Demon Games

Chapter 4

It's not like I had actually expected her to turn up. I hadn't. Okay so I thought there was a possibility that she could still have the smallest shred of motherly love left for me so she might deem to show herself on this side of the wall on probably the most important day of my life. But that was stupid of me, I should have learnt already.

I could feel the fierce scowl on my face as I strode towards the group, but could do nothing to remove it. Seeing my stormy expression the crowd split before me, allowing me to walk straight through to the wall and sit on the small ledge that jutted out at the bottom. Looking up at the smiling happy families all around me, I felt my upper lip start to curl into a snarl in anger- when out of nowhere I was sent flying off my little perch by a hip banging forcefully into mine.

Looking up through the mess that was now my hair, from my new seat on the ground, I saw a strange boy sitting where I was two seconds earlier. He had a mess of curly blonde hair shoved under a beanie hat and was lounging on the ledge looking at me with amusement. I had never seen him before. Which was impossible, I mean everyone knew everyone here.

"Who are you?" I blurted out without thinking. 

"I'm an aspiring journalist!" He said with a smug smile. When I didn't respond other than to stare back at him blankly, he carried on, asking "Tell me, how do you feel on your big day? I mean you must be very excited, yes?" leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, his pen poised and an expectant look on his face.

Finally the penny dropped. He was a royal, he had to be. I had never seen him before and we didn't have any aspiring journalists. We only had a few career path options and even if we did have more none of us would have chosen something so frivolous as journalism.   

"How are you here?" I asked in a state of shock and disbelief. He couldn't be here. How did he get past the guards? They didn't just let people come and go as they please, you had to have a genuine reason- and i doubt the fate of this guys article qualified. He looked exasperated by my not answering. "Look," he said, "I don't have a lot of time and I need this for my coursework, I only picked you because you were alone and therefore less risky so will you please just answer the question?"  

I was so not in the mood for this, not today. "No you look, royal, I don't know how you managed to sneak your way past the guards but I think you'll find that I don't have time for this. Like you said it's a pretty big day, so why don't you run off and go write your little story about something else?" I spat at him.

"Hey, not so loud!" He hissed at me, a worried expression on his face as he glanced around to check if anyone had heard. "You're going to get me caught!" 

"Well you should have thought of that before you sent me flying off my seat" I said in a huffy tone getting up off the ground and brushing myself off. I took a seat next to him. Though I was angry at him, I was intrigued. I had never seen a royal this close before (apart from Mum), and I really wanted to know how he'd gotten through the gate, that kind of information could be useful.

I'm so going to regret this I thought, taking a breath and saying, "How about this: you tell me how you got through the gate and I'll answer one of your questions, deal?" Glancing at his face i saw his blue eyes cloud with thought. 

"For that information I want a half an hour interview." He stated, staring at me with mistrust written all over his face. 

"I can't, we're going to leave any minute now." 

"Afterwards then," he haggled, "I can meet you behind the apartments when you get back?"  What was I doing? Could i really be considering this? I could get a permanent mark on my record for not reporting him immediately, then I would never make headhunter. 

"Deal." I said before I could talk myself out of it. He stared at me, his calculating eyes assessing me and my word. Then he stood up and walked off into the crowd instantly disappearing from sight.

Before I had time to reflect on what I had just agreed to, Adult 300, a headhunter for the section 1 team (each team was assigned different hunting sections of the forest), stepped onto the ledge I was sitting on further down the wall so he could speak to the crowd. My god, I thought standing up to get a better look at him. He was an incredible specimen, practically all muscle and eyes that glowed orange. He must of been on hundreds of hunts to have eyes that colour. I was in awe, as was everyone around me- the headhunters were the true royalty around here.