The Hunter Chronicles

Chapter 4

     I wasn’t exactly sure how long I stayed in the café. All I knew was that my feet felt like bricks of lead, so I knew I wasn’t going to go anywhere for a while. I was relieved that no one came to look for me here; maybe they knew that I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Plus they knew that I was a big girl, I could take care of myself and that was exactly what I was doing. I had simply needed to get away from everything for a little bit to sort out my thoughts; there was nothing wrong with that. The more I thought about what Darius said, the more upset I got. As if James really expected me to get over him that easily. I couldn’t believe that he had the audacity to ask me if we could still talk like nothing had ever happened between us. And the fact that he had Darius ask me too made it even worse.

     When the sun started to go down I slid out of my booth. I dropped a twenty dollar bill on the table and said to Tom, “Keep the change.” He smiled gratefully at me and waved as I walked outside. I groaned when I realized that I would have to walk home. My car was in the school lot and I was betting that the gates would be closed by now. Then I realized that I would have to walk to school tomorrow morning, which would be even worse than walking home tonight. I sighed and carefully avoided a deep puddle on the sidewalk. My shyer side was coming out now. Sure I didn’t live in a bad neighborhood, but either way it was still scary when it was getting dark and I was all alone. I heard a splash behind me, obviously someone was walking straight though the puddle I had just avoided.

     My muscles started to freeze up in terror, but I forced myself to continue forward. From the amount of splashing I heard, I knew there was more than one person behind me. I quickly glanced behind me. There were four men. They were all muscular and over a foot taller than me. I didn’t stand a chance. I silently cursed myself for being so short and for refusing to take self defense lessons, “It will never happen to me.” I had scoffed when my mom brought up the thought of it. Now I wished I had. If I made it through this I definitely would. They increased their stride so they were gaining on me much quicker. I broke out into a run. My feet struck the pavement in loud slaps. Why did I have to wear flip flops today? Their feet pounded on the sidewalk in unison, it was obvious that I was not the first girl that they had done this too. At that moment I must have been distracted by my thoughts, because my foot got tangled up in my flip flop and I fell forward smacking my face on the concrete.    

     I knew that I had hurt myself, but there was so much adrenaline going through me that I hardly noticed any pain. A rough hand grabbed me by the back of my shirt and hoisted me into the air. He turned me so I was looking into his beady black eyes. If he hadn’t been my kidnapper, then I might have thought he and the other three men with him were cute. But under the current situation I was just scared out of my mind, “A little late to be walking around alone isn’t it?” He asked, his voice was soothing, I found myself falling towards him which was strange because I knew he was holding me still. I gulped, almost afraid to answer, but then I said in a quavering voice, “Well when you run away from school and leave your car there, you don’t have much choice but to walk home.”

     The man seemed truly surprised. He hadn’t expected me to have a sense of humor when I was being kidnapped, or even killed or other things like that. He looked at the other guys, then shrugged. But before he could say anything a familiar voice rang out from behind them, “Let her go.” I sighed in relief as Darius stepped around them, “You know her?” The man holding me asked. It was like they knew each other, almost like they were acquaintances, “Yes I know her, I go to school with her, and she is not yours for the taking. Go find someone else.” His voice was firm, and the man listened, he set me down and looked me over one last time, “You know Darius, you won’t always be able to protect this one. There will come a day when one of us finds her before you can stop them.” With that sentence, I knew they were not friends.

     Darius glared at them and grabbed my hand. He pulled me away from the and set a quick pace back towards my house, “You should think before you act.” He grumbled, “How did you know them.” He stopped me, his charcoal eyes were dark, “It’s nothing you need to worry about, I just knew them at a time. Obviously we are not friends though.” “Obviously.” I scoffed, “Hey, I just saved your life. Don’t start getting all snippy with me.” I was going to point out that he was the one acting snippy, but I decided against it. Instead I threw my hands up in the air as a gesture of defeat. Then the weight of what had just happened hit me like a train, “You just saved my life.” I gasped. He pulled me into a hug, “Yes I did, and you are welcome. Don’t be too freaked out though, you are fine.” I let a few tears fall, then I pulled away from him and put on a brave face.

     I was still burning with curiosity about how Darius had had as much power over those men as he did. But I knew it was not a good time to question him. I smiled at him. His dark hair was ruffled and it looked incredibly cute, so I reached up and tentatively smoothed it out. He seemed shocked, but he grabbed my hand again and looked into my eyes. There was something there, something that was threatening to break free. I knew he wanted to tell me something, but in the end, he decided against it. The wind ruffled his hair again and I just laughed. He smiled down at me. A wall was built up behind his eyes. I wouldn’t be able to see any emotions they held anymore, “Let’s get you home.” He murmured almost to himself.

     He gently guided me and reassured me the whole time that I was safe with him and always would be. When we reached my front porch he hugged me swiftly, then loped off into the darkness. I watched him go with a sense of dread in my bones. There was something about Darius that drew me to him. I found myself constantly drowning in his deep eyes, but I knew that when we did date. I would feet it was more than just revenge dating. I had never thought I would love anyone more than James, but now that I had seen a different side of Darius, I knew I had been wrong.

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