Hunting From The Rear (with kitten)

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"I think this is a bad idea."

"You would say that."

Both of them stood behind the bar, looking out at the small open floor where a handful of men and woman sat, eating, drinking and planning their next hunt. It would only get busier in a few hours as the evening approached when other hunters would wake from their eventless slumber to continue their work. The inn, the Grunt's Call, was a central beehive for hunters all around the area, locals or those passing through on their chase.

"And why wouldn't I? It's a crazy idea. You're no hunter!"

"How do you think they all started out Melissa? They had to start somewhere!"

"Yeah, Matthew, with training!"

She had been trying to convince him for a week not to go out, not to become one of them ever since he mentioned it. They had been good friends for a couple of years since both met after being hired by the owner. They had some exposure to the demon world beforehand; Matthew had been adopted after his father was killed by a shapeshifter and his mother put into a mental hospital and Melissa came from a family of magic users who specialized in spells and curses used to aid the hunters and the hunted.

"I've trained and been show the basic by some of the people who've came through. I just need to put that into practise."

"By going on your own for the first time?"

“It’s better than getting in the way of someone who is more experienced.”

Melissa grabbed Matthew by his shoulders, shaking him roughly, hoping to make her young friend’s marbles fall into place.

“You can’t do this on your own. This is not the way to do it.”

Matthew shook his head as he flinched his shoulders to get loose of her grip.

“I can do this. I got this,” he said as he smiled at one of the hunters at the bar coming up to be served.

- - -

11.34PM. It was time. There weren’t many people in the inn’s bar and it was perfect time for him to go. He hadn’t told anyone else of his departure except Melissa. He was sure she would be able to find a good reason for him disappearing. Packing a few more materials he had pilfered over the last few weeks into a back pack he was ready to go as he opened the window and hopped out into the darkness.

[Kitten]

Alastair Rivens groaned unhappily as he slapped the alarm next to his bed as he cracked one eye open. It was always disorienting to wake up when it was dark out, but the man needed to sleep right before a hunt if he could. Standing to his full 6 foot 3 the man cracked his back and scrubbed a tanned hand through his blonde hair. He headed into the bathroom and glowered into his own bloodshot brown eyes for a moment before running a comb through the unkempt locks. He needed a haircut pretty bad, but that would have to wait. The 28 year old man had been hunting since a ghost killed his family at the tender age of 15, there was almost nothing supernatural that he hadn't seen or killed.

The hunter shrugged his black hoodie on over the plain blue t-shirt and stepped into his worn brown leather work boots. Alastair took his time to look over his notes from the week, loading his pockets with silver and tucking his gun down the back of his jeans. It would be a simple hunt for the man, although once again he was missing a partner on this hunt. It wasn't just that hunting was easier and safer with someone else who would watch your back, it was also lonely to spend so much of his time on the road.

He was certain that the creature was a rougarou so he tucked a long, thin knife made of silver into his coat before heading out the door. On the way to his car the Hunter stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. He took a long drag and blew the smoke out the window as he headed to the edge of the woods near the site of the last victim. It was a cool night and the moon was fat and bright in the black sky. A spattering of stars helped light the way as Alastair started to pad silently through the dark woods.

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Once on the ground, he made a quick sprint across the damp soil toward where he had parked up his truck. He had made sure not to park it too close to the Inn for the night as so to make as little noise as possible of his departure. He skidded across the soggy field but he managed to make it to his vehicle with no trouble. Quickly popping inside, he started up the engine and made his way out onto the road.

It only took about thirty minutes for Matthew to reach his destination. He looked out from the front of the truck through the pebble dashed windscreen at the looming trees snaking up like hands trying to reach the moon.

"Creepy," he said quietly to himself. But it wasn't going to deter him. Turning quickly to the backpack on the passenger seat, he rummaged through the items until he hands were on a small Midori notebook he had been keeping all his notes on while he listened to stories at the inn. He flicked through the pages scrawled with his own hand writing till he came across the page in question. At the top in thick black writing was the name: ‘Shaun’.

Shaun was the name of a regular hunter who had come to the inn, normally bringing a good story with him too. Matthew had known him for as long as he had worked at the establishment, always captured by the tales of how he defeated the demons that stalked the shadows. He had hoped to learn from Shaun one day on how to be a hunter. But the man disappeared only a week earlier.

Melissa had tried to talk sense into him, or so she believed it was sense. She had tried to tell him that Shaun was most likely on a long hunt. But Matthew was sure he knew otherwise. The man hadn’t look well on his last visit and he was sure that something was wrong when the battle-worn man had last come to the Inn and did nothing but eat and drink to feed whatever dark misery had consumed him.

And he wasn’t going to find out anything by sitting in the truck.

Hopping out the truck, he pushed the door closed quietly as not to alert anyone – or anything nearby. He swung the backpack over one of his shoulders and grabbed the scratched shotgun hidden under a dirty cover in the back of the truck, fully loaded and ready to go. Inside he knew he should be scared, but the rush of adenine gave him courage as he slowly took his first steps into the dank woodland.

[Kitten]

Alastair pulled his coat around himself more tightly against the cold evening air as he picked his way through the underbrush. Everything was wet from the recent rain, and the man was counting on the fact that his scent would be somewhat masked by the smell of wet earth and molding trees. He made almost no noise as his boots carefully kicked aside twigs that might snap and dry leaves that could crunch under foot. When you were hunting something with instincts twice as sharp as your own, and a serious hunger for what you had going on under your skin, it paid to be careful.

In his long years of hunting the blonde had only come across a rougarou once before, and he still bore the deep scar on his shoulder from coming up against those razor sharp claws and not being fast enough. His hand tightened in his coat against the silver dagger that would be his last line of defense against the immense creature. His breath fogged up in front of him as the man dropped into a crouch when he heard a snap from something walking around in the woods. After a few tense moments where his heart took up residence in his throat, grey eyes closed in relief, and he stood up to continue walking.

His heart had barely had time to stop it's rapid beating in his chest when the man noticed a body in an opening clearing ahead. Alastair forced himself to walk slowly towards it, the smell of new blood filling his nose. He felt for a pulse, but with a body mangled this badly there was no chance. The man closed his eyes for a brief moment, silently praying that the human had been dead by the time the beast had started to feed. The good thing was that the rougarou would have a full belly and be settling down to sleep by now, the bad thing was that it would be pumped full of human blood and ready to fight.

There was a tiny cottage in the clearing as well, probably left there for the local forest rangers to rest at when they got this far into the woods. Taking a deep breath the man rose to walk towards the house, one hand going to the gun in his pants and flipping off the safety as he held his breath and made to open the door.

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The cold air run through the gaps in his flannel shirt, his arms shivering lightly. Sometimes his body would jerk, sending a wave of heat through his body like his internal central heating was trying to kick in. He did his best to ignore the cold and keep his focus on the task at hand; to fine Shaun.

Matthew wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for or what he was expecting to find. Research and stories were as close he had got to the creatures that plagued the darkness in the last month. But he figured everyone had to start somewhere (though most people probably don't make it) and there was no better time than now.

it was at that point his boot kicked into something firm in his path. His mind instantly went to dead animal. He hoped it was a dead animal. It better be a dead animal.

Digging into a pocked on the side on his backpack he pulled out a small touch and he bent down to flash it over the object he kicked. He wanted to throw up as he took a strong whiff of the rotting aroma flowing through his nostrils. And as he flashed the light over the object he instantly knew it was no dead animal.

'Keep your shit together,' he thought as he looked over the torso of a dead woman in front of him, the tears in her flesh and the maggot infested innards adding to the putrid stench. She was missing her limbs and her head, so whatever killed her had clearly torn her apart, assuming that it was a demon and not some crazy psychopath.

Taking his notebook out of his pocket again, Matthew took some quick notes, knowing that hunters would examine their victims to decipher which big bad bastard of the underworld they were up against. He ran his hand through his short dark hair, trying to think what he was told by one of the hunters that explained the rules of tracking.

“Bite marks…. areas of interest… missing organs…” he mumbled as his eyes followed the torch light as it trailed over the mutilated torso, swallowing to try and keep his stomach from throwing up.

[Kitten]

Alastair froze with his hand on the door to the cabin. He was certain that he'd heard someone shuffling around in the woods and the distinct sound of mumbling. He took a deep breath and headed for the noise, if it was simply hikers or campers who had gotten lost he might be able to get them out of harms way before whatever had holed up inside the cabin came charging out and made them it's victim.

The beam of light was almost blinding to his eyes that had gotten accustomed to the dark of the woods, so Alastair made to move behind whoever was prowling out in the woods. His heart was in his throat again, damn adrenaline was all over the place during a hunt like this, as he grabbed the flannel shirt of the young man who was prowling around just feet from the cabin where a rougarou was sleeping off his latest blood soaked hunt.

"Hey," he kept his voice down as he started tugging the other back away from the kill site, making sure to steer him away from what was surely the other dead hiker he'd read about. "What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" He hissed as he continued to pull the unwary traveler towards the parking lot. Of course he was also out in the middle of the night with no flashlight skulking around, but that wasn't the point.

"Didn't you hear the about the four people who've gone missing near these woods?"

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Matthew jumped out of his skin as he was grabbed from behind. He hadn't heard the other man approach him from behind as he had scribbled down his notes. "Shit," he cried in a hushed tone, startled. Before he had time to think the man was pulling at him away from the severed torso and back towards where he had parked up.

"Wait, there’s four people missing?" he asked, shocked. He cast his memory back, trying to remember if there were any missing people posted or talk in the inn about other's going missing. Shaun had mentioned that he was searching the woods but he hadn’t mentioned what for. Bringing himself back to present he pulled at his arm to free himself from the strangers hold on him. "Wait, are you a hunter?" Matthew asked bluntly. He didn't recognise the main, eyeing his attire to see if anything stood out. He hadn't seen him at the inn. Was he new? Was he passing through? The only thing he knew is that the man had to be a hunter as he seemed pretty calm about the whole situation surrounding the eerie woods.

[Kitten]

"Shut up," Alastair snapped as he grabbed another cigarette in his lips and lit it, keeping the other firmly tangled in the flannel shirt to pull the other man along. Once they were far away enough that the rougarou wouldn't run straight for them he let the other go, glaring at him in the moonlight.

"Are you a hunter?" He demanded of the other. "Turn that flashlight off, it's like a beacon out here." The man crossed his arms over his chest and looked the other over. "So you didn't know four people had been killed, but you did know there was something out here to hunt." Brown eyes narrowed as the man took a long drag off his cigarette and blew the smoke out towards the parking lot.

"You were just stumbling around out here with a bright ass 'come and eat me' light, making a bunch of noise, and you didn't even do all of your research." He started to lecture the young man, running his hand through his hair in irritation. "Do you even know what's out here? Did you bring something to kill it with?" He demanded once more, finally giving the other a chance to speak.

[gutterpupper]

The blond man had ignored Matthew's question and instead barked his own questions at him, lecturing him almost like a child. Problem was the best answer he could come up with was that he was knew to the hunting scene. He took a moment to explain as briefly as possible how he had worked at the inn, that one of the hunters that commonly visited the establishment had gone missing after acting a little out of character and admitted that he had never hunted before in his life.

"You've got to start somewhere," he said, shrugging the answer out. "I've got this shotgun, a couple of different ammo rounds for different types of demon if need be, one or two silver knives, crosses, holy water, the whole starter kit if you want be a dick about it. I was doing the research until you came lashing out at me from the darkness," he said, a little bit irritated at the other man's treatment of him. Yeah he was new, but he wasn't stupid. "Yeah maybe the torch was a mistake but how do you expect me to see in the dark, eh?"

[Kitten]

Alastair nodded as he listened to the others explanation. "Well it sounds like you know enough about hunting to know not to go off and do it on your own." The blonde said as he flicked his butt away. "Being new and not well prepared enough is a good way to get yourself killed in this line of work." He frowned at the others choice of words.

"Yeah I do want to be a dick about it. And no I don't expect you to be able to see in the dark but I also am not in the mood to get my throat ripped out by a rougarou because you're thrashing around in the bushes and wake the damn thing up." Brown eyes looked up at the sky in thought, trying to find the patience to make this young man understand. "This is not the place to do research. You know what? Just head back to the inn and I'll come talk to you when I've killed it alright? I can't have you out here running around and putting us both in danger."