Poe was happy to see that Walter was not offended by Paul’s decision to sell him the cross bows he had gifted him. “I thank you kindly for your words, Walter. Although Paul did modify the weaponry to enable the arrow to return once ejected, and I must say he did a beautiful job of creating the golden arrows I required!”
“Marvelous! It makes me happy that I sent you to the right person and now you have what you need. Don’t ever hesitate to call on me should you need anything in the future.”
“As a matter of fact, there is something else you can help me with. I was hoping I could use your target range to test these magnificent crossbows.”
“Yes, indeed! You are welcome to use the range!”
Poe thanked Walter for his generosity, then walked to the rear of the shop where he could exit the back door that led to the target range, which was the size of a tennis court. Three targets boards, which were made of cork, were set up at the far end of the range. Each one was painted with three red rings that surrounded a large red spot in the center of the board. Poe placed his weapons on the bench beside him and surveyed the targets. He decided to use the one in the middle and began preparing one of the crossbows for his first practice shot.
Poe gripped the crossbow firmly in his hands, then held square in front of him as he closed one eye and aimed at the center target. With a pull of the trigger, the crossbow fired its arrow, which landed on the middle ring of the target. Poe released the trigger and the arrow retracted back into the latch of the crossbow. The hunter experimented two more times before he deemed the experiment a success.
After he was done practicing with both crossbows, Poe went back into the shop and thanked Walter for letting him access the range as he walked toward the front door of the shop.
Edgar was busy at his workbench, but stopped what he was doing to reply, “You’re welcome to use the range any time, Edgar, and please do not be a stranger!”
Poe opened the door to leave, then turned and smiled at Walter. Placing a hand upon his heart, he promised to return soon, then walked out the door and quickly melted into a crowd of Baltimore pedestrians.
• • •
Quincy sat in the parlor reading the day’s newspaper. He nervously anticipated the return of Poe because he knew the atmosphere would become awkward due to the quarrel that happened between them two days prior. Since then, the house was full of tension and silence as each hunter pretended the other was not there.
Quincy was sipping brandy when Poe opened the door and entered the parlor with the weaponry.
“Quincy, may I speak with you for a moment?”
Quincy set his glass down. “That depends, Poe. Are you going to insult me and call me horrible names?”
Poe shook his head and sighed. “Quincy, I am attempting to be the bigger man because I can no longer bear living in such a stressful environment where we must exist together yet we pretend the other is invisible. The awkward silence that has cloaked this house is painful. Thus, we must bury the hatchet and move forward from our confrontation.”
Quincy laid the newspaper down on the table next to him. He grabbed his glass and chugged the liquor down. With his actions finished, he gave his attention to Poe.
Poe continued, “I regret calling you names and speaking to you so horribly. It was in a moment of rage and I was blinded by anger over the mention of my wife. But you would have done the same if I spoke of your wife’s name in such a manner. Regardless, I regret that our conversation went in the direction it did.”
Quincy remained stoic and replied, “It was never my intention to insult your wife. I am confident in the fact that you loved her as much as I did my Rachel. But I was afraid to see you heading down a path that you would not easily recover from. Relationships are fragile and precious. One negative occurrence is all it takes to ruin a relationship and send the parties involved spiraling into a state of depression. You and I are hunters. We cannot take our focus off our jobs, which takes incredible mental and physical balance that cannot be disrupted by distractions of any kind.”
Poe nodded his head to show that he understood what Quincy was saying and responded in kind, “I agree with you, Quincy. However, at the end of the day, it is my life and not yours to control. In fact, any emotion I may feel from a relationship, I will harness and use to my advantage. I will take my frustrations, my anger, and my pain out on the monster we hunt. This is a counter-measure I am sure you did not study.”
Quincy nodded his head and scratched the back of it at the same time. Although he showed reluctance to Poe’s plans, he understood the fact that his partner was right about not asserting any control over him. “You are correct. I have not studied it, which is why I failed to consider this angle during our argument. Although, if you can control the emotional impact of a relationship and use this energy to benefit your hunting prowess, then who am I to object? After all, you are raising a valid point and I promise not to exert power over you.”
After Quincy finished speaking, he and Poe buried the proverbial hatchet by shaking hands. Poe then asked Quincy to follow him to the table where he proceeded to display their crossbows for Quincy to behold. Quincy expressed his approval and marveled at the beautifully designed arrows.
“Take note, Quincy. The arrows are tied to a string that are attached to the barrels of the weapons. To retract and discharge the arrows, all you need to do is pull the trigger, but I advise you to come with me tomorrow to practice, so you are extremely familiar with their operation.”
“Superb idea, Edgar. I need to practice using and handling this weapon myself and that is an excellent chance to do it. Most importantly, I am ready to avenge the souls who perished at the hands of these inhumane marauders and send them to the afterlife for all eternity.”
Chapter 12
The night after reconciling, the heroes trekked to the forest for what they hoped to be the final battle between them and the sceidras. They were only equipped with their crossbows, as these were the only weapons needed for their imminent victory.
“Quincy, it is better to split apart in the forest and cover more ground.”
“Nonsense, Edgar. I don’t mean to insult your idea, but it is ridiculous for us to split up due to the numbers against us. We can’t afford to be outnumbered and have our body parts consumed. We stick together. This way, I will watch your back and you will watch mine. This will make it impossible for the creatures to sneak up from behind.”
“The forest is too large for us. We cannot cover enough ground if we stay with each other. Besides, we know how to kill the monsters. If we come across any of them, we can slaughter them, but we do not necessarily have to do it together. We need to find the sceidras with more haste than we are currently.”
“Well, if the forest is too large, then we need to stay together because we can become lost and the sceidras have the ability to ambush us. Therefore, the need for us to stay together is important.”
Not wanting the verbal spat to continue, Poe stared hard at Quincy as he held his index finger in front of his lips, then quietly said, “Shh…,” before turning away from his partner and focusing his attention on the surrounding environment.
After walking through the forest for approximately twenty minutes, the sound of rushing water filled the hunters’ ears as they approached the Patapsco River. The men observed the fierceness of the water as it smashed against rocks and overhanging branches that were in its path. Quincy’s eyes grew wide as he noticed a discoloration in the water. “Poe!” he shouted, “we need to get a closer look at this.”
The hunters walked closer to the riverbank and saw that the water was quickly becoming a dark shade of red.
“What can this mean, Edgar?”
Poe flatly replied, “Blood.”
Quincy was appalled. “The blood of more victims?”
“It’s quite possible,” Poe stated. “The Patapsco now runs red
with the blood of human bodies.”
The duo crossed the river at its shallowest point and headed deep into the forest. They had not traveled far when the sound of rustling foliage stopped them in their tracks. The hunters held up their crossbows and aimed toward the location of the sound. Poe looked above him into the canopy of a tree and saw a sceidra amount its branches staring down at the hunters with its three spiraling eyes. Then, another sceidra came into view as it emerged on a different tree branch. Five more did the same.
With the rush of adrenaline coursing through their veins, the hunters took several steps back to better position themselves for battle. They aimed their crossbows at the sceidras as one of the creatures roared as a signal to attack, then all seven of the monsters immediately began scurrying down the trees. Leaping from the tree trunks, they pounced onto the ground and raced toward the hunters with strength and a bloodthirsty goal.
The men anxiously waited for the proper opportunity to open fire.
Breathing heavy, Poe asked, “Are you ready, Quincy?”
Not taking his eyes off the sceidras, Quincy replied, “More than ever!”
Quincy fired the first arrow and struck one of the sceidras in its shoulder, which weakened its entire being. Poe fired his crossbow as well striking another charging sceidra. After wounding their respective foes, the hunters retracted their arrows by releasing the triggers. Once the arrows were back within their crossbows, the men released them a second time as they fired at different sceidras, then retracted the arrows and sent them flying toward the first ones they wounded, striking them a second time. The result was victory as the doubly wounded sceidras rocked the forest with their final roars before collapsing onto the ground and melting. Poe and Quincy earned the achievement of being the first hunters to kill a sceidra since their predecessor Daniel Moore in the 1300s.
Poe and Quincy continued repeating the process of injuring and weakening one sceidra, then using its blood to kill its brother with a subsequent shot. After firing the final secondary rounds at the remaining sceidras surrounding them, the hunters watched with joy as they melted into puddles of wet, reptilian skin.
Having tasted victory against the sceidras for the first time, the hunters dropped their crossbows and embraced each other. All the days and nights they spent working tirelessly to gather information and craft weapons for their battle had paid off. No longer was there any tension or awkward feelings between the men. Now that they defeated the sceidras, they were finally able to bask in the glow of their successful teamwork and relish their strong friendship.
Their celebration did not last long, however, as the hunters were shocked to hear more roars filling the forest. “More sceidras!” the twosome thought simultaneously.
“It can’t be! We killed all of them!” Quincy proclaimed.
“There must be more! Quick, our crossbows!” Poe commanded.
Indeed, more sceidras inhabited the forest as nine more monsters rushed toward the men determined to avenge the deaths of their siblings. Poe and Quincy picked up their crossbows and retreated into the forest to gain an advantage over the approaching stampede. The hunters crossed the river once again and re-entered the main forest. They worked fast to find beneficial positions of offense to aid them in ambushing the remaining fiends.
The sceidras splashed through the river and entered the forest but found no hint of the hunters. Sniffing the air and placing their snouts to the ground, the creatures tracked Poe and Quincy by following the scents they left behind. They used their claws to cut through the shrubbery and tree branches that got in their way. Meanwhile, the hunters hid in the hollow of a tree awaiting the right time to ambush the sceidras. Without warning, a sound in the forest distracted the sceidras. They stopped searching for the hunters and simultaneously turned their heads toward the direction of the noise they heard.
The hunters saw their chance and climbed out of the hollow to attack their opponents. Poe was the first to plunge his golden arrow into a sceidra, then retracted it and shot it at another one, and immediately repeated this action on both, which resulted in a successful execution of each.
Quincy emulated his partner and effectively killed the sceidras closest to him by doing the same actions with his crossbow. At the end of the battle, all nine sceidras melted into the ground and Poe and Quincy celebrated again before taking a moment to catch their breaths.
“We did it, mate!” Poe cheered. “We have won and saved the citizens of Baltimore!”
“That we have,” Quincy smiled in agreement. “We have avenged the deaths of the innocent victims who died at the hands of these creatures! May they finally rest in peace with the knowledge and awareness that justice has been served!”
After resting on a log for a bit and enjoying the serenity of the forest, Poe and Quincy grabbed their weapons and were ready to head home. Suddenly, Quincy felt Poe hit his arm.
“Quincy! Draw your weapon!” Poe warned.
Quincy readied his crossbow and whipped around to see what Poe was talking about. There, a few feet away was another sceidra inspecting the remains of its fallen brethren. Quincy drew his crossbow at the same time Poe did, but neither fired a shot. Instead, the hunters studied this sceidra and observed that it was different than the others. The color of this sceidra’s body was gray and its face was decorated with four red streaks that ran horizontally from one side to the other. The sceidra looked at the men and they noticed that its eyes were different as well because they were a mixture of black and red.
The sceidra fixed its eyes on the hunters and stood motionless.
“Why is it staring at us instead of attacking?” Quincy whispered. “More importantly, why is it different than its siblings?”
Instead of answering his partner’s questions, Poe entered a flashback to the day he discussed the method of killing the sceidras with Quincy and the story about Daniel Moore. He remembered how Quincy told him that each sceidra was created with different blood types by the alpha. But one word repeated itself during the flashback: alpha. Poe returned to the present time and was horrified at the sight before him.
“Quincy, we need to run!”
“Why?”
“Run! It’s the alpha!”
Just as the men turned to run, the alpha emitted a sharp, ear-piecing sound that weakened the men enough to paralyze them. As the sceidra emitted another shriek, the ears of both hunters began to bleed and they attempted to protect their ears by covering them with their hands to block the sound, but it was no use.
The damage each man’s ears suffered was supreme and neither man could hear the other. They wailed and screamed in agony as blood spurted from their ears and ran down their cheeks and necks. Each man squirmed on the ground writhing in pain as blood continued to ooze from their ears. While their pain intensified, it was as if a miracle overcame them as they managed to summon all their strength and crawled out of the forest. After reaching safety, each man was left wondering why the alpha did not take the opportunity to slaughter them right there and then.
Chapter 13
Clear of danger for the time being, Poe and Quincy managed to rise to their feet. By placing their arms around the other’s shoulders, they gained strength and balance as they limped along the roadside in the hopes of being spotted by a carriage or passerby, but this seemed an unlikely scenario as night had already fallen and everyone was probably inside their homes relaxing or already tucked in bed and fast asleep.
As luck would have it, a man saw the hunters as he was looking out his kitchen window. and woman witnessed the hunters from a window and exited their quarters to aid the men.
“Hurry, Lucille,” the man yelled. “There are some fellows stumbling along the roadside and I think they’re injured!”
“I’m coming, Jonah!” his wife called.
Upon exiting their home, the couple ran to assist Poe and Quincy by guiding them out of the darkness
and into their home. Lucille tended to Poe at the kitchen sink while Jonah helped Quincy to the basin in the bathroom. The couple did their best to clean the blood off the men and it appeared that their ears were no longer bleeding. However, this was the least of their concerns as the ruthless aching inside their ears had not dissipated.
“Lucille, these men need a doctor! You need to go fetch our doctor! Tell him it’s an emergency!”
“Dr. Pickens might not be awake during this late hour!” Lucille replied.
“Then wake him up! He must come! Just look at all the blood that gushed from their ears! These men might be dying!” Jonah yelled as he turned back around and addressed Quincy, “What happened to you?” Jonah was eager to learn how the men became injured but was also fearful of the answer he would receive.
Lucille ran out the front door to fetch Dr. Pickens as Poe and Quincy laid on the floor of the couple’s parlor and began to lose consciousness. Jonah decided it was best to move them into the spare bedroom. He shook the men to keep them from passing out completely, then helped each of them up and carefully helped Poe to the bedroom, then did the same for Quincy.
• • •
The next morning, Poe awakened to find himself and his partner in a bedroom he had never seen before, then noticed that both he and Quincy were wearing pajamas and their clothes were nowhere to be found. He arose from the bed and quickly became aware that something was wrong. He was unable to hear a single sound! Although, he was not experiencing any pain. Furthermore, his energy and strength were at their fullest as he was able to stand and walk around the room.
“Where are we?” he thought.
Poe decided to exit the bedroom in the hopes of discovering whose home they were in. As he traveled down the stairs, he saw three people sitting in the parlor having a conversation. He stood and watched as their lips moved but could not hear any words being spoken. Poe touched his ears and was happy to find that they were no longer bleeding. He then proceeded to massage his ear to see if that might help his hearing return, but this only made things worse by causing the stabbing pain to reoccur. Surprised by this unexpected jolt of agony, Poe screamed, which alerted the people of his presence on the stairs. He collapsed on the step as Jonah ran to help him to his feet, then steadied him as they made their way into the parlor. Jonah sat the hunter down on the couch as the doctor placed a hand on his knee to calm him down.
Poe the Hunter- Bedlam in Baltimore Page 9
