Grim, Speak the Shadows

Part 7

No one even glanced in his direction when he joined the others for the meeting, and somehow, that felt worse than them noticing he was late. They just...pretended like he wasn't there. Like they always did.

Hunter was supposed to lead this meeting, Belos trusted him to take charge of it, and here he was, slinking to the back of the room when the meeting was carried on as it was before he got there. He opened his mouth several times to say something, to step up like the leader he was supposed to be, but he found that no words could come out. Simply put, after his little meltdown in the library a few minutes ago, he no longer had the energy to speak. He just sat there, not even paying attention to the things that were discussed, to the things that were spoken. He just sat, staring aimlessly at the others. His head felt too clouded, too panicked to even comprehend what anyone was saying, but it didn't matter, because guess what? No one even cared that he was there. It was doubtful they'd ask for his opinion on anything.

His uncle...Belos would be so displeased if he could see him now. Not only was he late to the coven head meeting, but he wasn't even leading it like he was supposed to--he wasn't even really participating in it. What an incredible, utter failure he was.

---

The meeting ended, and Hunter's stomach still felt like an empty pit. His feelings didn't matter though, he had to square his shoulders and continue on with the Golden Guard facade for the rest of the day. The bright side of all this was that the scouts still seemed to respect him, at least. Probably only because the majority of the scouts didn't know he was 16, or if they did, they didn't care. The scouts just did what they were told by the higher ups, whether said 'higher up' was a literal child or not. It was easier that way for them, everyone here feared Belos' wrath.

But...Yeah, if the majority of the scouts didn't know his true age, that would probably be for the best. He'd been too careless lately, both with taking his mask off in public and with Flapjack. He admittedly hadn't been thinking his decisions through as much lately, and he could probably credit that to the whole escaped palismen fiasco. Ever since he met that human, things had taken quite a wild turn for him. He couldn't say it was all bad though--he had made some friends, hadn't he?

Friends who he wished he could see right now, instead of being stuck here.

With that thought, Hunter reached for his scroll as he walked through one of the many long hallways of the Emperor's castle. His hand stopped though, before dropping back to his side. What was that again, about not thinking his decisions through? He couldn't use his scroll right now, not until he was either off-duty or alone. Honestly, he doubted the coven scouts would care much if they saw him using his scroll (he'd caught a few of them doing that before while on their shift), but it wasn't simple scouts he was worried about.

Again with the paranoia of being caught by the other coven heads. Honestly, it was really annoying how he could never bring himself to fully trust any of them (Raine was probably the only one he'd come close to trusting before, but with how they'd been acting lately...he wasn't sure what to think anymore), but that was just his life, always a bit paranoid about one thing or another.

Well...Didn't paranoia imply that one was being irrationally anxious or oversuspicious? If he'd seen countless proof that he couldn't trust the others (i.e. them constantly stabbing each other in the back and Kikimora trying to kill him on multiple occasions), did that really count as him being paranoid, or was he correct in assuming that they could get him into trouble at any given time? Whatever the case, he had to be careful around them--them meaning the coven heads, Kikimora, and the scouts. He didn't know who to trust, so it was better to not trust anyone, at the moment.

Anyone, except for perhaps, the Emerald Entrails. He couldn't say he 100% trusted them, but he definitely wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. They had, afterall, given him a completely unwarranted second chance after he basically kidnapped them and tried to uproot their lives.