Experiment [part 1/2]
Adam was sitting on his bed deep in thought.
He'd lost everything, but gained a reason to live...revenge. He would burn his life away to make it happen, but when or how? He didn't know yet.
He glanced at the hides and furs and wondered how he would sell them if he couldn't go out in the sun.
They'd mainly been used as an excuse but he would rather not waste them. He carried them around for a long distance, after all.
Adam then grabbed the book and looked at it, wondering when he would be able to know what's inside...when suddenly, his vision changed and swapped to another location!
He was looking at the walls of a cave, the place was completely dark. He looked down and saw a body that wasn't his. He was looking at a perspective from another person's eyes. He wondered who that person was when his vision abruptly left the body of whoever that was and went for a third person view.
The hunter! He was alive!?
Adam felt like there was a connection between him and the man... as if a string linked both of their minds.
As if feeling his presence, the man looked up. He stared deeply at where Adam's view was coming from.
It was then that Adam saw everything clearly.
The man's eyes were red, and his face as well as hands were covered in blood. He was sitting on the ground back against the wall. His body was covered in wounds and one of his legs was torn apart and missing...
On the ground next to him was the corpse of a bear!
Adam guessed that the man had fought against it and killed it, how ironical...
The man's face was distorted by an expression of agony. He raised one hand towards Adam and let out some faint words...
"I don't want to die... help... me..."
He then slowly lowered his hand and his whole body slumped down, as if out of energy. His eyes closed and he stopped moving.
Adam felt the connection between him and the man slowly dissipating before completely disappearing.
His vision shifted again and there he was back in his room.
There was no movement from him for a while as he was thinking about what had just happened and the implication behind it...
The man he'd thought he had killed just died a second time before his eyes. Poor thing...
Even in death he'd helped Adam again. Now, he knew that those he fed on would come back. Just like in the village.
He looked at the book that was still in his hands and an idea came to him, but he would need to experiment to see if it was possible.
Adam put the book aside and went to sleep. It was only after a while that a sound woke him up. He opened his eyes and looked at the door. Someone was knocking.
He stood up and opened it and it was the old man in charge of the inn. In his hands was a tray with a bowl, some bread and a cup.
"Your meal, just after sunset like agreed.", said he as he gave the tray to Adam, turned around and left.
'Convenient', thought Adam.
He sat on the bed and put the tray on the wooden chair. The bread was soft and tender. The bowl contained some soup that smelled quite good, Adam didn't know with what it was made though. The cup was filled with plain water.
Adam ate his fill and was quite satisfied with the taste as he stood up and left the inn.
When he was outside, he remembered what the man had told him yesterday. Come to the drunken bird at midnight, he said.
Adam had thought about it for a while this morning and decided that he wouldn't go.
The man was a lot stronger than himself when it came to fighting and he didn't feel like staying too long in this town. It was too close to his village and they could show up to search for him at any moment.
Even if he had promised him a huge opportunity, he couldn't trust him.
With that out of the way, Adam started roaming about in search of a pub. He needed subjects to experiment on and there were no targets easier than drunk people.
He walked down narrow streets because he guessed that the large ones would be guarded or have too many witnesses. It was quite dark but there were some areas that had some light thanks to random torches here and there.
The ground was paved with stones and there was a system to drain water. People who lived here were lucky, thought Adam.
After a while, he found a pub with a lot of noise coming from the inside. He looked at the sign hanging outside and it was named the Shameless Pony.
Adam waited for a while and he started seeing people leaving the place. Some were heavily drunk, while some seemed alright. He wanted to follow some people but they either were too heavily armed, weren't drunk enough, or were alone. He needed at least two people.
Soon enough he saw a group of four leave the pub. Two men and two women forming two couples. The women seemed moderately drunk, but the two men were completely wasted and needed help to walk straight.
One of the men had a sword at his waist and wore a leather armor that seemed of very good quality with many fine details added to it. He also had a silver necklace in the form of a hand. The other man also wore leather armor but his seemed quite old and of a lesser quality. He also had the same necklace but had an axe instead of a sword.
As for the women, they wore revealing clothes and had no weapons.
'This is it', thought Adam. He wondered what the necklaces meant, but he didn't have much choice. He couldn't wait all night there and he didn't have the guarantee that he would meet another group as drunk as these.
He followed them from a safe distance and soon enough, saw them go into an inn. Hesitating for a moment, he followed them inside.
As he got inside, he saw a few tables that were mostly empty. A bar with an overweight man sitting behind it, and chairs that were going up. There were also some flowers and the most important part was the chimney in that lit the whole place.
He came in just in time to see the four he had been following going in a room behind the overweight man.
Adam thought it was strange for them to be going in that room as it shouldn't be somewhere for clients to go in. It was then that he noticed the man behind the pub staring at him.
Not wanting to appear out of place, he approached and asked for a drink. Adam then went to a seat and started drinking.
With his targets out of sight, he had no need to remain here and would leave after finishing his drink. It was a complete failure and waste of time, thought Adam.
Just as Adam finished his drink and was about to leave through the front door, he saw the four people coming out again from the back room. And to his greatest surprise, both men were now wearing rags and didn't have neither weapons nor necklaces on them!
Adam went out and hid in a dark corner. Soon enough, the four were out and the two men still completely wasted and the women were helping them walk.
He followed them around until they reached a dark small alley.
Adam naturally approached the alley and as he was almost at the corner, he saw one of the women come back. He was surprised and quickly made a few hurried steps back and threw himself at a wall next to him then ducked down.
He hoped that they would go in the opposite direction from him but they did not. They were coming back from the same way they had come.
Adam panicked and didn't know what to do. He held his breath and didn't move at all. He wanted to disappear from their view and somehow...as they walked past him, they didn't notice him!
After they were gone, Adam, wanting to wipe the sweat from his forehead, raised his hand and saw that it was covered by shadows and instinctively jerked it away from himself. As soon as he did that, the shadows faded and he was back to normal.
He wondered what that was, but then remembered how that vampire had disappeared in the shadows back in the village. Maybe it was something related to him becoming one? Most likely, thought Adam.
He tried to will his hand to be covered with shadows again and didn't manage to do it. He stood up and went in the dark alley.
As he arrived there, he saw the two men on the ground sleeping behind some empty barrels.
'So that's how it was', thought Adam as he realized all that had happened.
He had wondered how those two men managed to get that wasted but now he guessed that they had been drugged. Those two women had done a really good job. These two guys would wake up in the morning without their belonging and they could do nothing about it.
'Are they unlucky, or am I too lucky?' was the thought of Adam as he approached one of the two. They were robbed and now they would become his test subjects. He wondered how much money they had on them. Well, that didn't matter now.
The hunter had turned into something he felt he could control when he fed on him. But he had thrown the body in the forest and thus didn't get the chance to observe the whole thing. Adam wanted to try if he could have some control over it, and learn more about it.
He had been feeling a bit depressed recently over how he didn't know how to read, at least he should learn more about what he can do. He also promised himself to learn to read as soon as he was able to.
He chose to use the guy that seemed wealthier and without hesitation bit his neck and started drinking his blood.
'As tasty as ever!', thought Adam. He tried not to drink too much, however. He wanted to see if that would have any effect.
He went to a corner, sat down and started waiting. It had only been three hours since he left the inn and it was early in the night. He would experiment on the other man later.
Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours when the man started twitching.
'Two hours or so', thought Adam.
The man then opened his eyes and got on his knees. He looked in pain as he grabbed his throat.
He looked left and right and then saw a barrel. He quickly rushed to it but found it was empty.
"You must be feeling very thirsty.", heard the man as he turned towards the voice.
He couldn't see anything as it was completely dark.
"Who are you? What did you do to me?!", shouted the man.
"shhhh no need to shout, calm down. Do you have a house in the town?", said Adam.
"Yes, I have a house not too far from the temple...What?", said the man as he revealed a face of surprise and shock. He hadn't tried to speak low, in fact, he wanted to shout his lungs out. But to his greatest surprise, he couldn't! And what horrified him is that he answered the question without holding anything back.
"Do you live alone?", asked Adam.
"No. I live with my wife.", said the man with discomfort all over his face.
"Why is this happening to me. Who are you?", he added with a calm voice that didn't match his hopeless facial expression.
"I ask the questions, not you. Carry that man and lead me to your house. Avoid being seen and try to make the least noise possible. Be quick about it.", said Adam.
The man had no choice but to comply. He carried the other man and showed a surprised face as he easily threw him over his shoulder. He then led the way with Adam following from behind.
Both disappeared in darkness while leaving only a bloody spot where the man Adam bit had been lying down.