Chapter 18

Author Note: Thank you for reviewing. Also, I realized I have been spelling "Yharnam" inconsistently... "Yharham" "Yharnham"...

"And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen." -Book of the Healing Church 6:18

As beautiful as the rat crawling, disease spreading, and human waste gathering city was, Yharnam on the night of a Hunt was far more so. The moon colored the world differently than the sun. Most of all, the stench was overwhelming.

Immediately to his side, the street was lined with carriages. A desperate or more likely foolish attempt to escape the Hunt. This aroma was more than figurative. The horses attached remained. It was far enough into the night that they no longer neighed nervously or bucked furiously.

They were dead. Ribs and bowels visible. Flies were having their hayday.

Fredricx's nose twitched. He moved past them toward his destination. Rounding the corner of the street and carriage, he faced the back of a man. He was tall, abnormally tall, with a hat that covered straggly hair. One hand held a torch, while the other dragged along steel.

"Sir?" Fredricx asked.

He turned. This was no sir. Pale skin with protruding eyes gave it away. It was once a sir, but now was a beast. Bewildered, it charged with weapon waving wildly. This was a beast, but that did not grant it skill. Fredricx was a soldier. Soldiers had skill.

The Hunter sidestepped. The metal whip was not effective at close range. He brought it behind him before swinging. The shards found their target. The beast screamed in a rather man way, but this did not stop Fredricx from ripping free the shards. It was brought across the creature again and brought out with vengeance.

He was not the only one with vengeance. The beast retaliated. Thrusting its torch at Fredricx, the beast shouted. The words were intelligible, "Die!"

Fredricx thought he might. The flames were hot. Breathing sharply, his skin crawled from the heat. He counted himself lucky this next time as the hatchet came down on him. It kissed the top of his shoulder. He hissed and jabbed an elbow toward the creature. It stumbled backwards, and Fredricx brought the whip across again and again until the creature fell. Then, it was brought again and again.

The hatchet was left ownerless a few feet away. It could not be left lonely. He snatched up the handle, which was slick with blood. It was useless, dull from a combination of use and age. It dropped, even making a dull noise against the stone.

He needed to continue. However, the gate toward the heart of the city was clamped to the earth. After failing to jerk it free, he huffed to himself before turning the opposite way down the cobblestone street.

Fredricx would not allow himself to be tricked again by a beast. No humans were out in the Hunt with the exception of possibly Ettie. However, he prayed to no force in particular that she was somehow tucked behind incense in Lucas's apartment.

A beast man sat with its head ducked between its knees a few meters away. Its breathing was heard above all else. Fredricx was surprised by its incompetence as he slunk behind it. Resorting to the whip, he strangled the beast with the shards. It thrashed against him, arms flailing. Weapon moving with it. Gurgled sounds erupted from its throat. These cries were quickly silenced. Once dead weight in Fredricx's arms, he released the beast.

This had not prepared him for the other beast man, which delivered a swift blow with a club. He saw small rainbows clouding his vision as he buckled. His head throbbed rampantly. Eyes squeezed shut. He was rewarded with another strike to the cranium as Fredricx scraped together his sense.

He had lost his weapon on the way down. Blinking away darkness, he scrounged the ground for it. Thankfully, it had not been far. He grabbed the handle and struck the whip behind him, slinging his shoulder up and around. There was no follow through with it. He turned his head slightly to see that the beast had passed, punctured through with his weapon, which was no longer made up of flaccid links.

His blows were more detrimental than he imagined. He released the steel and collapsed forward on his knees, head supported by his forearms. Dizziness attacked him as the feeling of blood gathered in his skull. The lifeless beast plopped behind him.

Fredricx eyed his torso. The coat was deeply worn. Evidenced by nicks and tears. All of these had been stitched up with poor craftsmanship. He caught sight of the buckle at his chest, and hanging from the buckle, the blood vial.

Fredricx sighed, partly from the discomfort of moving and partly from hopeful relief. Shaky hands unclipped the vial. He stabbed it blindly into the side of his thigh. It hurt far less than his skull. Warm blood drained into his body, providing comfort as it circulated. It released cranial pressure. The colorful dots retreated to the fringes from his vision and then completely disappeared.

Once Fredricx's breaths had slowed from ragged animal to hard day's labor, he stood, but not before picking up his weapon again. He had not been hit too hard. At least, not hard enough that he illusioned the weapon's change. The handle was the same, fitting smoothly in his palm. Regardless, the shards were now locked together with almost no space between them. It was not a sword as there was no blade. In fact, it was more of a cane.

XXXX

He yanked the lever, causing internal mechanics to slide down the ladder toward him. The rattling came to a halt as it collided with the ground. Fredricx did not usually commute through the city via ladder. These were reserved for chimney sweeps, orphan children, and thieves. Shiphands did not get the privilege.

Fredricx hoped Ettie was with Lucas. She would be sitting with their quilt pulled up to her neck. Lucas would be complaining about the shipyard in between fits of coughing. They would be protected by the incense that Adullam had gifted him. That event almost seemed years ago. Instead, it had been what? A mere few hours.

The top revealed a waist high lantern. It was polished silver with the glass cavity left unlit. Surely, this was useless. Far more illogical was the placement as it would definitely impede foot traffic.

He thought to Adullam's note and pile of objects that had mostly belonged to Fredricx. His whip, cane, or whatever it was, his coat, a fresh shirt, and a box of matches. Matches were not weapons, a torch perhaps. Not seeing any harm, he struck the match and lit the lantern.

He waited for a moment as if something were going to happen. There was just rustling from behind the glowing window on the wall behind him.

He did not have time to bother with ill advised lanterns. However, Fredricx's resolve to continue was crumpled by a snag at his pant leg. A familiar set of fingers grasped at him. The fingers belonged to the handful of the skeleton beasts that had tugged at his skin, while he lay immobilized at the Clinic.

With a twinge in his chest, he pulled his leg free and stomped down on the creature. A gasp emitted from the other beasts as they shrank away, disappearing into the street. Confusion was what he decided on.

Fredricx shook his head. This blood was causing him to hallucinate. Beasts that laid out as corpses once defeated, that made sense. Beasts that recoiled into the ground without a trace, that was a symptom of the blood.

Faced with another closed gate, he descended the few stairs and through the winding city. His path was blocked by crates and sacks of various sizes. This was far less effective beast protection than incense.

He went to leap over them, but was intercepted by an ax. Bursting forth, the beast struck Fredricx directly at the base of the neck. He gave a backhanded swing with the cane as he descended, making harsh contact with the stone. He squeezed the injury with his opposite palm, feeling red seep through his fingers and past his collar. Coughing and sputtering, he struck the creature with the point of the cane, spearing it through its middle. It peeled itself away, knocking away the Hunter's weapon. The ax came down again. Fredricx was not ready, but at least, he was expecting it.

Instead of allowing the ax to come in contact with him again, he snatched the beast man's wrist. He released the grip on his neck for a moment, triggering a river of crimson. It was just long enough for him to wrestle the steel away. Fredricx returned the favor, embedding the ax in the chest of the beast. It teetered for a moment before falling backwards into the crates, screaming and flailing.

He pressed both hands into his neck with so much force that Fredricx thought to bruise himself if he did not bleed out first. Gritting and baring teeth, he struggled up. This was war. No, it was far worse. Every encounter was a brush with a monster. Every encounter was with an actual, nonfigurative monster.

Not bothering to even stand, he drug his uncooperative torso to the beast. It was still alive, but he did not care.

"Give me the blood," he demanded through whooping. A blank stare was the response. He thieved the shirt and pants pockets. Fredricx must have been unlucky or untalented as a thief because he found nothing. He swatted away the beast's hand before using one of the crates to propel himself upward. He internally debated on leaving the cane as the energy expenditure cost would be too high. Reluctantly, he stooped over. He would throw up. He did. He expelled red, so much red.

Sighing, he straightened. One hand brandished the cane, and the other was clammily clamped against his injury. Sweat and blood dampened his person. Get to Lucas's apartment in the slums past the Healing Church Cathedral. Ettie would be there, curled into her quilt. Lucas would be there, complaining. They would be safe.

Stumbling would have been a kind word to describe Fredricx's gait. More turns and twists through Yharnam revealed nothing helpful except another pair of beasts. One's face was covered in fur. With torch and shield, it leaned against hip height railing. The other was dressed in clothes that Fredricx recognized from the factory workers.

They approached him. The Hunter wished the cane into a whip. Wishing was not enough. He reversed. They advanced. Judgement clouded by blood loss, he dashed between them to attack their backsides. The dash was either too far or not far enough because he rammed the railing. He lurched forward before the overcompensation sent him tumbling backward. Tipping too far, he fell, feet being swept up and out. The landing faded his world from view.

XXXX

The world appeared again before him. He flinched, tensing muscles for the worse. It did not come. Blinking, the fuzziness disappeared. Remembering the ax, his arms wrestled underneath him to cover his neck, which was a little moist at worst. The panic suppressed itself for a moment.

Instead of beasts, Fredricx saw bricks and flowers. Flowers? He blinked again and again. The white blossoms remained. A small house sat on top of a few stairs. Tombstones lined the fences around him. The moon wrapped it all.

At the base of the stairs, there was a pallid woman staring back at him with a tilted head and calm expression.

He stood.

She bowed slightly, "Welcome home, Good Hunter."