The Blind Witch - A Left 4 Dead (Hunter x Witch) Fanfic

Chapter 4

She was beginning to dream again. With the heat came the dreams, and with the dream would eventually raise memory. There were bits and pieces, sometimes images, more words. She would see colors - blue, green, shades of pink, possibly the color of cheeks or roses, then she would feel things. There were soft things, hard things, painful things... things she both longed to remember and things she was happy to forget. The words though... the words were of the utmost importance.

Danger.

Danger was the first word.

It scared her until her body shook her awake, but even in the wakeful hours of bright sunlight and dew, she found the word "danger" still lingered within her. It left a bitter, copper taste in her mouth, which she tried to physically spit out, but to no avail.

The sticky dew was no help, and it had her squirming relentlessly. Then her eyes fell on a mass of darkness, curled on the ground beside her.

There was a thump.

She stopped and pressed a hand to her chest. She couldn't recall such a feeling, or a word to describe it. It went just as quickly as it had come, and soon her mind was focused back on the mass next to her. It barely moved, and she could scarcely say it moved at all.

But as she reached out to investigate further, a little flash caught her attention. There, attached to the end of what should've been fingers, were claws. She made a little gasping noise, and held her hand up to the light, turning and turning the claws until she had investigated every edge and corner of them.

Had she always had these things?

Then, there was a grunt, and the mass on the ground stirred. The Witch shuffled back, claws extended out to put a serrated wall between herself and whatever was rising from the ground. The mass, now a full grown man, shook - an animal shaking off leaves and dirt from where he had slept. His brown hair was sticky with the dew and something crusty and black. Then, his face angled up to meet hers.

She screamed.

The shriek echoed through the forest, erupting into a cacophony of sounds and animals. The Hunter's brow shot up, and his mouth formed an unpleasant line with the loose, broken lip dangling off the bottom. He shook his head and held a finger to his lips.

"Hush. Quiet, Witch."

She fell silent and carefully studied his mouth. He could speak, too?

"Who... are you?"

The Hunter sat up, rolling his neck until it made a cracking sound, then he sighed.

"... Hunter."

The word formed in her mind, cloudy and foggy. There was something attached to it, something very real and very there, but just out of her mind's grasp. She sat in silence for a long time, just trying to clear the fog and pull that image forward, but to no avail.

The Hunter grunted, his face now tight and accentuating the scars with what looked like annoyance.

"Witch?"

The Witch shook her head. That wasn't right. The name was familiar, but there was something else... something that name seemed to cover up.

"Emily." She said.

The Hunter froze in his morning ministrations.

"What?"

She clicked her claws together, trying to form the sounds again... slower.

"... em... Emily. I, Emily."

The Hunter's lips broke from their line into what might have once been a smile. He rushed toward her, a crouched creature with an ugly face.

She shuffled back, screeching and slashing claws before he could even get close. The Hunter stopped, and pressed a hand to his chest.

"Remember me?"

She didn't move.

He hit his chest more forcefully.

"Remember me?"

She shook her head this time.

He yelled, raising his voice much louder than he needed,

"Hunter. Remember me?"

Her mind rushed and slowed, rushed and slowed, until it was throbbing in her skull. Why couldn't she remember that word? Why couldn't she remember that word? Then another word rose amongst the chaos.

Tears.

Then she remembered.

"Hunter..."

He nodded, and the smile returned to his lips, though wrinkles broke the laced pattern of his brow. He was worried, and so was she.

How could she forget so much, and remember so much, all at once? And why?