Hunt Me Down {boyxboy} ✓

Chapter 44

A/N: You can see a schedule for my updates on my tumblr account. For those who are interested, I'll give a link in the comments.

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Nathaniel's POV

"Yes."

A door slammed to our right and we turned our heads to where the sound was coming from. Vallery was running towards us, turning twice to look behind her shoulder at our house. She jumped over the fence with ease and crouched besides us.

"Okay, brief me in, but quick 'cause mom went up, probably to your room, bro, and when she doesn't find you there, she'll go searching for you. I would've come sooner, but dad kept me busy." She shot out and only then did she inhale deeply to catch her breath.

"Hunter was at my room, we got into a fight, he left through the window, slipped and fell to the ground, I tried to climb down the tree to see how he was, but also slipped and fell into the bushes," I filled her in, my eyes going to our front door just in time to see our mother coming out.

"Nathaniel?" She wrapped her long, knitted vest tightly around her body while walking towards us. My heart sped up as I didn't know how to explain the situation. Would Hunter force me to admit to her what just happened right here and now?

"Oh, boy," Vallery straightened up, her eyebrows knitted.

"Nathaniel, sweetie, what's going on?" Our parent was just a few steps away from us.

"Falling... blood..." My sister was muttering. Her mouth formed briefly into a grin before she got back to her worried expression - on purpose, I was sure - and turned around to face our mother who now stood at the other side of the fence.

"Raph's gone missing." Vallery announced in an urgent tone.

"Raph? Who is..." My mom gasped and pointed at me. "What happened to your cheek?"

I reached up towards the spot that was still burning and covered it with my palm. When I retrieved my hand, I looked at it with surprise: it was tinted with a small blotch of red, the result of scraping my face against the leaf-less rose bushes when I fell.

"He cut himself shaving," my twin dismissed the topic with a wave of her hand. "Mom, we have to find Raph."

"Shaving?" My mother repeated in confusion. "But why are you all outside? And Nathaniel, sweetie, why didn't you put a band-aid on it? And why isn't there shaving cream on your face?"

"He wiped it off, obviously," Val replied.

"It was cold," I added on instinct.

"I still don't get..."

"Long story short," Vallery cut off our mother who huffed in response, "Hunter - who is fine is fine, by the way, thanks for asking..." Our parent's frown only deepened at my sister's sassy tone, but the latter had a point - Hunt had torn clothing and was bleeding from his elbow and knee, yet mom had only inquired after my minor injury. My sister went on:

"So Hunter let his pet turtle Raph on the sill so he - the turtle, I mean - could look outside, but the window was ajar, Raph pushed it open and got onto the tree; Hunt went out after him, lost his footing and screamed; Nat, who was shaving in the bathroom, startled and cut himself, after which he got out of the bathroom, looked out the window of his room and saw Hunt on the ground so he ran outside..."

"Ran?" Our mother's eyes narrowed and I gulped. "I didn't see him run out."

"That was because you were too busy glaring at me while delivering the final lines of your 'how you shouldn't behave' speech," Val explained with an annoyed inflection; I couldn't tell whether it was real or if she was faking it to make the story more believable.