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"A caution or a
warning," An old guy playing poker behind me said. "Don't fall
asleep tonight, young man."
I turned around, and looked at him. "Why?" I asked simply.
"Those who sleep will never wake up, such is the curse of the
town."
"You got any proof about it?"
"It's just a kind advice, you can either take it or leave it."
I look around, all the red eyes staring at me, some of them
breathing hard with their chests. "Is that the reason why nobody
is sleeping tonight?" I asked. "Have you guys done an autopsy or
something on those who have died?"
Someone behind me scoffed, it was the clerk, with my plate of
soggy eggs. "I'm sure you city folks think that this is just a
little superstition game that we small town hicks play," He said
as he set the plate in front of me, a fork and a knife on the
side. "But don't say that we didn't warn you about it, we've
already buried enough of our own before we learned this lesson."
"Is this an epidemic or something?" I asked as I poked at my
eggs. "Have you got doctors checking them at all?"
"Everybody who have entered this town have died." The poker guy
behind me talked again. "Nobody have listened to our warnings.
They have all laughed at it just like you did."
"I haven't laughed at anything yet." The eggs tasted really
plain, with no salt or condiments of any kind. "Nobody can stay
awake forever."
"Exactly," the poker guy spoke with his gruff voice. "We wait
for the first one to fall asleep, before we all sleep again."
"What you mean?" I slip some more egg into my mouth.
"They only take a life per night," the poker guy continued. "So
once someone sleeps, we can all sleep afterwards without fear of
dying."
Eating my eggs, the hall was so quiet that I could hear my own
chewing. "So I'm thinking that you're all hoping that I'll just
laugh off your ghost story and sleep first, huh?" I talked with
my mouth full, such a bad manner, even for a medieval grunt like
me.
"It would help us sleep better at night." The clerk said with a
whiny voice.
Too bad immortals can't sleep, or I would have helped the town
get some nice dreams that night.
*
* * * * *
Reading the
case files that Lucifer gave me, the first Chosen was picked out
about two thousand years ago, a few years after the death and
rise of Jesus Christ, God's supposedly only son. The Chosen,
being the only one at the time, accomplished his goal of half a
million Mistakes in a thousand years, and by then, Chosens were
starting to risse in numbers, and more and more Mistakes were
converted by Lucifer to work for God.
For his wish, he became a normal human, and that's what he did.
He travelled a while before he found a town that he liked, and
in it, a girl he fell in love with. Being the farmer's only
daughter, the first Chosen inherited all the land when he
married her. They were both very much in love, and as we all
know, happiness does not last forever.
The girl died of pneumonia one day, and the Chosen cried. Hating
God for not helping him out for all the things that he did for
Him. Hating God for taking away everything that he considered
happiness. Hating God for all the things He didn't do.
But he still had his senses to pick out Mistakes, he still could
see their auras with his eyes. With that in mind, he set out to
find a way to resurrect his love, even if he had to sacrifice
his reward and become a Mistake once again.
In a little village, fifty miles south of his own, he found a
coven of vampires, Mistakes, and in a moment of sadness, joined
himself into one. That was the last thing recorded in his files,
and even Lucifer himself wondered if the wife was resurrected or
not through vampirism.
And as soon as I finish reading that, I felt something stop my
muscles from functioning, my eyes from focusing well.
Even my breathing was starting to shorten themselves.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw my room door open, and the
faces I've seen on the inn peek in, watching me. "Is he sleeping
yet? Is he sleeping?" Were the murmurs that I could catch in my
ears.
The inn clerk stepped forward and looked at me in the eyes, his
eyes still red in the dim light of the moon. "Sorry, stranger,
but we had to do it, as you know, nobody can stay awake
forever."
With words like those, you could easily tell what is happening
to me. "Just sleep, and God will take you in his arms." The
clerk said, as his hands moved over to close my eyelids. "May
you have a quick and painless death."
The eggs must have been poisoned, and me the great Chosen hunter
who didn't even pick that out till too late. Sorry's were
murmured by the rest of the people out there, murmurs that I can
still hear.
If I could speak, I would have told them that immortals can't
sleep, no matter what you do to us, we'll still be conscious in
the end. If I could speak, I would have told them sorry, for one
of them was gonna die tonight because of my insomnia.
*
* * * * *
When I could
move, the first thing I felt was the presence of Mistakes, lots
and lots of Mistakes. Even with my eyes closed, I could feel
some of them creeping towards me, their cold breath filling the
room.
I almost laughed at this, this is way better than air
conditioning.
And when I felt it against my skin, freezing up my nerves in my
skin, that's when I opened my eyes along with my triggers.
Shotguns don't do the job in the cleanest way possible, but I
doubt the inn will charge me for cleaning after I get rid of
their sleeping problems.
And before the Mistake could put her fangs on my skin, I shove
the barrel of my shotgun down his throat, and pull the trigger.
BAM!
And before the others know what has happened yet, I pull out my
other gun and shoot in their direction.
BAM! BAM!
It's a shotgun, so you don't really have to aim that well. The
spread makes the job easy, and those who aren't dead are usually
too wounded to avoid the second shots from my guns.
You could hear the exclamations from the other Mistakes outside,
the only thing you have to wonder about is whether they're
scared or pissed. If they're pissed, I might have to sweat a
little before they're gone.
I wonder if Lucifer pays overtime. He should, even if time means
nothing when you're an immortal.
Tossing the blanket towards the room's only entrance, I blind
the first Mistake that's trying to figure out what's going on.
BAM!
I gotta reload before the bullets run out.
And as I think about that, the roof breaks and falls, along with
two or three Mistakes, not too happy about seeing the corpses of
their friends or relatives.
Even from this close, with them just a few inches from my face,
I can't tell what they really are. They're all too dark skinned
to be vampires, too active to be undeads, and too fast to be
immortals.
Oh, yeah, their voices are also too rough to be sirens or
mermans.
Not that it matters, in the end, everything goes boom.
BAM!
One of them gets on my back, his fangs digging painfully into my
back.
Before he can do anything, I flip snap my shotgun open and the
leftover shells, still hot from the recent shots, jump out of it
and hits the Mistake on the face. That sudden pain is enough for
him to dislodge his fangs off my back, to rub with his hands
over the burning on his face.
That's the beauty with guns, you just need a second to execute
it into anywhere.
BAM!
Whether it's the Mistake's head behind you, or the crazy ones in
front of you.
BAM!
As long as you learn how to dodge them while reloading, you can
work wonders, miracles. Everything slows down so much when
you've done it for an eternity, every move seems so easy to
read.
BAM!
Maybe this is how God sees everything, just do it long enough,
and you're an entity in that movement.
BAM!
But then again, God did create us, so that gives him the upper
hand about the things and moves we do.
BAM!
And just like that, with a few thoughts in your mind, the entire
group of Mistakes are gone, splattered around the room, nice
little pieces of modern art.
Looking towards the other room, an aura of Mistakes is still
felt, and I still haven't seen the first Chosen around anywhere.
Nothing is ever as easy as it looks. |
