Hunter
Judgment Day is here. All of Super Six is anxious and nervous and we’re all expecting the worst. We all sit gathered around a table. I have very little hope we’ll survive this. Rob and Scotch are older, stronger and cold-hearted. After Super Six chats about how we think today will go, Krys, Jenny and I wrestle. As I try to overpower Jenny, Krys clears her throat. “Hey guys,” she begins. We turn to look at her. “What’s gonna happen to us?” she asks quietly. Jenny and I exchange glances. “We might die but we might live.” Jenny admits. “This sucks!” I exclaim. “Sometimes I hate this life. I hate risking my life and losing people close to me.” My voice catches as the sound of Katy’s last scream fills my ears. “That’s true. But when I was talking to Matt once, I had this epiphany,” Krys begins. “There’s this pretty awesome quote by some pretty awesome guy: “We shape our situations and our situations shape us”. She recites the quote staring at me with a pained look. She never said anything else about her quote or what it meant or how it was supposed to make me feel better. She just lets it hang there.
Le Café closes early for “maintenance reasons”. I decide to linger here as long as I can. I want to be protected for as long as I can. Even the thought of walking home alone makes me nervous. I actually serve customers today. We’re all too anxious and depressed to wrestle. Steve and May take a walk together and decide to go home. After we close, we clean up and one by one, the members of Super Six leave. Rose leaves first and goes outside. Jake goes with her. Jenny and Drew leave next. John and Krys leave together for protection since they live near each other. Mute is the last one to leave before me. We chat a little before he finally says he needs to go. I sit around and debate talking to B.B. He literally lives at Le Café. His bedroom is upstairs. I’m still debating when I hear a gunshot. I leap out of my chair and look around. It sounds like it came from behind the building. I transform and bolt out the back door.
When I get outside, I see Rose on the ground and Joe crouched beside her holding a gun to her chest. “STOP!” I scream. Joe looks up startled. “What the hell did you do to her?” I demand carefully looking at Rose. I can see she’s struggling to breathe but she’s not dead. Her eyes open and close while she fights to stay awake. Joe stands up and walks to me. He shoots at me and misses. “Nice try dumbass!” I shout. I lunge at Joe and bring him to the ground. I try to pin him down. I turn back to Rose. “Go!” I order. I pin Joe’s wrist to the ground. I hear the back door open again and I look up. I see Jake standing in the doorway shocked. I don’t even remember him coming back into Le Café. “Oh my God! Rose!” he cries. He runs over to her and scoops her up into his arms. I nod at him and gesture to the door. “Get her some healing medicine.” I instruct him. He just nods and carries her inside.
I focus my attention on Joe who struggles trying to knock me off him. It’s no use though. I may be younger, but I’m bigger and stronger. “Get off me! I’ll get Rob and Scotch to come!” he threatens. I can tell he’s lying because his eyes are filling up with tears. I just shake my head. He tries to open a portal but he can’t. He stops fighting and gives me a sad look. I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t let him go but I roll off him. He killed my girlfriend, hurt my friends repeatedly and here I am letting him go. For all I know, he may just go off and kill the rest of Super Six now but he doesn’t. He just sits up on the ground. “I’m sorry.” He whispers. I bite my lip and say nothing. “Is Rose gonna be okay?” he asks softly. “She’s alright.” I answer gruffly. Joe nods and stares at the ground. “I’m sorry . . . about everything. I’m sorry I ever attacked you or any of your friends and most of all I’m sorry I took Katy’s life.”
I look at him shocked. What does Joe want? “I don’t want to do this. I can’t. Rob and Scotch said they’d be watching us and . . .” Joe looks around wildly confused and helpless. “Please Hunter,” he begins. “Please protect me for the rest of today.” He pleas. I look into his big, sad brown eyes. He looks terrified and hurt. Like someone’s been kicking him for a long time. I can’t say no to him. I finally think I understand what Krys meant when she said that we shape our situations and our situations shape us. I made a choice to join Super Six and fight and be a tiger. Now I see how that’s changed me. Not only have a grown physically but I don’t even remember the last time I lied. I guess maybe you could say being a tiger shaped me right? And as a “newly shaped” and nicer person I look into my heart and find the courage to forgive. If we can survive the rest of today, I don’t know what will happen all I know is that the danger will pass. I can feel it. “Alright.” I announce. Joe crawls over to me and embraces me. I hug him too. “Thank you.” he whispers. I smile weakly. “I’ll protect you.”
