Those Who Sparkle

Chapter 2: Caught

When I finally woke, I was no longer in the ugly green sack I had been mercilessly thrown in earlier; I was now lying on a soft bed, apparently unrestrained. I tried to get up, however, and found that this was not the case. On closer inspection, I saw that shining silver shackles were concealed within the bed's warm covers and cushiony pillows, attatched to my wrists, ankles and torso, holding me down.

I wondered how long it had been since the hunter had caught me in the forest. It felt like it had been only minutes, but somehow I knew it had been much longer than that. I thought back to the moment where the hunter had finally gotten me. He had moved so fast. There was no way a human could have moved that fast. But what was he? He was not another Kalani, he didn't have any of the other traits... Or did he? He did have the speed, and possibly the intelligence. He couldn't have the hearing... He couldn't hear me when I screamed for another of my race. Or could he? I went back to that moment in my mind. He had looked a little suprised, maybe even angry, after I had shouted. The expression had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. And he could have been wearing colored contacts... Could my hunter possibly be a Kalani?

Surrounded by the soft, comfortable bed, I drifted off to sleep again, still thinking about my hunter.

It was dark. I was in the forest. "Liluye!" I heard a voice call out. It was angry. Was it the hunter? No, it sounded like it belonged to a female, and besides, he didn't even know my name, it couldn't be him. Cautiously, I approached the source of the noise. Fortunately, it wasn't a hunter. But it almost was worse. It was Ayunli, our leader. And she was mad.

"Liluye!" She yelled again. This time I stepped out from behind the tree I had been hiding behind, into her line of vision. I was nervous. What had I done wrong? "Yes, Ayunli?" I inquired, a little hesitantly. Anger masked her beautiful features. She looked old and tired, even weak. Nothing like she usually, did: young, alert and vibrant, though she was well over 2000 years old. I was truly scared now. Thousands of questions rushed through my mind at that moment. What had happened to her? Why was she like this? Was this happening to everyone else? Was this even really her?

"You betrayed us, Liluye! You have destroyed our race!" she spat at me. I was shocked. What had I done? What was she talking about? "The hunters," she snarled, acknowledging my confused look. "You told the hunters! This is why we tell the tales of the brave, the ones who sacrificed themselves for their family, in hope that we won't have a traitor in our midst! You are nothing like them, Liluye, not like them at all. You are selfish and greedy. You think yourself better than everyone else you meet. Now look at what you've done to your race." She waved behind her, and I could see dead bodies, those of my family and friends, their unseeing glittering purple eyes still open, littering the floor, aged and ugly. Their eyes were different somehow, not as bright, not as vibrant. It was like a fire in their soul had been dampened, their eyes put out.Those who were not dead slumped in chairs, sobbing, clearly at he brink of death, their bodies too old and too humanlike to survive. They glared at me with a stare of rage, disbelief, and accusation. I couldn't take this. One man, almost dead, started to speak. 

"How could," he violently coughed, "you do this Liluye?! You've," he coughed again, "destroyed everything. You have nothing!" the dying man continued, before he fell the the ground, never to speak again.

"What have I done?!" I cried and fell to my knees, sobbing. This was all my fault. I had single-handedly destroyed all of the Kalina; the sacred, ancient Kalina. I had destroyed my friends and my family; everything that I loved, everything that I knew.

I heard another sound behind me. This time, it wasn't Ayunli, coming to chastise me. I nervously rose and faced the source of the noise. As a acsended, the hunter's face appeared above me. His voice resounded around me. "You are mine now. You will always be mine!" His cackling laughing surrounded me as my screams filled the forest.

I woke up covered in cold sweat. "It was just a dream," I reassured my self, "It was just a dream, it's not real."

I looked up, sure that the comforting pattern of the off white ceiling would soothe me. Instead of seeing the painted pattern, however, I saw the unmasked face of the hunter, ugly and terrible. My screams echoed through the empty white hallways of the facility. "Good morning, my pretty," was the last thing I heard before blacking out once again.

A/N: Again, sorry for any mistakes. Hope you like this chapter! Please post any comments or criticism, I want to make my story better! Enjoy!

Ayunli, the name of the leader of Kalani, is pronounced "Ah-Yoon-Oh".