Conjured

Chapter 20 - Too trusting

The Marchbank family were such kind people. They gave me fresh clothes and allowed me to stay in their spare room. I sat in there for sometime after lunch and felt my phone buzz in my pocket for about the hundredth time today. I sighed and picked it up seeing a text from Henry. My eyebrows rose at this so I opened it. It simply said "stay safe". 

For someone who acted like he wanted nothing to do with me, Henry was the only one that had sent me something that hadn't stressed me out. It felt like he understood and I needed that. I replied quickly saying "I am". I didn't add anything more as I knew I wouldn't need too. I put my phone on the bedside table and felt my eyes growing heavy. Having spent at least a night in the bush with no sleep I knew it wouldn't take much for me to fall asleep. Staying asleep was the problem. 

In my dream I saw the blonde girl again. This time more clearly.

She had wavy ash blonde hair half-way down her back and freckles across her cheeks. Her eyes were like last time, as if a dark grey storm was going on within them. "Willa you need to run" She said seriously. I heard her accent better this time, it was English. 

"Why? I just got to sleep" I respond slowly rubbing my eyes. She gives me a small smile and laughs before putting a hand on my shoulder. "I know. But you're not safe. You need to go from where you are" She says and her face becomes worried. "What do you mean? Who are you?" I ask getting confused as her hand rests on my shoulder. She removes it and looks at me somewhat nervously. 

"My name is Amelia. Please Willa I don't know what's wrong but something isn't right where you are" She pleads. "I don't understand how you know all of this, or me. Please just-" I start but Amelia interrupts. "I can't explain here Willa. One day we'll meet but not yet-" Amelia begins but I can no longer hear her. Behind her is Mark, covered in blood with the back of his head as flat as a pancake. "Hello Willa" He says in a voice that isn't his own. It's deeper and wrong on his skinny frame. Amelia's eyes widen as I begin to cry. Mark's eyes fill with flames and a grin spread across his broken face. All of a sudden I'm being shaken awake. 

"Blair? Are you okay?" Nick says lightly shaking my shoulders. I look around and find myself in the spare room at the Marchbanks'. "What happened?" I say rubbing my eyes. "I think you were having a nightmare. You kept saying the names Mark and Amelia. Does that mean anything to you?" He asks. I think back to the dream and that girl that has kept popping up recently, and Mark. "They're friends of mine" I respond quietly.  He nods. "Well I just wanted to let you know dinner's ready when you want it. You can keep sleeping if you like though" He offers. I smile, "I'll be out soon". He nods with that happy smile of his and leaves the room. I sigh and have a look around. What a weird dream.

Why does Amelia keep popping up? If it wasn't for the fact I'd only seen her in dreams I would swear she was real. I look around the room and open the cupboards hoping they might have a phone charger lying around. Instead I find rifles, shotguns and strange metal shields. I close it softly hoping no one heard or saw me open it in the first place. I remember two things as soon as I see this. 

Mark told me that the hunters lured people in with kindness, they befriended conjurers before killing them. Nick had seen my eyes glow. If he was a hunter he knew what I was. 

Secondly Amelia popped into my head. I didn't even know if she was real but her words were stuck on my mind, "you need to run... you're not safe".

Although I couldn't be sure that Nick and his family were hunters, I wasn't willing to wait and find out. I opened the window in the bedroom and swung a leg over. Then I heard a knock on the door. I swung my other leg over quickly and jumped as the door opened. I heard a loud BANG and didn't look back to see what it was. I heard a truck engine revving to life but I moved quicker than the truck could manage. I decided not to leave straight away as I wanted to see what was going on so I went invisible and waited near a tree. 

I saw Nick's family kitted out with guns and ammo. That was more than enough for me. I sprinted at my fastest pace hearing gun shots behind me. I ran for what felt like a very long time until I was in some form of civilisation. I looked around and saw that I had made it to the outer suburbs of Melbourne. How I had managed to run in the right direction I don't know but luckily I was at least within the right part of the country now.

My phone buzzed and I picked it up right away. "Willa?" Henry's nervous voice murmured. "Yeah what's up?" I ask sitting down on a bench. "Thank God. Apparently you were spotted with known Hunters outside Mildura. Where are you?" He asks sounding stressed. I can't believe I ran to Mildura, over 600 kilometres from Melbourne. "I'm in Footscray near the station" I respond spotting a sign to the railway across the road. "Wait at the station. I'll come and get you. It's not safe at the moment so I'll take you to my place till things calm down. I'll be there in 20 minutes okay?" he explains. "Okay. But what do you mean by not safe?" I question. "Ever since Mark's death, Hunters have been crawling all over Melbourne. It's not safe Willa so please just wait where you are" He says with a hint of fear. 

As if causing a death wasn't bad enough. I'd brought the Hunters down on Melbourne.