There weren't many people on the street as Aria made her way to the bar. There was a cap over her brown wig, casting a shadow over hazel contacts. Both were a precaution Eli had insisted on. She said that Aria would be safe, that she'd be keeping watch from distance.
The reek of sweat assaulted her when she stepped inside. Gaze coming across an empty spot at the bar and she made a beeline for it, trying not to think about how there were far more people inside than expected. All the tables were packed, the building alive with chatter.
The blonde woman behind the bar smiled, eyes crinkling at the edges. "What can I get you?"
"Water."
"Anything else?"
"No, thank you."
Eli made a point of telling her not to approach anyone, so Aria sat and sipped. Most of the people seemed to be familiar with each other. Not many were alone like her. Three by her count. A woman a few years older, a long-limbed teenaged boy who was upset the bartender wasn't giving him alcohol, and a young man with tired eyes that would glance her way once in a while.
Aria pretended not to notice the stare that was burning holes through the back of her head whenever she was facing the bar. The chatter around her was growing louder and people brushed against her now and then. It was starting to take a toll, making her heart pound a little too fast. At least in the cafe she was able to duck into the kitchen for a few moments at a time if things got overwhelming. Right now, she was stuck.
Aria lowered her head into her arms.
An arm wrapped around her waist. "Ah, what have I told you about drinking so much?"
Aria swallowed, let him pull her up and tighten his grasp as he led her to the door. The drunken ruse carried on outside with clumsy steps and slurred complaints about the cold. His grip was bruising as she was pulled further down the street.
The area was empty and cast in darkness, courtesy of the broken streetlights. Eli would show herself soon, she said she'd strike when they were alone. The man dragged her along like a leashed pet, not allowing her to stop when her cap fell off.
"What's your name?"
No answer.
"Tell me your name, " she said, firmer this time.
The man stopped walking and for a moment, Aria thought she'd regained control of her voice. But he just clenched his jaw like she was a pesky child and continued on his way, rougher than before. It made her blood bubble beneath her skin.
There was a van tucked away into an alley. The closer they got to the doors, the colder her limbs went. By the time the back doors were pulled open, Aria was as tense as a taut bowstring. The man shoved her forward without a warning.
A woman sat inside with a gun in one hand and a bound, bleeding child at her side. He was laying on his stomach, cheek pressed against the floor. The boy couldn't have been older than eight, eyes big and watery as he peered up at Aria.
Something in Aria snapped.
The woman grabbed Aria's hair to drag her in all the way, but yanked her wig off instead. "What the-"
Her partner, who had moved closer to the edge where Aria's legs hung out to push them in, was met with a swift kick to the belly. He fell back onto the pavement.
Nails dug into Aria's scalp, tugging her head back to the sight of the woman snarling "Hold still."
"Let go of me!"
The nails stopped digging when Aria punched her in the throat. The blow stunned her long enough for Aria to grab her gun, sit up, and take aim at the man who was back on his feet.
A gunshot sliced through the air.
The boy shrieked.
A fresh surge of adrenaline pumped through Aria's veins as the man hit the pavement with an unceremonious thud and this time, he stayed put.
Aria turned her aim to the woman, but the Hunter hurtled into her with all her weight, pinning Aria on her back. The Hunter was stronger, surely powerful enough to pull the weapon away from Aria, so Aria flung it out the doors before it could be turned against her.
The child thrashed about in a panic, screaming even louder when his flailing feet slammed into Aria's head.
A second gunshot sounded over the boy's shrieks and the Hunter cried out. Something stuck out her chest - a sudden burst of blood. Before Aria could strike, the woman fell forward, head smacking down next to her own.
Aria shoved the unresponsive Hunter off herself with unexpected ease. The red she'd mistaken for blood at first glance was the plume of a tranquilizer dart.
The child went silent when Aria turned to check on him. There was a gash across his forehead and blood caked on his skin, but he was otherwise unharmed.
Eli was a couple of feet away, walking in their direction with a weapon in her hand.
The rage that had kept Aria going was already seeping out. She slumped with her back against the metal walls while her limbs turned into anchors, weighing her down. Exhaustion might have been creeping in, but something in her was still very much awake, keeping her eyes open and her blood singing as she stared at the body she was responsible for.
The sight of a bullet in the man's head didn't make her feel much other than some twisted sense of victory.
Hunters were anything but good. There was a child right there that could attest to that. Surely the Hunter had deserved his end, if not a worse one.
The boy followed her gaze and paled significantly. Aria felt something akin to nausea start up in the pit of her stomach. Maybe it was still an awful thing not to feel guilty. She didn't know anymore. She just knew that when she pulled the trigger and a rush went through her veins like poison and she liked it.
Eli stopped when she saw the corpse. "You weren't supposed to kill them."
"Mm." Aria held out a hand. "Knife?"
Eli pulled one out of her belt and pressed the handle into Aria's grasp with a strange look.
The boy gawked at the blade, nervous.
Aria took his bound wrists into her hands. "I'm Sana. I'm just going to get the zip ties off you, okay?"
The boy's eyes shifted from the knife to her. When she smiled, his nervousness seemed to ease. He didn't offer up his own name, but he gave her a small nod. Only then did Aria slice the restraints off. She rubbed his wrists, trying to be gentle with the purple bruises left behind.
"We need to go, Sana."
Aria ignored Eli and instead asked, "You have someone looking out for you? Somebody you can go back to?"
"My brother. We live close."
Aria relaxed. "Tell your brother to make sure you keep that wound clean. Can you feel your hands fine?"
The boy nodded again, pressing his palms together when she let go. He hopped out, practically running out the way Aria had been brought before she could stop him, only looking over his shoulder to shout, "Thank you!"
Eli climbed in, grabbed the unconscious Hunter by her ankles, and pulled her toward the open doors. "This one comes with us."
Instead of driving off to wherever the Elites did this sort of thing as Aria expected, they found themselves in a small shack in the middle of nowhere, far away from the city and even further from the cabin.
The car stopped and Eli got out, shutting the door behind her with a thud. In the rearview mirror, she could be seen popping the trunk open.
Aria didn't recognize where they were. They were parked out behind an ugly, downtrodden shack near a field, or the sad remnants of one. The structure was unstable, the roof one storm away from caving in. It looked like a place suited for what was about to happen. Just because it hadn't been said out loud didn't mean Aria was clueless.
It took a minute to get herself out of the car.
Eli already had the Hunter seated inside, cuffed to a chair.
This old factory, Eli had told her on the way, was perfect.
Whatever the place had originally been built to manufacture, Aria couldn't tell. The old machines the place once contained had long since been cleared out. Trash was strewn across the floors, walls covered in mold. All that was left were a couple of rusty hooks hanging from even rustier chains. Upon closer inspection, she realized there was blood on them.
The Hunter was bound to one of the chairs while she was still out cold and was woken up with a slap hard enough to make Aria cringe. She didn't ask where she was or who they were, but the second her eyes found Aria, she promised, "I'm going to gut you like a fish."
Aria laughed before she could stop herself and the woman reacted like she was struck - thrashing about until the chair tipped onto the ground.
Eli turned to fix Aria with an annoyed look as if this was her fault before fixing the chair upright and firing off questions about other Hunter. They were all met with insults directed mostly at Aria. Maybe it would've been better for her to wait in the car, but she didn't want to come off as afraid.
Aria didn't expect this all to be quite so bloodless. So humane. She kept quiet for quite some time before the endless barrage of violent threats flipped a switch. Something about strangling her with her bare hands when she was free.
"I envy you," Aria broke in. "You've got it good. You have a chair. You're comfortable."
If her sudden involvement surprised Eli, she didn't let on. She just stepped off to the side with her arms crossed.
"Comfortable?" the Hunter all but snarled.
"You know how I lived in those facilities you sell some of us off to? When I wasn't being forced to do something, I was chained to the wall like an animal."
The Hunter wasn't fazed. One corner of her mouth lifted and the sight was enough to make Aria's blood roar in her ears. Aria didn't trust herself to speak right away in her anger, and though her composure was intact, there was fire in her veins.
"Can you breathe? I hardly could with the way they chained me by the neck. It was like being strangled for hours. I couldn't breathe or speak or move."
The Hunter's smirk wasn't subtle anymore.
"Can you breathe?"
She didn't answer.
"I asked you if you could breathe."
The Hunter spat. It didn't hit her.
"I guess you can," Aria mused. "But I want you to stop."
Aria didn't know if it would work, but the air buzzed around her when the words left her lips. It always made her head feel pleasant. Light. For a split second, it was like the fire was gone.
The woman blinked, eyes glazed, and her chest stopped moving. There was a while before horror broke the dazed look on her bluing face.
Aria didn't have to tell her to breathe again. She could watch the life drain out of her and with the things she'd done, she'd deserve it. But suddenly there was metal around her own throat, choking her, digging into her skin.
"Breathe."
The woman gasped desperately.
Aria tried to ignore the ghost wrapped around her neck and focus on the weightlessness that came when she said, "Now, you're going to answer her questions."
Eli was as expressionless as ever when she stepped forward again, firing off one question after another. And the Hunter, even when she pressed her lips together or ground her teeth, answered them without a fight.
Aria didn't interfere again. Even let her mind drift, tried to make sense of why she was the one helping instead of the Elites. Why they were here instead of somewhere more official. Maybe if her thoughts hadn't been elsewhere, she would have been able to stop the Hunter from knocking Eli to the ground when she suddenly broke free, leaving a small blade behind on the ground.
Aria stood as the woman ran toward her, her demand of "Stop!" doing nothing to halt the Hunter from sending her flying to the wall behind her, fingers tight around her throat. Aria reached her fingers out desperately, grabbed onto one of the hooks she could reach, and with all the strength she could muster, drove it through the woman's neck.
Air found its way back into Aria's lungs as the woman's grasp went slack. The Hunter floundered like a caught fish, staggering, still skewered by the hook.
Eli was up on her feet again, gun in her hand. It went off and the woman went still, struggles ceased. She stepped around the hanging body and tucked the gun away with a frown. "Aria?"
"I'm fine." Aria grinned the best she could before realizing that perhaps doing so with blood spattered across her face gave the opposite message. Too late though, so she kept it up uncomfortably long and hoped it didn't seem odd. Hopefully, it hid the fact that she wanted to be sick on the spot.
"I see."
"Didn't you search her?"
"Not well enough."
"Will you - will you be in trouble?" Aria asked, feeling quite dimwitted as soon as the words left her mouth.
Eli scoffed. "Go wait in the car."
Aria stepped out and gracelessly emptied the contents of her stomach. She had no memory of getting in the car. Just throwing up one second and then Eli telling her to get inside the house to shower the next. She stood under the spray of hot water long after the blood and grime were off of her, only emerging when the steam made her dizzy.
The others weren't there, but Eli was already changed and in the kitchen, pouring a glass of something cold and pink for both of them. She held out one glass toward Aria like an offering and then took hers out onto the porch. Unsure of what else to do, Aria went after her, unwilling to be alone.
Aria took a cautious sip from her glass. Lemonade. "Eli?"
She didn't answer, but she did look in Aria's direction.
"How come you're dealing with the Hunters without the Elites?"
Eli studied her for a long moment. "They told me to leave it."
"They don't care?"
"There's already too much for us to deal with. Adding this would be foolish."
"Why? Is it less important?"
"Do you want an honest answer?"
"I don't care for lies."
"Then yeah. It's not as important. Sacrifices are necessary."
Aria had the sudden desire to scream into the dark until her voice was gone. She laughed instead. "Then why are you taking them on yourself? If you think it's okay for them to ignore it, why aren't you?"
Eli let out a huff of breath and actually smiled. It was a small, rueful thing, but it was still a smile.
Aria didn't know whether to tease her or be angry.
"I knew you were a bad idea."
"So kick me out."
Eli averted her eyes, choosing to stare straight ahead instead. "Please, I'd never hear the end of it."
"Be careful, Eli," Aria said while she sipped her drink. "Or I might start to think you actually like me."
Eli choked, slamming her glass down as tried for breath.
The reaction gave Aria pause. The thought of being her friend was awful enough to send someone into a fit. Aria didn't speak after that, electing to stay quiet and feign indifference.
Eli cleared her throat, picked up her glass, and took one last sip, before saying, "Can't have that."
Aria grinned. "Did you just make a joke?"
Eli ignored her.
"I didn't think you knew what those were! Eli! Amazing!"
No response.
"I can't wait to tell the others!"
That earned her a glare she was sure terrified lesser beings. Maybe she should've pretended to be daunted, but it only made her smile so big her cheeks hurt.