Sanctuary's Fiend

I stopped myself from scratching at my forearm. It didn’t really itch, my mind was just trying to wander. I couldn’t figure this puzzle out, so it was trying to find something to distract me. So I let my free hand sit in my pocket as I fingered the pen there.

I’d already been to the scene once, on the night after I met with Claire. And Tom. Tom seemed like a nice guy – we had chatted casually over lattés about our kids and about differences between England and the USA. Apparently he had enjoyed travelling around Europe after he left college. He’d suggested that I should go along to a baseball game with him and his wife. I’d felt normal for the first time in a while. Just a guy trying to make friends.

Anyway. The police hadn’t cleared things up then, but I still hadn’t been any closer to finding a clue. I didn’t know what I was hoping to find this time.

Everything was gone. I hadn’t seen the body, of course, but all the blood had been cleaned, and the rough, churned up dirt had been replaced with fresh grass. Nothing.

This wasn’t usually my role. I got sent in once someone already knew what it was we were dealing with, and told me how to lure it out.

I wasn’t part of that life any more though. Turned out that doing everything by yourself is much harder. What was I even looking for here?

I thought I had been on to something. I had a good feeling after meeting with Tom. We’d sorted out our children’s problems, and I just felt… positive. Like I was moving on. Actually getting somewhere with my life.

After three nights of searching every nook and cranny of Sanctuary, including getting this damn cut from an old bit of rusty wire lurking in a promising-looking underpass, I realised I didn’t know what I was doing.

I wasn’t going to blindly stumble onto a clue.

I turned away from the bench and looked around. It was a nice park. The weather was nice. The people were nice. Sanctuary was nice. I’d never felt more out of place, and didn’t know how much longer I could keep this teacher-act up.

I sighed. I had to keep it together. For Richard. The very unhappy and sulky Richard after last weekend.

I heard movement behind me. Not someone walking openly on the path, but someone sneaking from the trees.

Damn, they were quiet. My right hand went to the gun under my arm. I listened for a bit longer. Maybe they were just humans. Muggers trying to take what they want. In which case the gun would do. But maybe this was a monster. I slipped my left hand into my trouser pocket and felt the vial of Lyfe there.

I weighed up my options. If they were just humans, this would be a waste of a vial. But if it was the monster returning to the scene of the crime, then perhaps I was already too late. Better safe than sorry.

I hadn’t bothered to test it yet. I’d been putting off having to use the substance again. But okay, time for a field test.

I popped the top off the glass vial and drank it.

It tasted of… meat.

Copper and sulphur rushed into my nostrils.

I stopped myself from gagging.

Then it hit, and I remembered why I did what I did. Oh yes. This was me. Not that teacher. This felt right.

The darkness retreated, and I could make out every shadow. I could hear individual leaves rustling in the gentle night breeze. I could feel every muscle in my body tense in readiness.

Suddenly the near silent footfalls behind me were obvious.

But they didn’t worry me.

What worried me were two things. The first was a scent on the air. Something horrific. It was bloody, unnatural. The smell of putrescence. I’d smelled it before. A monster that I knew from personal experience could be the culprit in last week’s killing. A fiend.

The second was a pulling of air brushing my skin. As if something appeared where before there was nothing. A low growl from the back of a predator’s throat.

I pulled my arm back, throwing my elbow at the location the noise came from. My Lyfe-enhanced body moved faster than anyone would have been able to see.

My elbow connected with something hard that gave way beneath my strike. A lucky blow, I was sure. Anything that could appear behind me unnoticed as it had, must have been faster than me.

I saw three boys walking towards me. A girl and another boy were hiding in the trees in what would have been pitch black if it wasn’t for Lyfe.

And a… young girl, tumbling backwards through the air.

Before she landed I saw her face. Black eyes and fangs, with a pallid complexion.

With unseen speed I pulled my gun out of my jacket.

But… was that Johnny? It was! What was he doing here? And… yes, I knew the others as well. My students.

I looked back to the creature I’d hit.

Rel.

Just a little girl, with tears starting to well in her eyes.

Bloody brilliant. Here I was, hopped up on combat drugs, surrounded by my students. Imagining they were monsters. Great way to mold impressionable minds. Faster than the eye could see, I holstered my gun again.

‘Mr. Anderton?’ Johnny said, jaw hanging in disbelief.

I ignored him and moved to Rel’s side. I’d just hit a teenage girl as hard as I possibly could. I’d broken bones with less, and her head had just become intimately familiar with my elbow.

I leaned in to her mouth to see if I could hear her breathing.

Nothing.

Oh God, what had I done.

I grabbed her wrist to try and find a pulse. Before I could, she sobbed.

Oh thank God. Anyone that could cry was very much alive.

The putrid smell grew stronger. I needed to get these kids away from here before things got dangerous.

Johnny caught up with me. ‘Is she okay?’

He had just seen her literally fly through the air after being hit in the head. He wasn’t the brightest bulb.

‘Of course she’s not… well, actually, she does seem in better condition than I expected, yes.’

‘Why’d you hit her?’

I took a heartbeat to compose myself. ‘I thought she was going to mug me.’

The others caught up with us, including Ariel and a boy who wasn’t in my class.

’She’s only a girl.’

‘Well observed, Jonathan, but not only was I not aware of that since she presumably sneaked up behind me, but more importantly, girls can be dangerous too.’

Rel made a few mumbling noises, and tears rolled down her face. But still, the side of her head hadn’t been caved in, so I both thanked my lucky stars, and also made a note to point out to Claire that Lyfe didn’t make me strong enough.

Ariel knelt down beside her friend, and looked at me with worried eyes.

‘Don’t worry. She’ll be fine.’ There seemed little point in telling them that I had no idea why she wasn’t dead.

Footsteps from behind.

I whirled to see Erin. And again, that terrible smell wafted towards me. But it wasn’t her. She did smell… odd though, but I had no time to figure out why.

Rel gasped, and opened her eyes.

’Rel, I’m so sorry.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Erin said. ‘We’ll take her home.’

A group of helpless teenagers walking through a park on their own? That sounded like heaven for any monster. ‘No, no. I insist. I’ll escort you all.’

Rel mumbled something incoherent about her head.

‘You just take a few minutes to recover,’ I told her.

‘I’m afraid I really do have to take you all home now. As your teacher, I really can’t let you be out after dark so close to where…’ I gestured to the park bench where the killing had occurred. ‘Something like this happened.’

Again, Rel mumbled something, but this time about teachers. I really needed to get her checked out for concussion.

Ariel showed her phone to Jonathan, who passed on the message. ‘We shouldn’t just move her.’

‘That’s right. We can wait for a moment. At least until she stops mumbling. Let’s see how she’s feeling.’ I hoped I hadn’t caused some sort of brain damage.

An awkward silence set in for a few seconds, as presumably the students felt nervous around their teacher and didn’t want to talk.

It gave me a moment to appreciate just how shaky I felt. If Lyfe was like the previous formulas, then I really needed to work it out of my system, otherwise I’d have the mother of all comedowns when it wore off.

The putrid smell grew stronger, but I also noticed the scents of those around me. They didn’t smell… human. But the difference was faint. Barely noticeable even to my enhanced sense.

Their smells were clashing and I couldn’t tell who was who, but… no, I knew these kids. Lyfe must just act differently to what I was expecting.

I focused on the smells more as the silence stretched out.

My head jerked as I recognised one of them. It was unmistakable. I’d only smelled it once before, years ago on the other side of the world. Draugr.

But as soon as I’d identified it, it was gone. And the looming putrescence replaced it. Whatever that was, it was getting stronger. The Fiend was heading our way.

I needed to get the children out of here before it found them.

‘That’s long enough.’ They breathed a sigh of relief at someone ending the awkwardness. ‘I’ll carry Rel. Let’s go.’

And just as I thought I’d made a new friend in Tom. I didn’t know of many fathers who would take kindly to someone attacking their daughter. But my main priority was to get her back to her home and admit what had happened, so they could get her checked over.