The loose gravel crunched beneath our feet as we walked the dark road in the dead of night. The gritty sounds were the only thing my mind could latch onto besides the need to kill… the hunger for something intangible. I needed it. It wasn’t this bad at first, when Death took the blade… but it was getting worse.

  “Kill,” the Primeval spoke through my bones.

  I wanted it.

  “Kill,” it urged.

  The feeling that came with the words felt… unchained… free. I felt… unbound in a way that made me scared. The feeling of Death’s watchful hand on me… keeping me from killing innocents that weren’t meant to be taken… was gone. I felt like I was on a runaway train, no brakes, and barely one hand on the wheel. Did Death know this would happen? Did he think I could withstand this… because I was starting to doubt.

  There was only one thing that was driving me forward as I focused inward. It was an overwhelming desire to enter the pits and slay anything that got in my way, as I did Death’s bidding; it was all I could think about. Not just to do it, but to do whatever it took to get the blade back. The monster’s mind remained fixed on Death’s blade, like it had just lost a child, and would turn over the whole world to get it back.

  I kept moving numbly, shadowed by Alex as she watched me from a distance, sensing something different about me. She just watched for now, not saying a word as we strolled through the dark.

  I could still feel a slight aversion to the thought of killing her, and I latched onto it. I had to use it, leverage it when I felt myself drowning in the desire to kill.

  It was cold out again, winter's chilly grasp affecting everything. Neither of us wore any real winter attire. I always wore my jacket and hoodie. It was more a staple of my look these days than anything. I was basically a fucking cartoon character, always in the same shit.

  Alex, however, looked like she just walked into a mall ready to go shopping; her tits pushed up high, cleavage exposed, and her hair perfectly in place in a long cascading river of crimson.

  “What are you looking at?” Alex asked in a huff.

  I was stuck in my own head, barely keeping a grip on my mind, and I barely glanced at her. So I don’t know what her fucking problem was.

  “We’re almost there… that opening in the trees.” I motioned with my head up the road a little bit and kept walking, trying not to acknowledge her bullshit. I was barely holding on anyway, so most of me didn’t care.

  In another minute, we were standing at the bottom of his front porch steps. To my surprise, Abel was sitting on the porch in a large, weathered rocking chair, looking right at us.

  He was exactly as I remembered: an old skin-and-bones black man with white hair covering his head, a few scraps of stubble on his chin, and large, round reading glasses over his eyes.

  “I thought I’d be seeing you again soon,” Able said to me with that same light Cajun accent, completely unsurprised by my appearance in the dead of night. “Didn’t expect her to be with you, though,” he added.

  I glanced back at Alex, who had a look of apathy on her face.

  “Yeah, me neither,” I said. “You know why I’m here?” I asked the old man, feeling the need gripping me by the edges, trying to move me… to kill… I gazed at Abel… and part of me wanted it to be him.

  I shook my head, trying to clear it. I needed Abel.

  I was curious if he was somehow in the loop on what I was meant to do. If somehow he had communed with Death himself and knew that he wanted me to go to the pits.

  “Oh, I might,” his feeble legs quaked as he stood from his rocking chair.

  He grabbed the cane beside him and helped himself up with both hands on it. Then he slowly ambled over to me and reached out a hand to shake.

  “It’s good to finally see you again. I was starting to worry you’d forgotten my request.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said through gritted teeth as I stared down at his hand.

  He pulled it back, eyeing me warily. I could tell… whatever he thought about me, it was changing now. Not like his opinion, but what he thought he knew.

  Able adjusted his glasses and then returned to his rocking chair. “What was it that reminded you?” Abel asked as he leaned back in his chair, rocking back and forth.

  “A few things… one being the biggest fucking spider I’ve ever seen,” I said seriously.

  Alex raised her eyebrows, staring carefully between me and Abel, “It was pretty big.” Her words were half there, her mind focusing on me more as my need grew in intensity alongside my strange behavior.

  Able just nodded, slowly fiddling with one of his fingernails on the armrest.

  “They’ve been moving recently… something’s got them… agitated,” Abel said while looking into my eyes hard. “They sense something.”

  “They? There’s more of them?” I asked with dull surprise.

  “Yes, there are more. Eight to be exact.”

  “Eight of those things?” Alex had real surprise in her voice, not the usual mockery. Then she whispered to herself, “What the fuck…”

  Able just nodded with no emotion.

  “They’re usually not topside, but something has stirred them. A few of the lesser spawn have made their way to investigate. I think we both know what that was,” he stared at me.

  I eyed him carefully. “What do you know?”

  He grinned slyly. “I know that something beyond ancient was just killed. A pillar of power in the hidden world was destroyed by something no one expected.”

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  I stared into him, knowing that he knew much more than he was letting on.

  “Who are you? Really…”

  I reached out with my senses to assess him, but he seemed completely human. Not a single hair stood out of place. He just looked and felt like a little old man who knew a little too much about our world. But he was obviously so much more.

  “I'm not important, but you are. You may be the one to finally put an end to the spawn of the pits… maybe even the pits themselves.” He stopped talking as he gauged our reactions. He could see that Alex and I were both intrigued by the conversation. “There’s more to that place than you realize. That piece of ground beneath the city is… alive… and you need to kill it. But to do that, you need to get inside.”

  “How?” I asked. “I've tried, but that place is… hard to understand. I can sense other things down there, but I always lose them.” I tried to be open about my failures. “Something down there… shifts or something.”

  “I'm not the one to show you that. I can’t get in there myself. However, you already know someone who can.” Abel’s words were informative and still somehow obscure.

  “Who?” I asked with no desire to talk in circles.

  I stared at Abel for a moment, trying to figure out who he was talking about, while also suppressing the soul-gripping desire to reach out and kill him… to wipe out his life force and feel it slip into the ether… to the other side; I wanted to feel the moment of death that would quench my needs… even if just for a moment.

  Surprisingly… I did not feel the same aversion to the thought of killing Abel as I did to killing Alex. He was… different somehow. It left me with questions that I had no one to ask… none but the monster. Why did I feel like I could do it… Like the Primeval would allow me to take him, when it wouldn’t allow others. This was supposed to be a guy who was helping me… right?

  “I didn’t know anyone who could come and go from the pits,” Alex started to say, but then she stammered in realization. “Except…”

  It took me a second to realize who she was talking about, but Alex beat me to it.

  “Charles…” she acknowledged. “But he’s not back. After everything that happened with Peter, he’s been quiet.”

  “We can talk to Martin,” I suggested to her. “Maybe he can reach him… draw him out.”

  “Maybe,” Alex said contemplatively.

  I turned and didn’t wait for Abel to speak again, or for Alex to realize I was leaving. I just made a move to leave. I had to find Charles… I had to… KILL HIM!

  NO… no, no, no… pull your shit together… I don’t need to kill him; I need to find him.

  The monster was straining, trying to claw his way up from the cage. He wanted out… he wanted to be fed in his own way. I felt my eyes blackening into the voids again, my gums bleeding and starting to burn as my maw of razors tried to shift out.

  Pull it together… calm down, I said to myself mentally. I breathed deeply as I stepped away from the porch, staggering slightly as my grip on the urge slipped ever so slightly.

  Alex turned quickly, hesitant but ready to follow my quick exit without question. But before we could leave, Able said one last thing.

  “Remember, Sam, once you’re in,” his eyes narrowed on me when I turned to face him.

  His eyes connected with the two portals of infinite blackness that were now my eyes. He was undeterred, which surprised me even more.

  “Unleash it all. Tear that place to the ground and wipe it from existence.” The old man leaned back in his rocking chair and started rocking casually. “Once that’s done… come see me again.”

  His old eyes were hard and knowing, like he had many plans that were privy to things that I was not. Who was he? How did he know any of this shit?

  With that, I turned away from his porch again, stomping away in feral hunger. Alex was hot on my heels, doing all to restrain a question I could all but feel on her lips. The squeaky screen door squealed all the way open and then shut as Abel went into his house behind us. The small light that was on inside flickered out, and Able was done with this interaction.

  About two hours passed before we made it to Martin’s bar. It was about 3:30 in the morning. The world was falling asleep, even the nightlife had dimmed down as people had to get ready for their next day in the living world. Such could not be said about me and my redheaded friend… acquaintance, whatever the fuck she was. We walked in silence for most of the time.

  Randomly, she asked me one question. “When you have to let go… whenever you decide to let it out… remember who we kill…”

  I didn’t reply, but her request was noted in my mind. It told me something. Past all the mocking jokes and abrasive behavior, Alex recognized what I was: not a Primeval… but a true threat. She was seeing past the human side I showed most of the time in our past interactions… and she was seeing more of the monster in my eyes… my words… my existence. She wanted to make sure I didn’t forget what I was… what we were. Killers of killers.

  If only it were so simple… because right now… I just felt like a killer.

  As we approached Martin’s bar, the sound of two keys jingled from Alex’s fingers as she fished them from her pocket. She expertly inserted the key and had us inside within moments.

  I was shocked to see that the place was completely dark. Martin must have cleaned up fast after shutting down; the place was almost completely spick-and-span. The only thing visible was a slick stain of something on the concrete floor by the bar. It looked like a sheen-covered fluid… like water with oil in it. The floor was void of chairs as they were all upturned on top of the tables. Maybe Martin was mopping.

  We navigated through the sea of chair legs and made it to the bar. Within seconds, Alex had returned from the metal slab in the back of the kitchen.

  “He’s not here,” she said as I paced continually.

  “Call him!” I told her.

  “He won’t answer it. I already tried on the way over here. There’s only so many other places he could have gone.” She tried to think of options, but she could tell I was struggling. “So what do we do now? What’s your game plan?”

  “Let me try Carter,” I said as I pulled out my cell phone and dialed his number.

  Alex sighed, looking at me strangely as I listened to the ringtone. She had a disappointed look on her face. The call went to voicemail as I figured it would at this hour. After everything that had happened with Peter, Carter was probably in a well-deserved deep sleep, dreaming of a phone ringing somewhere in his subconscious.

  “Nothing,” I stated blankly.

  “Oh no, I bet you’re sad, huh?” she said it with some venom in her voice.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked with a clear mind; the anger I felt was enough to clear my head for a moment.

  “I’m sure you’re just dying for a reason to go back over there. To put yourself in their lives… to be human. It’s not right for us.”

  I blew up on her. “How about you just let me worry about what’s right for me. You can do whatever the fuck you want to do. I’ll do what I want. How about that?” I said, my eyes blackening with rage, my teeth sharpening ever so slightly as the monster gripped me.

  I noticed it instantly and subdued the beast inside. But she noticed, obviously, how could she not.

  Alex smiled to herself, another look of disgust… or disappointment. “Do what you got to do. But if you fuck up again… and one of them dies… that’s on you. And I’ll be there to hold you accountable… whatever you are.” She said the last part with just a hint of wariness in her voice.

  I could tell she meant it, but she felt something when I stared at her… I knew she did. Then she turned and left the bar, leaving it unlocked as she disappeared into the night.

  As I stood there in the silence of Martin’s empty bar, I started to feel something… regret, maybe.

  Alex was very outspoken and opinionated on what she thought was right for people like us. But I didn’t want to hear what she had to say right now. Her opinions were hers. Not mine. It pissed me off that she thought she could just tell me how I should act and feel, and who I could be around. Who the fuck was she to me?

  Though… I hated to admit it, but I knew that she had walked this path far longer than I had at this point. Part of me thought that maybe she had a point. But I shoved that down just as fast as I shoved her opinions away. The need rose to the top again… the urge to end lives.

  I followed her example, and I left the bar. I headed for Carter's.

  I wasn’t sure exactly where Alex was going, or if I even wanted to find her again before I went down into the pits. Death never mentioned her as a part of what I had to do. I didn’t need a tag-along who was just going to be in my ear like a fly. She’d be buzzing her thoughts, mocking opinions, and jabs at me the whole time.

  I was going to find Carter… then Martin… then Charles. I was going to get inside the pits. If she didn’t show up before it was time for me to descend, I wouldn’t go looking for her. Plus, whatever I found down there, I don’t know if she would be ready for it… or for what I would become when unleashed beneath the city.