The Hunters

Part 27

27.

Rowan

     The night is the time of magic. It is the time where the world is cloaked in silence and mystery, with only the faint glare of the moon and the twinkling city lights in the distance offering a semblance of protection against the shadow. From behind the safety of my bedroom window, I would often study this witching hour with a sort of distant wonder; enchanted but never quite ready to venture outside to experience it.

    Now that I am, I’m finding it less than magical.

    The absence of life fills the streets, stretching off into the stalking blackness and what I can see is coated in a layer of shadow, casting the entire world into and eerie reflection of its daytime self.

      I left the unfamiliar voices of the people I have known my whole life, crying out my name, a few turns back and now the only sound I can hear is the ragged wheeze of my strained breathing and the constant crunch of my soles on the grit covered pavement.

     I cant see them following behind me but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. If I picked up anything from Tyler it is his irrational paranoia.

     Never safe.

     Keep on moving.

     So I do.

     Even in the darkness I know where I am going, the internal map in my head obtained from years of wandering these same streets have me heading towards the forest; hoping that there I can hide in the cover of the trees.

     It’s cold – freezing – but still I feel a bead of sweat bleed down my shoulder blades and come to rest in the hollow of my spine. It is then, as my whole focus is on that tiny droplet of water that it hits me just how much crap I’m in.

     What are they going to do when they realise I cant do what they want me to? That I don’t have any powers anymore? It’s stupid to even ask myself these questions, I realise, because deep down I already know the answers: They’ll kill me. Suck the life right out of my body and leave my broken shell buried in the snow. This image has my legs pumping even harder as a fresh shot of adrenaline courses through my bloodstream.

     I reach the sanctuary of the trees but I don’t stop. Cant stop. So I run right down the pine needle covered path and out the other side into the clearing that I discovered when I was seven and out exploring the town.

     Like everything else, the ground is covered in a thick blanket of snow, died black by the night and the lake has frozen over so completely it looks as if the frosted surface is safe to stand on. Cutting across the lake is the fastest way out and the fact that the clearing is visible from the street has me itching to get back into the shade of trees.

     It’s as I’m heading towards the lake that I glance over and see him.

Tyler

      “What ya gonna do when you find her?” Karen asks, breaking the somewhat comfortable silence that we have adopted since setting out on our little road trip.

      I shrug, “Hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”

     “Wow, real reassuring,” she says, rolling her eyes, voice dripping with sarcasm, “I can really see why Harry was so desperate to get you to go with him. What an asset your turning out to be for us.”

     “I got this far didn’t I? More than I can bloody say for everyone else,” I snap and then immediately think better of it. who else do I have left if I piss her off? No one, that’s who. “Uh, how do you know about Harry anyway?” she doesn’t answer and I have the distinct impression that she’s angry.

     “What do you think I am kid, an idiot? The man spends six years with you, getting to know you and training you up to be just as good as he is and you think he’s just gonna let ya go? You don’t have to tell me the story for me to know that when Harry jumped ship ‘e asked you ta tag along.” I don’t quite know how to answer that, so I leave it alone, assuming she’s just as ready to drop the subject.

     After a few moments of contemplative silence though she says,

     “I can see why he did it, Harry I mean, I can see why he... traded alliances.” Betrayed us all you mean, I think but don’t say it out loud. I know she’s thinking it too.

     “Can you? Because quite frankly I’m having a hard time understanding how a man can spend the best part of his life fighting against the life sucking parasites that murdered his family and then just decided to join them without a seconds hesitation.” She shakes her head.

     “I don’t think it’s like that. I think he’s being smart. Strategic. He’s lookin’ after number one and that means stayin’ on the winning team. Morality don’t mix with war, thought you’d get that by now.”

     “If I haven’t got my conscience, what do I have left?”

    “What good’s a conscience when you’re dead?”

     The question hangs unanswered in the air between us for the rest of the journey – though I don’t know if it is because I don’t know how to answer or if I just don’t want to.

     I know Rowan’s address from her file but seeing the address on paper and manoeuvring the streets to find the right house are two different things entirely. For a small town it is remarkably hard to find my way through the maze of streets.

     “Call me crazy, but didn’t we pass this park already?” Karen looks through the window at the passing trees which surround a small clearing. We have. I recognise the frozen lake in the heart of the park, shimmering in the moonlight, from when we passed it ten minutes ago.

      I slam my palms onto the steering wheel of the car hard enough to hear a crack and jerk the crawling car to an immediate stop, “Fuck, we’re bloody going in circles. We don’t have time for this!”

     “Uh, language! Just. Calm. Down. We know where she is and as far as we know she aint going nowhere, so just stop freaking out.”

     “Don’t you get it Karen? If we know where she is then they probably do too. It is, all of this, a race and while I’m sat here talking to you, they’re out there trying to get her.” And then, almost to myself I mutter, “I cant let them get her.”

     “Tyler?” she places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes ever so gently. If I close my eyes I can almost imagine it is my mother I am sitting next to. “Listen kid, we’re gonna get her back.” I nod but for the first time I can feel the poison seed of doubt implant itself inside of me.

     Then I see something... someone bursting out through the trees into the clearing.

     “Is that...” she begins squinting at the figure in the distance.

     “Rowan.” I finish, staring, awestruck in her direction.

     Scrambling hastily out of the car, I start in her direction, my long legged strides eating up the distance between us. Karen’s footsteps sound behind me crunching in the fresh snow.

      “Well that was bloody easy,” she says grinning at me...

     ...and that’s when the Terrigenas jump out of the trees to surround us.