Thawed

Preface

The boy sat next to the man in silence. 

"Please take your seats, the plane will be taking off soon."

The stewardess walked down the aisles, closing the overhead storages. 

The boy held his breath as he watched out the window, silently saying goodbye to the only life he had ever known. He pressed his hand against the warm Plexiglas and could almost see his father's hand pressing on the other side. The man stared out the window as well, blurring the vision of his father's fingers. He felt his chest tighten as he held in the urge to cry, "Father, don't go. Don't leave me. Please!"

"We will all miss your father."

The boy didn't even notice the tear which zig-zagged down his sun-kissed cheek. 

The man's cracked, dry thumb wiped away the liquid which oozed from his nephew's eyes. Pain stuck in his gut as he watched the death of his brother, the boy's father, rip his nephew apart. "I'm not sure why your father picked me to be your guardian, we hadn't spoken in years..."

The boy's golden eyes stared up at his uncle's, filled to the brim.

A lump caught in the man's throat. "But of course you don't want to talk about that..."

The boy's head turned towards the window again, and the man rung his hands together nervously. He didn't have any kids of his own, and this was the first time he had seen his nephew since his first birthday when him and his father got into a fight. What do you do with kids? He wondered. What do you say when their world's been turned upside down? He was not sure. He ran his thick fingers through his dark hair, and prayed the rest of their lives wouldn't be as thick with awkward silence as it was then. 

Soon, the plane began to quake as it took off for flight. 

"Uncle, why haven't you seen my dad in such a long time?"

He sighed. His black hair fell in front of his green distant eyes. “We got into a big fight..." How was he supposed to tell him the same thing he fought with his father about might very well have been the same thing that killed him?

"About what?"

He took off his glasses and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I guess I might as well just tell you..." The boy gazed up at him patiently, and curiously as he waited his uncle's reply. "The Huntre family is born to follow a legacy that your father refused to be a part of. It is not something you can just disregard, like your father tried to do; it is in our blood. Every male in the Huntre family is born with the ability to see creatures you can't even imagine."

"What do you mean?"

"You, me, your father, our father's father are born to hunt an elite force of creatures determined to not only defeat us, but to defeat the human race... Scott, you are going continue this legacy."

"What creatures?" Young Scott asked, voice quivering as he spoke.

"Pixies."