Walkers Book 1- Changing

Chapter 17: The hunter and the prey (Part 2)

Oh my gosh I can't believe this story is almost done! Oh how time flies....

Picture: Brenton Thwaites as Tanner Preston
Song: Something That We're Not by Demi Lovato

Tanner

This is so not good, he thought. He had seriously gotten himself into really, really big trouble this time.

He felt Aria’s steady breathing against his bare chest; reassuring him that she was still asleep. Okay, he thought, all I need to do now is untangle myself from her, get dressed and make a run for it without waking her up. What possibly could have crossed his mind last night?! He’d just slept with Hayden’s twin sister! No, now was not the time to bring himself down even more; he needed to get out of the room, now.

Very slowly, he was able to untangle himself from the Night Walker and get out of the bed without waking her.

Now the real challenge was to find his clothes among all the debris. The floor was a mess of cigarettes, glass and broken pieces of furniture. What had they done last night? By miracle, he was able to find his clothes scattered in every corner of the room; Tanner then hurried to his things back on and leave as quickly as possible. Just when he was heading for the door, he tripped over Aria’s broken nightstand and fell on the floor with a loud bang! And of course, the Night Walker immediately woke up.

He froze and stared at her as she looked around the room obviously trying to recall what exactly happened last night as well. But even if she didn’t remember, it didn’t stop her rage of emotions that followed.

“Aria, I’m sorry I—” He tried to say first, before she interrupted him.

“Get out” She ordered, her voice cold and firm.

“Can’t we just talk about—” Tanner attempted to reason, but had no luck.

“GET OUT!” He didn’t need to be told a third time.

He hurried out the door, and ran out of the Night Walker girl dorm. Lucky for him, most of the girls were either sleeping or out hunting, so he avoided a lot of dirty looks.

He made it back to his room rapidly, and immediately noticed that his twin wasn’t there. It didn’t matter though because Tanner needed to get his head to think straight again and Maria wouldn’t be much help. He sat down on his bed and buried his face into his hands, and did the first thing that came to mind; calling upon his clones. They could just tell him the things that he didn’t want to hear or think about and hopefully together they’d find a solution. He only created two, which seemed to be more than enough.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Since when are you so selfish?”

“Do you ever think anything through?”

“Have you thought of Aria for one second?”

“Idiot”

“Bastard”

“Liar”

“She’s not Hayden.” Okay, so maybe summoning his multiples wasn’t the best idea after all. 

Maria

It can’t be that hard, she thought as she walked alone in the forest. Maria couldn’t help but recall the last time that she’d been in the woods; it had been for the peace ritual. Not a very good memory. She immediately brushed the thought away and tried to focus; she needed to learn how to hunt. Or was it tracking? What was the difference? Well, she at least needed to learn how to do something. Besides, all she really needed to do was find an animal, catch it, and then drink the life out of it as a reward; couldn’t be that hard right?