God is my Judge

The Hunt

The loft was huge, it towered over us as if it were a skyscraper and we were ants. None of us looked like we belonged there, but the housing manager welcomed us in with a smile nonetheless.
"You must be here to tour A12! Let me get the key!"
I watched him go and looked around hesitantly.
"This isn't exactly the kind of place we usually go, are you sure you got the address right?"
Daniel gave me a dirty look. I felt my stomach flutter. Ugh. Why do I feel like this? I look over at Noah who is scanning the handheld metal detector for bits of iron. He looked focus as he frowned at the detector that was showing nothing out of the ordinary. I rubbed my stomach. The small budge only served to deepen my guilt. I should have felt this way for Noah, the father of my child. When I looked up at Noah he was smiling warmly at me. He was giving me space the best he could, to figure me out, but I knew it hurt him. The manager walked back in with a jump in his step. He smiled at us.
"My name is Miles, and you're going to love this. It's my favorite one!"
I smiled back at him to try to match his enthusiasm, it was hard not to notice he was looking right through us. He turned and began walking, not even looking to make sure we were following him. Noah looked taken aback but Daniel only looked more determined. He whispered as he passed me.
"This is gonna be easy."
The elevator was silent as we rode up to the lot, but I did notice the manager made sure to cover the code when he entered it, he knew we weren't serious buyers, only here to waste his time. I swallowed back a wave of guilt as I tried to convince myself for the millionth time that this was the right place, and we were gonna be helping him. As the doors opened he turned to us suddenly.
"Professional tour or self guided?"
Noah slapped him on the back.
"Self guided for sure."
I tried to ignore the sickening look of relief on his face as we stepped out of the elevator.
"You won't need a code to get back down, take your time!"
He smiled, this time a genuine smile as the elevator doors closed.
"How much do you suppose he hates his job?"
Daniel gave me a dirty look.
"Azra-"
I cut him off.
"I know, I know, professional. Excuse my weak attempt at humor."
Sighing, I walked away. He gritted his teeth but let me go without saying anything else. Noah took off his backpack and I pulled my salt bombs out of my pocket.
"I'll take the rest of the apartment, you guys take the master bedroom, where the activity has been reported."
He sighed.
"Take care of her."
Daniel nodded solemnly. They rarely got along but the one thing they always seemed to agree on was my safety, and it drove me nuts.
"You know I can take care of myself right?"
The ignored me and began walking in different directions. I sighed loudly but followed Daniel. The master bedroom was the last door on the left. We already knew that, of course, being as we had studied the blueprints extensively. He opened the door tentatively, looking around as if something were going to jump out at him. When he finally deemed it safe we stepped inside. The room was gorgeous. It had flawless beige carpeting with gold trim. On the trim in the center of each wall was a cute decorative symbol. There was a big bay window directly in front of us, with doors that could close in front of it. The bathroom and the closet were both to the left and I could see the quartz countertops and the big jacuzzi tub with holes in the ceiling where the water came down as if it were rain. It was welcoming. As soon as we had both stepped inside, however, every door slammed shut, the only light was coming through the cracks of the doors in front of the windows. Arms came out of the walls behind me and grabbed me, securing me against the wall. I tried to scream but there was a hand covering my mouth. I watched as more hands reached for my stomach and tried desperately to wiggle free. Suddenly they were gonna and I stand there as if nothing had happened though I could see by the look on Daniels face that it had. I tried to run toward him but he was across the room and the floor between us began to crumble under my feet, forcing me back against the wall.
"Azra!"
I looked up as he yelled my name.
"Azra those symbols-"
He was cut off as something grabbed him and pulled him into the closet. I could hear screaming, I couldn't tell whether it was his or mine. Suddenly it reset and he was standing right in front of me. He grabbed my shoulders.
"Quickly I need to know your worst fear."
"What?"
"Azra, we don't have time, the symbols are feeding off of your fears, what's next?"
I stared at him confused until it suddenly donned on me.
"Oh no."
"What Azra?"
But before I could answer it happened. I heard the unmistakeable sound of a gunshot ring out and then he collapsed. The lights were throbbing and he was moaning in pain and I couldn't tell fake from reality.
"It's going to reset."
But it didn't. It just kept going. He tried to talk but I couldn't hear him over the buzzing electrical sounds in the air.
"What?"
He repeated himself, but I still couldn't hear him and I looked at him confused.
"Destroy!"
He slumped over, having used all his energy on that one word. I looked around and realized exactly what he meant, the salt bags in my hands were useless. I grabbed the axe off of his belt and slammed it into the symbol nearest to me and the lights stopped throbbing. The next one and the buzzing stopped. The third one had Daniel taking deep breaths, while the fourth released the doors. When I was done with the final one I looked over to see that Daniel was standing, seeming stronger than ever.
"Good job, bug."
My heart squeezed as he had used my nickname. Suddenly, Noah came busting through the door.
"What. The. Fuck."
I smiled at him.
"Leave it to you to miss the big time."
He laughed.
"Looks to me like I didn't miss much."