Jacob Kane: Origins

Another dark and dreary night in another dark and dreary city. For most people the scene would bring them down, the same isn't true for Jacob Kane. This scene had become almost comforting to him. Dark and dreary is what you expect from an old city, he was perfectly content with getting what he expected. Mainly, because getting what he expected was becoming something that he didn't expect.

He used to be normal, well as normal as can be expected for the son of a millionaire that refuses to admit he was a millionaire. His father could have bought half of their home town but he still worked a factory job and most people new nothing of his personal finances. He was your standard angst ridden teen; resented his father, general disdain for authority figures, and your mild inclination to violence. He spent most of his days hanging out with friends from school and target shooting with his grandfather. Everything was fine, your standard life as a teen, then shit hit the proverbial fan.

One night Jacob was awoken by a loud thump and the sound of shattering glass. He jumps out of bed and runs down the hall towards his fathers room grabbing a shotgun and some shells out of the gun case in the hall. Loading two shells into the gun as he bashes his fathers door open, aiming towards the bed. What he sees almost makes him drop the gun. There's a large hunched over figure standing on his fathers bed looking down, his father chest appears to have been ripped open. Without a word or another thought Jacob takes aim and fires at the figure emptying a load of buckshot into it's side. The figure topples over and out of site behind the bed. As Jacob starts to step forward, reloading, the figure jumps from behind the bed lunging at him. Jacob dives to the side looking at what could not even be loosely described as a man. It resembled a man only in the fact that it walked upright and had opposable thumbs. It lacked most other features that make us human. It had hair covering most of its body, two slits in its face where the nose should be, nothing distinguishable as eyes, razor-like teeth could be seen from its open mouth, its fingers were twice the length any mans would be, and it didn't appear to have a neck, its head seemed to be connected directly to its torso. Jacob tried to load more shells while shuffling backwards across the floor. The creature regains its bearings and prepares to attack again. Jacob takes aim again. The creature lunges and Jacob fires right into it's face. The creature doubles over, it twitches for a moment and then stops moving. Jacob jumps up and runs to his fathers side. He grabs the phone dialing 911 and panicking trying to tell them what happened. The 911 operator doesn't believe half of it but tells him the police and paramedics are on the way. He turns back to where he left the creature but it's not there, all that is left is a brown puddle and some fur.

The authorities can't come up with any logical explanation for what happened to Jacob's father. At first they tried to blame Jacob but they couldn't find a way to explain how he could have caused those kind of injuries. Jacob was left an orphan, a rich orphan, but an orphan. He didn't know how to deal with his fathers death and had no concept of how to use the money. While he was trying to figure things out he was staying with his grandfather. He planned to stay there until he finished school. He figured he'd stay with what family he had left for now and then go out on his own after he had things straightened out in his head. Being his fathers child he didn't really know how to live like a millionaire. He had the money but to go from living the life of lower middle class to this he literally had, "more money then he knew what to do with." Anyone who watched him had to give him credit, he knew better then to go out spending wildly. He knew that he might have a lot of money now but what he didn't have was an income. What he had was what he had. He didn't want to get into the lifestyle of a rich man and end up being a poor man because of it. It was kind of funny, in a sad way, he finally began do understand, at least mildly, why his father did things the way he did.

Plans are all good and fine, as long as things go as expected. Jacob expected to live with his grandfather and finish high school without any more problems, I mean why shouldn't he? What happened was some bizarre freak of nature that incident that could never happen again. Well that's what he had thought, maybe more what he hoped. Unfortunately, he was wrong. A little more than two month after, he was again woken by the sound of breaking glass. He grabs a baseball bat from beside his bed and runs out of his room. He runs down the hall of his grandfathers house towards the master bedroom praying he doesn't see a replay of the night at his house. Then he hears a noise he wasn't expecting, the sound of a gun firing multiple times. He runs into the room and sees his grandfather leaning in the corner with a large revolver in hand panting and bleeding. In the other corner he sees a beast that looks exactly like the one that killed his father. It's not moving, he can see three bullet holes in it's forehead. As he watches the beast actually dissolves, leaving nothing but a brown puddle and some fur. Which both disturbed him and reassured him at the same time. It let him know he hadn't failed to kill the thing that killed his father, but what the hell was it and since when do living creatures just dissolve? His grandfather collapsed onto the bed and Jacob ran to his side. The scene replayed in his mind as he called 911. Once again he dealt with a sceptic operator but they still sent the medics. His grandfather looked at him holding his wounds. He looked down at the floor. "They are really out for blood aren't they? Why now? After so many years?" Jacob looked at his grandfather confused. "What are you talking about?" His grandfather winced in pain and coughed. Turning his head he spit out blood. "They will come after you next," he coughed again, "I'm sorry for that. You didn't do anything to deserve it. I'm afraid you are going to pay for your fathers and my past." He coughed again and collapsed. By the time the medics got him to the hospital it was too late, blood had filled his lungs and he was dead.

Jacob didn't know what to do, everything in his life was falling down around him. The school let him take an equivalency test and graduate early. He was leaving town as soon as possible. His grandfathers words still echoed in his head. What did he mean pay for their past? What had they done? Would something really be coming to get him? He bought a car and left town a day after he got his diploma. He didn't really have any idea where he was going, he just knew he wasn't staying there. He drove to New York City, found himself and apartment for rent on the third story of a half decent apartment building. He figured at least this way if someone, or something, did come after him this way it shouldn't be coming through the window. He tried to go back to living a normal life. Made new friends, found a job at a local music store, tried to put the past behind him. A few months passed and he thought everything was gonna be alright. Then it happened, something attacked. Not the same kind of creature as before. This one was larger and it looked more like a man then the other creatures had. It looked like a large muscular man the only think making it nonhuman was, instead of normal skin it looked more like a reptile, like it was covered in scales. It came busting through the front door of the apartment while Jacob was sitting on the couch watching television.

Jacob dived off the couch and opened a drawer under the TV. Pulling out a revolver he turned back to the creature and took aim. The creature flipped over the couch coming towards him. He fired twice into the creatures chest, it recoiled and before it could regain its bearing Jacob fired again shooting it right between the eyes. It dropped to the floor. Jacob thought it was dead so he went for the phone. The creature jumped up off the floor, clearly hurting but not dead. Jacob was about to shoot it again when it ran across the room and jumped out the window. Jacob ran to the window aiming his gun toward the street, but there was nothing there. The creature was gone. He was getting sick of these disappearing acts. He never had any proof of what attacked him. He didn't even bother calling the 911 this time. He payed to have the door fixed and left town. Moved to another city, a few months later it happens again. He gets attacked, he lives, he moves. This starts to become a pattern. Each time what comes to kill him gets harder to kill and a few even manage to injure him. Almost put him in the hospital a few times. He starts trying to find out why it's happening. Starts interrogating the creatures that come after him. Slowly gaining information. Somehow every time they got away. That was the part that was really getting to him, never any proof.

He started tracing the trail backwards. He was hunting whatever was hunting him. He was sure they knew exactly how much he knew. He didn't care. What did he have to lose? He couldn't keep friends because he had to keep moving. Could keep a job for the same reason. His family had been murdered. So here he was another city another night. Following a trail that he didn't even know the reason behind. All he ever got were names. No reasons just names. Couldn't go to the cops, they'd just have him committed. Barely twenty years old and here he is chasing monsters and shadows in the dark, fighting for his life constantly, for reasons he doesn't even know, and the only thing he knows is that whatever common intellect tells you to expect from day to day life is exactly what he shouldn't expect.