Hell's Detective

Epilogue- Genesis

It awoke.

It pushed itself up from the dirt and gravel, stretched its head up to the inky sky. The moon hung in the darkness, ghostly and bright. A beacon. A calling.

It stood, wiped its dirty fingernails on its clothes. Light spilled from the moon and danced in the holes in its wrists. It didn't like them. They brought the pictures, and it didn't like the pictures. Pictures in its head. Pictures of needles sinking into its skin, squeezing every last drop of life out of it. Pictures of its brothers and sisters chained like animals. Like monsters.

Bad pictures.

Light exploded around it, and it wanted to scream. The moon disappeared under the blinding glare. A gruff, gravely voice tore through the light, "Oi, park's closed. You need to move along, mate."

It squinted, and he swam into hazy focus. Big eyes, plump face...so full of life. It could practically hear his organs pumping away, blood and cells travelling beneath his skin, racing each other in their desperate attempt to keep that life going just a second longer. Fats and lipids and glucose squee,ing through his veins, keeping him so, so alive. Like a machine that would never stop.

It tried to speak, couldn't. Like its mouth was full of ash. Tried again.

"Help...me," it rasped.

"You alright there?" The voice shifted, got softer, quieter.

It clutched its chest. Its cold, cold chest.

"Hey!" the voice cried, running over to it. The voice's chest was warm. It could feel it from here. Everything about him radiated heat and softness and life.

It launched forward and tore into his neck, and for a moment all the heat and life was in it and spreading to the tips of its fingernails, and it was like born again.

Something buzzed in its ear. Maybe he was screaming. It didn't know. It couldn't hear anything over the pounding of blood, the life rushing through its veins.

His body slackened, and all that life dribbled away. It stood. Easily, this time. Lights blinked before it, the sound of cars and trains and life drifting through its ears. Out there, in the heart of the city, hearts were pumping in time with one another like a symphony. Blood was squeezing through fat veins. Out there, people were so, so alive.

It couldn't do this alone. Its family was too small. They needed more. It tilted its head back, and the moon bathed it in a warm glow. A calling.

The only question was who to start with.

THE END.