It feels like we've been walking through this goddamned forest forever. I hate forests, they're always full of monsters and other demons and lost Dark-Eyed people trying to sell me shit. No, seriously, they try to sell us shit sometimes. What the fuck are we even supposed to use as currency? Gold? Rocks? Fucking bottle-caps? Come on, who has the time for that?

Edgar keeps trailing behind me mumbling to himself about ingredients he needs for the Cure. It's hopeful thinking that a nutcase like him could create such a thing as a cure for everything, but I've seen what he can do. The kid's got some seriously bizarre traits, but he sure has a way with science. Must be all that time he spend alone in his lab. I guess I shouldn't be calling him a nutcase, since that title should probably go to me for being crazy enough to think this will work. But I do think it'll work, and that's the first slice of anything resembling 'hope' I've had in months. Years, even.

It's getting late, though, we really should be stopping sometime soon. I just don't like the idea of doing so in the middle of this forest. I'm not stupid, I know how these stories go. Two teens lost in the woods, need to rest for the night, suddenly a monster approaches and slaughters them both.

Of course for that cliche to work, me and Edgar would probably have to be a couple, and be intimate at that point or something, because we all know monsters hate two things more than anything else in the world: teens and sex. Was it always like that? I wonder how old that cliche is. The trash Victor used to read was full of it. The guy had terrible taste. Not that I care for books much anyway. Or for remembering him. Stupid brain...

Anyway, if it isn't teenage couples, it's two lost kids or someone looking for their kids or just anyone who shouldn't be out in the forest to begin with, defying all common sense and going out anyway.

Kinda like us.

"Carter! Tired," Edgar calls. I roll my eyes.

"Yeah no kidding, you've been trailing ten paces behind me for the past mile! But I'm not stopping here so you just suck it up."

I can hear his footsteps stop short and I sigh. Great. Just what I need.

I turn around and glare at him. "Don't be stubborn, Shorty, we can't just stop in the middle of a dark forest after passing by a 'beware of monsters sign'. That would be stupid, and we don't need stupid now. We had enough of it yesterday. At least now we know not to trust the locals on food..."

"I need to stop," Edgar says bluntly. Nothing's gonna stop that guy once he's made up his mind. This is just perfect.

"Arrgh, fine! You wanna get eaten by monsters? Be my fucking guest."

"You have to stop with me," he says calmly.

I start pacing a little. "I know, I'm just a little reluctant because this is stupid! Can't you just walk, like, one more mile or two?"

"Carter--"

"The sun's barely down, can't you just--"

Edgar stomps his foot on the ground. "Carter! I told you. Need to stop. Got it?"

I grit my teeth, then throw my bag on the ground dramatically. "Whatever." I pull out my knife and flick the blade out.

"Campfire?"

"What do you think the knife's for, moron?"

He pulls his bright orange atrocity of a scarf down so I can hear him better, "Drama."

"Shut up," I mutter, turning my back on him to cut an X in a nearby tree. I give it a good kick in the center and the thing snaps easily. I cut it up into some more manageable pieces and lay them out near where Edgar decided to stop. He's still clinging to a vial of something purple and I keep imagining it as poison. Maybe I'm just paranoid. It wouldn't matter anyway, I suppose. As a demon I'm immortal. Not that I can't get hurt, I just can't die. It's the dumbest exchange ever.

He pulls out a lighter and holds it out to me. I grab it from him and rip a few pieces of long grass out of the ground as fodder and light the fire. There aren't any rocks to lay, but the area's bare enough that I don't think it'll matter too much.

"You got any food left, Shorty?"

"Seeds."

I push my glasses up a little and rub my eyes. "Seeds. Wonderful. Hardly a meal."

"Hunting?"

"I suppose I have to, don't I? Since I do everything."

Edgar sits down and sighs. "Not everything."

"May as well," I growl, pulling the knife out again and heading into the woods.

Edgar is quiet for a second before calling, "Don't die!"

I laugh. "Yeah right. That's one thing I can't do." I head off into the woods. One good thing about being a demon, at least my night vision's good. If nothing else, that's a slight... perk I guess.

___________________________________________________________________



Carter's off in the woods. Gone for food. I guess it doesn't matter if he finds it. I'm not that hungry anyway, I just wanted a little alone time. It's stressful around him. I don't think he means it, but it is.

I fiddle with one of my vials, pouring it to create some new grass around me. A more comfortable bed. It's weird being outside still. It's been a while but... I'm not used to it. Inside was...smaller but easier.

Winston, my stubby-legged cat, waddles up to me and meows. For what most consider to be a primitive species, he's pretty intuitive. Knows when I need him.

I pat his head and allow him to curl up in my lap. Animals are better than people. They don't talk and they don't need you to either. They just understand anyway. Sometimes I wish I could just explain things properly externally, but then I remember that people don't care anyway. And everyone will leave eventually. Carter's just new still. He'll give up some time from now and I'll be on my own again. But then I'll just make the Cure and they'll all come running back. Everything will be fixed.

I'm just a little useless up until that point.

Still, I wish he'd stop calling me Shorty. I can't think of anything insulting to call him back, but I don't think my brain would let me say it if I did. My brain is picky with what I say, nothing comes out as it should.

I lay back on the grass and Winston crawls up to my stomach and curls into a little, purring ball of fluff. I smile a little and rub behind his ears where he likes. We watch the sun go down. The moon's full tonight.

Well, I can't see it yet but I know it's full. I like to keep track of its cycle. Well, I don't like to, I just kind of do it without thinking.

The fire cracks and pops and it reminds me of popcorn kernels. I used to have a whole supply back in the lab. I lived off of it mostly. Popcorn and cereal and canned food. Ran out two weeks before the lab burned. Didn't eat then. Found stumbling through the woods. Dizzy. The outside was different. I'd never felt the wind before.

I still hate thunder. Something Winston and I have in common.

Carter says sometimes I'm more like a cat than a human. Maybe that's true. Cats are nicer anyway. At least they are to me.

I wonder what's taking him so long. Normally he manages to find food right away. He can be an asshole, but he sure is a good hunter. Even if I hate to admit it. I think he's just good at killing, and I think I'm not the only one bothered by it. Not that it matters anyway. Some things can't be changed... at least not right away. But when your job is to play god everything starts to seem a bit more... malleable than you initially thought.

A branch smacks me in the face for the upteenth time in the past...however long I've been walking. I don't even know anymore. It has become uncomfortably dark and at this point I really can't even see where I'm going anymore. For all I know I've been walking in circles since I set out. I don't have good direction. It's one of the reasons I always travel with a group. That and I don't like being alone. When you're alone there is nothing to distract you from thinking, and thinking can be scary. Especially when you have things you'd rather not think about.

The locals told me not to set out so late in the day, to wait until morning. But what did I do? I disregarded their advice and set out anyway, afraid of losing the trail of the two people in search of a cure for...everything, I guess. That's how the demons at the bar described it as. Recently I've been bored. Terribly bored. Books and exploring and meeting people just aren't doing it for me anymore. I need something bigger, a goal to work toward. Helping the people looking for a cure to the world's ills would definitely be something different. And surely I could be of some use. I do have quite a bit of knowledge. I consider myself smart and am quite handy, if a bit clumsy.

But back to the point. I left even though I was warned not to in order to track down the pair of do-gooders and instead became hopelessly lost myself. A bit ironic, no? I don't have a personal motivation to find the cure. I just want a new experience and way of life and to perhaps glean knowledge from the person working on the cure.

Another branch hits me in the face. I am very tempted to give up and stop for the night, but I find these woods quite off-putting. It's a wonder I haven't been eaten. Or dismembered. Or anything else that happens to stupid people in suspicious-looking woods. Maybe if I wander long enough I'll find a clearing or the edge of these woods. Eventually the sun will come up. I can sleep then. Another thing I don't particularly enjoy--the dark. It hides things; usually unsavory things. And I guess I have bad memories associated with the dark, but it's not a big deal anymore. At least that's what I tell myself.

"'Don't go' they said. 'You'll die' they said. 'It'll be fine' I said."
At this point I have been reduced to talking to myself, which is quite pathetic even for me. At least if that damn owl was here I wouldn't feel so crazy. I'd be talking to something, even if it doesn't understand me. Or maybe it does understand me and just doesn't give a shit. I wouldn't know.
"Fucking idiot," I murmur under my breath. I would slap myself if the trees hadn't already been doing it for me for hours.

I freeze. There's a rustling coming from quite a ways behind me and to my left. It's too big to be a small animal, so by my extremely intelligent process of elimination I conclude that it must be a large animal. A bear. A person. A woolly mammoth. Something.

In any case, I am now frozen in fear. Usually I would not hesitate to confront whatever is making the rustling noise, but it is dark. And I, a not-so-competant fighter, am alone. It's not that the rustling noise was very loud, but as I was already very scared and on high alert, it had sent a wave a fear through my body. Because I wanted to engage in neither fight or flight, I kept still. Whatever it was was far enough away that it should pass beside me without noticing my presence if only I can remain still.

I don't hear anything at first, but when I do the entity is much closer. Whatever it is, it is very stealthy. I slowly peer around the tree I am hiding behind only to see that the entity is much closer than I calculated. In fact the person-shaped creature is only about a dozen feet away from me. Adrenaline floods my system but I know if I try to flee now the person will surely hear me. It is at this point that everything that could go wrong goes wrong.

I hear a rustling at my feet and at the same time the sound reaches my ears something collides with my leg, throwing me off balance. I stumble away from the supposed attacker in fear, letting out a gasp before the ground shifts beneath me and I begin to fall, my face and the ground becoming parallel. In the split second before my face connects with the ground I spot my attacker: a rabbit. In that moment I realize that if I die, it will be not only because I am an idiot, but because a rabbit tripped me. A rabbit. And then my face and the ground connect.

I am stunned for a few seconds, simply laying face down on the ground, until I realize that I have fallen directly into the path of the person I was hiding from. Adrenaline floods my dazed and confused brain and I squirm until I am lying somewhat on my side. If this is to my death then I want to see it coming. It then comes to my mind that perhaps I can convince the person standing above me to not kill me by saying something. Something profound or at least pathetic that might stall my death. I turn my gaze toward what I assume to be the direction of the person's face, though it is too dark to tell for sure. I open my mouth, ready to say the sentence that might save my life.

"...Hi."

Making your way through the woods sounds easier than it is for someone like me. I was actually happy when I realised that's where they were heading. I thought “well, the less humans around, the better”. Except that less people meant more monsters. The warning sign with stickman ripped in two by a werewolf made me stop and hesitate. I had been trailing the guys for days, watching them from a safe distance, trying to get a n idea of who they were. Edgar was notorious and was easy to recognise but the other guy I'd heard nothing about and it was easy enough to tell he's a demon. At first I thought he had beat me to the treasure Edgar was and had threatened the scientist into helping him for what could only be a selfish reason. It only took a few hours to realise I was wrong. Yeah, “Carter” was fiercely protective but he also actually cared. I wasn't so sure it was mutual but I hardly cared.

Anyway, the point is that when I saw the sign I cursed myself (how ironic is that expression?) for waiting this long. I could have intersected them sooner and saved myself the trouble. Now I'd have to face god knows what in there, my simple trailing suddenly looking more like an obstacle course. Speaking of trailing, I'm not the only one following those two. There's at least one more, my sixth sense (what I call being able to sense other people's emotions, even from afar) alerted me. And she was ahead of me, the sign, if she even saw it, not seeming to have the same impact on her as it did on me. The thought made me frown. I wasn't going to let some girl shame me like that. I might be scum but I'm still better than that.

So I went in. I could still sense my two targets in the distance, but the girl veered off course. Perhaps she wasn't after them after all. Yeah right, she must have just gotten lost. Not my problem. My problem was the other presence my senses had just picked up. Some kind of large animal. A bear or a stalking lynx or maybe some gigantic snake, judging by the slow way it was walking. God dammit! My heart jumped up and lodged itself in my throat, its beat suddenly frantic. It was no more than fifty paces away. My foot slid backwards before I even realised. Not good, animals were simple but they could sense fear well enough. And my body was turning me into a glowing torch right now.

I tried to swallow down the fear and ducked low. I had a knife on me but absolutely no idea how to use it against a wild animal. My best guess was plunge it into my own heart so that I at least get a quick death and not suffer through being ripped to shreds.

I didn't want to be ripped to shreds. This is pathetic! The world is littered with monsters and angels and “demons” and you get killed by a half-starved black bear? No, no way.

Refusing to give up, I went down on all fours and started stalking towards the animal. Meanwhile I reversed my curse the same way I did when I was left with no other options. Animals had a sixth sense themselves, right? If that thing was an animal, and I prayed to god it was, then it would no longer feel the fear I felt, but instead a thick cloud of confidence with the hint of aggression. When I let the emotions get to me I can become like this, a mirror of someone else's feelings but my own.

The creature on the other side of the mirror I now was, stopped and hesitated. I didn't. A smirk had found its way to my lips and I was actually enjoying myself. The predatory instinct of the animal took hold of my psyche and grew and soon enough I was grinning, inhuman fangs flashing in the dark. I didn't care that the thing in front was a natural-born killer. I had become one.

Needless to say that the thing soon got discouraged by the unnatural aggression it could sense and retreated. Needless to say that after it went and the realisation of how it could've been different hit, I stood shaking for a long while. What is important is that this thing wasn't the only dangerous monster lurking in these forests. There's only so many times this trick could work without me being driven completely insane, and I couldn't bear pull it off every half hour. The mixture of fear and confidence, aggression and despair, pulls your heart apart in ways a human can't even imagine.

I stood with a sharp inhale, and started towards the doctor and his demon while trying not to feel anything. Having to pull my trick off two more times before I reached the camp left me completely emotionally exhausted and the least thing I wanted was company but I knew I wouldn't last long here on my own. The control over my own emotions isn't that great and sooner or later it would cheat on me and leave me easy prey.

I didn't bother hide my steps as I approached Edgar. I had been watching them for a while and it's left me convinced that Carter, the demon, was the only weapon the doctor had. And he was luckily gone. Trying not to imagine his face when he came back to find his priceless cargo was claimed by another demon, I went through the bushes and raised my hands as I walked to Edgar.

“Hey there,” I started in a tone that sounded much more tired than intended, “My name's Daniel and I'm here to join your quest in finding the cure to everything.” I stated bluntly, I had no patience for niceties at the moment. “I need your help. I can't stay like this forever.” I knew I should be looking in the guy's eyes right now, to try and convince him to help me, but I couldn't. What if he said no? He was my last hope, miserable as it is, and even though I pretended to be cool with it, on the inside I was terrified he'd ask me to leave.