R.E.D. Tiger

I was driving down the highway back to my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia ready to begin the next stage of my life. My life so far was very simple and could be split into eight year spans between major events. My mom died during my childbirth leaving my dad to raise me himself. When I was eight I got into my first fight at school and my dad started to teach me martial arts. He also re-married a woman named Lynn who also had two kids.

Me and my stepmom never really got along much but my dad thought I needed a maternal figure in my life. It was more of a mutual agreement thing I think, Lynn needed a father figure for her two girls and she was supposed to be a mother figure to me but... well that never really developed.

In another eight years when I was sixteen my father died. The doctors couldn't tell how he died and they said " He was a perfectly healthy man". I always liked to think that he only lived long enough to see me mature and that the heartbreak of losing my mother finally caught up to him.

You can only imagine the shock that my "family" had when we learned my dad had amassed over fifty million dollars in savings and stocks which he left all to me. Also he and my birth mother had apparently came from money because in his will he bequeathed five hundred million dollars from my mothers estate plus some houses in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Europe and he had given me savings from the Thorton line which he had half of the family fortune and his brother ( whom I've never met) had the rest which equaled to three hundred million dollars. So now I ( Alan Thorton) had a net worth of about eight hundred and fifty million dollars as well as ownership of a couple other multi million dollar companies all at the age of sixteen.

You can only imagine how pissed Lynn was, apparently she knew of my father's wealth and was expecting a large sum after his death. For some reason she took out her anger on me and the conditions at home became very strained. Finally I had had enough and decided to join the army and Lynn was more than happy to sign the papers to send me. But before I left I made sure to kick the bitch out and let my sisters decide if they wanted to stay or not.

Now eight years later after being forcibly retired from the military for going against a privileged superior who sent my troop on a suicide mission to receive some classified intel that he planned on selling to foreign hostiles, I was headed home . Since other soldiers saw me rebel against superior officers I was court martialed and the whole incident was swept under the rug with the C.O. being court martialed and imprisoned; but I was still on the first bus home.

Now on the way home I was happy to be back. I was thinking it was time to start the next part my life and settle down with my longtime girlfriend Jessica whom I'd been dating since a little before highschool.

We'd been maintaining a long distance relationship with me seeing her every three or four months when I could get leave time. I hadn't told her that I had been decommissioned three months ago so I was excited to drop in and surprise her. I thought about heading home first but decided against it as it was already going on seven o'clock and I wanted to get to surprise Jessica before the day was over and possibly take her out for dinner if she didn't already have plans for the evening.

After pulling into Jessica's apartment complex I went around to her building, after confirming that her car was indeed outside I made my way to the door. I planned on knocking but decided on being particularly devious and picked the lock ( it was easy to do) and snuck in. I heard what sounded like moaning and couldn't suppress the smirk that crossed my face at the idea of catching her in a masturbation session. I crept up to her bedroom door being as careful as possible to avoid making any sounds and peeked my head through. And was surprised at what I saw.

Jessica, my girlfriend of over ten years, was in the bed on her knees getting slammed into from behind by some guy. They were both facing away from me so they had not noticed I was there yet.

" Oh god Jessica you feel wonderful babe." the guy gasped while plowing into her. I could barely contain my gasp of shock as I recognized the man's voice and realized it was my good friend Daniel.

Me and Daniel had grown up in the same neighborhood all our lives and had been close friends since our days of playing Pop Warner as kids. In fact he was the only person whom I would consider to be my best friend until I met Don and Marcy in the service. Now with both of them dead I was looking forward to reconnecting with Dan.

So here I stood in the doorway of a bedroom watching the last two people I thought I could trust, with the exception of my step sister Rose, betraying me and enjoying it in the process.

Most men came up with all sorts of contingencies about what they would do if they ever caught their girl with another man. Most all would say that they would kill the bastard and never have anything to do with the tramp, bitch, etc. ever again. I had never made any such promises because: well one I never expected to be in the situation, and two I knew I could kill said bastard AND get away with it. If I had already committed myself to that plan of action I would feel the need to do it. Maybe it was my military training, but once I decided on a course of action I usually stuck to it unless dire circumstance called I do something else so had I been prepared to kill the offenders I would be bound to do it.

With all that being said it said it still was taking all of my willpower to stop myself from barging in there, ripping those two apart, and starting to administer my own brand of justice. But still something was to be said of military discipline and I was able to keep my emotions in check.

In reality this was not something I was in the right state of mind to do. I was angry, tired , and a little sad at their betrayal. All of these things would cloud my judgment and lead me to doing something I might later regret. So with another show of willpower I crept back to the front door and left with the sounds of their coupling still in my ears.

_____________

Hoping into my car I was determined to get as far away from Jessica's apartment as I could. I was tempted to just go home but as I drove through the city and passed different eateries and shops that I had taken her to over the years and the memories of us in those places just made me feel worse so I knew that my house, a place that we shared many memories, was not the place for me now. As I sat a red light I was aware of all the noise and buzzing of the city and right now I wanted nothing more than to have some peace and quiet and be away from the big city.

Then I remembered a little cabin my dad used to take us to in Mt. Nebo near Summersville Lake and decided to head on up there. It was only a hour and a half drive and I kept the key to the cabin in a safety deposit box that I had in the trunk. With my destination in mind I pulled onto US-60 E and gunned my way down the interstate.

Exactly a hour and a half later my black 1968 Plymouth RoadRunner pulled up outside of my dad's cabin in Mt. Nebo. It always felt weird to call any of my dad's stuff mine so even after all this time I still referred to this place as dad's cabin.

I got out of the car and opened the cabin up then proceeded to move my things out of the trunk and inside. Once inside I went to go turn on the generator. I knew that the generator would take maybe twenty minutes to fully power so I decided to sit outback and enjoy the down time.

Sitting outside near the fire I couldn't help but think back on the events of today. I think that now that I had a chance to sit and analyze the way I was feeling I was surprised to find out that I wasn't anywhere near as upset as I initially was.

While me and Jessica had had a pretty cool relationship it wasn't like we were in love or anything like that. I mean I had planned on loving her but as it stood we weren't around each other enough as adults to reach that stage. Likewise for Dan, I could understand that Jessica was attractive and that her and Dan were good friends so it's not absurd to think they might get romantically involved.

I think that most of my anger came from the fact that they were cheating. I personally never understood the act of cheating on a person. If Jessica didn't want to be with me anymore she could have easily told me that she was no longer interested in keeping up the long distance relationship. I would have been happy for the both of them if when I came home from the service they were a couple. To me to stay in a relationship and cheat on someone implies that they have something that you want and that you don't want to give it up. I really didn't have much in the ways of things since I was barely home so the only thing that came to my mind was the wealth I had inherited from my parents.

Jessica had always been the money spending type. Every time we saw each other it was " honey can I have this" or "we should go here for a vacation". I really didn't think much of it at the time because I figured that anyone who had the money to spend on their lover would indeed spend it on them and I had the money to spend. Daniel being my best friend also had access to my money although on a lesser scale then Jessica and I had even paid for his older sister's medical bills when she got into a horrible car accident some years back. I felt my stomach wrench with the thought that both of them were just money hungry leeches.

Whatever the reasons I knew that I would still never forgive either one of them for deceiving me and betraying my trust. To tell the truth after what I saw I didn't want anything to do with them. Just thinking about how stupid I must have been to never realize that a woman didn't go without sex for most of the year made me more angry. I staid faithful to her while in the service and never once did I stray even though I had plenty of opportunity. How could she just cheat on me like that. I began to wonder if it were only Dan or were there others or... or....

Just as my anger reached the boiling point I heard a noise over to my left. When I looked up I was startled to see an old man looking at me with fear in his eyes. I probably looked menacing sitting there at six foot five inches, two hundred and ten pounds, and an attitude that radiated anger. More than likely I terrified the old man so trying my best to suppress my anger and calm down I extended a greeting to him.

" Hello sir," I said, " How are you doing this evening?" The man seemed to visibly relax at my words and motioned with his hands that he wanted to sit down. I nodded my head and the old man sat down across from me with the fire between us and started to talk.

" I'm doing well young man. I normally hike and camp around here on Nebo and noticed that the lights and stuff were on. A month or two back some teenagers had broke into the property up here and made quite a mess," he told me, " so I decided to come up here and make sure the weren't back up here causing trouble."

" Oh no," I assured him, " This was my father's cabin and he left it to me in his will, but it's the first time I've been up here in years. I'm Alan Thorton by the way."

" Feliche ( pronounced Fe- li- chay) Iguar" the man replied back.

After that we dissolved into a comfortable silence. I was kind of wondering why he was still sitting here but he said he had been hiking so maybe he was just taking a rest before heading back. Ten minutes had passed when Feliche  let out a tired sigh and look wistfully up at the sky.

" You know, " he started , " this reminds me of when I was a kid and we'd sit around and tell stories by the campfire. Before the invention of t.v. and radio and all such other nonsense"

Feeling no reason not to indulge the old man I told him that he could tell a story if he wanted to. The man looked at me and expressed that he didn't really want to take up my time with his ramblings and tales.

" Please tell a story. It would be better than me just sitting here and thinking about how my girlfriend cheated on me with my best friend."

" Wow. Looks like you've got more of a story to tell than me young man. But i'll try to give you one worth your time."

________

Long ago in the times of kings and queens, fairies and dragons, humans were nearly brought to the brink of extinction. Angels and Demons had broken out into full scale war and were using the earth as their battlefield. Many humans were caught in the crossfire and humanity was nearing it's final hours.

But then, out of nowhere came two spirits. One was the spirit of a bat and called himself The Cosmic Bat, and the other was a wolf spirit named The Universal Wolf. They came upon the conflict and saw that he humans were the ones truly loosing out. The Wolf always one for games asked the bat if he wanted to have a little fun. The wolf suggested that they both impart some of their power to the humans so they could have a fighting chance against the angels and demons who were ravaging their lands. The Bat readily agreed with the idea and they both set out to give their gifts to the dwindling human race.

Once the new races were created they were bestowed the title of vampirs and lycans. After much arduous fighting the vampir and lycan finally managed to drive the demons and angels back to their own plane of existence to continue their eternal battle.

With their common enemies now gone the vampir and lycan tried to settle back into their everyday lives. But problems soon arose when the normal human population began to shun and detest the new species that had fought and died to protect them. After awhile neither species were allowed inside of cities and were forced to live on the outskirts of towns and civilizations.

After a while with the human population growing again and the vampir needing there blood to survive attacks on the cities rose and the number of turned vampir skyrocketed. Now with there being vampir mixed into the city's population the citizens had no choice but to accept the vampir.

This of course angered the lycans, so they started to slowly integrate back into society in human disguises, some even gaining the ability to take human form again.

Sooner or later, because no one knows when it happened or who started it, tensions arose between the vampir and lycan and they engaged in full scale war against one another. The once allies were now brutal enemies and fighting now lined the streets.

The Bat and Wolf saw what was happening and decided to step in to stem the flow of battle to where they could salvage the human race but keep their created creatures intact as well. They came up with three edicts.

First The Bat took away the vampir's ability took walk in sunlight. This caused them to be more easily tracked and hunted by humans and lycans. This forced them to be more cautious in there attacks on their enemies and prey and drove them to retreat back into seclusion.

The Wolf imparted upon the lycan the curse to forcibly return back into their beast forms on full moons. The lycans were no longer able to live in the sparsely populated cities because of the chance of someone seeing them and them and their families being fingered as lycans. The lycan were forced to relocate to larger cities or build cities of their own far from people.

In the last act The Wolf and Bat came together to create a new being. A mix of lycan and vampir that had enhanced abilities of both with none of their weaknesses. The Wolf and Bat then went to the vampir and lycan and informed them that if they can catch the new creature and absorb it's powers or get it to become their comrade they would regain their lost abilities. But The Wolf and Bat had one more trick up their sleeves. This new being could transfer his abilities to a new host of his choosing when ever he felt so and the new host would then gain all the memories and acquired skill of the previous host.

As each generation of host passed the creature became harder to catch and stronger than before. Forcing the lycan and vampir to spread themselves thin to find out it's location.

One thing that neither the Bat, Wolf, vampir, or lycan accounted for was the return of the demons and angels. While no longer in full scale war with each other the angels and demons still posed a threat. But with the vampir and lycan no longer unified and with reduced capabilities they could no longer fight the demons and angels. All four sides settled into an uneasy truce where they fought each other behind the scenes and away from human eyes. All were afraid to go into all out attack in fear that the other sides would just kill the weakened victor of the first battles.

Over time the demon, angels, vampir, and lycan all faded into myth, but they are all still out there. Looking for the creature and biding their time with small skirmishes and power struggles, waiting for the chance to topple the other three factions and walk in the human civilization once again.

________

Feliche sat back onto his arms and stared at me from across the fire. After a while I looked up at him and smiled.

"Well Feliche"

" Please call me Felix" he interrupted.

" Well Felix, that was an interesting story to say the least. It certainly got my mind of my problems for awhile"

" My boy what makes you think that was a story. You had real problems so I told you a real story."

I looked at the old man and wondered if he was senile but quickly dismissed the thought. I had been sitting out here with him for about an hour and he's seemed perfectly sane the whole time. Maybe he was just joking with me.

" I can see from the look on your face that you don't believe me" Felix said.

" Pardon my rudeness but it is a rather farfetched story."

" Well what if I could show you proof." he countered.

" By all means." I responded thinking we had finally reached the end of the joke. Felix stood up from his spot on the ground and stood directly in front of the fire and held out his hand. From his hand a stream of water burst and put out the fire bathing the backyard in darkness. Then in Felix's other hand a small ball of blue fire emerged which he then dropped back onto the firewood and the backyard was once again bathed in light.

As this point I was more prepared to run for the hills than any point in my life, and I had seen some pretty scary things over the years. But with Felix being not only a couple feet from me and already standing but with the ability to hurl fire I figured running wasn't the best option. Thinking back over what he told me I formulated a question in the hopes of surviving long enough to make a break for it.

" So let me guess you're an angel?" I asked him

" What makes you think that?" he said with a perplexed look.

" Well with the whole conjuring flames thing I figured you'd have to either be a angel or demon... annnnd seeing as how I'm still alive I ruled out the demon possibility."

" Well for future reference not all demons are bad, and no I'm not an angel. I'm the hybrid."

" But how?" I asked, " In folklore neither vampires or lycans can use fire, water, or any type of magic."

" While it is true that neither vampir or lycan can use magic the hybrid is a little different. Remember when I told you the hybrid could retain all the abilities and memories of past host?"

"Yeah I remember." I answered.

" Well the first ever host wasn't a human. It was a dragon and dragons, whether you know it or not, have an inborn knowledge of how to use magic. The dragon however wanted no part in the schemes of the Bat or Wolf and quickly transferred the power to a worthy human. From then on all the hybrids could use magic and the abilities have been steady growing over the years."