The hunter walked slowly into the condemned building before him. He had tracked his prey to this very location. He would not let her see the light of day again. She had killed many of his men during his hunt to find her. He would not let their deaths go to waste.
The rotted floor creaked and groaned under his weight as he stepped through the front door. The front hall was a disaster. Wood, glass, and plaster littered the floor beneath him. Those, however, were not the only non-living bulks that littered the floor.
Corpses lay in heaps all around the room. He stared in horror at the carnage around the room. Blood stained the ground beneath the bodies, soaking into the floor boards that surrounded the area. Faces were etched in terror, others in pain. Some of them had very little left of what had once been called a face. Limbs were missing, bodies separate. A great battle had raged within these rotting walls, he had commanded it.
Furniture and vases lay broken. Deep gashes sliced through the blood soaked walls. Curtains hung limply from their poles. His beast had defiantly been through this hall way. A chalky, white dust enveloped the floor from the broken plaster, almost like snow.
The man knelt to the dust infested ground, trying to find any traces of the beast. The floor looked as if it hadn't been disturbed but he knew better. He placed two fingers on the ground, dragging them towards him. A sticky, wet sound filled his ears as his fingers glided across the floor. He lifted them up to his face to inspect his findings. Blood. Her blood "Gotcha," he whispered to himself.
The hunter continued his treck farther into the house. The carnage had disappeared a bit. Most of the beast's enemies never made it that far in to her haven. But this time it was different. She wasn't able to guard her precious "home." She was injured. The blood trail proved that.
The next room was gigantic in proportions. The unfinished ceiling arched high into the darkness. He couldn't tell how high up the walls went. The tarnish had warn off of the rotted wood, holes littering the floor beneath the hunter. It still groaned under his weight as he took a step into the haven of the beast.
He could hear it breathing from within the rafters high above. It seemed labored and heavy, coming out in raspy gasps. A low growl escaped the beasts mouth as the hunter made his way farther into the room. A small pool of blood had collected on the ground in front of him, the source of the flow high above him.
A small smile played across his lips. "You have nowhere else to run, Keira," he whispered to the darkness around him.
A hiss from above answered his challenge. "You no longer have the right to use that name, Hunter." The voice was raspy, cold and full of hatred. But more over, it sounded tired. And that was a good thing.
The hunter's head looked around, trying to pinpoint the beast. A quick movement from above and the ceasing of the trickle of blood suggested her displacement to another hiding spot within the darkness. He could smell the fear radiating off of his prey. He laughed inwardly at the irony of the hunter of the night becoming the hunted.
"You know, you can't hide forever," he taunted as he checked to make sure his weapon was loaded.
"I can try," croaked the voice. "But you shouldn't stand out in the open either."
The man laughed at his prey's boastful words. "I think I'm the one with the upper hand here, darling."
"Maybe."
The voice didn't sound as labored as it did before. It became more smooth, full of cheekiness, and more over, confidant. The hunter didn't know if he liked the sound of that.
A liquid splattered onto his forehead as something rushed by him, a trailing wind covering him as it past. Something warm trailed down his face. He reached his fingers up to come in contact with a sticky fluid. Blood.
The man brought his weapon up to a firing position. He was starting to feel a little regret about his decision to enter her domain. His eyes scanned through the darkness with the trained eye of a predator. "You will not get away this time, Beast."
Laughter filled the air around him. "Are you sure about that, Hunter?" the woman crooned.
She had moved again. This time, her voice had come from his far left. He turned to where he last heard her, only to come face to face with nothing.
His confidant demeanor was crumbling by the second. "Don't push your luck, little one. I'm the one who has let you live as long as you have," he sneered.
"And I with you."
He snorted in displeasure. "Quit playing games, Keira. I know you were injured during that raid."
"Ah, I believe that was the last report your second in command gave." Her voice still sounded garbled but it was becoming stronger with each sentence.
He cursed under his breath. "You're mortally wounded. You can't possibly fight back now."
Another laugh filled the room. "Am I now?" the darkness teased. "For being an expert in your profession, I thought that you would have had more common sense that this."
The hunter began to look sick with fear. A cold sweat pored from his body, his skin becoming pale at the realization of his mistake.
She may have been altered by scientists but there was no way that she could have evolved that quickly. Yes, he knew that her power would only grow with her experience but she had only been free for the last couple of days. She just couldn't have evolved that quickly.
A growl from behind him made him gasp in fear. He turned quickly, only to see a flash of his hunter. He began to look sick with fear. A cold sweat pored from his body, his skin becoming pale at the realization of his mistake. He, the great and almighty hunter, had become the hunted.
The man's eyes darted nervously around the room. Where was that damned woman? He could here her footsteps echoing across the wooden floor. The sound was enough to drive him mad. "Come out and face me, Demon " he screamed as a last resort.
Warm breath on the back of his neck made his hair stand on end. "As you wish, Hunter," came the venomous reply whispered into his ear.
He turned around to face her only to be knocked on his back with the force of her blow. Blood oozed from the gashes across his face. He looked up to his attacker, horror etched on his face. The remnants of a gunshot wound to her throat reconstructed itself in front of his eyes, becoming nothing more but pale flesh underneath her blood stained skin. She had grown strong; too strong.
A wicked smile crossed her face as she licked her lips at the sight of his blood. It made her...hungry. Yes, a deep hunger from within was awoken. The drive alone was enough to make her mad. Her animal instincts to survive and feed kicked and took over her senses. She lowered herself to a crouching position, moving around like a crazed animal in the dark.
The hunter stood to his feet slowly. His blood ran into his eyes, making it extremely hard to focus in on the crazed woman before him. She had disappeared into the dark again, but he could hear her growling in the darkness.
Moonlight filtered in through holes in the walls and windows, giving the room an eerie glow. She past through them quickly, hiding in the welcoming hands of the dark. Each time he saw her, her body seemed to have shifted or morphed into some twisted creature.
As the thought crossed the man's mind, a terrible creature of teeth and claws emerged from the darkness. He let out a scream in terror and started to run but the beast jumped in front of him, blocking his escape. He tried to run for one of the windows but she blocked that path as well. Once the beast realized that she had caught her prey, she let out a long howl.
The man's eye went wide as the creature lunged at him, her claws digging deep into his right shoulder. He cried out in anger and pain. He tried to remove the beast from his side but she only dug its claws deeper and deeper into his skin.
She let out a roar of anger as she quickly ripped the man's skin and flesh from his shoulder. A scream of agony escaped the man's mouth. All of the muscle and sinew of his shoulder had been ripped clean from the bone.
His right arm hung lifeless and useless at his side as he stumbled through the dark to an exit. He knew he could never defeat Keira in the condition that she was in. She was mad with grief and anger, giving her an emotional high and a power that she had never felt before. Another howl echoed through the darkness. Within that howl, the man could here a girl's screams. Pain and anger emanate from that howl.
The hunter paused in his escape to get his bearings. He couldn't remember passing though this way. With blood quicky flowing from his body, his mind began to wander. He fought to stay in control but he was slowly losing the battle. If he did not receive medical help soon, he would die.
The wood threatened to give way beneath his feet as he stepped gingerly on to the rotted floor. The room looked emptied. Wallpaper peeled off of the wall, slowly reaching to the floor. For the lack of bodies, there was an extreme scent of death and decay. The room must have been her food storage.
He jerked his head up as he heard a hiss above him. How could she had gotten ahead of him without his knowing? He brought his scope up to his eye and began to fire at the ceiling. The light from the discharge of the bullets lit up the darkness around him. The sight above him was horrifying.
Keira's form had shifted again. Instead of the giant beast of teeth and claws that had attacked him before, her skin had tanned and become like leather, though much thicker than human skin. She clung to the ceiling with her gigantic clawed feet and hands, her fanged jaw opening up into another hiss.
The man continued to shoot, only to have his gun smacked out of his hands in a whip like manner. A tail extended from her behind, making a useful weapon to her. He cursed under his breath as he turned to run from the room. The floor, however, disagreed with his escape.
The rotted wood gave way beneath the man's weight in a crash of wood. His body started to flail through the air, trying to grab hold of something with his good arm. Before he fell through the first level, a clawed hand snaked down and grabbed hold of him. He screamed out in pain as the wench dug her claws deep into his back. The wood fell with a crash to the basement bellow, dust flying up to meet his blood and sweat covered face.
She let out a growl as he squirmed in her grasp. "What's the matter, Hunter?" Her voice was a mix of her own and another deeper, more demonic voice. "I thought you said that I wouldn't get away this time?" She laughed as she mocked his own confident statement from earlier.
The man let out a scream as she tossed him through the air like a rag doll. Before he could even hit the floor of the hallway, she caught him and threw him up through a hole in the ceiling above her. The routine of throw and catch continued until they reached the roof of the building.
He landed on the cement top with a thud. Blood splattered from the many wounds he had received from the she-devil, making an interesting "ink blot" on the ground beneath him. He groaned in pain as his body slowly went into shock. He watched Keira carefully, pondering on what her next move would be.
His eyes went wide as all of her skin, claws, and teeth ripped from her body in a horrific display, or maybe in the manner a butterfly leaves a cocoon. Once everything had been stripped away, he saw the young woman clothed only in blood like a dress of the dead. He started to scream but it was cut short, literally, as her once again clawed hand raked across his throat.
Keira stared down at the weakling man cowering before here. He had destroyed her life. He was the one that had caught her. He was the one who took her to the warped scientist. It was all that damned hunter's fault.
She was always a different. Always apart from all others. But they had brought the darkness within her to life against her will. Turning her into what she was now–a monster. She could no longer live like she used to in simple oblivion. She was no longer innocent. She was now a creature of the night. A hunter...just like him.
No! She was more than he was. After all, it was her who had turned him into the prey. It was now him that coward before her. His life was draining from his body with each passing moment. The prey was in much pain but her ice covered heart didn't take pity or mercy on him. His pleas
"Ple..don...don't...kill...me," came the gargled plea. "Show...some...mer...mercy..."
His pleas fell on deaf ears. She closed her eyes, a simple, lonely tear streamed down her blood stained cheek. She would embrace what she was. She would let the darkness overtake her.
"You want mercy, Prey?"
The man screamed out in horror as she let out a scream of pure rage. Fangs found their way to her jaw. Her fingers extended into long, sharp claws. Her toes became three, sharp talons, her foot extending in length and her heel arching high to the sky. Her tail extended from her back again, helping her balance on the balls of her feet. Her skin became thicker and harder to puncture, turning to a pale, sickly color. Another ear piercing scream and a sickening ripping of the skin and cracking of bones wanted to make the ex-hunter turn away in disgust as wings exploded from her back. They were black and bat-like. She stretched them out, extending them to their full span. She truly looked demonic in this state.
She turned to him with a wicked smile on her face. "I'll give you mercy."
The man's labored scream could be heard for a short second before she jumped on top of him, letting the demonic side of her take over her mind. She raked her claws over and deep into his body. The sight of blood was enough to excite her and escalate her senses. She grabbed hold of his head and twisted it, a loud, cracking noise protruding from his neck. His body (or rather, what was left of it) fell limply to the ground, his head rolling in an awkward position.
A fulfilled smile crossed Keira's face at her handy work. The hunter was dead by her hand. He would kill and capture no more. This thought, more than anything, seemed to satisfy her tortured and antagonized soul.
She walked over to the roof's edge, staring out at the night sky. His blood glistened on her skin in the moonlight. She moved her neck around a bit, trying to work out the kinks. A few satisfying cracks released some of the tension in her body. The wind picked up, beckoning for her to join it in the night sky.
Her wings opened up wide as she prepared to jump from the top of the building. She spread her arms wide and leaned forward. Her body fell but her spirit flew as the wind picked her up and carried her through the star lit sky.