Today we take a look at Here Goes Everything, the introductory fiction from The Hunters Hunted II.

My own involvement in events unfolding on our doorstep occurred a few days before Christmas last year. Another headline you’ll probably remember: “CHRISTMAS CHAOS!” No one knew the exact reason why riots broke out across the city on those cold December nights. The media speculated they arose from the economic problems facing the people, compounded by the almost obligatory consumerist frenzy of the holiday season. I saw them with my own eyes, though I wish to God I hadn’t.

I was heading back from a party that night. I’d drunk enough to mean I couldn’t drive home, but not enough to impair me beyond reasonable action, so I took the subway most of the way back across town. I was coming out of the station… I still remember the moment, all too vividly. The cold wind, the rain on the verge of turning to snow, the sound of crying and screaming, and the wild sound of feet rushing past on the streets around me. And then they came around the corner.…

The papers made it out that there were dozens of people in the gangs of “rioters.” There were just five in the group that found me, but they were far from rioters. Blood-splattered, fingers extended as though they were claws, reddened eyes, and extended canines… fangs.…

Do I need to spell it out for you? Do I need to state exactly what, rather than who stood before me on that street corner?

This is the point where I pray that you will carry on reading. This is the point where I hope that it’s all been worth a damn. This is where you either believe me enough to carry on, or you cast aside what I have to say and move on with your life. Here’s hoping.

If you’re still reading, thank you. Those two simple words can’t express just how much I appreciate your leap of faith right now. I know how insane it sounds. I know how unbelievable it is. I know — I was there and felt it all in those few seconds as I stared into those hungry eyes that looked back at me. I did what any rational human being would do in my position: run like all hell.

I ran all the way back home, losing them a couple of blocks before I got there. And I don’t really think I lost them. I think something else seized their attention, someone they surprised, but who was too paralyzed by fear to run. That didn’t stop me from going straight inside, locking and barricading the doors and windows, turning out the lights, and hiding in a corner with a baseball bat for the rest of the night. It was mid-morning when I finally summoned enough courage to open the door and check outside.

I must have picked up the phone a good half a dozen times, deciding whether or not to call the police and report what I’d seen. In the end, I couldn’t do it. What the hell would I have told them? “Hi, officer, I’d like to report, um, vampires.” I knew if I’d got some smartass ringing through to me with that, I would have a sarcastic reply ready and waiting for them about April 1st being a few months away. I had no proof, nothing but my word to go on. No one was going to believe me on my say-so alone. I couldn’t sit by and do nothing, though. I had to make people believe.

Found out what our author does with his terrible knowledge in The Hunters Hunted II, now available in PDF and print from DriveThruRPG.