The Wanted and the Hunted

Chapter 1

It was freezing. My arms were so numb that the cold air felt like daggers being dragged across my skin. I was running for my life from two unknown beings; were they human? I couldn't tell. All that was known was that they looked like shadows and I needed to get away.

My vision was blurry; grainy I guess you could say. I tried blinking it away but the more I tried the worse it got. They were gaining on me and I didn't know what to do. There were no turns or places to hide, just a straight path surrounded by darkness. How is this real? I start panicking. Where am I? How did I get here? My legs start screaming with exhaustion and I desperately need to rest, but stopping will be the end of me. Tears slip their way down my cheeks and my vision worsens. "Somebody help me please!" I cry out to nothing. No one was going to come, no one could hear me!

I need to fight; there is no other way to win this. I come to a complete stop and turn on my heal. My fists are up in fighting position and my feet are in fighting stance. I try to catch my breath and focus my vision... My eyes widen. No one is there. "What the-" suddenly I'm shoved from behind and I fall face first. I slam my elbow in to the ground and a sharp pain shoots through my arm. "You thought you could get away, princess?" A deep voice says from above me. I look up while cradling my elbow and see an unfamiliar face. "Who are you and what do you want?" The pain in my voice doesn't bother to hide itself. I sound pathetic, weak. He laughs maniacally, "you can't possibly not know what I'm here for!" He raises his foot and kicks it straight in to my gut. He didn't even put a little effort to spare me some pain. I scream and curl over in reflex. "Not so strong now, princess?" He laughs again. Tears begin streaming down the side of my face. "Why aren't you fighting?" He says slightly frustrated. I look up at him through my squinted eyes and spit on his boot. "Well, at least you were easy to capture." He raises his boot once again and brings it down towards my face.

                   ~         ~         ~

I shoot straight up and whack my head in to the ceiling. "Ow!" I yell. My alarm is screaming that annoying, hellish sound that welcomes the day to come. My stupid bunk bed was not built for this bedroom. The top bunk is too damn high and I would have used the lower bunk, but my dad had removed it and made an office nook for me on my 16th birthday.

I shut off the alarm while rubbing my head. I had dreamt all of that; again. Why am I having this weird dream every night? Who is that man that constantly calls me princess and beats me up? I sigh and relax knowing the events that occurred hadn't actually happened.

I hop off my bed, skipping the ladder. I had picked the clothes I'd wear for today before I went to bed, so I grabbed the clothes off my chair and headed to the bathroom where I quickly changed and brushed my teeth.

"Good morning, sweetie!" My mom says with a huge smile on her face. The smell of crispy bacon and eggs fills the kitchen and I breathe it in deeply. "Morning, mom! I'll take 10 slices of bacon and 5 eggs!" I sit at the counter and watch her cook eagerly. She laughs, "taking orders already?"

A plate of bacon is already stacked to full height and I make my way towards it. "Nuh uh uh! We are eating breakfast as a family today!" My mom whips out her spatula and threatens to poke me with it. "Okay okay! But I'm STARVING!"

"You're always starving." My brother walks in rolling his eyes and grabs an apple out of the fruit bowl. "You should try and eat healthier." I glare at him and cross my arms. "I can eat whatever I want." He looks at me and shrugs, "don't complain when you get fat and have diabetes with extremely high cholesterol." He turns and leaves the kitchen. Our mom interjects, "Jacob, we are eating breakfast together! I made you a fruit smoothie." He stops and turns around, "Sweet!"

My twin brother is a massive figure of 6'4" with well-defined muscle, blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. He is so damn over-protective that every boy I bring home runs away and never comes back. He's known as the prodigy swimmer at school considering he has top state titles and almost every school record; our whole family is quite athletic actually. I'm the school track star and have a black belt in Taekwondo, and both of our parents were in the olympics; my mom was a Track athlete and my dad was a diver. Jacob is following  in their path considering he qualified for the Olympic Trials cut last year as a 17-year-old.

Jacob sits at the table and I sit across from him. Mom continues scrambling the eggs when dad walks in. He is in his robe and pink house shoes. "Really dad? Your pink house shoes?" He laughs and scratches his head, "What! They are so soft and fluffy and they were the only ones in my size." He walks over to mom and kisses her on the cheek. "Morning, Liz."

"Morning, Eric. Have a seat with Jacob and Alex, I'm almost done with breakfast."

He dances over to us, "what a lovely Saturday morning to be enjoying with my gorgeous wife and grumpy children!" Jacob and I glare at him, "sorry we don't have pink fluffy slippers to lighten our moods," I say. Jacob snorts out a laugh and we all start laughing.