Hunter

XLI

Jade didn't have a chance to say anything to her Aric, the scene changed so quickly.  Her breath caught in her throat, the words seeping away like water through a cloth. She squeezed her hands together, focusing back on the scene.
The younger Aric was standing in front of a woman, her face smudgy from the messy makeup thrown across her face. Little Aric's hands were stretching at the hem of his shirt, his mouth trembling.
"You demon child! You killed him! You killed my son!" The woman shrieked, her face contorting as spittle flew out of her mouth. It fell wet against the Little Aric's face.
She grabbed his neck, pushing him against the wall and shaking him. "You killed him! You- You killed him!" She squeezed her hands, leaning in close. "You freakish whore's child, you- you-"
Wendell wondered into the room, yawning. She rubbed her eyes, smiling sleepily. She yawned again, her small hands combing through her hair.

Jade sucked in a sharp breath as she looked at Aric, pinned against wall. Her eyes widened, her smile dropping. "Brother! Brother!" She ran forward, her little legs pumping under her pale pink nightdress.

Little Aric screamed, flailing against the woman's hands. "GO AWAY!! GO WENDELL!!" His eyes widened, and he kicked out his feet, almost like he was pointing Wendell in th direction she needed to go in.

The woman's grip loosened for a split second, and Little Aric visibly tensed his legs. He started running towards Wendell.

The woman slapped him powerfully across the face, pushing him back against the wall. Her fingers fit perfectly into the red and purple bruises on Aric's neck.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jade could see her Aric rub his own neck, remembering the feelind of those hands crushing his small throat.

Little Aric felt the air catch in his neck, and he rasped. Then he started coughing, his tiny chest rattling with the sounds of what he thought were his last breaths.

Then the woman gripped his neck even tighter, making his eyes bug out. She started walking, dragging Aric's body like a rag doll until she made it to the door. She pulled it open, and gave his neck a final squeeze.
She pulled her arm back, throwing Aric onto the concrete steps. He cried out as she slammed the door on a hand reaching back towards her.

Jade's mouth dried at the scene, feeling a strange tingly feeling crawl through her skin. She felt sick to her stomach, and she unconsciously stepped away from Aric behind her.

The scene changed again, showing a 10- year old Aric standing in front of a blonde woman. Her bleached hair was tousled around her tan face, her rosy lips revealing her front teeth.

She was kneeling in front of him, a placating smile plastered across her face. "You're not going to cause trouble, right? I've always liked cute trouble-makers, so I think we'll get along fine, don't you think?" She winked, reached out to muss his hair.
Aric didn't react, only staring at her, his expression wiped clean of emotion. He eyed her neck strangely, like he was trying to figure out where to make an incision.

The younger Aric was back, and he was running in the rain, looking back. The bruises on his neck were almost blazing purple, and his face was peppered with small cuts and bruises.  He slid into an alleyway, his terrified eyes absorbing the hulking mass of a cyclops as it reached forward.

Jade bit her tongue and squeezed her eyes shut as the thing took a nibble of  Little Aric's leg before he could summon a weapon.  Aric grimaced, feeling pain and the feeling of wet blood in his leg.

The scene shifted suddenly, showing Aric huddled over a phone screen. A phone screen with the wallpaper of a girl dancing. Jade recognized the picture of her, the picture that her mom took. The picture on her home-screen. She tensed, her tongue feeling incredibly sluggish in her mouth.

Aric was there again, talking to two men. Two men who had chased Jade into an alleyway. He was there again, hunting down a police-woman, a woman who had curly black hair, and skin the same dark shade as Jade's.

He was there again, hunched in front of a computer, as an unconscious police man was slumped over his desk.

He was rubbing at his lips as Jade was asleep, and she could see the disgust on his face. He was there again, at the inn they had stayed at, his hands scratching at the walls of the bathroom. Finally, after tampering with his silver wrist bands for a bit in the wall, he gave himself a satisfied smirk.

Everything, she realized.

Everything was planned.

This whole time- everything was Aric.

That was when she felt a dagger stab into her side.