The Tulpa Chapter 8 The Hunter

“I still feel a little bad about this…” groaned Edward as another member of The Engineers emptied a supermarket shelf into his waiting sack.
The ‘mission’ Samantha was talking about was one of their little supply runs. It involved breaking into nearby shops and markets and ‘borrowing’ some supplies. Of course Edward was quick to point out the fact that borrowing meant stealing and mission meant heist, but it fell on deaf ears. In the face of their mission to kill The Tulpa, the act was a means to an end, but that left the age old question, does the end justify the means? Once again, Edward’s point fell on deaf ears. Samantha attempted to justify the act by claiming they only stole whatever was taken off the shelves, whatever the paying customers didn’t want or need. He, Julio, and three other members of The Engineers were in the stock room of some supermarket Edward had been to countless times before, stealing day old cans of peas and week old loaves of bread.
“What’s there to feel bad about?” Edward’s partner said, dropping more cans into the waiting sack. After teleporting all of them in, Julio had left this guy with him while he took the other two to raid some other shelves. “We’re hunted by a violent religious cult and the Godless monster they worship. If we want to take a few cans of out of date food I think that’s okay.”
“I suppose you have a point…”
“Julio would back me up,” Edward’s partner continued. “There was this one guy who tried to hold down a job. Tupla found him and things got messy. That’s when we decided to stay in hiding, only going out in the day and lurking around out of sight during the night.” Edward was a little surprised to hear this guy talk about The Tulpa so openly. The other Engineers were a little reserved about the whole topic, only saying the monster’s name when they had to. Samantha was also a rare exception; she spoke of The Tulpa without any fear. “That’s everything. Let’s meet up with Julio.” As Edward swung the sack over his shoulder and felt it smack into his back, he heard footsteps from behind his partner. Thinking it was Julio and company, he was about to greet his friend.
Only it wasn’t his friend.
The man who stood in the dark backroom was dressed in a long black trench coat. He wore white gloves that stood out in the darkness and a black hat that kept his face hidden.
“Hello,” he said, talking a step forward. “My employer has placed a very large price on your head Edward.”
“How do you know my name,” Edward said, backing off with his partner in tow.
“They call me The Hunter,” he said, pulling a shining object from his coat sleeve, “because I hunt people. And I’m good at it.”
“And who are ‘they’?” Edward’s partner asked. Edward could tell he was nervous, his voice was trembling. To be fair, so was Edward’s own voice.
“That would be The Proxies,” he answered, the air around the shinning abject bending. “And I don’t believe I was talking to you.” He threw his hand forward, the shinning object disappearing before reappearing in front of Edward’s partner. Edward briefly got sight of it before it buried itself into the poor man. It was a knife.
The blade sliced and stabbed through his chest, piercing his heart. He crumpled to the ground, falling flat on his face and burying the knife deeper into his body.
“Oh my God…” was all Edward could say at the sight before him.
“It wasn’t a God that killed your friend,” The Hunter said, stepping forward, knives in each hand. “It was me. That makes me your God. I have the power to decide whether you live, or die. And if I happen to choose the latter, I can even decide how to kill you.” The Hunter’s hand twitched and he pulled out four more knives, two more in each hand. Brandishing three knives in each hand, he lifted one hand up and pointed them at Edward. “Samael has paid me to end your life. And he told me to be as thorough as I had to be to make sure you’re dead. So I’m gonna burry a knife in your head, heart and neck.” As he prepared to throw the knives, Julio appeared behind Edward, wrapped his arms around him, and disappeared, leaving two more men standing behind where he once stood pistols in hand. They opened fire on The Hunter, who was quickly to leap out the way. “Great,” he muttered with a smile, sliding along the floor. “Now I can kill more people for more profit.”

Edward and Julio appeared in the middle of the frozen food aisle of the market, the sound of gun shots from the backroom echoing behind them.
“Who was that guy!!??” Edward yelled, as he stumbled forward a little as Julio let him go.
“He’s called The Hunter,” Julio answered drawing his own pistol. “He hunts.”
“I worked that out when he introduced himself, described his job to me, and then killed the guy you set me up with. I though you could tell me something else about him!”
“Keep your voice down!” hushed Julio. “He’s a hired hitman. The Proxies tend to hire him to deal with people like you, people that escape The Tulpa and end up in our ranks.”
“I have one quick question, why do I never find out about these things until AFTER they happen?” Edward groaned his sack still slumped over his back.
“You think the army advertises every little thing that might kill a soldier?” Julio joked, though a quick look at Edward’s face would stop that. Now wasn’t the time for joking.
“He threw something and it…I’m not sure what it did…”
“He’s a teleporter like me,” Julio explained. “Only he can’t teleport himself. He can only teleport something he’s touching, and he has to be able to see where it is going. That’s what he does, he teleported the knife straight into his chest. Makes aiming easy…”
“So what do we do against someone who can’t miss?” Edward asked as Julio led him forward down the aisle.
“Oh, he can miss. He can only hit what he can see. If you’re behind a wall you’re safe. And he can’t teleport something into someone, meaning theirs a delay between him throwing the knife and it hitting you. If you’re quick, that delay can be the difference between life and death.” The sound of distance gunshot stopped, leaving Julio and Edward in silence. “Normally, Samantha has a rule for when The Hunter shows up. Run. But today…” He held up his pistol, loaded and ready to fire. “I think we should end this threat once and for all.”

Stepping over the pile of three bodies, The Hunter brushed his coat and flipped the corpses over. Retrieving his knives from each, he slipped them into his coat sleeve and resumed his march forward. Chances are, Edward and Julio were long gone, but that wouldn’t stop him from looking. Killing three Engineers was one thing, but killing five Engineers including a long time enemy and a recent enemy of The Proxies would reap a large reward from Samael. Knives in hand, The Hunter pushed through a door and entered the wide open market, eyes searching for his two bounties. Engineers were always quick to run, quick to hide from their problems. The Hunter didn’t like The Engineers any more than he liked The Proxies, who thought worshiping some false God would grant them more power. The Hunter didn’t care. He learned a long time ago the only real God was the one that decided who lived and who died, and most of the time that was him when he was ready to kill a bounty. The Proxies could have their God, and The Engineers could have their quest, he was perfectly happy with a pocket full of cash and corpse at his feet.
He was his own God. He decided who lived and who died when he took up a bounty, and he was the only one that profited from their death. That is who he became, who he was, a God of death, someone who kills for a reason. Hitman for hire, is there a nobler God? He kills when asked, unlike any other God who ignores your pleas. He gets results, has praying for a God every reaped results for anyone? He walked the earth, what God graced you with their presence?
That is what The Hunter saw himself as, a God of death. And now, it was time to cast his shadow and claim some lives. And then later, claim some cash.