The Hunter

Interview

Finn stared out the window as the bus carried her through the city, lost in her thoughts as the lights carved bright holes through reality. The vehicle stopped off and on, picking up passengers or dropping them off she didn't care or notice, and then continued carrying her toward her destination.

She noticed when the man sat beside her. He took up more space than necessary, over flowing his seat into hers but not the one on his other side. She rolled her eyes at the night outside the bus and waited. After two stops the man stood up and moved to the door, leaving behind a miasma of cologne and body odour. 

Finn pulled the alert string and moved to stand at the door, stepping onto the sidewalk as soon as they opened and moving along the street. When the bus continued past her on its route she glanced behind it and then crossed the street to the small unkempt park. She frowned at the wolfsbane growing out of season and out of place, but left the flowers alone. A pull on her leg as she stepped forward had her fighting her instincts to defend herself, standing still and allowing the tug to persist.

"Hello?" Finn made her voice quaver.

"Greetings Sister." The voices were in nearly perfect tandem and Finn felt a reluctant respect for the people that were trying to scare her.

"Who's there?" Finn knew it was expected of her to ask, although she knew more about the people she was meeting than they would know. It was always a good idea to stalk your prey before any hunt.

"Be at peace Sister, we mean you no harm." A person in a long dark cloak stepped from a deeper shadow. A hood and cowl made seeing their face impossible in the deepening darkness. "You have passed the first of three tests, but now we must insist you attempt the second."

A second person, dressed similarly to the first, stepped forward and added their voice to the obviously rehearsed script. "You should notice now that you are unable to move from your place. Be at ease, you will not come to harm." Finn turned her head to the third person, waiting for them to take their turn. Her patience with this had worn out with the wolfsbane.

"Why is she looking at me?" Hissed from the shadow where Finn focused her attention.

"She is wise, she knows you are in the third position. We seek our fourth, and that is where she came in." The first person circled their arm, careful to keep their hand hidden while they urged their friend to do their part. Their friend stepped from the shadows, their hands tucked into their sleeves but the hood not drawn up as high. Finn caught movement as this person looked back and forth between their friends before uttering their part of the script.

"Be at ease and answer true for the truth will set you free."

The first one stepped forward again, Finn felt the skin on the back of her neck rise as she realized how they wanted this 'interview' to go. Her personal space issues aside this was just tacky. "To whom do we owe our gift of magic?"

"Yeah sorry, this isn't going to work out for me." Finn answered and stepped out of her shoes. The three people ripped back their hoods and glared at her.

"What do you think you're doing?" The first one barked at her, and Finn smiled.

"Well I was looking for someone to answer a higher calling and I thought it was one of you, but it's not. Carry on with whatever you were doing." Finn turned to leave, her shoes still essentially glued to the ground of the park, and took a step.

"Oh I don't think so." A wall of air shimmered between Finn and the park exit, only a step away. "You don't get to waste our time and then accuse us of wasting yours." Finn turned to address the first person again. 

"I didn't accuse you of anything."

"Accusation by implication. My dad's a lawyer, I know things." The second person pulled something out of their robe and popped it in their mouth, chewing a moment before blowing a bubble that popped a cloud of thick, cloyingly sweet scent into the air.

Finn shrugged. "You want to start a werewolf hunting coven you go ahead, but that isn't what I'm looking for and it's not what I agreed to talk about when I agreed to this 'interview'. Now drop the wall."

The first person laughed and crossed their arms over their chest. "If you aren't against them you stand with them. I will not allow you to assist the mangy curs." Finn frowned as the third person, obviously the youngest and the least sure of what the plan was, pulled a set of gloves out of her cloak. She moved around Finn and carefully pulled one of the flowers off the plant.

"Oh?" Finn asked, her eyes brightening as she realized the flower was for her. "I didn't give you enough credit."

"Eat the flower. We will make sure your family knows where to find your corpse." The venom inherent in the tone of the first person's speech was impressive.

"Oh I don't think so." Finn waved her hand and the flower ignited, followed closely by the ones behind the third person who dropped to her knees and cried out in shock and horror. The wind wall that had existed a moment before dissipated and Finn lifted her now freed shoes from the ground, tucking them under her arm as she stepped from the park.

"I don't care how over grown this park is, you need to think of the consequences to your actions. Wolfsbane? In a park?" Finn waved on hand at the slide and the teetertotters that were half buried in weeds. "Any kid touches those pretty flowers they won't survive. I'll ignore your attempts to magically attack me, they weren't worth getting our authorities involved, but I guarantee you anything happens involving poisons of any type over the next few months the cops will know who's doors to knock on."

"My mom's gonna kill me." The third person knelt on the ground and stared at the flames that were now devouring the pots and soil the flowers had been in. "She doesn't know I took those. She never would have let me. Those things are expensive!"

Finn shook her head and walked out of the park, leaving the three people behind her. At her bus stop she sat down to put her shoes back on and leaned back against the glass wind barrier to regain her composure.

"I feel like I should apologize, but I won't." The second person joined Finn on the bench. "My names Rebecca."

Finn grunted. "I would have thought someone who's got a lawyer for a daddy would have their own wheels."

"Dad thinks we have to earn everything. I prefer the bus for the most part. I want a place to live where I don't have to worry about the landlord kicking me to the curb. Saving up for a house or something suits me better." Rebecca kept chewing her gum while they sat. Across the street the fires had gone down now and the other two were arguing, throwing their hands in the air with vehemence but keeping their voices down.

"I suppose I should give your little group a second chance?" Finn sighed and looked at Rebecca.

"Why? That is legit the only reason we formed a Coven at all, was to hunt-" She looked across the street. "Well. I joined because it wasn't going to be just werewolves. We were supposed to be like a Justice League kind of thing. But Susan there has reasons to target werewolves in particular, and Kevin just kinda does what she's told. You gotta do what's right for you."

Finn nodded and glanced at the identification for the bus that had just turned this way. Not hers. Rebecca glanced as well and then, popping her gum, she stood.

"I do have one question. I would think with the fires you lit that you were a fire elemental, but you knocked out the wind too and lifted my spell on your shoes. What are you?"

Finn looked Rebecca in the eye. "Not interested."

Rebecca laughed and flashed her id at the bus driver before she sat down. Finn waited until Kevin and Susan had cleared out of the park before she caught her own bus, an extra hour of sitting in the cooling evening, but worth it to make sure their idiocy didn't have any unintended consequences . She climbed the bus steps, bone weary, and greeted the driver by name. As the doors closed and the bus lurched into motion she slumped into the front set of seats. If she didn't find a candidate soon there would be hell to pa.