The Hunters Mark

3

{ Emilia ~ Eh-mee-lee-ah }

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P I P P A  clapped wildly as Emilia's name was called out, screaming her name out like a crazed mother. Cora stifled a laugh as Emilia gave her biggest fan a death stare and Pippa stopped mid-clap, sitting down abruptly. Emilia shook it off and waved at the cheering crowd, blowing kisses here and there with a couple winks. Boy was Cora going to enjoy beating her.
The bell was music to her ears as it blared and the two began to circle each other. Every so often Emilia would jump forward to through Cora off guard. She noticed that Emilia seemed to do this every two steps. Using this to her advantage, as Emilia stepped out again so did Cora who through a punch at Emilia's nose. Despite her surprise, Emilia still managed to avoid Cora's flying fist. A look of disgust took over Emilia's face and she pushed her neck to each side of her head threateningly, cracking it.
Cora smirked at her poor attempt to scare her and ran towards her legs. Cora ran straight through Emilia's legs onto the other side, and just before Emilia turned Cora kicked her in the small of her back, propelling her forward. Cora earned a horrified boo from Emilia's fans and she stumbled and spluttered, her perfect bun losing its place. Emilia ran at Cora and threw a punch at her face but Cora missed. However she didn't miss Emilia's unexpected second punch. Cora felt the familiar sensation of blood begin to drip out her nose. As Emilia swung again, Cora caught her arm and brought her into an armlock.
"Guess our positions have switched." Cora whispered hoarsely, thinking back to their last face off not too long ago. Blood began to pour heavily out of Cora's nose as she kicked at the back of Emilia's legs, bringing her to her knees.
"Surrender." Cora stated in a monotone voice.
"Did you hear?" Emilia said, coughing as Cora began to apply pressure on her throat.
"Ilana. She was bitching about you to Damien. She's such a whore, that Ilana. What's this, the third boy she's luring into her bed? This month? C'mon Cora, you can do better than her surely." Cora growled, her nails itching to sink into Emilia's wrist.
"That's it. Get angry. Mess things up like you always do. Ilana doesn't even like you Cora. She told me about your sister Cora."
Cora growled once more, pushing Emilia's arm even further. She flinched in pain, but continued
"She just pities you, she pities you because of your stupid dead sister—"
Cora's eyes flashed green as her nostrils flared. Emilia laughed, she cackled.
"That's right. Your sister. Reina, was it? She's dead. You hear me Cora, she's dead, ripped up by wolves. She probably deserved it." Emilia spat and at that point something in Cora switched. She allowed her veins to flicker black and her eyes to glow an ominous green. Much to the crowds shock, Cora rapidly gripped Emilia's throat and held her up in the air. Her nostrils flared and her nails began to sink into Emilia's neck as she struggled for breath.
"Take it back."
Emilia's face turned an ugly shade of purple. She weakly clawed at Cora's grip.
"Take it back, Emilia."
Her face began to grow paler and paler.
Cora was suddenly pulled back and thrown to the stone floor with force. Her head ached and her eyes fluttered. It must have been Elijah. She heard Emilia's exaggerated coughing and protests.
"She-she, oh my god, she tried to kill me! Do you see this?" She squeaked, pointing at her clawed wrists and quickly bruising neck.
"I didn't do anything. She just, all of a sudden, came at me! She's a full on animal, I swear. Haven't I been telling you Elijah, she shouldn't be allowed near us. She's crazy." Emilia rambled, adding a cough at the end. Cora sighed and wiped the blood spilling out of her nose onto the floor. This was her only chance to redeem herself and she just had to mess it up. If Emilia had just kept her annoying mouth shut.
"I was aggravated.." Cora muttered, but everybody's attention seemed to be on Emilia, who was now in tears.
The presenter tapped the microphone in an attempt to regain everyone's attention; "Well, that concludes the end of Sector B! Both competitors are unable to proceed to fight their team leader, so Elijah will stay leader for the next year!" He said, giving a halfhearted punch in the air.
"Alright.. so, next up is Sector C. This is your chance to take a break while Sector B leave and Sector C prepare. Everyone please be back in your seats in ten minutes. Ten minutes!" He yelled and the room bursted into a buzz of chatter. By this point, Cora had just managed to get onto her feet, but was pushed straight back down.
"Are you crazy? You could've killed her. What the hell happened, Cora." Elijah whispered, but Cora could feel the anger seeping out of him.
"She provoked me, she spoke about, private topics." I whispered, avoiding his eyes. Elijah sighed. He pulled her chin up so she was looking at him and his eyes held a look of sadness.
"Even if I believed you Cora, it wouldn't change anything. You have to control your anger, before you really do strangle someone."
Cora nodded and stood up, eyes searching for Ilana. She'd already left.  She looked over to Emilia, who was smirking proudly as she was pampered by most of the sector, saying 'Oh how cruel Cora is' and 'Oh how could she do that'. Emilia wiped her fake tears and thanked her fans saying she needed some air. Cora watched as she stalked over to her, eyes trained directly on Cora.
"I swear Cora if you so much as come near me I will destroy you, you hear me? I will destroy you." Emilia barged into Cora's shoulder and swayed off, leaving Cora alone on the side of the mat, all alone.
And, for the first time in all of her time being here, Cora sat there and allowed herself to break. She wept for her sister. Oh, her poor, poor sister Reina.

"Cora!" Reina giggled, hiding behind a tree. Cora ran up to one of the tall oak trees and positioned herself behind it, ready to pounce.
"Roar!" Cora shouted jumping out to pounce on Reina but instead she found no one behind the tree.
"Reina?" Cora asked, wondering out from the tree.
"Reina!" She called, louder this time, praying she would hear her sisters voice.
"Cora!"
Cora sighed in relief as she spotted her sister deeper in the forest and began to run up to her.
"No!" Reina screamed, distressed. "Run away!" She shouted at Cora. Cora shook her head slowly, still walking towards Reina. It was then when Cora noticed a strange man with yellow eyes behind Reina running very, very quickly. He looked angry and insane, and his eyes were literally glowing.
"I said run!" Reina shouted once more. This time, Cora began to move. She was crying, but she continued to run. She heard panting behind her and noticed it was Reina, and she reached out to grab her hand. Reina took it, and smiled nervously before looking behind her. Cora heard a growl coming from behind them and she whimpered, clutching onto Reina's hand tighter. Reina looked terrified, and she pulled Cora along with her. They were close to home, Cora knew it. She recognised this part of the forest.
Suddenly, Reina's hand was snatched from Cora's as Reina was pulled backwards by the strange man. Reina kicked and screamed, trying to wiggle out of his iron grip. He launched himself at Cora, his inhuman like teeth pointing straight at her. Cora clenched her eyes shut preparing for the impact, but, it never came. There was a loud bang as someone, somewhere shot a bullet at the beast of a man, who just missed him. The beast's eyes opened wide, searching for its attacker. It snorted and backed up.
"Please, give me back my sister!" Cora screamed, pulling on the mans hand. He stared at Cora's small arm before letting out a vicious growl and shaking her off so violently that she fell over. Reina gasped and tried once more to reach for Cora. Both girls held out their hands to one and other and their hands were just about to touch — but the man pulled Reina again once more and ran off with her crying on his shoulder. Cora wailed loudly, her immense pain echoing around the forest as she cried. Her hands were dirty and her tights were ripped but she found the will somewhere to get up. She remembered Reina's words, and just like she'd asked, she ran as fast as she could back home to mum. However, it didn't feel right going home without Reina and Cora looked back onto the forest to see if she could spot her but no luck. It was at that moment when Cora promised herself she would find Reina if it was the last thing she did.

Cora sniffled, remembering the loss of her sister. She didn't see her sister die in front of her, so Cora was holding on to the thread of hope that the beast had spared her and somewhere, Reina was alive, searching for Cora like Cora was for her. They could go back to mum and they could be a happy family like they were before all of this. Cora was determined.
She was startled by a pair of footsteps wondering into the arena. She quickly wiped her eyes and stood up, jogging out of the arena as quickly as she could. Before the girl could speak Cora was gone, running through the corridor. She dodged round corners and pushed through the returning crowds. The familiar face of Damien passed her and he looked as if he was about to call out to Cora but she shied away. Finally free from the crowd, Cora ran outside to the field, so she could do the only thing that brought her peace, running.

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End of Chapter 3! Sorry this is a little shorter than usual, I just thought this was a good place to end this chapter.

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