The Hunted

by Destiny Hawkins

  I scratched the back of my head. “I thought we already established that?”

  “I know. I just…it looks more like a symbol than a map. That’s all I’m saying. I mean, we don’t even know how to follow it.”

  “Yeah we do. We just follow in between the lines all the way to where it ends. The door should be waiting there for us,” I said.

  “And where do we start exactly? We don’t even know where the map begins. It’s not like it says Orphanage by the starting line.”

  I rolled my eyes and dropped onto my back again. Triana made sense, and I really wished that she didn’t. Why did she always have to be so logical? All I wanted was to follow the map back to our coven door and call it a day. That was all. “We’ll discuss this with Felix when he comes back. For now, I’m going to take a nap.”

  ~The Hunted~

  Sundown. It finally came, not that it would have much of a meaning if we didn’t figure out what the swirls on Felix’s piece of paper meant. The three of us stood in the middle of mine and Triana’s bedroom observing the badly drawn designs that we hoped was a map. Ms. Jones said that she couldn’t come and speak with us until she had some free time, because she was fully occupied with watching and celebrating All Hallows Eve with the children, but once she was free, she’d come and give our drawing a look.

  We’d probably still be in here observing it by the time that she came up here anyways.

  “I think it’s a map,” I stated with my hands on my hips. “I mean, that’s what we were looking for, and then we found it.”

  Felix stared at it a little while longer with a frown planted on his face.

  “You just want it to be a map.” Triana sighed.

  “Or maybe it just is,” I replied.

  Felix sighed. “I honestly don’t know what it is anymore. I was thinking the same as Triana after we finished it.”

  I sighed, lowering my shoulders. “You two just have to be difficult, don’t you?”

  Triana grinned. “Only a little.”

  Felix started scratching the back of his head, creating sparks of electricity between his fingers and his hair. When he noticed me watching, he grinned. “Sorry, that tends to happen when I’m frustrated. That’s why I try to always be in a good mood around everyone else.”

  “Yeah. I’m betting they would question that. It’s not very normal.” I chuckled.

  “We’re not normal.” Triana laughed.

  Just as I was beginning to start laughing, our bedroom door opened and Ms. Jones stepped inside with wide eyes before gently closing it back and resting against it.

  Felix lowered his hands and offered her a smile. “Kids driving you nuts, Ms. Jones?”

  Ms. Jones was heaving with shaking hands planted against the door. Felix was about to say something else when she abruptly walked to the window.

  “Alaina…” Felix asked as he slowly approached her. “What is it?”

  Ms. Jones balled her fists at her sides, halting Felix before reaching her. “Have you guys figured out what that marking means?”

  Felix brought up his hand to look down at the drawing again. “Well, we think that it may be some sort of symbol instead of a map.”

  Ms. Jones lowered her head. “Whatever it is…I hope that it gets you home.”

  Felix frowned. “Ms. Jones, what’s wrong?”

  Ms. Jones took a deep breath as she continued to stare at something outside of the window.

  Out of curiosity, I was the one who went to look over her shoulder, and what I saw made my skin crawl. Walking across the field, headed towards the mansion, were Hunters. There were only four or five of them, but that was more than enough for us.

  I was lost for words, my lips parting. “But…how?”

  Ms. Jones pushed her hair back. “I think…I think that she led them here.”

  Felix walked over to peer over Ms. Jones’ other shoulder. “Led who? Who are you talking about?” Once his eyes set on the Hunters walking in our direction, his mouth dropped. “This is bad.”

  “I had a feeling that another one of us was here,” Ms. Jones whispered. “How could I not sense her? I should have been able to.”

  Each Hunter abruptly came to a stop, then slowly lifted their heads to look up at us through the window. The shorter one in the middle pushed her hood back, revealing her identity to us.

  Beatrice. Of course.

  “I don’t understand,” Felix panted. “Why would you be able to sense her?”

  Ms. Jones closed her eyes before a black strip appeared down the center of her face. “Because, all Hunters can sense one another.”

  Chapter Ten: The Hunters

  I quickly backed away from Ms. Jones and grabbed my sister, while Felix stood there staring at her with glistening eyes.

  “I trusted you,” Felix cracked.

  Ms. Jones sighed before raising her hand and forming a black pistol in it out of black smoke. “You still can.”

  “You’re a Hunter?” Triana blurted.

  “I was born to them, but I was never an actual Hunter.” She backed away from the window with her gun pointed at it. “You three need to leave. Run. Now.”

  Without a second thought, I ran to the open the door, but was shocked to find Bradly standing in the doorway wearing a black cloak. His eyes blackened. “Dos vom chu dee.” Right as he was about to raise his hand, Triana raised hers and sent him slamming against the wall, knocking him out.

  I was just about to start running when I noticed that Felix was still staring at Ms. Jones. “Felix, we have to go!”

  “No…” Felix shook his head. “Ms. Jones―”

  The window glass shattered as a Hunter came leaping through it with his chain following behind. Ms. Jones pushed Felix out of the way before pulling the trigger twice, but then lost her gun when the Hunter’s’ chain whipped it out of her hand. “Felix, go!” she yelled as two more pistols appeared in her hands. “I can take care of this. Don’t let your parent’s’ sacrifice be for nothing.”

  “Come on, Felix,” Triana called.

  Felix growled with his fists sparking with electricity before following us out of the room. I was surprised that none of the kids downstairs heard us until I realized that they were all huddled in the TV room in fear.

  So, they did hear us.

  Unable to ignore them, Felix ran inside the room. “All of you get to the basement now! Go now, and don’t come out until the police or Ms. Jones tells you to come out!” The little orphans just stared at us until Felix lit his fist with lightning power. “The basement. Now!”

  The kids whimpered, cried, and some even screamed as they ran down the hall and through the kitchen to get to the basement door.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said, hearing more crashing occur over our heads.

  “Back door,” Felix said.

  Just as we were about to run down the hall, the front door flew off the hinges and a chain whipped around my throat, yanking me to the ground.

  “Raven!” Triana screamed.

  Felix whipped around and sprinted for the Hunter but was tackled to the ground by another that came from the library.

  I can’t… breathe…

  I clawed at the chain as it grew tighter around my neck. I could feel myself being pulled towards the Hunter holding it, and when I looked up, I noticed Beatrice and two more Hunters walking through the door.

  My eyes watered at the thought of them killing us. I wanted to live, and I wanted my sister and Felix to live. I wanted us all to find our covens―our families, but as the world around me began to blur, the more I was starting to believe that we never would…

  “Raven!” Triana screeched. Her piercing scream nearly made my ears bleed before all sound around me went silent. The chain wrapped around my neck loosened, and I took in a deep breath of air, then dropped my eyes to look at Triana. Her grey eyes were black again, sending chills down my spine. I couldn’t hear her screams, but I could
tell that she was still screaming because of her opened mouth and widened eyes. Her arms were also spread out horizontally with her fingers slightly curled as if she were clawing at something.

  When I looked around me, I noticed that anything sharp in the house was floating into the air and that the Hunters were blocking their ears. For Triana to be so young and able to control her powers this way, that practically made her a genius. No one in her age group at Coven Silver was able to use their powers like this. Hell, I wasn’t even able to.

  I pulled the chains from around my neck and crawled over to Triana. I wanted to stop her when I spotted a tear sliding down her cheek, but then again, I felt safe with her holding off the Hunters.

  Maybe I should try grabbing them?

  I turned to look over my shoulder at them. Beatrice was now on her knees while shielding her ears from a piercing scream that I could no longer hear, and the other Hunters were falling to their knees as well.

  This is my only chance.

  I jumped to my feet and ran to grab the Hunter that held the long black chain but slid to a stop when two bullets went through his chest. Triana immediately stopped screaming, and just in time for Ms. Jones to start firing again. When I looked over my shoulder at her, I found that she had a cut over her temple as well as a busted lip.

  “Go! Get out of here!” Ms. Jones yelled as she ran down the stairs towards the rising Hunters.

  Felix slowly rose to his feet in a daze with bleeding ears. “Ms. Jones?”

  “Raven, get him out of here!” Ms. Jones yelled.

  Without thinking, I ran over to Felix and grabbed his hand, then sprinted for the back door with Triana by my side. I only looked back one more time to find Ms. Jones punching another Hunter in the face before throwing a back kick at another.

  ~The Hunted~

  As we neared the woods, our familiars appeared at our sides growling and squawking. Well, Mine and Felix’s were. Triana’s was still apparently too stubborn to come out, or at least that’s what we thought.

  The three of us sprinted a good distance into the woods to find Iron-Horn waiting for us in the moonlight under the trees. He stood facing the opposite direction with his tail flapping back and forth, but then turned to look back at us with a huff. For a unicorn, he was the grumpiest creature I’d ever met.

  “Iron-Horn, thank goodness,” Triana said, running over to him. She ran her fingers over his black fur before pressing her cheek against him. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

  Iron-Horn huffed and turned his head away.

  “He wants us to get on,” Triana said. “He’s our quickest way out of here, unless Raven can teleport us.”

  I looked back over my shoulder in fear of a Hunter jumping out at us. “No, I don’t feel like I can.”

  Raptor roared as he faced the opposite direction in a hunting stance, and Bubbles hovered over him with fire blowing from her nostrils.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said before helping Triana up on Iron-Horn. Felix helped me up next, and then I pulled him up to sit behind me.

  “Everyone, hold on,” Triana warned. “Let’s go, Iron-Horn!”

  Iron Horn neighed before blasting off through the trees. Looking back, I found our familiars fighting against Beatrice and hoped that they’d be okay. I couldn’t help but hope that she’d be okay as well.

  Chapter Eleven: …

  After a good ten minutes, we had no idea where we were, or where we were headed. Iron-horn was so fast that we couldn’t even get a good look at anything since the world around us went by in a blur.

  “Where is he taking us!?” I asked Triana, wrapping my arms tighter around her waist.

  “I don’t know!” she yelled back. “To safety?”

  Iron-Horn continued sprinting, only it seemed as if he were picking up speed. Looking ahead, I watched as his horn bobbed up and down as the slightest glint of light appeared at the tip of it. That’s when I noticed a slight burning sensation in the center of my forehead, similar to the time that I developed my silver strip.

  What the hell is going on?

  “Why is his horn glowing?” Felix yelled.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know!”

  I took in a deep breath, feeling a burning sensation in my chest. I wanted to rub it but was too afraid to take even one hand from around Triana, so I tried to ignore the pain. It was hard though, because with every second that went by, my chest burned even hotter.

  “Hey, do you feel that!?” Felix yelled.

  My eyes were focused back on the light at the tip of Iron-Horn’s horn. The light was brighter and sparking now, like a sparkler, and with every millisecond it grew brighter. Eventually, the light was so bright that I wasn’t able to see a thing…

  “Ugh!” I grunted as I landed on my back. Triana and Felix were both on opposite sides of me, trying to understand what had just happened.

  “Did you teleport us?” Triana asked.

  I coughed as I sat up on a snowy mountain, facing a single wooden door. “I don’t know. I think Iron-Horn brought us here.”

  Triana pushed herself to her feet before brushing snow off of herself. “See, I told you that he had a nice side.”

  “You call dropping us on the ground nice?” I asked, standing to my feet.

  Felix stood as well with a blank expression on his face. I was sure that he was still thinking about Ms. Jones, because I was too. The only difference between us was that I wasn’t emotionally attached to her.

  Triana shrugged. “He has his ways of showing kindness.”

  I nodded, but then turned my attention back to the door. The three of us stood silently surrounding it while staring at the golden symbol on the upper half.

  “Maybe the design wasn’t a map that we were supposed to follow,” Felix said, sliding his hand up the door. “Maybe it was something that we were supposed to feel?” His fingers came over the center of his forehead, where the design from the door appeared in blue.

  I was breath taken. “So, it was a symbol…” I felt the burning sensation in my chest and forehead as I reached out to touch the door, but then it suddenly stopped once I pressed my palm against it. I then used my other hand to touch my forehead and could actually feel the metal marking in the center. When I stretched my shirt by the collar, I noticed that my silver strip started at the center of my chest and continued downwards. “This is amazing.”

  Felix and I looked at each other, and then turned to Triana, who was still watching us.

  “What do you think it means?” Triana asked.

  I shook my head. “I’m not sure, but I do think you should touch the door. Maybe somehow, that’s how it opens?”

  “Maybe…” Triana held her hand out over the door, but hesitated to press her palm against it. “Do you think we’ll ever see Ms. Jones and the orphanage again?”

  Felix huffed. “Why would we ever want to see her again? She’s a Hunter.”

  Triana averted her eyes to her feet. Sometimes, I actually forget that she’s still an eleven-year-old girl. “Because she’s our friend.” The moment that she pressed her palm against the door, the world around us began to reconstruct. Trees and bushes popped out of the snow, the gloomy sky darkened, the snow around us melted, and more green grass and dirt surfaced around us. In only a blink of an eye, the three of us were standing in another dark forest.

  Simultaneously, we pulled our hands from the door and watched it fade into the air, then stood looking around ourselves. It was quiet at first, but what grabbed our attention was the sound of laughter down the trail behind us.

  Triana grabbed my hand with parted lips. She was on edge like Felix and I, the two of us somehow ending up holding hands as well. Once I noticed though, the butterflies in the pit of my stomach made me pull mine away from his. He only glanced at me before starting his walk down the path. Triana and I followed.

  The dark woods that we were walking through was similar to the forest in En
gland, only here we could feel the magic in the air. Fog surrounded us, but not so badly that we couldn’t see through it. Just enough to scare Triana and I. Neither of us should watch horror movies anymore since our imaginations liked to mess with us.

  As we neared the end of the path, we heard more laughing, and also other things like a lion’s roar, a loud squawking, and the familiar sound of something swooshing through the air. We could see a large camp with fires going through the trees, but not much. We would have to step out into the open to get a better look.

  “Be prepared to turn back,” Felix said, holding his hand out. “We don’t know where we’re at or who’s out there―”

  A familiar laugh occurred. One that Triana and I recognized, only I was still more cautious about emerging from the woods. Triana, on the other hand, ran off.

  “Uncle Sam!” she yelled as she ran into the open field.

  “Triana!” I ran after her, not caring who saw me come running from the path, but then I slid to a stop when I faced the camp in front of me.

  A camp full of Witches and Wizards.

  Triana continued running, not stopping until her arms were wrapped around Uncle Sam’s waist. He was standing right outside of the camp with an unfamiliar woman dressed in some sort of leather black gear. She looked like she could be a character in a fantasy combat game. What surprised me more was that Uncle Sam was dressed like her while holding a silver wizards staff.

  Uncle Sam’s eyes dropped down to Triana, seemingly unsurprised that she had her arms wrapped around him. He looked up at me with a smile on his face like he knew that we would find this place. Maybe he did?

  “I don’t think that there’s one coven here…” Felix said, staring out at the large camp.

  The camp was the size of a large village with multiple colored tents set up, according to which coven a person was from. There were silver, blue, pink, yellow, red, and many more. I’d almost forgotten that there were more than just the silver and blue covens, but I guess since we all had a new symbol now, we were each working as one.