Nearly Witches

Chapter Three

Alysanne was wary as she parked her motorcycle next to the bakery, she always left it in a spot where it wouldn’t be seen unless you were looking for it. When she had been looking for a motorcycle on her sixteenth birthday, she was glad that she had picked the black one since it made it easier to hide. Even if she had to wear some horrid bright yellow thing over her shirt to be seen at night.

She might not like neon yellow or orange, but it kept her alive on the road and thus she couldn’t complain about it too much. Even if she did put it into the bag on her motorcycle the second, she turned it off, along with her helmet and pulled up the hood of her shirt.

“Cameras are back on,” Alysanne commented as she grabbed her bow and quiver. Putting her quiver strap around her shoulder and making sure it wouldn’t fall off; so far, her danger sense didn’t go off, but she felt better if she was in town for a bit and then headed home for some sleep.

‘No more failed robberies then,’ Nymeria said as she caught up with Ghost.

‘Hopefully not,’ Alysanne told her. ‘But still have so-called Death itself to look for and there’s no way I’ll be able to take him on myself.’

‘Team up,’ Ghost suggested.

‘Neither Tribe nor Captain Justice knows about the mad man,’ Alysanne told them. ‘And if I were them, I wouldn’t believe me either.’

‘Not everyday someone will call  themselves death,’ Nymeria agreed.

Alysanne nodded her head before slipping out of the alleyway, making sure her keys were secure in her pocket, before closing it to make sure didn’t lose them. She never walked anywhere that took her over two hours, her motorcycle was a convince.

‘Incoming,’ Nymeria told her as she ran into the middle of the road, slamming her head into her head into a woman’s stomach. Alysanne grabbing her wrist, before pulling it behind her, taking a zip cord from her pocket and tying the woman’s wrists together.

“Tribe,” Alysanne greeted as she spotted him, a police officer jogging behind him as she looked at the would-be criminal in her hands. “Officer Wilson.”

“Artemis,” Tribe greeted. 

“Mrs Baker is wanted for abusing her children,” Officer Wilson told her, her blonde hair pulled back into a bun.

“Andromeda got her in the stomach,” Alysanne told her before pointing at Nymeria, there was no way in Hermes’ name she would tell Tribe or Officer Wilson Nymeria and Ghost’s names; she had mentioned back in middle school their names.

She didn’t know who Tribe or Captain Justice was, wasn’t worth the risk in her mind. 

“Not from here? Mrs Baker,” Alysanne asked, when Tribe looked at her.

“Never seen her before,” Tribe told her, before he looked at Nymeria. “Thank you, Andromeda.”

‘You’re welcome,’ Nymeria told him.

“She said you’re welcome,” Alysanne told him.

“She who talks with animals,” Tribe dryly stated.  

Alysanne nodded her head, before Tribe looked at Ghost.

“Perseus,” she told him.

“Greek Myths then,” Tribe said.

“When you have a theme,” Alysanne told him.

‘Now you’re glad we thought of codenames,’ Ghost smugly told her.

‘Oh, shut your face,’ Alysanne told him.

‘It was more my idea,’ Nymeria said.

‘Sure,’ Ghost told her.

“Later,” Alysanne said as she walked away from Tribe, while he just nodded and walked in the opposite direction. It wasn’t until she was near the playground that her danger sense went off and she spotted a hellhound running at her, quickly grabbing an arrow and shooting at the creature before it could attack her.

Her headache wasn’t painful enough for the Death itself to be with them, but Alysanne doubted that he wouldn’t be far behind them. He would show up, unless he was going to show himself to Tribe and Captain Justice.

Alysanne knew she needed to get to higher ground, but unlike last time, she didn’t have anywhere to go, and she knew if she turned her back; she would be done for and the police would find her cooling body the next day.

Water went through a hellhound that was coming up behind her, Captain Justice tackled another one and she shoot a third hellhound as Ghost and Nymeria continued to take down the last two, but Alysanne knew there would be more.

Tribe walked next to her and soon there was a water barrier around her; Tribe was standing next to her and she could see she barely came up to his shoulders. The barrier should give them some more breathing room, even if Tribe looked confused.

“There’s no water in them,” Tribe told them.

“What are they?” Captain Justice asked as she looked at the forest.

“Shadow Hellhounds or Direwolves,” Alysanne told them, putting another arrow on her bow as she looked in the same direction as Captain Justice. “I lean more towards Hellhound than Direwolf, haven’t been able to study then closely.”

‘Robin?’ Alysanne asked as the raven dropped her arrows next to her feet. The raven going to sit down on her quiver, sitting there as she looked at him and then the forest; bending down to pick up the arrows and put them back without a word.

“There are six of them coming,” Captain Justice said as she stood in front of Alysanne and the water barrier. Now only blocking her view but putting her own life at risk without knowing it.

“Unless you want an arrow embedded in your shoulder, I would suggest moving you’re not in a good spot,” Alysanne told her, Captain Justice looking her shoulder as Alysanne looked at her bow and arrow. “I might be called Artemis, but I don’t trust myself to shoot over your shoulder without nicking you in the process, not with real arrows anyway.”

Captain Justice just looked at her with wide blue eyes, before nodding her head and tackling the first hellhound that jumped out of the forest. Alysanne missed her target, but Robin was flying to get arrow anyway as she shoot her target the second time.

She got the one who was trying to tear into the back of Captain Justice’s dress, though, Tribe was wrapping water around the Hellhound’s neck before tightening it to the point that they would disappear without a sound.

‘What would I do without you?’ Alysanne asked Robin as the raven dropped more arrows next to her, and she went to pick them up as a Hellhound jumped over her head and she grabbed Robin, so he didn’t get bitten.

‘You’d be without arrows,’ Robin told her as she picked up one of said arrows, shooting the hellhound in the back as Tribe stopped another three that tried to jump over them, Robin collecting that arrow.

‘I would be,’ Alysanne agreed.

Turning around, she shoot another hellhound that tried to jump over Tribe’s water barrier, another giant wall had blocked the street access. It should slow down the hellhounds, but Alysanne didn’t know if it would stop them. She didn’t know how else to stop apart from killing them, they weren’t animals.

She couldn’t talk to them, couldn’t hear their thoughts as they didn’t have any. Even the hyenas from Lion King could think for themselves, even if they were a few apples short of an apple tree, but those Hellhound’s minds were blank.

Like trying to walk through thick fog, barely able to see the hand in front of your face. 

Like her last battle with them; she knew this one was going to drag on and most likely drive her up the nearest wall. Death itself had to be hiding in the woods, or somewhere near it and that explain why they the shadows hellhounds were coming from said area. She didn’t have time to search the entire forest nor did she know if she could do so without getting attacked; or if she even had the patience to search the entire thing.

Maybe Captain Justice would be better at it than she would, but that meant explaining her last battle with the man and explain the little she knew about it. Only her barely there, non-existent close combat ability.

“This is going to be a long night,” Alysanne said.

“More keep coming,” Captain Justice told them.

“I think their testing us,” Tribe said.

“Their difficult to get a grip on,” Captain Justice told them.

“They’re made out of shadows,” Alysanne told her before firing another arrow at a hellhound that jumped from the tree line. Robin quickly collecting that one, while Tribe extended his water barrier around them, so he could stand on the other side of the playground and where he cut another hellhound that tried to get past him.

‘They must have a code,’ Alysanne said.

‘Most likely,’ Nymeria agreed, while Ghost went to help Tribe with his side of the playground, and she wondered when round two or three would begin. Then she realised something, none of them had even tried to attack Robin. Then, they might now want to attack the black bird and whoever was controlling them might have told them not to attack black coloured animals.

Or else they might end up attacking each other in the confusion.

She had a feeling they weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, but that would make them easier to control and increase the chances of them making minor and major mistakes. Or just attacking each other in the boredom, between attack attacks and when her danger sense kicked in again, her headache getting worse and she looked to the right.

He was looking at her, hands behind his back as he watched the scene in front of him and she almost wanted to shoot an arrow at him, but that action would put Robin at risk and the hawk behind him was already planning to put his claws into the man’s neck.

But the man just turned around and broke the poor creature’s neck, dropping him onto the ground as he smirked at her. A hellhound pulling her gaze away from the madman, shooting it in the chest before it could attack her, and then her headache was gone.

And she knew, that was he.

“f*****g bastard, motherfucker,” Alysanne swore.

“Language,” Captain Justice snapped at her, before tackling another hellhound as Alysanne just looked at her with a raised eyebrow, before shacking her head and getting herself back into the fight at hand.

‘Did she just…’ Ghost said to her after he bit down on a hellhounds neck and bite another’s before they could get to his tail.

‘Say language to tell me off for my French? I mean swearing?” Alysanne asked Ghost.

‘Yes.’

‘Then yes, yes she did.’

Like last time, the hellhounds just disappeared and all that was left behind was a dead hawk, when Tribe’s wall broken down and his barriers, she picked up her arrows, putting them away, before putting her bow over her shoulder. 

Walking over to the dead hawk, Tribe and Captain Justice just looked at her as she picked up the dead bird and carried it towards Ghost, who was already digging a hole into the ground for the poor creature; who had attacked the person who was trying to create chaos in his home for the spring.

“She who talks to the wild,” Tribe said as Alysanne lowered its body into the newly created hole, she knew there wasn’t a point to it,  but they were a playground and she knew death was seen with fear in most western countries. 

They weren’t in Ireland, where some people would see the funeral process as kinda funny. Since death wasn’t seen as something to fear or avoid, it was something that was part of everyday life and was normal.

“What happened?” Captain Justice asked her.

“Looks like he came back sooner than I, we, had thought he would,” Alysanne told them, she was going to have to tell them. Tell them what happened after she had left Tribe to go after the failed robber; it would embarrass her no doubt and it would hurt her pride.

But it was something that to be done, she couldn’t have anyone walking into the situation without prior knowledge. Even if she did like animals more than she liked humans, her mum would be disappointed in her, if she thought she would protect her pride over someone’s life.

--

Captain Justice was walking around the playground as she and Tribe sat on the park’s bench. She had told them everything she knew, along with some of her theories, not only her theories but Nymeria’s and Ghost’s as well. Like how the man thought he was Thanatos, or some other male death god.

Unless he thought he was a Goddess, who was she to judge? She was sure people feared Nix and Persephone more than they feared Thanatos and Hades.

While she was still leaning heavily on a Greek death god, since she had called her Artemis, she who runs with animals and had spoken to her like she was the Goddess after he had called her a weak mortal, he didn’t make sense for more than five seconds at a time.

She didn’t understand him.

“We don’t know what he wants,” Captain Justice said as she continued to pace around the playground, biting her nail as she did so.

“She said that,” Tribe told her, as Ghost and Nymeria napped underneath the bench they were sitting on.

“What are we going to do?” Captain Justice asked as she continued walking, Alysanne was just glad that her ankles were warm, and she knew that she needed to head home soon. She was going to sleep until eleven tomorrow, and she knew it.

At least she had breathing alarm clocks, that weren’t scared of kicking her out of her own bed; only when she refused to get out of it. More so when she had an appointment or school that day, her partners were a pain sometimes.

“The only thing we can go is look up Death Gods and hope for the best, one’s that are older than the God of the Underworld,” Alysanne said, as she put her hands on her lap. “It’s the only hint we have so far, he didn’t talk this time.”

“He’s one of those then, I thought it was a movie thing,” Tribe commented.

“Where do you think he got his costume from? He’s a talker all right,” Alysanne agreed before looking Captain Justice. “If she keeps doing that, she’ll have holes in her boots and a needle in her skin.”

“Needle?” Tribe asked.

“There’s one about where she’s going to stand, junkies use this area at night,” Alysanne told him, the amount of times she had picked up needles from this area wasn’t funny and she knew the police would come check the area at the seven everyday to make sure a child didn’t stand onto one and got AID’s or a HIV from it.

Captain Justice just glared at her, before picking up the needle from the bottom, putting it into a thick padded pouch and dropping it into her pocket. Tribe sighed as she went back to her pacing and her circles.

“You’re a long-distance fighter,” Tribe said, when she nodded her head. He looked at her, before looking at Captain Justice. “We should think about partnering up, but that would mean we need to know who you are.”

“How do I know you’re not going to take this to the police?” Alysanne asked them.

“Because we’d need to tell you who we are,” Tribe told her.

“At least think about it,” Tribe told her.

“I will,” Alysanne told him.

“So just you know, I’m a mid to long range fighter,” he told her, before pointing to Captain Justice, who was still walking in a circle while muttering herself. “She’s a short-range fighter; think about and then we need to train.”

“How long to I have to think about it?” Alysanne asked.

“As long as you need,” Tribe told her.

“I start my route at nine,” she told him, she didn’t know if she trusted him or Captain Justice, but also knew that she wouldn’t be able to take on Death itself by herself. “Park my motorcycle at the bakery, it’s where the first attack happened.”

“Good spot to hide a motorcycle,” Tribe told her.

“Only Captain Justice can fly,” she said while nodding towards Captain Justice as she continued to pace. “She’s also the only one that the media didn’t pick a name for.”

“She was the only one who had a name picked,” Tribe said.

“I didn’t talk to anyone from the media,” Alysanne admitted.

“And thus, they nicknamed you.”

“Rats.”

“Media’s creative.”

“Greek Goddess and a popular cartoon character,” Alysanne admitted. “Hard to disagree with that, they’re not that creative.”

“What are we going to do?” Captain Justice asked them as she stopped pacing, she was still rocking on her heels in front of them.

“We might have to team up, train together,” Tribe told her. “She’s a long-distance fighter, but we’ll need to work on formations with her and her partners.”

“You can keep the enemy away from Artemis and attack at the same time,” Captain Justice agreed before opening her mouth, Tribe shock his head and she closed it, before sighing.

“Later, we have one formation for the hellhounds,” Tribe said.

“It’ll only work for a frontal attack, a few almost escaped,” Captain Justice said.

“Last time I picked them off from the roof,” Alysanne told them. “I’ve also fought from treetops and vents, don’t think the last is useful in this case.”

“We don’t kill people,” Captain Justice told her.

“Generally; nor do I, but I make exceptions,” Alysanne told her. “For this man, paedophiles, rapists and serial killers. Everyone else gets pinned, then tied up for the police to collect.”

“What about that man?” Tribe asked her.

“Which one, the one about the drive his children into the lake or the one that who was trying to rape a six-month-old baby?” Alysanne asked them.

“Right,” Captain Justice said.

“Not everything is black and white,” Alysanne told them, Ghost nudged her ankle and Alysanne looked towards the tree line. She spotted Katniss the Squirrel and she had to wonder why she was here.

Along with how many peanut cookies she was going to have to make.

“A squirrel?” Tribe asked as Alysanne pushed herself up, walking towards Katniss before putting out her hand for her to run down.

‘Katniss,’ Alysanne greeted.

‘We’ll find him, report on what we find,’ Katniss promised. ‘Those creatures are trying to ruin our home.’

‘Be careful, we killed Mal without blinking,’ Alysanne warned her.

‘We don’t want him in our forest,’ Katniss told her, her tail twitching in irritation and Alysanne took out a cookie that she kept in one of her zipped pockets. “Those hellhounds are pests and he’s controlling them.’

‘People think they’ll die when they see a hellhound three times,’ Alysanne told her, highly amused by some people’s reactions. ‘No one wants them in the forest, it’ll send the entire town into panic.’

‘And they’ll try to storm the forest,’ Katniss said, taking the cookie from her. ‘We’ll report to you.’

“What’s going on?” Tribe asked.

“I’ll be getting reports about anything that Katniss and her small group finds,” Alysanne told them as she lifted her arm up, to allow Katniss to go back to the tree and back to the forest to pass along the message. “It would seem that his hellhounds are causing a fuse in the forest, so we have the woodland creatures on our side.”

“Katniss?” Captain Justice asked her.

“It’s what I named the squirrel,” Alysanne told them. “It’s one in the morning and I have something that I have to be awake for, don’t think they’ll be impressed if I have to go to ER because I was half asleep.”

“And if something happens?” Captain asked her.

“If you need me, I’ll be there. Your going to have to trust me on this,” Alysanne told her, nodding before she made her way to the bakery. Ghost and Nymeria following behind her, they’ll dart into the forest once she was on her motorcycle heading home.

“Think about it,” Tribe yelled after her.

“I will,” she screamed back.