The Night Walkers

by Elaine McGregor-Dawson

  "I promise."

  * * * * *

  PRESENT TIME

  Levi couldn't remember the exact time it was. All he knew was that he'd been kept awake for hours after going over a series of different reports written from the last two decades. He'd found them with the other archives, but he'd hoped he'd found the right ones this time.

  He was sitting on the floor of his room with a flash-light, his eyes scanning the word's, the picture's and the places all the articles were taken place at in the hopes they were linked to a similar sequence. He was no genius at figuring out mysteries. Yet all these articles were murder's that happened in New York. It wasn't the fact that all the victims were teenager's, it was the way they were killed.

  Each of their mouths and eyes had been sewn shut and their hearts were ripped out of their chests. That was the thing that made him most interested in these cases. It was the fact that all their hearts were missing. It was as if someone, or maybe more than one person, had taken them.

  But for what reason?

  * * *

  For so long Kit had pushed the memory of Peter and Syria's conversation that it had sort of detached itself from her mind. She'd read something a few months ago that when you hear something that's believe to be the truth that you don't want to be true, you start to push it away, further and further until it becomes something that's so lost and far away that you start to pretend it was a dream or even a nightmare. How could she have forgotten this memory that was so real and true.

  It had scared her though, she'd woken up late, nearly screaming. She'd opened a darkened part of her mind, she'd forgotten how many things there had been in previous years. But she had been ten when she heard those words and she was far too young to understand the depth and horror that the word murderer meant.

  She shivered in the cold air, tears burning the corner of her eyes. She was also sad because she thought about Peter. For so many years he guided her and when she was ten he had taken her out of the Institute where they raise young Night Walkers and he'd given her private lessons for a year before she went back.

  Kit remembered how he'd been; tall, strong and brave, he carried his sword as though it were made of air as he taught her all she could know about the Paranormal world and the human world. He had told her that the job of a Night Walker was to protect the city from all the bad things inside it.

  She remembered so much about him from his dark hair to the large scar that went from the top right side of his forehead down to his left cheek.

  He had been like a Father to her, since she didn't have one, and the fact that he was gone brought tears to her eyes. When she'd started at The Academy he had accepted that his duty to protect her was finished, he'd said goodbye and she hadn't seen him since.

  She didn't like to talk about him or think about him, it just made her too sad.

  She spent most of the night restless with one big question: was her Father really a murderer? And did she somehow have some sort of monstrous trait buried deep inside her?

  She whispered in the hollow darkness over and over, "I am not a murderer."

  *

  "Are you okay? Kit, snap out of it!"

  Kit opened her eyes as her vision focused on a worried looking Debra before realizing that she was seated in the cafeteria, heaps of people were walking around, completely oblivious to her weird actions. She straightened up, embarrassed that she'd probably fallen asleep or blacked out.

  "Oh, shit." Kit tucked her messy hair behind her ear while she hoped to God that Debra didn't notice how tired she looked. She really hadn't slept at all today and by the concern written on her best friend's face, she could tell too.

  "What the hell just happened to you?" Debra questioned, blue eyes studying her expression.

  Kit shook her head, "I couldn't sleep last night, sorry, that's so embarrassing."

  "Yeah obviously, but that's not completely what I'm talking about."

  Kit's heart suddenly felt as though it were doing the tango in her chest, but she dismissed any bad thoughts. If Debra was a mind reader, Kit would know by now. There was no way she knew about Kit's weird memory.

  "You blacked out and kept saying, 'why are you freezing the roses? you'll kill them!'." By the look on Debra's face she was at war with herself on whether to laugh at how weird it was, or whether she should run away.

  But why was she saying something so strange? Maybe it was just some weird dream she was having. "Oh, um... just one of my weird dreams I guess." She laughed it off and quickly changed the subject. "Have you seen Levi today? I haven't."

  Debra rolled her eyes and she was thankful that her best friend knew she wanted her to let it go. "You are absolutely smitten, aren't you? I know how much you like him and oh my gosh I cannot believe you aren't going out yet. Wait are you two together? Have you kissed?" and suddenly she was back to be her normal everyday-Debra who knew about all the gossip in the school.

  "Shut up," Kit blushed and stared at her hands. "I mean, he's nice and beautiful and he cares about me, so yeah I think I do, maybe. But nothing's happened between us and since you know all the gossip I'd take it you've heard about my little incident with Natalie."

  Sally's face suddenly lit up with amusement. "YES!" She started to laugh, "when I heard about that it made me so happy I thought I was going to turn into a party popper and explode with confetti." Debra was laughing so much. "I love you so much for doing that."

  Kit wanted to feel good about punching Natalie, she'd deserved it, but she felt bad because she remembered how much she'd wanted to hurt her. It was like this burning hatred that stretched further beyond anything she'd felt before.

  She knew something weird had happened to her.

  But she laughed it off, "yeah, well she deserved it." Kit decided that she needed to get away from all this, so she stood up, needing to find Levi but not knowing how to tell him that her Father was a murderer and a monster, and she might be to. "I have to go. I'll see you later."

  Debra's smiled faded a bit as though she sensed something was wrong. "Yeah, okay."

  Before Kit knew it, she was pushing past people and making her way through the crowd of people, looking for a boy with dark hair and beautiful blue eyes. She knew exactly where he would be.

  She found him in the library at the table right at the back. His face wore a mask of concentration as flipped through all these pages he had. This little spot had become the place they meet to figure out the truth to everything. He was pretty much the only person who knew about the Hybrids who would understand. She watched in adoration as his long dark eyelashes went bat, bat, bat as he blinked.

  She quickly snapped out of it and took a seat opposite.

  "I thought I'd find you here." She whispered.

  He looked up immediately and she could tell that he'd been spending a long time on whatever it was he was doing. He had all these notes written out, little quotations he'd taken from the many articles placed on the table. Pages lay strewn everywhere in what she made out to be a chronological scale.

  "Kit," he smiled before it disappeared, his expression replaced with worry. "Are you okay?"

  She hid a smile, loving, and hating, how he could always read her like an open book. "Uh, yeah..." she trailed off and sighed. She couldn't do this, she couldn't tell him about her memory. It was ridiculous, and she couldn’t tell him here in the public library. "What's all this?"

  "Stop changing the subject, I know when something's wrong."

  She gave in, maybe here Father had something to do with this whole mystery. "I can't talk about it here. I have something important to tell you."

  As if sensing her importance, he quickly collected his papers and threw them into his laptop bag. He walked over to her and pulled her to her feet. "Then I'll take you somewhere quieter." He said before grabbing her by the hand and pulling her through the crowd of people.

  "Where are we going?" she questioned but allowed him to drag her close behind him.

  He released his hand
from here’s and she noticed how the warmth she'd felt from his touch began to fade into coldness from the room they were standing in. She realized that he'd taken her right to the edge of the school near the Infirmary. She gave him a confused look.

  "Do you trust me?" he asked. How could she say no? Not when he was batting his long eyelashes at her.

  "Yes."

  "Good."

  Levi walked up the stone stairs and she followed close behind him as she still didn't understand where he was going. He stopped in front of one of the windows at the top and opened it fully. Her eyes widened because she suddenly understood.

  And then he just climbed through it and started up the ledges of the stone exterior of the Academy walls. She followed, stepping up towards the top, making sure to place her hands and feet everywhere he did, she even heard him laugh as he pulled himself up over the top of the roof and helping her up after.

  "Well," she laughed, "you really are full of mysteries." She shook her head and gazed over the city and watched the lights illuminate the dark sky around it. From up here everything looked so much smaller, even though the moon was full and cast this glowing look through the clear sky.

  He sat down on the stone roof and she joined him a moment later. They were like that for a minute and all the while Kit went over what she was going to say. How could she even know that he won't jump off the roof to get away from where after hearing what she has to say.

  Before she could say anything though, he started talking and broke the silence. "What did you want to tell me?" He looked worried as though he could sense how agitated she'd been.

  She looked away, feeling his shoulder gently brush hers. It sent shivers through her and she closed her eyes before he realized how badly she wanted to throw her arms around him. "I-ah..." she trailed off and sighed, "I don't know if I can tell you."

  "What do you mean?"

  She finally gave in and turned her head to look him in his eyes. She knew that every student in her rank had the same eye-colour, but Levi had this icy look to his. It was a reminder that he was different, he was more awake and in-tune to everything and everyone in this way she adored. "It's a lot to take in and I'm scared."

  He looked at her then, really looked at her with his eyes intently scanning her feature's. She wanted to run her hands through his dark hair and kiss him so badly in that moment. He held her hands in his and tucked her hair behind her ear. "You don't have to be scared, I'm here, I'll always protect you."

  "That's what I'm afraid of." She whispered into the silence. "I'm afraid I'll lose you because you're the only one who makes me feel fearless. You make the world lighter even when everything is at its darkest, it's like you carry sunshine in your soul." The moment the word's left her mouth she was worried to even look him in the eye. Why did she say that? Oh god...

  "Kit," he whispered, his grip on her hand tightening, "you'll never lose me. I care about you, don't you get it, I'd pull the moon through a window for you. I'd catch sunshine in a jar and give it you if I could. Kit, you've given me a meaning. I'm no longer a trained killer, I'm free when I'm with you."

  Tears burned in the corners of her eyes.

  I'd pull the moon through the window for you...

  His words made her feel like she could jump off the building and fly through the stars. He'd saved her from this repetitive life. "Levi I-"

  And suddenly he had pressed his lips over here’s. It felt like the time in the world had stopped and all that was left was him and her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, just wanting more of him as she crushed her lips against his. Kit loved the way he felt, like sunlight was seeping through his t-shirt and onto her. She'd never felt like this before.

  She was alive.

  When he pulled back it was like reality started firing at her from the clouds. In the distance sirens were wailing from the city, the moon was still in the sky, the birds were nowhere to be seen. It was like she disappeared for a while.

  "Now," Levi started, still smiling like an idiot, "what were you going to tell me?"

  She laughed, realizing her cheeks were probably crimson so she was thankful to the darkness for hiding them. "Well... don't freak out."

  "Yeah I promise."

  She took a moment to gather her words and rested her head on his chest, so she could hear his heartbeat. It was beating as fast as here’s and she closed her eyes and started to explain everything. She told him about the memory that resurfaced when she was younger and how she'd forgotten all about it. She mentioned how Syria and Peter had spoken about her Father as though he were a killer. All the words were pouring out like rain from the sky and she couldn't stop. She even told him that they said she was powerful.

  "What do you think it all means?" she asked, looking up to meet his stunned gaze. She could tell he was processing her words with confusion and she hoped he wouldn't freak out.

  "I don't know Kit, that's, well, interesting." He chose his words carefully, "first thing's first, Syria needs some serious questioning. Why haven't you mentioned all this before?"

  She shrugged, "I guess I pushed it away maybe, it's weird though I could feel this barrier breaking down inside my mind, like a wall had been broken. Maybe there's more things I don't remember. I don't know if I want to remember them."

  He kissed the top of her head. "We're going get to the bottom of all this, whatever it means. Maybe you could be linked to it all. I found out something too, that's why I was looking at all the articles, I found some interesting stuff."

  Kit sat upright. "What did you find?"

  "There were these cases going a few years back - well, over the course of 20 years actually - students from this school vanished around the same time every year. The Academy didn't know how anyone could have done that. This brought me to the question that maybe the person responsible was a student, maybe they took them for some purpose. Then people started to find them, all the victims were murdered, they had their hearts ripped out and missing and their eyes and mouth were sewn together."

  Kit stared in wonder at Levi's words. "I think we have a lot of questions to ask."

  * * *

  "Kit, Levi, can I help you?"

  Syria stood on the opposite side of the room from Kit and Levi and watched with intent and curiosity. Kit was conscious of the thought that she was about to receive, or hopefully, a lot of answer's she'd been seeking for so long. By the look on Syria's ageless face, she knew what it was about. She swept her blond hair over her shoulder and took a seat at her desk.

  "Would you take a seat please?" She gestured to the seats in front of her desk. Kit stood there a moment, Levi standing close behind her and thought about what she would say. Syria was high up as a Night Walker and one of the top commander's in the world. She often went out of New York to have top meeting's so Kit didn’t want to be on her bad side.

  "Um, thanks." Kit took a seat opposite her and looked into her bright purple eyes with wonder. "I need to ask you something important."

  Syria nodded her head in understanding. "Go on."

  Kit took a deep breath before continuing. "It's about my Father."

  She watched as Syria's face turned dark, that's when Kit knew exactly how bad this topic was. "Listen to me, Miss Stone, there are questions that should remain unanswered, thing's that will-"

  "Please, I need to know."

  She looked at Kit with understanding. "I was afraid this would happen, we all were. You finally remember, don't you? You remember Peter and my conversation about your Father a few years ago."

  Kit nodded.

  "When we were talking about him, we heard you scream. Peter went upstairs to find you, but you couldn't face the truth. He'd tried to convince you it wasn't true, you were sleeping the last time he checked on you. We erased your memory from a powerful Oracle who told us it would only last until you were strong enough to remember it."

  Kit leaned back in her chair, disbelief crossing her mind, she pushed the sudden rise of anger that was building up ins
ide her away. How could someone has done this to her, it wasn't fair to take back a memory, it could have made her forget another thing's to. Kit buried her face in her hands as Levi's arm went around her shoulder's in a comforting manner.

  "It's okay," he whispered and held her hand in his.

  She nodded and looked up. "

  "I understand you're facing a lot of thing's on your mind. This wasn't an easy decision, but we did it for your protection. Maybe it was wrong, maybe it was right. I've been waiting for a while until you remembered. I promise to answer any questions you want to ask, but you must promise not to tell another soul. I'm going to tell you because you deserve to know and you're old enough." She looked between Kit and Levi, obviously noticing how he wasn't going anywhere and if he did, Kit would just tell him everything anyway.

  "Okay, I promise. But it all came racing back to me last night. You said that Peter had been protecting me, but from what?"

  "He was protecting you from your Father, Claudius."

  Kit's entire body seemed to freeze by Syria's words. She could practically feel her heart fall from her chest as the word's crash landed its way onto Kit. She stepped backwards, shaking. "That's not possible... it can't be." She wanted to scream, to throw all the books off the cases on the shelves on the floor. She couldn't let this be real.

  "I'm sorry, Kit. You see, your Father went to this school and he was one of our top students and this was going back nearly thirty years ago. But one day it was never enough, and he killed a person on one of his missions. I think the darkness had taken him just a bit. It gave him the taste for blood. When students from the school started disappearing every year we assumed something from the outside was getting in, except that was nearly impossible, they'd have to remove the wards and that would mean getting past security. When the bodies were investigated by police it became a public matter to the outside world."