping, they woke it before they ended it.

They knew they were getting close and slowed their pace. Stopping on a rise they moved off the trail for a good look at what was transpiring below.

They cursed at the numbers below. A full twelve circled a central stone, the girl naked and spread eagled on the slab. The thirteenth stood at the apex, the waterfall cascading behind it. He knew in an instant that it was the one he had been tracking.

Gwen was in a stupor, what ever they had stuck in her arm left her barely awake. The images that kept floating in and out of her consciousness made no sense. She felt that she should be terrified but she couldn’t focus enough. In the back of her head she felt that this must be a nightmare, but why couldn’t she wake up? She was shivering from the cold, how could a dream feel so real?

The three had made a quick plan, one went left, the other went right. When the time came they each would attack the four in front of them. As they made their way around the scene below the creatures started to chant, some unintelligible series of short phrases, then they slipped their skin. They each took one step forward as it fell to the ground. They seemed to almost double in size. Horrible twisted shapes barely resembling the human form. Their skin, if you could call it that, seemed raw and transparent. They were hairless and muscular, their spine a ridge of raised spikes. Their face was disgusting, they lacked a nose all together but for two slits and their mouth was huge and showed razor sharp teeth.

He could smell them from his vantage point back in the woods, his nose wrinkled from the stench. His blade was singing in his hand, vibrating like it never had before. The time was getting close, their leader, the only one with a weapon, was still chanting and starting to move towards the girl. She had started to wail, just as soon as they had shed their skin. Blubbering incoherently.

Midnight was moments away, the moon, high in the sky, illuminated the scene below clearly. Simultaneously they rushed forward, just as the leader had stopped chanting, poised with the knife raised. Their screams filled the glen echoing above the sound of the waterfall. Theirs blades cut them down like wheat under a sickle. They suffered some minor injuries that would need some holy water and bandages, but they hadn’t yet gotten the leader, he had ran as soon as it had all started. It had headed towards the lake, if it made it to the water they might not be able to catch it. They fanned out and ran, leaving the girl for now, while the smoking ashes of the dead lay around her.

It ran, cursing and snarling. If it made it to the water they would never find it. These three weren’t like all the weak humans that it had prayed on for centuries. For the first time in it’s existence it felt hunted. It could smell the water, running towards it, it started to grin, if it could be called a grin. It would live still. Then before it reached the water’s edge one of the humans came from the side and cut it off. Standing between it and freedom, that glowing sword raised and ready. It only paused for a second before raising it’s own knife, it barreled forward.

He waited, ready, it came at him screaming and frothing. Time seemed to slow, it always did. Then it was at him. He feinted one way and sliding the other way his blade swung, almost of it’s own accord. It’s head left the body as it ran into the water, falling into it to begin bubbling and smoking. Disintegrating as it did. The head landed in the grass and it snarled it’s last snarl as he stuck it again. It burst into flame and quickly turned to dust.

He picked up the knife where it had landed and headed back to get the girl.

They did what they could for her, bundled up in one of their coats they took turns carrying her out to the caddy. The drink they gave her then would allow her brain to heal, allow her to think it a nightmare to be forgotten. As the sun rose they dropped her at the small hospital, making sure she walked in on her own. He then drove back to their cars. With a nod they separated, each to their own next quest.

He closed his eyes and waited, and then drove in the direction that pulled him.