Hunting The Nephilim Poem by David Welch

Cormack Langton paced down the long tunnel,
tired from the job he'd just completed,
hunting a Nephilim abomination,
a task that he had often repeated.
He had the scars of several dozen fights,
the price he paid for doing what's right.

And it was important that it got done,
such great damage could the Nephilim do,
murderous dictators, serial killers,
were often fallen angel spawn, though few knew.
They claimed the sin practiced by their parents,
to unknown graves many souls had they sent.

Cormack himself knew the pain they could bring,
her mother married one, his stepfather,
and he had come home to see his fell work,
the half-fallen scum murdered his mother.
Cormack sought his revenge, and nearly died,
would have if a hunter hadn't arrived.

But that had been fifteen long years ago,
he had trained to be a hunter since then,
and had taken down thirty Nephilim
disguising themselves as just normal men,
monsters that had done the most awful deeds,
the kinds of evil that shock when you read.

The tunnel ended in a big steel door,
he typed in the code and then walked inside,
this was the North American HQ,
and dozens of folks at work you would find,
tracking down people who might be Nephilim,
the support staff that helped people like him.

He waved to some friends, and they walked into
the big office of the three patriarchs,
one from each of the Abrahamic faiths,
their greatest cooperation so far.
Though in the mid east they might come to blows
here Jews, Christian, and Muslims fought hellish foes.

Yusef sat center, Sayed to his left,
and to the right, Paul declared, "Welcome back!
We heard you killed that rapist in LA,
we'd feared that you'd been thrown off his track."
"He was a tough one, the chase was long, "
said Cormack."But he's paid for all his wrongs."

Sayed smiled, said, "Good work as always,
we all think that you've earned a few weeks off."
"Yes, "said Yusef, "Take some time for yourself.
I think that you have done more than enough."
Cormack nodded, and said, "Sounds good to me."
He could spend more time with his love, Christie.

He'd been out hunting so much these past weeks
that he had barely seen his fiancé,
he hated that, but it was part of the job,
he often had to spend long stretches away.
When he reached his townhouse he saw her there,
idly working, twirling her curled hair.

He walked up and kissed her head so softly,
then said, "Good news, I'm off for the next few weeks."
She said, "Mmm…and I'm betting that you're are
thinking of all that you will do to me."
He smirked, and said, "Well it has crossed my mind."
She said, "I must work, but we will make the time…"

And they did enjoy that time together,
they went to dinner, took walks, and made love,
Cormack so enjoyed these little reprieves
from his chosen life, so brutal and rough.
Some days he thought it very hard to beat
lazing on the couch and rubbing her feet.

But good times are good because they can't last,
eventually a new call did come in,
he told Christie he had to go away
for a sales trip, he shared no details grim.
She said, "It's fine, I must travel as well,
to visit my brother, who's going through hell."

They said their goodbyes, Cormack went to work,
the patriarch's gave him a new target,
a serial killer near Topeka,
"We're not sure, but we think he's a good bet."
They told him as they slipped him a file,
he frowned, thinking this might take a while.

The drive took two days, but Cormack got there,
in a rented house he set up his gear,
see Nephilim left some strange energy
at any location where they appeared.
An electric charge from their angel kin,
unique to their kind, so Cormack did begin.

This was the boring part of the hunting,
walking the streets with a heavy backpack,
inside a device reading the energy,
hoping to pick up residual tracks.
He started near the sites of the fell crimes,
traces of a Nephilim he soon did find.

For days he looked for patterns in the readings,
using the data to triangulate,
narrowed it down to a three block circle,
armed himself and went to investigate.
The device went wild as he drew near,
he wondered if two Nephilim were here.

He heard a commotion from a warehouse,
not uncommon in a bad part of town,
he heard an angel voice and painful moan,
and knew something awful was going down.
He slipped inside and heard a voice proclaim,
"When the hunter shows up, you'll get the blame! "

Cormack stepped out and lifted his pistol,
he said, "Or I'll just kill you both here and now."
The bigger man jolted as he appeared,
then his eyes glowed, and he bellowed out loud.
He then then himself into a mad charge,
but Cormack's gun spoke before he got far.

The Nephilim fell, and he stocked forwards
to the other one lying on the floor,
the man there gave him a much resigned look,
then came the echo of a banging door.
Cormack heard a shrill, familiar voice cry:
"Get away from him, or you're gonna die! "

He turned quick and his face went pale from shock,
his Christie stood there, her face ghost-white too,
but she kept her gun pointed right at him,
though this was a fear that Cormack well knew.
He said, "Christie…what are you doing here? "
She scowled at him with a face severe.

"I came here to protect my poor brother, "
she said, motioning to the injured man.
"I heard a hunter had come to town,
the type who thinks he is hunting the damned.
But now I see, it all makes so much sense,
why you travel so much, you are one of them."

He said, "…your brother, that means your Nephilim,
just like the monster that killed my mother."
Christie said, "I've never hurt anyone,
and neither had my kind younger brother.
Heck, he's a preacher with a congregation,
he spends his days preaching against damnation! "

Said Cormack, "He wouldn't be the first one
that I found hiding within a sheep's clothes."
So she said, "And me?Do you think I'm evil?
Is that the woman that you love and know?
Have you ever heard me raising my voice?
Do you think that God would deny us free choice?

"Since when does He make kids pay for the sins
that came from choices other people made?
Does He hold you to the sins of your parents?
And if He did, would you bother to pray?
It's true that some of us learned the Fallen's hate,
but so many more chose to avoid that fate.

"Do your patriarchs even realize
how many of us actually exist?
For each on you kill there's at least ten more,
who live normal lives, peacefully persist.
We're not all Stalins, or damn Genghis Khans,
please, Cormack, you must see that this is wrong."

He pointed the gun, but hesitated
as she helped her brother limp to the door,
part of Cormack saw the woman he loved,
part of him saw the foe that he abhorred.
He said, "Why shouldn't I think that you're lying? "
She said, "If you think so, then shoot that thing."

But Cormack knew, as well as Christie did,
that he'd never pull a trigger on her,
she made he way out with her brother in tow,
leaving him and his old world in a blur.
All his adult life he had done this task,
now all certainty in his life had passed.

He didn't return to the patriarchs,
he just e-mailed them a resignation,
they gave their regrets, but they understood,
fifteen years was tough in this occupation.
He bought a small place outside Rapid City,
out in the broad prairie, for tranquility.

The words she had told him did make thin think,
how many ‘good' Nephilim were out there?
He still had the energy detector,
one day he loaded it in his pack with care,
Went to the city and wandered the roads,
were these folks out there?He just had to know.

It took a few hours, but he found one,
bagging groceries at a supermarket,
a teenage boy, awkward with customers,
Cormack knew evil, and this wasn't it.
Then a mother, a lawyer, and a cabbie,
those were good people…well, two-out-of-three.

It all left things spinning within his own mind,
how did he make sense of what he had learned?
When three great religions all did proclaim
they were abhorrent, and destined to burn.
Did he betray mother, laying down his gun?
For long months he pondered, and it was not fun.

Perhaps Cormack would have just stayed this way,
living quietly on what he had saved,
but one night Christine showed up on his door,
she'd changed her hair, had it done up in waves.
Her face seemed paler, and her eyes were sad,
he didn't know if to feel worried or glad.

"What are you doing here? "he asked simply.
She shrugged."Can't a girl visit an old friend? "
He said, "We didn't end on happy terms,
and I have been through too much to pretend."
She said, "I'm sorry I left things amiss, "
then suddenly launched herself into a kiss.

It was hours before the two settled down,
lying sweaty in Cormack's comfy bed,
she was half asleep when she heard him ask,
"You still haven't replied to what I said.
Fun as this was, it seems to come too late,
you made it quite clear, my kind you must hate."

She said, "It's been hard to just forget you,
I did love you, and maybe I still do.
And given your mother, I can understand,
the evil Nephilim were all you knew.
And you stopped hunting when the truth became clear,
maybe, that fact, is why I came here.

"Maybe that's the tragedy of this all,
I am doomed to love a man I should not.
Your old friends must be keeping an eye out,
if I keep coming back, I will get caught."
He smiled and said, "The chances are slim,
they do not know that you are Nephilim."

She perked up in his arms when she heard the words,
said, "You mean you didn't tell them the truth? "
He said, "I couldn't shoot, how could I betray?
Even attempting it would be no use.
Despite all my shock, I recalled one thing:
the fact that I gave you an engagement ring."

She reached for her jeans beside the bed
and dug out the same ring from a pant's pocket,
slipped it on her finger so he could see,
the moonlight sparkled brilliantly off it.
He sighed, "I guess you will need a new white dress,
but before I agree, I have one request."

She looked at him, curious, in the dim light,
he said, "Do that thing where you make your eyes shine."
She grinned and focused her angelic side,
until her eyes glowed with a light divine.
It faded quickly, and he said, "You know
that's the first time I've seen that up close.

She chuckled at the light tone of his words,
she was still struggling to catch her breath.
"My fallen angel dad could go for hours,
a few seconds is my personal best."
He chuckled and wrapped her tighter in his arms,
hunter and hunted, lost to each other's charms.