Death Wish

#1- First Blood (pilot)

I trudged through the snow, with a fresh catch slung over my shivering shoulder. I could still feel its warmth radiating into my back. The smell of blood stained my senses as a little wooden cabin emerged in the distance. It seemed I had found a place to stay tonight.

My worn out leather boots sunk deeper into snow each time I took a step. My fingers numbed around my bow as I gripped it tighter. My mouth twitched as the wind changed, and sent the smell of pumping human blood through the air. I inhaled the scent, two grown males, large in size with a deer. The wind was coming from the North, just behind me.

I turned, dropped the rabbit and seized an arrow from my quiver and strung it onto my bow. My sharp comment cut through the ice laden air, “Leave me alone.”

An arrow came whistling passed as I quick stepped to the left. I loosened mine, before hearing a loud ‘ack!’ noise. Three more consecutive arrows followed, skimming the skin on my neck. I scowled. Why do they always do this?! You tell them to do one simple thing and they ignore you and do the complete opposite. Humans were so foolish. 

“Die you evil wench!” A man clad in layers upon layers of wool and leather emerged from the bushes, flinging a barrage of arrows my way.

The layers made him slow, and in this weather I could hear is cold bones creaking. My hand snapped open, relieving my bow from my grip. I snatched the sword from my belt and in three quick steps the metal rested on the man’s neck. He gasped and dropped his weapon, hand in the air and his flabby gob pleading for mercy.

A wicked smile stretched across my face, I could feel the darkness taking over. The more he talked about his poor children, the more I wanted to slit his throat and watch his scarlet blood stain the pure snow. I let him babble on about his pregnant wife and his dead son. He put clasped his hands together and pleaded, begged. The anticipation was almost overflowing. He glared at up me with watering eyes.

“Please, please show mercy!”

I let out a breath, before lowering my sword. He let out a sigh of relief. His eyes gleamed up at me, his hope restored. “Than-“

My sword darted straight out and up. I could almost feel the ring of the metal shattering his bones. The blood began trickling down, quenching my blade. Its blood thirst had been growing these passed days, and oh it drank. Blood welled up around the man, tainting the white around us. Tears ran down his pale cheeks as I smiled in delight. I soaked up his fears, I absorbed his sorrow. I relished in the spirit of death. But, the sword was inserted just a tad below where the instant death mark was. His would be a slow one. Beautiful.

I ripped out my sword from his drying corpse. An hour or two and he would die from the blood loss, but I wondered, which would be the final cause of his death, the impalement, or the cold? A wolfish smile escaped from me as I wiped off the blood with one of the man’s layers. It was still warm from his panic. The blade hummed with haemal addiction.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered to it, “There’s more to come.”

The sun was setting over the little wooden cabin. It was small, but sufficient. The cold was biting into my bones, my body slowly freezing over. Small steps led up to the small doorframe. I trotted up, hauling my kill behind me (the rabbit I mean, not the man. I would have no pleasure in eating something that fatty). Snow was gathering at my feet as I found that the door was left ajar.

I slung the rabbit over an outlying log, before equipping myself with two daggers from my thigh sheaths. I raised them, ready for an attack. I silently edged closer to the door, before my wits had a snap at me. I saw a shutter around the side of the house when I was walking up.