"You stated that you planned to meet me under different circumstances. Why?"
"I will explain myself on that, but I implore you to please wait until I have fully explained everything too you."
"That's fine. Do you or anyone else have any knowledge as to why this creature has started attacking your village and has there been any reports of attacks in any other villages.
"No, we do not. The nearest other village, Liswood, is almost 225 miles away. We checked with them four weeks ago and was informed there had been no attacks there. They are on alert and will inform us if any occur. Major Hennings has a detail of men stationed there just in case. We do suspect that the attacks is somehow connected to our village, but we cannot figure out how or why.
"I was told that several woman have been killed after being raped. The datapad given to me by Sheriff Connelly only gave tests results and other scientific data on the attacks. I would like to have some basic info like a list of who these woman were, what kind of work they did, the location of their homes within your village, and whether any of the woman were related to each other in some manner or if there are any other circumstances that link them together. Unfortunately I know the bodies of the women have already been interred. The damage done to them may have clues that were missed by the investigators."
"The investigators stated that had all the info there was from the bodies and allowed us to put them to rest. I can tell you however that none of the women were related to each other outside of being friends and neighbors."
"Has something liked this or any other weird happening occurred in your village before?"
"No, not to my knowledge"
"You have lived here all your life?"
"Well no. In fact I do not live here. I was here on an entirely different matter when the first attack occurred."
"Do you mind if I ask how long were you here before the first attack occurred?
"About five weeks. Do you suspect my coming here has something to do with these attacks?"
"Right now I do not suspect or know much of anything. I am just trying to get a picture of what is going on here. Can you tell me exactly what business you are here on?"
"My younger Ladies and I are here to try and help the village improve on their export products which is the new Elixir Ale we have developed and certain other natural medicinal products they produce from the plants they grow here."
"I noticed when I arrived that with the exception of you and your Ladies, everyone else here appears to be human in nature and appearance. I was told by Sessa that she and her people of which I assume the other Ladies I met and you are a part of, are not human. Do you mind explaining what she meant”
There was a slight hesitation on her part before she answered my question. It wasn't much, barely noticeable, but I caught it, which means she may be hiding her true reason for being here or some other secret relating to the claim of them not being human. I was about to ask for her answer, but stopped because something had caught my attention. It wasn't something I heard or saw, but more something I perceived or felt. Turning around in the chair I stared at the back wall about sixty or so feet behind me. I could feel Serona gaze on me and her unspoken question as to what I was staring at. Before she could ask me what was wrong I sprung up from the armchair, fully facing the far back wall. I could feel Serona now standing up behind me and now also looking to the back wall wondering what it was I was seeing that she was not. It was at that point that a large section of the back wall bugled inward and then exploded inward with debris showering all over the kitchen. What came through the opening was something truly out of a very bad nightmare. It was about eight feet or more tall, and massive, fully five feet wide at the shoulders. It stood on two legs, had two arms, but there the similarity to a man ceased. Its skin was a dark grayish to a sickly green tone, but looked rough and pebbled. It's arms and legs was thick and massively muscled. It was covered with an assortment of rags and branches in some semblance of clothing, which was sorely lacking as its male member was clearly visible. Its penis was hanging loosely between its legs and was at least twenty inches or so long and at least six inches thick. My first thought was that this creature couldn't exist, and my second thought was here was the rapist and killer. After fully forcing it’s way into the house it turned his head in our direction and we got a good look at the horror before us. Its face resembled that of a frog with misshapen ears. It slowly opened its mouth and revealed a mouth full of large, misshaped and extremely bad looking teeth. By this time my 40C was in my hand and I shot the creature five times in rapid succession straight in the chest. The creature staggered back a step, shook itself and started towards us. Shooting it again four more times and not waiting to see what effect my bullets had on it, I then spun around moved to Serona and grabbed her up cradling her like a baby and started running for the full bay style window she had been standing in front of when I first came in. Not knowing whether the window was real glass or glassite, I shifted my gun hand as I cradled Serona and pumped my remaining rounds as fast as I could around the windows to break it or at least weaken the glassite enough to break through it. As the last round hit the now obvious glassite I jumped and spun one hundred and eighty degrees, and tucking Serona's head into my chest as I hit the glassite full force with my back. The blow was tremendous and painful but the glassite shattered and as we plunged through I saw that the creature was only a few steps behind us tearing through everything to reach us. My momentum carried us over the pouch railing and we slammed onto the grass in Serona's yard. Letting the momentum carry me over I unceremoniously dumped Serona on the grass, spun around in front of her, facing back towards the window with my 40C. I had already ejected the spent mag and reloaded another and was blasting my rounds into the chest of the creature who already had one leg outside on the pouch and was tearing out the broken window frame to get out to us. As my rounds hit him in the chest, the creature looked at me and …screamed. Yes screamed. I once heard an old antique teapot whistle out the top as the steam from the boiling water started escaping. Well this scream was just like that only thirty times louder and a hell of lot more frightening. So loud was the creature's scream that Serona instinctively grabbed and covered her ears. The scream must have had some subsonic frequency to it because my ears started hurting. As my bullets was failing to impress the creature, I ejected the now spent mag, slammed home another and opened fire again. Right then all hell broke loose behind us as a hail of bullets started disintegrating the side of Serona house and the creature. Ducking down and looking behind us I saw Major Hennings and a group of his men firing on the creature with heavy auto shotguns as they ran towards us. These shotguns fired high explosive sabot rounds, which was destroying Serona's house. The creature had fallen back into the house under the destructive hail of bullets. As the major reached us he yelled,
"What the hell was that thing?"
"That thing is your rapist and killer."
Looking at each other we nodded, and proceeded to advance on the house. As we did so, I yelled over my shoulder,
"Get Serona to safety."
Hennings pointed to two of his men and shouted,
"Stallings, Williams, GO!"
The two soldiers took Serona and proceeded to move away from the house, but she stopped them.
"No! I must stay"
Looking back I saw Sessa and the other Ladies running towards us. Looking at Serona I yelled,
"Stay back, that's an order"
Advancing on the house with Major Hennings and his men we split up into two groups, with Hennings, I and one other soldier advancing on the busted and blasted out window. Hennings sent the other three to cover the back of the house where the creature broke in. Coordinating our entry we all advanced into the house from the front and back simultaneously. Spreading out we checked the whole house, but it was evident the creature was gone. Its size alone would have been noticeable once we entered. As we searched, one fact became apparent. There was no blood anywhere in
the house. A fact I pointed out to Major Hennings as we both knew we had shot the creature numerous times. It was a mystery and a very unsettling one at that. As we returned to the yard I asked Serona was she alright. She was looking at me in an intense way, but said yes she was fine. She then said something I found rather strange.
"Mr. Hutchins please forgive me, but I must be sure”
While I was getting ready to ask her what she meant, I noticed that Doeeal and Fee
were to either side of me while Sessa and Yessal stood to either side of Serona. As I noticed this fact all but Sessa and Serona rapidly raised their hands and I was blasted by three intense blue beams of light. That was the last thing I saw.
Chapter Four: What The Hell?
I awoke slowly, feeling like I had just had my ass kicked by a group of angry gorillas. Remembering how I had gotten my ass kicked I remained still and quiet trying to hear who or what is around me. It did little good.
"Mr. Hutchins, I am sorry for our actions against you. It was a necessary precaution dictated by the events of what had recently happened"
I guess my ruse of still being unconscious wasn't working. Opening my eyes slowly, painfully as they felt that opening them at all is a very bad idea. I saw Serona and another unknown woman sitting on the lounge across from me. It was obvious the unknown woman was of the same unknown race of people as she also had that same alien beauty, but she was older. Much older and she had dark green hair that was also streaked with a lot of gray. Turning my head I saw Major Hennings and Sessa standing off to the side. Major Hennings was the only one though who appeared to be embarrassed about the attack on me. Looking back at Serona I grunted out,
"Someone want to explain what happened to me and most importantly, why?"
Serona and the unknown woman looked at each other and then Serona spoke.
"Mr. Hutchins I must apologize for rendering you unconscious. At the time it seemed very prudent to do so”
I have heard stories about false clients putting out contracts to draw a certain manhunter in for revenge for his pass actions. Due to such, measures were put in place to insure the validity of a manhunter contract before a manhunter accepted it. The measures were so effective, that there have been no false contract traps over the last dozen or so years. So to say I am not accustomed to having my clients turn and attack me is an understatement. It also pissed me the hell off.
"You are going to have to do a hell of a lot better than an apology for attacking me.
Your actions for one, has voided our contract, plus you committed the action in front of a federal officer, and a client attacking their hired manhunter while he is working on the contract is a federal crime"
I stated this while pointing to Major Hennings.
"What I want to know though is why I was attacked, and what the hell was I hit with?
"Please, Mr. Hutchins, I will explain everything, but first I must ask you to continue to bear with us"
"Tracker", interrupted Hennings, "The Ladies here has committed a crime and has violated the terms of your contract, and if you want to press charges, I will report these actions and take the appropriate steps. However I too am asking you to hear Matron Serona explanations first. Believe me it will all become clear, even if you will think it somewhat fantastic" With that Serona continued speaking.
"We hired you to come and help us rid our village of the beast which preys on the women here. The choice to bring you in on this venture was fully mine, due primarily to your reputation in finding and apprehending criminals, and Major Henning's recommendation. I also stated earlier that I had hoped to meet you under different circumstances. Those circumstances are due to the fact that your uncle and I were very good friends”
This statement truly caught me off guard.
"You knew my uncle?"
"Yes. Over the course of the past twenty plus years, your uncle and I have worked on a few incidents together. Over those years we became very close. His disappearance was very, very painful for me. So much so, that I regret earlier decisions we both made regarding our personal relationship to each other”
(DING) A light just went off inside my head. During the years I grew up around my uncle, I would on a few occasions ask him why he never married. He would laugh and then tell me some laughable joke on the dangers of marriage to one woman for the rest of his life. Yet deep down I could see that there was something he wasn't telling me. As I got older, I noticed that on some of the cases he would take, there would be a level of expectation and excitement within him about the case that I couldn't explain, but that felt out of place for the dangerous job he was undertaking of apprehending a felon. On these cases he would work alone, no matter what arguments I, or some business associates of his raised. When he returned home from those cases, his whole demeanor was happier, more joyful. Now most people would probably say that was due to a successful mission, but to those of us who knew my uncle, that type of euphoria was really out of place. My uncle was a man of sternly serious demeanor, and to my knowledge only seemed to truly relax and laugh around my mother and me. In other situations, he always seemed to be all business. Other business associates of his I encountered, as I grew older and started working cases with him had told me the same thing. My uncle was all business, even when he should have been relaxed. So you can see why I was understandably perplexed about his joyous attitude on those rare occasions. Only my mother seemed to understand why, but when I questioned her on it, she would only tell me that things I wanted to know about my uncle, I needed to ask from him. It was a matter of respect and privacy between them that she would not tell me. When I asked my uncle he would always give me a knowing look and say I would know one day when I was older, and then stopped me from asking any more questions. So I was patient, since my uncle had never lied to me, or deceived me, and always taught me what I needed to know to survive in life as well as in the business. Plus there was a lot for me to learn about the business to be too concerned about his untypical happiness. Once he disappeared though, all aspects of my uncle life came back to me full force, leaving me with a ton of unanswered questions. Questions that would now not be answered. Yet that simple statement made by Serona answered one of my questions.
"You and my uncle were close?"
"Yes. We met many years ago by accident as the case he was working on was linked to a action I was participating in at the time. Over the years we had many occasions to work together. To answer your next question, yes we were in love with each other and looked forward to seeing each other as much as we could”
"How come you both didn't make something permanent between you, and as interesting as all this is, I failed to see how all this ties in with your attack on me?”
"We both felt due to the circumstances of our lives at those times, it was better for us to continue our relationship as it was. Believe me it was the most difficult decision we both had to make. As to the attack on you, I will answer that question, but first I need to ask you a very personal question. How much do you know about you father?"
(BONG) The alarm bells in my head were now really ringing. Being asked about my uncle was one thing, but being asked about my father was the last damn thing I ever expected.
"Excuse me, but what has my father got to do with why I am here?"
"Please bear with me. There was information about your father that your uncle was going to tell you when he felt you were ready. I need to know what if anything he told you before his disappearance, or if your mother has revealed any info to you on him”
"Nothing. He nor my mother has not told me anything about my father” The words as I said them came out very bitter. My uncle and mother knew something about my father, but had never told me. For a second there I felt betrayed by them, but then remembered my uncle never did anything without a good reason, and my mother could never do me any harm. So if they didn't tell me about my father, they had a very good reason. I now just needed to find out what their reasons were.
"What I am a
bout to tell you will seem farfetched, more likely insane, but please again bear with me and hear me out. You have already seen some of the unusual abilities my Ladies and I have exhibited. Even though some of us have specialized abilities, for the most part our basic abilities are the same. Now your most obvious question when you first arrived was an explanation of our claim of not being human. The answer is simply that although my Ladies and I look human, on a more genetic level we are not.”
Serona spoke that statement with such conviction, that even though I may not believe her, I was convinced that she believed what she said. The look on my face must have said the same thing, because Serona rose, approached the shattered window and pointed to a sign standing outside and immediately a blue beam of light left her hand and blew the sign apart. Stunned I looked at her and then everyone else in the room. It was apparent from all their expressions except Major Hennings, seeing her blow things apart was nothing new. Returning to her seat, she continued.
"Our ancestors lived on an island that, for the record, has existed for over one hundred and fifty seven thousand years. The island was called Muraii, and my people are called Muraiins, and they were and are not human. Although we somewhat appeared human in form back then, our genetic, physical and mental attributes were not. My people back then were small in statue, between four to five feet tall. Our facial features looked as we look now, with two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth and we had two arms and two legs. However we did not have any hair as you know it. Our bodies from our head to our feet was covered in lustrous fur in different colors and our ears was somewhat elongated like that of your legendary elves."
I sat there as she told me that story with a straight face. My first initial reaction was to assume she was crazy, or trying to bullshit me, but somehow after what I had seen, I wasn't so sure.
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