The sidewalk was cold, and lifeless. The occasional street light looked scared in the darkness around it. This was a bad city to be trapped in the dark. Eli knew that first hand. He had taken on more then his fair share of night stalkers, demons, ghosts, ghouls, vampires and everything else lurking in the twilight of humanity. Tonight would be no different. He made his way down the street with his shoulders squared, and a don't fuck with me stride. He wasn't in a bad mood at all, he was anxious.

The crisp night and moonless sky told him a fight was coming. More sucker heads for him to pop off. He loved it, he could hear "Cold As Ice" playing in his head. Eli loved listening to Gangsta' Rap before a fight, it made him ready, no more then ready. The flat out egotistical nature of the music, mixed with the glorified violence made him feel invincible. He never thought how it was only a feeling. He just heard the words over and over again in his head.

"Stop him if you could you're as cold as ice

And you'll be, stiff as a log in a suit lookin nice

Youse a sinner nigga you're as cold as ice

But you ain't cold enough to freeze hot slugs when they run up in ya

You ain't in my class nigga, I'm the last nigga

You gon' fuck around and get blast, sucka ass nigga

The soul survivor, survivor sole

Nigga you roll, and I roll, let's stroll

I told you that I'm cold!"

These bitches, he thought, I'm gonna make 'em hurt tonight. Every night he went out excited dusk couldn't come fast enough for him. He hunted the streets looking for them, as soon as he saw one it would be on. No warning no bull shit campy dialog, just good old fashioned ass beatings. The only talking he did was to antagonize them into throwing a punch or following him to a more deserted location. He could see all the evil, but others couldn't even when it was in front of them, killing them. Some how people rationalized it, altered the facts of what they saw into something a little more believable.

Eli wore a puffy gray jacket that concealed the body armor he had on his chest. Black heavy jeans, and a pair of all black Iverson shoes finished off his urban guerrilla outfit. Eli respected Iverson, he was a warrior fighting with everything he had until the end. He packed a sawed off shotgun, two Dessert eagles, a machete, and a set of custom wide brass knuckles. He shaved the tips to tear flesh. The brass knuckles he called Johnson, and Dempsey. Being a skilled pugilist they were his favorite weapons. This skill he learned more out of survival in his youth then a leisure activity.

The enemy he sought to night was aristocratic, high society nose in the air, sharp dressed scum. They hung out at nice clubs with dress codes that require ties, and skilled cooks who could make the most ludicrous part of an animal , allegedly, enjoyable. Try the cooked chicken anus in the honey mango sauce its delicious. This took him to the pretty down town that they show on TV, and billboards encouraging you to move into the safe fun active community. Never mind the disappearances, strange sounds, and high mortality rate, cause it won't happen to you, just move in so you can have a cool address.

Eli didn't know who he felt more sorry for the one's living in the high-rises, or the ones in the gutter. The evil fed off the souls of both, only the game of consumption separated the two. He only knew how angry the realization made him. Every time he watched the news he could see the douche bags pulling the strings behind the camera, leading good people into a slaughterhouse of depression. Kept at a slow steep by the commercialized need to consume and the idea that you are not complete if you don't buy. That's how they worked their game. A slow depression on the soul, keep people so busy with the grind stone they can't see the pool of blood raising around them, they die with out ever knowing why.

He thought of his mother, the grindstone she worked all her life the things it never provided. All the looks the pretty people who had everything would give him. The disdain on the face of the grocer when she would use the Food Stamps to buy an ice cream for him. He wanted to choke that cashier. What the fuck he thought look at the little kid, his clothes are dirty, tattered, and you don't think his mother should use a food stamp to buy him a small treat? Give him one little taste of something good and sweet, no I guess the world should just keep shitting in his mouth. Fuck them, fuck them all. His hands curled into a tight fist from the anger of the old memory that remained as vivid as the day it happened.

All the anger kept him hard and driven. He tried to stay balanced in it, but half the time he hated both worlds, and wanted to see them burn. Suck heads are burning tonight, he thought. As if by his request he bumped into one of the socialites of the evening. He growled at Eli, and Eli saw his true face the others couldn't see. He saw them for the demons they were.

"Fuck you suck'a watch where your pasty ass is walking." Eli threw up his arms to say see about me. The man in the designer suit, and no tie, all fashion, and lights, looking like a man to emulate by the masses looked down on him and said,

"You sir are rude beyond all belief. If I wasn't in a hurry I would teach you some manners." He dusted a thin layer of invisible dirt from his jacket as he spoke.

"Teach me some manners, who the fuck do you think you are? Whatever asshole of a cunt shat you out, and put your fake ass on a silver platter should have told you to keep your fucking mouth shut when you're outside your safe little condo. You're in my world now, and it's filled with pain I'm dying to share."

The socialite grunted amused by the audacity of this, based on the evidence of sight, petty thug. A small crowd of people had gathered around the two, or one man. Eli knew he had to make the yuppie sucker chase him away from the crowd, and he was pretty sure the suck head would like it that way. With out making it obvious he circled around so his back was to the alley.

"What the fuck does a big shot like you have to be running around for anyway, aren't you mister somebody, doesn't this whole fuckin' world stop, and go for you? No wait I know you're just another poser. Found some tacky clothes at a second hand shop, and said I'll run around town like I'm one of the in crowd."

The bastards always took offense to their wardrobe being called into question, vanity is a sin and it runs deep with their kind. So is wrath, and it runs deep with Eli. The pale man just stood their, a rage filled his eyes with a look like he just wanted to reach out and rip Eli's head from his body. Eli was sure he could too.

"Man fuck your punk ass." Eli spat on his pants as he turned and walked into the alley. He could feel the mans eyes searing through his flesh and feasting on his heart.

"You pay all this money and you still have to put up with these people, but I won't let him ruin my sunshine."

The pale man said with a sick smile, and walked off. At least that's what the crowd thought, had they been able to see they might have noticed his body went one way but his shadow went down the alley.

Eli didn't have to see it to know, the shadows became to many, and pitch black until the entire alley was a void of light. Fucking shadow crafters Eli thought, I can play your hide and seek game too. He inhaled deeply pulling his closed hand to his lips and exhaled through his hand throwing his breath with his fingers. An old man had taught him the trick, and it had saved Eli's life many times, to bad it didn't save his. His image disappeared from the sight of the pale man cloaked in shadows.

The pale man moved all around the shadows frantically trying to understand what happened. He thrashed and clawed at every form he could see, nothing. He stopped and tried to listen for the sound of his beating heart to rip out. A sound he couldn't hear over the tapping of a metal object. He leaped over to where the sound came from and reached out for it. His arms pulled back frustration, and some air. He heard it again this time from the other end of the alley. Again he flew into the air and grabbed for the sound, he pulled back a filed trash bin and threw it across the alley. After a loud crash there was silence. He waited just let him hear the bastard one more time, and he would rip the flesh from his body and leave him pin stripped in flesh and blood. The buzzing silence of nothing came.

He turned and began to head out the alley, ting ting. He spun around sure he had heard the sound. He waited, more frustration.

"I'm going to gut you like the lowly animal you are, before you ever leave this alley." The pale man said to Eli. He had only half turned when he heard the faint sound again. His eyes focused on the sound as it became louder, a strange orange shape was the source. Then he saw it the brass knuckles set a glow from the cleave of Eli.

"Hunter?" The thing said with a mocking tone. Eli moved out from his shadow. "Fashion Police." The creature let out a growl of rage.

Eli smiled and opened his stance with his brass knuckles burning, the fire didn't hurt him, it never hurt the righteous. The thing moved fast into Eli, but he had already planned out the fight he saw it in his head as he always did. Before the thing could pull of it's killing blow Eli threw up his hand in defense. From his arm a blue light sprayed out in a circle. The evil lurched back in pain, Eli's will was strong, the stronger it was the more painful it was for the evil to be in his barrier.

With a cross hook he smashed the evil's face as it reeled back. The spikes of the burning brass knuckles ripping flesh from bone. He laid a hard right on the beast followed up with a left jab to the ribs and then a solid upper cut that tore half his chin off and sent him crashing to the ground screaming in pain, and face on fire. The evil squealed on the ground thrashing wildly and clutching what was left of it's jaw. Eli stood over the creature pulled out his machete and brought it down through the wrist and neck of the evil. The body burst into a fine dust leaving the clothes sunken and laid out on the ground. He looked down at the hollow clothes, "You didn't suffer enough."

Eli sheathed his machete, and knuckles. He pulled a small gym pack from his back and began looking through the clothes for jewelry, and anything else he might be able to pawn, or sale. As he went through the clothes he found a ring with a glyph that marked the wearer as somebody in the vampire hierarchy.

"I always thought you had to be pretty powerful to wear one of these. Guess they hand them out to any bitch these days."

In the back of his mind he knew some powerful creatures would try to find him. Let them come, he thought, one at a time or in groups, I'll kill them all, every last one of them. His hand tightened, around the ring as he clenched his jaw. He packed in the clothes and other jewelry but left the ring on the ground. He looked through the trash until he found a decent piece of paper, and removed a pencil from his inner jacket pocket. On the paper he wrote, I killed your friend and I'm going to kill you. He rolled up the paper, slid it through the ring, and tossed it in the corner of the alley. On his way out from the alley he stopped. He turned around and walked back over to the ring, unzipped his pants and pissed on it.

The walk from the alley to the bus stop that would take him home was uneventful. On a normal night Eli would have eradicated a couple more sucker heads, but tonight was special. He knew the trouble he was bringing down on himself would give him more vampires then he could handle. But fuck it, he thought, the more the bloodier. He had only been at the bus stop a couple of minutes when it arrived. The bus was empty except for one passenger and the driver. Eli took a seat in the back so he could see who got on and so no one could sit behind him.

As he looked down the aisle of the bus he saw himself fighting the shadows, battling to save his life and those around him as the people looked on confused, and annoyed at him. He closed his eyes, tried to focus his mind on the goal, eliminating the sickness of humanity, the cancerous tissue that was destroying our society. Shining the truth on evils ideal of working your whole life and consuming as much as possible before you die. The more you consume the happier you are, the better you are then he who has less, and there's a big bonus prize for those who screw over their brother to obtain the things they desire. He hated the greed he saw in people, it cast the reflection of his greed for liquor. Stop, he thought, I just want peace in mind. Really he just wanted a few stiff drinks.

The bus slowed to a stop and the door opened. Before he saw them he felt them. Like the dirty bottom of a glass you had drunken from they put a sick feeling in your stomach. Every time they came around it was like the whole world didn't fit right everything was at an angle. Two young attractive, to those who couldn't see, women boarded the bus. The other young man perked up at their arrival. The two took notice and sat at the seat in front of him. They began to talk about what they would do tonight and the mans posture lifted up even more. He began to speak with them and they answered back with great interest. Eli thought of just walking up to them casually pulling out his machete and chopping off their fucking heads. He smiled at his idea, but knew it wouldn't work, but he gave high points for shock value.

He hadn't seen things like the two girls before. They had what looked like the red fungus that grows in showers that haven't been cleaned all over there face. Their eyes were empty sockets and their teeth were rotten beyond British lore. Eli must have been tired because he had an absolute look of disgust on his face that said I see you for what you are, and one of the women took notice of it. Forgot the first rule of the game, act like you don't see them he thought. As she stood up and began to walk towards the back Eli pulled his Dessert Eagle from the holster, but kept it in his jacket pointing up, and straight ahead. I'll blow this bitch's head clear off if she just gives me the chance.

"What the hell do you think you're looking at?"

She said in a demanding and superior tone. In a faked drunken slur and with his head half cocked Eli replied,

"Just two of the ugliest women I've ever seen. Some one call the cops this woman's lips been stolen, naw call the zoo tell 'em to ugly beast have escaped and need to be put back in their cages."

He let out a drunken laugh, and fell back into his seat mumbling. The women smirked,

"I remember a time when they kept your kind in cages. Those were better days for your people."

She smiled and turned to walk off. Well fuck her Eli thought. He stood up as she walked back to her friend who was again engaged with her meal for the evening. Eli pulled the Dessert eagle from his jacket and pointed it right at the back of her head. He looked through the gun and focused on the bullet in the chamber. How odd this must look to the passer by he thought as he pulled the trigger.

The windows of the bus shattered not from the gun going off but from the scream of the other creature who turned to see her friends head turn into a smoking hole. The scream made Eli reel back and the bus driver slammed on the breaks throwing Eli forward and his gun out of his hand. He caught himself on one of the handrails only to be knocked back by a lunging punch that dislocated his jaw. He crashed to the floor, and felt his pain so he wouldn't pass out.

The woman jumped on his back landing her knees deep into his flesh. To much pain he couldn't concentrate on getting a barrier up. She grabbed the back of his head and began smashing it into the floor.

"She was my sister, and you fucking killed her!"

She yelled as she crushed his head into the floor one last time. Blood was running from Eli's face, and he was in danger of drowning in it. She flipped him over like a toy doll, and squeezed on his hanging jaw.

"I'm going to make you hurt for a long time."

She took her other hand and squeezed Eli's balls. A gurgled urgh could be heard.

"That's enough."

Some one yelled from behind her. Two arms reached over her to pull her off him. The arms and body they belonged to were sent flying by an effortless motion from her arm. It had still given Eli enough time to get his hand on his other Dessert Eagle. The pain seared in his head, and he couldn't picture the bullet. Which meant he couldn't make it a glowing one like he had used to kill her sister. He pulled the trigger and fired one shot that ripped through her shoulder and twirled her off his body. He raised his arm and kept firing into her body. She fell down to the ground and her head hit the back of a seat.

Eli stood as fast as his pounding head would allow. He dropped the emptied Dessert Eagle, pulled his machete from the case on his back, and stepped toward the woman, to slow. They don't stay down long. She leaped up and kicked at Eli he barely dodged the kick and drove the machete into the side of the woman. She screamed and in two motions broke the handle off, and forward punched Eli dead center in his chest. The blow sent him flying into the back seat. His back smashed into the headrest, and he fell in to a slumped seated position. If it wasn't for the body armor he was sure his sternum would have shattered. Through the blood pooled around his eyes he could see the bus driver and the young man looking on in astonishment. Thanks for the assist, he thought, as he reached into his pocket and slid his hand into the brass knuckles.

The knuckles he could feel. That made them real to him easy to concentrate on easy to ignite. The familiar warmth from the cleaved weapons filled his hand and gave him a second wind. The woman pounced on Eli so fast that it was like she hadn't moved but just appeared over him. She clutched Eli's throat and opened her mouth to say something, when Eli hit her with a flaming right hand. Little pockets of flesh ripped and seared on her face. He punched her again and she fell to the ground. He fell on top of her and just punched and punched until her head was a burning stain on the floor.

The bus driver, and young man looked on in horror. Eli had really scared them his loaded gun was a foot from them and they didn't even try to pick it up. He grabbed the guns and painfully walked past the two men, who winced as he passed. As he stepped off the bus he caught a glimpse of him self in the side mirror. What a mess, he thought, what an understatement. Now he really wanted a drink, or drinks. Sirens sounded in the background and Eli to kept to the shadows as he made his way back to the slum he called home.

The blood on his face crusted over and one eye had swollen shut by the time he got back home. His forehead was swollen with a huge gash, so was his lip and jaw, which hung unnaturally low, at least they wouldn't be able to identify me. The pain in his head was to much. Before he cleaned the blood off in his bathroom he grabbed four vicadin, and a half-empty bottle of Jack. He downed both quickly. Then he proceeded to wash the blood off his face, and pop his jaw back into place. The pain was so great he almost ripped the door of it's hinges.

He drew a bath of hot water and removed his clothes admiring the bruises on his chest from where the girl had struck him. That's some little bitch, he thought, she must work out. He sunk into the bathtub with a bottle of cheap liquor in hand. He drank half the bottle and let it slip to the floor. He sunk lower and lower into the water until his lips were just about to go under. He could feel a blackout coming on, maybe I'll drown, we're all drowning in something. How did I ever find a bathtub big enough for me he thought.

He closed his eyes and felt the water wash over his lips, he asked him to make him a stronger person. Take his fears from him and show him the true path of righteousness. Let me be your weapon, let me be your hand, make my actions holy for the greater good even if they damn me for my eternity. He broke off from his thought as jaded feelings crept in. His eyes opened under water. The water began to glimmer with a white glow. Why do I seek your help, your forgiveness? You are nothing, to scared to save your sheep you leave them for the wolf. You left her for the wolves. I will burn their world down, and then destroy your kingdom for taking her. For allowing the agenda of twisted men to drive your house.

Eli opened his mouth to cry out but just sucked in a mouth full of water that filled his lungs. His turned white and his moth gaped open as he sank to the dirty plastered bottom of the tub. At the bottom of the tub under the glimmering water his eyes slowly closed. He felt peace only briefly until the pain of lungs void of air filled his chest and his body flew out of the tub. Eli threw himself to the bathroom floor coughing up the water that had made it into his lungs. "There will be no salvation. No salvation…" He kept repeating on the cold, wet bathroom floor. His words grew softer and softer as the darkness consumed him.