My shoulder was torn from its socket. Cartlidge ripped from bone like fat from a chicken breast. I gritted my teeth and clenched my eyes shut trying anything to get through the nauseating pain. I had to stand up. If I didn't, she would take advantage of the situation. Before I had a chance to get to my feet my eyes jerked open and looked up almost instinctively, she was here. She wasn't large, 5 foot 8 at most, but her matted black hair barely hid her face. It was angular and sunken with skin that was thin and pale blue, it undulated rhythmically with every heartbeat barely concealing her sickening nature. The smell hit me immediately. It was rotten meat and viscera. Around her waist were pelts taken from lambs and children. Their lifeless expressions of horror battled my willingness to do what needed to be done. I pressed my body against an oak tree that I was previously suffering under. I forced my legs to lift my body to my full standing height. I wasn't large either, 5 foot 10 inches and 200 pounds.

Staring at this hell spawn nauseated me further. She had already thrown me by my dominant arm, the way a spoiled child threw a doll that had failed to entertain them. At this instant I noticed her claws. They glinted in the moon light, and it was obvious they were some manner of metal.

I was sickened both by my injuries and the smell of this creature's trophies. She quickly ran for me screaming and shrieking something that almost sounded human adjacent. My stomach was pierced by her hands. Each individual finger ripping and tearing slowly throw the flesh of my guts. The smell worsened. The thought of my own waste being ripped through my stomach into the air was too much. I was starting to faint. Barely being able to hang my head and look down at the monster tearing through my own entrails lead to the moment of anger.

These faces it wore like trophies were children. These horrible things it had done to me were fair. I was hunting it. But these were people's sons and daughters. Innocents who's escape from the mortal realm was tainted by this disgusting sub-human garbage. Their parents would live their entire lives not knowing where their children were. Children. Fucking children?!?

I, James Hayes, would feel it again. Fire filling my veins and my body recovering at an unnatural rate. Gaia was right. I wouldn't accept death at the hands of something so vile and disgusting as to mutilate children. The fire was growing. I would burn her to ash. Her last moments would be filled with terror and hopefully she would beg for forgiveness. I may even sympathize with her wailing. But the flames that burned inside me would guarantee that my sympathies would be wasted on what was destined to be a smoldering pile of ash.

This Black Annis, would learn something that night. Something she would not be around long enough to share. Something Beasts, Demons, Monsters, Freaks, and Men would all learn. If you pray on the innocent, the flames of hell will open to devour you whole. And I would be the one to distribute them. I may have been cursed, but Gaia gave me a second chance. A chance to use my abilities to hunt down these abominations. And I would be happy to do so. Even if it meant my whole body would be mangled tomorrow.