Night of the Hunter

One

The entrance to the mansion was covered in ivy, the door long since broken out like the large front windows. Trash was strewn all over the front porch, the broken concrete columns covered in graffiti. The dim moonlight reflected off of two thin blades held by a young male who trailed close behind his partner. The one in front shone the flashlight through the vines, trying to see past them. It was clear the residents didn't enter through the front door. There had to be another way in.

"Why are we here again?"

The male with the flashlight turned and shone the light into his partner's eyes. "Adam. Seriously. How many times are we going to go over this?"

Adam moved his blades so the moonlight bounced off, making the blade appear red. The metal was blessed with some sort of power Adam didn't wish to understand. "Well, Rian wasn't exactly clear. He's always so vague."

"I know. Apparently, there's been some...interesting activity. Cults, the Church, crazy homeless people, he's not sure."

"Why us?" Adam asked. He took the lead, going left instead of right like his partner was going. "Ean, there's a greenhouse. Then what looks like a bath house. But I don't think it's a bath house."

The other male, Ean, directed his eyes to the greenhouse. "That's a pool in the other building. It's connected to the house. I'm willing to bet that's how everyone gets in."

Adam shrugged. "Guess we're going to find out!" He took off towards the building before Ean could protest the amount of recklessness. Ean quickly realized the reason Adam hadn't followed.

There was a dim light coming from the pool building. He noted part of the pool was outdoors. The backyard had once been beautiful. The glass windows were shattered for the most part, the lower part of the window totally gone Vines were growing back here too, but not as tangled and thick as the front of the house. It was easy to walk in through the doors. They looked like they'd been blasted inwards, but the blast wasn't strong enough to take them off the hinges.

Adam grinned wildly, bee-lining towards the light. But he stopped in his tracks when the smell hit him.

The pool was nearly black with dirt and who knows what else. But it wasn't the pool that smelled. It was the bodies.

Above the pool, hanging from the tall, arched ceiling, was at least two dozen bodies hanging from meat hooks. Speckled among the bodies were heads, and other limbs. Most of the body parts were tied up with ropes. They weren't hanging in any specific pattern or order. It was terrifying. Adam froze, causing Ean to bump into him.

"What the hell?" Adam hissed.

Ean's eyes were wide. "This isn't a cult."

"How do you know?"

"Because these are all missing people. People who were on the hazard lists."

"What?"

"People who were experimented on. Hybrids, freaks, you name it."

The other male moved, this time much slower and far more cautious. "How do you know?"

"The faces. I recognize them from the reports."

Along the back wall more bodies were lined up, though they were newer, more recently deceased. They were neatly sat up against the wall. Ean shone the flashlight along them. He realized the pool was black with blood and algae.

"The Church?" Adam questioned, voice quiet, barely above a whisper.

Ean didn't respond. A blood curdling scream interrupted his thoughts. His head snapped to look at the walkway that lead from the pool house to the main house.