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Two Sides of a Hunter Chapter 2: To the Bridge For Anya_Arctic By Draconicon

Gilbert - the man who'd spoken from the window - made good on his offer of shelter. White-haired but without the wrinkles that spoke of age, he looked old and young at the same time. He gestured her into the house and she eagerly took the invitation, though she kept her axe gripped tight in one hand.

The house was small, barely more than a single room with a chamber pot on one side, a bed on the other, and a fireplace as far from the window as possible. Her host stepped past her, pulling a tea kettle off the fire and slowly tilting it over a cup near the bed.

As soon as the smell hit her nose, Nicola covered her face, biting back a retch. He chuckled.

"Heh, I remember making that face a decade ago, when I had to start drinking this. Medicine was never made to make men well, merely to torture them until they were sick of being ill."

"Medicine? For what?" Nicola blinked. "Are you..."

"Dying? Yes."

He drank his tea, wincing as he swallowed it down faster than she thought possible. Was his throat just burned past feeling anything, she wondered? He put the cup to the side, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"I'm sorry. I'd offer you a chair, but -"

"It's okay. Honestly." She looked out the window, half-convinced she saw a shadow dart down a nearby passage. "I'm just glad to be off the streets. I swear, everybody has gone mad."

"Everyone on the streets has."

"Why? What's going on? What's this 'Hunt' you were talking about?"

"...You came to Yharnam for blood healing, yes?"

She nodded.

"You came to the right place for that...At the very least, their work has forestalled my own death by a good five years." He coughed. "Not that it does much anymore. Even before the Church stopped visiting."

"The Healing Church, right? We've heard of them, even back home."

"Yes..." He nodded, chuckling. "Their healing arts gave them a great say in everything that happened in Yharnam. The Church, and their Hunters."

Hunter. Nicola could still remember that strange voice that mentioned someone finding a Hunter. Had that meant...her? The contract had implied it, but the way that Gilbert said it...

She pulled out the scroll from her pocket, holding it out.

"I found this when I...when I left the clinic. It mentions hunting, but it doesn't sound like it was made by anyone from the Church."

"Let me see."

She let him take it, walking back to the window. There was nobody walking the passage to either side of the house, though she was sure that was only because one side was blocked off by a great iron gate and the other was descending towards fire and smoke. Nobody in their right mind would be crazy enough to go down there.

"Gehrman...that's a name that few people have heard..."

"Hmm?" She turned. "I was hoping you could tell me who he is, actually."

"Well, I can tell you who he was. He's been dead for years."

"...Oh."

Well...that complicated things. She had hoped to find him and get some answers, but if he was dead...

The mysteries just kept adding up, didn't they? She had a contract that had nobody to enforce it, a missing doctor, a bunch of beasts on the streets in the one place in the world that should have been able to control them...

Best start with the one thing that she could get answers to.

"What is the Hunt? You said you'd explain that."

"Yes...yes, I did."

Shaking his head, Gilbert offered the contract back to her, and after a moment, she took it. Even if the man on the other end of it was dead, she might be able to find some more information with it. And besides, if the Church employed Hunters, maybe it might serve as a way to talk to them.

He stumbled over to the window to stand by her, staring down at the smoke in the distance. As the evening wind started to pick up, she could see crosses amongst the smoke, charred, blackened, and draped with well-done meat. She shuddered to think about what might have been hung up to burn.

"Every so often - anywhere from every few months to every year - the Healing Church commands the people to go and kill beasts. Used to be that the Hunters did it, but the Hunters have been disappearing bit by bit over the years. Some of them died, some of 'em were just...gone. Like they'd never been.

"The people take up the slack, but they aren't any good at it. And you can tell..."

He shivered.

"You can tell that the Hunt does something to them. They're mad. Blood-hungry. Beast or not, they'll try and kill it, and then bathe in its blood."

Nicola thought of the stranger that charged down someone that had opened their door, and a shiver ran down her back.

"I saw."

"They'll be out on the streets all night, I'd wager. And if the blood calls to them too loud, they'll start breaking down doors to get what they want."

"Have they ever done that before?"

"They almost did it just a few hours ago."

He nodded towards his door, and she saw the dents and scuffs, the cracks in the wood that must have come from angry boots and hard weapons.

"They left when someone called them from down the path. Whatever it was, they wanted that more than they wanted me."

"Then you need to get out of here. Get somewhere safe."

"When I'm like this?"

Much as she hated to admit it, he was right. His legs were shaking just with the effort of standing by the window, and she doubted he would be able to run all the way to whatever safe place there must be in the city. She looked out the window again. The wind was changing, driving the fires up to replace the smoke, and there were more screams and shouts in the distance.

"Is there anywhere safe?"

"It is said that the Cathedral Ward is protected during these nights," Gilbert said, shrugging. "It's across the Great Bridge, though. Over there."

A gesture to the other side of the house turned her around, and she looked out the window.

Great Bridge was a good name for it. It was vast, spanning the chasm before the part of the city she was in and the great Cathedral further in. It was the opposite side of the city from her village, but if it would grant her safe haven for the night...

"Can you get there?"

"No."

"Even if -"

"I'm going to die. If not tonight, then in a few days." He chuckled, coughed, and chuckled again. "There's no point in trying to prolong it...but thank you for the thought. It is a kindly gesture."

"...I'm sorry," she muttered.

And she was. It wasn't right for anyone to be left like this, but she knew better than to think that she could save him. Axe or not, she had been lucky so far, and she doubted that her luck would hold strong enough to protect both her and him.

She looked down the path. From what she could see through the smoke, it wound down through the city and then back up. It was probably the most direct route to the bridge that didn't involve trying to climb the gate on the other side of the house. She just hoped that there were less homicidal people in that direction.

Nicola turned to the door, her hand on the knob, only to hesitate. She looked back at the white-haired man.

"..."

"Go. Before they come back."

"I'll send someone. If I can get through, I'll send someone."

"I'll be fine. Go."

Biting her lip to hold back a sigh, Nicola did as she was told, leaving the house behind and going back to the deadly streets.

She touched the lantern as she walked past, feeling the slightest prick of a needle against her palm as she passed by. Blood, she imagined, blood for whatever it was that brought her back the first time. She hoped it would be enough to keep bringing her back again, but she wasn't about to trust to the strange immortality that she seemed to be blessed with.

The stairs led her down to a walkway, one that overlooked a cobblestone street strewn with trash. A crashed carriage had a body hanging out a window, but the thing that held her attention most was the great wooden cross thrusting up from the ground.

A wolf-like thing was hung from it, its forearms pulled wide and its legs burning in the rising flames that came from below. Fur and flesh and bone were consumed as one, and the stink reached down her throat and grabbed her stomach in a death grip.

Nicola fought it as best she could, but despite her efforts, she couldn't resist being yanked to her knees, vomit pouring out.

Oh god...what is...what is that...thing?!

Beasts were a part of the world. She knew that. She'd seen them before, dead most of the time, but occasionally alive. But that...

She looked up again, shaking as she used one hand to stabilize herself, staring at the body being consumed by fire. It had to be twice her size, if not more, and she was half-sure that it was still a bit alive. Its head twitched from time to time, and she just hoped that it was completely secured. If it was alive, and it got free...

"Nnnngh..."

The sound of a voice pulled her head to the right, her hands coming up with the axe clenched tight in it. She looked left, right, left...

Then saw it. A shadow behind the boxes further down the walkway. Someone was waiting there. Someone was waiting for her.

Please...please don't make me...

She stepped forward slowly, keeping the axe at her side and her pistol in her other hand.

Five bullets. You only have five bullets. Remember that. Remember.

Nicola stopped walking and started tiptoeing when she was a few paces away. Maybe there was nobody on the other side of the boxes. Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe -

"RAAAAAAAAGH!"

She yelped, jumping backwards away from the shards of wood that went flying through the air.

Her attacker was ragged, his clothes half-burned and badly torn. He wore a hat that covered most of his face, and there were blood bandages up and down his arms, across his legs, everywhere. The marks of battle and the rage of it were still upon him, and though he swung his sword clumsily, he was obviously strong enough to hurt her.

CLANG!

The blade came down just in front of her foot, a clumsy swing that almost took off a toe. She backpedaled a step, the villager pulling his sword up.

"Beast...beast..."

"I'm not a beast. You can see me. I'm a person -"

"Away, foul beast! Away!"

He swung for her again, and she barely dodged it. He turned, pulling his weapon overhead -

BANG!

And she shot him.

He paused, staring at her, then at himself. He stumbled forward, coughing. She shook her head, started to turn -

"Foul...beast..."

And he started to get up.

Panicking, she brought her axe up, swinging it across his neck. She heard the crack, felt the resistance of his spine, but it wasn't enough. His head popped off with a suddenness that she didn't expect, and she spun around a few paces, coming to a stop before she could topple over the stone ledge beside her.

His headless body fell to the ground, blood pouring out of the stump of his neck. His spine drooped, a bit of long bone pushing out of his neck and falling forward. His hands twitched, then went still.

Through it all, she barely kept what was left of her stomach's contents where they belonged. She covered her mouth again, taking deep breaths, welcoming the smell of her own cold sweat to drown out everything else around her.

Oh god...this is...this is not going to be good...

She had fought before. She'd hunted for meat in the woods. She had never done something like this. Why...why had the beast been easy? Why were the people hard?

Because they're people...and you're not me...

Her eyes widened, her shaking stopping. She looked down at her hand, her already pale skin reflecting some of the moonlight through silver strands. Nicola shook her head, slamming the back of her hand against the nearest house hard enough to take some of the skin off. When she looked back, the fur was gone, and blood had taken its place.

I'm here...I want to hunt...I want to HUNT...

"I'm not letting you out. You're under me, now. You listen to me."

Hehe...I will...but you'll need me...you know that.

The voice of the beast faded from her mind, replaced by the old mantra.

Paleblood, pale fur. Paleblood, pale fur.

She shook her head. The ministration had put the beast beneath her. So long as that thing stayed under control, she would be able to handle herself.

She just hoped that she didn't have to kill too many more people.

Why...is no-one...sane?!

Nicola panted for breath, trying to keep herself from slipping any further towards unconsciousness. Her blood had stopped pouring from her shoulder, which was a small plus, but she could still feel that there was a great deal of pain in her arm. Not her axe arm, thankfully, but it was still a problem to not be able to use her pistol, or to use her weapon's two-handed function.

But it had done its job. She stood in the middle of a ruined square, before another burning cross. All around her were bodies, bodies of men and women and...and a dog, too.

She gagged as she looked down at the half-rotted thing, hardly believing that it had been able to move. When it had charged her, she'd blocked its bite and shoved it away, hoping to keep from killing it. But when she'd touched it, when her hand had pressed against the fur...

The coat and skin had just slid off, almost like it was rotting away to begin with. The dog's tongue hung out, barely connected to the severed head, and she made herself look away.

Villagers in blood-reddened coats were all around her in various states of dismemberment. The lucky ones had died quickly from a bullet or two, but the others...She didn't want to think about how long she'd been running back and forth, how hard she'd been pushing herself. Everything hurt. Everything hurt so very much.

She sat down on the edge of one of the carriages that lined the square, trying to ignore the body at her side with a bullet in its head. There were other, bigger problems at the moment.

The vials...

There'd been a dozen or so red vials that the villagers had been carrying, and she pulled them back out of her pouch to finally get a good look at them.

Each one had some sort of needle at one end, and there was a depressor at the other, looking like it was meant to jam the contents into the body. Inside was a red liquid which could have been - though she hoped it wasn't - blood. The dozen vials were all in good shape, too, the glass center protected by a metal binding around it, probably to keep it from breaking in the tussles that their owners were in.

They were healing with these, Nicola remembered. She'd seen one of the villagers jab himself in the leg with it, and the wound she'd given him with her axe had closed. It hadn't been enough to keep her from killing him after, but...

She looked at her wound. It was definitely deep, deep enough for her to worry about her arm falling off if she moved too much. She was in shock, too, which was the only reason that she wasn't screaming her head off from pain and everything else that she'd done.

Here's hoping that this thing wasn't what drove them mad...

With a deep breath, she took one of the vials and jabbed it into her leg.

"Nnngh!"

Nicola bit her lip at the deep, painful insertion of the needle, only to gasp at the sudden heat that started running through her veins. It brought with it a sense of energy that she hadn't felt all day long, and as it spread to her arm -

Before her eyes, the flesh began to knit, the wound closing and feeling returning to her fingers at the end of her arm. She clenched them into a fist, and then looked down at herself again, watching as her hand obeyed her commands again. It was...

There was no other way to put it. It was a miracle.

This is why people come to Yharnam...not for beasts, but for blood.

After a few more seconds, her arm was back to normal, though she still ached from head to toe. The urge to use another vial popped into her head, reminding her that she still had just under a dozen of them, but she squelched that thought.

If she used them now, she couldn't use them later when she really needed it.

She got to her feet with a grunt, her axe thrown over her shoulder as she followed the stairs up and around, trying to ignore the thump, thump, thump of whoever was on the other side of the great locked door.

Please be someone nice...

She walked through the side corridor and looked down into the plaza on the other side. She was not too surprised to see that her hopes were dashed.

A great ogre-creature with a brick in its hand was bashing on the door, banging it again, and again, and again. Each time he hit it, it rattled on its hinges, but it didn't come open. It was a testament to his strength that it did that much, though, and she decided it would be better for her to sneak around him.

She glanced around the plaza. A fountain in the middle, broken metal railings all over the place, droppings from beasts and men alike...

Blood falling from dried blood spikes on the fountain rim...

Shaking her head and planning to keep her blood from being added to it, Nicola cross the plaza, keeping a healthy distance between her and the broad-shouldered ogre. He didn't turn, didn't shout, didn't stop banging on the door.

That was fine with her.

As she made her way up the stairs, though, she heard something else. The scraping sound of metal on stone, with the sound of an occasional bark just underneath it. Nicola groaned under her breath, biting her lip to keep the sound from traveling.

She'd just killed so many...did she really have to...

Feeling her hand shaking, she stopped herself. She moved around the staircase, heading to the iron gate on the far side, well out of sight of both the ogre and anyone else that might be watching her. She sat down on the ground, her head just under a window.

"What am I going to do?" she whispered to herself.

Her hands were already slick with blood, and she was sick to death of the smell of the dead and dying. The coppery, metally, horrible smell that blood came with was all over her, soaking her clothes from head to toe, and she swore it was soaking her skin. She smelled like death.

In the eyes of the villagers, she was death. A beast of death.

It was closer to reality than she liked.

"Hello?"

A little girl's voice. She blinked, turning her head to look at the window.

"Hello? Is someone out there?"

"Down here," Nicola whispered.

"Oh...are you...are you a Hunter?"

"...Apparently," she said with a helpless shrug. "Why?"

"Daddy's a Hunter, too. He's out tonight. But...he's been gone for a while. Have you seen him?"

"Maybe." Please, don't let him be one of the ones I killed... "What does he look like?"

"Oh, he's a big, big man, with strong arms, and bandages across his face. He covers his eyes all the time. And he carries a big axe."

"I haven't seen anyone like that," she said, barely hiding a sigh of relief. "He's a Hunter? Where does he hunt?"

"By the Great Bridge, and down by the graveyard. He says that's where the worst beasts are."

"The worst beasts, huh?"

That would make things a bit more difficult, she supposed, but if there really was a Hunter around, and one that hadn't completely lost his mind, then maybe there was someone that could help her. It was worth a shot, at least.

She got up, turning to look in the window.

Staring out at her was a little girl. A girl that could not be more than ten years old, if that. Soft red hair dropped over her face in wet tangles, and her cheeks and eyes were as red as her hair.

It was obvious she'd been crying, and Nicola forced a small smile.

"If I see your daddy, I'll tell him that you're waiting for him."

"Thank you. Oh, um...and..."

"Yes?"

"If you don't mind...could you look for mommy, too?"

"..."

Oh no...

Nicola looked back the way she'd come. The villagers seemed to know their own, but even those Yharnamites that poked their head out of door or window seemed to be at risk. If their mother was a normal person, and she was on the streets tonight...

Calm down. You're normal - mostly - and you're okay. She might just be a good fighter in her own right.

"Okay. I'll look for her, too."

"Thank you. She went looking for daddy, down at the graveyard, but she forgot something. Let me go get it."

Nicola shook her head as the young girl disappeared, darting off to the other side of the room. The small fire inside let her see that there was another girl, even younger - maybe as young as six - that sat on the other side of the room. They were all alone, completely helpless.

Don't think about it. You couldn't help Gilbert, and these two are even more helpless than he is. You would only make their deaths quicker.

The first girl returned to the window, opening it a crack and passing something out. Nicola took it, turning it upright.

"A music box?"

"Yes. Mommy plays it when daddy starts to forget things. It helps him remember."

"..."

"She forgot it this time, though. She ran right out the door. Silly mommy."

"Yes...silly."

She looked down at the music box again, her fingers clenching around it tightly as she imagined what might have happened. People forgetting, blood flowing...

Nicola took a deep breath, stuffing the music box in her pocket before nodding.

"I'll look for them."

"Thank you. Mommy has a beautiful red broach. It's the prettiest jewel in the city; you can't miss it."

Trying not to choke on her suddenly-clenched throat, Nicola turned from the window, pulling her axe back up. She might not be able to save the girls by taking them with her, but she could damn-well try and find their father on the way to Cathedral Ward.

It was a quick fight in the next square up, the chairs taking her into a small, tight place where two dogs and a villager were waiting for her. The axe made short work of them, as well as those that came down the stairs after. Nicola was through it almost before she understood that it was done, and paused on the stairway up to the bridge itself.

"...What just happened?" she asked.

You aren't the only one that wants to save the pups...

"...Well, as long as you're good for something."

Making a note to keep a better eye on that other part of her before it could get out of hand - she did not want it suddenly taking over without her judgment - she climbed the rest of the way to the bridge itself.

Overturned carriages were everywhere, with gaps in the stone and iron railings leading to other parts of Yharnam. She looked towards the other end of the bridge, then cursed under her breath.

Two more of the wolf creatures that had killed her at the clinic stood between her and her destination. They hadn't noticed her yet, but the way that they moved, their limbs more spider-like than wolf-like in their shifting, swaying ways, made her shiver. Their teeth were all exposed, and they were covered with blood, their pelts half-melted, like they were even worse off than the dogs she'd been seeing.

She clenched her axe all the tighter, debating a charge before deciding against it. She doubted that she could take two of them at once. The first one had been wounded, after all, and it still killed her the first time. Now, she was tired, she was at least mildly injured, and there were two of them to one of her.

Think. Think.

Looking around, she spotted a pebble on the ground. That would do.

Nicola grabbed it, leaned around the top of the stairs, and gave it a quick toss. She darted out of sight again just before a yelp pierced the air.

Come on, come on...come to me...

Claws scrabbled on stone, and she listened as it got louder, and louder, until -

"YAH!"

She brought her axe down, both hands gripping the haft of it, and felt the rewarding Thunk of the blade cutting through flesh. She hissed in relief as the wolf's head hit the ground in front of her, but hastily pulled her axe back up, knowing that the other creature would be after her in seconds.

Turning just in time to see the wriggling mess of fur, flesh and blood flying at her, Nicola ducked, the beast jumping over her. She rolled to her feet, pulling the axe out to full length. The wolf had landed, was turning, but she was already trying something new.

Spinning.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Nicola spun around as fast as she could, hoping against hope that it would keep the wolf from being able to close the distance. She kept spinning, her legs working furiously as she gripped the axe as tight as she could, knowing that if she lost it, it was completely over for her.

Her scream continued to echo back at her until she finally caught something with her axe. Flesh, then bone, then -

Thunk.

Stone. Nicola came to a screaming halt, panting softly as she looked at what she'd done.

The axe had cut out a long slice from the wolf's side, followed by a cut right into the bones of its ribs, and then down to the rock beneath. It was essentially impaled, unable to get free...

And it was still alive.

It growled weakly at her, blood flecking from its tongue every time that it opened its mouth, worse when it barked. It tried to pull itself up to attack her, but it was too badly wounded.

She lifted her pistol and shot it in the head.

As it collapsed, she gathered up her axe, looking towards the end of the bridge again. There was an ogre at the far end just before the gate, but she was pretty sure that she could outrun him.

The gates, though...

They were closed, but maybe, maybe, someone would open them if she knocked loud enough. Maybe someone would let her in. Maybe there would be some safety on the other side.

And maybe that someone might end up being the father of the girls down below.

...A little hope never hurt anyone, right? she thought.

Filled with a new energy, Nicola burst into a run. Her boots hit the ground hard as she forced herself to run faster, faster, and faster still, to the point where her heart and ribs were hurting.

She ran past the ogre at his carriage, darted through the archway that marked the end of the bridge -

Only to hear that shriek again.

Stutter-stepping to a halt, Nicola looked up at the sky. Against the blood-red sunset, a great, writhing shape climbed the wall, leaning over it and glaring at her with dark red eyes. One small arm gripped the wall, while one much, much bigger one shoved down, forcing it into the air.

"...You can't do this to me...you can't do this to -"

"ME!"

Nicola jerked upright in the graveyard again, her breath coming in a pant, her pains going from deadly to nothing in the space of a second.

She held her hands to her head, blocking out the sight of her turned into a bloody puddle at the end of the bridge. She'd been crushed in nothing more than a single blow. Not even her skeleton had been able to hold together against that single punch.

"How can anyone fight that...thing?" she muttered. "Nobody's strong enough for that..."

She looked around the graveyard, half-hoping that somewhere in this misty, dream-like place she might find an answer.

Instead, an answer found her.

"Excuse me, mistress."

The End