Date: Unknown, 2008
Location: Secret
Not enough
I was waiting for him to awaken.
Deep in the heart of my territory, under nearly five kilometres of rock, this human would never again see the light of day. The cavern illuminated by the incandescent glow of the algae in the small lagoon there was more than enough light for my eyes, the human would only see the barest silhouettes in this place. That is until I wanted him to see more. My eyes narrowed as I stood there in the darkness, waiting for my prey to finally awaken. I had been stalking this prey for months. Months when the law failed to do what it was supposed to. I had learned everything about this mortal. Schedules, friends, family, fears; everything. I knew him as I knew myself. And once unconsciousness ceased to cloud his mind... I would use that to every advantage.
Closing my eyes, my mind moved back to the memories I held with you. I had waited... waited so long to fufil my promise to you. But the law has done nothing my love. The system you had so much faith in... it has done nothing for you. I swear I have waited, I have waited for it to avenge you. Please forgive me... I can wait no longer when justice is not coming to your aid. I kept my promise... I waited, I waited for so long. Oh my love I am sorry.. but I could wait no longer.
Opening my eyes, my silent words ebbing from my thoughts, I stared at the unconscious male. I had chained him up to a large stalagmite, his arms spread as were his legs, his feet almost five inches above the cold stone floor. His body was slightly built, a touch athletic but not someone who trained or worked out often enough to lose the pieces of fat that was on his frame. His hair was blonde, his eyes, ice blue, he weighed 152.3lbs and his height was approx 5'11'', only three inches taller than I but oh how I overpowered him. He had finished high school but because of his father passing was forced to go to work to help support his sickly mother and two younger siblings. Now at the age of 33 years, 7 months and five days, his family was better off but this human was not what he seemed. Because of his situation, he needed money faster than he could bring it in. Desperation will turn even the sanest humans into criminals.
The male had turned to crime at 20, after trying to have made an honest living for two years, in the beginning it was nothing more than petty theft but his efforts soon caught the attention of a gang. Rising through the ranks over the years he stained his hands with the blood of many humans. but it was not for this reason that this human was now my prey. I could care less about the wars the humans wage with their own.
No this man was here beca-"Ohh mah achin head..." A smirk crossed my face a moment but I quickly schooled my features into that of an impassive emotionless mask.
"H-hey... where tha 'ell am I?" The human was confused."Johnny! I swear if this is anno'er one of yur stupid pranks I'm puttin a bullet in your f**kin skull! Ya hear meh!" Another member of the gang that enjoyed pranking the others. How soon this mortal would wish it was something so mundane.
Slowly I approached him, "Huuh? Johnny I swear if tha's you..." As I got closer, the dim lighting slowly illuminating the barest of my features, I stopped in front of him.
"W-who... Who are you?" my eyes bored into his.
"Christopher David Matthews..." The mortal stilled, fear slowly entering his eyes.
"Ho-"
"Age: 33 years, 7 months and five days, Weight: 152.3lbs, Height approx 5'11''."
"So yah memorized mah record, nuttin special."
"Started criminal activity at 20 to help provide for his mother and two younger siblings."
He tensed. "N-no one done know about tha."
"Pulled into a gang at the age of 24 and has been part of the inner circle ever since."
"Sh-SHUT UP! How you know all this!?"
I took another step towards him, my mouth opening some my fangs glinting in the low light as I leaned towards him. "I know everything about you Christopher. What you ate for breakfast this morning to every last dime you took in your first robbery." Leaning back the mortal was scared now.
"S-so what? I'm in a gang, lotta people are these days. Why you bring me... whhere tha 'ell am I anyway?"
"You are in my lair, within the heart of my territory."
"Speak normal ya b***h ." My eyes narrowed, the low light now making them seem to glow in the darkness with where I was standing and I heard him take in a sharp breath.
"You life is in my claws human, so I suggest you don't anger me more then you have already done so."
"Wh-human? Buh yur-"
"I assurrrre you Christopher... I am anything but human." There. That was the fear I wanted, his eyes widened and he started pulling at his binds.
"HEEEEALLLPPP!" I let a small smirk betray my lips as I listened to his cries for aid, knowing full well none would come.
I let him scream until he finally smartened up and looked back at me panting. His wrists and ankles rubbed raw with his struggled, though futile, efforts. "W-what you... why'm here?" I closed my eyes, my impassive, emotionless gaze falling to reveal a more sombre one.
"I kept my promise... I gave the law time to find you. Time to set things right by the human ways of justice." Opening my eyes, a fury burning in them that was not betrayed by my features.
"But because of your gang connections you bought off them all..." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "All but one."
His eyes were full of confusion; how dare he... how dare he! "Do you not remember Christopher? Do you not remember what you did months ago?" More confusion... how dare he forget!
"Wha'are you goin' on about!?
"Eight months ago on December 19th, 2007... think hard Christopher, where were you?"
Finally some recognition. "You were tha b***h she was f**ckin!" I glared, silencing him.
"I was the one she loved. But you couldn't stand that could you?" I said moving close to him once again. "Couldn't stand that the woman you wanted loved another female." I snarled low near his head making him let out a small cry of fear. "Couldn't stand that she rejected you for another of her same gender. You were pissed... and so on the night of December 19th, 2007 you kidnapped her and then after taking advantage of her you beat her to death with your bare hands..." I dragged my claws down the rock near his head, creating gouges in them and making him yelp with deathly fear.
"S-she shoulda picked me! I gave 'er everytin she coulda wanted!
"Oh but she didn't want you..." I growled as I turned and took a few steps away. Forcing my emotionless mask on once more. "And you couldn't stand being number two, so you killed her. Stained your hands with her blood and forgot her like she was nothing more than ashes in the wind."
"She shoulda picked me. Stupid japan' c**t would still be alive."
That was it; stalking over I grabbed his neck, cutting off his air with my hand. "Her name was Tsuki Mayonaka! And you had better remember it well human!" I growled out the last word letting his neck go, staring him down as he gasped for air. "It is going to be the name your soul remembers for the rest of time." I paused a moment as he fearfully looked back up at me.
"You stained your hands with her blood, took her life with your own and now..." I smirked, the full length of my fangs now visible, points glinting once more in the low incandescence."You are going to pay for everything you did tenfold." I leaned in, that smirk still etched on my face, his whimpers of fear only further enticing the instincts within me.
"Y-you can't-"
"This is my territory, this is my home. In this place your mortal ways have no ground here." At that his eyes took on a glass look of realization. I was almost shaking with the anticipation. Finally... finally I would be able to avenge your death.
"You should have let the law deal with you human... you would have lived another thirty years."
Dragon
Date: November 18th 2008
Location: Canada, Ontario, Toronto.
0214 hours
It is not often that I find myself lost in the past.
It is against my nature to look back, just to go forward. Yet as I look up at the night sky I cannot help but realize the futility of it all. Why do I bother with things day to day? Why do I just keep going forward? What do I have to look forward to? Is there something to look forward to? What keeps me here? What is keeping me going?
Perhaps it is hope that keeps me going. But do I have hope for anything? I am not sure. I guess that that is not the answer. Could it be that I believe there is someone out there for me? That is something very hard to believe in when there is not another of my kind. Is it the drive for fun? The search for continued amusement? Amusement is fleeting and after it is gone you are right back where you started. This cannot be why I am here. Was it what I was created for? I highly doubt this; the project was never finished.
Is it that I fear of death and it is that fear keeping me from ending this? No, that cannot be. From the moment I was born death took me in its arms and held me in its grasp. Caressed me with its touch and given breath to my soul. I have lived with death and I fear it not.
Turning my eyes to stare out over the city I am unable to suppress the silent echo of singularity that resonates within my heart.
Humans do not realize how lucky they are. How truly blessed they are to live amongst their own, to be able to say that there is another out there like they. There are days when I would give almost anything to live one of their lives. A life without the death, without the pain, without the struggle to retain the little sanity that is left. A life where the right and wrong is dictated by the laws and rules you have grown up with that is not a deviation from the rest of society. A life where you can find some form of peace. A life that is not borne in darkness and fuelled by blood. What would it be like... to walk without the shadows. What would it be like to go places and not have people know that you are different, to be accepted for what you are- to know there is another creature like you.
What that life would be like, to live amongst your own kind!
These are the basic things that most humans take for granted. As if it is something they are entitled to from birth and not something they have to fight for. It is taken for granted that there are other humans in the world. That they are human. What does it even mean to be human? There is no set definition. Some say it is that they exist, others that they think, that they can love, that they have free will. This is something that philosophers have questioned throughout the ages. I suppose I would be a paradox to the definition, should one ever be agreed upon.
Still I wonder, does any of that truly matter? The life we live? The days that go by? The nights left unremembered? What makes life worth living? Is that worth different to every being? It has to be. I refuse to believe there is only one reason for existence. There are far too many creatures and far too many possibilities for that reason to be just one. I do not know what keeps me going or what makes my life one worth living. I do not know what it means to be human or what it would be like to be human, though I do wonder.
But for all that I do not there is one fact, one undisputable truth that I do. It is a truth that has remained constant from the very moment I was born to the moment that death shall take me away. That after all the pain, all the fighting and the killing there is one thing that I have lived with continues unchanging.
For in this world of billions, when the sun vanishes beneath the horizon and the moon rises to kiss the sky, I know.
Oh how I know it so.
I am alone.
Dragon
Date: Monday, October 23rd 2006
Location: Canadian War Museum; Canada, Ontario, Ottawa.
0000 hours
I'd been scoping out the place for almost five months now and I knew that now was the time to make my move. I was more then aware that I had taken more then the usual amount of time for making sure things went well, but I was on my own and this was my first big heist. I was not leaving anything to chance and, I admit, I was being overly paranoid. I guess that's just how I dealt with the first timer nerves.
My prey was one of the things advertised to promote the exhibit. A silver wine cup that belonged to Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, a French General who was quite famous and has attained several honours including having a school named after him.
The history behind the prey didn't interest me much, what did was that it was valuable and that it was something that would be a challenge to try to take. The biggest challenge to this heist was that I did not and could not cause much damage to the building or the surrounding exhibit pieces. Explosives were out. It was a test of my hunting skills.
The exhibit was a special event, it was leaving on November 12th 2007, so I had some time, but I could not mess this up. If I messed up now I would not get another chance. I chose a Monday because the building was closed on Mondays. And at this hour the only ones around would be the cameras, for which I had figured out the blind spots, and the guards, who I can slip past easily.
Right now I'm not affiliated with anyone, a lone wolf criminal, so I don't have to worry about anyone but the local authorities. After this they'd pay a bit more attention, that is if I pulled it off. I'd left my bike, getaway vehicle, in the parking lot earlier on in the day. Right now it was the only thing there, that boded well for me. That meant no unexpected visitors tonight. I was dressed completely in black tonight, which hid me well in the midnight darkness. Black cargo pants and a black wifebeater tank, I wasn't worried about the tattoo on my right arm, which is the word DRAGON going downwards horizontally from my shoulder to my elbow, my black fingerless biking gloves and the black backpack slung over my sholders. The new moon had been yesterday so the light from the sky was really only the few stars and satellites that managed to make it past the city glow and the slowly increasing clouds. Though this place was a bit out of the way from the city it was by no means rural.
As I approached the doors I made sure to keep in line with the blind spots of the cameras. I set to work and after disabling the alarms on the front doors I gripped onto the now empty frame and climbed along the wall inside. Finding the prey was simple after that, avoiding the lasers and the cameras was easy since I knew where they all were. But getting back was going to be a bit more tricky. I had to avoid the guards now.
I wasn't careful enough though. I got seen by two of the guards near the front doors. Part of me was glad, that meant a fight. The other part was a bit miffed that I'd failed to be the invisible thief that I had wanted to be. Oh well. No longer caring about the cameras I was on the guards in two bounds. A single right uppercut to the first guards jaw put him to sleep for the night, the other I had to be a little more careful with. He'd foregone the choice of using his radio to call for backup, he knew a bit of hand to hand obviously and as much as I wanted to drag this combat out I knew that would get my butt busted. This exhibit was no longer brand new news but it still had increased protection.
He threw his left fist which I caught and using his forward momentum I pivoted on my right foot and threw him over my shoulder into the wall. I gave him no chance to recover as I slammed my knee into his stomach and lower ribs and when he slumped to the ground I smashed my heel into his head. He was unconscious, most likely in need of some medical attention, I gave him a very quick look over and growled. Damnit I'd been too rough and the guy probably has a few broken bones and probably a concussion. I looked around for one of their radios and pressed the emergency button. I was no killer. I hunted for food but these men were not prey.
I left the walki-talki on the unconscious guard by the wall and bolted. I had the cup in a bag on my shoulder and after I'd started up my bike I took off out of that place like a bat out of hell.
As I rode off into the morning dawn I couldn't help the predatory grin on my face.
It had been a completely effective heist.
To think that the cops wouldn't even be there for another fifteen minutes at least, I'd be long, long gone by then. Sometimes the lax security at places like this surprise me. Such an exhibit should have been far more protected, if the value they claimed was the truth.
The next morning I laughed at the papers, eating breakfast in my personal hideout.
Evidently the cameras had seen my birthmark and the tattoo on my right arm, thus making my real name my criminal one.
‘The Dragon Steals Historic Silver Cup!'
Skimming the article I looked for word on those two guards. Neither had died but one was in the hospital with a broken rib, a fractured arm and a major concussion. Calling the emergancy signal on that walki-talki had been the right thing to do. After skimming a little further the two had evidently called me 'Dragon' for my blood red eyes, how they saw the colour of my eyes is a mystery to me, and for my fangs. I realized that I must have been barring them at the guards when I'd taken them out. Of course they also stated that they'd seen my tattoo first.
First major job on the criminal scene had been a total success. Now it was time to sell my spoils and build myself a better hideout.
Dragon
