Hunter

Chapter 1

It was a full moon night. To be exact, it was the night of the 17th to the 18th fructidor, year 9.* Thus, the night of September 04th to the 05th 1801. Henri, my hunt colleague, had found the lair of the beast which had terrorised the city for months. Each full moon, a sharped fanged and glowing eyes monster lurked in the night looking for new preys. Each full moon, for months, my colleagues and I had been out, armed and trembling, awaiting for the beast to come out of the bushes, ready to kill it. And yet... Each time, a new victim had been ripped from its family and never had we been able to reach our goal: destroy the evil which gnawed this city.

This time was the one. The beast would finally perish. As if the sky was on our side, devoured with anger, a violent storm broke, hammering the soil with its lightnings, turning the dirt into a slippery mud. Rifles in hands, Henri and I were closing in on the old and wobbly cabin which was the monsters shelter. The wood of its walls creaked as the wind blew, threatening to collapse any second. A weak light glowed at the window. Perhaps were we to be ambushed.

We crouched behind a small mound, backs turned to the cabin. Trees of the woods hid the sky, but we could easely imagine the threatening moon rising. The rain stopped. Despite myself, I was shaking, even though it was not the first time a monster was going to die before my eyes, far from it! I was only 24 and yet I had seen many things. Only this time, I was holding the rifle. By my side, Henri seemed worried. He was probably anxious about what we would find inside. He kept his rifle close to his chest and his fingers frenetically slid on the muzzle. When he turned towards me, his eyes reflected my own fear.

"Ready?"

I nodded. There was no turning back now.

We got out ot our hiding place and ran towards the house in the darkness. Henri led the way and he kicked the door open.

"NOBODY MOVE!"

From that seconf, everything went quickly. In front of us stood a blond woman. Here wide brown eyes staring at us: she was terrified. The moon was up. Her body started to deform and sinister cracks echoed against the walls. Her skin turned gray and her face began to lengthen in a lupin muzzle, unveiling sharp fangs able to cut through anything.

My muscles did not respond anymore. I was paralysed. Henri was not. Taking a step forward, he armed his rifle and emptied his cartridge on the creature before reloading it and shooting again.

With a most terrifying scream, the woman fell in a puddle of blood. Although the she-wolf no longer moved, Henri walked forward as he reloaded his rifle a second time and shot two new blows, without batting an eye, on the creature, starting me both times. Then, he came back to me.

"You okay ?" he asked grabbing my shoulder.

"Uh... yes."

"As usual? You check the house, I check the surroundings?"

I nodded, I was not able to do more. My eyes were fiwed on the corpse of the half-turned woman. I did not understand why, but I had the terrible sensation that we had made a mistake. Perhaps was it because I had seen her in her human form, so fragile in appearance, that my guilt had awoken. Usually, monsters we chased were always in their most bestial form when we caught them. In comparison, all the fear I had seen in the eyes of that woman a few moments before looked so... human...

Henri had gone out in the forest to check if everything was normal, that no other beast was lurking in the dark, ready to attack us.

I walked up to the silver bullet-riddled body and squatted down.

"I am sorry..." I whispered.

Suddenly, cries came from the next room. I jumped on my feet and turned my head towards the cries. I was about to go and see if the cries were what I was thinking when a hand caught my left ankle. I jumped and looked down. The half-human, half-wolf beast had regained consciousness , brought back from the dead by the cries, and looked me in the eyes. Her look did not express hatred, only... fear. Her lips moved silently. I could not hear what she was saying. One more time, I squatted down.

"What is it?"

Pushing her voice as much as she could, and articulating despite her deformed jaw, she finally pronounced the following words:

"Arthur... Take care of... of my Arthur..."

Then, her head fell on the floor and her hand released my ankle.

Arthur. The cries in the next room doubled and my legs regained their strength, carrying me to a small bedroom. The door creaked as I pushed it with my hand and I entered. It was dark, so I did not notice the bed right on the right, pushed against the wall, until the door hit it. It was the only piece of furniture of the room, small and rickety, it perfectly reflected the precarity in which the woman had lived. In front of me, I distinguished something covered with a dirty white sheet. With the same caution which brought me to the bedroom, I grabbed the cloth and took it off, unveiling a wooden crib. Inside was a child, and it was crying as much as a baby of his size could. It was one month old at most, if not less. I threw my rifle on my shoulder and clumsily picked up the baby, holding it in front of me. It instantly stopped crying.

The puzzle assembled in my head.

"Arthur..."

Hearing its name, the child seemed to smile.

I did not know what to do. This child... If Henri found it, he would kill him right away. This idea twisted my stomach. I could not... I refused to see this child die... Holding the baby against me, I returned into the main room and looked at the corpse on the floor, in a puddle of its own blood.

Without thinking, I left the cabin and hastily went back home.

*The story takes place in France, the date is based on the revolutionary calendar created during the French revolution.