In Plain Sight (A Hunted Rose)

Chapter Seven

That day, when I got home, I decided to email Liam again.  I opened my laptop and started to type.  After a short message telling Liam that I was fine, and that I hoped he was, I closed the laptop again and put it away.  After that I sat down on the couch with a sigh.  What to do now?  I got up and paced around the living room, for some reason I had excess energy right now.  I looked out the window and saw two black motorcycles in a driveway down the street, and I decided I would go and try to hang out with River (and maybe Ryder). 

 Before I could leave the house, I saw a black Aston Martin come zooming down the street, followed closely by a silver Toyota.  They pulled in next to the motorcycles, and I saw Cameron and Seth get out of the black car, and Jason get out of the silver one.  They walked into the house without knocking and disappeared from my view.  I left the house and locked the door behind me, putting my key into my pocket.  I started walking down the street, trying to stay in the shade as I did.  As I got closer I strained to hear what they might be talking about.  As I got closer I started to hear them speaking.

 “…training tomorrow after school at Seth’s house,” River was saying as I approached.  Training?  What was that about?

 “Maybe someday soon we’ll actually get to do something instead of work out all the time,” Cameron said. 

 “You don’t mind it too much though,” Seth said.  “You are always talking about how training helps with your physique that all the ladies admire.”  He barely finished speaking because he was laughing as he said it.

 “Apparently not all the ladies,” Cameron grumbled.

 “What are you going on about now?” asked Ryder.  I heard springs creak as if someone was sitting were sitting down on a bed or a couch. 

 “Cam is upset that Rose hasn’t hit on him yet,” Jason said.  He sounded as if he wasn’t really interested in the conversation; that he was only there because he had to be.

“Why do you like her so much?” Ryder asked.  “First River won’t shut up about her and now you.  I just don’t see what’s so special.”

 “Hey,” River cried out in indignation. 

“She seems nice, and friendly,” Cameron said.  After he spoke, Seth did.

“She isn’t fake or scared of us like all the other girls are.  She will look us in the eye and respond in complete sentences when we speak to her.  And she doesn’t look through us; she’ll actually look at us.”  There was silence for a second.  “It’s a nice change.”

“Can we just focus on training?” River asked them.  “I hope we get to fight the real thing instead of all those stuffed dummies and the trained ones.  We’ve only ever been out with our dads, and even then, they make us hide out away from the action.  We need to go out on our own and prove that we can handle one of them.”

“We cannot go out until we know where one is,” Jason said.  “We can’t just say ‘Oh, let’s go into town.  Oh my God!  Look there one is now.  Let’s kill it!’  It doesn’t work like that, guys.”

Seriously.  What in the name of heck were they talking about?  It sounded violent, whatever it was.  I kept walking so that I didn’t look like a total weirdo and got closer to the house. 

“Do you not remember what happened in fifth grade?” Now Seth was speaking again.  “Because I do.  That went really wrong and someone died.  I don’t want to go through that again.  If we had more training then, we might have been able to help that guy.  Just because we have been training since we could walk, doesn’t mean that we are ready.  Not to mention, this town is too small for one of them to come.  It would be noticed.”

“Yeah, that is true,” Cameron said.  “It’s easier for them in the bigger cities.  Where people aren’t missed.”  I started to get a bad feeling as the conversation continued on.  Could they be talking about…?  No.  They couldn’t. 

“Whatever,” Ryder said.  “To be honest, I doubt we’ll get a big case anytime soon.”

“Why?” Cameron asked him.

“Because, sometimes we act pretty immature, and yes that includes me as well, and they don’t trust us to actually complete the task, and second, they would wait until summer vacation.  The closest big town is like two hours away and there are people closer than us.  They would want school to be done before we did a big trip.”

“It just sucks,” I could imagine Cameron pouting as he said it.

“Just think of it this way,” Jason pointed out, “the more we train, the sooner we get a case.”

I was hopelessly lost with the conversation.  Although, I wasn’t supposed to be listening anyway- or, well, it should not have been possible for me to hear - so I turned around and walked back to my house.  About an hour later I heard three car doors slam and two engines power up. 

When it got dark out, I went to my closet and got out the dress I saved for days like this.  It was mid thigh, black, strapless, and I had these killer shoes that went with it.  All black and strappy.  I put my hair up into a high ponytail and brushed on some shimmering power.  It was time to hunt.