by Tom Harem
Maggie and I took the lead and walked down the white-walled corridors, dust-covered photographs and pierced with punctures, and stepped on the varnished brown floor with scratch marks. We walked through the bathroom, wide open, and looked inside; the toilet lid down, the remains of a toasted yellow half liquid still in it, cigarettes on the floor at the entrance and a bottle of liquor beside the shampoo.
"He lives in these conditions..." Maggie said, "What do we do?"
"Do nothing. You must get out of there. We can't save everyone." Ashen said, on the communicator.
"There's got to be something we can do! What's the point of being Hunters if you can't help those in need?"
"We help by defeating the monsters. We save them from a horrible death. The rest is not up to us. Focus on your mission. Just leave him there and come back here."
"If you have to sacrifice humanity to be a rank S, I'd rather not be one," I answered and removed the communicator from my ear.
Maggie followed in my footsteps, "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, he's right about something. There's not much we can do, but it doesn't mean that we can't do anything, that we have to be content with it. My father wouldn't settle for that."
"Your father... his name was John, wasn't it?" Maggie asked, a few steps away from the boy's mother's room.
"You've heard the stories then..." I said, looking into her eyes, not looking away even when the boy pulled my clothes, "We'll talk about this later."
"Do you think one day I'll be as good a Hunter as you are? I want to be able to save people and save my mother!" He said, with his fist closed, his eyes as bright as before and, still, a certain sadness in the way his lips bowed.
"Of course! Why couldn't you? You just need to train and study. You know they want the best of the best, right? You mustn't be careless." I told him, and I sent him to the living room, saying that we would take care of it without causing him any problems.
He ran down the hall and turned left. His footsteps echoed through the house every time he stepped on a sensitive part, the mold underneath destroying the ground's firmness. We knocked on the bedroom door and entered. Maggie palpated the wall until she could turn on the light. A woman rolled up her sleeves and scratched her eyes, covered with a red blanket, with her thin bare shoulders, visible bones and facial features embodying the face of death. The lifeless black eyes, the colorless cheeks and even the features next to the nose seemed to be rooted in the skin itself.
"Who are you? What do you want? GET OUT OF HERE." She said, standing up, ignoring the fact that she was only wearing panties, her tits were almost at the navel, unable to walk without zigzagging or leaning against the wall.
"Relax, we're Hunters. We've come to bring your son back."
"What did he do this time?" She asked, taking a cigarette out of a box she had in a mahogany secretary in the corner.
"He helped us defeat a beast! You have an excellent son. You should be proud. He might even become a hunter." I explained it to her, looking for a weakness I could use to change her attitudes.
"Oh, good for him." The woman said, disinterested. She pulled the smoke to herself until her chest was no more than thin bones and exhaled until a cloud of smoke overshadowed her face, "His father also wanted to be a Hunter. It didn't go so well for him. If he takes after his father, he'll run away as soon as life gives him a nudge," the woman said, moving toward us.
"Isn't his father working?" Maggie asked her, deviating to let her through.
"Yes, he always is. The longer he spends abroad, the happier he is. He doesn't have to deal with me." She said and went to the bathroom, "You make a beautiful couple." She told us and slammed the door.
"We are not a..." I started but was interrupted by Maggie.
"We are not a couple.” She said and elbowed me, "I know about you and Kendra. It's hard not to notice the ruined bed or her hair all tangled up," she said softly.
"Is there a problem?"
"No, on the contrary. I think it's a good idea. What better way to get to know each other than intimately?" She said, smiling at me.
"We still have a lot to learn about each other then." I replied, moving closer to her, whispering in her ear, "How long have you been waiting for this?”
"Ever since I saw you fighting for the first time." She replied, her knees trembling, clashing with my kneecap, her panting breath blowing behind my ear, "If Kendra didn't intimidate me so much, I'd have already hopped on you." She added, revealing her dark side; daring, boundless, she opened a button on her dress, the outline of her breasts popping up in plain sight.
"Are you saying that you don't care if I have both?" I asked, my body boiling in the face of a miracle, a new and welcome development.
"I'm 24, James. I'm young. I'm over the age of passionate lusts. I want to have fun, but I still want to maintain something steady. To have a shelter but also a place where there is pleasure. What you do beyond that is up to you." She said, "I've had my share of disappointments, I won't get into another. You don't seem like the kind of guy with whom something serious would last."
"Probably not." I started, "We all have our problems. I'm not good with commitments. I suppose I still need to grow up. Before I was hunter I used to end my nights in my city bar doing karaoke with my friends, who are also shortsighted people." I told her, and laughed, trying to break the heavy environment.
She was going to answer me when the boy's mother came out of the bathroom. Her front hair was still wet, and her cheeks were red. She returned to her room and took another cigarette out of the same box before lying in bed, stretching her arms, and leaning her head against the bed. Before she opened her mouth, our apps started shaking
"Congratulations! You have defeated a level 2 monster. 50 experience points have been given to each, as well as 50 hunter points. Do you want to continue as a team?"
"You should go. Don't worry about us. He will be fine. He has a roof over his head. Something I didn't have for a long time." She said, cleaning the ashes that had fallen on the blanket.
"James, we really have to go... The pickup truck should be here any minute now." Maggie told me, bending her knees to look out the overcast window.
I bit my lips before I spoke. I needed to ward off the whirlwind of emotions going around inside me, "Let's go but I hope you value your son. One day you will be able to hear his name in the limelight and in advertisements. All you have to do is support him." I told her and turned my back, closing my fist until the vein in the center of my hand appeared and the knuckles between my fingers hurt like hell.
I didn't expect an answer from her. I walked down the hall. I called the boy, wished him good luck, told him never to give up and left. I was cold, maybe even a little rude when I said goodbye, but I couldn't cope with the impossibility of not being able to do anything. I realized there that I wanted something more for myself, that beating monsters just wasn't enough for me. I wanted everything, whatever was beyond that, I wanted to save people and the monsters were just the path I had decided to take to do that, but it wasn't enough.
"You told him he needed good grades to be a Hunter... I thought they were more interested in physical skills." Maggie told me as we walked down the stairs, some people at the door thanking us.
"And they don't care. Not that he needs to know that."
"You're a good person, James." She said, before stopping in the middle of the stairs and inhaling deeply, "Oh... Your father... The conspiracy he was investigating... It could be the same one I think my dad's into, right?"
"Yes, I thought about that too. My mother hid all the papers after what happened to my father and although she still has a few in the pantry, she never let me touch them. I read some of them behind her back, but most have the interesting parts crossed out, and the little I could read only talks about a conspiracy that goes up to the high levels and the possibility that there might be something else besides the Reapers. Maybe someone behind them, someone we trust with our lives on a daily
basis." I confessed to her, being the first time, I'd talked about it since I entered the academy. I didn't exactly do what you might call ‘make friends’ there. I had fun, I went to parties, but we spent so much time training that we didn't talk about our personal lives at the end of the day.
"I suppose we have a lot to do yet. We just have to figure out where to start." Maggie replied, as soon as she entered the hall.
"Hopefully tomorrow Kendra's sister will tell us something about the doctor."
Maggie nodded, remaining silent as we left the building, running to the car, placing her hands on her hair so that the rain wouldn't get her wet.
We got into the car. Kendra left the driver's seat and moved backward, as did Maggie, who winked at me as she watched Kendra bend over to make the crossing, her tits swinging, almost jumping out of her clothes.
I placed the communicator and warned Ashen that we were getting out of there. I didn't get an answer in return, but I could hear his breathing on the other side, I knew he had heard me, but withheld his words beneath the technology. The beast's green liquid slipped down the street, being drained into the sewers along the way, covering the street with its trail. Part of the moon had been swarmed with black clouds carrying a rainy arsenal, firing throughout the night and growing heavier by the minute.
I drove along the empty road, the signs switching between green and red, the front glass fogged up, distorting the road ahead, the black-granite blending with the white lines that separated the three rows, each for a speed. I was in the middle; not too slow for a skater to catch me, but not fast enough for a curve to make me lose control over the car. I didn't think Ashen would congratulate me if I destroyed it, much less when he was no longer in a good mood after ignoring him.
"Everything is going to be fine," Maggie told me, leaning her body against the door, the dress almost on her hips which I could see through the rear-view mirror. She kissed me on the cheek and smiled, sticking out her tongue.
Once again, we had to drive along the recluse road, paved with small holes, bumps that made me almost bump my face on the steering wheel. The smell of wet grass was stronger than in the afternoon and was accompanied by a sweet aroma that I could not understand what it was. Melted mud covered the tires, as the black smoke that came out of the chimney at that time obscured the clouds, offering the house an apocalyptic setting, where the sky was consumed by the ashes and there was nothing left but that isolated shore and a dark-blue lake where the light could no longer reach.
I stopped the car at on the back of the house and we ran until we reached the building, where a small roof slope protected us from the raindrops, now nearly ice pebbles, shattering as they crashed against the roof, the snowflakes falling beside us.
"Finally." Ashen said, leaning against the door, as soon as we reached the final corner, "We're going to have to have a good conversation. Fortunately for you, it's late and you'll have a long day tomorrow. Eat something. Gordon made some lemon cakes and hot chocolate. Feast yourselves and go to sleep." He added before he turned his back on us and walked to his room.
I took a breath of relief. We entered the house and were welcomed by Gordon, who was in the kitchen eating one of his cakes, dirty lips in the corner and crumbs on his pajamas. He offered each of us a tray with two cakes and a drink, which was still steaming, and told us it was better to go to the living room, where a reddish bar, stuck on top of the wall on the opposite side of the entrance, spread heat to all four corners.
"Kendra, are you ready for tomorrow? It can't be easy having your sister on the other side of the law." I asked her, as soon as we sat down, the lemon scent, which I didn't recognize before, spreading throughout the room.
"I have grown used to it. Not everything is black and white. I've also done a lot of illegal things and she protected me, or I would never have been able to become Hunter if they'd known half of it." She confessed, followed by a bite of the cake, eating half at once, showing her pointed canines.
"Why are you telling us this?" Maggie asked her, taking a totally different approach with the cake, eating it, piece by piece. Small bites, the crumbs filling the plate.
"We're a team, aren't we? If I'm going to trust two strangers with my life... It's better that they're not for long. Besides, my sister tends to love playing people off against each other, exploring their secrets, and putting them on the table."
"If we're sharing secrets...It's better to confess one's own." I said, stretching my neck to confirm that Gordon was still in the kitchen and that we would have to be careful about what we said, "My father is...Ah, he was...John Crusher, the only Hunter ever to be relegated, treated like scum for daring to investigate the corruption among us. He never discovered anything but always believed that it existed, that several men up there had taken precautions for it, going so far as to murder his potential witnesses. He knew that someone close to him was involved and distanced himself from his friends. He plummeted into ruin, with no one supporting him, thinking he was crazy and addicted to an idea with no facts to prove it."
"I've heard of that story. He..." Kendra paused before continuing, "He killed himself, didn't he?"
"Yes," I told her, my eyes staring at the varnished floor.
"I'm sorry." She said, "We better leave it at that. What about you, girl, something to share?"
"My name is Maggie. You know that." She replied, before taking a deep breath and telling her all about the plot her father might be involved in.
"That means..." Kendra started but I interrupted her.
"That perhaps my father was not far from the truth."
We remained silent. The only sound in the whole house was the noise of the teeth shredding the cupcakes, the lips around the mugs, sipping the hot chocolate, and the orchestral melody that came from the cicadas and owls on the outside, taking refuge from the stormy rain.
" You better go to sleep." Gordon said, his thick voice reaching us with a soft tone, the night lulling it, "You need to be in shape tomorrow. You cannot risk not being at your maximum. One extra second can be the difference between life and death." He said, the sole of his shoes tapping on the ground, creaking at every step.
"A little dramatic, Gordon," Maggie told him.
"I used to be a Hunter like you, too, you know? Filled with excitement, aiming to save everyone, to rescue the world from the villains, but that same confidence betrayed me when I needed it." He said, bent over, his beer belly slipping out of the tight t-shirt, and rolled up his trouser hem revealing a metallic right leg, "My group and I thought that being good C ranks was enough to defeat a level 8. That was the result. Two died, one was in a coma, I have no leg and one had part of his torso ripped off. What I'm trying to say is... Think twice if you want to risk your survival for a lesser evil."
"You mean the boy?" I asked him, placing the tray on the crystal table in the center of the room.
"Yes, and not only that. Decisions have consequences. Whether it is that or going to talk to your sister, Kendra, or even going to bed late. Do you have a plan B? I didn't. It took me a while to get here." He said before he took off his shoes and put them in the lobby, "I'm going to sleep. Don't forget what I told you."
We said goodbye to him and stayed there for little more than a few minutes until we went to our room and undressed as we had previously done. This time we found a position good enough for the three of us to fit in there, without one of us almost falling, or getting elbowed in the face. We ended up in seashells. On one side Maggie's tits against my back, on the other side rubbing my dick against Kendra's butt. None of them opposed it or complained about physical contact. On the contrary, there was a certain smile behind the weary masks; the already half-closed eyes, the still moist cheeks of the icy current we caught running and the reddened lips. Our eyes shut, curtains hiding the sun behind them, and we fell asleep shortly afterward.
Chapter VII
I woke up with nails scraping away from my chest to my navel, followed by kisses from there to the inside of
my boxers. I opened my eyes and the curved silhouette in front of me took shape until I saw her long blond hair falling on both sides of her face, her green eyes fading away under a golden fence, her lips touching my skin, sometimes sucking it to the point of leaving a mark, sometimes pinching me with her teeth until I squirmed.
"What are you doing, Maggie?" I whispered, striving not to wake Kendra, who was right next to us, "You're going to wake her."
"That's the fun part, isn't it?" She answered me, a malevolent smile on her face, lowering my boxers all the way to my knees.
Her hand wrapped around the base of my dick and went up, a thin thread of saliva flowing from her mouth to my head, the palm of her hand taking advantage of it to slip better. I bit my lips so I wouldn't moan as she went on; her lips around the whole length, her head moving until her eyes were moist. The youthful simplicity, the features on her face that defined her softness, shifted and took on grown-up contours.
She licked from one end to the other and spread the extra saliva over her face. She tossed her shame through the door and risked being caught. My heart almost jumped out of my chest each time the tip of my dick hit the bottom of her throat and she would let it sit there for a few seconds until she stopped, slid back and regained her breath. Sweat ran down her forehead, glowing across her face unlike me whose chest was blazing, warming, dripping down to the contours of my abs. It didn't take long before I tilted my ass over the mattress, pulled her head down and exploded inside her mouth, as her eyes rolled over as she attempted to swallow everything.
She would have made it if it hadn't been for a thread of thick white fluid that ran down the right corner of her mouth, down my length, to the very bottom.
"Oops." She said, as she moved back and licked me once more until she left no trace of her presence, "They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, isn't that right?"
I gulped, not having an answer on the tip of my tongue, "Oh yes, you're right, I... Ah, I hope Kendra is still asleep." I said, looking to the side, Maggie's eyes following my trajectory.
