Monsters and the Ones They Hunt

Chapter One

She woke up in the dark. It was too hot in the spare room her aunt had offered her, being early August. Though, she supposed it might be a fever borne of shock. Either way, the room was stifling. She swung her legs experimentally beneath the heavy quilts piled onto her and cringed at the aching. She turned her head on the pillow and found that the blinds were drawn shut but that there was sunlight sneaking in through the edges of the slats. They must have put her in here once she passed out from stress and exhaustion. She tried not to think of it.

She remembered the confusion and later, the intense panic. She remembered screaming and crying for hours, locked in her aunt's car outside the hospital. Perhaps they'd leave her here in this room forever, and she would be able to just sleep. It was summer anyway, and she couldn't bring herself to leave the seclusion of this room to see her cousins. Sitting up, she stretched carefully, mindful of her aches and pains. There were stitches in her thigh and behind her right ear, and everytime she moved she feared they would tear.

She rubbed a hand over her scalp, where her hair grew in sleek waves and slid between her fingers. She hated the feeling of her own fingers, but it brought her comfort all the same. It was the same hair her mother had, and she had always told her that it would catch some boy's eye one day. She stilled her fingers and forced herself to drop them into her lap.

Nara heard footsteps in the hall. It was her aunt Marian; she could tell by the beat of her steps against the hardwood. She'd visited her aunt many times, after all. She stood up, pulling one of the quilts around herself despite the heat, and padded across the blue carpet to listen harder. Whatever her aunt was up to, she wasn't alone, there was a man with her. His gravelly voice rumbled in the hall, but he sounded different from the last time she'd heard him... older.

"Do you even have the time for her?" Aunt Marian was asking him. "She's been through too much for you to ignore her."

"I'll make time," The man replied. His voice was brusque, as if he wanted the conversation to be finished quickly. "Is she in there..?"

"She had to be sedated." Aunt Marian informed him in a clipped tone. "For her own safety."

The man made a sort of noncommittal noise and eventually asked, "How well do you know her?"

"Better than you." Aunt Marian replied, coldly. "She's been sleeping over here since she was seven. And she's always been a handful- but not anything that-" Aunt Marian's voice choked off for a moment, then continued" -That Vicky and I couldn't handle."

"A handful?" The man asked, unperturbed. Aunt Marian lowered her voice and Nara couldn't hear whatever was said next.

If the man replied, Narah didn't catch it. She heard Aunt Marian walking to the door, her slippers making her footsteps light. She knocked on the door three times.

"Nara? Are you awake?"

"Yeah." She replied, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She wore only a pair of athletic shorts and a tank top.

"May I come in?"

"I don't see how I'll stop you." Nara muttered as the doorknob twisted and the door creaked open. The door was painted white with purple flowers around the edges, and as a child she had added sparkles with her cousins. The sight of them glittering now made her queasy and headache. The door opened fully and light poured in like water from the hall as she blinked wildly. As Aunt Marian entered the room she automatically took a step back.

She was a pointy sort of woman, with a thin nose and pale brown hair. She ran an examining eye over her niece.

"You didn't rip your stitches moving around, did you?"