Nicholas woke as the last light of day was fading over the edge of the mountains. His eyes opened but no other movement signaled his waking. He didn’t even breathe. Fatigue hung over him like a shroud but the weariness was more psychological than a representative of any physical need. He clambered out from beneath his blankets and was no colder than he had been beneath them.
The sky had been partially clear during the day and a few patches of stars could still be seen as he crawled out of his tent. The night was quite bright at least intermittently; the moon was a wonderful source of illumination until a patch of cloud would pass by and make everything dark until it was gone again. The forest was much as he had left it the night before. Nicholas donned the gun belt holding his Smith and Wesson Russian, then secured his Mosin-Nagant rifle and finally the five gallon gas can that had brought him out so far before breaking down his tent. He went through the motions lethargically, but regardless with his practiced hand everything was stowed away in his pack before the last traces of the light had disappeared completely. Hoisting up the gas can in his left hand and holding his Mosin with his right he started to march.
The strap on the rifle had broken two days previous when he had been tracking a pack of wolves which had set up a den somewhere near the cabin he had been occupying for the past few weeks. A layer of snow had shifted beneath him sending him tumbling down a small hill. The fall had been minor but he had landed at just the perfect inconvenient angle to snag the strap on a tree and then snap it with his weight. He’d still yet to repair it. Consequently, he was forced to hold it in his hand on his trek back to the cabin.
The trip was long and uneventful. Before lying down to sleep for the day Nicholas had surmised that he probably had between ten and twenty kilometers left to go. With no other soul about, he travelled with only his footsteps as his companions. People walking alone sometimes hum or vocalize their thoughts but he made no sound besides the soft crunch of his boots in the snow. His progress was slow at first but steady and as time went on he found his pace increasing as his frustration with the endless cold and desire to reach his shelter grew greater than the dispiritedness that had rendered him sluggish.
He smelled the strangers before he could see them. Instantly, Nicholas froze and strained his ears, pitting his concentration and aural perception against the sound of the wind in the trees and the thousand other noises of the forest at night one only notices when one has something else they’re trying to hear. At first there was nothing, and then a voice, and then two voices. Both of them belonged to men.
Slowly, Nicholas put down the gas can and pulled his white kerchief up over his nose. His smock and fatigues were winter camouflage making him nearly invisible against the snow in the dark. Crouching down he moved closer to the sound until he felt sure that it came from over a rise just in front of him. Then he descended all the way to his belly and began to creep forward once again, pushing his way through half a meter of snow as he moved until at last he reached the very top of the hill.
Below him were three individuals. Two were the men he had heard before; they stood close to one another and by now appeared quite animated. The third was farther back and difficult to make out but seemed shorter and of slighter build, either a woman or a teenaged boy. Carefully, so as not to alert the three Nicholas began to move his Mosin into a position where he could take advantage of its optics to take a closer look.
“That wasn’t what we’d agreed Heniek.”
“I know of that, but it is all I have so you will have to take it.”
“I’m not just going to let you rob me because you say that’s all you have.”
“No one else is going to take her.”
“I was taking her to Lemburg I will find a buyer there. I was going to sell her to you only because of the offer you made.”
‘Heniek’ wore a large red coat which was almost a beacon in the dark and appeared so puffed outwards he must have had at least two and probably three other layers of clothing underneath. He was tall and well-built, but moved with a subtle grace that suggested total comfort in shifting his large frame about. He was speaking in German but through a thick Polish accent.
The other man spoke German fluently albeit slowly and with deliberate pronunciation which Nicholas guessed was for the other man’s benefit. He was shorter and walked back and forth as he spoke hunched over with his hands in his pockets. His clothing appeared too slight for the weather, green fatigues and a well-worn jacket which had the look of military surplus about them. There was nothing graceful about him and as he walked he shivered in the cold and kept straining his eyes nervously into the darkness as if seeking some unseen threat. His gaze was useless; it never wandered close to where Nicholas lay.
Behind them and sitting beside a kerosene lamp which lit the scene was the third figure. It was certainly a female by the way the men were talking. She couldn’t have been older than nineteen at the most and probably closer to seventeen. Thin as a rail, no breasts to speak of, but with long auburn tresses. Her face might have been pretty but her eyes were sunken and features were gaunt, symptomatic of malnutrition and fatigue. She sat with her arms wrapped around her legs and shivering from the cold in only a thin fabric coat and without gloves. As she sat she stared intently at the kerosene lamp and to all appearances seemed dead to the world. From the men’s gestures it was apparent that she was the object they were bartering over.
There was a sound of permanency about the arrangement which suggested to Nicholas that the seller was not a pimp and after all no one would go so far into the woods for a simple tryst. Slavery under one name or another had and would always exist. If Nicholas bothered to confront him directly the seller might have stammered something about marriage contracts and a father’s right to do what he liked with his children. He certainly looked old enough to be her father.
By any other name it was still of little concern to Nicholas preferred to spend as much time as possible as far from civilization as possible and held no moral qualms about what the humans there did to one another. Regardless, the presence of such calculating men wouldn’t be missed too dearly by anyone and was an opportunity he wasn’t about to let pass by
They conducted this business in the black of night which showed a sense of shame or at least fear. Nicholas gauged that meant that they had not told anyone where they were going before leaving; with the unintended consequence that no one would know where to look for them if they didn’t return. He secured the rifle stock against his shoulder, deactivated the safety, and slipped his finger inside the guard and around the trigger.
“You say you are going the Lwow but you have been in the village for six days. You don’t have any food or the transport to take you to Lwow. Give the girl to me and you will have plenty of provisions.”
“That wasn’t the deal Heniek, give me what we agreed to and take her right now.”
“I cannot do that.”
“Ah!” The second man threw his hands up in the air and began to pace back and forth more rapidly. “You must give me at least two thirds of what we agreed. Half is no good, she will be very good to you, I know it.”
The two men were both silent for a long time as Heniek pondered and the second man paced.
“Very well, you’ve fleeced me so closely you’ve drawn blood but we have a deal. I will-”
Heniek’s head exploded into a shower of blood, brain and bone as the 7.62 rimmed from Nicholas’ Mosin struck him directly in the left temple. Time slowed as his legs collapsed from under him and he sank into the snow. The second man watched his customer crumple to the ground then turned to face the position from which Nicholas had fired. Now his gaze did find Nicholas and he stood there facing the rifle with an expression too stupefied to be frightened. The shot took him in the neck and he joined Heniek in the snow.
As soon as the second shot had been fired Nicholas had chambered his third and ran down the hill to where the two men lay. The sound of the gunshots would travel but even if the village they spoke of was only a couple kilometers away Nicholas didn’t expect any foolhardy investigators would be forthcoming in the middle of the night. The girl hadn’t made a noise but rose to her feet and eyed his approach with a look of frenzied apprehension on her face. He pointed the gun in her direction.
“Sit back down. Stay where you are or I’ll kill you too.”
The girl didn’t sit but remained frozen in shock. Unwilling to wait for her to become responsive Nicholas ignored her and stooped over the body of her impoverished father. The bullet had left a sizable wound but the man was still staring upwards in terror. He was gurgling and struggling to breathe as the blood began to run down his throat and into his lungs. Nicholas reached down to the scabbard on his belt and drew his bowie knife from it. He used the knife to open the wound further.
He spared a look up at the girl. Her hands were clenched in fists so tight her knuckles were bone white though that may have been the result of the cold. A look of utter resentment was in her features. She wore a kind of pure hatred with which he was only too familiar and under the circumstances was not so surprising. As he traced the path of her eyes though they were directed not at Nicholas but at the dying man whose head he was nearly cradling. That man looked right back at her and even with his murderer looming over him he never turned his gaze away from the girl. He was still looking into her eyes when Nicholas pulled down his kerchief and lifted the body up to place his mouth against the weeping wound.
At last the hot blood was pumping into his mouth and he could feel the warmth spread through his whole body. The whole world fell away around them as they were locked together in a twisted embrace. For that brief space of time, Nicholas’ troubles and anxiety were forgotten as his body shuddered with wet ecstasy. Then the flow began to slow until finally as the heart failed it ceased completely. Finished he let the body fall back to earth.
A great deal of the men’s blood had already left their bodies and now ran through the snow, but some would remain within until coaxed out by gravity. Nicholas could only carry one of the bodies with him, but even that would be troublesome and unwieldly with his gas can.
“You, girl.” Nicholas turned to find that the girl had finally sat back down as he’d ordered. She didn’t respond when he addressed her. She just kept her eyes fixed on the corpse he had just laid down. “What’s your name?”
“Emmy.” She replied still without taking her eyes from the cadaver at Nicholas’ feet who could only return her enmity with his own empty gaze.
“Who were these men, Emmy?”
“He was my father.” She said, her unmoving eyes indicating the unnamed man. “I never met the other man; father met him in the village where we were staying. He was going to…”
“Sell you to him.” She had hesitated and Nicholas finished her sentence for her, her voice was breaking and she seemed on the verge of tears. He realized he needed to get her to focus on something if he wanted her to be useful. “I’m sorry to hear that,” He lied. “but you need to do what I tell you now or I’ll kill you just like I killed him. I left a jerry can filled with gasoline a little ways from here. I can’t carry that and one of these bodies so you’ll need to carry the gas for me.” She still stared, now vacant eyed, at her father’s inert form so he stepped in front of her view. “Do you understand me?”
Gradually her eyes traced his form upwards from his feet all the way until she was looking into his eyes. “I understand.”
“Good then grab that lantern and follow me.”
The two of them made their way back to the gasoline together with Nicholas being sure to keep her in front of him at all times. She carried the gas can while he carried the body of Heniek.
A rapid pat down of the bodies had revealed that the girl’s father carried nothing on his person save for a small Swiss army knife and a lighter both of which Nicholas had quickly pocketed. He’d pulled off the man’s boots which he tied together by the shoelaces looped through his belt. He also took the dead man’s coat which he threw over his shoulder. Once he was finished he had dragged the girl’s father beneath some shrubbery. It was hardly an impenetrable hiding place but he hoped the vastness of the forest would make it redundant in any case.
Heniek had a number of possessions and Nicholas judged a greater remaining supply of blood in his more stout form and so he had chosen that cadaver to be the third member of their procession back to the cabin. He rigged the Pole’s belt into a make shift tourniquet around his neck which Nicholas hoped would keep as much of the blood in him as possible. Then he tossed him over his shoulder as well over the coat.
The march passed in silence. The girl kept the lantern held before her as her eyes cast about at the shadows on the edge of its radius, though whether she looked for some hostile entity or some potential rescuer Nicholas could not guess. In less than an hour they had reached the cabin. Once it was in sight Nicholas laid down his burden beside a suitably tall tree and began to strip Heniek of his garments.
“Turn off the lantern then put it and the gas can down by the door. After that fetch a rope from the back of the car.” Nicholas said pointing first at the cabin and then at the UAZ-469 parked in the open carport beside it.
The girl went slowly forward and then looked back at him for a moment on the threshold of the door before vanishing inside. By the time she’d returned with the rope the body was already stripped naked. As he took the rope from her, he gave further instructions. “Now take the clothes and the boots and put them inside the house, wherever is fine. There’s firewood and matches by the stove, get it lit.”
The girl made her way into the cabin and Nicholas proceeded to string up the body from the tree by its feet. Once he was satisfied that it was secure he entered the cabin to fetch a basin and found the girl in the process of coaxing the kindling to burn. Going back outside he placed the basin beneath the body and took a perverse satisfaction from the gasp he heard behind him as he sped the drainage process by removing Heniek’s head completely with a swing of his Bowie. When he turned around she had already fled back inside. He flung the head off into the woods as a gift for the crows.
When Nicholas returned inside the cabin, the fire in the stove had started to burn. The house was a moderate affair with only one major area to speak of which served as a bedroom, kitchen and dining room. Aside from this open space there was also a bathroom and a small pantry. It was fitted with electric lights but he had already siphoned off what little gasoline he had found remaining from the generator for his auto. Now it was lit up only by the fire. He remembered seeing a number of candles during his initial search of the place but he hadn’t seen much point to using them there by himself. Now he fetched them from a cabinet next to the ice chest, lit them from the stove and placed them around the house.
The girl had retreated to a wooden chair in the kitchen and dining area as far back from the door as possible. He put down a candle next to her chosen spot thinking that it might help to calm her. As amusing as he found her shock at his decapitation of the corpse he didn’t want her to panic completely and do something unexpected as a result. Despite the additional light she still watched him terrified.
“You’re doing just fine. Now I want you to look through the kitchen and find the deepest cooking pot you can and then go outside and fill it with snow.” Nicholas kept his tone steady to keep her composed. He quickly finished his illumination of the room and turned to other matters. “After that put it on the stove and once it’s warmed up use that to wash these clothes.”
The girl did as she was told and after a minute of searching left the cabin. She could try and run Nicholas surmised but in that case all he stood to lose was a pan he wouldn’t take with him anyway and she wouldn’t get far running through the woods alone at night in the snow without supplies or directions. In fact, a chase might serve as an entertaining diversion with the promise of a prize of further hot blood.
His speculating was pointless. The girl returned and set the snow to heat. By the time she had finished he was already sifting through Henry’s apparel and pulling everything from the pockets. She remained standing over the pot watching the flakes disappear.
Heniek carried a pack of Russian cigarettes with only two missing, a miniature box of matches with roughly half the sticks remaining, a sandwich in a plastic bag which didn’t amount to more than a slice of ham and another of cheese between two pieces of bread, a bottle of vodka with a quarter of a liter remaining, a silver pocket watch no longer running, and several mostly empty boxes of 23mm shotgun shells.
Remaining in the boxes was one shell of buckshot and one slug, presumably samples for the girl’s father, but nothing else. Evidently, Heniek had a payment stash set up somewhere in the woods with, if the boxes were at one time full, 46 shotgun shells in it. Regrettably, the knowledge of its location had likely died with him.
Nicholas took everything and threw the clothes nearer to the stove. He put the empty boxes into the flames to further nurse the newly born fire.
“Are you hungry?”
The girl turned to face Nicholas but made no other response.
“When was the last time you ate?”
Nicholas began to fear that her wits had gone completely but after a moment’s hesitation she replied. “Lunch.”
“Then you’re hungry. Here.” He tossed the sandwich to her. “It’ll be stale as a rock in a bit if it isn’t already so eat it.”
The girl made no verbal reply but wearily sat with her back to the wall near the stove keeping Nicholas before her and began removing the plastic. She gave the food a cautious sniff then bit into it.
With his prisoner temporarily busied Nicholas took a seat in the kitchen and began cleaning his Mosin, being careful to leave his revolver openly displayed on the table directly in front of him lest she think of trying something rash while his rifle was unavailable. At length the snow melt had warmed sufficiently to be used for cleaning and she began rinsing out the dead man’s garb.
Nicholas tried to think of what he ought to do with her. The girl was responding well to instruction given the circumstances. She seemed to not have cared much for her father though considering he was trying to sell her as a slave, or more charitably to the dead man, arranging a bride price to get rid of her, that was hardly surprising. He didn’t think that it would be strictly necessary to kill her.
She had blood inside of her but he felt comfortably sated in that respect. He still sensed the man’s warm stolen blood in his veins at last driving out the chill which hadn’t left him for the past several days. More of the precious liquid was waiting outside. It would be cold but it would still be blood and Nicholas could hardly wait to feel it running thickly down his throat.
“Are you going to kill me too?”
The girl’s question came so suddenly Nicholas found himself momentarily dazed as he was pulled from his reverie.
“I will if you do something stupid, but I wasn’t planning on it. I’ll be leaving here soon, so when I do you’ll be free to go back where you came from.” The girl gave no indication of wanting to speak so he continued. “Where do you come from? Is your mother out there somewhere waiting for you?”
“I don’t know.” Nicholas wasn’t sure which of his questions she referred to or whether her answer was meant to serve for both. “Father and I came to the village days ago.”
“Well you’ll be able to go back there tomorrow or the day after at the latest.”
“I don’t know the way.” She mumbled almost as though she were speaking to herself.
“I can’t help you, neither do I. But it must be within a half a dozen kilometers of here. You’ll find it eventually probably.”
“What will I tell them happened to my father and that man?”
“The truth.” Nicholas let the suggestion hang and turned his attention back to his Mosin. He stowed away the cleaning rod once he was finished and began to maneuver the bolt back into place.
The girl spoke up again. “What are you?”
“A monster.”
“I need to know what to tell the people at the village.”
“Tell them a monster killed them in the forest and dragged one of them off. You saw blood and ran without knowing the way back which is why it took you so long. You don’t need to tell them any more than that.”
“I want to know.”
For the first time the girl seemed insistent on something, so Nicholas decided to sate her curiosity. “I died once, but I had unfinished business here I decided I couldn’t just leave. I am a revenant, a soul which has returned to its corpse to reanimate it.”
“Will they believe that?”
“Who?”
“The people in the village.”
Nicholas considered a moment. “My first thought would likely be that you and your father killed Heniek and then he had abandoned you and I’m sure at least someone will suggest that. If they’re feeling particularly suspicious they might even accuse you of killing both of them. Of course, it would be quite difficult for an unarmed girl like you to kill two men. I’m sure if you present yourself miserably enough though you’ll win yourself a compassionate audience. Yes, they’ll probably believe you.”
“But if they don’t…” She let her thought trail off.
“You don’t have to go back to the village. You’re free to stay here after I leave. I found non-perishables in the pantry when I first arrived, enough for a while at least. You could take some supplies and set out for some other place.”
With the bolt back in place Nicholas reloaded the rifle and put it down on the kitchen table. Nearly half of the clothes remained and the girl no longer seemed to be making progress and instead kept her gaze pressed fully upon him.
“Where are you going?” The girl asked.
Nicholas placed Heniek’s pack of cigarettes on the table in front of him and debated whether it was worth it to burn something he could trade later for the luxury of a smoke. He decided it was and tried the lighter he’d taken from the girl’s father. He found that the flint still good but there was no fuel remaining. Instead he used one of Heniek’s matches and when he had finally finished with the procedure found the girl still watching him expectantly. He threw the box of matches to her. She deftly pulled them out of the air but the moment she had them flicked her eyes back to him.
“Put the rest of the matches on the stove into the box.”
The girl did as she was bid still silently waiting for an answer.
“I’m going northeast. I’m looking for someone.”
“Can I come with you?”
It was the question he’d sensed she’d been angling towards but it still left him baffled. “I’m looking for someone because I intend to kill them once I find them, just like I killed your father a few hours ago. Why would you want to come with me?”
“I don’t know where else to go.”
“You certainly don’t have much loyalty for your flesh and blood. How do I know you’re not planning to try and kill me the second I take my eyes off you?”
“I’m not!” The girl seemed almost insulted by the suggestion. “I hated- I’m glad you-” She stopped short. “I’m not.” She finished with an air of finality.
“Go outside and see if the body has finished draining, if so bring the basin back in here.” Nicholas spoke carefully to give no visible response to her outburst. The girl was gone for a few minutes then returned bearing the basin of blood.
“Put it here.” Nicholas tapped on the the table in front of him and she did as she was told. He took up the basin then tilted it back to drink in the cold corpse blood. It possessed none of the enthralling qualities of the hot fresh sanguinity but still the draught left him fortified. He finished and placed it back onto the table and found the girl still had not moved. They stared at one another.
“Can I come with you?”
He knew that he should say no.
He always had a system he kept to when scavenging that he would never leave behind anything of value. Over the years it had become so engrained that the very idea of abandoning something he might later use made his skin crawl. Now he felt that looking at the girl. Of what use she could be he had no idea but still he couldn’t get the notion that she might have value out of his head.
“I’m not interested in caring for some orphan and after all you’re old enough to look after yourself. If you travel with me you’ll promise to serve me and do whatever I say without hesitation. I don’t carry useless baggage with me. If you come with me and become a liability I won’t just leave you, I’ll kill you and drain you just like the man outside. Do you understand?”
The girl nodded her assent.
“Fine, then when you finish cleaning and set the clothes to dry, go into the pantry and start moving all the non-perishable food into the UAZ. There’s also another lantern and more kerosene in there so consolidate all the fuel and take that as well. Lastly, melt more snow and heat it to a boil and then store it in whatever closed bottles you can find.” The girl went back to the pile of clothes and Nicholas rose and looked out at the sky from the window. “If I don’t miss my guess there will be heavy clouds tomorrow. If so, then we leave at daybreak, if not then we wait. Either way you should get some rest as soon as your work is finished. You can take the bed, I don’t need it.”
“Thank-you.”
“Don’t thank me. You’d be better off staying here or in the village. If you don’t impress me then you’re nothing but a portable source of warm blood to me.” So saying he took the pile of blankets out of his pack and added them to those on the bed before picking them all up save one and taking them into the bathroom. There was only one door with a lock inside the house and despite her protestations of her earnest desire to join him; Nicholas intended to place it between them before he went to sleep.