You have a feeling of hurt in your chest, you haven't seen him that nervous or antsy about anything... you're genuinely worried now... why can't he just tell you?
As he walks away you chased him and he closed the door to his room behind him and locked it.
"Come on Hunter!" You exclaim.
You listen against the door and just hear him trying to catch his breath. He seems to be breaking down right now. He can't just be alone when he's feeling like this!
"Hunter please!" You bang on the door.
You suddenly hear him muttering. You listen closely.
....what the hell?
... as soon as he mutters his sentence it goes silent almost immediately.
But the weird thing is... that didn't sound like English. It sounded like straight up gibberish.
You're not going crazy right? You could hear as clear as day that he was just spouting gibberish. And then as soon as he said that he just went quiet.
"....Hun..ter..?" You mumble.
It's quiet. It feels as if no one is in the room.
"Hunter!" You exclaim.
You feel a sense of panic go through yourself. Immediately you jolt up and run to your room.
"Where is it...?" You mumble going through your stuff.
You pull open some desk drawers and rummage below and beneath all the junk inside.
"There it is." You say and snatch it.
It's a hairpin you can use to maybe jiggle his doorknob open. You don't care if this seems crazy or if it's an invasion of space. Hunter is stressed and he's going through it by himself.
You stick the hairpin in the little hole in his door and start fiddling around.
*click*
There we go. You got that right away, of course you did, when you and him were little you'd love to annoy one another and you'd annoy him by breaking into his room all the time.
You jiggle the door open and take a look around his room. Your eyes widen in surprise and you see no one there.
Not a single trace of him ever being in here. He's just gone...
He's gone?!
Why is he gone? He was just in here!
You stand there for a moment just in shock, trying to figure out where he has gone. You search his room for a bit and look through his closet, out his window, and even under his bed. He just disappeared.
You're not going crazy are you?
Hunter POV
He breathes heavily and closes the portal. He arrived in the room he's staying at the old woman's house and opened to door to use the restroom.
He needs to wash his face, maybe that will he'll cool him off.
"Brian are you okay dearie?" The old lady says from across the hall.
Hunter looks over at her. She's in her night gown, it seems she can tell that he's a bit upset. Hunter frowns.
"Come here." She says.
Hunter sweats and walks over to her awkwardly. The old woman looks at him worriedly.
"What's troubling you?" She asks.
"I-it's not important." Hunter says.
"Anything you have to say is important to me Brian." The old woman says.
"Agh..! I'm not Brian..! My name is Hunter..! I'm not your son! Your son is at home with his wife and daughter! I'm just a stupid boy!" Hunter exclaims, clenching the strands of his hair.
"Hey hey hey, don't say that now." She says softly.
Hunter goes quiet for a moment and looks at his feet, and then back up at her.
"I know my memory isn't very well, and I mistake things a lot..." she says.
"Even if you aren't my boy... you're still a boy, your feelings are important." She smiles sweetly.
Hunter feels some tears go down his face and he cries a little and wipes his tears quickly off.
"Come, let's talk." She says and opens the door the Hunters room.
The two sit down and she smiles at him and rests her hand on his shoulder.
"Do tell me what's troubling you." She says.
"...it's...hard..." Hunter says.
"How so?" She says.
"There's... a girl I like... no.. a girl I love." Hunter says.
"And... I want to be with her, more than anything. But... these feelings towards this girl... are forbidden in my family code, so...I..." Hunter stutters.
"I'm... being disloyal to my ancestors, disloyal to my predecessor, disloyal to.. my uncle." Hunter explains.
"I... even lied...! Straight... to his face." Hunter says.
"I lied straight to his face about something, and... I did it... because of her... because... of these... these stupid feelings." Hunter says.
"My ancestors must hate me." Hunter scoffs.
"I'm... a failure... for letting these feelings take hold of me." Hunter mumbles.
"But the worst part is... I don't want to let go of these feelings. In fact, I don't think I'm physically or mentally able to..! So.... I really just am a disappointment to my family...!" Hunter cries.
"Oh child, a disappointment? For having feelings? Emotions? Experiences?" The old woman says.
"Nonsense! Any human being has the right to experience these feelings." She says.
"But... I'm not human..." He says.
"Even if you aren't! I don't care what being you are, you have thoughts and feelings. You can be an alien from a distant planet for all I care, and I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if you were experiencing such feelings." She says.
"Who put that thought in your head that you can't experience these feelings?" She asks.
"My uncle." Hunter says softly, rubbing his fingers.
"Then that's on him dear." She smiles.
"But... my ancestors... they... wouldn't like me if they knew..." Hunter says.
"And did they tell you that themselves?" She asks.
"No.. but-"
"Then who's to know for sure?" She smiles.
"I'm sure... your ancestors would want you to figure yourself out." She says.
"Yeah... I guess your right..." Hunter says.
Your POV
As you walk down the hallway you let out a deep sigh. This is getting annoying, he just had magical disappearing powers now? This is so confusing.
"Gghhh.... Stonesleeper lungs..?" Someone mutters.
You turn the corner and suddenly see Belos himself walking through the halls, you quickly turn back in the corner you came from not to disturb him.
"No way in Titan will that boy retrieve my Titan blood in time... not while he's already failing at keeping his worthless feelings at bay." Belos growls.
What..?
"I'll make another grimwalker if I have too... a better one who does as he's told, I'll make him the exact same age if I have to...!" Belos grumbles.
"Stonesleeper lungs... bloody hell with that. I'll use something different, I'm sure it'll give it more of a kick." Belos grins.
What's a grimwalker?
Belos approaches your end of the other hallway and you quickly pop in some earphones to make him think you never heard him.
Belos turns the corner to see you and his eyes slightly widen.
You act as calm as you can and you glance up at him cooly.
"You... didn't hear that did you...?" He mumbles.
You pop out one of your earphones. "Huh?" You mumble.
Belos sighs and continues walking down the hall.
"Teenagers... and their... weird technology..." Belos grumbles, and storms through the halls away from you.
Grimwalkers... and how is that related to Hunter?
You begin heading to the library quickly to look at anything related to the term grimwalkers... what is that?
You open the doors and start scrambling through the library. Grimwalker...
That's not it.... That's not it....
Grinwalker... where's the term grimwalker...
'Grimwalkers, their origins, the recipe, and more.'
You grin and grab the book. You slam it down against a table and begin looking at it. What's a grimwalker?
You flip through the pages, lots of pictures, different types of Grimwalkers varying on species. Where's a witch type?
Aha!
"A with grimwalker, synonymous to a clone of another person, a duplicate of an original version."
A clone?
Hunters... a clone?
And... Belos is going to make another one?
You need to find a way to get ahold of Hunter right away, no time to loose, you need to find out where he's ran off to, how he's disappeared. If Hunter doesn't come home victorious with that Titan blood, Belos may replace him, or... perhaps he already may be doing so..!
Hunter POV
Morning comes and Hunter rises out of bed, he feels much better now that he was able to talk about his thoughts and concerns to the kind old woman.
He feels confident. He feels right, he isn't ashamed, he should be embracing himself, who he is, what he wants to do.
He opens the door and goes down the stairs and into the kitchen. And to his surprise, it seems Elise is already there. She's in the kitchen with her grandmother, helping her take any of her medication she needs.
"Oh Hunter, hey!" She smiles.
"You get here so early, or am I just sleeping in?" He asks.
"It's... 10 am." She shrugs.
"I usually come around 9." She says.
"Oh cool." He nods and sits down at the table with them.
"Oh the roller rink opens at around 12 if you still want to check that out." She nods.
"Yeah, that sounds cool." He nods.
"Hey I wanna ask something." She says grabbing Hunters arm and dragging him to a different room.
"Oh Uhh- what?" He asks.
"Since I showed you some of the human realm why don't you show me your realm before we go skating?" She asks.
"The... demon realm?" Hunter scratches the back of his neck.
"Yeah, you got me curious now." She says.
Hunter starts sweating. He doesn't really want to. It's not really about where he's from that he wants to focus on, it's about where she's from. He wants to know the dangers and potentials of the human realm for Y/n's safety.
"I don't think it's really necessary, I came here to explore and gather information about this world. It's important to me." He says.
"Why is this realm important to you again? You just said your running away right?" She asks.
"Don't you have a family?" She asks.
"I... used to...?" He mumbles sadly.
"It's... the better option for me." He says.
"Are you being hurt at home?" She asks concerned.
"That would explain your scar." She says.
"Uh- let's not talk about that." Hunter says embarassed, shaking his hands.
"That's also why you must wear gloves too huh? Is there a child protective services in your realm? I can help." She says.
"A child protective what?" Hunter mumbles.
"Services, they help kids who are being abused." She says.
"Hah, im not getting "abused" as you like to call it. It's simply scars of my... ah.. mistakes! That I learned from! To help build me as a person!" Hunter grins, sweating a little.
"What's your background, now that I think about it, I hardly know anything of you, tell me about yourself." She asks.
"I'm the top guard of the emperors coven! I work to protect my home and make it a better place, I go on missions to fight monsters, and much more." Hunter says confidently.
"Well not anymore if you're running away from it, why's that?" She asks.
"My uncle doesn't approve of... my thoughts and feelings... so I'm finding.. um.. a better place for my thoughts and feelings and my goals." Hunter says.
"A place to be yourself?" She asks.
Hunter nods.
"I'm sorry about that." She frowns.
"Which is why you must show me the potential dangers of this realm, and... the goodness in this world! To see if this place fits my potential..!" Hunter smiles.
Elise nods and smiles a bit herself.
"Well I think this is a good place for you" Elise smiles.
"I hope so." He nods.
"In that case, why don't I show you around more?" We can just walk around the neighborhood.
"Sounds good." He nods.
Your POV:
"I need to find a way to stop Belos from making that copy of Hunter." You mumble to yourself as you walk around the castle.
"Maybe if I go into his study... sneak into his study while he's gone I can find something out, maybe his potential weakness...!" You smile.
"Belos usually leaves around this hour anyway to do some outside inspector work." You say to yourself.
You walk out of your room and look around. You need to find a way to help Hunter. Your just hoping that a new grimwalker hasn't been in the works yet.
You run up to a window and look outside to see if he's left yet.
There you see Belos outside investigating the coven scouts. This is your opportunity! You can scrounge around in Belos's room.
You run off into the throne room, his room is in the back of the throne room. There has to be something there that you can use against Belos.
You burst open the throne room doors and look around to make sure that the coast is clear.
No one. Perfect.
You carefully make your way behind the throne, in hopes to find a door to his room. It must be nearby.
That's when you spot it, his room. You carefully walk up to it and jiggle the doorknob open. It creaks slowly open. You take a deep breath and walk in.
It's dirty, and it has his outfits on the floor. There's books scattered across the ground and ripped pages everywhere. There's a single knife on his desk, and a broken mirror.
There's a little rag on top of some sort of mirror as well.
You furrow your eyebrows and begin looking around.
You pick up some books, they seem to be about wild magic, grimwalkers, or ancient kinds of magic.
You sigh and put down the books.
"I don't get it, there's not even that much here, there has to be like... some big secret of his or something...!" You grumble.
You sigh and sit on the ground, and pull at the strands of your hair.
"Mister Emperors weakness? I Can help with that..." a voice says.
You look around in a panic, is there someone in here?
"Who's there?" You say.
"Don't be a scaredy cat! I Can help! That little blue rag over here! Open it up!" The voice says.
Nervous, you look around, and find the blue rag the voice was talking about. You hesitate for a moment and then gently pick up the rag.
It's a mirror. With... a weird smiling kid on the other side.
"HIYA!!!" The kid says.
"Ah! What the heck?!" You exclaim and back off.
"Wait! Don't leave me! I'm bored... talk to me!!" He frowns.
"Who... are you?" You ask.
"I'm the collector! And you're Y/n!" He smiles.
"How do you know my name?" You ask.
"I know everything! I'm a child from the stars, I see all I know all... I Can help you..!" He grins.
"Why does Belos have you?" You ask.
"Uhhh... cause he says I can help him with a portal to the human realm, I give him the answers, he finds the pieces to put the answer together." The collector shrugs.
"He's so slow though!!! He makes me mad! I tell him all he needs is Titan blood and he's taking forever to get it... he says he'll let me out once he gets the Titan blood he needs but I'm bored..!" The collector whines.
"Which is why I'm so happy you found me! Let's work together!!! Let's make a new game!" The collector exclaims.
"What do you mean?" You say.
"You wanna be with your buddy boy don't you? But dumb old Boolos is getting in your way." The collector says.
You start sweating.
"Well.... I Can get rid of him! Super fast! In an instant!" The collector snaps his fingers.
"But there's a catch though isn't there?" You say
"Of course! We needa trade! I get rid of Belos, you give me what I want!" The collector says.
"And... what do you want?" You say.
"Uh... I don't know...! You're a human right??" The collector asks.
You nod.
"Hmmm... usually Titan blood helps unleash my real form.... But... human blood.." The collector smiles.
Your eyes widen.
The collector smiles mischievously and cackles to themself.