The Hunted Read online

  Felix turned to look at me and smiled.

  I raised my hand to wave, but then in a blink of an eye, I found myself standing in the library on the opposite side of the entrance hall. I stood there with my hand still raised and my mouth hanging open while staring through the entrance of the library to Felix, who was now further away from me.

  I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat and found Ms. Jones curled up in one of the cushioned chairs with her eBook reader in her hands. She sighed with a raised brow, waiting for an explanation.

  “Oh.” I smiled nervously. “Sorry, I umm… didn’t expect for that to happen.”

  Ms. Jones pushed her glasses up. “You should be more careful. You don’t want any of the others here to see you doing things like that.”

  “I know.” I bit my lower lip with wide eyes. “I’m going to um…head for the movie room now.”

  Ms. Jones chuckled. “Good luck.”

  “Right.” I sighed. I started walking towards the movie room again, but as soon as I passed by the steps, I teleported to the empty space next to Felix. “Oh, my gosh.”

  A few of the kids looked back at me, but then turned around to face the TV again.

  Felix leaned over to me. “What was that?”

  Triana sat on the other side of Felix with wide eyes.

  My cheeks reddened again. “I’m not sure. I think the magic for All Hallows Eve is rising from the earth.”

  Triana leaned over Felix’s legs. “Plus…she can’t control her powers.”

  “Neither can you,” I rasped back.

  “Shhh.” Bradly frowned from on the floor. “I’m tryna watch the bloody movie.”

  Felix sat upright again, laughing silently. Even though I was embarrassed, I couldn’t help but smile.

  After about an hour into the movie, I was slowly starting to doze off. I was trying to fight my need to sleep, because I didn’t want Felix to hear me snoring.

  Curse my sister, I thought. I wouldn’t feel this way if she didn’t say anything.

  Luckily, my sister was there to save the day while also nearly exposing us. I wasn’t sure why she did it, but her loud piercing scream followed by a shattering noise caused me to jolt out of my daze. The group of kids on the floor also screamed, but more so because the vase across the room shattered.

  Leaning forward to look around Felix at her, I found her sitting rigid with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open. Felix just sucked in his lips, trying to keep from laughing, but couldn’t help himself.

  I squinted my eyes. “And you said that I couldn’t control my powers?”

  “What happened?” Ms. Jones asked, nearly jogging into the movie room. Her eyes went straight to us before her shoulders dropped. “I heard something break.”

  Triana gave a nervous chuckle. “Um…The movie’s scary?”

  Chapter Eight: All Hallows Eve

  “I can’t believe you did that.” I laughed as we stopped walking by the cliff.

  “What I did was better than teleporting into another room,” Triana retorted.

  “You can’t teleport.”

  “Ex-actly.”

  I squinted my eyes, trying to make sense of her argument. “What?”

  Felix chuckled and shook his head, facing the cliff. It was just as beautiful as last night, only with more fog.

  I walked over and stood by his side, then Triana came and stood next to me. Only a few minutes went by before Raptor emerged from the woods with Bubbles trailing behind him. I could tell that Triana was trying to call for her familiar, but she always had a hard time getting him to come out. Our familiars’ personalities were always the opposite of ours, creating a balance, so with Triana always being so happy, Iron-Horn was always angry. The two of them could never get along.

  Slipping my hand into Triana’s, I closed my eyes, feeling the magic rise around me. The wind blew through my hair, oddly warming me.

  “It’s All Hallows Eve,” Felix said.

  I opened my eyes and turned my head to face him. With a deep breath, the blue strip appeared in the center of his face, symbolizing his coven. When I turned to Triana, I found her still standing with her eyes closed, a silver strip glowing in the center of her face as well. For people that couldn’t control their powers, All Hallows Eve was the only day that their strip appeared without them trying to use it, so I was sure that mine was glowing as well.

  I took a deep breath, breathing in the magic around me. “It’s time to find our maps.”

  ~The Hunted~

  We weren’t sure of how to go about connecting with our inner maps but figured that doing the Hallows Ritual Dance would help. There were no specific dance moves or steps to completing this ritual. We just simply had to let the magic guide us, feeling it direct us from within. This traditional dance was meant for us to connect with our magic. To understand it and ourselves better than we’ve ever done before. I always described this dance as a drug that was used to get high, because that’s exactly how I felt. High.

  It’s as if someone else is controlling my body.

  Taking a wide step forward, my arms slowly rose out in front of me. They rose all the way towards the sky before I bent backwards and pushed all of my weight onto my hands. As I lifted my feet from the ground, I got a glimpse of Triana levitating through the air with her back parallel to the ground, then I spotted Felix flashing with electricity as he spun on the very tips of his toes using one foot.

  For hours, everything was moving in slow motion. Only some parts of the night I could recall. What I would never forget though, was when our powers released from our bodies simultaneously, spiraling towards the sky in silver and blue sparkles of light. Once they were high enough into the air, they exploded into small particles that came floating back down on us.

  I laid on the ground next to Felix and Triana with a smile on my face, feeling the warm magic seep back into my skin. This was one of the greatest nights that I’ve ever had since the Hunters attacked our coven, and I knew that if I found my coven door, then I would be able to experience more of this.

  It was too bad that I wouldn’t be finding it though. I wasn’t sure how I didn’t hear footsteps crunching on leaves in the shadows before, but sure enough, they were. Someone was watching. That’s the only way that I could explain the Hunters finding us.

  ~The Hunted~

  Opening my eyes, I found that it was still dark out. The moon was still high in the sky, and the stars were still glistening, but something was different. Everything was tinted with blue…and that wasn’t the only thing that I noticed. Hanging far above my head was a branch full of leaves blowing through the wind, but there was no sound. The leaves should’ve been rustling, but there was absolutely no sound at all.

  What the hell?

  I turned my head to the left to find Triana sleeping peacefully at my side, and then found Felix doing the same on my right. “Hey guys,” I said, moving into a sitting position. “Wake up.”

  Neither of them moved, but I wasn’t all too worried. I could clearly see their chests rise and fall with each breath that they took.

  “Felix.” I reached out to shake his arm, but even when I knew that I made contact, I couldn’t feel him. My fingers went right through his flesh. “Oh my―” I snatched my hand away, then jumped to my feet.

  Looking around, I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary besides all that I found unordinary. No one was with me, and it appeared that I was just sleeping. I was practically looking down at my own sleeping body. I hoped that didn’t mean I was dead.

  What did I get myself into?

  I shook my head before combing my fingers through my hair with a sigh. I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I was sure that it had something to do with the dance. Maybe this was just the result of it? I could be exactly where I needed to be, or…I could be dead.

  “Alright, alright, alright.” I sighed. “I need to think, or I need a sign. I need to do someth
ing.”

  I stood there for a moment and waited for a sign, but nothing occurred.

  “I’m really not sure what to do here,” I thought out loud. If I didn’t figure out what to do, did that mean that I’d be stuck in here forever?

  I walked over to the edge of the cliff and stared out at the forest below me. The fog cleared, so I could see the trees clearly and noticed that there was actually a river in the center. The moonlight shining down on it glistened, making the sight even more beautiful. I wondered if Triana and Felix could see this. Maybe they were experiencing the same thing as well?

  I bit down on my lower lip, trying to think back to something that I learned about the dance. I was never taught about going into a silent dream state, but maybe there was something similar. Maybe there were some subliminal messages thrown in the lesson that I didn’t catch onto back then?

  I sighed, unable to recall anything. I started to turn to look back at Felix and Triana, but was tackled by a dark figure and went flying off the cliff.

  My stomach did backflips as I plunged through the air. Someone had their arm wrapped around my throat, choking me on our way down. I pulled at the arm around my throat, but my attacker was too strong, so instead, I thought of teleporting away from him, and with ease I teleported, but not away from him. The two of us ended up on a snowy mountain where I continued to pull at his arm. At first, no air would make it through to my lungs, but then when we started to slide down the mountain, his grip loosened.

  “Get off me!” I yelled as I elbowed at my attacker.

  The two of us slid off a cliff, but then landed separately in more snow. Jumping to my feet, I whipped around just to dodge out of the way of two knives shooting in my direction.

  A Hunter.

  I stood frozen only a few feet away from the Hunter, but as soon as he lunged for me, I jumped down the mountain and began tumbling through the ice-cold snow. The goal was to slide, but I was never the best at doing anything too physical, so of course I uncomfortably flipped down instead. Worst decision ever.

  Finally stopping, I dizzily pushed myself back to my feet, stumbling backwards. The Hunter slid down to a stop, blowing steam out his nose before whipping two more knives from his cloak.

  “Jes vie dos bom,” the Hunter said. “All witches and wizards must die.”

  The wind blew through my hair, whipping it across my face. “Why?”

  “Vedik tar jon due mae,” he said, slowly approaching me.

  Looking around, I saw that I only had three choices: tumble down the mountain again, teleport, or fight back. I’m not sure how I was able to teleport so easily before, but I didn’t want to risk trying again and not being able to. Then again, almost dying down a snow-covered hill didn’t sound like a good idea either, and I wasn’t good enough at using magic to fight, so what could I do?

  “Magic is unclean. Witches are unclean. Wizards are unclean. Beasts are unclean,” the Hunter’s deep voice echoed. “All must be exterminated to cleanse the world of impurity.”

  The Hunter was closer now. Much closer, and I still didn’t have a plan.

  What am I going to do?

  The Hunter raised his knife high above his head, and for a moment, all I could think about was my little sister. Without me, she would be all alone.

  When the Hunter brought his knife down, I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I found myself holding him off by grabbing his wrist, and when he tried to thrust the other knife into my stomach, I grabbed onto that wrist as well.

  Up close, I could see under the Hunter’s hood. His lips and nose were covered by a black cloth, but his eyes were grey. I also noticed that there was a black strip tattooed over his forehead and was cut off where the black cloth started. It was like ours, only his didn’t glow.

  “What are you?” I asked.

  The Hunter tried to pull away, but my grip was too tight, and somehow, I was now stronger than him.

  “Dos bum!” he screamed. “You are unclean!”

  I wasn’t sure as to why he started to panic until I noticed that his wrists were crumbling away into dust where I was holding them.

  “We will cleanse the earth…” the Hunter said before crumbling into nothing but a pile of dust.

  I stood there staring at the pile with wide eyes. “That’s ironic.”

  When I looked up, I was faced with a brown wooden door. Looking from left to right, I didn’t see anyone standing around, then sighed and slowly approached it. There was no doorknob, so I didn’t know how to open the door, but once I noticed something glowing gold on the upper half, I didn’t really care to.

  I slightly tilted my head to the side, trying to understand the golden markings on the door. They looked familiar, but I still couldn’t figure out exactly what the swirls represented. They couldn’t possibly be the map, because maps were readable. These markings…they meant something, but it couldn’t be a map. Right?

  I took in a deep breath and reached out to touch them, but before my fingers could touch the door, it disappeared, or maybe I teleported?”

  I blinked a few times, noticing that the sky was no longer filled with stars, but with white clouds, and when the wind blew, the leaves on the trees rustled. “I’m back?”

  “Good to see that you’re finally awake,” Felix said.

  “Yeah. Took you long enough,” Triana followed.

  I sat up and looked over my shoulder to find Triana and Felix drawing something in the dirt. When I stood up and walked over to them, I noticed the familiar markings. They were just like the swirls on the door. “No way.”

  Felix chuckled. “Yeah. I couldn’t believe it either.”

  Triana stood up while staring down at her side of the markings that were connected with Felix’s. “Now you just have to add your piece of the map.”

  Chapter Nine: Identity

  I didn’t think that I’d really remember anything about the designs on the door, but apparently, it was etched into my mind, because I drew it out perfectly. Somehow, our individual maps intertwined together to create one big map. Felix did the honors of taking a picture of it so that he could redraw it out on a piece of paper, and then once he was done, we were going to talk to Ms. Jones about leaving.

  I found it hard to walk back to the mansion. Not because I slept on the uncomfortable ground, but because when we got there, I’d have to look at everything I’d be leaving behind. My stay here was pleasant, and I enjoyed being around other children. Triana enjoyed it as well. For once in an entire year, she had the opportunity to befriend others around her age, and now she was going to have to leave it all behind. If anything, I hoped that we would be able to come back and visit, but we needed to be with our own kind for now. At least until we got a good grasp on our powers.

  “So, how did you stop your Hunter?” Felix asked as he walked beside me towards the mansion.

  I thought back to how the Hunter literally dropped into dust, then shrugged. “I grabbed him.”

  “Really?” Triana asked. “That’s all? I blew mine off the mountain using my powers.”

  “I electrocuted mine.” Felix shrugged.

  My eyebrows furrowed. “Um, yeah. That’s all I did.”

  “Why do you think we had to fight them anyways?” Triana asked.

  Felix cleared his throat. “Maybe it was some kind of test? We each had to defeat a Hunter, and once we did, we got to see our maps. It had to be some sort of mental test or something.”

  “That makes sense,” I mumbled. “But, did you both somehow end up on a snowy mountain?”

  Triana nodded. “I did.”

  “Same here,” Felix answered. “Maybe that’s a base of some sort?”

  “I guess we won’t be going separate ways after all.” I grinned. “Not yet, at least.”

  The three of us walked around the mansion to the front door, and then stepped inside to a house full of little zombies, witches, ghosts, and etcetera. The walls were decorated with p
ictures of pumpkins, and plastic spiders hung from the ceiling. There were also blood spatters on the wall, along with small red handprints.

  “She really goes out of her way for All Hallows Eve,” I said, standing in the doorway.

  “Yup,” Felix sighed, stepping through. “Every year.”

  “So, what do we do now?” Triana asked.

  Felix licked his lower lip. “I don’t know. Pack? I’ll come meet you two later on tonight with Ms. Jones. I need to talk with her.”

  I bit my lower lip and nodded. She was his guardian for the past year, so it was going to be hard on the both of them to depart one another. I’m sure that the two had developed a close bond.

  Felix jogged upstairs, then Triana and I headed back to our bedroom and closed the door.

  “We don’t really have much to pack,” Triana said as she sat down on her bed.

  I dropped down onto my bed and laid on my back. “I don’t think we have anything to pack.”

  Triana was quiet before speaking again. “Do you really think those designs were a map to the coven?”

  I closed my eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean like…even together, it doesn’t exactly look like a map. It could be, but it just looks like something else. At first, I was convinced that it would lead us to the coven, but what if it’s not for that purpose?”

  I sighed and sat up with tired eyes. “What other purpose could it be for?”

  Triana shrugged. “I’m not sure. I feel like it more so represents something than it is a map. I mean, our maps were supposed to lead us to our own covens, but for some reason, we each got a piece that matched together like a puzzle. That means if it was a map, then it would be directing us each to one specific area.”