Part Fifty-Eight

I kept my eyes closed for a few more seconds as my mind cleared from the fog of sleep and I swung my legs over the edge of the bed as I rubbed my face with my hands. The air was chilly but it didn’t bother me. I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost five am.

I got dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie and made my way downstairs to the kitchen. I made coffee for myself and swallowed the aftertaste of scotch away. There was a dull headache thumping at the back of my head and I wondered how much I drank last night.

Kane didn’t stir from his spot as I finished my coffee and slapped him on his ribs. He growled at me but said nothing, it wasn’t really unusual, he liked to ignore me. I left the front door open and started jogging to the other side of the house and into the trees.

I didn’t really feel like jogging but I knew that I had to get the alcohol out of my system otherwise I’d be useless for the rest of the day and I had plenty to do. The run cleared my head and by the time I got back to the house at seven am I felt better.

“Come on Kane, you can’t sleep the whole day,” I said as I closed the front door behind me and headed back upstairs to shower.

I loved this house. I loved the quiet and I loved that I had no neighbours. The lake was right there in front of me and the town wasn’t that far out. I preferred to spend my time alone, I had Kane at least and I had my assignment.

I didn’t need much more and I was content with my lifestyle. I made breakfast and Kane sauntered into the kitchen just as I finished dishing up for him. We ate in silence and he ignored me as I cleaned the kitchen.

I left Kane in the house as I headed to my shed and briefly looked at the computer screens before going into the adjoining room. That room was where I did my specialized interrogations, got the answers I needed to keep killing hunters.

“I know you’re awake Sheila,” I said to the woman strapped onto the stainless steel bed.

Her eyes opened and fresh tears made their way across her cheeks as she watched me. She was shivering but I felt no empathy for her. She was a hunter and she would die, no matter what she told me.

The hunters had been involved with a lot of unsanctioned killings and as a destroyer it was my job to hunt them. Sanctioned killings were one thing, when an individual or a pack went astray and broke the law, I had no problem with that, but these random killings of innocent beings is what bothered me.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked me through her tears.

“Give me what I want and we can negotiate,” I said to her and sat down on a chair close to her head.

“Negotiate?” she asked questioningly.

“I want information, you have it, now we negotiate,” I said to her.

“I don’t know anything, I don’t even know why I’m here,” she said again as more tears formed in her eyes.

“I know what you are Sheila, you’re a hunter, I’m a destroyer, now your kind has been killing supernatural beings, unsanctioned that is, now I hunt you,” I said to her.

I walked over to the steel cabinet and opened the doors. I took out my knife roll and placed it on the table where she’d be able to see it. I took out my favourite one and turned it around in my hand as I looked at her.

“It doesn’t really matter, everybody talks at some point. I can start wherever you want, your leg or your arm, I don’t really care, but you will talk, you’re not as tough as you think,” I said.

“What are you going to do?” she asked me.

“I’m going to skin you Sheila,” I said as her eyes widened and before she could say anything I cut off her ear and her screams filled the room.

“What do you want to know?” she yelled at me as blood ran down her face.

“Your London safe house location,” I said.

“Ashfield Road, it’s a warehouse,” she said as her lip quivered.

“That wasn’t so hard now was it,” I said as I stood up and slit her throat.

I closed her eyes with my fingers and loosened the straps on the restraints. The heat from the incinerator blasted into my face as I opened the door and slid her inside. I washed the table and floor and put my knife roll away.

I typed in Ashfield Road into the computer and looked at the screen as the warehouse came into view and I started making my travel plans. I’d been to London a few times, never as a tourist though, always just for work and I never stayed more than a few hours. Maybe one day I’d go and stay the night, just for the heck of it.

Octavia was standing on my porch when I walked around the side of the house and I wondered how long she’d been waiting. From the look of it probably not long at all, she wasn’t tapping her foot in frustration yet.

“Octavia,” I said in acknowledgement.

“Griffin,” she replied.

“What brings you by?” I asked her.

“Your future, open your heart to all the possibilities, otherwise you’ll lose your soul,” she said.

“I’ve lost that a long time ago,” I said.

“You can still get it back,” she said and disappeared.

Kane lifted his head to look at me but then closed his eyes again as I headed to the kitchen. I started preparations for dinner and then went to take a nap so that I’d be rested to travel when it was dark. I woke up at six pm, showered and dressed in black clothes.

After dinner and switching the television on for Kane, I walked to the clearing behind the house and opened a portal to London. The moon was high in the sky as I stepped onto the pavement and blended with the shadows opposite the warehouse.

I stayed in the shadows as something told me that a man would walk out of the side door within minutes and light a cigarette. Two minutes later the side door opened and a young man stepped out and lit a cigarette.

I had the strangest sense of déjà vu and I watched the man as he turned his back towards me. I walked right up to him before he sensed my presence and I slit his throat easily. I was pretty sure that I’d never been here before as I walked into the warehouse and found my way to the power box.

I switched the power off and saw the man with the flashlight coming towards me as he swore under his breath. I snapped his neck and kept moving. I wasn’t worried about being caught, somehow knowing that I needed to get to the room at the end of the hall.

I saw movement underneath the door as the light moved and I knew that they had lit candles. I could smell blood and hear someone groan. The man I wanted was in that room, I just knew it. I opened the door and aimed my gun at the man standing next to a bed where another man was laying down.

“I’m not here to kill you,” I said to the man that was obviously a doctor.

“What do you want?” he asked me.

“The location of Phillip Cartwright,” I said to the man in the bed.

“Why would I tell you that? I’m already dying, the doc here’s just making me comfortable,” he said.

“You might not care about your own life, but what about his life?” I asked him and aimed the gun at the doctor’s head again.

“Why are you so interested in Phillip’s location?” the doctor asked me.

“He killed my wife and I will avenge her death,” I said to him.

“I’m sorry for the loss of your wife,” he said.

“Samantha, her name was Samantha Cartwright,” I said.

“Samantha Cartwright?” he asked me and I nodded.

“Didn’t Phillip tell you that he was my father-in-law?” I chuckled lowly.

“Samantha’s not dead, I saw her four months ago in New York,” the doctor said.

“What?” I glared at him.

“She’s very much alive if we’re talking about the same person,” he said.

I had him up against the wall my hand tightening around his throat as he clawed at them trying to breathe. His face was turning red and my eyes were darkening with anger. She couldn’t be alive, how could she be alive?

“You better not be fucking with me,” I said threateningly.

“I’m not, I have a picture on my phone, a group photo,” he said and I let him go as he gasped for breath.

He took his phone out and opened a picture and handed the phone to me. My breath caught in my throat as I zoomed in on her face. There she was, standing next to her father, smiling brightly into the camera.

“Address,” I said as I cocked the gun.

“Lincoln Avenue and E 132nd Street,” he stammered.

“I’ll be taking this with me,” I said to him and put his phone in my pocket.

I hit him with the gun on his head and watched him slump to the floor. I looked at the other man in the bed who seemed to be very out of it. I shot him once in the head and left the room. I encountered two more men on my way out and shot them point blank.

As I stepped into the open portal I envisioned that address in New York. I’d been to New York countless of times and I knew those streets. They were brave to have a safe house located so close to the Council building.

I couldn’t think of anything other than Samantha. I could see her face in my mind’s eye, hear her laughter. The only thing I could think of was getting to her, finding her and saving her. I felt like an idiot to believe that her own father would’ve killed her.

I kicked open the door and shot two men that turned towards me. I had no fear, only a mission. Find Samantha, kill as many hunters as I could. I yearned for Samantha and I had mourned her all this time, blamed myself.

I caught a whiff of her scent and I followed it up to the second level. I heard laughter coming from another room and I walked in with both guns raised as I shot person after person without saying a word. I could hear screams and smell blood.

People were running and I focused myself on her scent, it was a scent I’d never forget. One man was pulling himself to the door and I shot him in the head as I stepped over him and opened the door. Her scent was stronger in here.

An alarm started ringing in the distance and a woman jumped on me from behind and stabbed a knife into my shoulder. I raised the gun and shot her in the head over my shoulder, not even looking at her as I wiped the blood from my face.

“Please don’t kill me,” she whispered as she cowered behind a desk and I saw her when I stepped behind it.

“Samantha,” I whispered as I looked into her eyes.