PROBLEM - Anthony Lockwood

CHAPTER SIXTY TWO

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lxii

in which i am very sorry to all my characters for all of their trauma

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"A FUCKING HERETIC!"

Alice grabbed George, pulling him to the ground as the flare exploded.

"Shit," she hissed, "Hunter."

And, true to her words, they scrambled away to see two men glaring. They looked to be young and arrogant. Perhaps in their early twenties. Their matching ashen blond hair suggested they were brothers.

Alice grit her teeth, jumping up and standing in front of George. Onyx hissed.

"Leave this place!" Alice warned, "This is Tyburn Gallows, you're out of your depths."

One of the hunters laughed harshly, grabbing a crossbow, "What are you going to do? Summon the devil?"

Baby hunters.

Alice rolled her eyes, "If you're going to hunt my kind, at least attempt to learn about us."

"We don't need to learn about you to kill you!" the other hissed, grabbing an iron chain.

Alice clenched her jaw, her eyes falling on George, who had unsheathed his rapier. She had gotten caught and hesitated because of her fear of chains earlier that night. This time, hesitation would kill George.

She watched as some shades began to creep through the bushes.

"George," Alice advised in a low voice, "Pick up Onyx and run. The ghosts won't hurt you if you're holding her."

"I'm not leaving you," George hissed.

Alice clenched her jaw, "You don't want to see what I'm about to do."

Oh no.

George spied the look in Alice's eyes and the way she stood, proudly and with angry eyes, hair blowing in the wind. He felt sick.

She was going to kill them.

George grabbed the black cat, carrying her and making to turn around.

"Where are you going?!" A hunter demanded, jeering at him, "We're going to kill you too, don't worry."

"He's human," Alice yelled.

The hunter with the crossbow shrugged, "A witch sympathiser is as bad as a heretic herself."

And then he raised the crossbow.

Alice jumped in front of George, grunting and staggering as a crossbow bolt imbedded itself in her shoulder.

"Alice!"

"Onyx!" Alice hissed in reply, "Protect him."

George yelled in a mixture of pain and surprise as the cat flailed in his arms and bit his hand. But the bite didn't hurt, instead, George felt as if he had been dunked into a warm bath. He backed away.

Alice grabbed the bolt from her shoulder and pulled it out. Dropping it on the ground as if it didn't even hurt her. Her fingers were stained with her own blood.

"Since you're a baby hunter, I'm going to speak out loud, so you know what's coming," Alice advised, there was a sick, twisted look in her eyes that made George realise she was enjoying this.

Alice threw her hands up, tapping into her magic.

"Spirits heed my call!"

The hunter scrambled back, shooting another bolt, but the shades and lurkers from the bushes darted out, seeming to converge and forming a barrier that stopped the projectile.