Chapter 5: the stranger 

Errol’s fists clenched in anger.

Step one to revenge, kill this man, right now

He roared in anger and charged the man down, his fist raised to throw.

Clayton grabbed his punch and kneed him in the gut errol fell to his hands and knees, gasping for hair. Clayton raised his hands and drew an odd symbol in the air 

“Mute” he said, “ a handy spell of a witch, one of my favorites” 

Errol tried to scream for help, but nothing came out, he was muted

He gasped trying to speak, panic rising in his chest, he gripped the sides of his head and screamed again, but again silence only met his ears

“I'll tell you boy,” the oscar said “ what i'm going to do now, i'm going to tie you to a tree outside the village, and by morning” he began to croon softly as though he was describing a favorite dream “the demon will have ripped you limb from limb, or strangled you, i don't really care what way he does it, as long as the blades are long dead 

 Errol slumped to the floor, falling flat on his face

“Quit whining and crying boy! No one can hear you!” the man snarled angrily 

‘Actually, i think i'll kill you now! That will be much easier” he drew another symbol in the air

He tapped it and a jet of purple light exploded forward it slammed into Errol and knocked him the floor, the smell of burning flesh filled the air as errol screamed in agony to no avail  it felt like his stomach was on fire, hot, burning fire, that scorched his skin the searing pain heightened when Clayton kicked him, sending him sprawling across the floor. Errol knelt on his feet, clutching his stomach, this was it, he was going to die, after escaping a demon, and living fifteen years off grid, he was going to die 

Suddenly, he slumped forward and hit the floor, his eyes glazed open.

A grin played across claytons face, 

“I did it” he said softly, as though he did not believe what had happened  “i did it” he said again “he's dead! He's dead! HE'S DEAD!” he began to laugh maniacally. And that was when errol acted, flinging out his arm to grab his ankle, he yanked, and Clayton came crashing down  his nose going crunch on the table, as he fell errol rose, and ran, he threw open the door and charged outside into the snow, the cold air hit him like a smack to the face, he ran out the door, onto the road, and did not stop. He slid and slipped on the ice, screaming for help, but the mute was still, he heard the roars of anger from Clayton. Errol felt tears run down his face, his family had died, the oscars were evil, and there was a world of demons and witches he did not know about, he  slid down the road, he made it a few minutes before the rev on engine. And he heard the distinct 

Chk chk of a shotgun action pumping,  he hit the deck at the last minute as the roar of the weapon shattered the pristine morning air. The car, instead of stopping, sped up, charging toward Errol's prone body whoever was driving had floored it. Errol struggled to stand on the ice, he slipped and fell

And the car closed in, they were trying to ram him. He could see Clayton Oscar and some friends of his in the car, grinning madly at him.

Errol slipped again,  closed his eyes as the car came closer 

And that was when The Stranger showed up. While this was happening, a man in a purple hoodie, with the hood pulled down over his eyes, and some sort of half mask over his nose and mouth, the mask was metal, with four circles horizontal on each two sections of the mask, the circles were electric blue. Other odd symbols were carved on the mask. Errol had not seen him, he raised a hand, the wind whipped around, whistling through the mans hoodie and hair, the hoodie rippled in the gusts, he slipped a piece of paper from his sleeve, right into his outstretched hand, right as the car was reaching Errol, he crumpled it in his hands, and the car stopped. Just stopped, froze in midair, the grins on Clayton and his friends faces fizzled out, they walked out of the car, screaming curses at the man

“BEGONE  WITCH, YOU HAVE NO PLACE HERE!!”  Clayton screamed

The man spoke.  “the boy” he said in a distorted tone, “give him to me” 

Off in the distance, lighting crackled in the sky, a storm was brewing the great billowing black clouds seemed like monsters in the sky, but oddly, the storm seemed to follow the man as he walked closer to clayton he pulled from within the folds of his ski jacket,  a knife, its blade  was lighting blue. 

Clayton unzipped his coat and opened the insides, revealing  a ton of odd looking, differently shaped stone slates, he selected one with a sharp swirling pattern on it, and held it up

“Do you know what this is?”

The man did not answer he just held his knife ready, prepared to battle. Errol turned to run while we was distracted, but quick as a wink, the oscar threw another slate in his direction, it exploded, and suddenly errol froze in place unable to move. His eyes wide with terror and mouth agape.  He watched as the two men eyed each other. And Clayton pulled a long stick, more like a staff, out from a sheath on his back, it was wood and had symbols carved into it

“It's a blizzard rune, if you don't move yourself from the premises right now, i will-”

He was cut off as the man lashed out with his knife, it nicked Clayton on the nose, and a crackle of electricity snapped. Sending him flying onto his back, and then the man was upon him, he dove forward knife raised high, but clayton turned over to his back and smashed the rune with one hand, and almost immediately a swirling white mass of snow, wind and ice blasted forth from  the broken stone,  sending the man skidding back, he held his pose ready and stopped, and the wind picked up, swirling in circles all around, the hooded mans hood fluttered in the wind. The snow and ice  stung errol's immobile face, he was unable to blink, so his eyes watered and stung as ice pricked them, he tried furiously  to move, but all he could do was watch as the stranger and Clayton charged each other, the blizzard winds were so powerful that they lifted the man off his feet, but he stayed erect in midair, holding the blade forward away from him,he tapped his mask, and was thrown forward by some unseen force, Clayton raised his staff, and it met the knives sharp edge and held, the runes on the staff glowed bright red,  they clashed back and forth, metal on wood. Clayton knocked the  weapon away from the man and slammed the staff into his belly, the man made an oof noise and fell back, he raised his knife to the sky and it began to crackle and hum the thrumming noise buzzed and the air seemed too be full of electircity, he pointed the blade at Clayton, and a explosion rocked the earth flying forward, came a lighting bolt, streaking, jagged and beuitiful across the earth, clayton raised his staff in time and met the lightning bolt, a brigth light flashed and the lighting bolt dissepred, sucked into the staff,  he then pointed the end of the staff at the stranger, and a plume of fire apeared on the end, he swung the staff around like it was an olympic hammer, and then, when it was aimed at the stranger, the plume  discharged and flew forward the stranger spun his knife in an intricate pattern and the fire dissapeared, the two men ran art each other again, the hooded person swiped at the other with the knife, andw as returned by a wack with eh staff, blocked with a wrist, they crashed into each other, rolling around, hammering away at each other, Clayton, grunting with exertion, gripped at the mans throat, but he pulled free and attempet a stab, but clayton caught him by the wrist, twisted his hand behind his back, grabbed his staff and held into the strangers throat. The staff exploded into flames, and the stranger, oddly, did not scream or writhe, even as the smell of burning flesh filled the air and suddenly, errol was freed, his first idea was to run at clayton, but the second, was, sadly, to run and leave the stanger to die, who was kicking at clayton, trying to move and get purchase agains the oscars strength and size to the mans almost pathetically  delicate body. Suddenly, the man's head bucked backward, clayton cried out as the back of the masked man's head smashed into his nose  blood flowed down claytons face, and then, when he was distracted the stranger did a diving roll  forward,  sending clayton sprawling forward, he landed  on top of Clayton whos air was expelled from his lungs, gasping for air, he lay there on the ground, were the masked vigilante knelt on his hands, pinning him to the ground, clayton started up in loathing at him. The stranger pulled a revolver from a chest holster, and put the barrel to clayton's head, Errol closed his eyes and turned away, he had killed animals before, many animals, gutted them, ripped open their insides, made play of it, but this was different,watching a man get killed was always different. The sharp report of a gun was heard, and the stranger walked over to Errol, patted his shoulder to get him to turn around 

“Hello” he crackled casually, as though he had not just killed someone,