Not the hero you need

[Minh Aitken]

Strange child. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw him looking at him and looking away when he did. What was that about? He snuck a glance back in the direction of the boy. He looked different than most kids, although he wasn't sure what about him made him think that. Maybe it was the way he dressed or the non-stylish fall of his hair. He had an air about him, as if he'd been isolated or sequestered. Amish, maybe? There were a few communities like that here in Oregon, or so he'd heard. He had yet to meet them but he figured they'd get along well. Minh certainly had no quarrel with them, although... He might have to. Some hunters thought communities like that were hiding a secret.

Minh side-eyed the kid. Not that he'd be able to tell at a glance, but he didn't look like a dangerous werewolf or shifter and he definitely couldn't be a vampire.

"Tall," Minh repeated. "With brown hair."

That could have been half the community. A man fitting that exact description was filling up his car but he assumed if that was the boy's brother, then he'd know him. Still, he started to point him out when the boy pointed to a different direction. An hour? He felt for the kid. If his brother had disappeared for so long, then he might be involved with the mess Asher was working on.

He smiled reassuringly at the boy, then held out his hand for him to take it.

"All right. Let's go look for him. I'm Minh, by the way. What's your name?"

[Cain Plunkett]

Tall, with brown hair, could have described about half the town, but that was the point. If he'd said short as a midget, with green hair, that would have been completely ridiculous and implausible. Cain had told this exact story enough times for it to be believable, and generally people didn't question him when he shuffled up asking for help. He supposed that with how different he looked, people assumed that he really needed them to intervene.

"I'm..." The usual name he gave was Jeremy, but something told him that he didn't need to lie here. God? Was it God, subtly guiding him? "Cain." He spoke his name in a low whisper, as his eyes remained glued to the outstretched hand. Cain was notoriously skittish about being touched by strangers. Even those in the group that they traveled with knew better than to touch his shoulder or pat him on the back.

Yet, somehow, he found himself reaching out and slipping his hand into Minh's, and then holding on tight. Cain's gaze finally traveled up to meet his. A sudden jolt shot through him in that moment, making his heart leap in his chest. "Minh," he repeated the man's name, letting the sound slip off his tongue. Minh. It wasn't a name out of the Bible, that was for sure, but Cain liked the soft sound of it.

A gentle name, for a man with a gentle smile, despite his fierce outward appearance.

[Minh Aitken]

The boy--Cain--was young and seemed shy. For a moment, Minh thought he wasn't going to tell him his name and that he was going to decide against his help. Maybe he shouldn't have extended his hand? Doubt ran through him for a few seconds but then Cain took his hand. See? Not so bad. Sometimes, Minh forgot that most people weren't used to hospitality. In big cities, this was more emphatic than ever but he thought in a small town, people would be more receptive. Maybe Cain thought he was being patronizing, maybe that was why he hesitated. Minh was, after all, a tall and imposing figure and he was aware that tattoos sometimes exacerbated that. (He'd gone through a phase in late teens and early twenties that he couldn't take back now without paying big bucks.)

He smiled as Cain repeated his name and gave his hand a small squeeze. If he was worried that Minh was going to do anything untoward, he had nothing to worry about. Minh would help him find his brother and get him home safely. Knowing what was out there right now and knowing the possibility that this poor child could be a part of the community worried him, though. It gave him pause. Should he even be here, then? As always, he found himself in a moral dilemma but... he had nothing to worry about. Cain was probably just a regular lost kid.

And his brother probably wasn't lying dead in the forest somewhere. He gave Cain another smile, trying to reassure himself as much as Cain.

"So he's been missing for an hour, you said?" he asked. "Your brother, I mean. Do you know what he was doing?"

[Cain Plunkett]

"He just said he was going to check on something, and then..." Cain trailed off artfully, leaving Minh to fill in the blanks. With how chaotic things were around them, it didn't take a genius to figure out what could have happened. That maybe the big bad things that went bump in the night had gotten their hands on him. Again, Cain squeezed Minh's hand, almost as if he was afraid that Minh would run off on him.

Really, though, he was subtly leading him away from the rest of the onlookers and down the street, towards where it was nice and quiet and mostly secluded. He looked up at Minh with a slight frown darkening his worried expression. "Do you think he's all right, Minh?"

Hopefully Isaiah could tell where they were headed. Cain didn't see him anymore, so he assumed that his brother had gone on ahead, to lay in wait for them. He waited until they were closer to the woods before letting out a soft gasp, and dropping Minh's hand. Cain ran forward. There was a scrap of cloth on the ground that was probably snagged off of an unwary passerby's shirt by a sharp branch, but he seized it like he knew it. Sometimes, if there wasn't anything handy, Cain pretended that he saw a shadow that looked like his brother, or if there was an opportunity, he slipped something out of his pocket and played it off like it was Isaiah's. Today, though, he was lucky--another sign that this was meant to be.

"This is from his shirt!" Cain ran back and held it up, fluttering gently in the soft breeze. "I think he went into the woods. Should we... go in?"

[Minh Aitken]

Who is he? Where does he fit in here? In this community, it appeared to be divided and Minh knew which side he was on, despite not liking it all the time. Devoted as he was to God and His words, he found it difficult to stomach the idea of killing anybody. Yet it was a duty somebody had to bring onto themselves because there were creatures against God on this earth. Demons.

A boy like this, so innocent and naive, he couldn't be a demon. His name was Cain. A name from the bible itself. He couldn't be a demonic creature--of that he felt more and more sure. What he was worried about now was that the boy's brother had been devoured by such a creature. His heart even clenched at the thought of it and he unconsciously brought Cain closer to his side.

"I hope he is," Minh said, not having the heart to cover up his worry with lies. He didn't know what he thought but by God's divine grace, Cain's brother must be fine. He... He... must be. The train of thought abruptly crashed as Cain ran forward to grab a ripped piece of cloth nearby, claiming it was from his brother's shirt. Minh's heart immediately sank at the sight of it.

"Oh, Cain," he said softly, sympathetically. But Cain seemed ever hopeful and Minh didn't have the heart to tell him what might be lurking in the woods. "I'll go. You stay out here, all right? I don't want anything to happen to you."

[Cain Plunkett]

The simple answer was that they didn't fit in here. Cain and Isaiah, they had no place here--in Hazleton, in Oregon, in the modern world. Their entire lives, they had been brought up according to the old ways. Odd ways. Ways that they clung to because that was all they knew.

Reintegrating into society had been rough and it was a bumpy ride to where they were now. Cain stood out, wherever he went; Isaiah did too. People instinctively felt that there was something off about them. Maybe Minh felt it too. If he did, though, he didn't let it color the way he treated Cain. He was still kind, sympathetic, and Cain read it in his eyes when he brought the scrap of cloth over. Minh was trying to spare his feelings--he was trying to protect Cain. But Cain...

It was in his name, wasn't it? Cain. The firstborn of Adam and Eve, who killed his brother--the first murderer, the originator of evil and sin and greed.

Yet, it was Cain who hesitated now, as he held on to Minh's hand and even tugged on it to hold him back. Cain's gaze dropped. "Wait," he said, his voice low and unsure. Doubt began to creep up on him. He didn't want Minh to be the sacrifice but he knew that God did. That was why God led Minh here and delivered him into Cain's hands. For a long moment, he just stood there, clinging to Minh, trying to make up his mind.

God wants him to be sacrificed.

But Cain didn't.

Eventually, he let go. Cain had to do as God wanted. It wasn't up to him to decide. "Be careful," he whispered, in a barely audible voice. Then, louder, so that Isaiah could hear if he was laying in wait, "I don't want you to get hurt."

[Minh Aitken]

Minh looked over at Cain, noting his hesitation. He must have seen that there were a lot of cops around here. He had to know something terrible happened, especially with snoopy reporters and news vans littering part of the area, too. Something had happened and Cain's brother might have been entangled in it, if his shirt had torn around here. Minh hoped that it didn't make him one of them. He liked to think that it wasn't so, that they were innocent people just caught up in the mess that this town had apparently become. If only he'd known before he arrived. But then, he was sure that God moved him here for a reason and maybe Cain was that reason.

Giving Cain's hand a gentle squeeze, he reassured him, "I'll be careful."

Then he was stepping forward with cautious steps, listening for anything that might be around to stalk him. This would be much easier if he could shift. Hearing in the human body was terribly inconvenient. But he didn't want to think about that--or what might happen if he was found to be something lesser in the eyes of God before an innocent child.

He crept forward, then stopped, swearing he heard something. He looked back to make sure that Cain was still where he'd left him--he was--but just as he started to turn back, something crashed into his face and threw him backwards. He hit the ground hard on his back, the wind knocked out of him. A moment later, he was hit in the head again and everything went dark.