Hunted [First Half] ✓

Chapter One: The life of a runaway hunter

CHAPTER ONE:

THE LIFE OF A RUNAWAY HUNTER

{hani blithe's point of view} 

It was a cold rainy night.

    The soft sound of the water coldly hits the now wet cold pavement, absentmindedly making me hum as their sound travelled to my ears. Everything about this time is making me nothing but glad, the sound of water and the winds blazing through every tree was one of my favourite things to listen to. It was a sound that I am used too, a sound that almost seemed foreign to me as there had been nothing but a clear day for months. A small smile played along my lips, letting me to take my time as I flutter my eyes close. Upon doing so, I came to realize that this motion had me to try my best to highlight my senses, wanting to be at one with what surrounds me. 

    One I get used to it, I realized that it wasn't really that hard. My father was always amazed at how I do it, making me remember that he once told me that I have a sense of a wolf. I could see and feel the pride blazing through him, it was like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. For years, I lived a life where I wanted to please my father. It only took me a couple of years to realize that whatever I do seemed like something that pleased him.

    My father is an easy man to please, I realized.

    It only took me a couple of time to perfect how I sensed everything but he looked like I had given a lot of my things just to do so. I once ruined the floor due to my rummaging around the place and he looked absolutely stunned. He even wanted me to do it again, even with my mother's warning. 

    However, this was different.

    As soon as my father noticed that I was making peace with the forest, he was more than proud as he could be. It was a simple trick that kept me at ease. One that is distinct, enough to make me realize what is around me. 

    I could feel the leaves from the trees constantly hit each other as the wind grazed along my face, the sound of what was living in this forest as the floor beneath me shook in vibration to the good condition that was placed in the forest. I was happy, beyond glad.

    Never have I thought that everything will change from this day and on. 

    Fluttering my eyes open, I let it dart into the wooden door. I was anticipating a scheduled arrival, one that I know that will be automatic. Since my father seems to always come home every time that it rains, there's this part of me that's euphoric to the knowledge of his arrival. 

    That feeling, however, somewhat faltered as soon as I noticed something that's a little bit odd today. 

    Mother was a little bit agitated, that I have noticed. 

    She received a phone call that made her somewhat anxious about everything. Her eyes were everywhere, almost like she was doubting everything around her. It is like she was expecting something that would crawl out of the dark and pounce on her. Mother rarely looked so agitated and most of the times, it would be because I was being naughty.

    I was sure that I didn't do anything.

    Did my sister do anything?

    I doubt that. 

    She's way too nice. 

    All I know by now is that she put a midnight back coat on my petite body as her legs continue to move around the house. Not once did she stay on her ground, never did she have time to relax her small body. There's some substance that she carefully lay on the floor, just near our door as she hurriedly grabs the telephone. I heard her mutter my father's name, telling him to come faster.

    Father.

    What was my father's name? 

    What's happening? How come I don't remember that? 

    "Hani, always remember to be on a lookout," my mom announced in a hushed tone as she mumbled some incoherent words, immediately dropping the call that she was making. 

    Her eyes reflected some kind of emotion that my young brain couldn't even comprehend. Mother has always been a very intriguing person, even for me, her own daughter. Something about how her emotions are always controlled and somewhat hidden from everyone —apart from our father, obviously— makes me feel rather confused, and somewhat cast into the darkness.

    Tilting my head to the side due to the confusions that were swirling in my brain, my mother suddenly gave me this motherly smile that makes me see how much she adores me. That smile was enough to send me into a high, making me smile at her in response. As I put my rubber shoes on, a smile lingered into my face.

    "Mom, what's going on?" my mouth can't help but ask softly.

    "Hani, my sweet young child, no matter what happens, you need to be alive. Promise me." 

    Silence. 

    Nothing but an agonizing silence. 

    That response was enough to cast away the smile that lingered on my face. 

    There was this broken emotion that's laced inside her voice, making me see a glimpse of what really lay behind that facade that she always choose to show. My lips wavered, wanting to get these confusions out of my head—but I stopped, my eyes noticed this determination flashed before her eyes. 

    And then I nodded, "I promise, Mommy."

    A very fatal mistake, really. 

    For I wanted nothing more than to follow them than to be weak just for a second. 

    She suddenly released a relieved sigh before kissing my cheeks, "Hold on dear, let me get your sister."

    Mother rushed upstairs as a great feeling of distaste engulf my senses. My feet moved by itself, making me walk in the back door as I push the door open, letting me see the inviting sight of the forest. As I take tiny little steps outside, my body welcomes the scent of the forest. There were tons of confusion in my mind and yet, somehow... the woods makes me feel at ease. 

    This time, however, I felt a bit eerie. Even in such a young age, I don't seem to understand that this was precautions that there'll be something big that's about to happen in my life. Soft sounds from the woods made me walk towards it in silence, not making any sound as my ears carefully listened to the most amazing sound that I could ever hear.

    "Hani, child," a soft voice whispered and instead of running away and cowering in fear, I feel more serene and somewhat comfortable as that angelic voice travelled towards my ears. My eyes search wide, looking for the source of the wonderful voice but alas, I found none. Something inside me was whimpering, longing for something in the unknown.

    That was her.

    The voice.

    I have been hearing her since I was a kid, when did I happen? I seemed to have forgotten. However, she would always be there for me when I am in deep trouble. She would give me guidance through everything and help me arrange my thought.

    The voice was nice.

    She would always save me.

    Am I in trouble now? 

    My soul, body, and mind are completely lost looking around the deep yet very comforting forest that I lost track of time. As I reached home, there's something much darker that was surrounding the house, making me feel rather cold as my heart continue to escalate. I put my hand into the back door, trying my best to give myself enough courage to what I am about to see.

    But then I halted. 

    A lethal, almost deadly growl surround the four corners of the first floor of our house. My eyes wandered around the small c***k on the door and inside me, there's this loud sound of my heart that was slowly ripping. 

    In our very living room, where most of our memories as a family were made, to that very place, there is now a spread of blood, enough to mimic a pool due to the intense content of the blood. My hand cupped my mouth, halting the sob that wants to escape my mouth. There, right in front of my young eyes, lies the cold body of my family. 

    My tears flow through my cheeks, letting my sight into a blur. But I will never forget what I saw that day. There was a big grey wolf, right on top of my mother, where it was—

"Snap out of it!" 

    I practically jumped out of my bed when I felt my body shaken vigorously. My eyes met a familiar set of hazel brown eyes, setting me back into a very harsh reality... which is my new life. I set my rigid posture loose, letting Nvae give me time to gather my shits together.

    Worry. 

    She's worried. 

    That's all I see in her gentle looking face, nothing but a sense of worry. I can always be anyone I want, anyone that I dream to be—but no matter how I look to other people, she is now the only person who can really see the struggling woman behind what I propose to people. Nvae has become the only person who I trust my life with.

    f**k. 

    These have been happening ever since I left the headquarters. Memories of my past have been haunting me in my dreams, letting me see snippets of the life that I used to have. It almost seems like it wanted me to fight back and look for the killer of my mother.

    However, I couldn't do just that.

    My organization know how I kill wolves, even if I change my style and made it look frenzied- I know they will understand soon enough. I can only kill wolves with using weapons and they will be quick to identify the weapon when they spot a dead wolf. 

    No matter how much I wanted to kill another wolf, I couldn't. 

    I let my hands dive into my hair, letting all the frustration out of my system. My mouth parted as a dejected sigh escaped on my lips, "Sorry. I just had a terrible nightmare."

    Nvae shook her head as her tongue licks her bottom lip —something that she unconsciously does whenever she's nervous— before she finally met my eyes, "It's not a dream."

    "I know, that's why I called it a nightmare because the reality is beyond terrifying..." I trailed softly as a wheel inside me suddenly started working. 

    My eyes, that is still containing a full of raw emotion, take a good look at her. Her eyes were frenzied, panicked. It was a sight of her that would usually happen if- f**k. Upon finally realizing something odd about this situation, I was nothing but alarmed. However, to keep her mind peace of the dangers that could possibly go on our way, I looked at her in worry. Everything inside my dream notifies me clearly that I didn't even scream or moved enough too much for her to be distracted by her work. She also isn't that kind of person who would just barge into my room. 

    A crease form into my forehead, "Did you find something that I should know about?"

    She nodded before grabbing hold of a transparent glass that she managed to turn into a phone. It then showed me the CCTV of this apartment, something that she managed to hack as soon as we arrived. The creepy old man who owned this apartment is currently talking to some men that's way too young and dangerous-looking to be considered as police or his own set of peers. 

    Nvae zoomed the picture, making me see a very familiar mark on their neck. Well, f**k me. 

    "They're a bunch of mongrels and surprise, surprise. Your guess was right all along. Like we didn't f*****g see that coming. It's like you're really a dog who can always smell them. Are you? Are you a dog? Oh no! You must be a wolf!" 

    "Are you f*****g done?" I questioned, raising a brow at her ridiculous hypothesis.

    She chuckled, shaking her head, "The creepy geezer seems to be one of them too."

    I raised a brow, confused, "Then why are they talking at this late hour? That's very unusual. Do you have a copy of their conversation?"

    "Just the first minute. The geezer mentioned our fake identities and after that, everything just shuts." 

    Nvae touches the device, pushing her finger upward to let the phone reach the highest volume. What was weird about it was their movements. On a distance, you could see that they were just talking something nonchalant but as their lips continue to move, no audio seems to come up. My head followed her line of sight, in desperate need of explanation. 

    She shrugged, "They are talking, not with verbal communication but something that their kind can do. They are talking inside their heads. I just don't understand why they seem to notice that we were somebody that they should hunt."

    "What do you mean?" I frowned.

    "Well, it's just that I already cut their database, even corrupted their frequencies so they would remain oblivious about our identities. So why did they caught on? Even the headquarters aren't this f*****g smart."

    "I doubt they have any brain cells that could hold that kind of realization."

    "I know," she agreed, "So I wonder why they became suddenly smart. Maybe vitamins do work." 

    And then it clicked. 

    "It's not about being hunters..." I trailed, providing her with the information that she needed. 

    She frowned, and not a second later, her squinting eyes grew wide as the realization finally strikes to her brain. There's already this part of me that noticed something wrong with the owner of this apartment before we even walked inside this room. While Nvae was writing on the damn paper that he gave, I caught him looking at her face and liking his f*****g lips. 

    The way he looked towards us when we booked for a room was really creepy, even him suddenly pulling such a soft voice which was nothing but f*****g disgusting. His psychotic smile didn't even help to his own profile. 

    I mean, it's no mystery that we decided to call him creepy geezer. We just don't have another place to rest yesterday and Nvae is badly hurt from the last run. No matter how I want to move away from this place, a reasonable part of me just can't. Truth to be told, I could see the gash getting swollen on Nvae's shoulder. 

    We aren't really supposed to be gone by now but it seemed like we have no f*****g choice.

    Why do we have the strangest bad luck of all?

    Ever since we checked in, that man would always take note of our schedule. It was something that we always change into his freaking online logbook.

    Talk about major creep.

    Nvae grunted as she flopped on my bed, "You got to be freaking kidding me. Are you sure that I can't just shoot them or something? Because I can work that out in this distance and then—"

    "We can't be tracked, Nvae," I sighed before placing a comforting hand into her shoulders and just like that, her feature softens, finally realizing where my words are headed. However, my voice didn't trail as I continued on my words to remind her of our handicaps, "If we kill these mutts, the headquarters would definitely get informed by this. With your marksmanship, they would know who killed them by the spots of your bullets alone. That would take a week, give it five days before we're back in that hell hole."

    She rolled her eyes before swatting my arms away from her shoulders, "Yes, Mother."

    "Oh shut up," I muttered as I push myself out of the bed. 

    My feet moved in silence as I take some long strides towards the window, slowly pulling a small distance between the two shades on the window blinds to check the perimeters. My eyes wandered on the place and it halted into a rusty old pick-up truck that suddenly parked outside the apartment. I immediately notice the tapes and ropes that were placed on the back of their trucks.

    How predictable.

     "They plan to abduct us. What freaking cowards," I push my vision out the perimeters before taking a good look on the gash right at Nvae's shoulder, "Think you can endure the pain of that gash? Maybe take some medicine before you act because if we don't leave now, we're going to end up killing those monsters. That's a bad move for us."

    "Why the f**k do I need to even customized our shits."

    I nodded in agreement, "Yeah, you f****d up." 

    "And you're f*****g useless, guess we're both wrong." 

    "Don't make me f*****g kill you."

    She grinned, holding out her heart, "Oh, that makes me feel something in my heart." 

    "I didn't know you have that," I teased.

    "That should have been my line," she fired back.

    Nvae pulled the sleeves down, perfectly covering the gash as she made sure that everything was in perfect order. She carefully pulls herself up before towards the luggage, seemingly checking if we get anything that wouldn't implicate our presence in this very place. Then when she's done checking her s**t, she then casually pushed some buttons to prop out some of our emergency equipment that was neatly placed in there. 

    The equipment was just a little bit smaller than a bead, just small enough to not get noticed by others. It's meant to seem like a part of our clothes as the sole purpose of this specific piece of equipment is for locating one another if we ever get separated. 

    We don't plan on separating soon but we don't know what will happen when we're out in the wilds. For us, it was better to be sure than to be sorry. 

    Nvae suddenly takes a good look at her phone, even grabbing a hold of it as she rolled her eyes, "Some are already heading upstairs while some are closing every exit. Just how f*****g horny are these mutts to even act like they know s**t?"

    "They sure are tempting me," I chuckled darkly as all the emotions that were raw emotion inside of me and the lack of sleep are practically gone at this point.

    She pushed my leather jacket towards me, along with the other transparent glass that I needed as a signal for her transmission. Finishing up with her things, she moved towards the window where she'll make her way outside the place, far from the sights of these stupid, horny mutts. She's smart enough to navigate her way towards our car without anyone noticing anything.

    I don't doubt her skills. 

    While she's busy doing her thing, I looked at the footage very closely. There was a total of six mutts that were walking very discreetly to our destination. Everything seemed to be in order as they walked on the stairs in nothing but completely discretion. It was very hard for me to just look at them in a distance and not even inflict them the pain that they deserve. These mongrels are nothing but a bunch of monsters, lurking into a dark to wait for their prey.

    If we are simply on a stakeout, I could easily kill them all.

    Bam bam, b***h. 

    As they hit the third floor, my glass phone received a pattern that I associated with morse code. Wow, Nvae. f**k you for not remembering that I know nothing about this s**t. It took me a minute, maybe two- before I realized what the statement was. 

    'We're cleared, head out in five minutes.' 

     She better be f*****g glad that I was able to think straight or I have lost the signal. Time is efficient to her hacking as one error could implicate us with the headquarters. Looking straight to my watch, I slowly counted the minutes. As soon as it hit five, I jammed on the wires and the wails of the warning of fire ensued all around the place. 

    Laughter ensued around my lips upon seeing them all panic to what they had heard. All their plans are now on the f*****g drain as they were trampled by countless people who are using the emergency stairs. 

    And man, oh man. Isn't this a sight to see? 

    There's nothing more satisfying enough to see these mutts all mortified as all the occupants woke up from their sweet slumber. Everybody practically run to the ground floor where the creepy geezer didn't have a choice but to bust the front door open.

    "Please calm down, everybody!" The old geezer calmly hushes the loud complaints from everyone in which he got nothing but a bunch of foul words and someone requesting for some refunds.

     I stayed on the crowd, pretending to shake in fear while I noticed a couple of glances from the mongrels that I saw on the CCTV. Normally, this is my time to flee the place but I'm still waiting for the time to enter the pick-up truck and to leave this sorry place. My eyes wandered around countless hikers, foreigners and some locals who didn't know that they're living in a place full of monsters that their parents warned them about.

    I pity them for not knowing anything.    

    But then, a small part of me thinks that they're actually lucky for not knowing that the world of their nightmares truly does exist.

    For years, I lived a life where I know nothing about them and I wasted it by not being careful. Most of these people were travellers who wanted nothing but to see this part of town. Without being aware of things, they managed to check in a place where it is run by marked red. 

    Can one even think what would happen if Nvae and I weren't actually hunters? We could have been kidnapped and r***d for all we know. It was these kinds of things that made me feel sorry for the humans, that's why when I was a hunter- whenever I would kill a wolf, I would always think that I was doing it for those people who can lose a piece of their life due to those mongrels. 

    Loud wails from a firetruck invaded my thoughts, making me grin inside my head as the fireman all instructed us to leave for today and come back tomorrow to gather our necessities that they would be able to gather inside the 'fire'. We all just nodded and I humped into our black pick-up truck where Nvae is already rooted on the passenger seat, deleting all the files that we have inside their database.

    "These firemen are lucky, we're basically giving them some free money for today," Nvae grinned as I maneuver the car away from that place. Something is just satisfying about making some mutt grew homeless, alone and basically useless in the city.

    I didn't even set a fire, but the false injection of fire by his emergency buttons will likely be charged into him as the occupants tomorrow demand for a refund that he cannot simply deny. My mind did trigger the thought of starting a fire; but I know that action would just alert the headquarters and since I know how they work, I stopped my very tempting thoughts. I wouldn't risk anything.

    "So," Nvae pushed her lips as she takes a soft yawn, "where are we headed now?"

    I take a deep sigh, not even realizing that we usually make sure that our place was clean before we head into a city so we can be in the shadows, away from very dangerous people. My eyes followed Nvae's face which is glued to her transparent glass phone. 

    "See anything interesting, V?"

    "We can stay for a week or less in this place. Just a place for research to a new better hiding spot before we pack away and move again." She answered softly.

    Nvae continued to swipe her phone before pressing some buttons. After she's done, she just tapped her phone into the navigator in the truck and it completely processed the way on the new place. As the navigation finished, she released a grin in which my lips copied. 

    "What do you think?"

    I shrugged, "We'll see."

    We both grinned before having me to look once more look to the room where we were staying. It's already clean as they could possibly be- it's like they were filled with tenants who were new to the area. That's how we don't leave trails. 

    Nvae is good with her works, and I applaud her for it.