You know those footsteps you hear when you’re walking home alone? Those few extra tap’s and pitter patters that take place after you make your own? You turn around knowing no one else is around, see nothing and right it off as the same.
Nothing.
You couldn’t be any more wrong.
Those extra steps are dangerous. Those extra steps are only a few feet behind your demise. Oh, but don’t worry whatever makes those noises isn’t what will end you. It’s what their running from that will. Yes, you heard me.
Running.
They’re running from the end. You can’t see what’s making them; they’re already dead of course. They’re the hurried footsteps of the people running from the entity chasing them. They’re not ghosts, just the entity trying to scare you. But the worst part is when the footsteps stop.
Because that means the entity has caught up. That means it’s time for you to run.
So, when you hear extra steps on your walk home, wherever it may be from, run. Run as fast as you can. Run like your life depends on it, because quite frankly.
It does.
Because remember, when the footsteps stop. He’s found you, and he will
Kill you.
I’ve been trying to kill this monster for as long as I can remember. As long as I can remember isn’t a very long time, I am only 15 years of age. I’ve been hunting the entity ever since a package came in the mail around my 13th birthday. In it was a drawing of the beast and the information above on how to avoid it. I have lost the package since then, but not the information it gave me. The information I just gave you. It was given to me by my parent’s, I thought of it as a way to feed my lust for the occult. I did not know it was a warning.
I wish I had known.
My house was attacked, ransacked by the beast a week later. My parents were prepared, they knew what to do. My parents knew about the footsteps. My parents knew about the signs.
I wish my parents were alive.
My parents were killed by the beast, ripped apart and devoured. They used themselves as bait and a distraction so I could get away. So I could live. They believed I would be able to defeat the monster. They told me it’s secret the day we were attacked. As soon as they heard the footsteps
I wish I could remember what happened.
The mere sight of seeing my parents destroyed didn’t take away my memory. Not even seeing the monster or having it chase me through the house and the forest around it could. The thing that took away my memories was its eyes. Its eyes full of darkness and an icy black chill. Looking at those eyes took away my memory, but it also made the monster leave me alone.
I wish I knew why it left me alone. I wish I knew its secret.
Next thing I knew I was awake in a foreign city, the only thing I had was the package and the memory of parents being killed. I wish it had never happened.
I wish wishes would come true.
It was there, in the middle of a street on a land I had never been before I vowed to kill the beast. I couldn’t even remember my own name, so I named myself.
My name is Vanquish. This is my story.
“Hey kid,” a stallion says walking up to me, “Are you the Vanquish I’ve heard so much about?”
“And what if I am?” I get up off the bench I had been sitting on. The man stops walking.
“N-nothing,” he stammers, “I might have a job for you, that’s all.” Ever since waking up in this town I have been on the hunt. A hunt for anything, any information on the beast. I am not naïve enough to go looking for the beast, I am not strong enough. I am looking for its weakness, and its strengths. The best way to do this is to find a job that involves a lot of people. A job that also involves danger so I may become stronger. A job like assassination. In this twisted land people are no longer able to settle things with reason, only force. But not by their own hands, they require the hands of others to be sullied. This is how the Assassin’s Guilds became formed. We originally only existed to take out our own. But in the last few years the beast has raised monsters to join his legion. We fight those now as well. I used to be in one of those Guild’s, the Headhunters. I joined when we were put on monster killing duty thinking I could find more information on the beast. I became famous because of my exploits, my story being told around the land as Vanquish the Avenger. The youngest assassin. I left the guild when I discovered that we were also taking jobs to kill things other than monsters. Now I’ve got a price on my head from the whole guild. I work on my own now with my partner. We work together to take out the monsters and the occasional corrupt politician.
“A job?” I ask, “What kind of job? You should know I don’t take out other ponies before you even ask,”
“No, d-don’t worry about that,” he stumbles on his words, “I need you to take out a Vegra. It- it killed my family last week. I want to see it suffer,”
“A Vegra?” I ask, “Is that what you people call the monsters now?”
“Y-yes,” he says, “Their existence wasn’t known until recently, a closely guarded government secret. But not until you and the Headhunters took them out and spread the word to everyone. Speaking of the Headhunters, where are they? Shouldn’t you have two or three more with you?”
“I left the guild,” me leaving the guild is something quite recent, “I do not associate myself with them nor do I pay them any penance. If that will sway your job offer please go now,”
“N-no, don’t worry you can still have the job. I-if you want it that is,”
“I might,” I say, “Depending on what you have to offer me,”
“I have information on Pandora’s Box,” Pandora’s Box is what they call the package I had. They call it that because anyone who has opens it knows the beast’s secret. They call it that because anyone who opens it becomes the beast’s top killing priority. I have been searching for it ever since I came to this town.
“Pandora? You had better not be pulling my leg,” I say sternly, “You should know how I deal with liars,”
“Oh believe me, I do,” he pulls out a sack of clanging metal, “I have 100,00 bits to pay in advance for you services,”
“Hmmm,” I think on this, my income has been slow recently, “What grade is this Vegra?”
“A grade five now,” he says, “But it can absorb others. It will become powerful very quickly,” Vegra’s are spilt into seven strength levels, with seven being the weakest and one being the strongest. This thing is obviously not that powerful, not for an assassin.
“I’ll do it,” I say, “As long as you swear that you have information on Pandora and will not falsify it,”
“I swear,” he says handing out the money, “Here is your advance payment good sir. Pleasure doing business with you,”
“Just don’t forget the information,” I say taking the money in my hoof, “You had better hurry home, it’s about to rain. Take someone with you.” On my travels I have discovered some very important information about the beast. One of the most essential is its love of water, especially fresh water from the clouds. This town is famous for its constant rainstorms; I need to get out of it as soon as possible. I am closed in on all sides from the other towns by the guild so just walking out is not an option. They believe the beast will kill me here, or they will kill me when I try to leave.
“O-okay, thanks I guess. I’ll do that,” the stallion turns around and walks off. I really hope he gets someone to accompany him there; it would suck if my client got killed by my prey. The rain is dribbling down now, I should go. I turn around and begin to walk home.
I stroll through town and decide to take a quick stop at a bakery for a loaf of bread. I make sure to keep my hood up as I walk through the store; my physical appearance is not a normal one. I am a black Pegasus with red and white mane, red is not a normal color for a pony’s hair. My mane is what gave me my code-name Code Red; some still call me that today even after learning my true persona. I walk through the aisles trying to find a loaf of sourdough, my partner loves sourdough. It’s her favorite. As I walk up to aisle with a loaf in hand a little foal reaches out and pulls my hood down. It was just an accident but as soon as my red hair comes out of the hood everyone’s eyes are on me. You can sell your soul they know who I am.
“Guards!” someone screams, “Code Red is in the bakery, come quick. He’s here; he’s going to kill us!” I would never harm innocents, but they do not know that. Just being in that guild has made me a serial-killer. Leaving it means nothing; my reputation stays with me forever. I set a few bits on the counter to pay for the bread and run out the door. Something you should know about me is that I am unable to fly. The beast did something to me at some point to make it that way, which leads me to believe he is farther up in elevation.
“Vanquish,” I hear another pony behind me yell, “We’ve got you now you dirty assassin,” Judging by their footsteps there must be around five or six pony’s behind me. No unicorns luckily or they would have shot at me already. I run as fast as my hooves will let me, trying to take the fight out of the town. I don’t want any bystanders getting hurt.
“Okay,” I say as soon as any trace of ponies disappears, “Let’s get this show on the road,” I can see the guards running at me; they’re about thirty to forty paces away. I take out my twin knives in my hooves and prepare for battle. I’ve gotten myself stuck in an alley, so if anything goes wrong I’ll be fine.
“Die you filth!” one of the guards shouts swinging his tomahawk down at my head. I hold my knives out in an x formation to block the swing. His steel hits mine and we stand there holding our blades against each other, locked in combat. I slide my knives apart, effectively popping his blade up in the air. I use this moment to kick his hind legs out from under him and send him toppling over on his back side. The tomahawk is still in his hand I notice as he sits up and swings it at me again with his foreleg. I duck under it and punch straight up under his shoulder, effectively breaking it and dislocating his arm. He cries out in pain and throws his tomahawk up in the air. I catch it in my teeth in midair, spin it around and toss it down the alley cutting the blades off the others guard’s axes. I run up to the mass of now unarmed guards, spin around onto my forelegs and buck the frontal guard in the face with my hind legs.
“Aaaaaah,” he screams out in pain as he topples over knocking over another guard. I jump on top of the fallen guard and kick off of his chest, knocking him out and launching myself into the air. Running across the wall I float down right behind the other two guards. I skid back and jump forward towards the guard, head butting the rear guard in the back. The guard in front of him steps out of the way of the falling guard.
“You’ll have to try better than that,” he says reaching under his coat. He draws a saber from under his coat and swings it down at me. I roll out of the way of his saber and draw my knives again. Spinning around on my back I block his saber with one of my knives.
“Same goes to you,” I say as I take my knife and plunge it into his arm holding the blade. I hear nothing but a clanging sound when I do.
“Ha!” he says, “That won’t work on a cyborg. My arms made of metal ever since you hacked it off in out last fight Vanquish,” I spin under his blade and kick him off of me. I stand up on my two hind legs and say,
“Last time? I’ve fought you before?”
“Yes you have,” he says, “I am Colonel Buck. Well I was until you defeated me, but I will kill you and reclaim my position” he charges at me with his foil and swings in a horizontal arc at my chest.
“Oh, I remember you,” I sidestep back and thrust my blade at his other arm, “Yeah; I really did kick your ass didn’t I?” He parries my stab and slashes again.
“Yes, but you didn’t kill me,” I block his slash and swing up at his face. He bends back under my knife, just like I wanted him too. I spin around and kick his legs out from under him.
“I didn’t kill you because,” I bring my leg up, “I will never kill a pony again.” He looks up at me at fear; my foot right in his chest stops any looking in his face. He is knocked unconscious, drooling all over the concrete. All of the guards have been taken out, or so I thought.
“Hey, Vanquish,” the guard with the broken shoulder says, “You’ve lost,”
“And why is that?” I ask walking towards the guard ready to deliver the final blow and knock him out completely.
“We know your weakness,” he says coughing, “While you were busy fighting the Colonel I called a Pegasus platoon. Three are coming here right n-,” He wasn’t able to finish his sentence because I kicked him the stomach a bit too hard. But whatever, I have Pegasi to deal with now.
“Code Red,” I hear somepony whisper, “We know you’re in here somewhere.” I had decided that the best option was to hide in a low roofed building. I would have the advantage of mobility and they would lose their ability to fly. This was a great plan until they turned the power off. They have night-vision magically implemented goggles while I’m going off of nothing but sound and intuition. I vowed after that government facility raid to never to kill another pony. Not after I killed Rift.
“Peek-a-boo,” I hear someone say, “Where are you Vanquiiiish?” They hadn’t called in just any fleet of Pegasus, a fleet of Nuts. Pegasus that have been fused with Vegra genes to create a super breed of ponies. The experiments failed and drove the Pegasus used in them insane, creating living, breathing, maniacal killing machines. If these were Vegra they’d easily be Grade 5, and I have three of them trying to kill me at once.
“WHERE ARE YOU!” one of them screams and a big orange light flashes. I guess one of them has a flamethrower, and I know where she is. She’s close. The other two are a problem though. I peek my head around what I believe to be a shelf and see two big, green, glowing circles looking right at me.
“We’ve found you,” I can see the pony’s inhuman smile from the glow of her goggles. She turns her flamethrower on and runs at me. Her weapon is just hanging behind, making a trail of fire as she runs. I turn around and book it as fast as I can away from her.
“Tag?” she says, “I LOVE TAG!” She screams in delight as she chases me, everything catching on fire as she does. I away from her and run around the shelves making a left, a left, another left and one more left. I have effectively closed us off from the outside by a ring of fire.
“One on one,” I say, “Just how I like it,”
“WHAT!” she screams, “YOU CAN’T DO THAT. THAT’S AGAINST THE RULES,” she swings her fire-blower at me but I step out of its way and avoid the flames.
“I think killing the other player is against the rules as well,” I duck under her next attack. I don’t see a way to go on the offensive against this type of weapon. I have no way of blocking it, and nothing to use as a makeshift shield. All I got are my two knives, oh, and the bread. Wait a second.
“Sorry Chain’s,” I say and toss the bread at the pony. The Nut’s looks up at it arc in the air and torches it with her flamethrower. Her distraction is perfect. I pull out a knife and toss it straight at the fuel canister attached to flame-thrower. This lets the fuel ignite all at once and explode, catching the psycho-pony completely on fire.
“AAAAAAH,” she screams and falls to the ground, “AAAAAAH.” I here footsteps coming towards the flame, it appears I alerted the other two of my position as well. They can’t get to me though, I’m completely boxed in.
“We found youuuu,” they say in unison as they step through the fire. They come out of it with nothing but charred remains of what they used to be, smiling, laughing even. They laugh and laugh, hollering at their new forms.
“This is perfecccct,” they say, “Now get up number three. We have work to do,” Number three gets up silently a huge smile across her face. The smile is the only part of her face that isn’t burned off. The skin and hair is completely gone, leaving nothing but eye sockets and a smile.
“Yes, it is,” she says, “Now we can KILL HIM!” The three of them run at me knives at the ready. I have no plan, what can I do to stop them?
“You have a knife,” a voice inside of me says, “You could just kill them, and don’t say you can’t”
“I can’t kill them,” I say to the voice, “I will never kill again,”
“Well then, if you can’t” the voice says, “I will.” That’s when I heard them, the footsteps.
“Tap. Tap. Tap.” That’s all it took to freeze the Pegasus in their steps, they turn their heads in the direction of the footsteps.
“Tap. Tap. Tap.” They turn their heads back to me, smiling as usual. But it was too late.
“Tap. Tap,” they were already dead, “Tap.” In one moment the fire goes out and the room is plunged back into darkness. The beast is here.
“AAAAAAAHHH,” screams of anguish is all I hear. That and the sound of crunching bones and squishing flesh. The beast was devouring his prey. In only a few moments the lights all turn back on and I am left looking at a pile of flesh. A pile of blood covered, headless, mangled, half-devoured Pegasus flesh. The beast is gone, but not its voice.
“Vanquish, Vanquish, Vanquish,” it says, “Been a while since I’ve talked to you hasn’t it?”
“Yes,” I say, “A year actually, right before I joined the guild,”
“Oh yes, the guild. Joining that was the best decision we ever made,”
“We?” I ask, “There is no we, just me. The pony that is going to kill you,”
“Kill me?” it burst out into a maniacal laugh, “A little filly like you is going to kill me? Good luck with that, you’ll need it,”
“I’ve gotten closer, closer to Pandora,” I say, “I know that thing holds your secret, your true weakness,”
“And what if I kill you right now? What then?”
“You can’t though,” I say, “Pandora has my name on it, and I am the only person who is allowed to touch it. You need me to destroy it,”
“Well yes, that is true,” it says, “You’ve made great progress by the way in finding the box. It only took you two years to figure out I love rain. It’s been two years and that’s all you know. You found your brother, but killed him on the spot. You have figured out the secret behind the footsteps, but everyone knows that. You’ve spent two years looking for a box, a box with information you already have and a drawing. A bunch of scribbles really. Why don’t you just give up? You’ll never beat me and you know it,”
“Oh but I will,” I say, “Even though it has been two years of fruitless effort it has not been wasted. I am four times as strong as I was before, I can defeat a great multitude of your minions”
“Oh?” it asks, “Well I guess you have gotten stronger, but not enough. You can only kill up to a grade three, and barely live at that. We all know how well that went at the Facility siege last month,”
“But I will work my way to a grade one,” I say, “And when I kill them all, and find those scribbles. I’m coming for you, so be ready. Because I will kill you,”
“That’s great kid,” it says, “I’ll be waiting. See you around.” Just as soon as it comes, the presence and voice disappear. I take a deep breath and allow myself to deflate finally. That was my first time seeing the beast in a year; it hasn’t become any weaker at all. It was right about me not making much progress, but it’s still progress. Well, I guess it’s about time I got home, Chain is probably wondering where I wandered off to.
The rain stopped as soon as got to my home, well my temporary home. My house is way on the far side of town inside a tree. Chain and I both live here for now until further notice. We’re waiting for a friend to come pick us up in his blimp. That’s not supposed to happen for another month though sadly.
“A cold, wet and injured Pegasus would like to come inside,” I say as I knock on the door. I hear footsteps running down the stairs to the door. A clanking of keys and the doorknob and the door is thrown open revealing the face of my best friend, Chain. All she can do at the sight of me is burst into tears and jump into a tackle hug, almost stabbing me with her horn.
“Where have you been?” she yells at me behind tears, “You were supposed to be home hours ago. I was worried sick about you,”
“I ran into some trouble on the way home after work,” I forgot to mention that I work at a bookstore downtown, “I got injured in the process so you jumping on top of me and shoving me into cold stones is not helping.” She gets up off me after hearing the word “injured” and says,
“Injured? You got yourself hurt?” she allows me to get back on all fours, “How did that happen?”
“It’s a long story,” I say walking into the house, “Basically I got attacked by five government earth ponies and three Nuts,”
“Three what!?” she exclaims, “Sit down and tell me what happened right this moment,” I sit down in a recliner and she take a seat next to me to examine my wounds. I tell her all about what had happened. She listens intently and almost goes into a state of shock when I mention the beast. Both Chain and I have the same goal, to kill the beast. We have both seen Pandora but the beast only knows about me doing it. Neither of us have very many memories of our pasts. We both left the guild and are on the run from its leaders. For an ex-assassin she really is a bit quick to tears.
“So, you saw the beast,” she says, “And talked to it?”
“Yes,” I say wincing as she puts medicine on a cut on my chest, “Nothing else happened between us though,”
“Yeah,” she says, “The most damage was done to you by those Pegasus and earth ponies. This cut is going to take so long to heal.” She starts to tear up again; I can’t stand it when she cries. I remember the bread I bought at the store; I picked it up on my way out from the powerless building.
“Don’t cry Chain,” I hold out the bread to her, “I got you sourdough, your favorite. One of the Nuts toasted it with her flamethrower; I hope your fine with that.”
“I’m okay with that,” she wipes the tears from her eyes, “Thanks Van, I prefer it toasted anyways. I just can’t believe you went through all that just to get me some bread,”
“Well,” I start, “You seemed really depressed after being laid off from the bookstore while I kept working there. I thought it would cheer you up, sorry,”
“No, its fine,” she says and stand up, “I really appreciate it. How about I make us both some dinner to go with it?”
“That would be great thanks,” all of the sudden Chain’s face stops being so gloomy and she starts smiling.
“You did it,” she says grinning.
“I did what?” I ask, confused at her random happiness.
“You smiled,” she turns around and walks into the kitchen.
“Well, I guess I did,” been a while since I've done that.
