Hunter ✔

I AM NOT HERS

There was this one villager in Westwood who was named Simon and he had a pet hyena. No one knew where he had found the hyena or how long he had him before he showed up in the village. I always found it cruel the way Simon had trained this wild animal to be tame. One day the hyena got loose. Simon told everyone to stay calm and that he would quickly get Sasha, the hyena, back in her cage. As Simon approached the hyena it seemed to ponder what to do. In a manner of seconds the tame Sasha jumped on top of Simon and she started to tear him to shreds. Someone had to shoot Sasha with an arrow before she stopped attacking Simon.

I felt anxious as I stepped into my father's chambers. It had been two months since they had captured Arya. I refused to watch as my father and his men tortured her any longer. I wanted no part in it.

Apparently Estelle had left the state to return to her father in Cape Town. Her father's residence was in some desolate hide-out in the remains of the old city. The resistance wanted to get this location out of Arya. If the resistance were to take out Estelle's father, General Furlong, it would mean that the vampire's alliances would crumble. General Furlong was considered to be at the top of the complicating pyramid that is the vampire's society. He made all of the important decisions.

In the back of my mind I knew how to get to Estelle. I knew how to walk right into their hide-out, but it was dangerous.

The familiar doubt entered my mind as I looked at my father who sat behind his desk. These last two months had done nothing to restore our relationship. He blamed my mother for making me soft. The truth is that I had seen too much violence done already. Was it weak of me to look for peace? If peace meant that I put my life on the line then I will willingly do that. If peace meant that Estelle or her father had to die, then would it not be perfect if I was the one who gave that final blow? Although I hated violence I felt in my heart that if they were sacrificed then there would be less violence.

He did not look up until I cleared my throat.

My father did not look at me unless he really had to. He had clearly told me that he was disgusted by the brands that covered my body. I could hide some of them, but others were pretty obvious, like the one on my face.

"Father.....I....."

"Can this not wait boy. I am really busy." He looked down at what looked like a map.

"No...I...I may have a way to get close to Estelle." At that point he looked up. It was frustration that covered his face. He glanced at the mark on my face and grimaced.

"How would that be?"

"Well...I...um...think that if we were to allow the vampires to capture me then Estelle would find out and she would come for me wherever they took me...and...when she came for me you guys could set up a trap..." I wanted to sound confident in my plan, but my voice faltered.

My father burst out laughing.

"You want to use yourself as bait? I do not think so....You are way too weak. You would get killed or worse turned the second they take you. Everyone knows that you are my son and they will stop at nothing to use you against me."

"But..."

"No! I do not like to repeat myself. We already have a plan in motion. We have someone on the inside. Someone who will kill Estelle and General Furlong and help the humans to regain their rightful place as rulers."

"If that is the case then why are you still torturing Arya if you already have someone on the inside?"

"Do not question my methods Hunter. I do not have to disclose my plans to the likes of you. I alone know the identity of this individual. I alone know when this plan will be put into motion. Arya belongs to General Furlong! By hurting her we are hurting him!" My father stood up and slammed her hands on his desk. The papers went flying and my eye caught a map of Cape Town at my feet.

"Like they did with me? I cannot believe you. You are no better than them! At least they do not pretend to be something that they are not!" Before I could say anything else my father struck me through the face.

"You know nothing about what it takes to win a war boy! I have to fight fire with fire. Blood with blood. Darkness with darkness. I have to make the hard decisions that no one wants to! I had to sacrifice so much to fight them and for you to keep insisting that I am no better than they are is a great insult. Now leave my sight!"

My father turned away from me and I stormed out. I was tired of always being seen as an easy target; as a weakling.

I would show them how strong I could be.

"Hunter? What is wrong? I heard your father yelling from all the way over there. He seemed pretty upset." I relaxed a bit as I saw Ami. She linked her arm around my neck on my shoulder and walked with me. We walked into the Green House and we sat down on the ground.

Over the last few months Ami and I had grown really close. It all started when Ami kissed me one day in this very Green House. We would often sneak off saying that we were going to go and water the plants and trees in the Green House. We would do all of our chores together.

For the first time in a long time I felt what it was like to be a normal teenager. She was the reason that I knew what it was like to really be alive and it was because of her that I wanted to face Estelle in the first place.

I started to train how to fight, but I doubted that I would ever really be ready to fight Estelle, but it is something that I needed to do for myself. It was like Estelle was a shadow that always followed me around; not to mention the fact that every time I took my shirt off her name was right there.

I shuddered at the thought of getting really intimate with Ami because I would be reminded of Estelle.

Every part of my body reminds me of what had been done to me.

Ami squeezed my hand tightly and whispered to me.

"Stop"

"What?" I blinked at her confused.

"You were going back there in your head. Stop. It only makes things worse to keep going back. Look at me...I am here...You are here...We are here...Now...Be here now. That is all that matters..." She kissed me. She took my hand and led me into one of the storage lockers.

She closed the door and started kissing me again. Ami started to pull up my shirt and I pushed her hands away. She placed her fingers on my lips when I wanted to say something.

"It is okay...You do not belong to her...You are not hers..."

♦

The funny thing about the perfect plan is that the least people who know about the plan the more likely the plan is to succeed.

Unfortunately there is a flaw in all of that secrecy.

If I had known my father's plan I would not have ended up straight in the middle of it.

I should have known that first day I met them that my death would come at the hands of a vampire.

I should have known that there was no escaping that fate, yet I still held onto the hope that my bleak future could be turned into something else.

I had this great plan in my head that I would become strong and that I would go back and that I would face Estelle.

Instead of being a weakling like I had always been that I would be able to fight back.

In my mind it had never been about revenge, it was about so much more than that. Estelle had to be stopped. She had hurt too many people.

Too bad for me life does not always go the way you planned it, sometimes it throws you a curve ball and the ball ends up slamming you straight in the face.