Claws (Rewritten)

Thirty

Daniel

It was more difficult than I could possibly explain to let Caleb go. Finding out that Damien was the cause of all this mess with the hunters and Amelie added yet another layer of complications to our growing pile. An endless vacation was looking more tempting by the day. I now understood why Caleb stayed away for so long.

I was terrified that he'd disappear again. Not that I'd be surprised if he took his chance to get out before another bombshell could shake his progress. After all, he'd only just started to move on from that mess, and handing him that notebook was like sticking a knife in his back.

"He won't leave," My dad assured me, placing a hand on my shoulder as we stared at the empty place where Caleb had been. "As long as Damien and the hunters are a threat to the rest of us, he's not going anywhere." I couldn't be sure if he was trying to convince me or himself, or both of us.

I took a deep breath and nodded. "I know."

Though a part of me wished he'd pack up and get the hell out of here while he still could. I knew he wouldn't. He was too selfless to abandon his friends in the middle of a fight. It wasn't in his nature.

I couldn't help but think that showing him the notebook we found was a mistake. Then again, he deserved to know. Everyone deserved to know what that psychopathic fuck had done to us, and the lengths he was willing to go to tear us apart.

I mean, he'd been working alongside hunters, feeding them lies about us like a devil on their shoulder, and he had the nerve to hate us for tainting his pure pack? It wasn't even his to begin with - he was just looking to usurp it.

And now that the hunters had moved, we had the entire city to search. Our goal was simple. Find them before they acted. Given their frankly alarming array of weapons designed to kill each and every one of us painfully, it wasn't a question of if they would take us out, but when, and who they would start with.

We would've asked for Caleb's help searching the place, but he already had enough to deal with. He deserved the night off, at the very least.

"We'll start in the centre and work our way out, alright?" My dad suggested, already walking towards the street. "And if you see them, don't engage."

I hummed distractedly, my eyes on the rooftops, looking for a clear way to the centre of the city.

"Daniel, I mean it," He said firmly, making me glance at him. "They cannot know if we find them again, understood?"

"Understood," I agreed.

With that, we set off. Given that it was still light out and would be for another few hours, we had to begin our search on the ground. Our progress was slow, but at least we weren't drawing any attention to ourselves.

We wandered near abandoned buildings, warehouses, rented offices and studios, listening out for any sign of movement that would indicate our hunters had set up there. Nothing.

Not that the city was aiding our efforts. At all. The streets were bustling with people - students filing out of libraries and accommodation buildings looking either stressed or blasé with no in-between, parents escorting their children between the crowds and fighting off any attempts that their kids made to get fast food or sweets. Everyone around us was going about their casual day, worrying about mundane things, whilst my father and I were trying to find a group of killers before they attacked our friends and sent these bustling streets into chaos.

Boredom had long since set in as we weaved our way through the streets, and I began listening in to the many conversations going on around me.

"I got ninety-eight for that question."