Sine Nomine: A Monster Hunter's Tale

Incense....

The pleasantly hypnotic odor wafted from the censer in thin purple wisps. Slowly, it drifted higher towards the vaulted ceiling until a draft of cold air swept the smoke over sturdy, wooden pews. Pale hands brushed against the massive stone entryway as their owner gently shut the double-doors behind himself. The man leaned against a vacant pew, causing a few parishioners’ heads to turn. After all, the last hymn of the service had ended a minute ago and one could not help but notice his attire. It was not offensive...yet many of the older people who attended St. Dominic’s Church felt rather strongly about strange men clothed entirely in black lurking about the shadowed corner near the door like Poe’s notorious raven. It could not be helped, for Professor Benjamin Asga’ya-ge Lassen was quite unusual, from his long, ebony hair and ankle length trenchcoat to his well-worn fingerless gloves.

One by one the parishioners hastily exited, leaving him with ample opportunity to claim the nearest vacated pew. Several mothers nervously ushered their children past the tall man quietly observing them with half-closed eyes. The little boy seated with his mother in the pew directly behind him fidgeted until he could no longer restrain himself.

�Are you a priest?� the child blurted.

�David!� hissed the boy's mother faintly, her face crimson with embarrassment.

�I�m not a priest, although my uncle was one.�

�Oh. Then why are you wearing lots of black?�

Ben paused thoughtfully for a moment before answering.

�I bet you've played hide and seek before, correct?�

�I play it lots of times!� David chirped

�I'm playing hide and seek right now, in fact.� Ben whispered. �Black is a good color to wear if you're trying to find the people who are hiding.� he added with a conspiratorial wink. �It's a sneaky color.�

�Did you hear him, Mommy? He says black is a sneaky color!� giggled David.

�I'm so sorry. He never does this, he's usually so quiet.� his mother groaned while David merrily returned to prayer.

�It's alright.�

Ben traced the sign of the cross over his heart, genuflected reverently and, standing to his full height of six feet, swept silently between the dark oaken pews towards the exit in an almost predatory fashion. Shadows began to slither and pulsate in an inky black mass of tendrils as they gathered at his boots, resembling a puddle of oil. An inquisitive glimmer sparked within Ben's sapphire eyes.

Observing the local San Franciscans strolling along in the city's bustling streets had grown dull after an hour. They reveled in their pursuits while he waited for his quarry. All matters considered, it counted as a typical Sunday in every aspect. The professor casually folded his glasses and placed them in his breast pocket, eyes agleam in a manner akin to a starving wolf that has spotted a plump hare ripe for the taking, the misty shadows trailing lazily behind him in his wake.

�Any leads?� asked the short young man who met him at the edge of the church's parking lot. He was quite scrawny and thin for his build, which only served to enhance the boyish appearance of his thin face and large chocolate-brown eyes. One of the sleeves of his maroon turtleneck had been aesthetically ripped to shreds and mended with safety pins, exposing an intricate depiction of the Star of David in teal-highlighted black on his forearm as he raised an equally scrawny hand to scratch the scant amount of facial hair aspiring to be a beard.

�None. The aural signature had been corrupted by the time I arrived.�