Effects of a story

Chapter 9

"We gotta go....now" I whisper apprehensively as I watched the Death Hunter scan the area on his deer-like creature that I didn't even know they had. I crossed my fingers in hope that he didn't see our figures through the thin, translucent leaves.

"Do you know him?" Altheda asks innocently.

"I know he is gonna try to kill us". She gasped at my response. I knew he was going to find us and he would easily outrun us. Suddenly, I felt a rough texture clutch onto my left arm. I clenched my fists and felt my arm muscles tense. I looked over and saw Altheda grasping my arm, tucking it into her chest. I smiled as she trusts me and I'm not usually good with people, it made me feel an even greater pressure to protect her. "You need to leave, please go!".

"What about you?" She asked and stared at me with her big blue eyes.

"I have to distract him" I responded but she wasn't satisfied with my answer. I could tell she was about to resist so I said the same thing Cliff said to me. "I promise it is going to be okay".

"Okay" she gave in. "When will I see you again?"

"Real soon" I gave a fake smile as she let go of my arm. "Hurry"

I watched as she sprinted away, braking twigs and rustling leaves. The Death Hunter pointed his gun in my direction. The odds of him shooting me were pretty slim since they wanted me as a public sacrifice but I wouldn't take the chance.

Ninety percent of me wanted to give up, die and rot in hell but I still had that ten percent that told me I needed to fight.

I picked up a medium sized, grayish rock and felt the rugged composition of confined sand. It brought back horrible memories of Vie and my father but it also reminded me why I had to kill that Death Hunter.

His deer-like creature began to trot towards me, while he aimed the gun at me and kept it close to his chest. I fiercely threw the rock and watched it crack his thick skull and he let out a loud cry. I relived the memory of my fathers death, as I had hit him again. I shielded myself to get away from the nightmare but I knew it would haunt me forever. I looked up and saw the Death Hunter had fallen off the creature and is now bleeding at the side of his head. Yet the deer-like creature was unoccupied. I looked farther into the forest only to see dozens of Death Hunters galloping towards me on their deer-like creatures. I quickly got up onto the dead Death Hunter's one and it started to dash. I wrapped my hand in the rope that was tied around its neck as I looked behind me to see all of the Death Hunters gaining on me.

"Faster" I told the creature but it continued at the same pace. The forest was a complete blur of green and brown and the wind pushed my hair all over the place. I turned my head again and saw one of the Death Hunters had his gun pointed at me. Suddenly I heard a gunshot echo in my ears. The creature and I both toppled over into a large ditch when I realized the deer-like creature has a bullet hole in one of it's legs. The other Death Hunters came to a jolt stop and got off their deer-like creatures. Two of them lifted me up with such force and whipped me into a tiny cage that was being pulled by the deer-like creature. I hoped that Altheda got away safety and she found Cliff because I knew it wouldn't be very long till I rotted in hell.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was placed back into my cell with the repelling chains and the repugnant smell. No one had even bothered to remove my father's rotting finger. Suddenly I could hear someone banging on the steel bars of the cage. I looked over and saw the Story Priest with his face painted a shinny gold and a devious smile on his face.

"Hello Starlit" he said evilly but I decided to keep my mouth shut, talking to an animal like him was a waste of my breath. "A couple things happened while you were on your little...journey......for one the population has went down quite a bit, second we've had a little...upgrade and finally a little deal is off the table".

He was sickening by the fact that I would ever become a Death Hunter, I gave him a vile glance and he seemed to get a little scared.

"In three days it is Vie's Story Priest ceremony and you have the wonderful job of being the...guest of honor, in other words the sacrifice". He told me happily. "We will make sure you don't disappoint us....well see you then."

When he exited the room, I sighed as my life would be over in three days.

"Starlit" I heard a sweet voice flout so softly into my eardrums.

"Altheda" I whisper shouted. I couldn't see her so I thought I went crazy.

All of a sudden I felt a poke on my shoulder and realized she was sitting beside me. "Common we gotta get you out of here."

"How di..i..d...you?" I stuttered in shock, as she pulled at the chains.

"I'm a mutant" she answered but I must have still had a look of confusion. "We are really good at tracking down people and when we want to find someone there is no limits".

She broke open the chains on my wrists and ankles and pulled apart the bars of the cell.

"Whoa" I said in astonishment as she pulled me by the hand and we go out this emergency door.

We both run straight for the forest as usual and when we were far enough away we stopped.

"Thank you for saving me back there" I panted and it took a while for her to answer since she was catching her breath.

"I had to make sure you kept your promise" she laughed then wrapped her scaly arms around me in a hug "besides I don't think you would taste that good"

I laughed as she remembered how I told her about how you have to eat the sacrifices.

"And that's not a good way to die" Altheda told me, we were both sitting on grass patches that were surrounded by dirt.

"Really, how do you want to die?"

"Well I don't really want to die but if I had to, I would want to travel." She answers, the trees created a cooling shade. "I love being on the move...how would you want to die?"

"I don't know, defiantly not to satisfy some belief." I answered, I didn't plan that far ahead.

Abruptly, her and I both heard another gunshot reverberate through the whole forest. And then another. And another.

"What's happening?" Altheda panicky asked as she held on to my arm.

"Someone gave an idiot a gun" I answered, trying to get her to laugh and leave her anxiety behind.

"Can we leave, Starlit?" she still was concerned.

"Sure, this way" we both stand up and start to walk towards the sun but the gun shots just get louder.

I looked over at Altheda and she has her eyes closed with her hands over her ears, trying to get away from reality.

I stopped us and turned the other direction but the gunshots were still loud and consistent.

All of a sudden,I heard an incredibly loud shot be fired and saw a fast, black blur miss my head by an inch. I looked over at Atheda and saw that a bullet had hit her in the heart.