HUNT, OR BE HUNTED

CHAPTER 7: THE UNINVITED GUEST

I couldn't tear my eyes away from my reflection. Was it the street light that was making my eyes golden-yellow? No, I was pretty sure it wasn't. I blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. I wasn't hallucinating-my eyes were yellow. Like those of a panther's.

The headache began to subside. I stood up slowly, feeling slightly woozy. What was happening to me?

"You're not sick..." Kora's voice echoed in my head. If I wasn't sick, what was it then? Was I going crazy? Being crazy wasn't a sickness, right?

"It's simply one of the side effects. Of becoming something else, something not you." I remembered every word, and the way she had said it to me.

It all didn't make any sense. What side effects? What was I becoming? Was I turning into something else? No way-that only existed in fairytales. No way I would actually believe that something like that would happen in the real world. I closed my eyes, turned away from my reflection in the shop window. It's just the light, I told myself. Nothing weird is happening to you.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I realized that I was supposed to be looking for Kora, not busy worrying about myself. I ran a hand through my unkempt dark brown hair. This wasn't the time to think about was happening to me. Kora was in danger. Her life was probably already on the line, and I wasn't there to help.

I tried to shut out the annoying throbs in my head. It was as if someone was banging a hammer repeatedly on the inside of my skull. It didn't hurt, but it was driving me insane. No. Not now. Don't lose it.

I pictured her in a cramped cell that stank of rat urine, sobbing her eyes out. One of the things I hated was to see a girl weeping. It just made me weak all over. Made me want to do anything just to make her happy again.

I gathered up my strength, and began to run. I didn't know where I was heading, but somehow my instincts told me she wasn't far away.

###

I still look for your face in the crowd

Oh if you could see me now

Would you stand in disgrace or take a bow

Oh if you could see me now...

Jayden turned up the volume on his phone. His mother, Jane, wiped the tears away with a hand. How foolish of her, he thought. His brother had gone missing again. He was that close...that close to finishing him off. But his mother just had to interrupt. He couldn't kill his own brother in front of their own mother, could he? He would go straight to jail for that.

Jayden scrolled down the playlist on his S3, touched the title "The man who can't be moved" by The Script, his favorite band. All their songs just seemed to relate to his life experiences.

"Don't worry, mum," Jayden turned to his mother. She was still crying for Jared, that coward. "He'll be okay."

"He's sick, Jayden. If we don't find him, he'd probably be-" her voice seemed to sound far off in the distance.

Dead. Jayden snickered at the thought of that. He had hated his brother ever since he had found out about who he really was. He had hated the fact that he ever existed. Jared was older, no doubt about that. But he was the victim here. The younger brother was the hunter, and the older brother was the hunted. Once the hunted were destroyed, the hunters would rule the place. The mere existence of Jared threatened their species.

Jayden smiled when he recalled the reaction of the three men he had encountered in the forest when he slaughtered the bear with a single spear. How cool was that? He knew one of them. Jacque, the brother of Seth, his master. He liked to disguise himself as one of the humans-that would be easier for him to get to people like Jared.