The Hunted

Two

Blake

The other side of the bed was cold when she woke up.  Sunlight streamed in through the cracks in the window, leaving a fractured shadow across her face.  She opened her eyes blearily, blinking out the light, and groaned as she threw her arm over her face. 

Blake was many things but a morning person she was not.

            Still, there were things to be done.  Chores that needed to be completed, training courses to run, a shift at the restaurant to be finished.  The day was short and it was only made shorter the longer she slept in.  Given the chill of the other side of the bed, Malachi must have been awake for a while now.  Not surprising given that he was one of the community leaders and his days were always busier than hers.

            Reluctantly, Blake hoisted herself out of bed.  She dressed quickly, pulling on the jeans and top she'd worn when she'd come to visit Malachi the night before.  The rest of her things were back at the house she shared with her brother on the other side of town.  She would need to go home before she was really ready to take on the day.

            Blake headed for the window instead of the front door.  It was a bungalow and the drop to the ground was only six feet.  The risk of falling was better than the risk of being caught by Malachi's sisters.  Blake wasn't ready to face them with this.  She didn't want anyone else to know.

            She crept her way home, avoiding all of the souls that she saw.  She strayed near but didn't go into the dense expanse of the Boise National Forest and the monsters that hid within its depths. 

Even now, years after it had happened, Blake felt the hair on the back of her neck begin to stand on end.  One of her hands strayed to the knife she always kept in her belt loop.  Though she still liked the woods, Blake never forgot what lurked inside. 

            It was only when she bounded up the steps leading to the back door of her house, some ten minutes later, that Blake's shoulders relaxed. Her brother was standing by the sink in the kitchen washing dishes when she walked into the house and locked the door behind her.

            "Have a good night?" Josh asked as he scrubbed at a plate with a sponge.  There was a bitter note to his voice, his lips downturned at the corners, but he hardly spared her a glance. 

            They looked remarkably similar, even for siblings.  People often mistook them for twins, though Josh, at twenty, was three years younger than she was.  They both had the same midnight black hair, brown skin, and grey eyes.  He was taller than she was but only by a few inches. 

            Blake glared.  "You know I didn't."

            "I don't know why you do this."

            "Yes, you do."  She crossed the kitchen to throw open the fridge.  There was a cluster of apples on the top shelf.  She pulled one out and took a bite. 

            Josh rinsed off the suds on the plate and turned to look at her.  His brows furrowed over his eyes, creating a solid black line on his forehead.  "Blake—"

            "I don't have a choice, Josh.  You know that I don't." 

            "I hate this."

            "Not as much as I do."

            Her brother sighed and went to sit at the table.  "Did he tell you anything?"

            She shook her head and swallowed another bite of the apple before she spoke.  "More of the same.  A few of the trackers came back late last night.  Another dead in Seattle and a few in Chicago.  Seems to be unrelated.  The Seattle count is up to five.  Malachi said he may send me out somewhere soon along with a few of the trainees but hasn't made any decisions yet."