A Lie I Did Not Want to Believe, Pt. 3

 

                                                         A strange man

I still remember his words. I stood up looked at him in the eyes. He was looking at me. But his look... It felt... It felt like he was reading my soul. His eyes were piercing through my body. A strange feeling, one I have never felt before. Something ominous.

It felt like he was looking at me for an eternity, but he had just looked at me for a second. Everything was weird about that night and that man. He then said something that would hunt me for a very long time.

"A vampire. That is what this man was. Don’t answer. Just follow me. I will tell you everything".

                    

                                          The man that could fool the Devil

And so I did. I followed him. We went down the road a bit and suddenly he stopped. He pointed at a dark location nearby, off the main road.

"This way".

"Where are we going there? There is nothing there". 

"Because you think there is nothing there that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything" siad John - that was his name.

He looked my expression and laughed. 

"Come now, follow me it won’t take long". He continued walking and after some time, John turned to me, being serious this time.

"I am surprised you are actually following me and not asking questions". 

I thought a bit before answering. I thought about what had happened and my situation.

"Well my life is already in deep shit and can't get any worse. I don’t really care what happens to me or even if I die. So who cares! I might as well follow you".

He looked at me with those piercing eyes of his again and didn’t answer. He just kept walking. We went off the road into the forest and went way off the village I was staying at. Then after a while we stumbled across what looked like an old hut.

We entered the place and we went below to what looked like a basement. It was dark but once he flipped a switch the place looked really different. It was like a pub but inside the ground.

Wooden floor and two couches on the left and right with tables in the middle and a bar at the end exactly like you would picture a pub. The place felt cosy and friendly though.

"Surprised?" John asked. I was left speechless. 

"Come lets sit at the bar. Whiskey I presume?". I smiled. 

"Oh, yeah".

We sat down poured drinks and we started talking.

"So how are you doing" I said like I knew him for years.

"Who am I, why you are in this place, why that man turned to ash in front of your eyes, all these questions and yet you ask me how I am doing. Most intriguing". He chuckled. "I am good. Don’t worry about me, you should be worrying about yourself, friend".

"So let me give you the talk. I am gonna start, but you can stop me and ask questions anytime". He straightened his back and cleared his throat.

"This place belonged to my father. He was a butcher and he kept animals here while operating. This was ages ago and in a time were people were still hunting witches so you can Imagine how old this place is. I inherited this place through my family's lineage and now we are here. Originally, I was an accountant. I had a wife. We were not married that long, but we loved dearly and cared for each other. I was a happy man living life like any other person. One day my company decided to take me to an important meeting. I thought to myself well this is a good opportunity for me to climb the ierarchy ladder. They said to me that I could bring my family as well. The place was isolated and very pretty so I thought, why not. My wife was complaining that I wasn’t close to her and that I was always busy with work so you know a good turn of events to take her off my back". He stopped for a second. 

"Well you and I sitting right here right now. You can expect that this story doesn’t have a good ending".

I looked at him in the eyes and I could see a man that was fluent in pain. I could see myself.

"I don’t expect you do believe what you will hear, but knowing what happened today you might" John continued. "Reality is cruel and life even more. You see I wasn’t anyone important. They didn’t invite me there to make me climb the ladder or anything like that. I was just food. A day or two after we were there, they drugged us. Before I knew it I found myself chained up in a wall. I was chained to a wall and couldn’t do anything except hear peoples screaming. My mind went blank. I panicked. I was thinking about my wife, if she was okay, what are these pigs doing to her. Well I will spare you the details and tell you exactly what happened. Lets say that I can still remember her sreaming. So, to finish the story, I was left there to die. No one came for me and no one said anything. They just left me there to rot. You see the worst thing you can do to a man is lock him in a sell and throw away the key. I still don’t know how many days I was there. All I remember was my dried limps and my muscles burning. My voice was gone from screaming in agony. Days later everything stopped. I couldn’t hear anyone or anything. Everything was dark. They left me there to rot and die without anyone ever finding out." 

He stopped and drunk whiskey directly from the bottle. The memories were painfull for John.

"One day Max came and freed me and now I am where I am. He carried me out of there and we saved me. I tried finding out to see if the remains of my wife was there but I couldn’t. We searched together but nothing was to be found. You see I was 25 back then. Just like I am doing to you, what he did to me. We are hunters, he said and thus I am saying to you. What I killed on that road was... lets say a vampire. I shot him with... lets say silver. And now this is were we are. This is who I am. I am not alone though. Just like you, there are other people I closely trust with stories, as they have as well. You will get to meet them. But now is not the time. You are a hunter but before I make you one, go and sleep. It has been a big day with too many things for you to hear and understand. So lets take things slowly. There is a bed in the back for you to use.

After he told me his story, I told him mine as well. I told him who I was and how my life was. How I lost everything, how I felt. We talked like we knew each other for years. Humans are weird creatures. They think they are so different and so distant from each other, when in reality they are not. Even though he looked so smart and so distant. We were two men sitting with a drink in our hands sharing our stories.

                                                                 Pain

Next day came. I woke up and for a second I thought I was in my house with my wife. But that split second of happiness went away only for the reality to hit in and remind me where I was and that she is dead. I looked at the ground with heaviness all over my body and my eyes.

Jhon walked in 

"Come inside when you are ready".

I stood up and walked to the bar. There was a wooden and rusty smell to that place. There was no daylight to be found.

Jhon looked at me as he poured rum for me and him. He took his cigarettes and sat in the bar with the astray in front of him. I went and sat with him as well. Pulled a smoke out of the packet that was at the bar and light it up.

The atmosphere was so heavy and depressing. Waking up and feeling empty, tired. The pain and the depression you feel consume you and you become one with them.

Suddenly, you are in this state where you are numb but you can still feel. Suddenly, the rum becomes sweeter and lighter and the cigarettes are transformed into medicine.

"We are gonna go for a walk. I am gonna take you up the mountains and sit there for a while".

I was so numb and tired. I didn’t answer him. I just looked at him with my heavy eyes and looked down again proceeding to drink.

"Since you asked we are gonna go there. We go there for training and meet Alex as well. He is gonna be of great help to us. He has a cabin and tools as well as books".

We left our drinks and started walking.

When we started to walk the place around me felt so colourless. So dump. It felt like a very cold and lonely place that wanted to eat you.

"How are you feeling?" John asked. 

"I am alright" I said.

The most common reposne humans give to one another automatically because they want to hide how they trully feel.

"I understand that you lost your wife. You lost your life everything you had and who you were. But try to live a little. Revenge, Death, suicide, sacrifice. Whatever the reason might be hold on to it and try to live. Even if it’s her memory".

Suddenly the forest around me took some colour. It wasn’t so grey.

We kept making our way into the forest.

I thought to myself who would Alex be. What is his story and what am I gonna see and read. What kind of tools, I asked myself.

I would soon find out a lot more stuff I never imagined existed.

                                                 The hut and Alex

When we started hiking to the hut the sun was starting to set. But there was still light. When we reached the cabin it was dark and it was pretty late. Suddenly, you could feel the forest coming to life. That empty and lonely, stlightly terrifying, feeling you got during the daylight, got ten times worse. This time the only thing that was different was that you felt the forest alive. You felt like you where watched and that you where the odd one out. Any minute and something will come out of the shadows to attack you.

"You are conscious of it. That is good"

"How did you know? I litterally shit my pants".

"It is written all over your face that you are a stranger and you don’t belong here". He laughed a bit.

"Always respect the forest and never get in its way. You will slowly learn that it is something very much alive".

As we came close to the hut we could see a fire and a man sitting down with a cup of coffee. Clutching the cup with both of his hands. Suddenly everything around me froze and I could notice him more and more. He was a relatively big guy. He had short hair and he had a big beard. His face was round. He looked like a lumberjack. For a second there I saw a kind man beneath the cold and angry face.  The face that was filled with sorrow and bloodlust. 

I thought to myself that he must be a pretty honest and straightforward guy.

In that split of a second I saw so many emotions being painted at his face.

We went and approached him. Sat down together in the fire. He gave us a cup of coffee that he brewed and he started talking and sharing stories.

The place he sat on was close to the edge of the cliff but there where many trees around that hid it. The unique thing about that moment wat that the moon was up. Its silver lighting was casting down on us. The fire next to us and a small hut on our left.

I was suddenly interrupted by John's words and his chuckle.

"See" he said, "you can learn how to live again. Just like now. Slowly".

Alex looked at me and nodded as well.

" It is not easy but you can see us something like a family".

John's face went serious.

"Not something. We are a family and a strong one at that".

Author: Jimmy Novak