Kerrin's Hunt

Chapter 1: What Goes Bump in the Night

     Kat Holmes was running in bare feet, at ten ‘o’ clock at night. She knew something was chasing her, and she had no clue what. She sprinted down the old, cobblestone and brick roads of Kerrickson taking alleys and turning down streets at random. But, as with all things, her luck ran out. She came to a dead end; her pursuer had finally caught her. She turned around, and finally saw what was chasing her.

            Her pursuer was a grotesque creature straight out of a horror novel. It had a skeletal figure and moved on all fours in a slithering way that made her skin crawl. At the end of its limbs were scythe-like claws along with matching teeth within its wide open jaws, curled back in a hungry snarl, but worst of all, were its eyes. They were a glowing shade of a sickly pale grey-green and pierced into her. Kat backed as far away from it as she could until she hit the wall. She screwed her eyes shut, and waited for Death to come to her.

                It never came.  She heard a mass amount of footsteps, and then she heard the thing make a sound that was somewhere between a hostile hiss and a sickening gurgle.  She heard more hurried footsteps, a yell, and finally the sound of a blade piercing flesh. Now she was even more worried.  Her eyes snapped open, and saw the corpse of the thing missing its head, with black ooze spilling out of its neck.  She looked up, and saw a group of people in front of her. The one in front was holding two Japanese (maybe? She wasn't sure...) swords and in a Victorian-looking coat with a hood hiding her face.  A girl in a red cloak, also with a hood hiding her face, stepped forward. She pulled down her hood, revealing tan skin and short auburn hair.  

       “Is she injured?” A boy’s voice called out from the back of the group.

The auburn haired girl crouched down a little and studied Kat.

    “I think she’s okay. She’s probably terrified, so put those weapons away,” she answered.

             Kat attempted to take in what was happening.  Most likely all of these people were armed, and they were now cornering her, and they all for the most part had their faces hidden except for one.  Yeah, that’s not worrying.  Kat considered lashing out, but figured if these people were sadistic, and they probably were, they would enjoy sedating her or harming her. She backed up against the wall once more and screwed her eyes shut.

    “Hey, are you alright?”

             Kat opened her eyes.  The girl was still in front of her, this time crouched down to eye level, looking at her with a hint of concern.  Kat looked up, and stared her down. She held a cold hard stare, and she intended it to say,: I don’t know who you people are, I don’t know what you are doing, but I’m not scared of you. Perhaps they didn’t mean harm, perhaps the stare sucked. She didn’t care.  If she was going to die, she would be more than a simple little girl with her dad out on a case.

            “I swear, we don’t want to hurt you, are you alright?”

“Prove it.” Kat retorted.

       “How do you want me to do that? I will do anything to help you,” the girl replied.

“Drop your weapons, tell me why you don’t want to hurt me, and explain why you’re armed,” Kat said.

    One by one, each and every one of them took out any weapons and set them on the brick paving of the alleyway.

            “One, you were scared, two, you were going to die otherwise, three, our job is to help people, we are armed to kill those things chasing you. Those monsters under the bed you see that everyone else swears to God aren’t real. Was that good enough?” She answered.

    “Bit clichéd at the end—“ Kat began.

“Everybody’s a critic!” The girl cut her off.

            “But yes, good enough,” Kat finished.

  “Thank you, will you come with us,” The auburn haired girl asked.

              “Why?” Kat seemed to be using that word to much, but this wasn't a great time for synonyms.

    “Kat, we were sent to collect you. Your dad is missing,” the girl in the Victorian coat said.

“Name something about what he was doing before he went missing.” Kat replied out of habit.

            “He was on an assignment in Connecticut to look into the disappearances of adults and a few children, and he was learning to paint,” A woman with dark brown skin said from the back.

        “H-h-how do you know that? He never told anyone about either except me!” Kat sputtered.

“We knew him, and he told us. We know what happened four years ago as well, please, come with us,” The woman with dark brown skin said softly.

            Kat looked them over, and decided that whatever was after her would have some friends at her home already, so there wasn’t much left to do.  She stepped towards them and walked with them, giving in to their request.