The Hunters

Chapter Eighteen: They Found Us

We made it back to the apartment safely and without being followed as far as we could tell. As soon as we were inside, River locked the door and checked the windows to make sure they were locked as well. I immediately plopped down on the couch, my hands trembling from what happened.

I buried my face in my shakey hands and began to sob. I killed that man and I didn't even know how. I swear I never touched that knife! I don't even know where thr knife had come from. I didn't understand what was happening. We had managed to live here without incident for so long!

When River was done, she sat beside me and wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I let my sobs wrack through my entire body, and yet some how she was holding herself together.

"You have to be stronger than this, Alana," she told me as she pulled away. I shook my head at her. My sobs ceased, but tears still continued to fall.

"I'm a murderer and I don't even know how," I told her sadly. My chest ached with sorrow and guilt. My head was spinning and pounding violently.

"We didn't have a choice. That's part of our life. You think this sort of thing didn't happen back home? You'd be foolish to think that," she told me and I knew she was right. Death and murder was much more common among werewolves then humans. I felt like I acted more like a human than anything else. Maybe I was meant to live among them, but being targeted by a hunter told me such ideation was idiotic.

I must have blacked out for a moment when I killed him. That was the only conclusion I could draw from it. It was why I didn't remember or understand what happened.

"So we are going to leave this town?" I asked River sadly. "I don't want to have to leave Jaci..." River was silent for a moment. Her icy gaze studied me while I sniffled and wiped away my tears.

"From what I know of the hunters, they have reach in all the human towns," she finally spoke, her blue gaze holding my green one. "If we were simply chased, then yes. This hunter is dead because of us. They will be searching for us everywhere, so I'm.... I'm not sure what to do," she admitted to me. "Maybe we can keep running and eventually find some place we can hind," she speculated.

I leaned forward and buried my face back into my hands. Everything was such a mess. The only advantage we have at the moment was that they didn't know where we lived yet.

"You can't go back to the Cafe. It's too risky and they probably know you work there," she told me and I nodded weakly.

"I will let them know I quit," I said sadly.

"It's going to be okay," River tried to reassure me, but it didn't help. I didn't understand how she could be so mentally strong while I felt so broken.

I watched as she walked off into her room. I decided to do the same. I hopped in the shower and let the hot water ease my aching body. I heard my phone vibrating on the bathroom vanity. I immediately knew it was Jaci or one of my other co-workers probably wanting to check on me after what happened. I ignored it and finished my long shower. I didn't even bother to look at my phone until after I got dressed.

10 missed calls. It was a couple of calls from co-workers and several from Jaci who must have heard about what happened from someone else who worked my shift today. I laid down on the bed and pulled a soft pillow to my chest. I propped my chin on it and stared aimlessly at my phone. What would I even say to her?

Instead, I sent her a text. I told her I was fine and to let everyone know. I explained I wanted some space to calm my nerves. That would work, right? Send.

I set my phone on the night stand beside my bed and curled up in the purple blankets.

"Why am I so weak?" I cried to Vesper in my mind.

"We are not weak, we are healing," she told me so softly. I found her voice to be soothing. I never felt alone with her.

"We are capable of great things, Alana," she told me.

"Why won't you tell me?" I asked her.

"Because you need to discover this for yourself. I will tell you this, what happened to that man today was not by accident," she explained.

"You know how that happened?" I asked her, surprised by her words.

"Yes, and you must figure it out yourself. We are a flower bud that has yet to bloom," she explained. I hated that she wouldn't just tell me. Sometimes my wolf was so cryptic and it was frustrating.

I fell asleep curled up with the fluffy blankets tightly wrapped around my body. When I awoke, it wasn't morning. There was no light shining through my window. Everything was still engulfed in darkness.

There was a loud bang at the door which startled me to my feet. My heart hammered wildly in my chest. My first thought was that the hunters found us already. We should have fled immediately. We shouldn't have hesitated. We were going to die here.

I was terrified to investigate the loud banging against the front door. I slowly cracked open my bedroom door to see River approaching it. She peaked through the peep hole before unlocking the door and opening it.

I braced myself for who would be on the other side. My muscles tightened and my breath was caught in my throat.

"I heard..... what happened....," Jaci was panting in the hallway. River aggressively yanked her inside and slammed the door shut. She locked it and turned to Jaci with her hands on her hips. Her cold eyes gawked at her with such anger.

"You shouldn't be here!" She shouted at her. Jaci looked at her confused. She had never seen River like this before.

"Of course I should, I heard that Alana had an encounter with some creep! I had to make sure my best friend is okay!" She snapped at River and mimicked her actions, placing her hands on her hips. She stood firmly in place and stared her back down. Jaci had her own fierceness. If only she knew how strong River really was.

It wasn't Jaci's fault for being here. She didn't know anything or understand. She was left in the dark and this was a moment I regretted not telling her. I wasn't so sure now was a safe time to do so. Humans that knew about us were either hunters or ended up killed by them. I couldn't do that to her.

I walked out of my bedroom. Jaci noticed me immediately. She came running up to me and threw herself at me. Her arms wrapped around me in a tight hug.

"I tried calling and calling and even texting you back. I had to come see you," she told me before letting me go.

"What if they followed her here?!" River shouted hotly at us. Jaci looked even more confused now than before. She shifted her hazel eyes to River.

"They?" She asked then turned her attention back to me. "Alana, what happened? What's going on?" She asked me, but I shook my head at her.

"Please, you need to go. I can't say right now," I told her.

"Why? Don't you trust me?" She asked taking a step back from me.

"Don't we... trust you? For all we know she could be one of them!" River shouted. It sounded absurd to me.

"One of them? Please, Alana tell me what's going on," she urged again. I could see the innocents glistening in her usually blissful eyes. They seemed so lost in what River and I were telling her. My already aching heart couldn't take seeing her like this. Us hiding something from my best friend. If only she could understand that we didn't have a choice.

"I'm sorry, Jaci," were the only words my lips could form. I wanted to go back to sleep and wake up to all this being a nightmare.

Suddenly, there was another knock at the door. River brought a single finger to her lips, indicating for us to be quiet. I huddled against Jaci while I watched River peak through the peep hole again. She then carefully tip-toed towards us.

"It's a strange man. She brought them right to us," she whispered.

"I'm so sorry!" Jaci began to sob uncontrollably. River put her hand over her mouth to silence her. Her eyes glared at her like daggers.

"We escape out the window," River said.

"We are on the second floor," Jaci's voice shook as she spoke softly through River's hand which still covered her mouth. As werewolves, River and I could make the jump without injury, but a human we weren't sure could. Jaci wasn't exactly an athletic human either.

"You have to try," River whispered to her.

"O-o-k-kay," Jaci stuttered fearfully.

The knocking on the front door became more aggressive. We could hear their muffled voices outside. There was definitely more than one of them. We quietly walked into River's room and to her bedroom window. There were bushes on the ground beneath her window for Jaci to try and land on. River unlocked the window and motioned for me to jump first.

I climbed out the window and landed onto the ground with ease. I watched from the side walk, in the darkness as Jaci climbed out the window, but was still holding onto the edge. I assumed she was petrified of jumping. I couldn't call out to her even though I wanted to. I couldn't risk being heard.

River shoved her out and Jaci fell into the pushes. She let out a cry we knew the hunters had to of heard. River wasted no time leaping out of the window. The moment she did, she shoved Jaci's head back down into the bushes.

"Stay here and hide. Trust me or you will get us killed," she hissed in her ear before snatching my hand and pulling me away. We started bolting down the lit sidewalk.

We heard multiple voices shouting behind us, and even gun fire. Neither one of us dared to look back. We kept running and running. We turned down one alley after another. My breath became harder and harder to catch, but we kept running. Our feet pounded against the concrete, and fear kept pushing us onward.

Even when there was silence, we kept running. We didn't know where we were going. There was no destination, no plan, only the need to escape with our lives still intact. We had killed one of their own. We knew they weren't here to talk. Besides, we were rogues anyway, and rogues that wandered into human towns were left to the mercy of the hunters.