HUNTERS 1: The Awakening

Dream

CHAPTER 1: Dream

Zeke….

The voice of the girl echoed throughout the desolate night. A voice I’ve heard so many times yet never remembered whose it is. A voice so close to my heart yet so distant from my mind.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying underneath a giant tree by the side of a clear stream. I was seven years old that time. The air was warm and the sun’s rays gently touched my skin. The banks of the stream were elevated, forming a small, cliff-like edge not four feet above the stream. I remember this place. It was a place I’ve always went to when I was a kid. A place that I found when I was pretending to be an adventurer, trying to find a secret treasure, fighting bad guys who were after it too. I accidentally fell in one of the small cliffs and hurt my knee. When I looked up and scanned my surroundings, I saw the old tree and at that instant I knew, the place is going to be my secret hideout. Ever since then, I’ve always played in that place. I made a fort and filled the place with the stuff I found and the stuff my father gave me. Then one day, to my surprise, I found someone else in my hideout.

I went to the hideout at noon. The sun was already high when I reached the place and saw her. A girl, probably the same age as me. A small girl with brown eyes and long brown hair, wearing a white dress was looking at a snow globe my father gave me a few months ago. She was holding the globe to her face with both hands looking with eyes that were filled with curiosity. I stood there a moment, unable to react. Then I spoke.

“Hey,” I started, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

The little girl was startled by my voice and accidentally let go of the snow globe. It fell on a rock and broke into a thousand pieces on the ground. The girl was horrified and started crying.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, “I didn’t mean to break it! Please don’t kill me!”

She took a step back while putting her hands in front of her and tripped on a root. She fell on her behind and started inching away from me while crying even harder. I got nervous because I’ve never made a girl cry before.

“Hey, no, umm, it’s alright. I just, don’t worry, I won’t kill you”, I say nervously. Then I saw it, she had a scratch on her knee that looked like it came from something sharp.

“Look, don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” I said as I walked closer to her cautiously while holding out my hand in front of me.

The little girl stifled her sob a bit and looked at me. Then, she slowly took my hand and I pulled her up slowly. I sat her up on a rock next to the tree and pulled out a bandage from my pocket (It was something my mother had always put inside my shorts since I always end up with cuts and scratches from my “adventures”) and gently put it on the scratch on her knee.

She smiled at me, while stifling her sobs and trying to stop her tears from flowing. For the first time, I saw her brown eyes light up.

“Thank you”, she said.

Then I wasn’t there anymore. I was pulled into another place. I was sixteen again, walking a long, circular, stone staircase that led to a room on the top of a tower. Inside, the room was like a scene straight out of a book about medieval times that my sister had always loved to read. The room was a bit dark. The only source of light was the giant, golden chandelier that hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room. The walls were covered with pictures of men and women wearing garbs, robes and gowns encased in golden frames that were intricately designed. The curtains and drapes were velvet in color and the wooden furniture only made it look more ancient. In the middle of the room, below the chandelier was a bed with green blankets and pillows. Then, on the far side corner of the room, beside the balcony, was a woman wearing a white flowing gown. The woman was beautiful, with her raven hair flowing freely and her white, porcelain like skin along with her blue eyes illuminated by the moonlight, she looked like a goddess.

Suddenly, from the window beside her, a man appeared. He looked like a phantom, a living shadow of some kind. He had black shoulder length hair and dark black eyes that looked like they’ll suck in your soul if you lock eyes with him. He also had a beard that made him look a bit like he was in his thirties. Dark circles were visible under his eyes which were proof that he wasn’t sleeping right these past nights. He was dressed in a long black cloak and there was something glittering on his side as the moonlight shone on him. His eyes seemed so familiar to me as if I’ve seen them so many times before.

“My love, I cannot bare this anymore,” the man started to speak. His eyes were telling her that he was truly in pain.

“You must. If you don’t, then all our sacrifice will be but for naught”, the woman replied. Her voice was so soothing, so reassuring that the man’s eyes welled up.

“But if I leave you here, what reason do I have left to live?” he took the woman’s hand in his and held it close to his chest, “The reason I agreed on this was because I wanted to be with you, to have a family. To be with you is what I truly wish.”

“And we shall be together,” she put her hand on his cheek and looked him in the eye, “but for now you must leave. Leave before they find out about it” she said gesturing to the shining thing on the man’s side.

I looked closer at the thing on the man’s side and saw something moving. It was a small sphere, not bigger than an apple. It seemed to be aware of everything that was happening, as if it has its own mind.

“I can’t…..I just can’t”, the man sobbed.

“My love, the two of us will be separated, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be here anymore. You and I are in love…and that is our greatest blessing, for this love is eternal. I am bound to you as a tree is bound to the ground. You are mine, and I am yours no matter what”, the woman cupped the man’s face and kissed him. A kiss that seemed to last forever, a kiss that seemed so simple, yet felt so passionate. It was love, true and forever.

The lovers were suddenly interrupted by a loud crash outside the room. Another shadow moved on the balcony’s railings where the lovers were standing, wearing a cloak black as tar. The person’s face was covered by the hood he or she was wearing.

“Alexander, we must hurry, they’re already here”, the shadow spoke with a woman’s voice. The shadow’s face was obscured by the shadow of her hood but I could see her anxiety as she spoke.

“Go now. You must make haste before my brother finds out. Before he dooms us all”, the woman’s face showed a strong familiarity to someone I’ve seen before. Someone I’ve spent so much time with.

The door suddenly thwarted open and a bunch of soldiers with silver halberds and weird insignias on their armor spilled into the room just as the man took a step unto the balcony’s railings and looked at his lover who had a reassuring smile on her face. The shadow that came for him had already vanished even before the guards filed in.

The single second stretched to a minute, as if playing frame by frame. He took one last look at his lover who had a look of reassurance, but still, evident on that look was fear. Then he jumped.

I woke up. Beads of cold sweat lined up my whole body and I was breathing heavily. The window was open and the light of the full moon illuminating the dark sky flooded my whole room. The cold breeze blew from outside. I got up and looked at the time. Two hours after midnight. I sat up and buried my face in my hands. What was that? Who were those people? Why did I dream of that?

I stood up and walked to my bathroom. When I washed my face, I was horrified. I know now why the man’s eyes looked so familiar. There, on the mirror, as if a phantom looking straight at me were the eyes of the man that haunted me in my dream. Only this time, they weren’t his……they were mine.