Hunting The Dark Side

Chapter 4: Nightmares Return

Sapphire was walking in the forest it was dark at night. She had been walking around for around an hour trying to find her way out of the forest, she sighed deeply as she finally admitted to herself that she was lost. She patted herself down looking for her mobile, which is when she realised that she hasn’t brought it with her.

“Shit.” She muttered to herself. She was lost in the forest with no phone, no way of contacting anybody with noises coming from every direction, the birds flying from tree to tree, the wind howling between the trees. She was sure she heard twigs snap every now and then. It was petrifying.

She was cold, very cold. Her whole body was trembling from the cold, her hands were blue, she shoved her hands into her coat pockets trying to warm them up but that didn’t help any at all. Her legs were aching as she walked around and around, it felt like she was walking around in circles for hours but Sapphire carried on walking.

After several hours she just gave up and decided to rest her legs, she sees a large tree, she walks towards it and slides down the tree. She herself rest against the tree, closing her eyes just resting them, she wasn’t going to let herself fall asleep. Not that she could, it was so cold, she was sure she was going to get frost bite, but that was the least of her worried.

She heard noises, not the wind or the birds, but groans, human groans. She looked around but nothing was there, so Sapphire stood up faster than she ever has and carried on deeper into the forest. She kept on seeing things out of the corner of her eyes but just thought her mind was just playing tricks on itself until she saw it, standing there right in front her, stumbling towards her, falling over something, it pulls itself towards her.

Paralyzed, she didn’t know what to do; she forgot everything she taught herself. She was as cold as a falling avalanche. While Sapphire was stuck she thought, If I run I will end up falling, I know that, if I scream god only knows what the supernatural creature would do but if I just stand here I would be bait.

She backed away from the shadow in the trees when she heard a branch snap. Sapphire looked behind her and there was another one, she looked left, then right; there were two more coming but at this point she was frozen - her hands and legs didn't, wouldn't move an inch. The shadows moved closer and now you could see the faces, they weren’t human, they were dead. Sapphire could see on the pale face the cuts that would lose lots of blood and no one would be able to get them in hospital.

Sapphire’s legs suddenly came back to her and she started to sprint but these things started to follow her. She didn’t know where she was running to. She didn’t know if she was heading deeper into the forest or if she was going to safety but her legs kept on running in the same direction, she kept on running till she got to a dead end.

Sapphire looked left then right. These things kept on following her and she knew she didn’t have very long till they caught up. She didn’t want to go through the trees where there was no light but it looked like there was no choice for her.

Sapphire heard these monsters coming. She turned right and ran and stopped behind a tree, peeping round to see if they were gone. They were nowhere to be seen, she took a deep breath before turning around. This thing grabbed her and bit her in the shoulder. She screamed. As pain rushes through her, she falls to her knees from the pain, her eyes were blurred from the tears that were forcing themselves down her face.

Then the others came to feed on her. Another scream escaped her lips as one bites her side and the other bites her leg. Sapphire could feel her skin being ripped of her flesh, she felt herself drifting into darkness.

Suddenly two zombies were on the floor dead. When two bullets were shot at the monsters. Someone shouted, “Leave her alone you ugly piece of crap.” Sapphire recognized the voice straight away, her big brother Jackson. Then she heard a different gunshot and she assumed it was her other brother Leo. When these things were dead she wanted a confirmation it was her brothers.

“Jackson...Leo?” Sapphire asked, half unconscious.

“Yes, Sapphire, it’s us, are you ok?” Jackson replied. Sapphire was glad that they were there, that she will be able to say a proper goodbye to them. To apologise for being so rude to them at their fathers funeral. That was when she realised that he called her by her nickname; it seemed ages since they had called her that.

She replied while she was getting sleepy, “I am hunky dory...what do...you think?”

“Still the cheeky sis we knew, I see!” Leo spoke what he observed about his younger sister though there was a worried look in his eyes there was a lot of blood pulsing out of her wounds.

“Leo, stop fooling around, she is losing a lot of blood and she has been bitten a lot of times, we need to make sure that she doesn’t turn into a zombie.” Jackson hesitated, he was frustrated. “I wish for once she would do as she was told,” Jackson said, a little angry with both his brother and sister. He hated seeing his sister like this, in this mess. He picked up Sapphire and headed back to the car as fast as he could. “Come on, we don’t have all day, you need to back me here,” he shouted.

Leo replied, “I’m coming, I’m coming, just get her to the car as fast as you can.” Jackson nodded and started to head back to the car as fast as he could, looking down at Sapphire every once in a while; he started to worry as her eyes kept on closing and opening.

“Sapphire, you stay with me, you hear me? You stay with me,” Jackson kept on saying to Sapphire when her eyes started to close.

Sapphire opened her eyes again to look at him, she needed to focus on something so she started to talk, “D-Jackson…I- I am sorry about…how I treated you at…dad’s funeral. I was just m-mad and shocked.” She had tears rolling down her eyes, she was truly sorry, she missed them so much. She should have called them earlier.

“Hey. None of that now do you hear me? No goodbye speeches I will not hear that coming from you because you aren’t going anywhere.” Jackson’s voice broke as he too was getting emotional he knew he should end her life now that they were probably already too late.

“You know you have to Jackson.” She whispers getting tired, as if she had just read his mind.

“No Sapphire, I will not kill you! there has to be a way of curing you, I will not let you die.” He shouted, not at her but at himself, the voice in his head was telling him the same thing.

“I…I don’t want t-to hurt you.” Sapphire was trembling, starting to feel a little hot, she closed her eyes.

As soon as Sapphire closed her eyes they got to Jackson and Leo's car. Jackson carefully lay Sapphire on the backseat then went to the boot of the car to get his first aid stuff, but he let his anger the better of him, he started punching and kicking the car, putting his head in his hands crying. 10 minutes or so later Leo came to the car.

“Where the hell have you been?” Jackson yelled still

angry at them both and at Sapphire for not listening to either of them.

“I went to look if we killed all of the zombies. We don’t want to be trying to save Sapphire’s life while getting attacked, do we?” Leo answered harshly, he never understood why he was so attached to the sister that abandoned them both and their father.

Jackson shook his head, “I guess not, will you help me I can’t find the first aid kit?” Jackson went to the back of the car to see how Sapphire was doing; when he looked at her he could see that she was worse off. She was getting very pale, her body was starting to sweat to show she had a fever. That meant that the change was happening already.

“Leo, hurry up! She is getting worse.” Leo was moving everything out of his way as fast as his arms would let him, till he found the first aid kit.

“Jackson!” he called and chucked the first aid kit to his brother. Jackson caught it and shuffled through it to find a wipe and a bandage. He finally found them and cleaned Sapphire’s bite wounds and tried to stop the bleeding. He found it hard to do but after a while it finally stopped and Jackson put a bandage over the wound and tied it tight.

Sapphire was unconscious now and she was feeling a hell of a lot of pain inside of her as if she was changing on the inside. Whilst Jackson and Leo drove to their hotel she felt like screaming in pain but her body wouldn’t let her. The poison was getting around the body at such fast speeds she didn’t understand what was happening to her. The scalding going around her body was excruciating, she had never felt such pain in her life. Her body kept on changing, she could feel it. Then she suddenly heard a voice in her head trying to calm her. It's going to be ok, Sapphire, nothing is going to happen to you, I won't let it. Just try to relax. Sapphire tried to remember whose voice it was, then she remembered – Dominic's.

They finally got to the hotel when the pain stopped. She regained consciousness. She waited till Jackson opened the car door then launched to bite him and felt his blood in her mouth. She looked at Leo, who tried to run, but she bit into his flesh. putting poison in his blood.

Sapphire woke up panting a bit, finding it strange that she had a dream about her past just after she rang for her brother’s help. She hadn't had a nightmare since she left her brothers, was it the worry about her brothers that gave her the nightmares, was making sure they were safe from her the reason she left them in the first place? She couldn't remember, but she was in total control now, she had nothing to fear.

Then why did you dream of Dominic as well? You just met him and he is in one of your nightmares. Maybe you are afraid for yourself, not for them. What if they all try to kill you? Sapphire shook her head, thinking, No! I care about them, all of them. They care about me too.

Sapphire looked around to see Dominic sitting on the chair with the television on low; she sat up, confused about the dream. She realised he was watching her. He knows I had a nightmare, great! She thought to herself

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Sapphire asked Dominic, who opened his mouth to say something then a different voice came.

“Because I told him not to,” replied the unknown person. She looked around the living room but no one except Dominic and herself was there. That was when he showed himself.

“Jackson!” she said, smiling running towards him, throwing her arms around him hugging him right.

Jackson was a tall six foot and skinny man but with a six pack, he also had amazing bright blue eyes. He had brown combed back short hair. Jackson had a supernatural symbol tattooed on his arm to stop demons possessing him. The tattoo was a devil’s trap with Latin under the trap which read 'Iesu, et in flamma, et non ingredieris' which means 'You shall not enter or be burned by Jesus'. Jackson and Leo were never apart, but she couldn’t see Leo anywhere. “Jackson, where is Leo?” she had to question. She wanted to see them both together, and she never saw them apart except when they were hunting and they split up to find the supernatural creature. s**t, they were hunting, Sapphire had to remind herself.

“Oh, what, you want to see him more, Phire?” he questioned, avoiding Sapphire’s question. Sapphire was shocked that he remembered the nickname that he gave her all those years ago and Jackson smirked a little seeing her shocked face. “What, you thought I forgot or something?”

Sapphire shook her head. “No, no, it just brought back memories and no, I was just wondering where he was, you two always go places together and I wanted to see you together so we can be a family again.” She paused, thinking, Well, for a while anyways.

Deep inside her she wanted to go hunting with her brothers again like she should be, with her family saving people’s live by killing the supernatural with guns, knives and a bit of Latin. Jackson saw in her eyes that she wanted to hunt again but he didn’t want to talk about it in front of Dominic.

He sighed, Why wouldn’t she just ask us? Why would she not call us earlier? Was she scared we would say no? Why would we say no? I need to find out what is going on with her. He put a hand on her shoulder, which was a signal to talk alone from when they were little, he hoped she would remember what it meant.

Sapphire did understand, she stood up and walked into the other room. When this happened Dominic was totally confused, no word had been spoken yet they understood each other. Dominic thought they must have been a close family which made him wonder what had happened, what had broken them apart. Meanwhile, Jackson and Sapphire were now in the kitchen talking about Sapphire’s old life. Jackson was curious about what his little sister was thinking.

“What’s up, sis?” he said, c*****g his head a bit.

Sapphire didn’t know how to explain. “Do you... I... hunting?” She sighed, not being able to get her words out.

Jackson was confused so he frowned, the creases forming on his forehead, but he thought he knew what she was trying to say, so he took the liberty to ask. “Do you want to join Leo and I in hunting again, Sapphire?”