The Darksteel Eye

Chapter 4: Wach

Have you ever shaken yourself awake? You know, when you are lying asleep, and then all of a sudden, you are awake and your whole world is shaking? You realize that you're in bed and you're the one shaking, so you stop? That's how I woke up. I instinctively leapt up from the couch I was laying on and banged my head on a plate placed precariously above my head. I swore gently under my breath. My head was already sore, and now I was going to get a lump on it. I didn't know where I was or what was going on, but I was going to find out. And then I realized I was looking around my living room. I quickly surveyed the room for damage done, but found none. It was still pouring rain outside, but there was no thunder, no lightning. I began to relax. There was a knock on the door and I tensed up. Chill out, I told myself. It was just a dream. Must have been something in those cookies. I got up off of the couch and headed towards the door, when I saw a shady looking figure in a cloak standing at it.

"We aren't interested." I called to the man on the other side of the door.

"Oh but I am." The man on the other side replied.

 He flashed a toothy smile and began to attack my door, in an attempt to get inside. I hurried for the phone downstairs, ready to dial 9-1-1. I heard a crash on the main level and I knew the man was inside. I turned around, and there he was at the bottom of the stairs. He turned his head towards me and sniffed loudly. I hadn't realized that I was now standing next to the phone, frozen with fear. He began to advance slowly towards me, and I could barely make out some strange distinguishing features. He appeared to have lots of facial hair, and almost seemed to have beady black eyes that shone in the shadowy darkness of his hood like little useless balls. He sniffed the air once more and then turned to leave. He faced the stairs and began to continue up to the main level. I slowly reached for the phone and pressed the 9 button. Just as I pressed the 9, I noticed a pink tail barely poke out at the bottom of the coat the man was wearing. I blinked a few times, just to make sure I was really seeing a tail. And that's when everything became alarmingly clear. This was the beast from my dream, and it meant to kill me. I looked to the corner of the room and found a pool cue. I snuck towards it, and with it in my hand, headed up the stairs after the beast. It was facing the couch were I was previously laying. It put its head to the ground and sniffed. I inched towards the beast, one silent step at a time. I looked down at my feet, wishing they step silently. Left foot. Now right foot. Now left again. Now right. Now left. A groan emanated from the squeaky floorboard beneath my left foot. I realized my cover was blown, and began to bring my pool cue down, a violent poker to spear my enemy. The beast turned towards the sound and belted out an inhuman cry of success. However, success was not what it found, as right on cue, my pool stick found its mark. The beast's tiny left eye closed as the wooden weapon went towards it, but this did not deter the stick from going straight through the beast's eye and through the back of its head. Its pawed hands scrambled for the stick in its head, but to no avail. The beast screeched one last cry and then fell to the ground, blood and wooden splinters surrounding its head like a wreath.

I turned away from the gore and tried to think up an excuse to tell my mom when she got home. Oh yeah mom, there was this giant rat person thing that came in so I killed it with a pool cue. That would tooootally work. She would probably pass a kidney stone if I told her that. When I don't know what to do, I pace. I began pacing the floor of my living-room, when I heard a feminine voice coming from the kitchen. I whirled around and faced a young woman, probably around 16 years old- my age. She had black hair and soft brown eyes. She was dressed in skinny jeans and a plaid shirt. She had four knives hanging off her belt, black blades with silver etchings.

"Go on, release its soul." she said casually, "What are you waiting for?"

"Umm, what?" I asked her incredulously, "And how did you get into my house?"

"I've been tracking this Verräter for days now." she replied simply, " And it's not like there was a ward to stop me from coming in."

I was officially confused now. I was surprisingly not confused by fighting some giant rat monster, but now things got wierd. Some chick just told me to release its soul, and she knows what it is. She goes on about some kind of spell called a ward. I don't even know what is going on and she's acting like this is a typical day for her.

"I can't release the soul- you were the one who killed it. Just release the soul so it can rest already." she urged me.

"No- I don't know what you are talking about, so first, who are you, second what is that, third what is going on!?"

" I'm Jessica. I'm talking about releasing it's soul. Once something dies, you are obligated to release its soul, so that it will be admitted into the afterlife. It's typical courtesy. And I already told you, it is or shall I say, was, A Verräter. You just killed a beast." 

And to top it off, she rolled her eyes. What a smart-ass.

"Okay, so I'm going to pretend I understand what you just said, and ask you why would I want to do something courteous to something that just tried to kill me?"

"Because otherwise it's soul will haunt you until you free it?" she suggested, and I got the feeling she wasn't kidding.

"So back to the other question. How do I free its soul?"

"Just take your weapon out dummy. You'll need it. If a Verräter was after you, you're gonna want some sort of weapon by your side."

I stepped towards the carcass of the Verräter and planted my shoe on its head. I reached out and pulled on the pool cue. It slid out of the Verräter's head and looked like it was in surprisingly good shape. The girl gave me a confused look.

"I thought that was a spear." the girl started.

"Nope. It's a pool cue. It was the first thing I was able to grab." I replied smoothly.

"So since it's clear you have no idea what's going on, we should head elsewhere." she explained calmly.

"Okay, where are we headed?"  I had already accepted that I was some kind of teenage monster hunter, so the next thing to deal with was me staying alive.

"We go to the Schlägerei."