The Hunter

Chapter 4
The Seal

Chapter Description: Heather stops at an inn for the night to rest after the spider attack. When a new assailant tries to intercept her adopted son, Heather finds that she is in deeper trouble than she can handle.

Heather awoke from an uneasy sleep. She looked over at Addy. He’d taken a while to warm up to her, but she suspected that the poor little guy had to be traumatized from that witch attack. Heather got out of bed. They were staying at a cheap inn for the night, as Heather just needed her sleep. She’d been plagued by terrifying, horrific nightmares. Addy was her only source of comfort. Nobody else could know of her dreams and her son would not be able to understand her, even if she told him. She continued to suffer in silence.

The inn didn’t have much, but it did have an old mirror. She hated mirrors. More so, she hated looking into her own eyes. She had kind eyes, but when she looked into them for too long she would lose time. She had no idea what she did during that time. She tried to avoid mirrors if she could help it. As she dwelled on her disdain for mirrors, she inadvertently found herself staring into the one in her room.

As Heather stared into the mirror, images that had no place residing in her head filled her mind, the newest of which was a field of burning, shriveling spiders. These images had bothered her at first, but in time she had grown curious. These memories were so vivid that she could not help but try to remember the events as they unfolded. To her dismay, the memories would not continue beyond the mere glimpses that had been granted to her.

She scowled loathingly at her reflection. If she couldn’t remember the event then why did she have these glimpses? She looked deeper into her eyes. Even if it meant she’d have hours or even days she couldn’t account for, she had to know why these images were relevant to her. Why did she recall fields of carnage and sacrificial alters? Did these have anything to do with her missing time? Why didn’t she know anything? Why would she find herself in trouble one minute, then out of it the next? How had she escaped the spiders? Last she remembered of the attack, she was guarding Addy to her dying breath. Next she knew she was safe on another carriage.

She focused on her very pupils, as soon as she began to feel pulled into her trance, she was pulled out by an infant’s wailing. Addy had woken up. Heather returned to her bed.

"Is my little friend awake already? Is baby hungry?" Heather didn’t know why, but her first attempt at nursing him was successful. She didn’t think that she’d had any children, so the fact that she could produce for this child that she’d just adopted was curious indeed. She picked him up and proceeded to give him his early morning breakfast.

As Addy fell back asleep, she checked his diaper. It was clean, so she put her child back in bed. Ready to face herself again, she returned to the mirror to resume her meditation.

This time was different. As soon as Heather locked eyes with herself, she began to feel another voice in her head taking over. She clutched her head. Her head felt like it would burst open. "Argh!!!" she turned away from the mirror, still clutching her head. Her headache was still there. ’Surrender control to me,’ she heard the other voice. Heather fought to retain control of her mind as she continued to clutch her head. "Get... out of my... head!!!" she screamed at the disembodied voice. Addy began to cry again as he was woken up. Her headache wouldn’t subside.

Heather looked into the mirror again, hoping that would help her ground herself. It wasn’t her reflection she saw this time. She’d seen the wanted posters. This image came with a very high bounty. She stared at the reflection that wasn’t her own. "Who are you?" she asked aloud. Addy began to scream. In spite of the piercing headache, Heather made her way over to the crying baby and whispered soothing words of comfort as she rocked him back and forth in her arms.

Heather put Addy back down as soon as she got him back to sleep. She returned to the mirror. Her desire to know possessed her now. She had to know why she had those vague yet clear memories that just didn’t belong to her. Upon looking into the mirror she saw her own reflection. Her headache was gone. It was just her in the room with a sleeping baby.

She returned to the bed. Part of her wanted to spend more time in front of that mirror and connect with whatever else might be trying to take over, but she knew that, for Addy’s sake, she had to get some sleep. She returned to her bed and got under the covers.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Heather didn’t know who could be knocking at this hour. As she began to throw off her covers to answer the door, her head began to hurt again. ’Don’t answer the door,’ she heard. "Why not?" she asked. The voice neglected to answer.

The knocking turned into pounding. "Open up!!!" said a male’s voice.

Addy stirred. Heather stroked his head and successfully calmed him as she turned her attention toward the door. ’This is a bad idea,’ the voice warned.

Heather tried to shake off the pain as she got out of bed. "Coming!!!" she answered. ’Don’t open the door,’ she heard the voice say again. She ignored the warning. She approached the door and put her hand on the knob. It felt hot to the touch.

"Open the door!!!" the voice persisted.

More so due to defiance of the voice in her head than due to compliance to the voice outside, Heather turned the knob. As she slowly began to push the door outward, the stranger on the other side violently pulled it in his direction.

"What could you possibly want at this hour?" Heather exclaimed, but froze as she saw her unexpected visitor.

The man was about the size of a troll. Heather gauged that he could have knocked down the door if he were so inclined. Heather stared into the black, soulless eyes of the man before her, and waited. She waited to see what he would do.

"You are traveling with a small child. You shall give him to me." The stranger commanded.

"He’s..." Heather paused. It was hard to talk to the man. His very presence instilled fear and dread in her, almost as though she were in a deserted alley where there were creatures she did not want to meet and the sun would never shine. It took every fiber of her being to just stand there with the door ajar, shielding Addy from his view. "He’s my son. Leave us." Heather closed the door and ran away from it. She made a dash toward the bed and seized her precious bundle of joy.

The knocking continued. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." The deep voice continued, Heather was shaking as she clutched Addy in her arms. There was a brief pause before the brute finally said, "Don’t say I didn’t warn you." With a thud, the door flew open. Addy screamed in terror as the door fell to the ground.

The monster slowly walked toward him. "Hand him over. Surrender the child and no harm will come to you. Resist and you will die." Addy’s cry worsened as the man drew closer. Heather could feel his dark aura radiating about them as she cringed in fear.

Heather trembled. "Help!!!" she screamed. No help was coming. Security was either lax or gone. Heather backed into the corner of her room, hoping her guardian angel would intervene.

"No one’s coming," the man assured her, "I’ve dealt with them all. I’d rather not kill one so... desirable as yourself, but if you get in my way I will do it. For the last time, hand him over." Addy’s wailing drowned out Heather’s heavy breathing as the brute stood before them.

Heather had heard of these men before. They were called Hunters and had a very bad reputation. One only sought out a Hunter if they were in serious trouble and had the money to back the mark or the hit as the situation dictated. She’d never heard of a Hunter attacking other people in such a manner though. She buried her face in Addy’s swaddling clothes, "Why are you doing this?" she sobbed.

"You don’t need to know that," the intruder answered, "Give him to me and I’ll be gone."

’He’s lying’ the voice in Heather’s head informed her, ’Give me control, and I will save you.’ Heather continued to sob as her assailant reached toward her, ’Please help me,’ she thought. Addy fell silent as the fear began to consume them both. Heather started to feel the presence suffocate her and dreaded what was happening to Addy.

The next few minutes were hazy to Heather. She began to twitch. She tried to cringe into a defensive position to shield the both of them, but her body would not obey. Instead she rose to her feet. ’No,’ she thought, ’He’ll kill us for sure.’ the other voice in her head laughed in response to her caution, ’be silent and enjoy the spectacle. This one is incredibly weak.’

The intruder just watched, shocked as Heather was. Heather firmly held Addy in one arm and had her other arm outstretched. ’He should have started to transform by now,’ her hijacker thought. She shook her head as the one in control apparently realized something that she didn’t.

Heather then chanted a few words she neither comprehended nor remembered. She looked into the Hunter’s eyes as he stared at her, completely dumbfounded. His aura had no effect on her anymore, nor did it intimidate her in the slightest. If anything, he was more afraid of her. The hunter had become the hunted as his eyes now resembled that of a fleeing deer.

Her enemy exploded into bits of flesh, bones, and guts right before her eyes. Heather was shocked beyond words. She stooped down to examine the ball of darkness which had formed at her foe’s corpse. She inhaled it and felt its dark energy surge through her body. She then dipped her fingers in the corpse until they were red with his blood.

Addy began to cry again. Heather was scared herself. "Hush, child," her body said to him, "You were useless this fight. SHE must have done something." Heather’s body fell silent again as she approached the mirror. It wrote her a message in the blood from her enemy.

Heather did not know what she was writing. ’Please stop!!!’ she thought desperately as Addy’s cries became louder. ’Give me back my body!!!’

Once she had finished writing, Heather felt control return to her as she resumed her heavy breathing. She was in front of the mirror. The mirror contained a message written with the blood of the intruder.

The message read: DON’T LET HER COMPLETE THE SEAL.

Heather trembled as she gasped, ’You’re welcome,’ the voice in her head thought as it left her alone . Her body and mind now her own once again, Heather felt completely shaken. She had just killed a man, a Hunter no less. What seal was the message depicting? What had just happened?

Once Heather gathered her wits, she squeezed Addy tighter and fled the war zone that had been an inn.

NEXT: CH5 ANSWERS