A HUNTER WITH licorice red hair helped Sophie fasten a sheath on her thigh. It held a slender dagger with a silver dragon hilt. It was the only weapon Sophie felt remotely comfortable handling. "Put your hand down," the hunter ordered. "We need to make sure that it's easy to reach."
Sophie absently did as she was told. Her thoughts remained elsewhere, focused on the future. Anxiety fluttered through her like poison. The idea of sneaking back into the castle worried her. Even though the hunters had done it before, there was always the chance that they could get caught, and it would be harder to escape the Headmaster a second time.
Then there was Eli.
Sophie wasn't sure what to expect. He had died, that much she was positive. He'd bled out and taken his last breath right in front of her. The Headmaster must have pulled some freaky experiment in order to revive Eli. She wasn't sure whether Eli even knew what had happened. Had he changed at all? Did he remember her? So many questions whirled around inside her head like a tornado.
"Pay attention," the red-headed hunter snapped, her expression annoyed. She tugged Sophie's new dagger from its sheath and held it up. "Remember, stab with the pointy end."
"I already knew that," Sophie grumbled and reached for the dagger. It was as light as a feather. She slid it back into its sheath and then watched Tadashi show Aubrey how to nock an arrow. Aubrey eyed the target at the other side of the room and took several practice shots. Once she hit the target a few times, Tadashi nodded in approval and glanced up.
"Ready?" he asked.
Sophie nodded. The redheaded hunter beside her grunted and shouldered a heavy looking sword. Tadashi led the small group through the campsite and hurried them along into the forest. The moonlight squeezed between a heavy canopy of leaves and branches, illuminating their path. Sophie jumped from branch to branch, leaves and the chilly night air caressing her skin.
Aubrey stayed close to Sophie, her fingers toying with the strap of her quiver. "What if he's a zombie?" she heard her whisper.
Sophie grimaced at the thought of a blueish skinned Eli, drooling and groaning about blood and brains. It took her a few moments to mull over an answer. "I don't think he would be good at training the new fledglings if he was a zombie. I've heard they aren't very limber."
Aubrey hesitated and then muttered, "That's true...but what if he doesn't remember us? Like what if he tries to attack us or something?"
To that, Sophie found she couldn't respond. Her mind spun with a whirlwind of possibilities. The very of Eli attacking her thought made her stomach tangle with massive knots. She wasn't sure whether she would be able to defend herself.
A small branch thwacked Sophie in the face, startling her back to reality. The redheaded hunter snickered, and Sophie scowled as she rubbed at her bright red face. Aubrey was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to really notice. Tadashi ignored them and slowed to a stop. Sophie stopped. She reached out and snagged Aubrey's arm, jerking her to attention. The quartet gathered on a single branch and clustered together.
"The castle isn't much farther away," Tadashi announced. He stared intently at Sophie and Aubrey. "Do either of you remember the route you took to escape?"
Both Sophie and Aubrey shared a look.
"Not exactly," Sophie answered with a grimace. "It was light out when we last ran through here, and not to mention that we were being chased by the Headmaster and his stupid cronies."
Tadashi sported a somewhat annoyed expression. "Alright. We will have to sneak in through the sewers like usual."
"That won't be necessary," Aubrey said, her nose curling with disgust. "I know for a fact that werewolves have a keen sense of smell." Her gaze zeroed in on Tadashi and narrowed. "Our escape route ended somewhere around a small river. All we need to do is find that, and then it shouldn't be hard at all to retrace our steps with your sense of smell. I'm sure it will be easy for you to track our scent."
"It's settled then," the redheaded girl spoke up, glancing uneasily in Tadashi's direction. "Let's move out. We'll have to remain silent from here, lest those blasted bloodsuckers hear us through the walls."
Aubrey scowled at her. "Excuse me, but I happen to be one of those bloodsuckers."
Tadashi grunted. He jumped from the branch, landing atop the crunchy mixture of grass and leaves below. The redhead followed with a heavy sigh. Sophie pursed her lips, taking in Aubrey's lethal expression. The girl looked ready to have a hernia.
"Breathe," Sophie coaxed, patting Aubrey's shoulder.
Aubrey grumbled incoherently under her breath. She seemed to get more and more agitated the closer their group got to the castle. Sophie jumped down, dust exploding around her feet, and waited for her friend. Aubrey jumped down and the quartet darted forward, zig-zagging through a maze of trees. The trees soon opened to allow a slender river to weave through. On the other side was a mixture of forest and massive rock. Tadashi's nose twitched. Without warning, he darted to the left, across the river, and through a small fissure in the side of the cliff.
Sophie's stomach twisted as a very familiar cave engulfed them. Tadashi hesitated and looked back, expression expectant. Aubrey looked around and pursed her lips.
Before anything could be said or done, Sophie started to run.
Her instincts took over and followed a small tugging in her heart. The connection was palpable; it burned and fluttered like butterflies all at the same time, deep inside her chest. The familiar rock wall crumbled away at her touch as she zipped further into the castle, almost immediately finding the Headmaster's laboratory.
A hand shot out and wrenched her to a stop. Sophie whirled, lips curled back into a snarl and her dagger raised. Tadashi stared at her calmly, completely unaffected by her feral expression. His grip tightened on her arm, nails digging into her skin, and then he looked around her. Sophie was pulled to the side of the door, where the others were clustered. Aubrey replaced Tadashi, holding onto Sophie's arm like a child.
Tadashi quietly opened the door. It cracked open, and Tadashi inhaled. Then he took a step inside, gesturing for them to follow. The door was shut softly behind them.
Sophie stared at the sight in front of her, hardly able to comprehend.
The room had been wiped clean. Heavyset stone covered the walls and floors, and the torture chamber had vanished. The various machines and wires had been narrowed down into one massive, cylindrical experiment pod. A small white light illuminated the body within the pod from below.
"E-" A hand clamped over her mouth, and the redheaded hunter glowered at her. The hunter pressed her index finger to her lips and scowled.
Sophie ignored her. She freed herself from the hunter and darted forward. The others immediately tensed behind her, prepared for a trap of some sort. Sophie slowed to a stop in front of the pod and placed a hand on the glass.
Eli hadn't changed a bit.
There was no bluish tint to his skin, no pearls of drool dripping down his chin. His hair had grown longer, shaggier, and curled around his ears. His mismatched eyes remained closed to the world, as if he were asleep.
"Wait, Sophie," a voice behind her hissed as quietly as they could. "This could be a trap."
Sophie didn't hear them. She needed to hear Eli talk, to hear him whine about having to wake up. She needed to see his lips stretch into that brilliantly warm smile when he saw her. She needed the glass to disappear from between them.
Her gaze scanned the pod. It took all she had not to just break the damn glass. Aubrey was immediately at her side, a ghost of her former self. The blond looked lost, and empty inside. Her hands immediately found a small hidden keyboard and typed a quick sentence. The pod cracked and creaked, coming to life before them. The jelly inside started to drain and when it reached Eli's middle, he started to stir. His face twitched, lips twisting into a grimace.
"Please don't attack us," Sophie pleaded as softly as she could, her hands pressed against the glass as she watched Eli blink awake.
The glass shifted beneath Sophie's palms. She took a small step backward as the curved glass opened and vanished beneath the base of the pod. A grunt sounded. It was like music to Sophie's ears. She surged forward and threw her arms around his neck, her chest heaving around a sob. Eli's familiar scent washed over her senses, calming her. His heart pounded.
Eli made another grunting noise. Sophie hesitated and pulled back, her expression worried. "Eli?" she whispered.
He stared at her, unseeing, kind of like a vegetable with eyes. Aubrey reached out and wrenched Sophie backward, away from the pod. Her eyes were large and terrified. "Sophie, something isn't right," she hissed into Sophie's ear. "This was too easy!"
"But that's Eli," Sophie insisted. She could smell him, and had heard his heartbeat. "I know it is."
"We've got company," Tadashi's voice echoed throughout the room. His fingers were curled around his guns, weapons aimed at the door. The redheaded hunter had already unsheathed his sword.
"We've got to get Eli out of here," Sophie said. She grabbed his hand, heart soaring when his fingers curled absently around hers. He tumbled out of the pod and slumped over, like a sack of potatoes. "He might wake up by the time we get back to the camp."
Aubrey hesitated. She glanced over her shoulder, at the barren corner which used to harbor the torture chamber. Pain swam within her eyes as she looked back at Sophie. "But Wolfe..."
"We don't have time for side missions," Tadashi snapped. He seemed colder than usual, and quite tense. His knuckles had turned bright white as he gripped his guns tight. "Sophie, Aubrey, get him back to the camp. You should have some sense of which direction it's in after our trek here. If not," he paused and glanced back at his shoulder at Aubrey, eyes narrowed, "You should be able to track you own scent."
Aubrey glared. The sounds of footsteps thundered overhead –thousands, as an entire army rushed to meet them. Eli made a confused noise and looked around, eyes half-lidded. "Training time?" he grumbled.
Sophie kicked into gear, racing out of the room with Eli in tow. Aubrey followed behind, her jaw clenched tight. Both of the hunters brought up the rear. Sophie pushed them faster, almost destroying the rock wall before it could move out of her way. The cave seemed to shrink the third time around and, as they splashed across the river, a voice sounded from behind them.
"This way! I can smell them!"
The sun started to poke over the horizon as the forest reached out to swallow them. Tadashi reached a hand into his pockets and whipped out several small vials of inky liquid. He tossed two toward Sophie and snarled, "Pour these on. It will hide your scent."
Sophie tucked Eli's hand beneath her arm so he didn't get lost. She used her freed hands to pick the cork out of the vial and throw the liquid out in front of them. Both she and Eli ran right into it. A foul stench exploded around them, and she gagged. Even Eli seemed to smell it, as he coughed and grumbled incoherently. Tadashi took the lead, darting this way and that through the trees. He led them back to the camp. Several campers poured from the cabins to greet them and help them inside. Sophie remained attached to Eli, her hand clasped around his. Two hunters with ringed eyes also latched onto Eli. Their white and red uniforms reminded Sophie of a pair of cartoon nurses.
Sophie and Eli were brought into a tiny cabin just beside the dining hall. Inside were several cots with tanned curtains in between them and a wooden desk was situated in the corner, decorated with picture frames. The walls were filled with nature paintings and several medical items. A nurse pried Eli away from Sophie long enough to lay him down on a cot.
"We need to check his vitals," another nurse told her. "We need you to wait outside."
"No," Sophie growled, glaring heavily at the woman. She wasn't about to leave him, not after she'd just gotten him back.
The nurses glared at her. Both worked quickly over Eli, pricking the skin of his arm with skin with a needle. Sophie focused on his face as they checked everything, searching for any sign of consciousness. Despite the pokes and prods, he still seemed so out of it.
A small part of her coiled tight with worry. She couldn't help but wonder whether Eli would ever truly wake up.
It took a solid hour before the nurses seemed to leave him alone. Sophie snagged the chair from behind the desk and situated it just beside Eli's cot. A heavy sense of exhaustion flooded through her, sunlight pouring through the cracks between the door and its frame behind her. She propped her elbow against the cot and rested her chin within her palm.
Her gaze remained locked onto his face, drowning in all of the minute details. When she was human, Eli looked unnaturally perfect, with flawless skin and round eyes. Now he just looked perfect. The bridge of his nose was slightly turned, as if it had been broken ages ago, and his lower lip was slightly fuller compared to the top. His eyelids fluttered as he dreamed and, after another few moments of not being bothered, he began to snore.
A smile crossed her features. She reached out and caressed his cheek.
Eli's eyes snapped open. Sophie jolted backward in her sleep, eyes larger than her head. Shock twisted through his features, mismatched orbs locking with Sophie's. A few seconds passed with tense silence as awareness seeped into Eli's gaze. Then he blinked, squinted, and leaned closer toward her.
"Sophie?"
"Eli?"
His expression brightened like the night sky on the Fourth of July. He bolted forward, almost tumbling out of the cot, and threw his arms around her. As his arms tightened around her, Sophie let out a strangled wet sound. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged him tight. His face nuzzled her shoulder and she heard him sigh, whispering, "You're okay!"
Sophie nodded. She wanted to say something, but her throat had closed. He squeezed her for a moment and then pulled away, his hands grasping her biceps. He scanned her over and then closed his eyes shut tight. The relief that filled his expression made her hands reach out and cup his cheeks.
"What is it?" she croaked.
His lips spread into that brilliant grin. "I'm just so happy that you're okay," he explained. "That old bastard wouldn't tell me where he had you hidden away. I tried to find you, but it was almost impossible. Like he wiped your existence from the castle and kept me locked up in that damn pod when I wasn't being forced to train those poor kids."
He leaned back away from her and tilted his head back, hand clamped around the back of his neck. "I hate those things. I want to maim the kid who designed them. They aren't comfortable at all."
"I know," Sophie grumbled at the memory that flashed across her mind, and then cracked a small smile.
Eli stared at her with solemn eyes. Those eyes raked over her face again, memorizing every detail. Then he inhaled deeply and frowned at her. "He changed you, didn't he?"
Sophie nodded.
"Were you given a choice?"
Her gaze fell to their hands, which were entangled in the space between them. His thumb rubbed hers almost absently. His grip tightened on hers and his head ducked down. "That shouldn't surprise me. He'd planned to change you all along, no matter how much I tried to stop him. I just...I expected to be there at least, especially when you woke up. I didn't want you to be alone."
Sophie reached out and pulled him into another hug. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek against the top of her head. His hand rubbed comforting circles into her back. She closed her eyes, her face buried into the crook of his neck. The tears dried and her anxiety washed away.
And for the first time since Sophie had met Eli, she didn't feel conflicted about her feelings. Instead, she felt right at home.
fun fact: to date, this is the longest chapter written for Obscure. It is exactly 2830 words (excluding this author's note).