Running from the Night Read online

  Running from the Night

  Hunter’s Moon (Volume 1)

  Ramón Terrell

  Tal Publishing

  Contents

  Ramón Terrell

  Running from the Night

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Also by Ramón Terrell

  Review

  About the Author

  Ramón Terrell

  Running from the Night

  Copyright © 2017 Ramón Terrell

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.

  * * *

  Tal Publishing

  Published by Tal Publishing Vancouver BC

  ebook Edition: January 2017

  First Edition: January 2011

  Printed in the USA

  Acknowledgments

  A big thank you to Rick Rhodes for helping me getting this work polished and for his honest feedback. You’ve helped me quite a bit, and I very much appreciate it.

  A very special thank you to Mamta Swaroop. Your help in creating Saaya has been not only instrumental, but has also saved me a lot of time, and given me a perspective on her culture that only personal experience can provide. You’ve been a big help and a great friend.

  Chapter 1

  Stay away from me!” As soon as the words left Larry’s dry mouth, they died in the thickness of the woods, his terror devoured by the darkness. “You can have my money; whatever you want!” he called over his shoulder as he turned and sprinted down another path. Though he’d come here more times than he could count, knew every path inside and outside the massive rainforest-like park, Larry could not elude his pursuers.

  For years he’d taken walks through Stanley Park, turned down one path to the next in daylight and night. He knew these paths better than anyone he knew, and whether raining or clear, he would take his daily or nightly walks to clear his head and enjoy the fresh air.

  But then these two men showed up right on the dirt path in front of him. It wasn’t wholly unusual to encounter someone walking the paths late at night, but these two practically smelled of danger. He’d thought to take a turnoff that was fortunately closer to him than the two men and see if they followed him. Once they had, he’d quickened his pace until all three were running.

  “Heh, heh, now what would you offer me that I can’t just take from you, little man?” one of his pursuers, the smaller one, called out from behind.

  Larry ran on, ignoring his burning legs and laboring lungs. Every path he took, they were there. Twice he’d jumped off the path and into the woods, thinking to slow them down. Both times he’d seen at least one of them actually in front of him and had to turn aside. How could anyone move that fast?

  “Tell me,” the other man said in an amused voice that didn’t sound the least bit winded despite the fact that they were running uphill now. “How long do you think this guy can keep running before his little lungs give out?”

  “Or his little legs turn to jelly and stop working?” the other replied, laughing.

  Larry kept running. They didn’t even sound tired! He turned right, heading toward Third Beach. If he could make it to the paved pathway that skirted the perimeter of the park, he might be okay. There were always people walking those paths.

  “Uh, oh,” one of the men called from behind in an amused voice. “Looks like he’s trying to get out in the open.” They might have been jogging behind him for all the effort they were expending.

  “Well, we can’t have that now, can we?” the other replied.

  Larry lowered his head and sprinted as fast as his burning legs could take him. He darted into the woods again, jumping over fallen trees and through shrubs. His pursuers no longer spoke, but he still heard them running. He angled back toward the dirt path. He could hear the ocean now. Almost there! He made it out of the woods and back onto the path, now within sight of the paved sidewalk. A blur of movement flashed in front of him causing him to flinch away and slam into a tree.

  The impact sent him spinning to the ground where he rolled in the rocky dirt, gritting his teeth against the pain. Dazed, he struggled to rise and fell again.

  “Hey there, hey there! You alright?”

  Larry craned his neck to look up at the speaker. His vision was a bit blurry from that hard impact with the tree, and the night didn’t help either.

  “Did you …” he shook his head carefully, struggling to rise again. “Did you see those men chasing me?”

  “Careful, man. Don’t try to get up too fast;. That was quite a fall. I’m surprised you weren’t knocked out.” Strong hands gently lifted him to his feet and held him steady.

  Larry put a hand to his head to steady it. “Thanks. That really hurt.” Finally his vision came into focus and he saw a man about his height looking back at him, concern in his eyes. In the scant moonlight that penetrated the trees, Larry saw that the man was wearing a jumpsuit, likely out for a night walk or jog like he had been. Fortune was on both their sides for running into each other like this, as the same fate could have befallen this guy as well.

  “Man, am I glad to see you,” Larry said, looking nervously over his shoulder at the vacant dirt path.

  “Why is that?” the other man said, running a hand through his dusty blond hair. He smiled a crooked, questioning smile. “You didn’t knock yourself out, so I think you would’ve been fine.”

  Of course, Larry knew that wasn’t true. He’d have been robbed, beaten, or maybe killed. He glanced over his shoulder again. “Did you see two men chasing me?”

  “Two men?” the other man repeated.

  “I’m pretty sure he means us.”

  Larry’s spun around in alarm.

  Arms crossed and leaning against a redwood tree to the side of the dirt path, the larger man that had been chasing him smirked, turning toward the pair.

  “Holy shit!” Larry said, backing away while looking for his second pursuer. “Man these guys are trouble, we’ve got to get away from here!” The big man chuckled, but remained where he was. Larry looked back to his left and saw that the blond guy was gone. He’d abandoned him! Cursing again, Larry continued to back away, then turned and almost ran into the blond guy, who was now behind him.

  “What…?” he trailed off when he saw the smile on the other’s face.

  “Man, these guys’re trouble!” The blond mocked. “We’ve gotta get away from here!”

  The bigger man laughed and moved away from the tree. “You really should watch where you’re going. You ran into me full force and went spinning over to my friend there.” He indicated the blond behind Larry. “If I was as weak as you, I mi
ght’ve been hurt.” He tsked, grinning.

  Larry’s head was whirling. How could that guy have gotten in front of him so fast? It wasn’t possible. He turned nervously from one to the other, trying to decide which way he could run. Maybe he should try and take the blond guy down quick. He was the smaller of the two.

  “Uh-oh,” the bigger man said. “Judging from that desperate look, I’d say he’s gonna try to take you down, Jake.”

  Larry looked from one to the other, then lashed out with a roundhouse punch at the blond man’s jaw. The man caught his fist and squeezed, breaking Larry’s hand. Larry cried out, but a hand went over his mouth, muffling his screams.

  “Now, now,” the man said, bringing his face closer to Larry’s. “We can’t go screaming like a little girl now, can we?”

  “Will you quit playing with your food already and get it over with. You take much longer and I’m gonna come over there and help you.”

  The blond looked past Larry at the other man. “You already had your dinner. You still hungry? Find your own!” He looked back into Larry’s eyes, and the agonized man saw pupils that were fading from blue into a milky white color. Larry’s eyes widened in terror.

  “Ha-ha. Looks like little man here is getting a bit nervous.”

  “Mmm. Gives the blood a little bit of a sour taste to mingle with the sweet. Sweet ’n’ sour!”

  The two men laughed. Despite the pain, Larry pulled with all his strength, but he might have been trying to free his crushed hand from a vice. The blond man smiled, just a bit, and Larry saw the tip of an elongated canine dip below his upper lip like death peeking through at him. Larry screamed at the top of his lungs, but the sound was still muffled by the hand over his mouth.

  “That’s right, scream. Get it all out.” The man closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “I can smell the flavor.”

  “Will you get on with it? We don’t have forever for you to play with your mouse.”

  Larry tugged and yanked, but he couldn’t get free.

  “I guess I am being a bit cruel,” the blond man said. “Alrighty then. Turn your head and close your eyes, and daddy will quickly drain you dry.” An impossibly strong hand turned Larry’s head aside, and to his endless horror, the blond man opened his mouth, and his lips curled back to reveal two elongated canine teeth.

  He had just enough time to scream again before hissing jaws tore into his neck.

  Chapter 2

  Jelani glanced to his right and couldn’t help a mental grin. His evening jog was taking him by Third Beach, known for its trademark visual and olfactory stimulation. Now, in mid-November, the place was deserted, but when summer came around again, all of the marijuana smoke and topless female tanners would return.

  He rounded another bend on the snaking path and passed a man in shorts, walking hand-in-hand with his wife. It’s just too damn cold for that, he thought. It was negative five degrees outside! Of course, that was twenty-three degrees Fahrenheit, he reminded himself, but either way it was too damn cold to be out for a stroll in shorts.

  He slowed his pace, huffing a cloud of crisp, cold air. Slowing to a brisk walk, he decided to take a few minutes to enjoy the moonlit ocean. It was still hard to believe he was living downtown. Always a suburb kid, he’d never seen a downtown with so much of nature interwoven. When first he’d vacationed here, he was told that Stanley Park was the first place he needed to go, and when he visited the huge park, he’d understood why.

  Jelani breathed in the fresh night air and exhaled it in another cloud in front of his face. Five years he’d been living here. Sure, it was ridiculously expensive, but everything desirable in the world was expensive unless you were wealthy, which Jelani was not. Not yet, at least.

  He sat for a few minutes, enjoying the fresh night air and the dark, undulating waves, until he felt the cold start to creep up. Time to get moving before the muscles cooled down. He’d just started back into his jog when he heard what sounded like a muffled scream down one of the dirt paths to his left. He slowed just a bit as he neared the path and peered inside. A man was squatting low to the ground, his back to the path, and hunched over what looked to be another person.

  Jelani frowned. Did something happen to the other person, and this guy was helping out? He started to ask if they needed any help, when the crouching man gave a jerk upward, and one of the legs of the person lying on the ground twitched violently. Jelani’s eyes widened. What the hell?

  He slipped his hand into his pocket while carefully backing away. Just as his hand closed around his phone, the squatting man’s head whipped around, and eyes as white as the moon stared directly into his. Blood coated the man’s mouth all the way down his chin and throat, like a macabre, crimson beard. He stood and smirked, wiping his hands on his bloodstained jumpsuit.

  “Not the place to be,” Jelani said under his breath backing away.

  “Too late for that,” said a voice from behind.

  Without thinking, Jelani leaped to the side and turned. He had thought to put at least a half a dozen feet between himself and the person behind him, but the man—and he was a big one—was directly in front of him.

  “Now just where do you think you’re going?”

  Jelani didn’t pause long enough for the big man to finish his question. He dropped and spun backwards, sweeping a leg out to trip the man in front of him. To his surprise, the leg sweep had no effect, and actually caused him to fall. Just as the big man opened his mouth to laugh, Jelani flung a handful of dirt and rock into his eyes and mouth.

  He was already on his feet as the big man coughed and wiped at his eyes, cursing fluently. Backing toward the paved sidewalk, Jelani took one last glance at the other man stalking toward him. The man was actually hissing at him! It was a deep, throaty hiss. What the hell does this guy think he is?

  “Yo, it’s too late for Halloween, dude. You’re a month too late—”

  “I’m gonna rip your throat out,” the big man said, still wiping the dirt out of his eyes. The low, growling voice sounded like nothing human. Jelani whirled and made for the paved walkway.

  He’d only run half a dozen steps before the big man was right in front of him again! Relying on his instincts, Jelani slammed into him and spun around, whipping a seven-inch long knife out of his pocket in a reverse grip and swiping it across the back of the man’s neck. Before the grunt fully left the big man’s mouth, Jelani stabbed backward just behind the right shoulder. He retracted, then stabbed him in the side of the leg and kicked him in the back.

  All this had been done in less than a few seconds, and his attacker should have been thrown to the ground in a pained, injured heap. Instead, the man hadn’t budged, and Jelani’s kick had actually pushed himself back! The man slowly turned toward him, hissing all the while, and his eyes, which had been light brown only moments ago, were now that same milky white as the other guy’s. Even more startling, his lips rolled back from his teeth to reveal a set of elongated canines!

  “Sheeeeeiiit,” Jelani swore, as he spun and sprinted away. Having run track for most of his life, he put that talent to full use and ran, head down, his upper torso gradually straightening until he was in a full track runner’s sprint. Neither one of those guys looked particularly fast, and Jelani was hoping he was right.

  He wasn’t.

  He could hear both men, grunting behind him.

  “I’m gonna rip your neck open, you little bastard,” one of them said. Whether through speed, or just plain good fortune, Jelani made it back onto the paved walkway and darted left, sprinting toward English Bay. It was a long run, but he’d been running for years. He just had to hope those two weren’t possessed of equal stamina. When he looked ahead, his heart rose at the sight of several groups of people spread out up and down the walkway. They couldn’t do anything to him out in the open with so many witnesses!

  A hand wrenched him from the ground so forcefully the thoughts in his head felt as though they’d been yanked out of his mind. Suddenly he was airborne
, and a second later he was rolling through the shrubbery before slamming into a fallen tree trunk. He ignored the pain and struggled to his feet. His attackers were casually walking up the hill toward him. Up the hill! He’d been thrown off the path and through the woods, uphill!

  Jelani looked around desperately for an escape route, but the only option was into the woods, since those two were between him and the walkway. He pulled out his knife, but it felt almost inconsequential in his hand. The big man noted the weapon and scoffed.

  “Those were some nice moves back there with that little fingernail pick. Think you can do it again?”

  “Think you wanna find out?” Jelani retorted, trying to buy some time to think.

  “Sure,” the big man said, now directly in front of him. He’d traversed the dozen or so feet in less than a second.

  Jelani pushed aside his shock and stabbed upward, but the man caught his wrist in a grip as hard as steel. He winced, and the big man squeezed, bringing him to his knees.

  “Heh, heh. Looks like you caught yourself another snack,” the blond haired man said from behind. “But since he interrupted mine, I think it’s only fair that we share this one.”

  What were these guys? They were talking about him like he was food? Were they cannibals? Then he saw the inconceivable truth. The big man’s eyes, which had gone brown again, faded back to that grotesque milky white color, and he leaned his head back, baring a set of elongated canines as his mouth opened impossibly wide. Jelani struggled to free himself, but the effort yielded no result. This cannot friggin’ be real! he thought just as his face was splattered with blood, and the man released his arm and fell over.