He's a troublemaker

Chapter twenty-two

"Nothing but time to kill, sipping life from bottles." - Troye Sivan

                           -Madeline Grey-

Everything  was fine until 8pm finally came. Butterflies flying through my stomach, spreading a bad feeling through out my body. I chose to ignore it as Hunter's friend arrived, Ares.

Time to be babysat. Shut up Madeline, Hunter is doing this to protect you.   Is he though, or does he just not want to show you the real him. Of course he is. Something bad could happen and Hunter is capable enough to protect him self but he won't be able to protect me and him at the same time. Maybe you're right, maybe I'm right.

As I had a small argument with my self,  I didn't hear Ares call out my name.

"Earth to Madeline?!" I shake my head and bring my self back to planet earth. Hunter had left a couple minutes ago but it feels like hours. Anxiety was already starting to build up.

"Huh?" I finally reply to Ares as I'm finally back into reality.

"I asked if you were fine, you've kinda been staring into nothing." I must look like a weirdo now, great.

"Sorry, Just daydreaming." Ares laughs as he flicks through the Tv channels, looking for something decent to watch. "So why do people call you Ares? Isn't that the God of War?" I decided to make small talk even though I absolutely despise people who try to make small talk.

"It's a nickname, my real name is Cameron. I got the nickname Ares from my passion for fights and yes, you're right, Ares is the god of war thus it being my nickname." I make a 'oh' sound as if to say I probably sound dumb right now but he just shakes it off.

"How do you know Hunter?" He asks me, still no eye contact apart from him looking directly into the tv.

"He's my boyfriend." That rolled off my tongue so naturally, it felt good. "I met him and Jason at a party when I first moved to New York. What about you?" This conversation is boring me, I could literally fall asleep, I think I prefer to have Luke babysit me. Never mind I don't.

"Known him since he was in diapers, in fact I used to babysit him when I was a teenager." I knew that Cameron wasn't the same age as us, he had that older guy kinda look though he must only be like ten or twenty years older than us.

The small talk or any other kind of talk kinda ended there. Nothing else was said, no interactions were made. Just pure silence. I gave up a couple minutes after and went to cuddle with Axel and try to sleep to ease my mind off Hunter.

My plans of sleep were ruined since I couldn't sleep because I felt sick. I felt like I was about to puke. I don't know what's up with me. I felt jealous of Axel because he was peacefully sleeping on my arms, snoring gently with a smile on his face. Why can't I fall asleep that easily?

I just laid on Hunters bed and stared at the ceiling, time flying by without me realising, I only realised when I got bored of staring and looked at my phone.

Holy crap. 5am and still no sign of Hunter. Now I was worried, did my father kill him?! Did Hunter get hurt?! Did they get lost?! Millions of questions buzzing through my head, as I got out of the bed pacing around the room like a lunatic.

As I was panicking a smash was heard from downstairs. I slowly go downstairs trying not to make any noise.

I go to the kitchen first to get a weapon, deja vou much. I grab the sharpest knife in Hunters kitchen and make my way to where the sound came from, the living area.

I gasp as I see Cameron on the floor unconscious and a unfamiliar person rummaging through some draws. The person turns around and faces me as they smirk.

"Who are you?" Oh yeah Maddie, like they are going to give you their name when they just broke into the fucking house. This is why people die in horror movies.

"Wouldn't you like to know that?" Yes, yes I would like to know stranger, that's why I asked.

The strange stranger walks up to me, my hands were behind my back so they couldn't see that I had a weapon. Once they get to me they stroke my face in a weird manner, making my face scrunch up at the horrible touch.

"Why are you here?"

"Your father wants you flower?" The nickname gives me shivers, it sounded so wrong.

"Tell him to come get me himself or is he too afraid?" I scoff at the stranger. The man smacks me, making my face turn left. He had to be at least in his 20's, he was tall and had wrinkles starting to appear at the early age, probably from all the damn smirking he does.

"You can tell him that yourself, we're going to see him now." The man grabs my arm and starts to drag me but before we get to the door I stab him in the stomach, not deep enough to kill, Just deep enough so he couldn't move because of the pain. And as if on cue the door opens revealing Jason but no Hunter.

"Where's Hunter?" Jason says nothing, just looks down. "Where is he, Jason?!"

"Maddie, there was an explosion and h-" everything went in slow motion from there, my screams pierced through out the walls as I collapsed to the ground next to the stranger. He couldn't be gone, not the Hunter I knew.

But he was, he was gone.

—————

(Next day)

I hadn't left the room, I hadn't eaten, all I had done was cut. Cameron had escorted the intruder out of the house when he gained consciousness, Jason had tried to convince me to eat but I denied it all.

"What really happened, Jason?" Jason was sat beside me.

"We went to the address, it was a trap. I had heard a ticking and told everyone to leave but hunter made sure we were all out first before he got out. But he didn't get out and the house went in flames, the bomb came from the second floor and everything collapsed on him. We took down the flames and searched for him but he wasn't there." I shut my eyes in disbelief, heroic but stupid. Every man for himself, right? Not for Hunter it's not. He puts others first, he's always in last place.  Tears streamed down my face for the hundredth time today.

Hunter was gone, he was really gone.

A/N- things just got interesting, don't stop reading the book now, a surprise will come in the next chapter as we fast forward to a month after Hunters death. Next chapter will be longer as I have so much to write for that chapter, I have to include everything in order to make the chapter after that one as best as I can.

What do you think really happened?