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The Hunter

(c) Alexander Gray, 2001

This story maybe freely distributed as long as this section is also
referenced and the author is quoted.

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    A pair of dark eyes followed the slender form of the young dancer
as she moved about by herself on the dance floor and two lips slowly
pulled back in a taut smile. The young girl had caught the watcher's
attention as soon as she had entered the club. She had the appearance
of a nervous teenager, uncertain and innocent. The aura she projected
was of someone out for their first night in the big city, an aura of
freshness that was unusual in this day and age. The figure had
continued to watch the girl as she had moved hesitantly through the
crowds of people and slowly made her way up to the bar. Some of the
nervousness that she must have been feeling showed in every step that
she took, and the way she looked defensively around as she ordered her
drink made the watcher smile even more.

    The roaring music abruptly stopped and the watcher shifted
slightly as its eyes followed the slender form of the girl as she
slowly stopped dancing. She stood for a moment looking even more
uncertain. As a newcomer with no companions or friends, the watcher
assumed that she must have come here to try and find someone with whom
she could bond, but nobody bothered to even give her a second glance.
As the other dancers slowly left the dance floor the girl became even
more uncertain of what to do next. She was obviously someone who was
used to having the company of friends and here in this situation all
alone she had no idea of how to act.

    The watcher's smile widened. Perfect... She was perfect. She was
like a flower blooming in the desert this night seemed to be, with
it's paltry offer of more of the same pathetic human trash the watcher
had been forced to content itself with lately. The presence of this
girl was an unforeseen treat that made the watcher shiver with an
unnatural excitement. Leaning forward, its eyes followed the girl as
she slowly withdrew from the dance floor and returned to the small
table where she had been sitting and nursing her drink for the last
half hour. In some ways the watcher was surprised. The girl was
attractive, young, and alone. Usually such a combination would have
had the human wolves that sought such flowers drawn to her like
predators to a tasty lamb, but absolutely no one was interested - odd.
The watcher slowly drained its glass and curiously reached out with
senses that no human possessed and "tasted" the delicate aura that the
girl had. As it did so the smile on the watcher's face gradually
changed into something much more bestial.

    Untouched.

    The girl was as innocent as her uncertainty seemed to suggest. The
watcher hissed as a surge of dark hunger passed through its body. She
_was_ perfect.

    After so many weeks of having to make do with filth, the feeling
of excitement that came from the thought of that unpicked flower
sitting such a short distance away was intoxicating. The watcher
almost licked its lips in anticipation, but with a control that was
born from many years of experience it simply let the smile on
its face fade away as it sat back to wait. The girl had been here for
almost half an hour now and during that time she had been completely
ignored. From the way she was looking so despondently down at her
glass and fidgeting the watcher surmised that the bravery that had
first bought her here in search of someone to talk to was rapidly
beginning to disappear. It would only be a matter of time until she
realized that whatever she might once have been in the past, at this
time and in this place she was nothing. Just one of a countless
infinity of people - faceless and meaningless. And the watcher knew
that when that realization finally came the bright flame of courage
that had first brought the girl here would fade and then slowly wither
away. All the watcher had to do was wait.

    The long minutes crept past at an infinitesimal rate and the girl
seemed to be getting more fidgety all the time. The watcher looked on
amused as the girl's eyes swept over the tables nearest her and
lingered enviously on those groups of friends who were warmly chatting
and laughing together as they shared in the joy of each others
company. The lost, hurt look reflected in her eyes seemed to be
begging for someone, anyone, to come and talk to her, but she was just
one lonely soul in a city that was full of lost, lonely souls and no
one cared at all. This girl could live or die and no one would either
notice or care. The lost look on her face showed that she had not
expected this simple fact of life to apply to her as well. The watcher
gave a small sigh of joy. Oh, she was just what it had been waiting
for - absolutely perfect in every respect.

    Finally, after what seemed like an age, the girl's nerve and hope
broke, and with a set of rapid movements she scrabbled together her
things and hurried for the exit. The watcher grinned in excited
anticipation as the thrill of the hunt honed its senses down to
crystal clarity. Rising gracefully to its feet the watcher quickly
followed after the hastily departing figure and fell back once more
into the familiar role of the Hunter.

    Easily making its way through the milling crowds, the Hunter
reached the exit of the club just in time to watch as the girl,
muttering in disgust at the rain, hurried off into the relatively
empty streets of the sprawling city. The Hunter paused at the entrance
to the club just long enough to give the girl a suitable head start
before it followed after her. The thrill of starting the hunt flowed
through every part of its being, and the Hunter wanted to savour the
sensation like a fine wine. This was the beginning of a ritual that
would become more intense as the hunt ultimately progressed. The
Hunter almost shivered in anticipation of the pleasure that would come
when the prey first realized that she was being followed. That simple
moment was when the first true thrill of the hunt began.

    Ahhh... Yes, the Hunter could almost imagine the girl's first
moment of uncertainty and then how that uncertainty would rapidly
change to dread as she realized what her fate was ultimately going to
be. Yes, that was indeed the true moment when the hunt really began.
Everything that passed before that one perfect moment was only an
appetizer for the feast of fear that was to follow.

    The girl hurried along the street slinking periodically into what
little shelter from the rain that she could get. The Hunter was forced
to slow its pace in order to maintain a suitable distance between
itself and its prey. It did not want the pleasure of the hunt to truly
start yet. First of all, it needed to get a sense of the prey that it
was following. It wanted something to remember her by, so that at
least something would remain of her when the girl was gone. The Hunter
almost laughed to itself as it considered how the girl would get her
wish of contact after all, just perhaps not quite in the way she had
originally hoped.

    The first thing that the Hunter noticed was how much the girl
disliked the rain. She seemed to be going to inordinate lengths to
stay dry, even though it was not really raining that hard. Another
thing was that the girl seemed to be able to move quite astonishingly
fast when she put her mind to it. She manifested this preference for
speed when she had to run across a particularly open piece of street
in order to reach the next available shelter. The Hunter found this
behavior rather entertaining. These mad dashes that the girl would
make added to the spice of the hunt. It was also quite amusing in
another way; the girl was so occupied with trying to keep herself dry
that she utterly failed to notice the fact that she was being stalked.
This irony made the thrill of the hunt even better and the Hunter
could not resist the temptation of upping the stakes. Slowly, very
slowly, it begin to close the distance it had up until now steadily
maintained between itself and its prey. But even with this change of
tactic it still took the girl another few mad dashes before she
finally began to realize the something was amiss.

    At the junction of one quiet street the girl suddenly stopped and
turned nervously around peering into the darkness of the night as if
she sensed that something was not quite right. The Hunter, temporarily
hidden by the position it was in, gave a small hiss of delight - at
last. Slowly, and with a deliberate precision, the Hunter stepped out
from its shelter and let the girl see it in its true form. Her
reaction was quite amusing. At first her eyes widened with shock and
then with horror as the Hunter let its naked desire for her show fully
on its face. The girl stumbled backwards and the Hunter shivered in
delight as the beginnings of the girl's fear flowed through it like
the sweetest nectar imaginable. The smile on its face twisted and it
stood watching her as it waited for her next action.

    For a moment, the girl simply just stood frozen to the spot, and
the Hunter could almost taste her disbelief at the sight in front of
her. It hissed at her, and the sense of panic slowly rising within
her was intoxicating. Slowly, deliberately, it began to cross the
street towards where she was standing. Slowly, oh so slowly, step by
careful step.

    From the way she stood like a deer trapped in the approaching
lights of a car, the Hunter realized that the girl was still unable to
accept what her eyes were telling her, and the Hunter was nearly
halfway across the street when abruptly the girl spun around and with
an unearthly scream fled. The Hunter's face split into an unnatural
grin and it giggled before following rapidly after the running
teenager.

    The girl no longer seemed to care about the rain but just ran as
fast as her legs could carry her. The rush of fear and the adrenaline
that the Hunter could sense pumping through her system made the girl
even faster than ever, but the Hunter had no difficulty keeping up.
It even started to slowly close the distance between them. As the
chase progressed the Hunter could sense that the girl's fatigue was
slowly beginning to overwhelm her as her human body began to protest
at the strain of the activity that she was forcing it through.
The Hunter obligingly slowed its pace as well. The prey was beginning
to get tired, and as the thrill of the hunt had just begun, it would
not do to exhaust the young girl just yet.

    The desperate chase continued for a few more minutes and the girl
was now beginning to wheeze and sob with fear as she madly looked
around for a way, any way, to escape the fate that she could sense was
slowly chasing behind her. The Hunter was forced to slow down even
more to compensate for the prey's weakening condition, and although
the thrill of the hunt was rushing through it like the rush of life
itself it had to acknowledge that the hunt was now coming to its final
conclusion. Soon the prey would be too exhausted to run any more and
then at last the Hunter could indulge in the prize that came of a
successful hunt. The very thought of the quality of that prize almost
made the Hunter push for that conclusion right there and then, but the
Hunter's long tradition of discipline held it back. Only when the hunt
was fully over would it at last be able to claim its trophy, and
although the Hunter knew that that final moment was only a few seconds
away it still protracted the girl's torment until the very end.

    The prey was stumbling now and barely able to maintain little more
than a wheezing walk. She was crying, and the Hunter could see that
she knew she was going to die. It smiled, the sweet sensation of the
hunt was coming to an end and both the Hunter and the hunted knew it.
The Hunter paused one last time as the girl collapsed into a pile of
garbage and with the last of her strength crawled into a small
alleyway - a dead end alleyway.

    The hunt was over.

    In a way the Hunter felt sorry, The excitement and thrill of the
chase was over. However, that sorrow did not last for long. Other,
more primitive pleasures now awaited it and the Hunter began to drool
as it shambled forward to claim its prize. And yet, with the very
first step that it took a sound began to emerge out of the alleyway, a
sound that made the Hunter stop and for the first time a look of
uncertainty crossed its face.

    The sound was that of amused giggling.

    The sound of it made the Hunter furious. The girl had obviously
gone insane from her fear, and that made her virtually worthless. How
could it get the pleasure it sought out of someone who was...

    "Oh, I really enjoyed that!" the girl suddenly said walking quite
calmly out of the alleyway and staring with an amused expression up at
the Hunter. "I haven't had that much fun in months, thanks!"

    She giggled, and then gestured. The alleyway suddenly began to
fill with the sound of faint twittering as _things_ started to move
about unseen in the small space. The girl smiled, and the twittering
sounds grew louder in response to her amusement. "Ahh..." she
whispered. "So nice..."

    The Hunter was lost for words and then it suddenly whined
pitiously as something akin to terror passed through its muscular
body. The girl's giggling began to take on a tone that was inhuman and
the Hunter abruptly tried to turn and flee, but...

    The beast could not move at all, the girl's eyes held it
completely entrapped. And instead of the lost innocent look that had
shown in them only a few moments before, they were now filled with
something that could only be described as pure, unadulterated
corruption.

    "A small question for you," the girl asked as she smirked evilly
up at the frozen figure flexing her hands in anticipation of the fun
to come. "When is the prey not really the prey?" She giggled and
without waiting for a reply took a small step forward. "The same time
that the Hunter is not really the Hunter; interesting, eh?" And with
that mad statement she merrily skipped over to the beast and began to
amuse herself with the spoils of yet another successful hunt.

                    *       *       *       *

    The figure's dark eyes swept the newcomers who had entered the
club and dismissed them as completely unsuitable for its purposes. It
needed a loner, someone who would not be missed. Someone who...Wait.
The figure's eyes narrowed and focused on the young girl who had just
entered the club by herself. A young girl, who looked around nervously
as if she was uncertain of what to do. The figure smiled - perfect...

    And so the hunt began.

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