Jack Templar Monster Hunter

by Jeff Gunhus

  A rock troll wandered into the yard and Ren Lucre quickly threw down the rest of the ash, stood and strode out from the backyard.

  “That was weird,” T-Rex whispered.

  “Yeah,” I replied, fighting hard to fight down the emotions churning inside me. “But what about tonight isn’t weird? Come on, we need to find the others.”

  We crawled along the roof, keeping our profile low enough that any Creach in the backyard would not have been able to see us. We got to the far end of the roof, but were in the same situation as before with the jump in front of us. When I turned back, T-Rex was already in tears.

  “I’m sorry, Jack,” T-Rex said. “I know I’m ruining everything. I can’t go any further.”

  “You can do this,” I said.

  “You don’t get it,” T-Rex said. “I can’t get caught. My grandma will—”

  “You’re grandma will what? Get mad at you?” I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “Listen, she wouldn’t want you to get eaten by monsters, would she?”

  “You don’t understand. They’re going to take my grandma away,” T-Rex blurted out.

  The words were like a dam breaking inside of T-Rex. He just stood there, shaking and crying.

  “Who’s taking her?” I said. “The Creach?”

  “No, no…it’s not like that. Just these people. From the government. They came last week for a meeting. Told me she can’t take care of herself anymore. That she can’t take care of me. If I get caught out here…doing all this…they’re gonna take her away for sure.”

  I heard grunts coming from monsters below us in the courtyard. I put my arm around T-Rex, to both comfort him but to stifle the sound a bit. “Why didn’t you tell me last week?” I said. “You know, she is getting really old. Did you ever think maybe it might be better for her in a nursing home? You know, safer?”

  “You’re still not getting it,” T-Rex said. “If they put her in a home, they’re going to take me away too. Probably put me in foster care in a different town.”

  He buried his face into his hands and cried softly. This was almost too much for my brain to process. This night just couldn’t get any worse.

  “It’s gonna be OK. I promise. I won’t let them take you away, you hear me? I won’t let them.” T-Rex nodded and wiped his nose on my shoulder. The grunting below us got louder. “But do you think we could talk about this after we put a little distance between us and those monsters?”

  T-Rex wiped the tears off his face. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be safer if we just stayed here and hid? You know, wait the whole thing out?”

  “No,” I said, “if we stay on this roof, they’re gonna catch us for sure. If you really want to help your grandma, we’ve gotta make this jump.”

  T-Rex eyed the distance again between the roof and the tree. “You really think I can do it?”

  “I know for a fact that you can make this jump,” I said. It has nothing to do with the muscles in your legs.” I tapped his head. “It’s all in here. We believe something because we’ve decided to believe in it, no other reason.” I grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him toward me. “All I’m asking is that you believe in yourself this one time, TRex. Believe in yourself as much as I do. Can you do that?”

  T-Rex slowly looked over at the jump, then back at me. He nodded.

  “All right, good,” I said. “I want you to get a running start, take off right from the edge. I’m going to jump first so I can help you when you land in the tree, OK? I’m not going to be able to jump back over if you change your mind, so we’re good, right?”

  “We’re good,” T-Rex said. “I’ve got this.”

  “Good man,” I said. I did a quick survey to make sure the backyard was clear, then ran to the edge of the roof and launched myself through the air. With my newfound strength, I cleared the distance easily and grabbed hold of the tree.

  I looked back to T-Rex and knew right away that he wasn’t going to jump.

  “I want to jump. I want to help you, but I just can’t. I’m sorry, Jack,” he said. “I really am.”

  “Come on, buddy,” I whispered. “You can do this.”

  But he was already inching his way back across the roof to the attic window. He turned and waved at me, stuck a finger in his nose and pulled himself inside.

  There was nothing I could do. Without a running start, I couldn’t get back up on the roof. And from where I was, I could see there were still Creach monsters guarding the inside of the house.

  T-Rex had fought in the zombie battle (although he had only poked a few with his tiny knife), so I knew that he was fair game. The Creach would kill him if they decided to search the attic. But they hadn’t yet. So, with no other option, I convinced myself that TRex would be safer staying behind than in the zombie-filled woods.

  Especially considering my next steps were to find Will and Eva, arm ourselves the best we could, then go rescue Cindy Adams before they did anything bad to her.

  Yeah, I thought to myself, T-Rex was probably better off in the attic. I turned and climbed quietly through the branches of the tree.

  In this part of the forest, the trees grew close together, so it was easy to jump from tree to tree to cover ground quickly. I moved like this as carefully as I could for about ten minutes. I say carefully, because quite often, I would pass over a hobgoblin or rock troll wandering the woods below.

  But after a while, I started to get anxious that I wouldn’t be able to find Eva and Will. Or worse, I began to consider the possibility that they had been captured or killed. I felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness wash over me. I realized that with Aunt Sophie gone, Will, T-Rex and, in some ways, Eva, were now my only family. And they were spread out, isolated, and possibly dead.

  An owl hooted right over my head, close enough that I flinched and ducked down.

  A snickering sound quickly followed. I looked up and saw Eva, obviously the source of the owl call, perched in the tree next to Will, obviously the source of the snicker.

  They climbed down to meet me. I quickly told them everything that I had seen and about T-Rex’s decision to stay behind.

  “Ren Lucre was there?” Eva said incredulously. “You actually saw him?”

  “Yeah, tall, pale, pointy teeth, real bad attitude,” I said. “I saw him, all right. I wish I never had.”

  Will squeezed my forearm. “Sorry about Aunt Sophie. She was always nice to me. It was kind of like she was my mom too,” Will said. “Are you all right?”

  Was I all right? No, not at all. And, somehow, deep inside, I knew that I never would be again. But I took comfort in Will’s concern for me and I felt tears spring to my eyes from the simple gesture.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “Thanks for asking.”

  “But Ren Lucre wasn’t supposed to be here personally. That was never part of the plan,” Eva mumbled to herself.

  “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this plan of yours,” I said. “At what point were you going to tell me that the hunters were using me as bait to get to Ren Lucre?”

  Eva looked taken aback. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I—”

  Will and I stared at her, not buying it. Soon enough, she figured out that she wasn’t going to be able to fake her way through it.

  “OK, it’s true,” Eva said. “We’ve known for years where you were. But we knew you were safe until your fourteenth year. Just in case, you have always had a hunter guardian or two assigned to you. Hester was just the most recent one. But they were always deep undercover, careful not to tip off the Creach that we knew you were here.”

  “Because you knew Ren Lucre wanted me taken to him after I turned fourteen. Why?”

  “He has his reasons. But what you must know is that Ren Lucre is the most insidious, most cruel leader the Creach has ever had. He has ruled with an iron fist for over a thousand years.”

  “A thousand years?” Will said. “That’s impossible.”

  “He’s a vampire, isn’t he?” I asked.<
br />
  “Yes, but he’s more than that. He’s a dark soul who wages the fight against hunters with nearly a crazed ruthlessness. He doesn’t only want to defeat us; he wants to make us suffer. And his hatred doesn’t stop with the hunters. We believe he’s preparing a final battle of Creach against all humans.”

  “Can he do that?” I asked. “I mean, is that even possible?”

  “You only know the very surface of our world, Jack,” Eva said. “And you only understand the smallest bit of how important your place in that world is.”

  “Yeah? Well, I just heard my Aunt Sophie tell Ren Lucre that I’m not who he thinks I am. Turns out I’m just some kind of decoy. This Templar kid is still out there in the world somewhere,” I said.

  “That’s impossible,” Eva said. “She must have been trying to protect you.”

  “A few hours ago you said she was just a Creach monster that you couldn’t trust,” I said. “Now suddenly you believe she was willing to lie to protect me? Which is it?”

  Eva turned away, lost in her own thoughts. I glanced at Will who shrugged at me, not sure what to do.

  “Did Ren Lucre believe her?” Eva finally asked.

  “I don’t know. He said he didn’t, but…that’s not really the point,” I stammered. “If I’m not this Templar person, then there’s no way I can stand up to these monsters. I mean, this is bad, right?”

  Eva shook her head. “I just need Ren Lucre to believe you are still what he’s looking for. I will fight him…and I will kill him. Simple as that.”

  “Simple as that?” Will said. “Well, why didn’t you just say so earlier?”

  “The only thing you need to know now is that killing Ren Lucre is more important than any of our lives. Yours and mine. If he’s here, we must use this opportunity to kill him. The Black Guard hasn’t had a chance like this in over a hundred years.”

  I still didn’t feel like Eva was telling me the whole story. The one thing I had no doubt about was her description of Ren Lucre. I shuddered at the thought of facing him again, but somehow I knew it was inevitable. I tried to push that aside. We had a more immediate problem to deal with.

  “I know their next move,” I said. “ They’re kidnapping Cindy to draw me out.”

  “Why would they do that?” She looked at me, and even in the dark, I felt my face flush in embarrassment. “Oh, I see, she’s your girlfriend.”

  “Uh…well…I wouldn’t exactly say—”

  “He has a major crush on her. Everyone knows it,” Will chimed in, a little too eagerly I thought.

  “Isn’t that cute?” Eva said. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought her voice had a twinge of jealousy to it. “How old is she?”

  The question hit me like a slap in the face. She had her birthday a few months earlier. “She’s already fourteen,” I said. And that meant she was fair game for the Creach to kill.

  I took off through the trees in the direction of Cindy’s house.

  “Jack, wait!” Eva called out behind me.

  But I couldn’t wait. The thought of Cindy and her family being taken and killed by that Creach horde all because of me was too much to bear.

  Faster and faster, I jumped tree to tree until I was almost running across the top of them. A quick glance behind me showed Eva in close pursuit but Will had fallen far behind, struggling to keep up.

  Within minutes, Eva and I were crouching next to Cindy’s house, both of us gasping for air.

  “Not much of a team player, are you?” Eva said.

  “I am, actually. When I feel like I can trust my teammates to tell me the truth. Besides, you’re always the one wanting to do things on your own.”

  Eva ignored the comment and turned her attention to Cindy’s house.

  “Looks quiet,” I said. “Is it possible we beat them here?”

  Eva shook her head. “Look at that,” she said, pointing.

  The back door to the house hung at an awkward angle, half-torn off its hinges.

  We climbed down from the tree and crept across their backyard. I pushed open the back door and stepped inside.

  I had only been in Cindy’s house once. It had been last spring when Mrs. Adams had invited me in when I stopped by, selling candy bars for the baseball team. As she went to get her money, she suggested I go upstairs and say hi to Cindy…in her room. I guess adults forget what it’s like to be fourteen, because walking up those stairs and knocking on the door to Cindy’s room nearly gave me a heart attack. I was sweating all over; my heart was pounding, my hands were shaking, the works.

  She probably thought it was one of her girlfriends stopping by, because she told me to just come in. What I saw next would be seared into my mind forever.

  Cindy stood there in the middle of her pink bedroom, wearing nothing but her underwear.

  We stared at each other in absolute horror. (OK, I wouldn’t say my expression exactly said “horror”, more like total appreciation that there really was a God.) But after a glorious three-second pause, Cindy’s mom showed up behind me in the hallway with the check for the candy bars.

  “I made the check out to…what’s going on here!” she shouted. I grabbed the check from her hand and I hightailed it out of there.

  I thought about that day as I walked silently through the Adams’ house. Squinting in the dark, I could tell the Creach had been there but they also must have been careful. The furniture in the living room had been shoved just a little out of place. One picture frame lay smashed on the floor. But I had expected the place to be ravaged like they had done at Aunt Sophie’s. I nodded toward the stairs that led to the second floor. Eva followed me up.

  We crept down the hallway, past her parents’ room until we reached her room. I slowly opened the door, half-hoping that she would be sleeping peacefully in bed.

  Her bed was empty.

  There were more signs of a struggle in this room. Overturned furniture, sheets ripped from the mattress, clothes thrown everywhere. We were too late; she was already gone.

  Just then, the unmistakable bolt action of a shotgun sounded right behind us.

  “Hands up where I can see ‘em,” said a man’s voice.

  Eva and I raised our hands and turned, looking sidelong at each other.

  Cindy’s dad held the shotgun, but he lowered it once he saw that we were kids. Cindy’s mom snuck up behind him in the hallway.

  “It’s the underwear kid. The one I caught sneaking into Cindy’s room when he was selling candy bars,” Mrs. Adams said.

  Mr. Adams raised the shotgun back toward me. “Is that right? What in the heck are you two doing here? Is this some kind of prank? A dare or something? Because it isn’t funny.”

  “I can explain everything,” I said, not really sure I could.

  Mrs. Adams pushed past her husband and walked toward Cindy’s room. Eva stepped to the side and blocked her way.

  “What on Earth do you think you’re doing?” Mrs. Adams demanded. “I’m going to get Cindy. She’ll be terrified if she wakes up and hears voices.”

  “Step aside,” Mr. Adams said, suddenly a little more suspicious.

  Eva did as she was instructed and Mrs. Adams walked into Cindy’s room. She screamed and came running back out. “She’s gone. What have you done with her?”

  Mr. Adams pushed past his wife and looked for himself. He came out rattled. “You better tell us right now what’s going on.”

  “We’re not responsible,” I said. “We thought this might happen, so we came here to try to save her.”

  “Save her from what?” Mr. Adams said. “What are you kids mixed up in?”

  “They can tell it to the police. I’m calling. I’m calling right now,” Mrs. Adams said, dialing her cell with shaking hands.

  Eva leaned over to me. “Half the police in town are Creach monsters. She makes that call, we’re done for.”

  I nodded. “Just don’t hurt them, OK?”

  Eva grinned. “You worry too much.”

  A few minutes l
ater, I held Mr. Adams’ shotgun as Eva finished tying Cindy’s mom and dad up with duct tape. A couple pieces of tape already covered their mouths. Will finally caught up to us and walked into the room.

  “Whoa, I leave you guys alone for five minutes and this is what happens?” he said.

  I ignored him and took a knee next to Cindy’s parents. “Look, I wish I could tell you exactly what’s going on. Honestly, I don’t think you’d believe me anyway. Just know that we’re the good guys. We’re going to find Cindy and bring her back safe. I promise.”

  Eva rolled her eyes and pulled the tape extra tight around their wrists.

  I weighed the shotgun in my hands, not sure what to do. I decided that since I’d never shot a gun before I be just as likely to blow off my own toe as take down a monster. I put the shotgun down on the kitchen table and left it behind. With one last look at Cindy’s parents struggling against their bindings, we left the house.

  Outside, we gathered together to plan our next move.

  “Where would they take her?” Will asked. “Back to Jack’s house maybe?”

  Eva shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s isolated but they have to be worried that the noise they made earlier will attract unwanted attention. They’re not going to risk that kind of complication right now. It’s why they left her parents alive.”

  “Then where?” I said, rifling through the options in town that could make sense.

  “There’s a way to find out. But it’s dangerous,” Eva said.

  “A little late in the game to worry about being safe, isn’t it?” I replied.

  “Ren Lucre has not stopped searching for you with his mind. I can feel it, even with this.” She pulled out a medallion from under her shirt, identical to the one that Hester had given me.

  “Hey, why don’t I have one of those?” Will complained.

  “You’re not a true monster hunter yet,” Eva explained.

  “Neither is Jack,” Will said.

  Eva locked me up with those intense green eyes of hers. “Whether he likes it or not, wants it or not, Jack was a monster hunter from birth.”

  “OK, but I’m just putting it out there, if we kill Ren Lucre, I want a medallion,” Will said.