Confessions of a Teenage Succubus Two - The Hunted

Pallidity

I woke up. I was surprised because I shouldn't. I was supposed to be dead. I remembered the darkness and the peace. I missed it already.  My eyes wouldn't open. My hunger was screaming  in anguish and I ached inside and out. Pain can be good. After the beer truck runs over you, pain is what tells you that you are still alive.

Finally I managed to open my eyes.  I lay there and kept very still,  afraid to move.  Reaching out with my mind  I found Blake and probed his thoughts as gently as I could.  He was resting peacefully for once, and a feeling of relief flooded through me. He had survived, but why had I?

The sun had risen higher when I realized that I didn't have to lay there. I could move if I tried. First I tried moving my fingers, then my toes. It was painful, ignited my hunger and lit up every nerve ending with pain, but it was possible. I rolled over onto my stomach and propped myself up on my elbows. Cautiously I got up on my hands and knees and crawled slowly, carefully to the spring.

As I bent over to touch my lips to the water I saw my reflection and froze in place.  At first I thought there was someone standing behind me and my heart  jumped painfully in my chest, but no. It was me.  My hair had gone white as snow.  I pulled a strand around to see and sure enough it was a pale almost translucent moon looking white. I hurt too bad to worry about it now. White hair was something I could deal with later. What mattered most to me right now as that I was alive and I was thirsty.

Touching my lips to the pool I drank deeply. Water had never tasted so good. I watched as the ripples my lips created circled out and bounced back to me from the edges of the spring. I heard a bird in a nearby bush belt out a song of greeting. I heard a cricket calling for a mate in the grass. A shaft of sunlight that had broken through the trees was warm on my skin. I hurt sure, but it sure felt good to be alive.

I crawled back to my pile of blankets to collapse and let myself fade back out into blessed sleep.

When I woke up again it was to the sound and smell of canned bacon frying over the fire. The sky was dark and Blake was by my side. He was looking at me, worried.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, "What happened?"

I felt myself flush with shame.  He was more worried about me than himself and it was my fault we were in this predicament.  I had almost gotten him killed and now I felt selfish for bringing him back. What if he didn't want it? After all he had been through it's possible he had had enough of life. Enough of me. Does he remember?

"It's not important" I told him, "As long as you are safe and you are okay."

"What have you done Chan?" His look of worry and concern had me ready to start bawling, "Your hair is white, did you know that?  And you look like you lost 20 pounds."

"I'm alive Blake" I told him, "and so are you. I'm so sorry I got you into all this. It's all my fault, you could have been killed, you might have died and I did it to you. I did it all. I'm so careless." I broke into tears again. I felt myself start to shake and it hurt but I couldn't make it stop.

"No Chan"he said softly, "It's not all your fault."

I reached out for his hand and he flinched, pulling away. He tried to cover it up by moving to the fire and poking at it with a stick. My heart broke, but I understood how he must feel. He added another branch and brought back a plate of food that he had been keeping warm near the coals.

"Here." He helped me sit up and placed the plate in my lap.

"Eat" he told me, "You need this more than me."  It was canned bacon, scrambled powdered eggs and canned meat.  The last of the food we carried with us. I looked at him questioningly.

"I woke up feeling great" He said, "I feel better than I ever have. You need to eat babe. You have lost a lot of weight."

"How long have we been here anyway?" he asked looking around.

"I don't know" I told him honestly, "I have no idea anymore."

"How did we get here? This isn't where..." he paused.

"No, its not where we were" I told him, "I carried you up here. I didn't want us to be there if he...  if he came back."

"Thanks, I wouldn't want that either."  Blake was looking uncomfortable. He didn't want to think or talk about that. I changed the subject.

"The eggs are good" I told him, "Usually you are a terrible cook.  Maybe its because  I am so hungry but this is really awesome."

He gave me the same smile he used to give me when we first met. The smile would give me  before we were together. I felt my heart breaking but I don't know why.

"Thanks" he said and sat with his  back to the fire to watch me eat.

I ate in silence. I ate every bite and I would of licked the plate if he hadn't been watching. It was that good. I offered him the empty plate and he came to collect it. He was next to the spring washing up the dishes when we heard the sound of something or someone crashing through the brush coming our way fast. It sounded like someone running and in a hurry. They weren't taking the time to be careful and pick their way.

Blake panicked. He dropped the dishes in a nearby bush and started kicking dirt over the fire as fast as he could. The crashing got louder and closer. He pulled the laundry down and hid it in the blankets. His eyes had a wild look I had never seen before. A look of fear and terror. The events of that night were coming back to haunt him in a big way.

The crashing was almost on top of us as Blake moved to my side. He took up a protective posture shielding me from what was coming and picked up a large branch that he had collected to feed the fire.

A deer burst through the trees, leapt over the spring and continued on its way deeper into the woods behind us, a hound hot on its trail.

We looked at each other. Both of us were a little shocked. A grin lit up Blake's face and he started to laugh. His laughing set me off and I started laughing too. We sat there side by side grinning like crazies, looking the direction the deer and hound had disappeared, listening to the sounds they were making recede into the distance.

"What ya' all doing out here?"  A deep menacing voice came from behind us. Then came the unmistakable sound of a shotgun racking home a shell.

We both froze, smiles gone.  That look of terror was back on Blake's face as he turned slowly to face the speaker.

"I asked ya' all a question" the voice said, "I expect ya to answer me."

I struggled to turn and face him and Blake helped. I saw that look in Blake's eyes. The trapped look he had had that night with Jeff looking down at him.  His eyes were staring back into mine  with a look of helplessness and hope. He was expecting me to take care of this, hoping I would and I did.

I looked at the owner of the voice. He was youngish, face painted with alternating streaks of green and black and wearing a dirty camouflage coverall. He was carrying a shotgun.

Blake was still watching me, expectant. I was tired, wrung out and drained dry, but I had to try. I tried for Blake's sake more than mine.  I wanted him to believe in me again. I wanted him to trust that I could take care of everything and keep us safe.  So I reached out and probed the hunters mind.

He was a poacher. He didn't hunt for meat, he hunted for the pleasure of killing. He was seriously considering killing the two of us.  I reached deeper and discovered his hidden thoughts. I searched for  the depths of his depravity. I took what I found and I used it. I planted into his mind how he would most want me to look. He no longer saw me dirty, wrinkled and white haired. He saw me as I wanted him to see me. He saw me as the girl he had wanted to take to the prom a long time ago.  He saw me as the one he had always wanted and I made him want most now was for me to want him back.

I looked him straight in the eye to keep his mind and eyes from Blake. "Hi" I said to him, "I'm Chan." I licked my lips suggestively and sensed Blake tensing nearby.

"Hey" the hunter responded, "I'm Travis."