The Asian man finished his call after saying something about buying a mountain. Obviously, Mick didn’t hear it right… He just looked out the window, and Mick realized that the man was quite young. His skin was smooth like a child’s, and Mick remembered the things he had heard about this man before today. If Mick did not have horrific memories of what he experienced that day, he would have thought the events of that endless night something out of a low-grade horror movie. However, people with supernatural powers existed, and Mick had been hired to track them. It was then the client looked at Mick.
“Do you have something on your mind?”
“Sir?”
“I know what you went through. You’ve lost comrades.”
While Mick had not the chance to know them, he had watched them get butchered. Mick spoke in an impassive voice.
“We knew there were dangers.”
“However, I do feel responsible for their deaths. Are you worried that you’re getting involved in something illegal?”
“Sir?”
“I mean, you cannot tell your family your job and do not belong anywhere officially. Agents like you are travelling through America equipped with firearms without knowing what orders will be given.”
The van had gotten eerily quiet as everyone in the van was listening to their conversation. The Asian man added a word.
“We are not working for the government.”
“I know sir, and I am fine with the current situation.”
Had Mick had been hired as a secret agent for the government, he would have gone through the same thing. People at the training center talked about how official institutions ferreted out and recruited personnel they could use as expendable cat’s paws. Mercenaries worked for hire, and that was that.
“I hope that clears things up a bit.”
“Then, does the government know nothing about this?”
The question had come up from one of the passenger seats.
“Yes, but you are doing something meaningful, and important.”
The man turned his head to the window as if to say he would not say anything more. Mick felt mixed emotions, as the man was unlike the intruder who he had seen that day. He had heard that this man was stronger than the intruder and had done all this so he could personally “terminate” that monster, but Mick would not have believed this frail looking young Asian man was a hunter.
They arrived at their destination in the evening. They had gone deep into the mountains, no maps were available, so the car was driving slowly to meet the guide the owner of the property had sent. The guide now appeared with a yellow flashlight. The car stopped, and the Asian man ordered the rest to wait before getting out of the car. The atmosphere seemed to lighten as the man went away with the guide to the lodge nearby.
“He’s gone.”
An agent spoke as he looked out the window, and everyone was curious as they all saw and heard the other man step outside to talk on the phone. Obviously they hadn’t misheard their client buying the entire mountain and adjoining properties… Their first mission had been to escort him to the meeting place with the property owner.
“Mick, what did you think?”
“What?”
“He doesn’t seem that dangerous. Don’t you feel tense?”
“……”
“Does he have fangs or something?”
Mick had been the only one to have experienced the Cat’s powers directly, and the rest had either observed from afar or had been contracted as first class operatives due to their abilities, and not because they were survivors of the Cat’s attack.
“Are you freaking serious?”
Mick was annoyed, as after that night, he had become irreversibly changed. The world he thought he knew was in actuality far stranger and infinitely more dangerous, as monsters who looked like humans walked among them. He felt that he had become someone special through the events he had witnessed and felt irritated that the others did not understand things clearly.
“Be polite and don’t do things you will regret.” Mick reminded himself.
The asian man returned after a while and had the car parked near the lodge. He then asked the agents to wait inside.
“This is my land now, and secure the entrance while preparing to be bivouacked here for two weeks. I will be back the day after tomorrow at the latest. That is all.”
The man went out after refusing Mick’s offer to drive him. Mick saw that the man was going further into the mountains rather than returning to the city below, to his astonishment.
Everyone wanted to hear what Mick had gone through again, and Mick added as much detail as possible because he wanted them to realize what could happen to them. Thus, the men became quiet as they serviced their weapons. A day had gone before the Asian man came back, and he looked like he had been mountain climbing the whole time. He wordlessly entered the lodge to sleep, and Mick and the other agents felt that their mission would start once the man woke up.
They checked their equipment and prepared to move out. As they had expected, the man led them into the mountains. Mick was impressed with their client’s stamina. He ran them into the ground, it was Mick who called for breaks, not the young man.
After a while, Mick saw a blue light coming from the ground. It was beautiful, but he could not forget what had happened when he had seen something similar. While the others were fascinated by the sight, Mick knew that this unworldly beauty hid something fatally dangerous. His heart was beating rapidly, but now he could move.
Mick aimed at the light with his gun and saw the Asian man come to him to pat him once on the shoulder before speaking.
“You will all secure this place so no one will see this.”
Mick followed the man’s gaze and saw the light dissipate into a stairway heading down.
“You all want to live, and that place is a Deathtrap that no one can get out of. Do not follow me inside, no matter the circumstances. Take care of yourselves.”
The man took a backpack before speaking to Mick alone.
“You seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. Please take care of this place until I come back.”
“…How long will that be?”
“I will be back within two weeks.”
The man started walking to the blue barrier.
**
Mick and the other agents were divided into three teams. One controlled the road, the entrance onto the mountain, another scouted the area, and the remaining team stayed in the camp. They had worked that way for almost two weeks, and Mick was assigned to stay at the camp that day. He had come back from scouting when he saw something was up.
“What’s wrong?”
“We heard something indescribable.”
“What do you mean?”
“We all heard that glowing blue thing shriek!”
The agent looked scared.
“Should we go in? Damn. What’s going on there?”
Mick approached the barrier but heard nothing at first. However, then he heard something screech from afar. It was a sound that seemed to claw at one’s soul, and six men now surrounded the barrier took aim at the stairway. They all felt like something terrible was going to happen very soon. The tension was near the breaking point, and they did not know how long they stayed that way.
It was then Mick saw a shadow that made him shout.
“Don’t shoot!”
It was the man who had led them here that was climbing the stairs. Their client was covered in blood from head to toe and smelled horrendous. However, what made them step back was the man’s eyes. Mick found himself unable to speak as he looked into the man’s eyes. The man made all of them feel like rabbits standing in front of the wolf as he looked around.