The Manhunter's Son (PILOT)

CHAPTER 5: Raikhen

I awake drearily on our shared bed, my stomach in wringing knots and my shoulder pulsating in pain. I groan out loud as I try to sit up, observe my surroundings in a blurry headache. I see the walls of our cabin, the blankets of our bed over my body. I reach for the blankets and pull them upwards with my left hand. Underneath lay my naked body and red, tender tissue on where my stomach lay, above my large intestine. My lungs must've gotten punctured too, judging by my laboured breaths.

'H-How...?' I manage to whisper from my mouth. I hear distant footsteps before someone starts to talk to me, they seem like a million miles away.

I turn to Dad who has the most distraught face I've ever seen him make, his hand on my head. 'How are you feeling?'

'Like death warmed up.' I manage to answer, my throat dry and hoarse. 'What happened?'

'I don't know, but whatever killed you was executed.'

'Wait, killed me?' I ask.

Dad turns away, looks at a clay pot with red, runic markings swirling around the rim, sitting still on a small stool next to me. 'It bonded more than well with you.'

I'm too spaced out to figure out what he meant, but I come to later on when I feel something else within me.

'Dad, what happened exactly?'

'Dahlia is exterminated; in pure rage, I killed her and slaughtered whoever else was left. I had my Parasite tending to your wounds in a cupboard before I took you back here, immediately called for a doctor when the plane arrived. You almost bled out, I kept my Parasite on you to keep what little blood you had left pumping through you like an artificial heart. I got us dropped off at the Crypt, just before I could do the ritual...' I could've sworn his eyes brim with tears as he turns away. 'You died.'

'So, I have a Parasite?' I ask. 'You said it would be excruciating.'

'You were also dead. I doubt you'd feel anything.'

'Fair dinkum.'

'A Parasite slid out from a different vase than the one I set down, it immediately bonded with you and started to fix you right away, and when I thought about burial preparations you were breathing with a beating heart. I was overjoyed.' A tear slides down his cheek and into the bush of his beard, yet his face remains still like stone. 'When the time is right, it'll talk to you.'

'How do I do the things you do with yours?'

'That's for you and your Parasite to figure out.' Dad said before giving me a bear hug. 'I thought I'd lost you, kiddo.'

'Heh, you raised me better than that.' I hug him back.

***

As I stumble into the bathroom, I check my stomach and shoulder in the mirror, it's still tender and red, black and blue liquid-like veins stretched out on the skin here and there like a spider's web. I look at my hands, arms and legs, there doesn't seem to be any difference.

'Expecting tattoos?' I hear someone say. I jolt and look around, ready to fight but instead wince at the sudden surge of pain in my body. 'Easy, it's not healed yet. Human bodies are slow to heal and I'm taking a break for a short while. Whatever did this did it well, I'm impressed.'

'Are... are you...' I ask out loud.

'I'm not a Parasite! I'm a Voidern! And yes, no one can hear me but you because I've accessed your broca, or part of the human brain where you hear things.' says the voice. 'I'm Raikhen, thank you for hosting me.'