Shot In The Dark - An Eddie Munson & Y/N Story

16 ~ Kas The Bloody-Handed

- 48 hours after the battle against Vecna -
I wake from what feels like an eternal slumber in a weirdly familiar place, but I can't quite figure out why it's so familiar to me. I wake atop the covers of a freshly made bed in a small room, decorated in posters and photographs of faces I can't quite place. There's a voice in my head telling me that I know every single one of the people in the framed pictures and Polaroids, but alas I am unable to decipher any of this information. Frustrated by the foreign location and echoing faces, I emerge from the room and find myself in another well decorated room. This one has a couch, with a small coffee table placed in front of it which sits neatly on a plush shag rug, again all echoing familiarity but I grow frustrated by these feelings. A small antique chest in the corner of the rooms sings to me, calls to me, as though it's waited an eternity for my arrival. But a voice in my mind calls out, warning me that I'm not ready to open it, not yet anyway...

Leaving the building I find myself in a desolate wasteland of broken trailer homes, most of them destroyed beyond repair but each one coated in a layer of soot like blackness and slick vines. One home in particular seems to grip me... like I've been there before but can't fathom when. I slowly approach it as I pass pools of dry blood in the soil, each patch making the hairs on my neck stand on end. Walking over a scorched patch of soil and grass, I finally reach the front of the trailer that beckons me. The stench of fear lingers in my nose as I run my fingers across the metal cladding that's been crudely added to it like fine armour on a war machine. My ears ring with voices and laughter, music that I don't remember ever hearing but I'm able to recall every word of it...

For you, there'll be no more crying
For you, the sun will be shining
And I feel that when I'm with you
It's alright, I know it's right

The melodic sounds that ring through my ears almost make my heart flutter... but there's no heart beating in my chest at all.
Instead, there's a lingering hunger. A hunger that if I don't satisfy soon, I'll rip apart this whole trailer park. A hunger that makes my senses awaken to every movement of the leaves, every scent of life despite the lack of visible life around me. A hunger that warms my ice cold skin at the thought of screams and cries as I rip apart my prey like a feral beast in the night. I feel my lips curl into a smile as I imagine the feeling of a warm, thick liquid running down my throat, made sweeter by the fear of its source.

"It's time, loyal one... time to hunt, to feed... to serve." A voice echos through my mind, drawing my attention immediately to its gruff tones, glancing around the open space, I see no source of the voice but I know what I need to do. Almost instinctively, I walk through the nearby streets towards the woods until I find myself as a desolate building with tall glass covered walls. Droplets of aged but tantalising blood lead me closer towards it until I'm standing in the basement beside a portal that glows with amber light, inviting me in. "Go, my loyal soldier... feed. You need strength and we need others..." the voice calls to me again. I step forward into the gateway and find myself in an identical room, only brighter and less smog filled than the one I left.

I follow the scent of the most seductive feast I could ever imagine, into the woods towards a lake. A lake that is largely deserted due to the nightfall overhead, but still populated by a small scattering of people. People filled with the sweetest nectar I could ever imagine. Silently, I creep through the tree line and watch some of them from the secluded safety of a well sheltered tree branch, watching and waiting patiently for one of them to wander off alone. And sure enough, one of them does. A young chap, no older than 17 walks away from his friends into the darkness and towards the bushes, fortunately I can see in the dark as though the space around me is shining with the brightest sun, not to mention the incredible ability to smell anyone who passes me.

I follow the scent of his liquor diluted blood into the bushes, standing behind him as he naively pisses in the shrubs. I sense the hairs on his neck stand to attention at my presence, his heart beating faster and faster as it pushes his nectar through his veins, lacing it perfectly with the tantalising aroma of fear. "Wh-who's there?" he stutters as he turns to face me, my crimson eyes steering into his, my hand quickly moves to hold his throat while the other covers his mouth. I bask in the mouth watering aroma of his stomach turning fear, likened only to that of walking into a house and smelling the most mouth watering meal being prepared. "Sh-sh-shhh... this will only hurt for a little while..." I tease before my razor sharp teeth pierce the soft skin of his neck, delving deeply into the pulse point. My eyes turn from the menacing crimson colour, to a dulled blackened tone at the satisfaction of his blood oozing into my lips. My tongue begins to lap up the irresistible flavour of his blood as I drink his body dry, eventually leaving him in a heap on the ground, shrouded by the bushes he foolishly wandered into. The raging hunger I previously felt somewhat lulling into a dull numb, still hungry, but no longer feeling as though my throat burns at the agonising thought of needing to feed.