A Hunter's Heart

Chapter 2

“Where is she,” Ada muttered to herself as she wandered down the dairy aisle at the very back of the market. She had just sent Sang to get some cereal that she liked, it shouldn't be taking almost 20 minutes.

Ada turned down the breakfast aisle, but didn't see her kid. She sighed wondering where the hell the teen would have gone. She pushed her cart into the aisle, figuring she would check the book area next as that was Sang's favorite spot in the store.

As she was walking, she felt something hard beneath her shoe. The woman's brows furrowed as she looked down, finding a small clear stone on the floor. 

She bent down to grab it, figuring she could add it to her collection, when she recognized the gold etchings on it.

It was a stone from Sang's Rune set she had gifted her the day before. What was it doing on the floor? Sang would never have lost it. She was extremely careful with her belongings as she didn't grow up with much.

Ada looked at the rune.

Mannaz,  mankind and culture.

A bad feeling began to crawl up the woman's spine.

The rune was also equivalent to the letter ‘M’ in the English alphabet.

Ada quickly pulled out her phone and dialed the number on Sang's burner phone. She had given it to her  a few days after she came back, just in case of an emergency. She would have given Sang a real phone, but she had realized after eavesdropping on the Sorenson's fight about Sang, that the girl was a ghost. All of her documents were fake, and she had never been to a doctor or any other government facility so she essentially didn't exist in the government's eye. The burner phone was to make sure that she remained a ghost for as long as possible. Neither she nor Sang wanted her family to come after her again, so she had to stay hidden.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang, until the voicemail could be heard through the speaker. Ada growled in frustration before trying again. 

She tried a total of six calls and ten texts before she stopped, now in full panic. 

Sang would have answered by now, unless something had happened.

She looked around the isle for any clues on what could have happened to her. There were no signs of a struggle. No scent of sulfur or anything that could lead back to a demon. All she had was the runestone, which was currently held tightly in her fist.

She stopped, glancing back down at it. She stared for a moment, when it finally clicked.

M.

M stood for Marie.

A fear that she hadn't felt since Sang was stolen away the first time washed over her.

Her ‘Family’ had her, and they were going to hurt her.

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Sang groaned as she awoke, her body stiff and wrists sore. Green eyes fluttered open, glancing around a dark, familiar room.

She tensed.

How… how was she back here?

Back in the basement of her old house. The very place she had been locked up so many times before her mother became too sick and needed constant care.

Sang tried to stand, only to be unable to move as she was held down to a flat wooden chair by rough ropes. She looked around her frantically.

The wooden chair was one she had recognized. It was one that had been left by the previous owners of the house. It was solid, sturdy wood, with a flat uncomfortable seat, arm rests and a slotted back. The back however, wasn't there anymore. Sang leaned back as much as she could without tipping over, feeling where the back had been sawed off and small nubbs had been left. The arm rests were still there, though, as she was bound to them.