Reaper

Extermination

The black duffel bag contained Vanessa’s special weapon. It was a twin nozzle flamethrower fitted with two mini fuel tanks. She mounted the weapon on her shoulder, attaching the fuel tanks with the help of harnesses, and pointed the nozzles towards the graveyard.

“Get back!” She cautioned David, before turning the knob which released the fuel into the conducting pipes. With a final squeeze on the trigger, the sparks ignited the fuel, unleashing a torrent of searing flames.  

Vanessa looked just like a crazed pyromaniac as she swept the whole graveyard with the cleansing flames, incinerating the clueless ghouls who were too busy feasting on the flesh. As the fiery deluge spread across the open ground, some of the ghouls tried to scuttle away, but the silver lining on the periphery prevented them from escaping. A few tried to claw their way back inside the ground, but she was quick to spray them with fire before they could get away.

Within just a couple of minutes, the graveyard had been turned into a raging inferno.  The fire devoured every ghoul it licked with its flaming tongue. As the flames raged inside the graveyard, the foul odor of burning flesh was blown into their faces by the rising wind. By the time the fires died out, only ash and blackened bones remained as the sole survivors of the hunt. The entire colony of ghouls had been exterminated successfully, but Vanessa knew the job wasn’t finished yet.

“How did you manage to get your hands on a flamethrower? Aren’t they illegal?” David asked.

“I built it myself. It’s a great weapon for burning through hordes of smaller monsters. Everything is fair game when hunting monsters. They don’t care about our laws, and neither should you, if you want to live long.”

Although it was clearly overkill, David was glad that the hunt was over. “I guess it’s time to report back to Mr. Ryder.”

“We are still not done here.” Vanessa unclasped the harness and held out the flamethrower. “This is where you come in.”

David had thought that all the ghouls had been killed and he looked at her with a clueless expression on his confused face.

“Mr. Ryder expects me to train you, so now it’s time for you to get in on the action. Take it,” Vanessa insisted.

He hesitatingly took the flamethrower from her and asked, “What do you want me to do?”

“Find their burrow. It’s where the ghouls store rotting corpses and give birth to their younglings. We must burn it down to make sure it doesn’t become the nesting place for another colony.”

“And how am I supposed to find it?”

“With your Reaper Vision of course. You can see and things which no ordinary human can. It’s time you learned how to use your abilities.”

David still had no idea about his hidden powers and felt unsure about the task. 

"Believe in your abilities and they will not disappoint you. It will take some time, but you will get used to it after a while," Vanessa nudged him along.

All of this felt unreal. Just a few days ago he was utterly unaware about the existence of monsters and spirits and now he was expected to find a ghoul burrow and destroy it. He felt both thrilled and nervous at the same time. Finally, he took in a deep breath and entered the graveyard.

During his time at the police academy he had learned a great deal about tracking criminals but he felt had very little idea about tracking monsters. All he could now was to trust his abilities. So he hunched down and started to look for any clues which might lead him to the ghoul burrow.

As he began examining the ash covered ground, he was in for a surprise. He quickly realized that he could distinctly make out numerous paw prints and drag marks on the charred grass. It didn’t take him long to figure out that he could even pick up the smell of decaying corpses which were buried deep underground. David's senses had become attuned to track down all supernatural entities. 

He followed the drag marks to where it led him far on the other end of the entrance. All the paw prints converged at this point on a grave with a broken headstone. The soil on top was loose and reeked of rot. David felt fairly certain now, that this had to be the ghoul burrow.

He began digging through the loose top soil with his bare hands and kept removing it from top of the grave. It didn’t take long to reach the coffin which had been chewed through. A deep hole almost a meter wide, led to the bowels of the earth. The smell of rotting corpses was so strong here that it made him sick.

“I think I have found the burrow!” he exclaimed aloud. Kicking away the few stones blocking the mouth of the burrow, he thrust the nozzles into the hole. As he pressed the trigger of the flamethrower, a wave of fire flooded the ghoul burrow, burning everything inside to a charred crisp. He kept going at it for a whole minute to make sure the flames had incinerated everything inside that hole.  

While David had been destroying the ghoul burrow, Vanessa was busy planting a silver cross into the ground to make sure no monsters would try to make this place their breeding ground. With the cross firmly jammed into the earth, she breathed a sigh of relief and looked up.

David had also finished destroying the burrow and rejoined her.

“Did you take care of the burrow?” she asked.

“I burned it down just like you asked,” he replied.

“That should be the end of the ghoul menace here. Our job here is done. Let’s get back to Mr. Ryder’s house.”

Having taken care of the ghoul problem, the pair headed back towards the car. It was already 7 pm and the waning moon was partially visible through the fleecy clouds. As they crossed an old oak tree, David suddenly heard the sound of something heavy landing behind them. He turned around in a flash, and Vanessa followed his cue.

In the pale light of the moon, they saw a terrifying biped towering in front of them. It was over 8 feet tall with patches of loose red skin hanging from its bony limbs. The flesh was barely hanging on to its bones. Its eyes were almost human, but with dilated pupils which had lost all semblance of humanity. It had a gaunt human face which looked emaciated through years of starvation and two rows of chiseled white teeth. Long bony arms ending in elongated fingers, with claw-like nails, jutted out from either side of its slender skeletal frame.

“What on earth is that?” David’s voice was dry with nervousness.

Vanessa opened her lips and squeezed out a scared reply, “It’s a wendigo!”