Page 42 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

They could be anywhere. They could be anyone.
And they probably are.
The suspicion sets in slowly. A child undergoes a radical person-
ality change. A spouse disappears for a few days, and returns with
no logical explanation of where they’ve been. A co-worker is in an
accident and suffers amnesia, despite having no head injuries. It
happens every day, in a hundred places, across the globe.
But once roused, the fears are hard to put to rest. And the pat-
terns are harder still to ignore.
A suicide victim leaps to his death, but a pile of debris is
found where the body should be. Strangers disappear into door-
ways that lead to dead-ends and empty rooms. An ally is shot, and
bleeds tree sap instead of blood.
The fae can seem so normal. Just like anyone else. The book-
seller and her encyclopedic knowledge. The cop with an unfailing
hunch. The landlord who insists that the attic is strictly off-limits. A
hunter’s boss. Wife. Child.
They might be victims, escaped from alien imprisonments
too fantastic and horrible to be believed. Some could be simula-
crums, left behind to cover some supernatural crime, or twisted,
human remnants run roughshod by inhuman influences. Or, they
could be the stuff of dreams and nightmares, walking around wear-
ing human faces.
There’s no way to tell if people are who they say they are. Or, to
know what they really are — especially if some of them believe the lie
that they are human.
Smart hunters will never be sure.

The Enemy:

Folklore and

Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are the first exposure most people have to the su-
pernatural. Among those tales of fable and fantasy lie the seeds of
truth that the fortunate majority will never realize. An unlucky few
will look back on those childhood stories and recognize them for
what they truly are. Cautionary tales. Instruction. Protection.
Hunters know there are things out there. Creatures and con-
structs made of wishes and whispers, rubbish and regret. Monsters
and maniacs unfettered by human morality, and unconstrained by
reality. They can look insanely beautiful, or unbelievably grotesque. “For the world’s more
Or, entirely human. full of weeping than you can
But they are not. No matter how helpful they seem. No matter
how desperate. No matter how absolutely, utterly ordinary they ap- understand.”
pear — they are nothing close to human. Beneath a mundane mask — William Butler Keats
lies an alien nature, a being that lives by rules of a different reality. “The Stolen Child”
It is those rules that the fairy tales try to teach, so that anyone who
stumbles upon them may have a chance of emerging from the en-
counter alive.
Never leave the known path.
Don’t eat what is offered.
And — no matter how desperate you are, no matter how sweet the deal
— never ever make a bargain with them.