Charlotte maintained her position, the moonlight casting a vertical line down her face, the rest of her body in shadow. A branched cracked nearby and an owl took frantic flight from the canopy above them. The wind whispered through the leaves, carrying with it the scent of unease from their pursuers.
Charlotte held her breath, tracking them with her alteration, three shadows, advancing towards the hunter's cabin through the thick forest. She had grown to know them well in the last few hours. Two male, one female. The girl dreaded small spaces, being buried alive the tastiest option among the plethora of horrors in her mind. The first boy, for he was only a boy, no older than Charlotte, was afraid of drowning in icy waters, unable to catch his breath. The third person, older than the others, feared death in all its forms, one of Charlotte's favourite fears, full of endless possibilities.
They were trackers. There sole purpose was to hunt others down. She couldn't find another alteration among them. Though Charlotte worried what was lurking behind them. The three trackers may only be scouting ahead for the others, for the core of the attack. Four shadows still moved in the distance. They were still too far away for Charlotte to understand their capabilities, or at least their weaknesses. Yet they were closing in fast, as if they sensed the chase was on and the end was near.
Charlotte exhaled, forcing her shoulders down and stretched her neck. She couldn't worry about what was still to come, she could only focus on the attackers bearing down upon them in that moment. The others would have to wait.
Foliage crunched beneath heavy feet. A branch snapped. A chuckle rang through the dark clearing.
"Come out, come out," a deep voice called. Charlotte could hear the smile on his lips. "We know you're here".
Charlotte's alteration caught him, holding his fear, rooting into his mind, but not obscuring his view on reality yet. He didn't know she already had him in her gasp, but he would, soon enough.
"There's one in the cabin... the human..." the girl said. "The big one's in the trees, with the girl we had so much fun with before... but she won't remember that". The three of them laughed.
"And Charlotte Owens is here too, playing hide-and-seek with the rest," the boy offered. "Behind the cabin - you can't hide from us Owens".
Charlotte didn't move. They couldn't hide from her either.
"And the other one, he's..."
The boy's words were swallowed with a grunt. He cut into her view, a flying blur. He smashed into a tree ten feet to her right, and crumpled to the ground.
"Jude! Get up you idiot!" the man snapped.
Jude groaned, rolling onto his front. "What was that?"
"It was the fast one," the girl said. "Get a grip. We're not here to play games".
"But we are!" Ian's laughing voice rang through the clearing as the girl screeched.
Charlotte grinned, as she heard another body smash into a tree. She strode from her hiding place towards the boy, Jude, still struggling to get to his feet. She caught his black hair and pulled him up to a kneeling position.
The girl scrambled to her feet. Rage contorted her russet, round face. Charlotte squatted down beside the boy, her lips to his ear.
"Hello Jude," she grinned. "We've been waiting for you to catch up".
The girl moved towards her, but the man, big, burly and blonde held out a hand, halting her.
"Ah-ah," Charlotte whispered, relishing in the panic that was rolling off the boy. "You really shouldn't risk it".
YOU ARE READING
Feared
Science Fiction'Play the game, she thought, remembering the only three words that had helped her to survive at Kingston. Only back then she had known the game, she had known what they wanted her to be, what they had wanted her to do - this man was different. She d...
