Night Of The Hunter

Prologue

Background intro

Murder, grave desecration, assaulting a police officer... just a few of the charges attached to my name. Boston, Amherst, Denver, Allentown, Dayton—I'm wanted in all of them.

Arabella Cassidy Callahan. That's me. A name law enforcement across the country would love to cross off their most-wanted lists. They've tried to lock me up more times than I can count, but I always manage to slip through. I'm not just some criminal on the run—I'm something else. Something they can't quite explain. I'm what you'd call an Evolved Human. A Super Soldier.

My parents raised me to fight monsters. And I don't mean the human kind. They were hunters—of the supernatural. The real deal. Creatures that stalk the night, demons, spirits, things most people don't believe in... I grew up knowing they were real. And it was my job to stop them.

I was sixteen when everything fell apart. Bryan, my older brother, had just left for college in New York. It was just me, my younger siblings, and our parents in Dallas. One night, I woke up choking on the smell of smoke. My instincts kicked in, and I ran straight to my parents' room—but it was empty. Black smoke curled through the cracks in the doors.

I screamed for them. Nothing. I ran downstairs and saw them lying unconscious on the floor, flames creeping closer. I lost it. Tears blurred my vision as I tried everything to wake them—shaking, slapping, begging. I managed to drag them toward the front door, but before I could get them out, the kitchen exploded.

The blast flung me through the foyer and out onto the front lawn. I remember the chill of the night air against my skin right before everything went black.

Next thing I knew, I woke up in what looked like a hospital. But something felt off. No visitors' chairs, no windows, just me, some machines, and a small mirror. I checked my body for cuts or burns—nothing. Not even a bruise. And yet... I felt different. Stronger. Like something inside me had changed.

I wasn't in a hospital. I was in a government facility. They called it Project X.

Project X is a covert military research facility. They didn't just treat patients—they created weapons. Weapons like me. Using gene splicing and supernatural DNA, they attempted to create the perfect soldier. Alot of their test subjects didn't survive.

But I did.

The enhancements gave me speed, strength, agility, and more. My senses were sharper. My reflexes faster. And because of the combat training I got growing up, I adapted quickly to their drills. I was already a soldier. They just made me something more.

While I was there, I met people who changed my life. One of them was my half-sister—someone I never knew existed. Another? A guy who got under my skin and into my heart. I built bonds inside those walls, but I never fully let my guard down.

After seven years, we couldn't take it anymore. I needed out. And I wasn't leaving without them. We broke free with a handful of others, dodging bullets, guards, and the ghosts of everything we left behind. But freedom came with a price.

He didn't make it.

And I've been haunted ever since.

We went dark. We hid. And when the coast was clear, we made our way to New York to find Bryan.

Since then, I've trained my sister in everything I know. Hunting. Survival. How to spot a monster from a mile away. We're strong on our own, but together? We're a storm.

But peace never lasts.

And the past always has a way of finding you.