Gone

Chapter Twenty: Yo Ho

Well shit. Matt began to feel his conscious come back and instinctively went to draw his now literal firearm, reaching for his lighter before a sharp, twisting pain in his leg reminded him who exactly his captor was. This towering, yet scrawny creature was the embodiment of everything that a human being could naturally fear. It's skin clung to its bones so tight that it looked as if it could tear right off with any sudden movement on it's part, yet remained intimidating nonetheless. It had to have been at least nine feet tall, it's yellow nails painfully pushing out of it's husk like finger tips, and grey skin that coated the entire being like a sheet of ash. It didn't help that one of those ugly hands had it's fingers wrapped around Matt's right leg, it's nails dug into the calf at an angle to make even the slightest of movements on either of their parts send a rippling pain through him, and Matt couldn't risk himself getting knocked unconscious from a sudden jolt of pain.

His plan for now was to play as if he was still unconscious, hopefully the fowl creature before him wouldn't notice just yet. Matt searched around the area he was being dragged through for any sign of his current whereabouts or even destination. They weren't even close to where this walking nightmare was taking him, other wise the smell wouldn't be as pleasant as it is. That "thing" reaked of the dead, but the rest of the area still smelt as if life was flowing through it. A good sign that he may find an opportunity. That kid Elysia, as well as the private eye's own peculiar ally, Alice, definitely could look after themselves. No doubt though the fools would blindly dive into the wolf's den thinking they had found the Lion's. What Matt needed was to leave a trail for them to follow. It seemed luck was once again in his side as the albino beast had stopped suddenly and crotched down, dropping Matt's leg and reaching down.

A river! Matt had concluded from the slurping noises emanating now from the snout like appendage of the one who was once a human being. Even beast can't live without water, Matt knew all too well. This was the first time he had ever gotten so close to this particular creature. He gulped at the thought of what happened to his last venture on the lookout for this thing. He hated these monstrosities with a passion. When Matt couldn't provide evidence to help support his claim of what REALLY happened to his partner, he was threatened to submit to the very law he upheld. They knew what had happened when Riley disappeared, and they were going to pin his disappearance onto Matt if he tried looking further into Elysia's missing dad, Howard. The damn cowards knew it was the kid's old man and refused to act. Not one of those blue uniformed pricks had even filed a missing person's report until a year AFTER he was gone. If Matt wasn't clinging on to the hope of seeing his friend again, he might have done something awful, and he could guarantee that they wanted him to slip up, with all they were stacking against him from his past, from his father. However, Matt was saved when a certain member of the Central Intelligence Agency covered his ass. He would later run into this agent again once he quit his line of work temporarily. He spent the next few years after that learning about the monsters that were hidden just before him.

But now, he was close, so close to blowing the lid on the whole damn lot of them. "The monster who did took Riley would suffer for the agony they put in this world..." Matt had once swore upon learning the true extent of what they were. Riley would finally be able to rest well. First things first however. Living to fulfil that promise. Matt made sure the wendigo was pre-occupied with indulging in the nourishment of the river. He would have one chance at this. If he let pain take hold of his foot when he acted, it would be his end. He pulled out his lighter and grabbed his hidden pocket knife from his belt hoop and ignited it as softly as he could, heating the tip of the blade with the tiny flame. It wouldn't take long before the ugly bastard noticed the smell, and as expected it stopped and tilted it's head back in the direction of the prey it thought was unconscious, it's sunken and colorless eyes staring down the wounded Matt with a sickly hunger salivating it's mouth.

Unfortunately for it, Matt was already where he needed to be. He jolted right off the ground, dropping the lighter to the dirt he had been laying upon and rammed the heaten up blade underneath the "superior hunter's" rib cage, lodging it in deep, before slicing down, yanking it out with such force that it caused the pain stricken beast to yell in agony, the sound like that of a man and sickly wolf. With no time wasted he swung his arm around to the creatures left side and got it directly into it's left eye. But the heat was gone now from the previous attack, so the damage would not lead to a sudden death, only permanent blindness at best within it's eye. The howling and screeching creature threw it's right hand up with a blurring speed, sending Matt flying off his already injured feet up fifteen feet at best before he came crashing down hard onto the surface.

"Aggh! Fucking gravity!" Matt groaned as he lifted his head to see the Wendigo had ripped the knife from its eye and rushed to meet with the man it sent into the air, it's right hand pushed Matt down onto his back again with enough force to knock the wind out of him. By the time he was able to breathe again, the sharp and twisted pain of his own tool being ran into his right shoulder, caused Matt's conscious to slip. The tissue around the open wound of the wendigo began to slowly fix up, leaving a horrible scar upon it's lower abdomen. It then gripped it's talon like fingers into Matt's leg more and began to walk off with him yet again.

But as he felt the blood pouring out from his new wound, Matt knew he had already won this fight.