Other Fan Fiction / Horror Fan Fiction ❯ Hunted ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Slowly, he was brought to consciousness from the warm sunlight caressing his face. Trying to recall his dream, or rather nightmare, he was surprised at how calm and relaxed his body felt. Normally after dreaming something like that, his body would jerk out of sleep, shaking and sweating with every muscle pulled as taunt as it could go.

 

Instead, he was lying there peacefully, soaking in the warmth from the warm sun and allowing himself to be lulled back into peacefulness by the soft songs being sung by the birds in the trees.

 

And with that thought, his eyes snapped open as he jumped onto his feet, staring unbelievingly at his surroundings. The birds had gone quiet, waiting for his reaction to what he was seeing.

 

Something wasn't right. He didn't go outside last night. He remembered falling asleep with the barmaid after she had well past exhausted him with her shockingly talented abilities. Subconsciously stretching, he felt dried liquid crack on his hands as he brought them high over his head. Curiously bringing them down to look, his eyes widened in terror as he realized his worst fear had come to life. His eyes were unable to tear themselves away from the dried, thick burgundy liquid coating his hands and arms. The color was often mistaken for crimson, but he knew it wasn't. Crimson was a lighter red. It was burgundy that truly described the color of...

 

Blood.

 

That was it. His hands were covered in blood, but his terror did not stop there. As his mouth opened in shock, he felt dried liquid crack along the sides of his mouth and over his lips. Looking down, he saw the burgundy liquid stained his torso and feet as well. As he looked at his feet, he saw the blood-stained grass he was standing on. Dreadfully following the path of dried blood, he found the source.

 

A corpse.

 

But not just any corpse. This corpse was familiar. He knew this corpse, more intimately then he even knew.

Until he saw the blood-matted hair plastered onto the disfigured woman face. The same color hair as the beautiful barmaid who dazzled him in bed night after night. The same color hair as the barmaid who had teased him, pleased him, satisfied him. The same color hair as the barmaid whose sweet taste was still in his mouth.

 

...Mixed with the taste of her blood.

 

A scream of horror erupted from his frozen form, sending the birds fleeing from the trees surrounding him. This wasn't supposed to happen. The wolf never got him. The bite never happened. It wasn't even the full moon!

 

Instead, the woman who had warmed his bed for the past few nights was lying in front of him, her organs ripped our from her body and her limbs attached only by tendons to her torso resting at unnaturally odd angles.

 

Before he even realized the scream had abruptly died, he was sprinting through the forest, shuddering at the extra strength rushing through him as he ran. He could feel his surroundings more acutely than he should, with the rush of the wind filling his ears and the smell of the forests tinged with blood flooding through his nose.

 

He didn't even know where he was running to, only that he was running away. Away from the corpse, away from the blood, away from the nightmare. Only the trees and grass surrounded him now. Only the proof of the wilderness filled his senses. He was leaving society and he knew it. There was no way he could ever go back not after that disturbing memory replaying through his thoughts.

 

He vividly remembered the action of dragging her out into the forest, convincing her that he wanted to have a more untamed, passionate encounter. He could hear her shrieks in fright as he allowed his human form to shed away and reveal his natural wolf body. Sick joy from the memory of his claws ripping through her skin echoed through his human muscles, reminding him of the taste of her blood still covering his tongue. He could easily recall the pure, savage pleasure that shot through his body as he allowed his many different types of hunger be satisfied as he indulged in her dead body over and over again.

 

Shaking his head, he banned those thoughts and memories from his mind, forcing himself to focus solely on where his feet where taking him so quickly. A sudden rush of a different scent drifted his way. Others.

 

The fact that he knew who it was he smelled only sent more fear through him. Enough fear to stop him in his tracks while he tried to sense out where the others were and where they were headed.

 

His tracking was effectively killed as the wind shifted and the scent suddenly spiked. Twigs cracked behind him and every hair on his naked form stood on end as he slowly turned to face those following him.

 

There were five of them: four men and one woman, all radiating with sheer power. The one closest to him was a tall, strongly built man, his presence demanding respect. His expression was hard, glaring through the man in a silent reprimand from running. He shook in fear at the sheer thought of this man's anger directed toward him. He carefully lowered himself in a defensive stance, ready for the man's harsh first words. However, it wasn't the man who spoke first.

 

It was the woman. And those words shocked him more than anything he was expecting from the other men.

 

"Welcome to the family."

 

***

 

"Welcome to the family."

 

He stared at her in complete disbelief. There was absolutely no possible way that It was true. It was all a nightmare a hallucination. Yeah, that's it. He was going to wake up soon from this whole thing in his bed right next to that beautiful barmaid of his. He was going to open his eyes, turn to the woman, and get his mind on more...pleasurable activities.

 

"This is not a dream, Christopher," the woman in front of him stated, answering his thoughts. "You killed that barmaid as a werewolf. You will not be waking up from this 'dream'."

 

Her tone was almost scolding him for even thinking that. His mind was spinning. How did she know his name? How did she know his thoughts? Who the hell was she?!

 

"Come with us, Christopher," the man closest to him said. "We will explain everything."

 

He took a step back from them. "I don't want everything to be explained!" he screamed at them, continuing his steps backwards to put as much distance between them as possible. "I want to wake up from this entire thing and forget it!"

 

The woman's face softened barely. "You can't forget it." Her voice was still hard. "Not until the next time your wolf decides to break free and go on another killing rage."

 

"Come with us and we'll tell you how to control your wolf," the smallest man said. He was standing slightly behind the woman to her left. He looked, by far, the most inviting out of all of them. "Then, you won't have to worry about waking up naked, soaked with blood, and lying in the middle of the forest."

 

He didn't even realize he was naked until the man said something but it was too late to worry about that now. It wasn't really much of a shock anyway, seeing that he fell asleep naked.

 

"Come with us, Christopher," the man closest to him repeated.

 

Defiance sprang up in his mind. "What if I don't?" he challenged them. "What if I refuse?"

 

The men stepped back, looking toward the woman. Her expression resembled a stone one, as if she were fighting herself.

 

"Then I'll be forced to kill you," she finally answered, her expression settling into one of a challenge.

 

He stood there for a moment, contemplating if death was preferred to his current situation. He had absolutely no doubt that this woman would indeed kill him if he refused to cooperate with them, he was just wondering if death would be better than what they were going to tell him.

 

The woman was growing impatient. "If you would like to die, then just say so, but at least hear what we have to say first," she snapped, noticing how high the sun was rising. It wouldn't be long before someone went out searching for the barmaid, and she wanted to be long gone before the body was found.

 

He hesitated slightly before asking, "If I go with you and you explain everything, will you still kill me if I want you too?" The question shocked him just as much as it shocked the others. He didn't want to die, but he didn't want to turn into a ravenous beast either.

 

"Yes."

 

Slowly, the man's defenses shut down and his body sagged in defeat. It took just a slight nod before the five turned and lead him through the forest, away from the body and the rest of civilization.

 

***

 

"Where are we?" he asked, looking around the large room the five had led him too.

 

"Does it matter?" the woman asked, not even turning toward him. She was standing in front of one of the bookcases, looking over the mass amount of books there.

 

He shrugged. "I guess not," he replied, still taking in his surrounding. It was quite a cozy room. Hard wood floors covered the floor, the walls were filled with bookcases, there was a fireplace at the end of the room with chairs and sofas sitting around the fireplace.

 

"So what do you want to know?" one of the men asked. This one was of medium height with short, spiky, bright red hair. He appeared indifferent, almost arrogant, about the whole situation.

 

He looked at the man in shock. Was he serious? "Everything you have to tell me," came the short reply at what he thought was a useless question.

 

The woman chuckled at the man's spat. Typical. "Easy, Michel," she said, stopping the man's reply immediately as she took a book down from one of the shelves.

 

The red head grunted at her before turning and taking a seat on one of the chairs, seething at the attitude from the new man standing before them.

 

"Here," the woman said, tossing something at the man. The book was a rather old, thick one that looked as if it had been thoroughly used. "Read that. It'll tell you everything you want to know."

 

He looked up at her as if she were insane. "Are you kidding me? You want me to read this?" The book was quite heavy in his grip. It would take him a couple days at the least to get through it, and that was if he were reading nonstop.

 

She snorted. "Yeah, I want you to read it. That's your only way to get answers, because there's no way any of us are going to recall what you can easily read."

 

He looked at her incredulously before looking back down at the book. The cover was about to fall apart, the words on the spine beyond recognition. Sighing, he looked back up at them. "Where can I read?"

 

She gestured to the chairs before taking a seat on one of the sofas.

 

Resigning himself to the task of reading the book, he sunk down in a chair opposite of her and slowly opened the first page.

 

The words were handwritten in black ink. It looked very much like a diary. Frowning in confusion, he looked back up at the woman. "What is this?"

 

She smiled. "My story, one that changed many things for our race."

 

"You wrote this?" he asked, surprised.

 

She nodded.

 

He looked down at the book. "So, what happens when I finish reading?"

 

She stretched out her legs before tucking them under her on the sofa. "You decide if you want to continue living. If you do, then we start training your beast. If you don't, we give you two days to do whatever you want, and then kill you."

 

The words somehow calmed him, knowing that he still had a choice. It wasn't much of a choice, but it was still one. Slowly, he looked at the first word on the page and began reading the story of the woman who he knew so little about, and yet had already drastically changed his life.