NOTHING A LITTLE HUNT CAN'T FIX

STORM

I need a minute alone.

On the first day of school, I didn’t even get to finish the whole day. I didn’t know it would be this overwhelming and worse, my emotions are a wreck, all over the place.

I get in my impala and roar it to life. I need to get out of here and gather my thoughts.

I miss my family so much, I miss my dad every day and it’s the constant ache and deep seeded loneliness in my core that has always motivated me to keep on pushing, avenge him and see to it that they all die, the ones that took him away from me.

Seeing them sure was a surprise and a slap in my face. You would think that people the same age as me when that horrible night happened would be somehow affected by all the horrible things they did.

Sure, I am no saint I am far less than a saint but still. To see them so happy and in love with their girlfriends, living life like it is all roses pushed a button inside of me. They saw the destruction of a young girl and they somehow forgot all about it. The event that changed my entire life was so insignificant to them like that.

What did you expect storm, for them to maybe recognize you?

I swallow hard, feeling bile in my stomach. A part of me wished they would. I tighten my hands around the steering wheel, feeling fury and tears prickling in my eyes and I blink away. No need to get emotional about all of this, it will not matter anyway.

“I miss you, dad, I hope as you watch over me you will grant me strength to carry forward and avenge you like I have done all these years,” I whisper feeling the heaviness in my heart and tiredness around my stiff shoulders.

I need a hunt. There is no point in going back to that small apartment and sleeping when I have a mission here. Rummaging around the glove compartment, I find a small burner phone that I have kept all the details and numbers for the jobs I have done and the contacts of people I might need in times like these.

I flip it open, scroll through the contact list, and hit the call button when I find whom I am looking for.

“Stevie,” I start and wait for the person on the other side of the line to confirm if it’s them.

“What do you want,” comes a gruff reply after the code is true and it’s him.

“Max, I need a hunt,” is all I need to say and he gives me the directions of what I need. A small negotiation happens of the price I will get and click after the call.

The man pushed it this time because it was so sudden and because it was so close to where I am.

Either way, I am going to channel all my anger, hate, and rage toward them in this kill. I look at my rear-view mirror to take the next exit on the highway and I notice a black SUV following me. I know when I am being followed because I am a professional in this line of work, but who could be following me and why doesn’t ring a bell.

Either way, I need to evade them as quickly because now there is a job waiting for me and I cannot have audiences let alone people after me probably seeking to end me as well. Today just got more complicated.

I don’t show any sign that I know I am being followed by speeding or even taking any exits. I miss the ones I was to take and just go all straight, seeing an under the tunnel that’s dark leading to the other side of the highway.

Once I am there I hit full speed taking advantage of the darkness, reaching the other side and seeing they still haven’t emerged, take a sharp right turn and go back the way I have come. I hit a few irregularities knowing I might catch the eyes of a traffic police officer but I can’t take any chances.

I look back and see I have lost the tail, continuing speeding and taking a longer route, turns, and corners as I had studied this area so well with an old map before coming here. I take a seasonal road, one that is not for public use, really appreciating the fact that I opted to go with the undocumented map instead of the official one.

There is no way I have the tail anymore, but still, I am now on high alert. I get to my destination, five minutes late.

It’s a small cabin around a wooded area, and I can see the smoke coming from inside. I can already smell the horrors going on inside there, and that is enough to kick in my hunting and killing mode. My fangs stretch, claws coming out and I remember I am still wearing my school uniform.

Shit!

I climb into the backseat, stripping off the uniform and wearing my casual clothes, a pair that is always in the car for times like these. A tight leather pants, boots, a black t-shirt, and a jacket that fits perfectly on my frame.

Now I look like I am ready to do business.

I climb out and gag. The man living here is a pig. No, he is a pig. A shape-shifter has come into the area and he is taking young school girls, to do god knows what. I will be taking great pleasure in eliminating the scum from this life, and back to purgatory.

I kick the door open, finding him holding a blade, next to a tied young woman who is unconscious. I shiver, seeing the blood and the stench that makes my eyes burn.

“You have been a bad boy, Mr. Pig,” I say with venom in my tone, and blood thirst in my eyes.

And then attack.