Chapter 1 Maegan's Story
I woke up to the thin streams of light raining from the gaps in the curtains. My mind was foggy, still playing out the last thoughts I'd had before I'd fallen asleep that night. I had been talking with the town's Scholar, taking notes on his experiences. I had the dream of becoming a teacher.
I don't remember how our conversation shifted, but somehow we had gotten off-track, and James began whispering to me of dangerous secrets.
I shivered, rolling over onto my side. How could someone talk openly about this? Did he not realize that he could be the very one sought after and killed for such stupidity? My insides had tightened, but I let him rattle on about Wolfron Forest. Of how the Games were tradition that nobody questioned, not even the Hunters, and how they needed to stop.
That set me on edge right then and there. I was afraid for him, and myself. James wasn't my friend, but he was frail. He had been handicapped for years, unable to walk without a staff. I couldn't bear to see him being herded into the Dark Woods.
But, he had been right.
The Games were barbaric and awful. Yet, no one questioned them. No one even wondered about them...except who would be chosen. Who would be picked out of the lot and herded in with the crowd of others.
Friends, families, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents.
All scattered about deep inside of those cursed woods. Then the Hunters would emerge two and a half days after them, guns and crossbows loaded.
There were, on average, the most Hunters recorded this year. Almost twenty-five.
The Hunters would pick enough people from the town to roughlyequal with the number of Hunters.
This year has about fifty people, all in all.
Now fully awake, I sat up, ripping the covers off of me. My mass of long, chocolate-colored hair hung around my face and shoulders in a thick veil.
I decided to go see James again. I wanted to make sure that he was okay.
To make sure he wasn't surrounded by blood-thirsty barbarians who wanted him dead.
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Empty as my Heart
AdventureI stared right into the Hunter's eyes, frozen and afraid. Afraid for my life. He just looked at me, calmly and robotically. As if I were just another kill, nothing to worry about. Not a threat to him..or his friend. The raid poured down hard, m...
