Victor lay sprawled across the bed, his naked form illuminated by the moon as it shone through the window. Natalie traced the scars on his chest and stomach with a finger as the two enjoyed each other’s company in silence.

“You know” Natalie began as she kissed from his chest to his neck before pulling back “You never told me how you got these scars”

Victor grunted as he positioned himself to look at her, propping himself up on his elbows as the sheet slid down to his stomach. He stared into her chocolate brown eyes for a while, losing himself in them as he thought back on times long gone. With a sigh, he allowed himself to collapse on the pillow before speaking

“I was a soldier, fought in one too many wars that left one too many scars”

He pointed to a long scar which started in the middle of his chest and ended at his navel

“Got this in a fight some odd years ago, some overenthusiastic kid tried to gut me. I’ll never forget his screams when my guts spilled out but I stayed standing”

Natalie’s eyes widened “Wait, just wait a minute, so what you’re saying is you survived being disembowelled?” she asked incredulously. Victor chuckled before shrugging causing Natalie to snort at the response.

His finger travelled to another scar just above his waist

“Got ran through by a bandit while taking a piss, he wasn’t too pleased when I didn’t die and I wasn’t too pleased he almost chopped my dick off”

Natalie laughed at the story much to Victor’s annoyance but his displeasure only made her laugh harder. Her raucous laughter travelled through the room, holding her stomach as she wiped a tear from her eye.

“Where’d you get this one?”

She pointed to a set of teeth marks on his shoulder as she managed to calm down; he winced exaggeratedly and inhaled sharply before smiling playfully at her as she pulled her hand back quickly and looked at him worriedly. She scowled as she saw the slight smirk at the corner of his lips.

“Sure that one wasn’t your handiwork? You weren’t exactly gentle”

Natalie rolled her eyes and punched him in the stomach; she rubbed her fist with a pained look which caused him to chuckle as he rubbed his stomach in kind.

“I’m serious, I wanna know”

Her eyes were glued to his shoulder now, observing the wound with interest. It looked recent; not five minutes ago recent, more like a week or so ago recent. He looked out the window at the waning moon and sighed tiredly, his eyes had a faraway look to them as he lost himself in his thoughts. Natalie gently grabbed his chin and turned his head to face her, her loving gaze locked onto his face as she smiled softly.

“It’s fine if you don’t wanna talk about it”

Victor sighed and raised his hand to her face, caressing it lovingly before letting his hand drop back to the bed. She held his hand and squeezed, reassuring him that it was fine and he smiled at her gratefully.

“I used to live in a village when I was younger; my people were hunters, not in the traditional sense, the things they hunted were more….monstrous in nature. Back then the earth was less, for lack of a better word, tame. It was my final year in training and my parents were proud that their son was going to be standing beside them as an elite hunter”

Victor smiled fondly while a faraway expression donned his face as he recalled the memory

“My teacher and I were on the trail of a white horned elk, I was supposed to bring it down using my bow and, if need be, my bare hands; though how he expected me to do that I had no idea. After several days and excruciatingly long nights sleeping out in the open we finally managed to track it down”

His smile widened

“The bastard was twice my size and easily weighed way more than I did, I remember thinking how the hell am I supposed to kill this? But I couldn’t help feeling excited. I had no choice but to bide my time and wait for the perfect opportunity to strike which came sooner than I expected. Something….something spooked it though, to this day I still don’t know what exactly it was”

The smile on his face slowly fell away as he paused

“The beast ran right at me. It didn’t seem to notice me though and I would have been run right over if I hadn’t scrambled out of the way”

Victor paused as the sound of a howl echoed in the night; he frowned slightly and sniffed the air, body tense as if he were preparing for something. The howling died down and his body relaxed slightly with the fading sound, he rubbed his temple before continuing

“As it passed me I jumped onto its back and clung onto its neck for dear life, that moment was probably the most alive and terrified I had felt in my entire life. I could hear my heart thundering in my ears and I felt the blood rushing through my body and for a moment, one single moment, I thought, this…..this is how I want to live life”

A self-mocking snort came after that, hinting at a secret he didn’t care to share. Natalie chose not to pry, believing that if he wanted to tell her then he would; in his own time.

“I remember the blood as it gushed out when I stabbed it in the neck with an arrow, quick thinking on my part if I do say so myself. It bucked and tossed me about in its’ panic, apparently it hadn’t even felt me on its back the whole time. Thankfully I had just enough strength to hold on until it tired itself out and I ended its life”

He paused and inhaled deeply, a haunted look appearing in his eyes. He shuddered before he snapped himself out of his thoughts

“That’s when I heard something approach from behind me. At the time I thought it was my instructor coming to congratulate me so I turned around, ready to boast. Imagine my surprise when I turned around and found that I was staring into a mouth filled with jagged teeth and bad breath; I barely managed to pull back my head in time, got bit on the shoulder instead”

Victor brought his hand up and rubbed the scar absentmindedly, his eyes shone with a dull but ominous red glow as the moon hid behind a cloud, plunging the room into darkness. Natalie’s grip on his hand loosened slightly at the sight and she froze in place. Victor was too lost in his thoughts to notice her predicament though; his gaze was locked firmly in front of him, blankly ahead at the wall in silence.

Suddenly shaking himself out of his thoughts as the room was slowly regained its luminescence as the clouds moved. He felt Natalie’s gaze on his face and heard the erratic beating of her heart, he looked down at her with concern on his face.

“Are you alright?”

The concern in his voice eased her slightly but fear was still present in her eyes, the way his eyes suddenly began glowing made her blood run cold. Natalie smiled slightly, pulling her hand out of his before replying

“I-I’m alright. I….just need some air”

She got up and slipped into her clothes shakily before heading for the door, Victor eyed her curiously but made no move to follow. He knew she was scared, the way her heart was racing told him that much, but for what reason he was uncertain.

She would tell him when she was ready, he mused, and she was never one to keep quiet about how she felt either way. Victor rose and tossed his legs over the side of the bed and stared through the window at the moon, his face a stony mask.

For a while, he simply sat and stared; memories of his childhood raced through his mind, his overprotective mother, his strict father and his ever stoic mentor. They all helped shape him into the man he was now.

Victor tore his gaze away from the silver mistress of the night in the sky and looked at the stab wound on his arm he had received earlier. He could see the skin slowly stitching itself back together as each second ticked by, a dull throb and itching he had learned to ignore accompanied the process as the wound slowly healed. His thoughts turned to the man in question, wondering if they had met the old man yet.

He smiled despite himself, if it was one thing he was sure of, it was that Chen would undoubtedly be difficult to handle, and he was more than eager to learn how Sunny would handle him.

____________________________

“Are you sure this is the right place?”

Sunny looked around as he rubbed his throat unconsciously, he and Scar were standing in front of an old, run down Chinese restaurant. An old, faded sign hung above the door ‘The Jade Dragon’, it read.

Scar simply raised an eyebrow at him in response; he was leaning against an old, beat up car parked in front of the building. His hands were stuffed inside his pockets as he smiled leisurely at Sunny

“Just go inside and stop overthinking it. I didn’t peg you for the scared type”

Sunny looked back at Scar uncertainly before glancing back at the door of the restaurant. The windows were covered with dust and all the lights were off, truthfully, the place looked abandoned.

“It’s not that I’m scared…..It just….doesn’t look like anyone’s home. Actually, it looks like no one’s been home for a long time”

Scar chuckled at Sunny’s reluctance and pushed off of the car, coming to stand beside him as they both looked up at the sign, a reluctant look on one’s face and a tight smile on the other’s. Sunny looked at Scar out the corner of his eye and noted the man was more nervous than he was letting on.

“We could go in together. Vict-” Sunny caught himself and stopped before rephrasing, it wouldn't do to call his boss by his first name.

“The boss sent you with me so technically we’re both supposed to head in” he smiled slightly, a twinkle appeared in his eyes that made Scar frown. Several minutes passed as Scar deliberated, he released a sigh before agreeing.

“Fine, let’s just get this over with”

Sunny smiled triumphantly as he followed beside Scar who opened the door and stepped inside the shoddy restaurant. Overturned tables and chairs lay scattered across the floor, the place smelled of old wood and blood. Sunny pinched his nose and waved his hand in front of his face

“This place could really use a cleaning”

Scar glanced around the dark interior, the little light that was coming in through the windows was barely enough to see anything.

“Chen!!”

His voice echoed loudly, rustling and several squeaks were heard, a small furry body scampered across the floor. Sunny stepped back quickly, away from the mouse that had made a home in the crumbling building. A curious glance was cast in his direction; Scar opened his mouth to speak but stopped as a rhythmic tapping drifted into their ears.

They stared in the direction they heard the sound, a dark corridor that lead deeper into the building. Their eyes focused intently as if they were trying to see through the thick darkness that surrounded them. Sunny’s heart sped up as the sound grew louder, he gulped loudly and glanced at Scar who was patiently waiting for something, he did seem wary though, if the hand wrapped around the hilt of the knife at his side was any indication.

“What brings you here, bug?”

The raspy voice of an old man drifted from within the dark corridor, cold sweat ran down both Scar and Sunny’s backs. The voice was slow and hauntingly wispy.

“Chen” Scar began as he put on a disarming smile, hand never leaving the knife “It’s good to see you in such good health, as chipper as ever I see”

Chen chuckled at the compliment, his form sliding through the darkness like he himself was a part of it as he drifted closer to the pair. Sunny slinked back as Chen stepped into the light to reveal the form of a wizened old man with a flowing white beard and crooked yellow teeth that glistened under the moonlight.

“Did the young upstart send you to me? Are you here to apologize on his behalf? Or perhaps…..you’re here for another reason?”

Chen was smiling widely, despite his hunched form and weak appearance, Sunny had the feeling that he was far more dangerous than he appeared to be. His milky white eyes suggested he was blind which would explain why the lights were off, or at least that was Sunny’s reasoning; but the grace he showed as he slinked through the darkness made Sunny wonder if the old man was really blind at all.

Scar shifted his weight from one foot to the other as Chen stared at him with his empty gaze, he rubbed the back of his neck as he opened his mouth to speak but before he could, Chen’s smile slid off his face as he turned his gaze to Sunny who froze up like a deer in the headlights under Chen’s gaze, a moment of tense silence passed as Chen evaluated Sunny before releasing a discontent snort and turned to Scar.

“His mind is fractured, should Fenris decide to add him to the pack he’d be nothing more than a savage beast. Like the others”

Scar looked down at the floor, a sorrowful expression on his face which soon changed to one of confusion upon the old man’s next sentence.

“But I fear Fenris might need all the help he can get in the coming nights”

“What do you mean?” Scar asked uncertainly, his confusion soon turned to fear as realization hit him “Did you have another vision? What did you see?”

Chen sighed and turned around; his wiry thin arms reached out shakily as darkness flew toward him and condensed into the shape of a black cane which he used to hobble back down the passageway, Scar followed after him leaving Sunny in the dark with eyes wide open in shock.

He had lost track of the conversation when the old man stared into his eyes, he felt as if all his secrets were put on display as Chen’s eyes bore into him. For a long while, he simply stood there, unable to move an inch as various thoughts ran through his mind. Despite the fact that his subconscious self was calling for blood, his more reasonable side understood from the display put on by Chen that he was outmatched.

He knew that Chen now knew all the horrible things he had done…..his past. Sunny gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, it was the second time for the night he had been rendered powerless and that was enough to light a fire up under his ass; power was the goal after all.

With reignited determination, Sunny followed after Scar and Chen into the darkness leaving behind an empty restaurant of swirling shadows.