"There, your contract; all signed and sealed. Now time for your treatment, young man. May the good blood guide your way."
Those were the first words he remembered hearing as he groggily opened his eyes. He couldn't move his body, nothing but his head even twitched as he slowly roused from whatever coma he'd been left in. Fire burned ever brighter in his veins as he tried to make his fingers twitch. A distant panic began to build in his chest as he heard a strange noise to his left. His head flopped in the direction of the intrusive noises, only for the fire in his veins to turn to ice as he beheld a large pool of bubbling blood, and the monstrous wolf monster that slowly stalked ever closer to him.
No matter how he tried, his body simply refused to cooperate with his commands. The beast prowled ever closer as his heart skipped a beat and began to speed up, pounding away at his eardrums as he laid powerless against his fate. A single clawed hand reached for his chest, stretching to its limit to snatch his still body from his bed. As the claw descended onto his chest, the only thing the young man could do was silently mourn the life he could have lived, the life he had lived but could not recall.
…
…
FWOOSH
When the first claw touched his heaving chest, deceptively gentle against the patwork leathers and wool vest, the beast burst into flame. Howling its agony for the world to hear, the beast wrenched itself away from the young man and ran from the room, knocking tables, desks, and squipment to the ground as it made its way towards the door, its burning flesh getting caught in the open door as it passed slamming it shut, and separating the two. The uterrly bewildered young man finally began to take in air again as he'd gone completely still when the beast had touched his chest, and began to drift off once again.
Small creatures crawled onto his stuttering chest and gripped tight to his clothes. They were pale and small, with gaping mouths, however in their eyes was nothing but giddy joy as they stared into his lidded eyes. The stare continued for only a moment as the young man mustered whatever strength he had left, lulled to rest by the now comfortable warmth in his blood.
"You saved me?…", the joyful noises the small creatures made as they climbed higher to his neck and puffed out their small disfigured chests confirmed they had indeed saved him. All he could offer them as he fell asleep was a gentle half smile, closing his eyes the only thing he could say was a quiet, "Thank you little friends."
…
…
"Ahhhh. You've found yourself a hunter."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Inside a locked room, surrounded by destroyed medical equipment, a young man roused from his debilitating slumber, his eyes snapped open as he jumped onto his feet, frantically looking around for the beast that had threatened his life moments ago from his perspective. Only a destroyed room greeted him as his mind began to function once more. A flash of white reminded him of his small saviors, a half remembered voice was all he could recall, not the words but the gentle voice itself imprinted into his mind. He shook his head as he cautiously made his way to the bloody door the beast had rammed shut, reminding himself that he had other things to take care if like figuring where the hell he was… and who he was.
On the way there, he passed by a mirror hanging against the wall, skewed by the beast as it fled the flames no doubt. A mess of raven black curls covered his hooded head, framing a face with slightly tanned skin and sparkling green eyes dusted by small patches of freckles on each cheekbone.
"That's… me?", the ravenette said recoiling as a voice resounded against his skull.
'Jack! Where are you Jack? It's not funny anymore. I'm sorry for destroying your game, ok?! I just wanted to play.'
Annoyance filled his chest at the forgotten memory, not quite turning into rage so whatever was destroyed either hadn't meant much to him, or the speaker had meant more, either way, all he had gotten was more questions. The pain faded for a moment, turning into a dull ache in the back of his mind. At least he had a name for himself, for now…
'Jack, huh?… It'll do, for now.', at least until he remembered more. A single note rested in the seat of a chair next to his 'bed'. It read something about pale blood and the hunt however, blood had seeped into the paper and left it unreadable. The young man stood up to his full height and made his way towards the heavy door.
Ever so slowly, the door creaked open. Wincing at the noise and the monsters it could attract, he hurried to finish opening it. Holding his breath, the young man waited for any sign that anyone… or anything… had heard the door opening.
A minute passed. Two. A shaky sigh was all the noise he allowed himself to make as he descended the stairs. An unlit lamp stood proudly at the foot of the stairs, and lit itself as he neared. A handful of those creatures sprouted from the smoke that fell from the small flame and gathered at its base.
"It's you!", the young… Jack… whispered as he kneeled before the small lantern. He reached out a single tentative palm for the small creatures, jumping slightly as they eagerly wrapped their misshapen hands around his fingers, making giddy little noises as they gripped him as tight as they could.
"Thank you, for saving my life.", he said as the pale creatures puffed out their tiny chests in pride and made cooing noises up at him. They reluctantly let go as the young man pulled his hand back, and glanced around to make sure there wasn't anything in the immediate area around them as he asked the small creatures a question, " Is there a way out of here?"
The small creatures eagerly pointed towards the only door in the room and disappeared back into the smoke. Jack sighed as he made his way towards the ground floor, past blood stained and soot covered steps. He froze in place as he heard ripping noises coming from the room beyond, his body seemed to move on its own as he cane closer and closer, only to see the same beast the creatures had fended off to save him, tearing into the still body of an old man surrounded by a destroyed wheelchair.
The air left his lungs in a hiss as the beast perked up and turned towards him. Jack began to back away from the limping and charred beast only to trip on one of the parts on the ground. The beast lunged forward, gaping maw aimed at his throat as he desperately reach out and brought a fallen IV pole to point at the wolf monster.
SNCKK
He felt nothing and slowly opened his eyes to stare into the glassy black orbs of the beast, IV pole poking through its mouth and through its skull. A hysterical laugh bubbled from his chest, only to become a wet cough asit left his throat. Jack slowly looked down at his chest, only to see a clawed hand had torn into his chest and ripped it to shreds. The world slowed down around him, going quiet as he stared at the cause of his death. A life only measuring in minutes of memory, half of which he'd not even had a name, cut short in an instant.
He closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall back as the beast's corpse fell to his side. He'd done that, the thought continued to rattle inside his head, the world fading away like a distant dream. He could take some pride in that much… the only thing he could recall that gave him any kind of identity was this sole kill…
…
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Jack came to slowly. His face was planted into a cobblestone pathway. He forced himself to his feet, past the nausea and dizziness that plagued his unsteady limbs. His trembling hands frantically pat down his chest and stomach, only to find them both intact and not a drop of blood on either. He was almost convinced it was a nightmare however, as he beheld the strange island covered in gravestones floating in a void of clouds, pillars breaching both the void and sky along with the mess of scar smooth scar tissue his chest had become were both indicators that this was real.
Slowly making his way up to the open door, past the still life sized doll of a shte haired woman, the young man soon stumbled upon an old man resting in an old wheelchair. He offered a small smile when their eyes met, stern but not unkind gray eyes met bright green, steel meeting forest for the first time.
"Greetings, you must be the new hunter.", the old man paused as he noticed the confusion in the admittedly small man in front of him. "Welcome the the Hunter's Dream, this will be your home for now." An old and worn hand reached out to Jack, who reached back on instinct, shaking their hands as he was observed. "I am Gehrman."
Jack hesitantly reached for his hood, and lowered it so he could speak to the wheelchair bound man clearly, not noticing the shock that overcame Gehrman when he finally had a clear view of his face, seeing the young teenager before him. "I'm Jack.", he replied nervously, glancing around for any kind of threat, clutching his scarred chest.
A handful of moments were enough for the experienced hunter to pull himself together, waiting for the teenager who couldn't have been older than fifteen. When the young man finally met his eyes again, they had both relaxed just a bit more. "Do you know me?", Jack asked hesitantly as he leaned against the door frame.
A few moments passed until the old hunter took off his hat and moved his chair before the young hunter, and gave his own question. "What do you remember?", he said as if speaking of the weather.
The young man eagerly went through everything he knows, from waking up, to being saved, to the name he'd chosen for himself, and to using his last breath to kill some kind of wolf monster. Through it all, the aged man simply sat in silence, eyes closed as he focused on the words of theylith before him. When the young man finally ran out of breath, he paused to take in the solemn silence the older man had given throughout the one sided rant.
"You're far from home, son.", was all he had to say, and after a moment of internal debate he pushed himself free from his wheelchair. Under the dumbfounded gaze of the younger man, Gehrman stretched himself out in ways he hadn't since he'd made contact with the moon presence. "You're a foreigner, and a child at that. Yharnham will tear you to shreds and not even have the decency to spit your bones out.", Jack understandably froze under the matter of fact tone the older man had taken, but to his credit it was only for a moment.
Green eyes narrowed in indignation and the desire to live shown ever brighter as Gehrman offered a half smirk and a nod of approval. "Especially with the hunt coming so soon. You are weak, soft.", each word hammered into the young man's mind as the old hunter slowly made his way to stand before the young man, towering over Jack. "The only way to come to this realm is to make a contract capable of sustaining your soul. Neither of us knows what you made the deal for, however it no longer matters."
The two men simply stood in silence following the point blank declarations. "I am Gehrman. The first hunter. Every hunter you will ever meet are trying to be me and failing miserably.", he hissed out the last words like he despised them. "And you… you are a child, forced to do a man's job. No one who has set foot in this realm has ever been as unprepared or untrained as you are at this moment… and you still managed to drag a beast down with you, even if it did end up killing you… I've seen great men turn into wailing cowards by the same odds." The old man stared unflinchingly into the nearly glowing green eyes that burned ever brighter with every word, and smiled.
"You're Lost. Set adrift in a world you can't bring yourself to understand. You don't know who you are.", Once more, his tone held nothing but truth as he looked into his potential protege's eyes, measuring his infantile will, and finding steel buried deep into stone, waiting to be unearthed and honed. "You will learn, and you shall not stop until this terrible bunter's dream has been put to rest. I will teach you. When they write about you in the history books, they will not call you another imposter; you will be known as the Last Hunter, the final student of Gehrman first among the hunters. You will learn, and you shall not stop until this terrible hunter's dream has been put to rest."
A hand reached out, held patiently under the inquisitive green ofbs that regarded him silently, trying and failing to understand the man before him. A risk was taken. A duty inherited. An oath sworn in a world made of eldritch dreams.
"When do we start?"