I laid in bed listening to the pitter patter of the rain bouncing off my window. He was out again probably drinking or getting into fights. He never seems to be sober, not since my mother died giving birth to me. I can see it in his face that he still blames me for her death. I think he will hate me until I die and so he passes the time until that fateful day by getting into trouble. But what he does is dangerous, it brings to much attention on us either by the town or by hunters. My father and I are wolves, or lycanthropes if you want to get technical. My mother was human and that was one of the reasons she died. I've seen pictures of when he was a normal guy but I never really met that part of him. He shut down and became dark and cold. We moved around a lot because of him and now we live in a little cabin in Oregon. The rain was slowing down but I could still hear the thunder off in the distance. I rolled over in bed to see the time it was on the alarm clock. Midnight. He still wasn't home. I could feel my eyes drift when I heard the crack of the door whipping open and slamming into the wall. I jolted up to hear my dad cry out my name. I jumped out of bed and ran down the hall in record time. That's one good thing I got from my dad I was wicked fast. When I rounded the corner I saw him collapse on the floor in pain. I ran to his side and carefully turned him over to see what the damage was. I wasn't as shocked at his state since this was a reoccurring event at my house. He would stumble in drunk and beaten and I would be at his side with gauze and stitching. But When I turned him over I could see the blood pouring out of his chest near his heart. He had been shot and was dying which that could only mean one thing. They found us and they were coming. I couldn't help the tears that started to flow down my cheeks as I grabbed his hand. "Oh Dad what did you do?" I said grabbing the side of his face. "Hunters... Run." Is all he could mutter as he took one final breath and then he was gone. I cried out in sadness to the fact that I was all alone and was soon to join my father. I whipped my head around to see head lights just a mile away and coming fast. I ran and slammed the front door to hold off whoever was coming. I ran down to my room and grabbed my small duffel with emergency clothes and supplies. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed some food for the road, not realizing that they were outside the door hollering and cheering. There were at least four or five. They started shooting at the house and throwing Molotov cocktails which ignited the house. I knew I couldn't go through the front door so I ran to my room giving one last look to my dad who was still lying on the floor. I moved my bed and lifted the little door that lead to underneath the house. I crawled through still hearing gun firing and yelling. The smoke from the fire made me choke and gag as I made my way to the back. I could hear that my heart was beating so hard in my chest I thought it was going to rip out of it. I made it to the back of the house and started running straight for the woods. I didn't turn back but I could hear their footsteps coming towards me. Luckily because of my speed I made it past the tree line before they could notice. When I was a mile away I stopped to catch my breath and turned just in time to see the only life and world I ever knew burning to the ground in front of me. I hadn't realized that in all the chaos I was still crying and could suddenly feel the tears dripping off my chin. I was almost mesmerized by the fire that I hadn't noticed that someone was standing behind me. I slowly turned around to see a rifle pointing at my face and a tall man holding it. I was nine years old starring down the barrel of a gun. The man who caught me had a small beard and deep brown eyes that looked sad. I dropped my bag and fell to my knees, I knew this was it. I took in a deep breath and whimpered only to find instead of a bullet I found a hand. I looked up to see that he had his hand out to help me up. I slowly grabbed unsure of what was going on. "Come on they'll be looking for you." He said as he pulled me farther into the woods and to a black truck parked on a road. I was in shock and could barely walk not sure if this was some sick game or trick. I jumped in the front seat as he climbed into the drivers side and glanced over to me, although I couldn't even look at him. "Put your seat belt on." he said putting the car in drive. I followed his command and looked out the window to see the smoke coming from what was once my house and unsure of what fate lies ahead. We drove for about 8 hours straight before arriving to a house just on the outskirts of a small town in Washington. I climbed out of the car and stood looking at the house and then at the man who had saved my life.. I think. He walked up the porch carrying a large duffel and the riffle which I came too familiar with. "Well, are you coming in or what." He said looking back at me. I thought about just running away but how far could I get before he changes his mind and kills me. So I slowly followed behind slowly keeping a distance between us. When I walked in the front door the first thing I could smell was old books and coffee. It was a comforting smell and I couldn't help but relax a little. I stood in the doorway still unsure of what I should do. I could tell that he felt the same way because he kept glancing back at me as he put his stuff in a closet. "Close the door your letting the cold air in. His words shook me back to reality and I closed the door. Felling a little more comfortable I walked a little bit towards the living room. There were books and artifacts scattered all over the place with no sense of organization. Furniture was crammed in as well showing lots of damage that was caused from past events. I was so submerged in the room that I hadn't noticed that he was in the kitchen by the sound of pots and pans clanging together. I hated not knowing if I was going to die or not it made me almost angry. This wasn't the first time I have seen hunters, I was six and they came for my father but we got away before they figured out it was us. I just haven't met a hunter who didn't shoot first and ask questions later. "You hungry?" he yelled from the kitchen. I walked towards the voice so softly like if I made any noise he would kill me. In the kitchen I saw him grilling what looked like grilled cheese sandwiches. I walked to a chair at a small table without taking my eyes off of him. He glanced over to me a few times then grabbed two plates and slide a sandwich to me before sitting down in front of me with his own. I stared at it for a moment as he dug in to his. I could feel my stomach rumbling and I knew I was pretty hungry so I grabbed a piece and nibbled. I figured if he was going to kill me he would have done it back in the woods. I mean he was a hunter and I was a wolf we are supposed to kill each other, so why wasn't he? "What's your name?" he said still chewing a piece of sandwich. I couldn't take him being nice to me anymore. "What are you doing? What is this? You are supposed to kill me not be nice to me." I said aggressively sliding my plate away from me. He set his sandwich down and wiped his face with a napkin. "Have you killed anyone?" he said without blinking. I shook my head no and sat there in silence. I have never wanted to hurt anyone and I liked to think that I got that from my mom. "Well, then I'm not going to kill you. I don't kill things that don't kill people." he said casually grabbing the other piece of his sandwich and taking a bit. Never kills anything that kills people. I was more surprised that there was even a person in this world that believed that. Spending my life running from well everything I tend to think everyone is the same. "So what's your name?" he asked again. "Danny. What's yours?" I asked taking bigger bits into the sandwich now. "David Atlas." "Why did you kill my dad?" that question made him stop eating. He looked around to try and figure out a way to tell me. "He turned and killed a man out side a bar. I shook my head in understanding that my dad pretty much had it coming. "Okay Danny, I want to make a deal with you. Being... what you are there are going to be a lot of people after you. I can teach you how to live in this world and protect yourself on three conditions. You can never change, you can never kill another human being, and you can never ever try and find those hunters that killed your father. And if you ever do any of those things I will kill you." I thought about what he was asking. He was going to make me a hunter, someone who saves people from the things that live in the dark. I was no longer going to be a monster, but an equal. I stuck out my hand and he shook it. Deal.