The Omni-Gods:Genesis part 3

"O'man, this can’t end good.” I said aloud as the wolf approached me slowly testing, judging where to attack to do the deadliest effect.

Just as cautiously as the wolf was determining how to kill me I took two steps backward away from it never taking my sight off it, leaning to pick up the good sized stick next to my right foot, though I wondered how I knew it was even there. The wolf noticed what I was doing and realized what I planned to do. Taking the preemptive strike, the thing lunged at me as though not only was its size mutated but its intellect too.

Fear and adrenaline hitting me at once, in one swift motion, I abandoned my previous idea by instead placing my right palm against the ground lifting the rest of my body onto it swinging my left foot into the razor sharp jaws growing ever closer to me. The second my feet had firmly returned to the earth I shot off running in the first direction I faced not caring where it led so long as it was away from the giant bear sized dog.

As I ran I couldn’t help but wondered if this wolf had found me due in some way to the old man. It did appear right after I had returned to this world from my own consciousness, another plan of existence, or whatever that prairie was. Was this in fact a kind of test? If so, a test for what? Was I actually supposed to fight that massive sized wolf?

Alright, I’m not stupid enough to fight that thing. I thought willing my legs to go even faster.

I suddenly realized that I could no longer sense the wolf, again with that odd word, somehow my mind had gained a new type of perception that I had yet to become conscious of and I was confident that it wasn’t just in my head. Unsure whether I had lost my pursuer or if he had taken up chase at all, I slowed down to a trot to check over my shoulder to see if the thing was behind me. Much to my relief there was nothing but empty wood, nothing was even astir. Still paranoid however I did a quick scan around to be absolutely certain I didn’t want that gigantic wolf creature to get me by surprise.

"Thank god!” I exclaimed exhaling the fear that had built up in me during the contact with the wolf. “Phew, that thing scared the piss outta me but, ha-ha, I guess that kick to its muzzle was more than enough to discourage it from trying again."

Howling with laughter at my own fear but also just as much to calm myself down from the encounter. I quickly stopped as a loud crunching sound erupted beyond the trees. Fear enveloped me again straining all my senses to their full extent attempting to determine the source of the noise as the wolf reappeared in a flash of motion so fast it screwed my eyes up just watching it. It land sideways in an amazing posture grabbing onto a tree’s trunk with its over sized claws to steady itself before leaping to the next one.

"Ohh, shit!" I cried twisting forward again almost tripping over a stray vine, that stretched in front of the small path that I followed, in the process.

With renewed vigor, I took off even faster this time, resuming the act of “running my ass off”. I sped between tree after tree their low branches scraping my exposed face and neck while the plants and spiked stubbed vines around the trunks dug deep into my shins. My short Tripp Underground pants only came down just below my knees, the lower pant legs could be unzipped an taken off and I had chosen that fateful day of the lightning storm to wear them as shorts. So the pants I wore didn’t come down far enough to protect them.

I think I might have ran into a spider web at one point which at any other time would have induced my arachnophobia but right now I was more concerned about what would kill me and not what could. Even though littler things caught me off guard things which would have tripped me or knocked me unconscious if I ran into them; I dodged as if I knew they were there. It was as if my ability to react was no longer based on eyesight alone but now depended instead on something of a higher extrasensory perception. Yet no matter how gracious or how fast I moved the wolf gained on me still. The loud bang that it made as its heavy body and claws connected with hard wood was no longer a distant pound but rather it was all I heard blocking out every other sound. Sometimes causing me to go deaf, with a pestering ring, for several seconds at a time.

I knew it was no use. If the thing could keep such a constant speed up it was a when I ended up dead not if. I had to out maneuver him somehow. Out smart him. I thought to myself. Before I had a chance to think of any simple or complex strategy on the idea a loud sharp shriek ripped through my mind. It began screaming at me to duck sideways to avoid the oncoming fangs of the wolf.

I was so surprised by the command that I missed jumping over a large fallen branch. I tripped and toppled head first into the dirt as an intense blast of hot moist breath slapped the back of my neck followed by a cruel snap of hard bones slamming together after failing to latch onto their target. Leaning into the fall I rolled onto my back then springing up on my feet in a crouch position, looking at where the wolf had gone off to, on the ready to evade.

Absorbing the layout of the clearing I noted the structures that would help me to lose this foul creature although my eyes weren’t what described these details but my new found sixth sense which made all my other senses lame in comparison. Not only could I see the landscape but I felt what made them up down to the smallest atom. This extrasensory perception I found just then originated from my mind it was as though my physical body no longer encased it for it now seeped through every fiber of my being, expanding beyond it touching every living and non living element within a 360 degree region all around up, down, behind, in front, and to both sides. Becoming confident with my new sense I started to explore every aspect I could like a new born was having their first chance to discover the world around them.

I found that if I concentrated in one direction only by narrowing the width of my psychic field I could extend its range by that much allowing a more flexible field of vision compared to sight and more detailed than hearing.

I could get use to this! I thought giddily excited by my profound new ability.

Extending the range of my psyche I found the beast in a crumpled heap it seemed a sharp stick had embedded itself into the dogs shoulder. Sighing in relief I thought that with an injury like that the wolf would take off to a safe spot to lick its wound. Instead, again, I had sorely underestimated the will of the monstrosity as it decided to pull the stick out of its own body with its jaws.

Is this thing even a wolf at all? I wondered fear retaking its position in my mind while the wolf stood up turning directly toward me. That size and abnormal abilities it was quite possible to be an entirely different species all together.

My mind went off again screeching at me to move as the wolf sped to my left faster than I could flinch. The wolf’s fast moving body made the ground shake with its massive bulk, it was like a living freight train. I had let my guard down then again who knew a dog, especially one of this size, could move fast than a Lamborghini. Its fangs bared in anger while it reared back, still sliding from the momentum of its run, on its hind legs freeing its front paws so it could swing its massive left paw at my skull to decapitate me.

No time to dodge! I realized in dread eyes widening from shock and terror.

Then to my astonishment and wolf’s, in turn, instead of trying a vain attempt to physically move I instead, or rather, my mind expanded a psychic field of energy not much bigger than my fist and with a grunt of effort pushed out which in turn sent the wolf flying away propelled by a barely visible purple energy of some kind.

"What was that just now?" I asked aloud confused falling to one leg grasping my head in pain. The energy I had dispelled took a tall of energy from my body and left a slight ache in my brain.

The wolf, the damned spiteful thing, didn’t stay down for more than a couple of seconds. Getting up it looked ever more maddened so much that drool now escaped its gaping maw its eyes irradiating an even more intense blue that glowed with its anger.

"Damn!" I swore running the opposite direction of where the wolf sat grinning its humongous teeth at me.

Like before the wolf was hot on my heels, unlike last time, he had somehow gotten quicker or that leaping from tree to tree trick of his wasn’t as fast as I had assumed. Glancing back over my shoulder I saw the wolf running at me with cheetah speed moving from side to side in a flash that no matter how hard I tried I simply could not track with my eyes. Facing completely forward I saw I was leading myself head on into a tree and even worse to its right and to its left was a metal stubbed two to three foot high fence blocking any chance to dash to the tree’s side. Turning down either way was a no go the wolf was sure to get me if I did that running flat out in one direction was all that was keeping me distant from it but even then that had an hour glass to it, a very small one.

This is it I guess. I decided doing the only thing I could, head right towards the trunk of wood. Still in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but hope for a miracle to come save me.

Granting me my internal wish as I approached the tree my own mind, its instincts, knowledge, and power too much for my conscious to register acted as an auto-pilot, it stole over my bodily controls from me. Taking over it forced me into a leap landing sideways against the trunk both feet connected then pushing off sent me high into the air but not high enough to get clean over the fence. I thought I was going to get snagged on the top of the fence and then it would be all over with a painful crunch of my neck being snapped; when I felt myself go into a twist that saw my shoulder barely make the top of the fence. I came so close I felt a bobbed wire skim my shoulder. The spin also put me in a perfect position to see the wolf launch itself at me; obviously trying to catch me in mid-air like a dog would a Frisbee. This time I was certain my demise was soon to come, I was proven wrong again by, my own mind, as it retook pilot and swung us around knocking the bottom of our boots into the wolfs exposed chest, those fangs coming so close to my face it felt I would die, ironically, from my short stature. The blow forced him back the way he’d just flown. The excess force sent me into a back flipped, my stomach lurched from anxiety of landing painfully the wrong way but surprise was not in short supply today. I landed a bit roughly on my feet squatting a bit to absorb the leftover kinetic energy of the fall, I completed my fist back flip I’d ever done but had always wanted to try.

“Oh, nice!” I cried out, stunned in place momentarily.

Another growl sent remembrance and shivers down my spine wasting no time I snapped back to the present and spun on my heels to the highway that was now before me. I instantly noticed the lack of traffic going to and fro on the freeway. Then again who could blame people after all a killer lightning storm had happen on this strip. That should discourage people and if they weren’t then they were either insane, death seekers, or non-local commercial truck drivers, like the one coming down the freeway, I wasn’t sure exactly when as my flash didn’t have a time stamp to it although little help that would do as I had no way to tell time. The flash of the mental image was sudden, fleeting, but it was incredibly vivid. The detail of the semi in my flash was uncanny. I could stare at it all day and still not recite the appearance as clearly as I had gleaned from a microsecond mental scan I had just intercepted.

Unfortunately by the time I came to the highway it was empty not a single car, truck, or other type of vehicle occupied the deserted asphalt. Either the Semi had already passed, which meant I was dead or it was still some distant away, which meant I had to survive until it got here. The odds weren’t great that I’d live long enough to see the truck.

"Oh, great just my luck!" I breathed stepping onto the shoulder, bending over breathing hard to regain the lost oxygen to my lungs.

I didn’t get long to recover when another low growl signaled the wolf had already caught up. Turning I came to face the wolf-beast, readying my exhausted body.

"Don’t you ever give up?" I asked it in disbelief.

The wolf just continued its low hummed growl, not blinking for a moment, knowing it had its prey cornered but it was finding its prey wasn’t as helpless as it had thought. Even so if it was careful and patient enough all prey panicked. When they did that was when it was time to go in for the kill.

"Goddamn, I can’t win for losing!" I gritted through my teeth no matter if I ran I would only succeed in tiring myself out then I’d be helpless before the mercy of this beast. If I’m going out I’ll make damn sure I take this dog with me!

Mustering all the courage I had I faced the wolf clenching my fists before me, in the common fashion, to show I was willing to fight back. I wasn’t given another chance to rethink my decision as the mutt rushed me. My heart pounded a mile a minute and I had no idea what I planned to do against this carnivorous animal, who probably hunted things just as dangerous to him as he was to them, but as I already deduced I had nowhere to run. Letting out a cry of irritation, which I hoped might also intimidate him, I charged in turn at the wolf not wanting to just stand frozen to that one spot in fear until the wolf took the life from me.

We met a second later the dog swung its massive claw at me; that I dodged sideways from. The paw went wide in an arch slashing down into the dirt spraying earthen soil in a giant arching wave. I tucked in my right arm focusing every arm muscle to gain moment, as I swung, landing a solid blow to the wolf’s open torso. It had utterly no effect, on the wolf that is, but my knuckles felt as if I’d just snapped every finger on my hand at those particular joints. The beast didn’t give me a second to howl in pain before it retracted its claw and relaunched it in almost the exact same motion. This time I was unavoidably too close to him. Gulping in the pain with a fresh load of air, I Spun around, allowing that newly gained sense of mine to guide where my body should move and how based on its foresight; I blocked the wolf’s claw right at where its wrist should have been halting it from reaching my flesh. The wolf’s strength was too ferocious for my body to take the full force and the mutated animal swung me in toward himself, the path its attack had taken went full semi-circle back to its body. I believed it didn’t intentionally do it as he failed to kill me once I was close. I looked up as the wolf looked down and both of us had the same reaction. It may have been funny, if someone had been watching from a distance, if the dog wasn’t just about to kill me.
The dog stood on its hind legs fully erected up right, like an eight foot tall human it snapped forward narrowly missing the tip of my nose with its teeth as I bent backward, at a desperate and impossible angle, to avoid his mouth. I manage to avoid getting my face chomped on but its breath alone was killer.

"Uggh, goddamn that was sick!” I cried as I fell backward, clapping my hand over my mouth to stop from gulping down more of the toxic breath, losing my balance from my maneuver. I was practically gagging to death from the smell and couldn’t help the comment. “Two words, Tic-tacs, dude.”

The wolf’s nozzle contorted, in a very similar human gesture of anger, I didn’t suspect it understood the insult I knew it did. He wasn’t simply abnormally intelligent he understood human language. That raised several questions in me. Bearing its yellow caked teeth it let out a tremendous roar that felt to cause a minor tremor in the ground itself, his roar alone was that strong. My ear drums vibrated with such pain blood began to ooze from them, I clapped my hands over my ear lops to shield them but the roar was too powerful and loud that such a minor remedy was not going to cure my problem.

The giant beast leapt up aiming to come down on top of me and pin me down so his weight would pin me so to finally stop my movements and finish me with a death blow. I perceived his movements and rolled away in time, launching into the air from the ground tumble twisting onto my feet in an elegant display of my agility. The display cost me, with the dog’s physically abilities it was fast enough to react to any of my openings and that impressive show had made me predictable and vulnerable, and with the canine’s intellect, it didn’t squander the chance. I had made a mistake in a fight I should have lost long ago. The wolf rushed lunging into a wild air borne spine lashing out with its paw.

I was a motionless rock dropped into the middle of the lake I was caught helpless in the one element I could not utilize, air. For the third time, as I was learning, this was not the end. What was my mistake was my subconscious’s plan. Tucking into a small ball I was able to drift into a slanted angle then pushing out I bounced off his paw, using my own legs like a power spring. The kinetic force slung me in a small semi-circle; still I used this opportunity for a counter attack. I struck the mutts muzzle with the flat top of both my shoes sending it staggering backward dazed by the powerful blow. Taking the offensive drunk with pride I sped to the wolf, leaning forward before my feet had touched the ground, unleashing a furry of powerful blows to his head and torso. I kept hammering him not letting my speed falter for a second. I hit him with everything I could. Fists, elbows, feet, knees, even head butted him at one point. I did anything to push the dog back towards the freeway where I psychically knew, seconds from now, the bob tail would soon be coming up over the hill off in the distance to our left.

My all out tactic was working fine until right as we came to the yellow line that separated the shoulder lane from the actual road. The wolf happened to place its head into the trajectory of my left fist, not intentionally, but that didn’t stop it from biting down on it as it flew by the dog's gaping mouth. His jaws would have sunk into my soft forearm if the leather studded metal wrist band hadn’t been covering it; preventing the beast from sinking its diseased ridden fangs into my arm. The wrist band material wasn’t strong either so it must have been a shallow bite. Realizing that his grip wasn't very strong, the wolf, dug its claws into my triceps and shoulder trying to get a better hold to naw on my arm with. Allowing blood to spill from the newly opened wounds. Utilizing its insanely strong neck muscle it lifted me up, using only its jaws, and swung me in a wide circle. With its abnormal strength it flung me into the same lane as the now appearing big rig, almost yanking my arm from its socket in the process.

Rolling to a painful stop I propped myself onto my elbows turning to look at the eighteen wheeler as its flood lights fell over me. Blinding me for a moment until my eyes adjusted to the bright high beams. The vehicle was close enough that I could see the entire exhaust caroming from it like a polluted cloud. The front grill sped at me greedily wanting the life death had been robbed of from that deadly storm, like a twisted metallic road raged grim reaper.

A murderously victorious roar snapped my attention back toward the wolf as it lunged from the safety of the shoulder lane, its beady psychotic eyes mirroring its desire to tear me to pieces. I leaned back against the pavement shutting my eyes not wanting to see what killed me first. No sooner had I closed my eyes I felt a tremendous amount of strain cause my head to split in two, or at least that’s what it felt like. It was as if my mind had placed itself between two gigantic doors to prevent them from closing. The pain was monumental too agonizing to bear.

Is this what death is like? I wondered finding it felt wrong on how it only pained the mind and not the body entirely. I refused to open my eyes, as though opening them would cause the big rig to suddenly plow into me or the dog to bite my throat out.

After about thirty seconds of nothing I was for the millionth time that day, it seemed, to find my subconscious self had yet again bailed me out of a hopeless situation. Upon reopening my eyes, I immediately saw that the mutated wolf had somehow been frozen in mid air. Its maw still apart, ready, to accept my throat and my life. He looked to be suspended by some kind of invisible force. Turning in the direction of the truck, it looked that it too had found itself frozen in mid-motion. The driver's shocked expression unmoving as he was apparently attempting to turn while at the same time pressing on the brakes attempting to miss hitting me, not that it would prevail.

This day just doesn't let me down. I thought. Getting to my feet and running around the wolf, moving out of both its way and the metal beast’s that was being propelled at a stalled 64 miles per hour. As I passed the wolf time resumed to normal only now the truck found itself hitting the wolf in my place. The dog got out a single surprised yelp before death’s grill ripped it apart, splattering blood and other internal stuffing across the truck's hood and highway pavement.

"Road kill!" I sighed hysterical that I had survived that encounter despite the odds.

Seemingly quite satisfied with its replacement; the bobcat came to a screeching halt. The cab driver quickly jumped out coming around to greet me still uncertain what had just transpired.

"Holy shit!" He announced. "Wh... What just happened?"

"That’s a good question." I admitted but before I could explain further I was hit by a sudden wave of fatigue and blood loss.

"Hey, kid, are you hurt?" The trucker asked. A stupid question as he was in clear sight to see my bleeding wound.

The loss of energy did not even give me the time to make one of my reputable sarcastic remarks.

"Crap!" I swore before I passed out, falling hard onto the cement.

Chapter 4: The Vampire

Vincent

The truck jolted hard as we drove onto the entrance ramp to the hospital. In an instant Kevin and I saw that the hospital’s parking lot was full of various automobiles of all makes. Apparently this wasn’t the only search team to have found some wounded. I spotted the hospital’s entrance sign as we drove past it which read: St. John’s. I felt like I ought to know that name that it held some sort of significance with my past. Unfortunately it was lost in that same void that held the rest of my memories.

“Finally!” I exclaimed relieved, forgetting the sign.

“Ready to go home?” Kevin asked.

“Not really, I mean, I still can’t remember if I have one to go to.” I replied. “The smell of blood is getting to me.”

“Oh, well I can’t.” Kevin said. “I could use a nice hot bath and a good comfortable bed.”

I silently agreed to that. My skin felt like it was covered in oil and the smell was worse. I needed a bath bad but I felt I needed sleep more. I was already exhausted although I had woken up just a few hours ago for the first time since, as far back as I could remember, and yet the body was demanding sleep and the mind was in agreement.

For the first time since I’d awoken the truck came to a stop. The two men I had not met until now piled out coming around to the truck bed. As they came around they both looked to be as beat up and aged as the rust bucket of a pickup they drove. Both looked to be country farm types, I.E. Rednecks, one wore a torn red-blue checkered T-shirt and mud covered blue jean overalls that strained to hold back the bulk of his belly. Meanwhile the other one was tall and scrawny and he wore blue jean coat that hide his shirt beneath while wearing a pair of faded black jeans.

“Hey, you’re, finally conscious!” One of them, the one who had been the passenger, pointed out seeing me sitting up.

“Ya, imagine that.” I replied sarcastically with a great yawn.

“He’s got memory loss though.” Kevin told them.

“Oh, sorry to hear that.” The truck passenger said.

“Hey, Kevin, mind coming with us to grab a stretcher and a doctor?” The other cab occupant, the truck’s driver, asked.

“Kid, would you mind watching the hurt man while we’re gone?” The truck’s passenger, the scrowny one, asked spreading out the words like one did to a five year old.

“I have amnesia not retardation, ass.” I snapped at him. The man was taken aback by my outburst looking confounded.

“He still remembers the basics.” Kevin cleared up for the two cab occupants leaping over the side of the truck to the parking lot cement.

The three of them walked away while I slumped back against the truck railing. On guard duty for someone who was already a corpse by the looks of him. Seriously, how many people survive being impaled and having their limb amputated, not many to be sure. This guy had to be one stubborn man to hold on in that condition.

I wasn’t exactly watching the corpse as I sat thinking but I jumped, suddenly, when I heard someone speaking in a low whisper near me. Believing someone was playing a trick on me I glanced around suspicious that one of the three men in Kevin’s party had returned. I found no one around everyone was inside the hospital. The parking lot only looked packed but it was absolutely deserted, with the exception of me and one dead guy. At least he shouldn’t be conscious.

Curiosity got the better of me and I slide over to the body covered up by the sheet. Once I got close I noticed that the man’s chest was moving up and down rhythmatically, so he was actually still alive and breathing. I had immediately thought him dead but it turned out I was wrong.

“H..el..p…me.!” The man suddenly spoke just audible for me to hear.

I leapt back, astonished, the guy wasn’t just not dead he was even conscious! I regretted letting my emotions get the better of me because I had backed into the guard rail, hurting my neck. I shook my head to get rid of the pain and the forming headache. I crept closer to the injured man wondering how anyone could have such resolve; either that or he simply wasn’t human.

“Kid, stay away fr..fr..om that, man.” The man had to choke out. He was obviously having great difficulty just speaking.

“Look I think you should be saving your strength until the doctors have a go at you.” I advised him.

“It does not ma..ter..h..e’ll never…l..let me live.” The man wheezed. He seemed content with the fact that he was going to die.

I felt sudden sadness for the man. He was trying to warn me of some opposing danger with his very last words.

“The V..Vampire Council wants…m..e..dead, th…ere’s naught to be done for me.”The man sputtered. “They sent for me with an assassin. I failed my f..friends, forgive me.”

“Vampires?!” I repeated the word he had uttered. “They don’t exist!”

“Heh, the ignorance of youth.” The man laughed then let out a pained groaned. “But there seems an aura surrounding you. I have but one last gift I may depart to this world. Child, if you would humor a dying man,”

With enormous effort the injured man used his remaining arm and strength to pull out an object from beneath the sheet and hand it to me. It was an intricate metallic circle with a very exotic design, which looked to be a pentagram of some kind. I had a nagging feeling that the man was into witch craft.

“Draw that design on my palm.” The man requested holding his hand open to me.

“What?” I asked stupidly. I had heard him perfectly but it was the oddest request I had ever gotten especially from a dying person.

“The…er..’s a knife in a scabbard attached to my left leg. Reach it for me, it would be difficult for me in this condition seeing as that was the arm that got ripped from me.” The man coughed. “Damned creatures have no reserve.”

Hesitantly, I did as he asked and pulled a small old but beautifully preserved knife from the holster on his left boot and held it for his next command.

“Cut, with the knife, the design onto my right palm.” He told me. “The matrix must be paid with the blood of the user.”

“The hell?” I asked reaching the end of my patients. This guy had to be insane.

“Do it!” He roared angry at me for wasting his precious last moments and received a fit for his outburst.

I’m not really sure what made me obey but I found my own right hand move forwards without consent from me and slowly, almost expertly, craft the symbol onto the man’s palm, whom I realized I didn’t even know the name to.

The man grimaced but did not cry out then as though reading my mind he replied. “Do not fret. You’ll know all about me in a moment. I wish there to be an easier path but mine has never been one of that.”

He brought his palm to his face and I felt my body be released back to me. I was confused but oddly not frightened by the experience. The man looked to be inspecting my handy work. Satisfied he turned his freshly engraved hand back to me.

“Sorry to do this to you.” He apologized for the act he was about to commit. “I don’t have really that much choice, though.”

He pressed his palm flat against my forehead, the blood from his wound slide down my face around my eyes. I tried to move away but again I felt control of my body was no longer my sovereignty. I was frozen in place against my will. My vision burst to white then was flooded with decades of memories. All of them of the man that had lain before me, the one I had thought was dead the instant I had seen him.

His name was Oliver Cadence. He grew up on a farm in Romania during the seventies with his large family of eleven. He had never known the supernatural; the pros of normal society and technology alone were a rarity in the Romanian mountain range where he had lived. Then one day during his sixteenth summer coming home after exploring the mountain’s woods, as he normally liked to do when he had enough free time, he walked into the home he had known all his life to find that his entire family had been butchered like animals in the time he had spent in the woods. The family house was splashed in red. Everyone he had ever known had been ripped apart. None, not even his cousin of only eleven had been spared.

Oliver went for his father’s gun rack instantly; his father had scorned him constantly never to touch a gun without his expressed permission. Uncaring of his own life he ran from the house in an angry tearful furry. He had tracked many animals before but when he got outside he could find no trace of anything, human or otherwise. No one had even managed to make it outside.

Oliver was so frustrated he ripped the gun in his hands apart like flimsy paper. He looked down at his gun powdered blackened hands in sheer astonishment. He had learned enough with working on a farm and with little study he had actually done that tearing apart metal with one’s hands was no easy feat. That was Oliver’s first experience with the supernatural world that, later, he would become so accustomed to, but was then alien. Oliver used the old phone in the farm house his family had kept for emergency uses and dialed what past for the Romanian town’s police department. He spent several weeks telling authorities and news reporters the same story over and over again, which wasn’t much.

Oliver spent the next year or so with friends before grief and the desire for vengeance set him on the path that would lead him to his family’s murderer. The courage for his decision came from the new abilities he was finding he had. Over time he studied and tested his abilities until he knew their limits. He found he could manipulate any earthly element: Earth, Wind, Fire, or Water. To extreme extents. He also found that he could read thoughts as well as manipulate them. He could even manipulate his own reasoning of physics to obtain extraordinary physical feats that had otherwise been impossible. There were consequences to pushing his body beyond human capabilities. Oliver eventually came to refer to his ability as Omni, as he felt he could do all things with his mysterous gift.

Over the course of the next five years things became foggy obviously Oliver was trying to rush to the important points of his life. He at least summed the years up for me. He started his life’s ambition of finding his family’s killer for his ultimate revenge until he fell into the undercroft of society which exposed him to vampires and in turn those who hunted them. His first encounter left him severely injured almost dead had not a group of vampire hunters saved his life. They took him in and taught him the tricks of the trade. This lead him to learning it was in fact vampires and their secretive group known only as the Vampire Council that were responsible for the death of his entire family. Now that he knew who his target was Oliver was forced to be patient until the vampire hunters could find and locate this council as their very objective was the same as his. They never found this council and many of their team died or simply left believing it was all just a ghost story or it would just get them killed until none of them were left standing.

Closer to present day in Oliver’s memory he was doing undercover reconnaissance in a private military company logoed as Nova Corporations. During that time he came into possession of knowledge that suggested the Corporations head was directly connected to this secret Vampire Council. Oliver’s memories came to a clear point in his more recent life about a couple of weeks ago. This was a very important moment. Oliver was hacking into one of his fellow co-workers computer; I must have missed the time in his memory when he acquired the password. As he was looking up some classified company information at that same moment someone tried to use the door knob but was unsuccessful. Oliver had locked the office door just in case someone tried to walk in while he was accessing the computer files. Unfortunately he knew it wouldn’t work long and he had already scouted the room for possible exits. There was only one way out and with the co-worker being a suspected vampire it wasn’t the ideal escape plan. Now he had no choice as the door began to open. Oliver began to glance at the monitor screen to see the name he so desperately wanted but all I saw was Oliver’s arm outstretched to my forehead his eyes glazing over his life finally over on last memory flashed across our connection before it was severed. It was of a golden black branded placed on the door, the name of the one who occupied that very office. That occupant was now bowed over Oliver a nasty furious snarl spread over his face his hand drove into Oliver’s chest right where his heart would be.

“You!” I exclaimed my voice barely audible to my own ears. I hadn’t even suspected him but then again I hadn’t known vampires existed until about a minute ago. Kevin gave no reaction save the narrowing of his brow as his face contorted with anger.

“What the hell?” Someone cried from behind me and I found myself turn to look at the two men who had been occupying the truck cab.

They were being accompanied by a doctor with a stretcher for Oliver, who was now most certainly dead. Kevin had probably returned with them as well but vampires had supernatural physical feats. From what I gleaned from Oliver most could outrun 200 miles an hour on foot, faster than most cars. To a human that would look to be like nothing more than a blur. Kevin put that speed on for show at that moment allowing me to see the horror of it firsthand.

He speed appeared just as Oliver’s memories showed me nothing of Kevin’s body was visible as he ran from the truck’s trailer bed to the group several feet away in a fraction of a heartbeat. None had the chance to move or react. Kevin spun behind the scrawny redneck, who I realized had pulled out a gleaming new six shooter revolver with an overly long barrel. Leave it to rednecks to always have a gun at hand even if they never get a chance to shoot the damn thing.

Kevin bit down into the man’s main neck arteries. Using his elongated vampiric teeth to dig and tear them rather than penetrate to get access to the warm red liquid his kind survived on. The color crimson rained down everywhere spewing from the man’s torn artery. I knew the human body only contained four litters of blood but the amount that spewed from the scrawny redneck looked to be several times that. At the same time Kevin spun the fat one, the one who had been driving the red pickup, with his left arm tucking his head neatly beneath his armpit before snapping the top of his spinal column effortlessly.

I sat watching mortified but unable to move. I was totally useless to stop the carnage all I did was gap, open mouthed, by what I was seeing. Even with Oliver’s memories of the times he had witnessed such atrocities himself nothing could prepare me for seeing it with my own two eyes. The doctor fell away from the gurney letting out a frail scream of terror. He quickly backed away stumbling, pathetically, back to his feet. He bounded for the hospital believing it some safe haven from this being that masked himself with man’s image, making two fatal errors; although it didn’t matter we were all dead, killed on this creatures whim. We were all going to die by this creature that had never existed for us until this one blood filled horrible night. One: He should never have glanced back; everyone knew not to look back, ever. Second: With Kevin’s speed making yourself small and invisible was the best and only option not running and screaming your head of like the prey you were. The doctor didn’t get five feet before Kevin ran his arm through his chest. The doctor went limp and Kevin cold and monstrous simply pushed the corpse off his arm and let it fall to the cement, no emotion showing on his face or in his cold undead brown eyes.

Now I was all that was left. Everyone else lay dead on the black parking lot cement, ironically, of the St. John’s hospital. Sadness for those who were dead gripped my very soul. They had died in vain for no particular reason save that this creature had desired it so. Something deep within my mind, or perhaps it was my soul, it mattered little as the rage built up inside me to the point I could no longer control it. Letting out a blood raged scream I leapt to my feet and jumped over the trucks side rail running directly at Kevin, all concern for my own life vanished with the lives of those men. Kevin barely glanced at me as he back handed me with that abnormal speed of his. The force propelled me back to the old rusted truck which I proceeded to barrel into with so much speed that the truck literally arched into a V shape from the impact while sliding several feet from its original resting point.

“I apologize, if you hadn’t learned of our secret you would not have had to die.” Kevin apologized nearly sounding sincere. “This was a fate neither of us could have escaped as Oliver could not escape his.”

Kevin turned and started to walk away when I spoke to his astonishment. “Bullshit!”

“What?!” He exclaimed bewildered.

“A monster like you has no sorrow!” I declared prying myself from the wreckage. I felt no pain even with the large gash on my cheek from Kevin’s longer finger nails scratching me as he had back handed me. Somehow I had managed to avoid any injury from slamming into the truck.

I didn’t care at that moment all I could think about was ripping Kevin a part limb from limb. My body seemed unable to contain my mounting rage and thus began to grow and change to match the demand. I wasn’t self conscious to the changes my own body was beginning to experience but Kevin watch in total awe of the transformation. I was certain that something was happening to me as a severe tingling sensation exploded across my skin. It wasn’t painful or even unpleasant but it felt odd and extremely new to me.

My shirt let out a shriek as it started to tear apart, shredding as my chest bulged out as it grew beyond normal size and past the maximum width of what the poorly made fabric could withstand. My arms expanded until they were as round as miniature tree trunks. My fists were an equivalent magnitude of wrecking balls. Small protruding nubs, that resembled spikes placed on top of security fences, sprouted forth from my forearms. A pair of giant wickedly curved spikes shot out of the sides of my shoulders ripping the already devastated cloth barely clinging to my torso. The sudden growth eliminated my shoes and socks, luckily, my shorts and boxers where able to expand enough to avoid becoming shreds like the rest of my clothing. The shorts that had covered most of my lower body, half way down my shins, now barely clothed half my thighs hugging them so tightly that if I flexed even slightly I could feel the numerous threads that made up the cloth, snap.

By the end of the monstrous transformation I easily stood 10 to 11 feet tall and as broad as a city bus. Everything about my body had morphed including the hue of my skin which had taken a slightly bruised color of mixed purple and dark blue. My hair had even grown until it was long enough to reach all the way down my back. Everything about me now was different. It was as though my anger had taken on a form of its own, in the literal sense. I took the remains of the tattered shirt in my obscenely sized hand and tore it free from my chest that now boasted a set of highly developed abdominal and chest muscles. It was as though I had been through decades of heavy body building in just a matter of seconds.

“I must admit I’m at a loss for words.” Kevin conceded his face showing his bewilderment. “I’ve met several mutants but never any with such extreme abilities. You look just like some beast.”

“You!” I spoke somewhat surprised at my own voice. Even that, too, had been affected by my metamorphosis. My voice had a gravely sound too it along with a ruff deep texture my voice volume seem so much louder. “I will crush you with this form!”

I charged without another sound except the quakes that my enlarged feet created with each impact on the cement. Kevin stood stationary during my charge as though he was paralyzed by my ferocious appearance. I swung the tree trunk like arm of mine at Kevin when I got close enough. I felt the attack hit concrete creating a giant meteorite like fissure from the impact yet I knew instinctively that I had somehow missed Kevin.

“My, my, what brutish strength.” Kevin’s voice resounded behind me. “Had that connected I would have been reduced to gelatin but your speed is so sluggish.”

I spun around launching another concrete shattering fist. Kevin seemed to glide over the trunk sized arm floating up to level with me at eye level. He seemed so weightless and graceful something this new transformation was anything but.

“Good-bye, child, I have no choice in this matter.” Kevin spoke shaping his hand into a dagger then struck out in a high speed thrusting it at my neck to sever its main artery.

I made a conscious attempt to tell my body to move but by the time I had even realized I should Kevin’s hand had struck home. His incredible precision was undoubtedly a byproduct of his state. In this instant, however, he wished he had missed the target completely. The velocity of which Kevin had struck with was meant to have a clean cut effect but he hadn’t imagined that the skin of the transformation would be stronger than metal. Speed only helped if it was possible to cut through the object because if it wasn’t one's very speed could back fire. And it hurt like hell when it did.

Kevin fell away; even he couldn’t defy gravity, landing on my outstretched arm before leaping several yards back. His final blow only had ended with him injuring his right hand. Milky white smooth bone protruded from most of his fingers as the force he had implied required one faction to break. Since my skin would not give Kevin’s bones had to.

“You are just full of surprises.” Kevin growled pushing the exposed finger bone back beneath the skin. His skin then proceeded to heal over the wounds at a highly accelerated rate. “Killing you won’t be so easy, I suppose.”

“Ai, right back at you.” I growled.

“I must confess I’m an assassin not a fighter. To say the least this isn’t my forte’” Kevin shrugged. “I believe retreat is in order.”

Kevin saluted me and began to turn to leave again. I felt the rage inside me rise higher; it would have none of that. It wanted to kill Kevin here and now. It refused to be denied.

Glancing around I searched for any loose object I could use as a projectile. Setting my eyes on a good sized chunk of concrete next to a large boulder I reached out for it. Thinking better of it when I became aware of the size contrasted with my giant hand. It may have been big when I was shorter but now it was more like a pebble. The boulder next to it caught my attention. I grasped it with both arms uncertain of the new limitations of my strength. I was astonished by how easy it was to pry it free of the ground and how weightless it felt. I defiantly had herculean strength.

Lofting the boulder over my head, I thrust it at Kevin yelling at him. “Like hell you will!”

Hearing the scream of the boulder as it traveled through the Texan summer air, Kevin turned around almost lazily, assuming he’d have plenty of time to dodge with his speed, only to find the boulder right before him. Objects I threw were not as restricted as I was, especially with the amount of physical kinetics I could put behind them. Kevin was caught behind the ball of rock as it persisted to smash into the vehicle beyond. The boulder sent its kinetic force into the car and the two objects slide and rolled several yards, and hitting many fellow automobiles, before the momentum was spent. Once the car settled it was nothing more than a twisted metal contraption while the boulder had been shatter into several pieces, the biggest of which still rest atop the vehicle’s contorted frame.

“Amazing!” I gawked after Kevin. My new found strength was beyond imagination. Apparently my size wasn’t just for looks.

The remaining rubble from the boulder I tossed started to shake as if on its own then a drastic shove of force revealed a badly crushed Kevin. He slid off from the vehicle he had landed upon, which consisted of two mingled together. Kevin dropped to his feet staggering slightly, it was obvious vampires too had their limits.

“That was slightly unexpected.” Kevin huffed having problems breathing. The eternal damage he had taken may have been more severe than what was visible on the outside. I saw my opportunity and decided to act on it. I was going to avenge those who had lost their lives to this monster.