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Darkness enveloped him. Suffocating blackness. It ripped at him with ferocious claws. He roared at it, pushing it away. He opened his eyes and found himself smothered in garbage. He was lying in a heap of ruined garbage cans at the back corner of an alley. A small group of bums huddled around a trash fire at the other end. Their fear was rolling off them in nauseating waves. Other putrid smells assaulted his senses. Smells of rot and disease and filth. And he was aware of the scent of death.

How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered…

The shattering of glass. He watched as the broken crystals fell in an almost liquid wave. They were hypnotizing. His eyes penetrated the gloom and he saw what he needed.

Supplies.

The smell of leather strong all around him. He felt his way along endless rows of clothing and stopped when he found something familiar. Something comfortable. Heavy black boots. Black leather pants. A tight fitting black shirt. And a big black leather trench that swam on him. It billowed out behind him as he made his escape into the night, almost like a cloak.

Suddenly, there was a spotlight behind him. He heard shouting. The sound of gunfire. And then, he had awakened to find himself in the alley. His skin crawling the way it had when he had found his way to the convenience store.

What the hell was going on? Why couldn’t he remember anything? How could he move from place to place so quickly and not have any memory of it? His head began to pound again and he screamed his agony at the night. The bums at the end of the alley scattered at the noise.

The flashbacks began to assault his eyes once more, and this time, he watched as his hands took apart those people with ease.

No. An unfamiliar voice inside him insisted. Not people. Demons. Sent to take you back where you belong.

"Get out of my head!" He bellowed at no one. "Those were people." He argued with himself. His conscious mind was reeling. His humanity struggled to keep control of the monster awakening inside him. "I…I murdered those people. I…killed them…No…no, no NOOOOOO!" He screamed.

Yes! It was the power now, struggling to take control of his mind. You are a killer. Born and bred. You are a Hunter. A warrior. You must take lives. It is your purpose, you destiny…

"Get out! GET OUT!" He screamed, holding his pounding head. "I don’t want you in me!"

"NO!"

He jumped from the ground sending empty beer cans and broken bottles flying. He slammed both fists into the brick wall opposite of the one he had leaned on. The wall gave with ease sending a cloud of brick crumbs and cement dust into the air. Shocked, he drew his hands back and studied them. From his elbows forward, his arms were covered in what looked like sticky black liquid. At first he thought it was only a shadow, a mere trick of the lighting. But when he moved forward into the glow of the trash fire, he saw that it was indeed there…and moving like a living thing.

The goo had transformed his fists. They had become huge and misshapen, almost club-like, with what looked like rounded spikes protruding from the area where his knuckles should have been. His shock turned to wonder as he watched them reshape themselves into normal fists.

"What…?" He watched as the liquid seemed to seep back into his flesh and disappear. Immediately his skin began to crawl as if there were thousands of bugs moving beneath his flesh. His head pounded and he collapsed to his knees cradling it in his arms.

Do you see? It was the power, that dark mass of energy, its voice booming now in his skull.

"See…what?" He choked at no one.

"Please…leave me alone."

"Please…"

Join with me Hunter. The voice was soothing now, and suddenly he felt weak and very tired. He fell face first into the ground without realizing it. Do not fight me. Join with me and remember.

"Remember…?"

Yes, remember. I have such wonderful things to show you. His eyelids were heavy. It was a struggle now. He could feel the power seeping into his brain, knocking away his defenses. Somewhere, above and beyond his sense of reason, he heard that horrible mocking laughter. The laughter of the night. And he realized that the laughter had been inside him all along.

"Yes…show me…"

The seeping blackness clouded his vision and he felt himself spiraling toward oblivion.

That voice. So familiar, and yet…strangely foreign. It was like hearing it from under water.

"Karen? Karen, is that you?"

"I didn’t leave you. I’m here Karen. Where are you?"

"Karen!"

He was falling. Tumbling down and away from everything. There was nothing to grasp, no way to stop his descent into…

Her voice…the voice of his wife. The voice of the one he loved unconditionally. He would kill for her. Die for her. Something inside him, that strange droning voice, the voice of the power, told him he had.

"No! I’m not…Where am I?"

He opened his eyes and found her looking back at him. She was beneath him. She held him against her naked chest. Her touch was soft against his face. He lay with her, felt her warmth. His hand caressed her smooth skin. She held him and he whispered, "I love you," in her ear.

He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he was standing in a darkened room. A light flared before him and he caught a brief glimpse of a bearded man behind a desk. The man lit a clove cigarette and its scent swirled about the room, making him crave one of his own.

"This is of the utmost importance," the man was saying in a low and well-articulated voice. He had a slight accent that James recognized faintly, but could not place. "You are one of the best of them," he was saying now. "I trust you above the others. I know I can count on you to execute this job with precision and finesse."

"Yes," he said, and he was suddenly aware of a contempt he held for this shadow man. The man behind the desk leaned forward, and James could see his eyes piercing the darkness of the room. They were bright green and he thought he could see the fire dancing behind them.

"Do not fail me."

He blinked and then he was falling again. Images ran through his head at a blinding speed. He saw himself slipping the ring on Karen’s finger. He saw himself making love to her. He watched the birth of his son. The images ran together and became dark. There was more. He could hear police sirens in the distance. He looked at his hands and saw…money. Great sacks of it. From behind him, he could hear shouting. Then gunfire. He felt the impact of the bullets as they ripped through his lower abdomen.

Then, he hit bottom. Everything went dark. Something was not right. He felt around the area where his abdomen should have been, and there was only sickening warmth. Nothing solid to push his hand on. He felt sleep overwhelming him and closed his eyes.

He

(James. My name is James.)

awoke in a field unlike any he had ever seen. He sat up and rubbed his aching head.

He was surrounded by dry grass, at least two feet tall in places. Strange trees that looked like palms with many branches rustled and whipped in the distance. He shivered against a cool breeze and realized for the first time that he was completely naked. He stood and scanned the horizon. There were buildings in the east. Some whole and towering above the landscape, others bent and in ruins. The sky was hazy and had an odd reddish hue to it, as if the sun was setting. He looked, but saw no sign of the sun. Ethereal clouds hung in the sky amongst two purple moons. He started walking towards the ruins in the distance.

James heard the crashing of waves on some distant shoreline, but other than that, this world was completely devoid of sound beyond that of his own footfalls. He had walked nearly half a mile before he heard anything but. It was a soft sound. Nothing more than a soft pitter-patter. But in this world, it was enough to make him jump.

"Who’s there?" He called. His voice carried on the wind and came back to him like an echo. It was almost musical. "Who’s there?" He repeated. Nothing.

James wiped sweat from his brow and continued his walk. From nowhere and everywhere at once, he heard a soft mewing. He turned sharply and found himself looking into a small clearing. Again, nothing. And then, an enormous tabby cat emerged from the tall grass and sat licking its self in the middle of the clearing. The cat yawned and then looked at him. Looked him squarely in the eyes, its yellow-green orbs seemed to glow and look directly into his soul. Its fur was thick and gray and matted in places. Its lips curled around sharp pointed teeth that looked oddly like vampire fangs.

Without warning, that cat stood and pawed its way across the earth towards him. James felt frozen in place as it rubbed its head against his leg, coiling its tail about his ankle. The cat walked on through the brush and cast a glance back at him, once again catching him squarely in the eye. "Follow me." It seemed to say with that look. He did.

The cat led him through the wide field. It moved swiftly and he occasionally found it a struggle to keep up. They stopped on the edge of a dense forest filled with the bizarre palm hybrids James had observed earlier. He saw that the ruin filled city was a mere half-mile or so from where they stood. James felt an incredible longing to explore those ruins. It was as if there were some force trying to draw him in. He felt that cat against his leg again and looked down. That cat was looking him in the eye again as if to say, "No. You must follow me here." He gave a last glance back to the city and then followed the cat into the forest.

They walked for what seemed like an eternity. Surprisingly, he felt no fatigue here. It was like his body was feeding off a hidden energy that radiated from the ground on which he walked. The cat marched along like it was the head of a troop, never once looking back. It seemed to know that James would follow loyally. There were no sounds in the forest, but he could still hear the steady ebb and flow of the tide somewhere in the distance. It seemed to be getting louder as they progressed through the forest.

Finally, they emerged from the trees, and James was greeted with a spectacular view. He was looking at a crystal blue ocean, the water so pure and clean, he could see to the bottom in many places. The waves rolled onto the beach with a rich white froth and crashed down on purely white sand. In the distance, he could see the skyline of what looked like another cityscape. It was too far away to see if it was in ruins as the other had been.

James stepped out on the sand. It felt as soft as it had looked. He looked back at the cat. It was still sitting on the edge of the forest, cleaning its fur. "What is this place?" He asked it. That cat merely regarded him with a curious look. Suddenly, there was a sound in the heart of the forest. The cat looked up, alerted and ready for any approaching danger. He heard the noise again, louder this time. It sounded like something ripping through the trees at blinding speed. It was getting closer. That cat bounded back into the forest, disappearing as quickly as it had come.

"Wait!" James called after it. He was alone again. He felt terrified for the first time in this place. The sound drew closer. He could actually see the things progress now. Trees toppled down close to the edge of the forest. The ground beneath his feet began to shake. Every instinct in his body told him to run, but his feet felt frozen to the ground.

James saw something slither from the forest. Something black. It oozed along the ground like a living shadow. He screamed and it was on top of him, knocking hard into the sand. The thing was shapeless with two red slits that could have been eyes peering out at him. He struggled to throw it off of him, but the thing shot out arms like tentacles to hold his limbs to the ground. "What are you?" He screamed at it.

The thing narrowed its eyes and pressed closer to his body. Its eyes were right in his face now. Drips of its black mass began to ooze off in places covering his body. He struggled as it began to melt into his face.

James screamed and the world went black again.