Oblivion's Kiss

Chapter Two: Brittle

I left that perfect life and traded it for this. I wouldn’t call it much of a choice, but I could have avoided it … though not without guilt. I could see the hunters for what they were. I didn’t know they even existed up until a year ago when I witnessed the murder of my older sister, Julia. It was a hunter that attacked her. The more I tried to convince the police that this monster, this creature, was real, the more convinced they were that I needed help. It was the result of being traumatised. Of course, I was frigging traumatised after what had happened! The hunter had killed Julia, sucking the very essence out of her and absorbing her light into the deep pools of darkness hidden in its eyes. 

No one believed me or had any intention of doing anything about them. I then made the decision then and there, that I, Katherine Holt, would devote my time—possibly my life—to hunting every last one of them down. I saw past the glamour. I saw the real, morbid creature it was, and that was a weapon on its own already. I had no idea what made me different from everyone else, that I was the only one that could see what they were. I didn’t really care. 

I wanted every single one of them dead.

It was simply by luck that I’d discovered how to kill them. The fact was, I should have already been dead myself, buried alongside my sister, with the same date of death carved into my headstone cold and white. Sometimes, I wondered whether it was some kind of last act of kindness that Julia had left me with, because it was the candle that she lighted before the attack that had saved me—a measly, simple, white, everyday dinner candle. 

Julia was big on her witchy stuff and was engrossed with the Goth life more for the style than the actual artistic kick that came with it. She had some crazy superstition that if she carried a white candle with her and there was any bad omen from a black cat crossing the street or a broom dropping, she would burn the candle and say a prayer. She believed it would reverse the bad omen … or something like that. 

Just like the evening, we were in Central Park after movie night, and Julia decided that since it was my birthday, she wanted to make the best of what was left of it. It turned out to be the worst day of my life. The air started to quiver, and everything turned cold. My initial instinct was to flee the park and head straight home, but you will soon learn that stubbornness is my weakness. I refused to allow darkness and too many horror movies to get the best of me. I soon came to regret the decision by not following my instincts. Julia, with her better judgment of a bad situation, pulled her candle from her Emily the Strange backpack. I made fun of her when she lighted it and started murmuring a prayer under her breath; little did I know, it was what would save my life. At that moment, the hunter descended on us.

Every memory I had of the next few moments is a blank—mostly because I knew it was the grizzliest thing I had ever witnessed, and I knew in the back of my mind what had really happened. But if I allowed the memory to become too clear, I would lose it all over again. I needed to be strong. If not for me, I had to do this for Julia and the countless victims who were next on the hunter’s hit list.

So that was how I discovered that fire was what killed them. When the hunter turned his focus on me, all I had to defend myself with was an Emily the Strange backpack and a dinner candle. I threw the candle in his face, hoping the hot wax might blind him for a few seconds so I could make a run for my life, but instead, the hunter combusted into flames. It was with that knowledge that I lived in my family’s luxurious apartment, not carrying on with my life while Julia was buried six feet underground and cold. I had nightmares that no lame antidepressant could fix. Julia was my only friend, and I was closer to her than I was with anyone my whole

life. I woke up one day, with the overwhelming need to avenge her, and I just couldn’t

live my life the same way I did, when I knew I could save so many lives from meeting

that same, grizzly end. Knowing those monsters were out there.