Monster

When I forced my eyes open again, the searing agony of the hellfire greeted me, as if I had never escaped. The inferno still raged above, a relentless, whirling vortex of torment. My flesh continued to wither, blackening as it was consumed by the flames. My entire body screamed in agony, each nerve aflame. The memory of that brief reprieve seemed like ages ago, mocking me. I had never truly left this inferno; only my mind had been wrenched away, dragged to the mysterious fields of the in-between. Now, I was back, completely on fire, and fully aware of the horror I’d returned to.

My arms... they were no longer mine. The muscles and tendons of my forearms and hands were laid bare, every last shred of skin seared away, leaving nothing but raw, exposed tissue that built my monstrous frame. The sight was unbearable, but the pain... the pain was a beast all its own that was gnawing at my sanity with every agonizing second. It clawed its way through every fiber of my being, building in intensity until it became a living thing inside me, screaming for release. It was too much. I couldn't endure it any longer. I wanted to die, to be free of this merciless, unending torment.

Then, Jon’s words slammed into my mind, a lifeline in the chaos. There was a way out. I just had to finish this, end it all by killing Mucia. Then… I'd be free. The thought burned brighter than the flames licking at my flesh.

I did what had become second nature over the years and I shut everything out. The pain, the agony, the unbearable heat was forced into the back of my mind, and I willed myself to rise. My body screamed in protest, every nerve being tortured, but I didn’t care. Left then right, left then right. Each step was a battle, demanding every shred of willpower I had left. The red fire raged, relentless, trying to tear me apart. But I healed too quickly, trapped in a cycle of endless torment as my flesh was stripped away and rebuilt in an endless loop of agony. My innermost tissues and bones too strong to be burned up. The monster’s strength rooted deep in my core.

But I kept moving. I had to. The sea of blood-flames began to thin, and through the wavering heat, two figures emerged. Mucia... she was there, her attention shifting from Annabelle’s still-breathing form to the figure passing through her vortex of hellfire. She turned slowly, her eyes locking onto me, and I knew this was it… the final stretch. All the pain, all the suffering, it would end here. Not just this night, but my whole life. It would all finally be done… finished. I just had to keep moving. I would make sure it was her who burned, not me, or my friends.

"What?" Mucia’s voice cracked with rage and disbelief. "No! How are you still alive...?" The confusion in her eyes twisted into something darker. It was fear. The fear she had always cloaked with her power now clawed its way back to the surface. A tremor inside her mind shook her words. "No one can survive the fires of hell!" she screamed, desperation seeping through the cracks in her facade. Her focus sharpened with a ferocity that made the crimson flames blaze even brighter and hotter, casting an ominous glow around us.

The whole world seemed bathed in red from my point of view.

"Everyone burns. Everyone dies, except me!" She poured every ounce of power into amplifying the heat that ate at me, tearing away more of my dwindling form.

I was all exposed bones and charred meat, but I was still standing. The power of the beast inside not yielding to her, no matter the pain we endured. The heat was beyond intense, my blood boiling within the charred remains of my body. I could feel time slipping away. I had to end this, now, before she found a way to twist the situation to her advantage, before she could escape my wrath and force me to hunt her down, prolonging this cursed existence.

In a ragged and twisted noise, my inhuman voice spoke out through the flames. "You die now… Mucia!" my voice thundered from within the inferno, a monstrous echo that reverberated through the flames. The words were a promise, a death sentence, as inevitable as the fire that raged around us.

As soon as she heard her name spoken, the fires that she had conjured all faded and ceased to exist. Within seconds, the flames that tore at my body were gone. This allowed my flesh to start regenerating my monstrous form in all its glory. Tissues and muscle looked like it crawled out from within me as my body knitted and pulled itself together. It was silent. The roars of the massive pillar of fire no longer howled through the burning field. I stood tall, towering over the witch and the gypsy as a mangled charred corpse of a monster.

“How… how do you know that name? Nobody knows that name?” She was shaking with every word. She trembled and fell backward with each step that I took towards her. Speaking her true name stunned her in a way that made her, somehow, defenseless.

Annabelle stayed where she was standing from the very beginning, never stepping out of place. She watched as I dominated the witch with my relentless pursuit, making her run and stumble towards the woods as she scrambled for an escape. She ran like a child would from a dark room, one hundred percent with everything she had. She had no fight in her anymore. She only wanted to escape, but her powers seemed to have left her.

I let her get a running start. I let my body heal for a moment longer. Then the chase began.

I counted in my head. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three… two… one.

She was mere feet away from the trees when I exploded from my readied stance. My gigantic form reached her in two seconds after I bounded and plowed through the field. As soon as I was on top of her, my body cast a shadow in the moonlight that totally eclipsed her. She was standing in the darkness of my form when my hands came thundering down on her. My talons sliced, cut, and tore the flesh from her bone. She flailed in her death throws but was as successful as an antelope in a lion’s jaws. After speaking her real name, without her powers, she was as much of a threat to me as a normal human being.

I wanted to relish in this kill. I wanted to do it slowly. I wanted her to pay for all the things I saw her do in the visions. However, I knew the effect of her true name wouldn’t last forever. If I drug it out too long, she may recover her power and escape my grasp.

I lashed out with a powerful swipe that separated her head from her shoulders. Mucia’s severed cranium was rolling through the scorched field with so much momentum that it almost made its way to Annabelle. Again, I wasn’t sure how much she could come back from, so she received the same treatment as Phineas. Head… removed.

I stepped away from the corpse that used to be Mucia and stood up in the moonlight. I took a deep, calming breath. She was gone. Mucia was dead. Then, the rage that had built in me took over, and I dove back on top of her. I tore her body to pieces. I swiped with both hands as I shredded her body into thousands of bloodied pieces. I ripped, pulled, gutted. I shredded her form into an unrecognizable heap. She now lay scattered in the charred hellscape she had created. The beast was satisfied, but the rage was still infecting my mind. The last part was for me. For what she had done to my friends… for hurting Eleanor.

I did what they wanted, and now I just needed the moment Jon had spoken about. When would it come? I needed it to be now.

I heard quiet footsteps behind me. I spun in a rush to see Annabelle.

“No one ever saw you coming,” Annabelle spoke with measured words, lowering herself to her knees just behind me. She moved slowly, carefully. She had all my clothes in her hands. She carefully placed them in front of her before slowly backing up a few paces. “I see a lot of things, but whenever I tried looking for things near you… all I saw was a void. You blot out all things around you, Sam.”

She knew who I was. At this point, it didn’t matter, but since this was the first time we had met, it just surprised me. The kill had calmed me enough to contain the beast. I slowly eased back into my usual form, popping and compressing my dense muscles back into their human shape, before Annabelle’s very eyes. The poor woman had to watch me grotesquely transition between forms. She looked uneasy as she watched. Swallowing nervously a few times.

I was standing on scorched earth, completely naked. I reached down and sifted through the clothes that had survived enough to be wearable. My pants were barely hanging on, and my shirt had turned into a vest after almost ripping in two.

“Where is everyone?” I asked her. “Eleanor got hit by his venom. I’m not going to be here for much longer, and I need to make sure she’s going to be alright.”

Annabelle closed her eyes for a moment before speaking, “I know, dear. Everyone is at Carter and Eleanor’s house.”

“Can you see her? Is she okay?”

“Yes,” she responded, “I can see her. And… she will be okay, but… you have to go to them.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. The way she said I ‘had’ to go was unusual. Like she was telling me to go.

She explained, “I can see them there now, and Eleanor is not alright. If I look ahead, there is a void in time. I cannot see what happens during that void. It’s like that time doesn’t exist. The only times this has ever happened to me is when you are in those timeframes that I look into. It has been happening ever since I started reaching out, looking for the beast causing all of the strife in our world. It also happened when you first met the Chasse family that night. I don’t know why this is, or what it means, but I do know that on the other side of this void, Eleanor is okay.”

She looked into my still blackened eyes to see if I understood. Honestly though, at that point, I still wasn’t sure what she was waiting on me to see. I think she thought I knew more about myself or my nature than I did. I think maybe she was looking for some kind of answer.

“You are the void. You must go to them,” she explained.

She didn’t say anything else. She didn’t need to. I knew what I had to do. I tore through the woods just feet away from where we stood, leaving the charred property behind me. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I believed Annabelle. I wanted to see them all one last time before I made my choice anyway. So, if my presence would somehow help or heal Eleanor, then I would be there, no questions asked. I would do anything for my new family now, just as I would for my family back home in Texas. I’d do whatever it took to keep them safe. So, I ran to them.

I stopped at the old factory, diving into the river to wash the blood and ash from my completely healed body. I got new clothes as well. I still had a few sets of pants and shirts tucked away in the rusty structure. I didn’t want the last time I would see them to be with me half-naked, covered in what looked like shredded rags, blood, and ash. I was only there for about two minutes before I had cleaned up and put on real clothes. I sprinted to the hole in the wall and leaped from my old home. When my feet hit the ground, they bounded into stride without faltering. I used the woods and the tunnels beneath the city to get to their house in the fastest way possible. The map of the tunnels floated in the forefront of my mind as I clawed through subterranean passageways one minute, and then leaped from tree branches the next only to find the following entry point back underground if it gave me a faster route. Dawn was approaching, and I had to make sure ordinary people didn’t spot me.

After ripping across the city like a bat out of hell, I had arrived. I slowly approached the familiar house, making sure I was stealthy enough not to be noticed by the two vampires, or the alpha werewolf, that I could sense just outside in the back yard. I could hear voices. Everyone was there at the backside of the house as the sun crept over the horizon. Even Martin, and the one I suspected to be Charles. The last immortal that I hadn’t killed. Lucky for him he seemed peaceable and trying to help my friends. It seemed like everyone had made it out of that chaos alive. I guess I was enough of a distraction that they could help the rest of the gypsies and hunter’s escape.

Yet, something was off. I could hear… crying. Audible weeping was coming from the back patio. It was deep, sorrowful weeping that didn’t find its way into this family’s emotions that often. Autumn was there, sitting in a patio chair just off to the side by herself. She was curled up, holding her knees as she sobbed. I could see the makeup running around her eyes. It looked like she had been crying long before I arrived. Then I saw Carter, who was just as visibly crumbling. Frank sat beside Carter, one arm around his shoulder and the other in Jane’s hand.

That hit me hard. To see Frank so emotional, but holding it together to be there for Carter… My stomach felt like it was dropping out of my insides.

Martin and Charles stood at the edge of the shadows, keeping clear of the sun’s rays as they grew across the surface of the yard. They watched in silence, knowing nothing they could say would help. They just stayed silent and were there for the family. I could see Martin’s eyes. Blood was pouring out of them in a way that looked like tears. He was just as wrecked emotionally, but he was keeping it inside.

For a split second, I wondered what was going on. Then I realized it. Eleanor wasn’t with them. My eyes turned back to pitch as the rest of my senses heightened. I scanned the house for every scent, every sound, and any sign of life. I found nothing, except for one smell. The same smell I knew better than anything else. It was death.

As I quietly stalked around the house, the weight of dread pressed down on me with every step. I reached the living room window, the thin gap in the curtains just wide enough to offer a glimpse inside. Through the delicate white linen drapes, I saw Eleanor. My heart pounded harder, each beat a desperate plea for her to move, to show some sign of life. But she lay there, still like a stone, no pulse, no breath… nothing. She was gone. I was too late...

Why... how? The questions flooded my mind, but there were no answers. My head began to spin, disoriented by a reality I couldn't grasp. Annabelle had said she’d be okay. She’d seen her, reassured me she’d make it. But she was wrong. How could she be so wrong.

I replayed every moment I had with Eleanor, each memory sharp and vivid, now tinged with a sorrow so deep it threatened to consume me. She was more than a friend; she was a motherly figure, a presence I had never fully appreciated until now. She took care of everyone, always so kind, so welcoming. She had a family who adored her, a future she deserved to live. But she was snuffed out, killed, and discarded by that worthless piece of shit, Phineas... I didn’t know what to do. For all the strength I possessed, the monstrous power within me, there was nothing I could do. No ideas. No plans. Just the crushing realization of my helplessness. I couldn’t fix it.

A numbness crept over me, but it wasn’t the familiar kind I’d used to fight the beast within. This was different. This was the numbness of a world shattered, of lives irreparably changed. The world would never be the same again. My world, their world, the family… it was all broken.

And it was my fault. I had brought them here, led the immortals out of the depths beneath the city. They came from the pits below, hunting the dark-eyed creature that had been killing conspicuously. They came because of me. And now Eleanor was gone because of me. I stood there, paralyzed by grief and shame. The weight of my actions crushing the air from my lungs. The enormity of my failure settled over me like a suffocating shroud, and I realized, with devastating clarity, that nothing would ever be right again. I failed them… my friends. I got too close, used them, and they paid the price.

As I stood outside of the living room window, staring through the glass like a statue, frozen in sorrow, I noticed something. The latch to the window was undone, and it sent my mind running. I didn’t think it through, I just started moving.

I lifted the window so quietly it was like the wooden frame was made of air. No sounds escaped the wood as I slid it up into the top half of the frame. I lifted my form through the small square opening, and inside of the living room. I was a ghost, and nobody knew I was there. Everyone on the back patio continued in their grief, unaware of my presence. Even the older vampires and the alpha werewolf were ignorant of me.

I stepped up to Eleanor and put my arms underneath her cold body. As soon as I touched her, I started tearing up. Feeling her body, lethargic and lifeless, knowing that she was taken from the world was enough to send me into a tailspin. But I couldn’t. Not in their living room. I started forming a plan in my mind. It came to me almost instantaneously, but I didn’t doubt it. I didn’t know anything beforehand about what I was going to do, but I knew I was going to get her back. Everything I had planned would be successful because I would make it be so.

I gracefully crept back out of the window, while carrying Eleanor’s body. I was silent, but steady in each step as I paced away from the Chasse house. The anguish and agony of seeing and feeling her this way was too much to deal with. But I couldn’t alert them to my presence. Otherwise, they would stop me. So, I just watched my feet. Left then right, left then right to the nearest tree line. Then, I disappeared into the crooked trees with her. I carried her gently, making sure not to harm her body any further.

I stared at the black lines that traced out corrupting pathways beneath her skin. The venom from Phineas utterly destroyed her insides. She was beyond repair from the human world, maybe even the supernatural world. But I had to try… I couldn’t just leave it this way.

After about half an hour of walking through the trees, I came to the water. The Missouri River flowed in front of me. It was exactly what I had imagined. Deep enough for what I had planned. Again, I had never done this before, but I knew it would work. I couldn’t explain it, but I was running on pure instinct. It would work. I would make it work.

I stepped into the chilling waters, wading into the water to almost shoulder level. I looked into Eleanor’s familiar face one last time.

“I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I’ll make this right,” I promised her, but it was meant more towards myself.

I stepped deeper into the waters, completely submerging us both. The current took us, no longer held in place by the strength of my legs. We floated underwater, carried by the current of the river. I pulled her in closer to me, no longer carrying her perpendicular to myself, but I held her firmly to me. I pressed her cheek to mine as we tumbled through the depths of the churning waters.

I could feel my breath running out. Yet, the struggle never came. As soon as I felt the burning inside of my chest as my lungs screamed for oxygen, I took a full breath of water. The rushing water filling my lungs was calming. I could feel everything starting to fade and go black. However, my grip was tight around Eleanor. I wouldn’t let her go.

Then, I heard the words, “Fall!”

The overwhelming voice of the ominous entity ordered me to die. He was pulling me from the physical world.

Then, like I had only blinked, I was somewhere else. The churning waters of the river no longer bit into me. We were brought somewhere else. At first glance, I didn’t recognize it, but I was in the fields. It was different this time. The skies weren’t blue, and the sun wasn’t shining. The sky was filled with a grey hue, littered with storm clouds that cast lightning bolts down into the surrounding fields of dirt.

I stood there, disoriented, trying to piece together the fragments of my thoughts, when I felt a presence beside me. I turned, and there she was—Eleanor. But something was wrong. Her eyes were wide, her face twisted with panic the moment she saw me.

"Sam... what happened? Where are we?" Her voice trembled as she looked around, confusion written in every line of her face. The surroundings were foreign to her, a landscape twisted and unfamiliar. She knew something wasn’t right.

Before I could answer, Jon emerged from the old, weathered shed. He was about twenty yards from where we had appeared. The shed had once been a place of respite for Jon, filled with sweet tea, rifles, and piles of dead snakes. But this time, there was none of that… only an eerie stillness in the fields. An approaching doom in the form of a black invading storm. Jon didn’t speak. He just watched us, giving us a moment before he approached.

"Eleanor," I said, pulling her into a tight embrace, feeling the warmth of her body against mine. "You’re alive... I knew it!"

She pushed back slightly, just enough to look up at me, confusion clouding her eyes. "What are you talking about, Sam? What’s happening? How did I get here?" Her voice was laced with fear, and as the memories began to surface, her face shifted from confusion to horror.

"Sam! Sam, you’re okay!" Her relief was palpable, but it was tinged with something darker. "I’m so sorry for what happened. We were scared... we acted too quickly. Autumn... she never meant to hit you with that arrow. It’s been eating her alive. She’s barely spoken since it happened. We just didn’t know what you are, or what you wanted…"

"It’s okay, it’s okay," I murmured, trying to calm her down, holding her as if she might vanish again. "I’m not worried about that right now."

But Eleanor wasn’t done. Her eyes darted around, noticing the strangeness of the place, the storm brewing overhead. "What’s happening? Where are we?"

I hesitated, the words catching in my throat. "Look... Eleanor, you got hurt, but it’s okay. I think I can make everything right."

Her face paled as the memories came flooding back, the realization dawning in her eyes like a shadow creeping over her soul. "What...?" She faltered, the last moments of her life replaying behind her eyes. The stingers piercing her leg, the venom burning through her veins. It was all there, raw and vivid in her expression. "Oh no... Sam, did I...?" Her voice broke. Her hand shot up to cover her mouth and she began to cry, the weight of it all crushing her. The thought of leaving her daughter and husband behind tore at her, and she collapsed into me, her sobs muffled against my chest.

I didn’t say anything for a few moments. I just let her get through it. It was a lot to be hit with… in a place like this.

The storm crackled above us, the sky splitting open as the rain began to pour. Jon stepped forward, his voice low and grim, "It’s time, Sam."

“Who’s that?” she asked after seeing Jon appear.

“Don’t worry, El. We’re going back,” I said to her. Then I turned my attention to Jon, “I need you to bring her back. She died because of me. If I had never been in their lives, she would have never been anywhere near that chimera. She would have never been hit.”

“It doesn’t just work that way, Sam. You cannot just give life back that was taken. The scales would be out of balance. Then he’d send you.”

“Sam… who is that? What are you talking about?” Eleanor looked at me as she pleaded for answers. She jumped at the crack of a lightning bolt as it ripped through the fields.

“No… you have to. This isn’t right!” I yelled. “I’ve given up everything for you… for him,” I pointed out into the vast fields in the distance.

Jon looked uneasy, listening to me release my innermost emotions. The ones that I had been holding in for so long.

“I gave up everything. My wife, my twin brother, my whole family… and my daughter. Now it’s my new family, Eleanor…” I started to get choked up. “No. I won’t do it anymore. I don’t care what name he gives, how many times he gives it. I won’t do his work. If you won’t help me this one time… I’m done.” I meant every word. I didn’t care what happened to me. I was getting Eleanor back to her family. “ I will use every ounce of strength I have to spite him and you!”

Jon let me rant. He didn’t interrupt me, and he looked apologetic. Behind his old eyes, he looked like he had seen all of this before. Maybe in his own life.

“You haven’t given everything… not yet,” he warned. “There is a way, Sam. Like I said before, you have a choice.”

My choice? Was this it… but how? I felt like I was in one big game where I was just the piece that was being passed around by all of the players. I had no control, merely along for the ride.

“There is only one life at stake… yours,” Jon said.

“Mine?”

“Yes, yours. You see,” he spoke carefully, really trying to make me understand, “Eleanor has already died. Her life has been claimed in the physical world. Once a life is claimed, it can never be returned,” he told me. “But it can be bargained for. It can be traded.”

“What? How? What do I have to do?”

“You don’t have to do anything,” he said. “That comes after the trade is made. The trade… would be for your life.”

I felt a cold chill pulse through the front of my face, “My life…”

“Yes. Your life is still on the table. You were never claimed in the real world. You were only transformed. You never died because of the monster. Once I transferred it into you, it healed you faster than you were dying.”

I was silent as I processed everything he said. I was still alive. I never died, and I could go back to everything that I had given up. I could be normal… without this monster clawing away at my insides. I was silent for longer than I realized.

“That is the deal. You’ve brought Mucia to her final rest, balancing the power that has been tilted for so long. For this, he is willing to offer you your life back. Or,” Jon offered, “You can trade your life, for Eleanor’s.”

Eleanor had been silent up until this point, “Trade your life?” She was confused but keeping up with the conversation. “Sam… what happened to you? What is he talking about?” She reached out and grabbed my forearm, just above my wrist. “You have a daughter?”

I started tearing up again. I had a daughter, a wife, a brother, sisters, and parents. I had it all, and I gave it up to protect them from what I had become. I loved them with all my heart, just as I loved Eleanor, Autumn, Carter, and the rest of the Chasses. For everything they gave me once I thought I could never have it again. Nothing was different. The people I cared about needed to be protected. I would protect them. I would save them just as I always had. Fuck the consequences.

After a few moments of silent thought, I spoke to Eleanor.

“You’re going back, and I need you to do something for me,” I started.

“What…” Eleanor, too shaken and confused by everything to process it all at the moment.

“Tell Carter that I’m sorry for not telling him the truth. And… tell Autumn, everything I felt… everything I said, it was all real.” I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, or if I’d ever see them again. “I thought I could learn from you guys, figure out what had happened to me… what I was… am…”

She couldn’t respond, she was so choked up. She just nodded as tears filled her sad eyes.

“Are you sure this is what you want, Sam? Once you make the trade… there’s no going back. You will stay the same until you pass the burden off onto another. No other chances to leave this life. The beast will be yours permanently, until he gives you the name of the next bearer,” Jon said, waiting for my response.

I couldn’t say the words. So, I just nodded.

“Very well,” Jon said, turning back towards the old shed. He walked away and stepped inside the small decrepit structure again.

“What does this mean?” Eleanor asked.

Jon returned with his rifle from the last time I was in the fields. When he flipped it over in his hand, I saw strange symbols carved into the stock of the weapon. Unrecognizable from anything I had ever seen. They looked ancient, forgotten. He stepped forward, right in between us.

“Place your hands on the gun, both of you,” he ordered. “Then, he will perform the trade.”

“What is this,” I asked, staring at every detail of the old looking lever action rifle. It was much more intricate and detailed up close. Symbols, designs, engravings, and names littered the frame. Not just an old heirloom.

“This thing can take many shapes… its more…” he thought hard about what he was going to say, “symbolic. It holds a history as well.” Jon flipped it to point at a blackened series of letters carved into the wood near the trigger guard. It spelled, ‘Jon Granes.’ “You’ll learn more as you grow…” Jon left it at that.

I placed my hand over strange symbols of the handle and stock as he handed it to me. I observed the detail more up close but was quickly cut off.

“Eleanor… place your hands on Sam’s,” Jon directed her as she stood there unsure of what to do.

She was scared. Scared of the situation, the fields, and the presence that started stirring in the storm riddled land we were standing in. The ominous being was coming. The deal… the trade was being arranged, and he was coming to make the bargain. I would… die.

“Sam,” she said, “thank you.” It was all she could think of saying.

She placed her hand on mine, gripping me tightly and leaning in to hug me with her other arm. She squeezed me as tight as she could.

“So, she’ll live, and I’ll stay this way?” I asked, praying that this would work, and all of my prayers would be answered.

“She will live,” he assured. “If you make this deal, and he sends Eleanor back, he is giving her your life. Your life is required to make this work…” he reminded.

I knew the price. I had no escape.

“It is your life he wants. However, you’ll have to give your life, but not as everyone else. He needs you as his right hand. You won’t pass on, but you’ll stay in this life, as the monster. Your chance to be free will be gone. You’ll only be alive by the power of the beast that he has given you. As soon as it is gone, and you transfer it to the next, you will pass on. You will finally die.”

This was my chance to escape the hell I lived in. My only way out was already slipping away. I had a split moment of selfishness take me over, wanting relief from this life, but it was short-lived. I thought of Eleanor, I thought of Carter and Autumn. My new family and new friends needed their mother, their wife, sister, and friend. There had been so much killing, so many bad things that I had done, that I never thought I’d be able to do anything good again. I felt that this could be my last chance to do something that really mattered. It was a chance to do something right.

“It will be a great sacrifice, and you will bear a very heavy burden for a very long time,” Jon warned, “but someone must receive the names in the physical world. Someone must become the monster.”

I was scared, was this my fate? Was this what I was meant to become, to stay as forever? Did I still have a place in heaven, or would choosing this path condemn me to the place where I sent the evil I slew?

I prayed silently in my mind; Lord, please help me. Is this what I am meant for… my purpose? Or have I been made into something you won’t recognize anymore? I need help…

I hung my head and stared into the earth. I was scared. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to ease my pounding heart. I opened my eyes and looked out into the horizon, through the vast fields. It was calming.

“I’ll do it,” I answered. “Send her back and take me.”

Jon looked at peace as I answered. He looked to the sky and smiled. He pulled the gun from my grasp and took a long look at its intricate details.

“Thank you, Sam. You have no idea what this means for me,” he said. “I have people waiting on me,” he said, looking up to the sky again. “Sam, remember, this life is hard, but love makes it all worth it. I can tell you’re already on that path with Eleanor and her family. Lean on them in the hard times, when the monster inside craves death. Don’t live in seclusion.” He looked to Eleanor, “Help him… he’ll need it.”

She nodded through her tears.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“Take the gun. It’s yours now.” He readied it in his hand, “It will send you back. Eleanor will awaken. She’ll be alive,” he explained. “And Sam… listen for the names. No matter how much time passes without, there will always be more names to come. Yet, the beast inside will always hunger for death. Find the ones in the world that need to be stopped, to keep the beast strong, but under control. Be ready, protect your loved ones, and stop as much evil in the world as you can.”

I nodded as the peace washed away from me, the moment setting in. The sentence to this life of killing finalized.

“Thank you, Sam,” Jon said again as he planted rifle into the dirt in front of me. The barrel stuffed about ten inches into the ground. He turned around and paced to the fields. He only made it a few feet before he turned around, “There’s a lot more to learn about what you are. You’ll figure out a lot about yourself as you walk the world. I haven’t told you everything yet; you’re not ready. But, one day… you will be.”

I watched him walk into the fields, making his way further and further to the end of my vision. When he arrived almost to the edge of the horizon, where the earth met the sky, the cloaked being appeared. The dominant figure met Jon in the fields. He stood there beside him completely motionless. God only knew what was happening out there. Then, just as fast as he appeared, they both vanished.

Just then, I felt Eleanor’s grip tighten. I looked over, and she was gone. It was like she was never there.

I was alone in the in-between. I was the beast, the monster. There was no escape now. This was my life.

I couldn’t think about any of that, though. I had to get back, and I had to find everyone. I had to make sure Eleanor made it out of that river. No matter what was said here, at the end of the day, I didn’t trust Jon or the figure that granted me this power. They held the cards, and I wasn’t sure how much of any of this was true. I prayed it was, that Eleanor was okay. But a fear lingered in my mind. I wasn’t the one in control here.

I stepped up to the rifle, feeling the power within its old, hardened shape. I readied myself with a deep breath. I gritted my teeth and grabbed the handle. As soon as my hand gripped the rugged surface, everything went white. I was gone.