Starlight

Hunter - James

My mother didn't die naturally.

She didn't have the chance; she was murdered by a witch, and not just any witch.

The Dark Witch Ernessa.

Sometimes, I just find myself thinking about it; I don't like to, but I can't help it. Especially when I was there, watching it all.

She is why I became the hunter I am today.

The day after she died, my father and I packed up all of our belongings and left for the city of London - or near it. We didn't mourn her, but in a way, I've never stopped. Not once.

"Ready for training, kid?" my father asks. He sits at the bottom of the stairs, not looking at me as he laces up the heavy black boots he uses for training.

"Actually, no, Dad," I say, and he glances up at me, concern in his eyes.

"Are you okay? Do you........wanna talk?"

I shake my head in dismissal. "Just.....something supernatural going on at school. I'll handle it."

He stands; it's easy to see why he is so good a hunter. He has a strong upper body, both muscled and lean. His face is weathered with old age and the weight of intense emotion in his life.

That's why we do it - fight. It fills the empty void in our lives. My father and I are one and the same.

"I'll be in the basement. Come and see me if you decide you want to," he mutters.

* * *

The view from my bedroom is spectacular. You can see the grassy hills rolling on, the azure blue of the sky when it's hot enough.

Or could, should I say. My father boarded it up long ago, so I could train in here.

I don't intend not to train. I just feel like doing it on my own today; for me, training is a very intimate, personal activity, and training whilst being so disconnected from real life would take away the thrill it usually gives me.

I can hear him in the basement, hear his arrows as they thwack into the target we keep pinned up. I have an identical version.

It's a good thing that our nearest neighbour is almost four miles away.

It takes less than a minute to change out of my school uniform and into my training clothes. I hurriedly tie up my own boots and cross my room to the door I keep locked at all times. This door is essentially the bridge to another world.

In the second that door is unlocked, everything I love and hate is unleashed.

Usually I train with my dad. Training on my own is too much for me, too intense. But not today. I need to do this.

I take a deep breath. And then I look.

What I see before me is every hunter's dream. The dark blue walls are lined with knives of different sizes, shapes, colours. The only thing they have in common is that they are all ready to be used.

The opposite wall is covered in different types of bows and arrows, hammers - every weapon possible. They've all been neglected for over a year.

But the only thing I need is the cabinet at the end of the room that contains poisons. I stride over to it, unlock it, and search for the ones labelled 'Witch'.