The Alkitori Torment

The Note

Oscar woke up screaming with tears running down his face like waterfalls. It was always like this. Every night he would have the same nightmare and every night Cat would run into his room to comfort him. It could only be Cat. He was the only one who understood the pain and sheer terror that the night held for Oscar.

It was always the same nightmare; the one about the moment they heard that their sister, Liviana, was dead.

Cat remembered the feeling of grief crush him as the governing family, the Atkins, broke the news and feeling hollow, like nothing else mattered. It was worse for Oscar, he was only a year older than Liv and, although Cat was five years older than him, he always acted like a leader and best friend to his sister.

After her death, the family grew distant; their father, robert, locked himself away, claiming to be dedicated to his studies on withers, and their mother left home to live in Spain. The separation only drove Cat and Oscar closer.

Cat sat down of Oscars bed and calmed him down. There where times when Cat thought that Oscar was over it but, four years after the death, he still woke up traumatised. Oscar hated it. He was strong now, fifteen not eleven. He could fight withers so why couldn't he fight this?

"Morning, Oscar." Cat coaxed Oscar out if bed. "Everyone is downstairs."

Cat heard Oscar groan and mumble something as he walked out of the door and down the huge stone steps into the kitchen. They lived in one of the few sanctuaries in the hunter world. The London sanctuary was hidden by enchantments so it looks like a massive oak tree, only hunters could see past the charms. The sanctuaries were places for hunters to stay and train, every one in the house was a hunter, specially chosen to fight withers. Cat and Oscar lived in the sanctuary only because their father owned it. Normally, people from a family of hunters lived in houses dotted around the world, usually one in each human city to protect their town, but those who were picked from their human life lived in sanctuaries until they were eighteen, then they started their own hunter families.

That's who the children sitting in the kitchen were, hunters chosen from and non-hunter family.

Cat opened the kitchen door to chaos.

The twins, Chase and Adam, were having a food fight with Ottilie and Indie, splattering the kitchen's intricate, gothic decor with pancake mix. Ali was standing a chair shouting at them but her efforts were useless.

Cat stood in the door way in shock. Ali noticed him and jumped off the chair. Her dark hair was wild and her hazel eyes were like cheaters darting around the kitchen. "Cat, they are uncontrollable! Look at the kitchen!" Her voice was frantic, she was clearly worried about both the children's and the kitchen's safety.

Chase tipped another bowl of cereal over Adam, falling over laughing. His auburn mop of curls rolling into a puddle of milk. Adam laughed, he wasn't usually this content after he got dirty. He shook his straw coloured, tawny hair, spraying milk at the despairing Ali who jumped and shot a death stare in their direction which forced Adam and Chase into more uncontrollable hysterics.

Cat walked over to the middle of the room and, when they had noticed him, the children stopped. An air of importance followed Cat everywhere, he and Ali were the eldest, besides their farther Robert.

"What are you doing? Look around! You have already trashed the place and it's not even nine o'clock!" He shrieked.

Ottilie stepped forwards."We didn't mean to." She spoke carefully and quietly, watching each word. "We'll tidy up." Her chocolate hair was braided down the back of her head and speckled with pancake mix.

"Ottilie and Indie, you're sixteen." He sighed, "You will have to leave in a couple of years and this is how you behave?" Cat hated getting mad, especially at the children. Ottilie and Indie had arrived at the sanctuary ten years ago together when Cat was eight and they were six, he barely rembered life without them. They weren't twins but they were best friends and did everything together. Cat couldn't stand the thought of them leaving. That was the worst part of living at the sanctuary, kids come and go but they only stay till they are eighteen. Cat remembered all of their names, Eli, Anna, Kate, Seb, Nathan, Mimi and Mark.

The kitchen was finally clean so Cat decided to make breakfast. Eggs and toast was served to the seven occupants of the house (Robert's on a tray to his bedroom.)

The children sat down on the long table that ran through the centre of the stone dining room (every room in the sanctuary was stone.) Was a quiet buzz as talking as they ate which abruptly stopped when a loud rumble shook the building, plates slid off the table and drinks spilt. Cat stood up, flicking a dark wave of hair from his emerald eye, and opened the door to the sanctuary garden. A small crater was blown into the middle of the garden. Cat stepped forward, now with a little crowd following him, and noticed a small piece of paper in the crater. He read it twice then passed it around. Carter Hale, Oscar Hale, Alison Peters , Ottilie Grace, India June, Adam Wild, Chase Peret. You have been chosen for the Alkitori Torment. Be prepared.