Please Rescue Me

3

3

Extended Family

Dimor

Before the hardening…

There was tension inside the room. It's palpable enough that I could take a pencil and stab through the fog of it, but I didn’t do that. I didn’t want to move. No one moved. The room is filled with living stones that barely breathe or blink. But there was a lot of staring.

Progenitor Adam sits on the most elaborate seat in the room. It was a throne for the oldest f*****g statue in the room. My great ancestor, who still lived and breathed—I doubt the former, but the latter even more so—looked like any other man on the street. But his dead eyes give him away.

“Why… are you here?” He sighed. The only sign he breathes.

Uncle doesn’t twitch. Just like everyone he is more stone than flesh, but unlike everyone, he is literally, slowly, turning into stone. The pews of the makeshift church of the clan were upholstered for our stoney asses. Not like anyone would complain.

Before the great show by a certain Werewolf Alpha to the public. The clan and other hunter clans were considered cults. Hence the whole new age church design. Thankfully my progenitor Adam doesn’t like any new age s**t. He doesn’t revere colors; he even hates white. Monotones and reds were the only colors he could stand. Something about his childhood apparently made him abhor color.

“Last I checked you’re the one who dragged me here” My uncle answered coolly. “Grandfather” he added like an afterthought.

Progenitor Adam raised his brows.

No one knows his name, at least I don’t. Apparently, you have to be of a certain age to know his name. In this room, being a hundred is still a child to them. How much more for Progenitor Adam. He was Stone Age kind of old, last I heard. To them, I’m just a minor character. Someone they aren’t even sure would live to their age.

“Seriously, you were once so promising.”

“You were once a wrinkly bastard. Changed your whole body again?”

The Clan Leader crossed his legs. Metal-tipped shoes with a scent that overpowers the whole atmosphere of the gothic church. The smell is a reminder of his other name. “Why did I ever choose you as a successor of mine?”

“Beats me”

“I’m giving you one last chance.”

“Fat chance then. I’m leaving.” He turned before snapping his gaze towards me. “You choose kid. Make sure you don’t regret it.”

Stoney faces looked at me, everyone sitting beside me or around me was somehow related to me, no matter how distant. Their gazes are unsettling and the idea of staying, even with the temptation of being trained as a hunter left a horrible taste in my mouth.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” I took my leather jacket draped in front of me and followed after my Uncle.

Before I could even close the church doors behind me, my uncle was barricaded with hunters that I didn’t know. In all honesty, I don’t know anyone in this place. I can count the people I know in this clan on one hand. That doesn’t really include Progenitor Adam with the propensity of poison. Everyone knows who he is, but he doesn’t really acknowledge anyone with the same age and rank as me.

The two hunters blocking my Uncle are older than me, around the same age as him, as age is an important part of the clan. The longer you’ve lived. The stronger you probably are. I had to crane my neck over the two tall hunters to see that there were hidden ones down the hall. Completely camouflaged in the old mansion.

“Where do you think you’re going?” The tallest one said with blue hair.

Uncle looked bored, but also impatient. He is running out of time. We shouldn’t have come here, but he let himself be dragged here by the Shadows. The clan's personal army.

“Where’s the redhead?” His lip twitched. “I heard she changed her name and face again.”

“Adam hasn’t permitted you to leave” The blue one insisted.

I clicked my tongue.

The sound echoed far enough down the hall that I knew how many of them were hiding in the background. It’s a number that would have daunted me if I was alone. Uncle’s index finger moved, but it was so subtle that it would have been unnoticeable with human sight, but I caught it in my periphery.

My body moved on its own. I brushed past the brunette blocking my uncle. He glared at me with much mobility in his body. Unaffected by the hardening. Seems like he found his anchor.

“you’re not allowed to leave either” He grabbed my shoulder, firm hand with a grip strong enough to break a human bone. “All newly awakened need to stay here for a century”

“Not really part of the clan” I hit his torso. Around his kidney, but that only loosened his grip to let my blood flow. His jaw set stubbornly. “You know that I wasn’t indicted.”

“You’re still of blood, no matter how far the family line you’re in” The blue one supplied.

A high-pitched whistle burst from my mouth. The sound looked like it aggravated the two, but they weren’t threatened.

“What’s wrong with your ward, traitor? Is he loose in the head like you?” Blue said.

“Michoff, you should know better than to underestimate the young ones,” Uncle smirked.

The glass exploded all around us. I would have breathed in some if I didn’t know what was happening. The brunette finally let me go as he whirled to face behind him, a hellhound walking towards us, leaving burned pawprints on the expensive marble floor.

So much for the expensive marble.

“A beast tamer?” The brunette scoffed. Glancing at me sarcastically.

“Karma really is a bitch.” Michoff said to my uncle.

I can’t help but smile. The hidden hunters were probably snickering behind their disguise. Not knowing how f****d they are. Beast tamers are the weakest skill to have, but my uncle told me I have a talent for it.

Hunters don’t like other living things other than themselves. Apparently, we’re an arrogant breed. Actual elitist and speciesist, if that’s the right term. Why would perfect beings want to talk to other imperfect beings? Imperfection seems to stem from stone as well.

Uncle looked bored again. bored of everything. All his stories about the clan is just filled with his boredom and the idea of eternity and leading a whole clan was even more life-consuming and tedious.

“That is a Hellhound” I explained. Their attention moved to me.

My hellhound is slowly padding towards us, stalking and growling towards the two hunters. Its menacing saber teeth protruded out of its jaw, and its fiery red eyes glared. He smelled of sulfur and a rotten corpse. The best at smelling blood.

“We know what a hellhound is, child.” The Brunette grabbed my arm again as he lowered his guard. Taking out a wavy dagger with the other. Readying himself for my hellhound that was inching closer. “They are nothing but dogs from the underworld.”

“No, this is my hellhound” I smirked. “beast taming isn’t the skill I’m good at. I’m actually just decent at it.”

“Listen to him Michoff.” Uncle c****d his head towards my hellhound. “I didn’t train the boy to be good at taming. I’m not good at it myself. The only reason he could control that one is because…” he raised his eyebrows questioningly at the two. “Fill in the blanks Michoff.”

Michoff’s nostrils flared. “No…that child can’t possibly”

“Oh, it is” I smiled.

Michoff’s face cracked. Showed a nervous façade as he glanced at my uncle, then me, and then to the inching hellhound. “you’re bluffing.”

“Why would we bluff? Think. Why did we let you take us here?” I tried to push the brunette away, but his grasp is firm.

My hellhound snarled at the sight.

“scared? You should let go of me, if you know whats good for you.”

“You’re lying” The brunette leaned towards me, our noses an inch apart. “It's not possible a child like you could ever have such a rare skill.”

“Do it then” I grinned maniacally. “I dare you.”

The thrill in my body couldn’t be replaced. I truly wished for this ignorant i***t to hurt me, to finally test my hellhound on a true Bonafede clan-made hunter. Not some random demon or bogeys we often hunt for in our search.

The brunette scowls in disgust. Fully convinced with himself. “I don’t think Hanzo needs someone like you.” he swung back his dagger behind him.

Then in a split second, my hound lunged at him.

One single bite. One drop of blood, and he screamed in pain. He drops to his knees and slowly, painfully, explodes into ashes in front of everyone. My hound’s mouth was still coated with slobber and his blood, a few of the ash caught in it.

What do perfect stones fear the most? A stone that could create something. A perfect weapon, but more than that they fear an imperfect being made by a stone. By a skill so rare that for a time, Adam banned it.

“Alchemy” Michoff hissed in disdain as he stepped back a few paces from us,

My hound situated itself in front of us.

My uncle glanced at my hound with mild interest. “A normal hellhound would just burn. But this one actually wipes you out of existence.” He looked subtly impressed. “Michoff I hope that boy wasn’t anyone important”

Michoff’s lip twitched. “you’re going to pay for that.”

“I will,” he took out his usual cigar and lit it up effortlessly while speaking. “Someday, but not now. Now, you’re the one at the end of the stick Michoff.”

“You know that was my son.”

He shrugged. “Son is stretching it, but you have a lot of sons.”

“He is one of my favorites.”

“Just tell us where the redhead is, and you won’t have to lose any of your favorites.”

“you can f**k me before I let you.”

I frowned. “Did he say what I think he said?”

“Yeah, he’s an i***t with modern slang.” Uncle let out the heaviest sigh I have ever heard from him. “Michoff loses a chunk of his brain every decade.”

“No offense. But I am bi” I raised my hand. “I can f**k you.”

“God, you’ve turned into such a horny s**t” Uncle murmured behind me.