I Am A Mercenary For The Supernatural Who Almost Died On My First Mission

Recently a coworker of mine has begun mentioning that he is worried that our job is wearing on my mental health. There are few options to express my feelings and unburden my soul of the things I have done. I refuse to talk to him about my feelings and give him any idea of us being close. My job frowns on seeing counseling. In fact, I once heard a rumor that an employee sought out a professional to speak with and within days both were dead. Now I am not one for believing rumors, but I am neither the type to take unnecessary gambles. So here I am NoSleep surrounded by others who can relate to some of my experiences while I can still remain anonymous. Hopefully the higher ups don't know about Dating.mobi. I am not trying to get myself killed, but maybe he is right and I need to work through some issues. Also, I will obviously be changing any names.
Before I begin I just want to say I do not dislike my job even though at times it can be stressful to say the least. It is because of my job that I have gotten to see places and things that only a handful of people will ever get to experience. They say in life without risk there is no reward and I guess being one of the few people to have these experiences is my ?reward?.
My occupation is not a job you will find in the classifieds or on any job hunting website. I don?t even have an official title. Personally, I like to think of myself as a mercenary for the supernatural. By this I mean I don?t exactly work for the ?good guys?. I just go where I am told to by the higher ups. It is easy to sleep at night when you can convince yourself you?re not the one who chooses to take the job and are just following orders. Now I am sure you are thinking I am a terrible person and that I have some choice in the matter of the jobs. Rest assured I do not. There is only one way out of this field and that is moving six feet under. You either finally mess up and something rips you apart or you get ?retired?. If you get ?retired? the higher ups will send someone to visit you. It would be a lie to say that I have never been an enforcer of a retiring. There are a lot of people out there worried and scrambling to save for old age and retirement. It is something I will never have to worry about which maybe is a blessing in a way. I will never have to worry about being sent to a retirement home and rotting. My point is don?t get any silly notion that I am any sort of hero or villain. I am just me.
Honestly, this life does wear on you after a while. For as many beautiful sights as I have seen there are an equal amount of horrors that I cannot even put into words. I am not quite ready to talk about recent events that have led me to take my coworkers advice to talk with someone. Instead I will tell you one of my first missions where I got my first scar on the job. I was still fresh and under supervision of my trainer, Jack.
The higher ups had sent down orders for a small team to travel to an isolated town in the mountains. There had been multiple disappearances in surrounding woods. The last one had been that of a mother who had taken her son for a walk along a trail. This was a normal activity for the pair when it was nice outside. So a few hours later the boy?s father came home from work to discover the pair missing the trails were the first place he thought to go looking.
The boy was found fairly quickly by his father but the mother was nowhere to be found. When asked where his mother was the boy did not answer; he only sobbed. The father alerted the authorities and they began searching the area. The boy was the first person to witness a disappearance and it was from the little information that was gathered from him that they knew they were dealing with something that was inhuman. Obviously they never found her or anyone else who disappeared. That is why we were sent in.
The mission was simple. Discover whatever was responsible for the disappearances and report back. The higher ups would decide whether we would capture, kill, or leave the being to continue its work. The last happens more often than you would think. Like I said before we aren?t heroes sent in to save the day. We are just following orders from our ominous superiors.
The only clues given were from the child whose mother was ripped into the sky by a dark figure. They made several attempts to get him to draw the figure but they just looked like large black scribbles with eyes. So unhelpful. We instead tried to talk to locals and discovered more history on the people who disappeared. There were a total of six. A jogger, three college students camping in the woods, a bird watcher, and the mother. We wouldn?t understand what connected them until much later.
After gathering as much information as Jack thought necessary we gathered gear and under his orders made our way into the mountains. The first night was uneventful. Mainly it was just a lot of drinking with the guys telling me stories of past jobs to try and scare me. At one point I thought I heard something from the woods, but was assured by Jack that I was just being jumpy. When one of the guys, Mark attempted to drunkenly kiss me Jack decided it was time for everyone to go to bed and told me to take the tent next to his to make sure no one bothered me. Even so I swore I heard one of the guys outside of my tent after I had gone to bed, but then it got quiet and I went to bed.
I was glad Jack was looking out for me. I had heard stories of some of the guys, especially Mark taking things too far with their female coworkers. I assume they were just too good of results on their jobs to retire them.
I awoke at sunrise to hear Jack yelling. ?Where the **** is he? Why didn?t you wake me up?? and stuttering from some of the other guys. ?Finally you woke up princess.? Jack turned to me angrily. I could tell he was on a warpath and just kept my mouth shut.
We didn?t even take time to break down camp or eat. Instead we broke up into two teams of two and a third team of three which was the team Jack and I were on. There were no jokes as we began combing the woods.
It was hard to notice Jack?s frustration grow as the hours creeped by with no sign of Mark anywhere. By the third hour he decided we needed to change tactics. ?We need to spread out more. We have only covered a fraction of the woods. I know that drunk ******* couldn?t have gotten far. We should have found him by now.? He spoke over the radio to the other teams. It was decided we would all split up. At first he wanted me to stay with him since I was so new but after a bit of persistence I was able to convince him I would be more help if I split up as well. ?If you see or hear anything you do not engage you hear? You radio in. Understood??
I nodded.
?What is that? I cannot hear you.? Jack was ex-military and as someone who has seen a lot of action he was not one to be messed with.
?Yes, sir. I understand. I will radio in if I see or hear anything.?
We all headed in our separate directions. A few more hours passed like this. Jack had told us if we didn?t find him by noon we were to regroup. I stopped to look down at my watch as my stomach began growling. It was a quarter after eleven. I knew I would have to turn around soon. I?ll be real honest here and admit I never liked Mark and I wasn?t overly concerned with his disappearance. I had already learned that there was a lot of turnover in this job so to speak. So one more perverted ******* to replace didn?t seem like a big deal.
My indifference was what caused me to decide to just sit down and eat the granola bar in my pocket to just kill the time till I headed back. As I sat listening to the sounds of the woods and enjoying my crunchy treat. I heard the same sound I thought I had heard the night before.
It was a quiet humming. I lifted the radio to my mouth to call in for backup but stopped as I thought about Jack telling me the night before how I was just being jumpy. Maybe it was just a bird or some animal making the noise. As I stood there contemplating whether to call it in or not the humming stopped. Suddenly I was brought back to reality as the radio cracked to life startling me. Jack began telling everyone to head back to the campsite. Staring in the direction of the humming I called back that I heard something and gave my coordinates. Jack told me to stay put and for everyone to meet at the coordinates. After each guy called in acknowledging the change in commands the radio went quiet again.
I stood there for what felt like forever listening for the humming again. The soft melody began floating through the air again. Against better judgement I decided perhaps I should just follow it and then I could report back where it was coming from. As I walked closer I began hearing words accompanying the melody. Even thinking back, I cannot remember what the words were. At this point my memories of the time begin to seem surreal and foggy.
As I stepped into a small clearing not far from where I had been waiting for the others I noticed a cave on the side of the mountain. Stupidly I walked into the dark mouth of the cave. The voice? no voices grew louder with every step. Stumbling blindly through the dark I made my way deeper into the cave. In the distance I saw a small sliver of light. I remember pausing and trying to force myself to turn around. Thinking that I needed to call Jack?but instead I unclipped the radio and let it fall to the ground with a loud thud that echoed through the cave.
I continued till I was surrounded by blinding light. As my eyes adjusted I began making out figures. I felt myself exhale as I saw Mark sitting near a fire with his back against the wall. He was looking up smiling at me. He was surrounded by the other missing individuals who seemed equally as happy to be there.
?What are you doing here?? I asked as I stepped forward. Then I heard the sickeningly sweet voice again. Even to this day the way I felt as I turned around to see the source of the voice does not make sense to me. I have never felt the same before or since. You will have to excuse my descriptions because no words will be able to describe what I saw, but I will do my best.
I turned to see three ethereal women all dressed in white. Each was slightly different from the next but was equal as gorgeous, one with blue eyes and long golden hair, one with green eyes and shorter hair as black as the night, and the last with hazel eyes and wavy hair that was the color of the earth. Their stares made me feel exposed and I felt my face get hot. It felt as if I was standing naked in front of them. I had never seen anyone nor have seen anyone whose beauty matched theirs. I felt the urge to reach out and touch them. I wanted to be enveloped in their arms. I felt like a sixteen-year-old girl drunk on love.
I remember turning back to look at the others who were still sitting quietly around the campfire. As I looked at them I felt a soft hand caress my shoulder and another wrap around my waist. I could see a waterfall of golden hair fall over my shoulder as I felt one of the women lean in to kiss my neck. My weight shifted as I felt her pull me into her. I did not fight? I did not want to fight it. My head turned towards her. At that moment I did not care about the others there. I did not care that their eyes were on me. I felt her grip tighten on me as I heard a shout in the distance. The voice seemed so far away I didn't even acknowledge it. My eyes closed as I let myself focus on her touch. Again I heard shouting this time it was much louder.
The next few things happened in quick succession. For a third time I heard the shouting. This time it hit me that it was my name that was being shouted. My eyes snapped open to look in the direction of the voice. Lights seemed to bounce in the darkness as a group of figures came into view. The sudden sensation of pain jolted me from my daydream like state as I felt a hot wet pain on my shoulder. When I looked towards the source of the pain I saw four long curved black talons digging into my collar.
A mixture of panic and adrenaline surged through me as I reached up for the talon and pushed back against the creature. We both slammed into the side of the cave. Her grip on me was released for long enough for me to step away and turn to face her. ?There are three of them? I yelled as I realized the other two were nowhere to be seen. I ripped my side arm out of its holster and turned to point it at the creature.
The once beautiful creature was replaced with a horrid monster. It still had the figure of a woman, but its soft features and golden blond hair had been replaced by deep sunken face and black wires as hair. The body of the creature was sickeningly thin with a bloated stomach and limbs that seemed too long. Its arms and feet ended in talons. The thing that caused a rise of panic within me was that her face was covered in a muddy crimson color and her mouth opened inhumanly wide to reveal two rows of teeth. Some were broken but the rest looked as sharp as razors.
My head turned knee-jerk in reaction to the missing individuals. I felt bile rise in my throat as I turned to see that each and every one of them had been eviscerated. Their entails were half eaten and spread across the dirty ground. My eyes fell on Mark who moments ago had been smiling at me. He sat with the same wide smile across his face but his eyes were glazed over and lifeless. My vision swept over every one of them. They all had a wide smile across their face, but their eyes were equally as empty.
I turned back to look at the creature who was now gone as my colleagues reached me. My eyes met Jacks just before a wind whipped past us putting out the fire and a chorus of voices pierced the darkness. I fell to my knees and covered my ears to try and block out the noise in vain. I could hear gunshots in the mix of the melody. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing to keep myself calm as I felt my ears begin to bleed. I guess looking back it was lucky in a way that they did this because the wetness dampened the noise and I was able to block out the rest of the noise with my hands.
I am not sure how long I knelt on the floor with my eyes close covering my ears. A hand grabbed my shoulder causing me to jump. Roughly I was pulled to my feet and yanked across the room. I clawed and fought against the force that was dragging me towards the entrance of the cave. When I reached the mouth I was thrown to the ground. I turned to see Jack with scratches across his arms and face. He did not say a word he just stared at me for a few seconds before he turned to walk back into the cave.
Shaking I reached up for my face which was covered in tears. I hadn?t even registered that I had been crying. The adrenaline had begun to wear off and I found myself curling into a ball and sobbing. By the time Jack and the others came back outside the sun had set. I could see they were talking but I couldn?t make out what was being said. It was then I realized I couldn?t hear. Jack pointed to me and one of the men, Erik. Erik walked towards me and reached down to gently help me to my feet. Carefully Erik inspected my shoulder and then turned to say something to Jack who seemed to be shouting and pointing into the distance.
Gently Erik led me away. I am not sure how far we walked before my legs began to give out and I felt blackness surround me. I woke up a few hours later in the back seat of one of the vehicles as it bounced down the road. Erik turned to smile at me from the passenger side and feeling a wave of relief I felt myself lose consciousness again.
It wasn?t for days until I actually woke up. I was lying in the hospital ward on our main campus. My shoulder and torso were wrapped. The creature had cut my stomach and shoulder with its talons and infected me with some sort of poison. Jack took his time coming to visit me. I realize now that he was not only mad at me but upset with himself for allowing me to go off on my own. In the weeks following I was debriefed and all the blanks were filled in for me.
Jack was the last one to arrive at the randevu point and was met by confusion. Upon realizing I was nowhere they began to look for me. Being so fresh I wasn?t very good at covering my tracks so it was fairly easy for them to figure out which way I went. When they got close they all began hearing the melody. Being seasoned they knew to put in ear plugs and made their way into the cave after me. When they reached me without being bewitched by their melody they saw that I was in the grasp of one of the creatures. It was through yelling at me Jack was able to make the creature stop singing to turn to face him, which is what broke the spell.
Then like I said the creatures, now that I know to be Sirens, blew out the light and tried to attack them. Jack seeing me distraught drugged me out of the cave to be out of the way as they took care of the Sirens. They were able to kill two of them and wounded the other one. Erik carried me back to the camp as the others ?took care? of the bodies.
I was informed later that I needed to be retrained and it would be even longer until I would be allowed on my own again. I felt more embarrassed than anything but accepted my punishment and was just grateful I wasn?t being fired.
If you are wondering about the connection that I mentioned that the victims had to each other it was that they were all ?bad people? I supposed. When we were investigating the town initially we discovered that the jogger was a lawyer for the three college students who had been in trouble for attacking a fellow student and were being accused of raping her. It wasn?t for a few weeks after when it came out that the mother was stealing from a charity and in the bird watcher?s house they found a hidden box under a floor board that detailed gory crimes he had taken part in. Apparently he wasn?t out in the woods watching birds like we originally thought. Like that the pieces fell into place. It makes you wonder who the real evil is.
Also, in case you were wondering, the higher ups decided they wanted the last Siren brought back alive to the main campus. It rode a few feet from me tied and gagged in the trunk of the vehicle as I slept off its poison. It wouldn?t be until about a year later that I found out what happened to her.


Source.