T E M P E R A N C E WHEELER
in the end, everyone is aware of this:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxnobody keeps any of what he has,
The few people left in the store were in a panic- not that Temperance could blame them- and it was difficult to try to get everyone to stay calm and get anything helpful done. Requests that the people stay calm and help her move things to barricade the doors were met with panicked blabbering and hysterical crying. These people, it seemed, had already decided they were going to die, so there wasnāt much use trying to get them to do anything else. Wonderful, thought Temperance, I canāt move any of this on my own. The two middle aged women could have been plenty help, if they could stay calm. As it was, they were mostly just feeding off each otherās fear, and making Temperance feel more afraid than she had before.
She really felt as though she was getting a handle on things, when someone came crashing through the window. She screamed. The other women in the store screamed. There was crying. Temperance felt sure that this woman whoād come crashing through the window must be dead or dying. There was blood, and being hurdled through a window like that wasnāt something a person easily walks away from. Then she rolled over and got up. Honestly, that was more fear-inducing than the thought that Temperance had just watched someone die.
Tempe tried not to shrink back when the woman looked at her, but something about her was almost chilling. Every revenant or hunter Temperance had ever met had been so different (not that sheād met an abundance), and it was difficult to know what kind you were running into. She fumbled a bit when the hunter tossed her a gun, saying she doubted Tempe knew how to use it. Temperance knew the basics, but she wasnāt sure she could do any good.
Temperance didnāt have much time to catch her breath after the woman jumped back through the window (she thought it was a bad idea. The woman was already hurt. But she likely wouldnāt have listened to Temperance even if sheād given her the chance to speak out), shortly afterwards Temperance saw another wendigo jump up, presumably to the roof. āShit,ā She mumbled, more to herself than anything. That wasnāt in the plan.
Then the woman from before- who Temperance had let on the roof- came tumbling down, breaking a cart that was sitting there. It was stupid and impressive, but the wendigo followed quickly after, and before long the creature was on fire. Itās screams were probably the worst sound that Temperance had ever heard in her life, but the two people outside the shop (Temperance assumed they were both hunters, like the woman whoād been flung through her window. She had no way to be sure, but who else knew how to deal with monsters?) quickly took care of the beast. Temperance didnāt know much about wendigos, or what killing them entailed, but knowing that there was one less running through the town was a relief. She let out a breath she hadnāt known sheād been holding.
hello
whatās up?
M A N U E L CASTILLO
i felt a tremendous distance
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxbetween me and everything real.
Manuel had been on the road for a long time. Too long. It had been weeks since heād eaten a proper meal (meaning: not something heād killed and cooked up that was hardly palatable), and even longer since heād slept in a proper bed. He figured it was long past time he was able to properly bathe and wash his clothing. Maybe sleep longer than was typically considered acceptable. Needed some supplies, too. So heād decided: the next town he came across, he was going to stop in for a few days. He had been ignoring towns and people for the last while (read: most of the past five years of his life), he mostly found them to be distracting. It was almost as if he were afraid he would find a place he liked, would want to stay, put down roots again. This life was almost like a punishment he was imposing on himself, though only heaven knew when he would decide heād suffered enough.
The closer he got to the next town, though, an unmistakable scent filled the air. Wendigos. And during the day. That wasnāt in the plan. The idea that he could just change course and skip over to the next town didnāt even cross Manuelās mind: heād become a hunter, and hunting these things was what he did. It was what heād reinvented himself to be. There was no question that he was going to go on into town to help out. Besides, sometimes when you save someoneās life, you get a free meal out of it, and that was more than he asked for as a hunter.
He left his horse on the edge of town. He didnāt tie her up too tightly; hopefully, if it came to it, she would be able to get free and run to safety. Or to her death. Either way, she wouldnāt die tied up and completely helpless, which made him feel better about it. She was the only friend he had; with him on the long days, and cold nights. Good listener, too. Not much of a conversationalist, though. That was fine, though. She was really the only living thing Manuel ever confided in, told his worries to. She was also the last link he had to his life before monsters had torn his life apart. Miel felt like family, and Manuel would likely never be able to forgive himself if he knew sheād somehow suffered.
He heard the commotion in town from a ways off. It was the standard thing you hear during a monster attack, regardless of the type. Gunshots, screaming, crying, more screaming. It was strange, really, how you got used to the sounds of human suffering. Over time, it began to feel like just another day. At first, that had made Manuel feel guilty; but just like the horrors heād seen had stopped being shocking, the guilt faded in time, too.
He quickly took in what he could; there was a lot happening. Through the chaos, he noticed a few things: this town had a seemingly disproportionate number of hunters hanging around, and at first glance they seemed to have things under control. There was a bit of property damage, but being caught by surprise tended to end that way. But Manny knew that fighting just one of these things was tough, and could be exhausting. There was one, moving through the streets. The way it moved, Manuel figured it must be blind. It was sometimes hard to tell, but he would bet on it.