The Last Guardian

Chapter_39: The Graveyard Shift

 Johnathan finally reached the cemetery after following the sound of the howl but there was nobody around. The howling sounds died out the moment he landed there.

"Maybe they've sensed my arrival-" he guessed.

He looked at his watch-3:30 a.m.- just an hour until sunrise. He needed to finish this as quickly as possible but he didn't know where to start. All he could see was the gate of the creepy cemetery and the old iron fence around it. It was dark inside the cemetery and he could make out the shape of the old tombstones and the rocky path that ran between the graves. He felt that this would be the perfect place for a monster to hide. And so he went and opened the old iron gate of the cemetery carefully trying to make as less sound as possible. He stepped foot in the rocky path and the stones began to crackle under his feet. He gently drew his sword out and very carefully walked onwards.

He had this eerie feeling that something would jump out from behind the tombstones at any moment. Besides the occasional hooting of an owl and the sound of his own footsteps, it was dead silent. He was halfway in the middle when suddenly a bat flew right in front of his face which startled him. From where he was standing he could see the entire place in the dim light of the night sky and he was beginning to think that there was nothing else there except some old graves. He began to relax and took a deep breath and thought of what to do next. He realized now that he should have listened to Brother Farid and acted according to a plan-

"Where are those wolves now? Why can't I find them?" he said to himself.

He thought it would be better to check elsewhere and turned back towards the exit. Suddenly he heard growls that seemed to be coming from everywhere. He was alarmed and began looking everywhere but all he could hear were growls approaching him from all directions...

"C'mon- show yourselves-"he said holding his sword tightly in an attacking stance.

And then he began to see something that looked like a set of eyes- red eyes- approaching him in the darkness, from the entrance of the cemetery. Then he noticed another set of eyes behind and another on the side. As the set of eyes approached him closer, he saw the bodies of the monsters, It was the first time that he was seeing werewolves. In the vague light of the night sky he saw three dark figures- humanlike but not exactly human. He observed that their faces were covered with fur and they had large teeth and long claws. These were humans by day and monsters by night and there was a full moon tonight hiding under the clouds.

The wolves moved closer and closer and Johnathan started to back off a few steps but then he saw two more coming in from the right and two from the left.

"No big deal- I can take them all at once!" he thought.

Before he realized all of them started to attack him from all directions. The ones in front leapt at him and he immediately leapt into to air and over them and landed on the other side. He had made out of the kill zone but the war had only started. The wolves turned around and ran at him with incredible speed clawing the ground beneath them. Johnathan ran at them and aimed at the one in the middle and thrust his sword through his chest. It fell down and screamed in agony. It's partners became furious and came at him leaping and jumping from all directions. But Johnathan cut through all of them one by one and kicked and punched them until they lay half dead on the ground.

"Well that was easy-"he said to himself.

But one of them made one last dying howl and immediately the ground of the cemetery started to tremble. A horde of wolves were approaching him from all directions. He braced himself but as soon as he saw them his mouth opened wide. There were literally hundreds of them running towards him in pure hatred and anger.

"Oh Crap!!"he said to himself.

Johnathan was immediately overwhelmed by raging wolves clawing at him from all directions- he fought as hard as he could-kicking and punching and cutting them one by one. But they kept coming at him and he was finding it hard to keep up with their sheer numbers. No matter how hard he fought them- they wouldn’t stop! His clothes were torn and blood spill out of his arms and thighs from the incessant clawing and biting. He understood now what Brother Farid meant when he said that even though weapons can’t hurt him, the claws and teeth were enough-they weren’t fighting with any weapons!

Fifteen minutes later, Johnathan was exhausted-he had killed more than a dozen and injured another dozen but there seemed to be no end to this madness. He wanted to use his powers but he could hardly concentrate-he was drowning in a sea of monsters and the end seemed near. He was breathing hard and sweating- the pain from the wounds were making it harder and harder for him to carry on but he was a soldier – giving up was not an option!

And then Johnathan felt a hard kick in his back that threw him a few feet towards the ground. He fell down hard and turned his head – a seven feet tall, man-like monster was walking in, amidst all the chaos- he was bulky and huge and his teeth and claws were much larger. Johnathan realized that this was surely the Alpha.

As he lay on the ground- his sword fell out of his hand and the werewolves started to kick him as hard as they could- stomping on him relentlessly. Johnathan covered his face with his hands but soon he would find it impossible to defend himself. He was starting to faint-

“Enough!!” growled the Alpha “Take him to master-”

Back at the Lucky shop, Brother Farid was waiting impatiently for Billy and Raven to arrive-he was walking anxiously in his room, thinking of Johnathan.

“Oh! I should’ve stopped him- I should’ve tried harder-” he said to himself in regret.

He heard the sound of a car stopping outside- Billy knocked at the door impatiently while Raven stood behind him. Farid opened the door-

“Where’s he?” asked Billy.

“I couldn’t stop him-he went after the Lycans-”replied Farid.

“Dang It! We gotta find him- I’m sure he’s in trouble-”said Billy.