The crunching of leaves instilled a child-like joy in his heart.
The man walked through the woods, looking for his target as if a wolf seeking out its prey. In order to pay for his motorcycle and all of the fees, he had taken up this job.
"...C'mon, man, where're the monsters at?"
Speaking out loud, he was quite weirded out. His voice, despite it being fairly soft, was practically booming inside the quiet forest. He continued forward, and with each step, gambled on whether the leaf would crunch or be flaccid.
Then, in the distance, he heard the sound of a twig snapping. He turned his head, coming across a tall, emaciated humanoid.
"...Dang it."
Aubrey muttered under his breath, looking at the creature—a wendigo.
"Yo! So, you're like, what, an ancestor of mine, perhaps?" Aubrey asked, walking up to the wendigo.
"...You… failure…"
"Oh? You can speak. Wait, did the other W.W's not speak cause they couldn't, or what? Well, apparently wendigo's are typically former humans, so it makes sense why you'd—"
The wendigo lunged forward, stabbing forth its sharp claws at Aubrey's chest. Aubrey leapt back, the long limbs barely missing him before he grabbed the slender wrist and spun around, launching the monster at a large tree. The pile of bones crashed against the hard bark, the incredible impact echoing through the forest as Aubrey laughed it off.
"Phew… that was really satisfying. What's wrong with you? Having me be so much stronger than wendigos just because I'm a hybrid… it doesn't sit right with me."
Oftentimes, hybrids tend to be stronger than full-blooded species, at least in the realm of fiction. It's as though being half-human, half-nonhuman is a cheat code for a protagonist to start off stronger or with greater potential than the norm of the universe.
It's not inherently flawed, and can symbolize unity and coexistence as a good thing, which it undoubtedly is. But hearing "they're stronger than others because they're half-blooded" gets old after a while, no?
Regardless, Aubrey smirked as he watched the wendigo attempt to stand back up. Its bones creaked, popped and made mildly satisfactory sounds as it got to its feet.
The wendigo let out a soft breath, white fog emerging from its throat as Aubrey sensed a change in temperature. Though, despite that sudden plummet in atmosphere,
"Huh. Doesn't feel bad."
Aubrey himself was half-wendigo. Naturally, he was resistant to the cold, unlike some other monsters. Light snow began to fall upon the forest ground, as Aubrey attempted to do the same thing.
If I can make it snow, then that might be a cool superpower to have.
But, still, the results were unintelligible. He was confused for a few moments, as he was unsure whether the decreasing heat was due to his efforts or the wendigo; ultimately, he concluded it was a failure on his part.
"The…"
Aubrey looked at the wendigo, as its limbs rested weakly by its side. It looked at him with piercing, icy blue eyes.
"Hunt…"
And, in an instant, Aubrey clasped his mouth and fell to his knees, yellowish-brown liquid spewing from his mouth and splashing against his palm, as he looked down at the forest dirt. He removed his hand, gagging and expelling the contents of his stomach onto the ground.
W-ashfg, whaaaa? Huh, huhh—hh??
"Gha, hhj, no, nononononononono, hhhuaaaahhh…"
His eyes remained widened as if stapled open, his heart racing with a violent burst of fear. Raw, overpowering terror struck his entire body. As if each individual cell had gained conscience, overflowed by the same emotion of primal dread, he remained unable to move. He hugged his stomach, falling off to the side without any control over himself.
The ancestral dread ingrained into all living beings: fear of death.
It was frightening, so frightening. Unable to withstand such fear in his heart, Aubrey dug his nails into his skin, piercing his flesh as an attempt at escape.
The green of the forest turned gray, as his vision was ripped in half, torn apart and plunged into a world of monochrome.
His swimming eyes did not dare look at the threat. Any more fear, and he would die, he would have to die. Or was death an escape?
—I feel sick. So sick, so unbearably sick, that I cannot stand it. Monster, monster, no, no human being could ever withstand this, I have to be a monster. The human spirit that dwells within me has to be gone, because there is not even a single chance that it could withstand this.
The wendigo slowly approached, each step resounding through the dirt. Aubrey shrieked as his eyes were forced to behold such a sight. The shadowed visage of a monster standing before him, looming down, with only blue eyes to show for a semblance of humanity.
Without warning, claws pierced his sides, digging through his stomach and burrowing inside, attempting to make their way all the way through his body.
His body was lifted up by the tall creature, as he hung down, his body's weight holding off of his impalement. His head rolled back.
I have to be dead already. When am I going to die? Hurry, hurry, please hurry, I cannot withstand this for even a second more. Nobody could. Am I dead yet? Please, tell me I am. I'm so scared, I'm going to die.
Then, immediately afterwards, everything went silent. As though time itself had stopped, Aubrey heard only the sound of his own breathing, even the pain of mutilation being lost to him.
…Oh.
His heart was calming down. Slowly, but surely. —That was a lie. It had to be quick, it was quickly steadying itself. Fear was plummeting.
He let out a rough exhale, as the pain returned. Yet, now, his heart was not so suddenly overwhelmed with fear anymore.
That's…
"—It's gotta be one of your abilities, right?"
Aubrey looked down at the wendigo, and lunged his fangs forward, biting into the collarbone. He ripped off the bone itself, a hard, thick crunch beneath his jaws as he chewed and grinded up bone itself into dust, swallowing it down his throat. He kicked the wendigo away, his body collapsing to the dirt as his wounds began to heal.
"...What a scary, scary trick."
Wendigos are said to have the ability to tempt people to cannibalism. Inflict enough fear and enough hunger onto someone, and eventually, they will resort to devouring human flesh.
Aubrey got to his feet, wiping his lips. Though, it was hardly necessary, considering there had been almost no blood from his bite, with most of it being hard bone.
Aubrey faked a smile, trying to recover from his fear as quickly as he could, before pushing his hair back with his hands.
Skinwalkers get traits from those they eat, right? If that's the case, then…
Aubrey looked forward, attempting to replicate what he had seen performed unto him. His eyes turned a cold blue before unleashing his mental attack upon the wendigo. Yet…
—Silence.
With a change in attempt, he noticed that the air might have felt slightly colder. It was so minute that he even doubted it himself, ultimately leading to a sigh. Aubrey shook his head, looking at the wendigo with anticipation.
"Alright, I'll need to eat more, I assume."
He summoned his scissors, bolting towards the wendigo and tackling its thin body to the ground, mounting it and taking a reverse grip. Raising his blade to the air, Aubrey looked down with a faint smile, and plunged it through the wendigo's throat.
The wendigo screeched, and Aubrey grabbed its jaw, digging it into the dirt as he continued to take bite after bite from the monster.
"Mm… I'm so hungry, especially since you made me puke out all my previous food. I'm so hungry, just let me eat, just let me eat, just let me eat!"
The wendigo was a powerful cryptid. Yet, Aubrey was able to easily overpower it with his raw strength. He continued to take bites, consuming the flesh and bone of the monster with crushing of bone in his jaw.
As he pressed his body down to devour, he felt a cold liquid on his stomach. He pulled back, finding blood on his stomach.
What?
"Gh."
Was I stabbed? No, my blood wouldn't feel so cold. Is the wendigo bleeding on its stomach? I didn't stab it there at all, I didn't—
Buzzing by his ear came an elegant noise of some kind. Most similar was that of an arrow gliding through the air.
—That's right.
The reason he came to this forest was not to fight a wendigo. His actual target was—
Blood splashed onto the growing patches of white snow, melting them with warmth. Aubrey looked down, seeing a furry limb inside his stomach, before it was torn from his body. He looked up, a long, humanoid bear. Perhaps 20 or so feet tall, yet it was still so fast and so silent.
Aubrey's organs left his body, his intestines piling up as he fell backwards.
—The damn hidebehind, a monster that attacks only when its victim is most vulnerable. I shouldn't have let my guard down.
Aubrey grabbed the wendigo's arm, attempting to eat and regenerate. But, quickly, he was stopped by the hidebehind, which sunk its teeth into his waist and flung him through the air. His body spun around, eventually slamming into a tree, coming to a complete stop.
His body struck the dirt, as blood poured from his wounds.
"A-ah… you shit, you absolute…"
Aubrey tried to stand. Yet, his organs on the ground, his body pierced by several sharp teeth, all of his wounds added up, leading to a paralysis in his muscles.
He looked up, seeing a bipedal monster, tall as a tree as it looked down on him. It did not move, strangely enough. As though even just getting to see him die was the purpose. Not for food, not out of hunger, it killed him for the sake of malice in itself.
Aubrey looked down, trying his hardest to heal his wounds, but was unable to. He held his hand to his mouth and bit into his flesh, trying to cannibalize upon himself in order to survive. But his flesh did not satiate his body, and he did not heal from the wounds.
He tried to crawl, but even sliding forward with his disemboweled stomach caused excruciating pain, forbidding him from moving.
"Kgh, fuck, fuck, fuck, motherfucker, AAGHH!!"
Letting out a short roar of anger, Aubrey looked down at his injuries, shaking. His voice trembled, sounding like sobbing as he did literally cry from the pain, clenching and grinding his teeth with such fury as a result of his powerlessness.
He clenched all the muscles across his entire body in order to withstand the pain which would surely be engraved into his soul.
"I'm gonna—ghuh—I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die…"
The realization sitting upon him, the truth of the matter hit hard. This wasn't a battle against a WendigoWalker, in which he was close enough to consume flesh to keep fighting. Nor was it against a vengeful spirit who accepted his offer to dance with scissors, getting close and allowing him to regenerate.
This was not a fight.
It was a hunt, where a beast lies in wait to ambush its prey at its lowest, and will not allow for a chance of escape or return. He was made to sit still, unable to fight back as the lethal blow had already been dealt, and there was nothing he could do about it.
There was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing he could do about it, there was nothing he could do about it, there was nothing he could do about it, there was nothing he could do about it there was nothing he could do about it there was nothing he could do about it there was nothing he could do about it therewasnothinghecoulddoaboutit—
His head dropping to the ground, Aubrey resigned himself unto death. The final blow of the battle had already landed, and it was unsalvageable; the battle had been lost.
Aubrey's eyes closed, and as his senses faded into black, he was left alone with the agony of his disemboweled—
"You piece of shit."
At the cold words, Aubrey's eyes opened. His head gently turned upwards, seeing a man approach from behind the trees. Dressed in all black, wearing several silver chains, the man had an air of otherworldly presence, as though the universe revolved around him.
In a flash, the bolt of black reached the hidebehind, winding a fist back and delivering a punch to the creature's leg, snapping it in two with a nasty crunch. The creature fell, and the man stood on top of its laying body, looking down.
As Aubrey's vision blurred, the unnaturally lengthy body of the man was the only detail he could consciously discern.
And the only person he knew with such a body was—
…Sam?
Aubrey entrusted his fate to the figure, closing his eyes before sensing weightlessness. Cold wind blew against his body as though he were travelling quickly, the sound of air roaring as he moved quickly blowing in his ears until he collided with something soft-feeling.
He opened his eyes, seeing fur in front of him.
"Eat up, Aubrey. Please."
That voice… definitely.
Definitely, it has to be you, Sam.
Aubrey opened his mouth and began to eat the hidebehind, as Sam pinned it down to the ground. As he continued to devour, Aubrey's body regenerated, his wounds being healed and his life being restored.
In the end, he stood up, as Sam looked at him with a smile.
"Y'know, they told me to come here because you ran into a monster other than the one you were supposed to. So obviously I put on my best outfit to show off and look cool… turns out you got your ass beat while I was gone, huh?"
Though his words were in fact mocking, Sam's face was that of genuine joy, seeing his friend was still alive. Aubrey, on the other hand, did not smile as he looked at Sam.
When Sam looked into Aubrey's eyes, he saw eyes that were just as black as his own.
It wasn't that he was sad, or that he was not happy to see Sam. He was just as glad to see Sam as Sam was as glad to see him. However, the problem was in what had happened.
The fear of death, which had been repeatedly ingrained into Aubrey, had reached its highest point just a few moments prior. Each fight before this, he managed to overcome on his own. Whether it be through a last-ditch attack which won the battle, or a show of guts which made him feel strong.
This was the first time he had truly, legitimately, lost. For the first time since his transformation, he was legitimately at the mercy of a monster, death narrowly missing him.
And as such, all Aubrey could think was,
There's nothing worth smiling for.
Even if he could identify logically that Sam saving him was something worth smiling for, his heart absolutely could not accept that.
Even in this moment, it was as though he were still dying.