Haunted by Time

Chapter 2

The warm shower soothed my muscles. I felt relaxed when I finally got out and wrapped a towel around my body and wet hair. I usually liked to admire my naturally curly black hair in the mirror, but I wanted to prepare for tonight. When I walked back into my room, my heart skipped a beat at Cynthia sitting on the edge of my bed. It’s been a while since she sat with me while I got dressed. When she first started joining me after my parents died, I thought it was for protection or suicide watch. Now she gave me a soft smile like my mother used to do and motioned towards my closet with her head.

“Get dressed and come sit your ass down so that I can braid that nest of yours.” She joked.

Cynthia always called my wet curls a nest. Once my hair dried the curls would slowly fall out and leave my hair unnaturally straight. I smiled at the familiarity and grabbed black underwear, some black leggings and a tight black top. I needed to be invisible tonight or as invisible as I could get to a creature with heightened senses. I got dressed and pulled the brush through my hair before sitting down in front of Cynthia. She grabbed the brush from me and leisurely combed through my hair once more. She stayed silent until she started parting the hair on top of my head into three equal sections.

“Are you nervous about tonight?” she finally asked and started twisting the hair into a tight braid.

I thought about her question for a moment. Was I nervous or was this just excitement?

“A little I guess.” I answered truthfully.

She hummed her approval and continued the long braid over my shoulder. She always braided my hair to fall over my shoulder and I only now realised why. The swords I will be carrying in a few hours would be strapped to my back and the side braid offered clear access to my weapons.

“It’s good to be a bit nervous. It makes you more attentive and aware of danger. Don’t be stupid out there tonight. Keep in mind that there will be two other girls with you, so you’ll have two other lives to defend besides your own.” She said after tying the braid off with a black rubber band.

I didn’t even consider the other people. I completely forgot that I would not be doing this trial solo. They would be there trying to land the kill too. My competitive streak flared to life and I heard Cynthia sigh behind me.

“It’s not a competition to see who can get the kill, although getting the kill helps, it’s also about working as a team. If you can’t work in a team, you will not be granted the Hunter title.” She said sternly.

It was my turn to sigh. I didn’t need a team to get through this trial. They would just be holding me back from my full potential.

“You are only as strong as your weakest teammate.” Cynthia continued as if she was reading my damn mind.

I turned to look at her then. The look on my face must have spoken for me because she burst out laughing.

“Yes, I did read your mind. I didn’t meet you yesterday, Kara. I know you better than you think. Pipe down on the excitement and get serious about this. It is more dangerous than you think. You might only be facing a lower-class demon, but they are still lethal. Take the vampires for example…” As soon as the words left her mouth, I knew she wanted to swallow them back in.

Vampires were considered lower-class demons and yet they killed two very skilled Hunters. I swallowed the snarky remarks I had to retaliate against her hurtful words and took a subtle calming breath instead. I needed to show her that it didn’t bother me, otherwise she’ll catch wind of my intentions and put a stop to my entire revenge scheme.

“Don’t worry, Cynth. I’ll be careful, I promise. I’ll keep them safe as long as they don’t run off.” I said and added the last bit for a bit of humour.

It worked and I smiled along with her before she tapped my shoulder and motioned to a wooden box near my pillows. I looked at her with my brows furrowed in question. She lifted her shoulders and winked at me as her smile grew. I jumped up and crawled over the bed to pull the box onto my lap. It was relatively heavy but not overbearingly so. I looked at the anticipation on her face before slowly lifting the lid and dropping my gaze to the items inside. My breath caught at the absolute beauty of the twin blades within.

The handles were wrapped in soft black leather. The blades were gleaming swirls that reminded me of the rapids in a rocky river, graceful but deadly. The red velvet lining of the box only made the blades shine brighter. I picked one up and turned it in my hand to get a feeling on the weight and balancing. I made a stabbing motion and felt it slice through the air with deadly precision. I could definitely get used to fighting with these. I got up and pulled the other blade from the box before getting into a defensive stance. They were light but offered enough weight for me to feel secure handling them.

“Well? Do you like them?” Cynthia asked exasperated from her seat on my bed where she’s been watching me carefully.

“I love them!” I screamed and finally let her see a smidge of my excitement.

I carefully put them back into the box and raced around my bed to tackle her into a hug. She fell back from the force and pulled me down with her while her laughter folded around me. She continued to hold me and gave me a tight squeeze just like my mother used to do. I felt the fire in my stomach come alive with purpose. Tonight was the first step in the right direction. I needed to do this and I didn’t think Cynthia was going to agree that this was what I needed.

She left soon after and I decided to get my black combat boots on before strapping the blades to my back. I needed to be there an hour before my trial started to meet my team and get a plan together. I unlocked the screen on my phone to check if I had any messages from Logan and felt my heart twist painfully when there were none. He could have at least wished me luck for tonight. I knew better than to tell him about my revenge plot. He would try to stop me and tell me how fragile I was. I told him once that I wanted to go into the woods to track and hunt a deer with my crossbow and he gave me an entire lecture about it. I still did it and he was mad at me for three weeks so I kept my mouth shut when it came down to my parents.

I shoved my phone into one of my back pockets before jogging down to the foyer where Josh was waiting. He had his phone out and I caught a glimpse of his message notifications. Logan’s name flashed there with a message from 2 minutes ago. I frowned and took my phone out of my pocket to check if he sent me something but came up with no new messages. I was getting annoyed with him at this point. I shoved my phone back into my pocket before heading over to the black SUV in our driveway. I got in the back and waited for Josh and Cynthia to finish their conversation before they got in the front.

The drive was short and soon we pulled up to a building that resembled an outhouse. I looked at Cynthia with raised brows and she looked at me pointedly.

“Did you think we operate in corporate buildings with obvious names plastered in bold letters outside?” she asked while unbuckling her seatbelt.

“Kinda.” I admitted with a shrug.

She knowingly smiled at Josh.

“We do operate in corporate buildings. The names are not obvious though. This is just where we handle the trials because it’s close to loads of lower-class demon activity. Also, it borders on the forest.” She laughed.

“Wait. Are you telling me that not even the leaders know which demon we’ll be facing tonight?” I asked surprised that they would leave something like this up to chance.

“They have a pretty good idea of which one you’ll be able to track. There have been no other sightings reported in over a week so they are pretty confident you’ll be facing a lower-class vampire.” She said and opened her door.

That was all the information she was willing to share. I sighed and got out of the car. I could hear thunder rolling in the distance and the smell of rain hung heavy in the air. I took a deep breath and let the fresh scent fill my lungs. Josh led the way to the run-down little building. Cynthia was right behind him, walking without looking back at me as if she knew that I was following by instinct alone. I dutifully followed and waited while Josh pulled the flimsy door aside for us to enter. Cynthia went in first and gave me a short warning about the steps that started descending right after entering the building.

The stairs were surprisingly clean and painted an ugly grey that reminded me of a prison cell. Josh brought up the rear and stayed uncharacteristically silent. I would either tease him about it later or figure out what the hell was going on with him and Logan. The stairs were dimly lit with small yellow LEDs. After what felt like an eternity, we finally stepped onto solid ground and I could see light peeking from under a heavy looking oak door. Josh once again took the lead and scanned his finger on the thumb pad next to the door. It beeped before a green light flashed and he swung the door open. I half expected the door to creak while opening, but it opened disappointingly silent.

We stepped into a bright room lined with UV lights. The sudden warm light burned my eyes and I had to pause for a second to let my eyes adjust. Once the blinding black spots cleared, I took the room in. People were hurriedly walking around with papers and clipboards. There were three projected screens on the massive white wall opposite the door that had some running comments, a world map filled with red dots and the lock screen for someone’s laptop on the last screen. I read a few of the comments and realized that they were messages about demon sightings. One comment sent a chill down my spine. High-level demon spotted near Blackwood Forest.

That’s where my trial would be taking place. The comment disappeared just as fast as it came. I don’t even think anyone saw it between all the other comments. It didn’t look like anyone was paying attention to the comments at the moment. I turned to Cynthia to ask her about it, but swallowed my tongue when Thomas approached us with two girls trailing behind him. His permanent scowl deepened when he saw me and I smiled at him sweetly. This was going to be interesting.

“Josh, Cynthia.” He greeted them and paused.

I could see the distaste on his face when he finally looked at me.

“Kara.” He finally greeted me and my smile grew.

He looked like he was about to roll his eyes but decided that I wasn’t even worth that. Tonight would change his mind about me. He always made it clear that I wasn’t good enough for his precious little boy. He’ll swallow those words after I slay the demons who killed my parents. I would one day take leadership of the Hunters just like my father was going to do. They had a plan for my father to take over leadership when Thomas finally retired. He has already stayed in leadership for five years longer than he initially intended. Josh has been training two extra hour per day to prepare for the role and he’s also been shadowing Thomas. I would someday be his successor.

The girls eyed me cockily and didn’t feel the need to greet me at all. I guess Thomas had a little chat with them. A thought crossed my mind that he might have told them to ditch my ass out there so that he could finally get rid of me for good, but I let it slip out of my mind as soon as it entered. He was all about the rules, even when he didn’t agree with them. Like when he had to kill his wife because a demon marked her.

Getting marked by a demon does two things to humans. One, they get turned into a half-breed demon. The other part happens on rare occasions. When marked by a demon, there is a chance that your souls bind together. This happens when a demon senses their soulmate. A human must be turned for demons to sense their soulmates in them. Apparently, Thomas killed Logan’s mother in a brutal way because the demon who marked her was her soulmate. I didn’t know what to make of it. I would want someone to kill me but finding that deep connection with a man must be amazing. I always believed that my parents were soulmates and I still do to this day.

Thomas walked over to an empty conference room and motioned for everyone to sit down. He passed a thin vanilla folder to each of us, even me, before turning toward the projector to switch it on. His lockscreen spilled onto the far wall and I took the opportunity to read through the file while he typed in his password. It was a briefing about the demon sighting in our area. A vampire draining women from a bar on the edge of the Blackwood Forest. My mind flashed to the high-class demon sighting before pushing the thought out again. I needed to focus if I wanted to survive my first hunt.

I took in each word Thomas said like it was the last breath on earth and my lungs were screaming. He gave some solid advice about blending in at the bar to determine who the demon was and also what not to do. Luckily the women at the bar liked to dress in black and I didn’t need to change. The other girls foolishly decided to dress in short black dresses, very impractical in my opinion, but they didn’t ask so I kept my mouth shut. Cynthia nodded in my direction to show her agreement before looking back at the projected screen and remained silent. I hid my smile by looking down at the folder and noticed that they didn’t know exactly who the demon was either. They had a list of names and descriptions of guys that frequented the bar.

I searched for the description that sounded the most appealing and set my sights on him as my starting point. Demons were freakishly attractive and it made sense to start with the most handsome candidate to not waste any time. Lives were literally depending on me. Well actually on us, but these girls looked like proper airheads. I looked at the girl across from me and suppressed the urge to tell her that one of her eyebrows were shaped crooked when I saw her checking on her red lipstick in a small mirror. She wasn’t even paying attention to a word being said and her folder sat untouched where Thomas dropped it. The other girl was not faring much better. She was too eager. I could see her literally taking the minutes of our meeting on the back side of the folder and refrained from slapping the back of her head.

These girls were going to get us killed tonight. I turned my gaze to Josh to find him already watching me intently. He must have read the thought on my face because he gave a subtle nod and I saw his finger twitch on his wrist. This wasn’t the time to bring it up. I gave him a subtle nod back and motioned with my eyes that we would be having a quick talk before the girls and I left for the trial. He gave me a quick wink and turned his gaze to Thomas to end our silent conversation. Thomas wrapped up his session and ended it with a good luck. His eyes were glued to me when he said it and he turned abruptly to leave the room without so much as a goodbye.

The girls got up and linked their arms while walking out and discussing make-up options for tonight. I felt like throwing up. The disgust must have been very clear on my face because Cynthia burst out laughing. I turned my startled eyes to her. Josh was glaring at her, an alien look on his face. I was used to the happy-go-lucky Josh, not this serious Josh. She suppressed her laugh when she saw his face and tried to drop her face into a passive mask, but failing when I caught the slight tilt of her lips. I smiled at her before seeing the stern look directed at me. What was his problem?

“This is serious. You get that there is a possibility that you can die tonight, right? Am I the only one concerned that Kara will not survive this?” He asked as soon as everyone else left and the door was closed.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Josh.” I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes.

Cynthia clicked her tongue, offended. Her brows furrowed at him.

“I trained her personally. I’m pretty confident she’ll survive on her own without those princesses watching out for her.” She said before turning her gaze away from him as if seeing him might push her to punch him in the face.

“Cockiness will not keep her alive tonight.” He persisted and I could tell that he was straight-up pissing Cynthia off.

“Why are you so confident that she’s not going to survive? Do you know something we don’t?” She snapped and slammed her palm on the desk.

The sudden noise was enough to drag a jolt out of me. I looked out at the people continuing with their business and concluded that the conference room was soundproof. I looked over to Josh and saw him avoiding my gaze. Odd. The word was being overused in my mind today. My stomach dropped a bit because I knew something was up. I contemplated whether I should just call him out or not. Just as I was about to open my mouth, the door swung open and a woman told us it was time for me to go. I frowned at Josh as I passed his still sitting form. Cynthia gave my shoulder a squeeze at the door before turning back to Josh with murderous eyes and closing them in the room once more. He’s about to get the verbal beating of his life.

I followed the woman to double doors that opened into a large garage. A black SUV was waiting for me near the exit. The girls were already seated inside, checking their hair and make-up one last time when I got in. I buckled my seatbelt and caught them smiling at each other. This is going to be fun, I thought glumly. Why couldn’t I be partnered with girls who had the same goal in mind or even girls who took this seriously? I just rolled my eyes and faced the window, deciding not to get to know them.

“Hi, I’m Ashley. Ash for short.” Pretty Princess number one said and offered her hand to me.

I looked down at her hand and couldn’t find it in me to touch it. With all the make-up on her face I was afraid her hand would come off and turn out to be cake. The smile also didn’t make it to my face like the fake smile on hers.

“Kara.” I said simply and she retracted her hand clearly offended.

I didn’t give a flying fig whether or not her feelings were hurt. This was serious and if they didn’t start getting their s**t together, they’d be going home in body bags tonight. That or I’d have to save their asses. Pretty Princess number two looked at me with disgust and looked at Ash with sympathy. I supressed the urge to gag at them. She turned her sharp eyes back to me when she was satisfied that Ash’s feelings weren’t too badly hurt.

“Kim.” She copied my clipped tone and I actually got a tiny smidge of respect for her.

I was glad to see that they could get serious even if it was over a load of bullshit. There was still hope left for them after all. The drive took about 20 minutes and they stayed silent until we pulled into the parking lot. Ash turned to me and pulled something out of her purse. She held a black pencil towards me and I frowned down at it before realizing it’s eyeliner. I took it and the mirror that followed. I applied a thin line to my eyes and checked if my eyes were even. I gave the items back to her with a silent thank you and opened my door to get out. We didn’t discuss a plan for when we found the demon but I was great at improvising. I’d be keeping my eyes on them too.

I left my twin blades in the car and made my way into the pulsing building. The music was loud enough to make my chest vibrate as I approached the bar and ordered a drink by trying to shout above the noise. The bartender nodded in confirmation before turning around and starting to mix my drink. I turned around and scanned the crowd with what I hoped looked like interest. None of the men looked particularly appealing and my interest was lost. I turned to grab my drink and took a long sip. This would be my one and only alcoholic drink for the night. I didn’t usually drink, but I felt like tonight deserved a celebratory drink.