The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Chapters 8.5 - 9.5 (was old chapter 7 of draft 2.5)

One of the figures moved into the light created by the crowd of Humans, it was Blade. She held a gun to the leader of the Humans, got Steven away from him.

A minute later, Steven was lying on the sidewalk in front of his building bleeding. Again. And, Blade was inside the building. The other Vampyre had gone under the street. Morpheus saw Helen run to Steven. She didn't even know him then, he was supposed to be a prisoner, and yet she shouted at the others for leaving him there.

An ambulance came. The Humans didn't see anything unusual about it, and they let Steven and Helen be taken inside. Morpheus saw though, one of those dressed up as a paramedic was John. Morpheus was understanding the intrigue then: Humans were organized into a group that's task was finding and capturing all non-Human intelligence's: in other words, they were Angel hunters. And other Humans, ones like John, who fought the desperation of the world were organized into a group to help the inhuman.

Morpheus rose higher in the air. He looked down at the city. And he could sense it then, the pockets of psychic friction. It wasn't just this one brood of Vampyres the Humans hunted, but creatures all through the city. And the poor Halfangels were running through the city, completely taken by surprise. And yet these Humans knew where to look, they must have been watching...for a long time.

New York became a stranger place to live. The general populace was unaware of what went on, as general populaces always are. But, those who knew were growing in number, and they were taking sides. The most well off of inhumans escaped the city to take on false identities in other countries, Julien had gone from the city that way. But, as time passed, hunts began in other countries, and those the Angels had left behind panicked, moved continuously, looking for a safe haven.

There were no real Haven Cities, they had fallen into ruin thousands of years ago, as men replaced Angels as the rulers of the planet. And now, it seemed men would not tolerate sharing the planet.

But the hunts only went on in nations that feared inhumans, and of those only those who had the spare time and men to dedicate to the hunt. It was in the most democratic and wealthy nations that the most thorough hunts took place. And of these nations the United States was the most persistent, and in the US, New York was undoubtedly the front line of the war.

Those who controlled the hunting were based in New York, as were those who opposed them, and as more Humans took sides, the zealous always moved to New York looking for glory. Steven Jewel was the biggest supporter of the Angels, and all attempts to silence or stop him failed. His original team was still the most secret, the most efficient. They staged rescues at bases that had been thought secure, and were never breached in their own headquarters. The one in control of Steven's team was John, the one most impressed by it was Joy, the one most wary Steven's wife.

Helen had switched sides early on, discovering in Steven a higher truth than the one she had held before. And even when she was threatened for it, she didn't abandon Steven. Their children were all born witches, as she had been. And those who knew the most, knew that if Angels were captured, then witches would be next. Sometime a line had to be drawn, or the hunters would turn on each other. There were, then, witches on both sides.

It was hard for Morpheus and his mother. They had been followed, photographed, even confronted in brightly lit but deserted streets. But, it was much worse for others. It seemed the hunters understood neither Opium nor Morpheus would ever be captured. Every day, they saw Halfangels released to the streets of New York, only to be picked up days later for something else. Families were harassed, after generations of living peacefully, just for the fact that they turned into wolves at least once a month. Completely Human prostitutes were surreptitiously searched for talons and avian eyes, schoolchildren with strangely colored eyes, or very slender limbs were put on lists and watched.