Hunter

Chapter Eleven - Breaking and Entering

Deirdre and I were crouched outside of Jasper's house. He lived with his mom, so that meant, if we woke him up, his mom would definitely be awake. As quiet as we could be, which wasn't that quiet for me, we snuck around the side of the house to find Jasper's window. Standing underneath it, Dee decided that it'd be a great idea to climb up the side of the house and hop in through the opening. I didn't feel much like dying that day, so I settled for a simpler alternative.

"Why don't we just call him?"

"What?" she asked, a look of realization smeared onto her face.

"Jasper. We could just call him and he can come out back." She pursed her lips in understanding, surprised by the simplicity of it all.

"Yeah..." she mused. "Let's do that." I pulled out my phone and dialed.

"What?" His voice was deep and raspy, laced with an irritated undertone.

"Jasper, it's Hayley. We're outside." He was silent for a while, then his bedroom window opened and he snuck out, barely making a single sound. He crouched down on his roof before jumping off next to us, his landing barely raising a cloud of dust. He stood up straight, rising well above Dee and slightly above me. His dark eyes stared down at me, scanning my face as though he hadn't seen me in ages.

"Are you okay? What do you need?" His voice was concerned, and my train of thought went off the rails.

"You." Wrong answer. "I mean," I panicked. "We need you! We have a mission, and we need your help." He grinned, but I could see the apprehension behind his smile.

"Jasper, Hayley was approached by Aphrodite's Celestial." His eyes widened a fraction and then trailed down to my bare neck. Realization dawned and a hard look overcame him, despite his efforts to fight it. He didn't speak.

"We need to find my necklace," I added carefully. "Otherwise, a lot of catastrophic things that I know nothing about might happen. To do that, we need your help." He glanced behind him, if only for a second, and then looked back at us. His hesitation was clearly evident, and I had a sneaking suspicion why.

"Your mom will be fine, and so will you."

"I'm not worried about her," he responded curtly. "It doesn't matter. This is important, and I'm in. I'll pack my bags and we'll leave: I know exactly where we need to go."

* Ω *

Jasper gathered his belongings, got dressed, and led us on a trek to a river that was about a mile away. The hike was unbearable, and I spent most of it swatting at bugs that landed on my skin. When we arrived, a wave a relief washed over me. Looking around, the only thing I saw was water stretching out for many miles. The river was deep and cold: just being within close proximity of it gave me the ability to know the exact dimensions. That power surprised me but thrilled me.

"There's a boat down that way." Jasper pointed to the right and led us down the muddy banks of the river, our shoes getting stuck in the texture. We made it to the dock, with much struggle, and clambered into the boat which resembled a small fishing dinghy, no bigger than a dining table. I sat there waiting for something to happen, staring at my hands in my lap. Deirdre and Jasper were both looking at me expectantly.

"What?"

"Hayle, move the boat. You know, with the water and stuff." My shoulders tensed.

"That was your plan?" He shrugged. "I don't know if--"

"Hayley, you can do it." Dee encouraged. "Trust me on this one." Inhaling a lungful of air, I closed my eyes and focused. I tapped my foot in irritation when nothing changed when I was suddenly hit with awareness. I could feel the water moving around the boat and splashing on the wood. I could feel all sorts of fish swimming around the murky water, their small bodies flapping around. I could feel the reeds swaying in the current, their roots buried deep in the sand. I reopened my eyes, overtaken by confidence. "Where to?"