"No, no—stop!" Hunter yelled. A monster chased her down the sidewalk, that's all she could think of to describe it. Panic filled her mind, almost overshadowing the sadness. Tears streaming down her face, she sprinted as fast as she could while continuously looking over her shoulder, she couldn't help it. She came to the park by their house and darted over the fence for an escape, to no avail, it had caught her. Pinned down while bark scraped against her back and ripped her tights, the pressure was unlike anything she had felt before. She started up at...it? The giant figure had rich, black smoke billowing out from is skeletal body, flowing in and out with its breaths. Leathery skin of the same color tethered to its frail— but strong body. Its face hidden in the smoke only revealed sockets where beautiful golden-brown eyes once were.
She felt something hot, no, scorching building up inside what felt like her soul. The heat was filling her whole body, but not quick enough. The long, coriaceous claws moved their grip to her neck. If she could just get a grasp on this, this—whatever it was, maybe she could—"no. No. I can't," Hunter sobbed, hoping the tears would cloud her vision of this strange creature that had been her beautiful mother minutes ago. Even if whatever was simmering inside her could get her out from under these claws, it was her mother. Hunter would rather die at her mother's hands than the other way around. The ghost of her mother in this giant smokey carcass looked up for a moment, seemingly caught-off guard, and then everything went black.
Hunter sprung out of the dream, body covered in sweat, dizzy and disoriented. Air couldn't get into her lungs quick enough, just like it always did when she had THAT night terror. She could feel the tears still pouring out. Her head started to pound, not a normal occurrence with the night terrors she thought.
She felt a hand rubbing her back gently, "Water?" Kayce asked in his nonchalant tone, mixed with a tinge of worry as he handed her the bottle. "Thanks," she said, "What happened, my head hurts like a bitch? I remember training with Peter and then—" "My uncle got you good, you've been out for about 20, you okay?" he interrupted. "Yeah I'm fine the headaches going away, where'd he go?" Hunter looked around the dimly lit training room that could be mistaken for a prison cell. "I was talking about your night terror, not the hit, I know you can take those. And he said he had business to do and to not call him." "Well he could have stayed to check on me," Hunter brushed away the thought as quickly as she mumbled it. Peter wasn't the type, he showed care in other ways. Reading her mind like usual Kayce interrupted her train of thought, "He knows you have me, and it's probably something to do with Lucas Hunt. You know that takes priority."
Hunter hated that name, almost as much as she hated her own name for taking after him. Her mom had said that Hunter was a beautiful name for a girl, even though she got teased at school for it. All because she wanted Hunter to have a piece of her father, Lucas Hunt. Father, biologically, but not dad. If anyone, Peter is her dad, he raised her after her mom died when she was 13, and has taken her in as one of his own. Sure most of her childhood here had been spent on harsh training and missions, but he loves her, feeds her, puts a roof over her head. Peter and Kayce, Peter's older sister's kid, were her family. Unlike her deadbeat father who's out there galavanting around with a child that isn't even his, living the life Hunter and her mom should have had. A life that was also taken away by them.
When Hunter was about 8, her mom got sick. They went to doctors, hospitals, specialists. No one knew what happened. They all listed different virus's, diseases, anything they could say to get us out of there after prescribing loads of medications. She hated doctors for that reason. All they were good for was prescribing shit, and referring us to the next no-good specialist.
Her mom's health kept declining and all the medication just numbed her. She became a shell of the woman she once was, which was bright, charming, funny, loving. But Gwynn kept being an incredible mom through her illness and even through her loopy-ness from the pain meds. She would crack jokes and write Hunter notes that she would hide in her room or lunchbox. Most days she couldn't get out of bed, but if a day came where she could, she would take Hunter on a mother-daughter date. The last one they ever went on was February 20th, 2018. The day her mom turned into that strange creature and died.
That day terrorized Hunter's mind, awake or asleep, it didn't matter. During their date she kept telling her mom they could go home, she saw how frail she was, and as hard as her mother tried to hide the blood she was coughing up, and her struggle to hop out of bed that afternoon. But she insisted on a proper date like she had promised, at their favorite mom and pops restaurant down the street, 'Shirley Temple'. It's like she knew what was coming, and wanted a good last day together. Half of Hunter wanted to go home to take care of her mom, and the other half just so she could hold onto the hope there would be more of these dates. That this illness would magically disappear and they could go back to their normal life, but she knew better, deep down she knew that it would most likely be their last.
Hunter saw it all, she had been taking care of her mother for the past 5 years, with the help of a neighbor, and funds from her only living grandparent, a grandpa with Alzheimer's. She would hear her mom's grim cough and knew to check the garbage for tissues with unusually dark blood. She would find her mother on the ground, the bruises becoming too big to be blamed on clumsy behavior. So she put on a brave face, and dared any tears to fall, enjoying dinner and one last look at that beautiful face before it was ripped away.
After what was the worst night of her life, Hunter woke up in a strange bed that was not her own, trying to think of last night, or however long ago it was as a nightmare. Then she heard a knock on the door. "Hunter, are you up?" the voice of a someone in his early 20's said, as a tall, lean man with dark hair and fair skin opened the door. "I know you must be scared, I'm Peter, I'm an old friend of Gwynn's, I—" Hunter cut him off, "My mom, where is she, is she okay, that thing, that weird monster what was that, I need to go see her," she jumped up. Peter walked over and gently grabbed her hand. "Your mom is gone, I'm sorry Hunter."
As she crashed into the ground Peter caught her, and she embraced his hold. There wasn't an ounce of strength left in her to deflect it. She was sobbing, shaking, hyperventilating, she must have not heard him right. There's no way her mom is dead. She can't be. She sunk down further into Peter and felt her whole world crumble around her.
YOU ARE READING
Scorching
Romance"You don't look at me like you hate me Hunter" Revenge. Hunter is trying to figure that out how far she will go for revenge, while simultaneously confronting her feelings for her so called enemy. She has successfully infiltrated enemy territory, but...
