Jack
The large office was lined wall to wall with bookshelves and display cases. A huge, dark wood desk dominated the space in front of the equally huge window. The panes were a faint yellow and frosted for privacy. Golden light flowed in and glinted off the shiny lacquer of the desk. A man in a casual suit sat behind the desk in a leather chair. The contours and wear of the seat matched its occupant perfectly. He was an abrohq, a species that predominantly resembled wild canines, though they were bipedal and had dexterous hands. The most populous of the intelligent species on the world they called home.
His hands were folded together and lay on the desktop. A small smile held the edges of his mouth up. Across the desk lay a large, circular area rug. The images of men hunting wild game were sewn into the fringes like the pictures on a zoetrope. It was held down by a low table with metal legs and wooden face, flanked on either side by comfortable armchairs. Facing the desk sat a long, three seat couch. Beyond the couch, two more men in suits stood on either side of the double sliding doors that were built into the wall. All the furniture was leather and metal and looked expensive. The guard's suits were tidy and clean. It was a direct contrast to the abrohq seated on the couch.
The fourth man was adorned in a worn, unbuttoned duster coat and dirty boots. A flat brimmed slouch-style hat obscured his face from above and dusty grey body fur peeked out from the back of the collar of his well-worn wool shirt. The two of them were sat in silence, up until the suit behind the desk spoke.
"It's just the woods on the north of your property Jack, you won't even know we're there. My guys will stay out of your way. Just one little fissure in those ruins." He opened his palms towards Jack. "Won't hear the trucks, not even at night."
"I told you, I don't want anything to do with the business anymore. I'm out." Jack shook his head. The suited negotiator folded his hands again.
"If it's not us, it'll be Olen. They're already encroaching on our territory."
Jack slumped back into the couch backrest.
"I'm gonna drive off anyone I find on my land. You included, Dinn."
The suited Dinn leaned forward on the desk. His ears were alert and forward, focusing on Jack.
"Come on, Jack. After all these years-"
"We're done here." Jack cut him off and moved to rise up from the seat. Dinn leaned back in the leather office chair, making it creak as his ears rotated partially backwards.
"What would Li and Hanna think of you now?"
The words made Jack freeze. His head snapped up and the two locked eyes. Jack's expression hadn't changed, but his eyes were alight with a passionate hatred.
"You don't get to speak their names." Jack growled out the words through clenched teeth. Dinn lifted his hands again and shrugged.
"You're struggling, Jack. Since their passing-"
"I said we're done!" Jack rose his voice and cut Dinn off again. "I paid my dues and spilt my blood. I did everything you asked of me. I did all of it for someone I considered a brother. And you have the audacity to come to me in my grief and ask for more." Jack rose to his full height. One of the well dressed guards that were standing by the door took a step towards him. Dinn raised his palm to the guard, wordlessly ordering him to stop. "If I hadn't been fucking around, doing your work for you, then they'd still be here."
Jack took his eyes off Dinn and turned. He began to walk to the doorway when another sentence cut through him like a hot knife.
"You're right. It's your fault. If you had only been better at your one fucking job, you could have been home."
The words hit Jack in the gut like buckshot. He turned slowly, setting one of the guards in motion. Dinn didn't stop him this time. He knew he crossed the line and he didn't care. The tiny, satisfied grin on his face showed it was so. The guard gripped Jack by the shoulder firmly, uttering a quiet, "Don't." Jack's reputation preceded him.
"The brother I had died a long time ago. 'f I see you again, you're a dead man." Jack let go of his burning anger by spitting on the expensive hardwood floor and turning his back on Dinn. He pushed passed the guard holding him and through the doors.
"Be seeing you." Dinn's voice carried across the hardwood and out into the foyer as Jack slammed the doors to the office shut. The way they wobbled on their rollers made the exit less than satisfactory for Jack's rage. Dinn always had to get the last word. That's one thing Jack had always disliked about him.
The world was tinged in red as Jack stormed through the mansion. He headed directly to the front door. Shoving it open. He didn't care if the door closed behind him. He inhaled deeply, in what might have been the first since he stepped out of the office. Without stopping, the abrohq stepped down the chiseled stone steps of the front patio and onto the gravel road. Each deep inhale lightened that red tone that overtook his vision. Something he had been taught by the person that he had once been married. He marched down the driveway and towards the road. He was heading home.
Oruth was a quaint town. A population of around 1300 as of current date. Five years ago it was closer to 3000, up until the mines ran dry and closed up. Despite that, there was still an abundance of travel through the small town. Since it lay along a throughway between the large port city of Horizon and one of the biggest grain distributing towns this side of the Manaho Mountains it still got plenty of traffic. Jack had moved onto a small plot of land just outside of Oruth about eleven years ago. Two things spurred this move. Firstly, he had always been something of a country boy. Born and raised outside a small town, he only ever went into the cities when business required him to. He wanted to give a similar upbringing to his daughter and live peacefully with his better half. The second was that Oruth wouldn't be on Dinn's map any time soon. It was just too small, and all Jack wanted was to be left alone after their business was concluded. And left alone, he would be.
That was, until the day the two were reacquainted. Dinn's enterprise of illicit goods was expanding, and there were still plenty of nasty creatures and people out in the wilds that needed culling. While his business dabbled in the blossoming drug industry and skirting the law in provinces under alcohol prohibition, those were specks of sand in the desert that was the true nature of his work. Work that required specialized hunters. Venators, they call them. Some people were born with the inherent ability to sense out the supernatural. Some species, like the more fox-like taouk and the feline eketarin, have this ability quite commonly. While it is more rare for an abrohq, it was not unheard of. Many people with this Sight Unobscured choose to ignore their gifts. They find the ability a novelty, something that they don't use and let waste away. Some pursue their gifts. Anyone can be a venator, but those with Umbra Eyes are the most valuable. That's why Dinn turned to Jack when he did. The two grew up together, essentially as brothers even though there was no blood relation. While only Jack had the Umbra Eyes, inherited from his father's side of the family, the two of them went on to become venators in their early adulthood. Though they didn't work together as apprentices, and with Dinn seemingly dropping off the map for a handful of years after becoming fully licensed, the two would eventually come together again. Six years after becoming licensed venators, and three after Dinn disappeared, he returned seemingly out of thin air with a proposition for his brother. Instead of closing the rifts, tears in reality where the horrible monsters emerged from, why not use them? Jack wouldn't entertain the idea at first. It was absurd, preposterous, unthinkable even. But according to Dinn, the last couple of years he had run with another venator that occasionally did just that. It was risky business entering these rifts. The hardest part was just crossing the threshold as it required an iron will and unshakeable psyche. Many had gone mad simply from that alone. Once inside, it was just up to chance whether or not you ended up somewhere that put you in immediate danger. The landscape was described as alien, unlike anything on this planet. The beasts that crept into their world from this alternate plane were indeed attracted to these tears in space and time. Thus the timeframe for exploration wasn't large, but you could potentially nab an artifact or two from this otherworld. Artifacts that sold well. Especially on the black market. They were imbued with such power, they could be used for many, many things. All Dinn needed was a reliable business partner. Specifically, one that had the Umbra Eyes.
Jack ruminated on his past while he walked. He had left that business behind him over a decade ago. He gave it up for a chance at a new beginning. A life free of the mindless violence that had made him numb to the world. For Jack, the interim was a time of peace. He had found what he thought was his true self in his loving Li and their daughter Hanna. The day that suit wearing bastard moved into town and knocked on his door, was the day that peace cracked. He was offered one more job. Just one more, and he could be free of his past life forevermore. Dinn was expanding his enterprise, and his competition needed to be eliminated. Quite powerful competition, at that. It seemed an impossible task was laid at Jack's feet like a bear trap, and he was being ordered to step in it. And like the good toy soldier he was, bound only by the honour in his mind, he did.
"The price of Freedom is paid in blood, Jack."
The words rung in his ears, even now after years had passed. Jack more than paid his dues. His own blood. The blood of those he was sicced upon. His family's.-
He had harassed the rival organization for a few months before he figured out how to properly dissect them. Within two months most of the figureheads were gone and buried. The rest were in shambles, collapsing under their own weight with no foundation or support structures. But they weren't stupid. They were running their own operations adjacent with Jack's. It wasn't hard to figure out who was encroaching on their turf, and from there, it was obvious by reputation alone who was doing all of the work for him. A few greased palms and broken bones later, the place Jack called home was set in this organization's sights. With him away from the homestead, it was left wide open. If he had been home he could have-
Jack shook his head to clear the memories from his mind. Deep in his thoughts he had walked up the packed dirt driveway of his home and stood at the lip of the front porch without noticing. He looked up at the windows, empty of any life while he was absent, and sighed. He had done it for them. Now, he would do this for them too.
