“Calli,” Chris found me. He came
over and sat down beside me, halfway turned in my direction. His nearness
unnerved me.
“Can I just have a moment to
myself, please?”
“No, night is approaching and we
should all be in the cave soon,” his eyes were on mine, gazing deeply as if
searching for a hidden video recording of what I’d seen. I’ll admit, I left him
hanging by saying what I did, but how could I tell him? I couldn’t ever tell
him that at some point, I’ll have to select who dies and I’ll choose him.
His mind opened to me and he
allowed me to read only these thoughts,
“I don’t know much about you, but I
can tell you would never do anything to hurt me, Calli. What did you see?”
“Are you able to read my mind?”
“No.”
“That’s too bad, because it’s the
only way you’ll ever find out.”
An overwhelmingly delicious aroma
hit my nose, intoxicating my senses. The scent was so delectable my mouth began
to water. I wondered if Chris smelled it too, “Do you smell that?”
“What?”
My stomach started to growl with
anticipation of the scrumptious feast, “Do you want some fresh meat for
dinner?”
“What?”
“There are a few rabbit holes
nearby.”
“Oh, I don’t think I’d get very
full on rabbit holes.”
I couldn’t help but smile at him
and he smiled back at me in return. An exhilarating thrill raced through my
body at the sight of his smile. His happiness and contentment of the moment
warmed my soul and shot lightning bolts to my core.
“Come on,” I jumped up and slipped
my shoes on and took his hand, pulling him in the direction of the delicious
scent. The scent! Oh, splendid, now I’m a Hunter too?
“Will you ever tell me what you saw?”
he asked as I pulled him along.
“You did a fantastic job letting me
read your thoughts, but not allowing me to read your mind.”
He actually blushed from my
compliment, “I can teach you how. I’m guessing it would come easy for you,
everything else apparently does.”
My mind was already safe from Readers
because of the spell the witch placed on me, so I wasn’t too worried about
learning to close it. “Shhhh,” I whispered as we neared the source of the
scent, and then I froze. The smell I picked up on was more than just rabbits,
it was the tang of seasoned, cooked rabbit. I closed my eyes to try to picture
what had happened.
Chris whispered in my ear, “What’s
wrong?”
“Someone else is here.” A strange
stench tickled my nose, teasing my senses with its confusing origins. It
reminded me of my Uncle Thaddeus whom only showered about once a year, coupled
with being at the firing range with my father and the lingering gunpowder
essence—the gunpowder! “Run!” I frantically spat out.
Chris didn’t hesitate one second. He
turned, holding my hand, and ran back to the cave. A few individuals were still
outside and we hurried them in to safety.
Justin came over to confer with us,
“What’s happening?”
My mind wandered into Justin’s and
I found he was familiar with the same stench. Hunters. His mind also divulged
he’d left markers along the way for the Hunters to follow us, some kind of
scent.
So, Justin was a traitor, bent on compromising this assignment!
As
I was about to say the word, Justin’s mind opened to me displaying appalling
revelations. Right up front and center was his past dubious involvements with
the Death Clan. Chris had tried repeatedly to convince Justin not to continue
in his ways, that consorting with underhanded individuals would only result in
an early death. Then, Chris speaking with Justin, informing him he would be the
third member of the trio because he couldn’t be trusted to be alone at the
compound. But, as to why Justin continued to relinquish the fastest position to
Chris, that bit of information was hidden from my view.
“Hunters,” I said, still amazed to
realize these mind reads only took a few seconds of real time.
“Hunters?” Chris was beside
himself. “They’ve found us already?”
I was a little shocked that Chris
completely and wholeheartedly believed me. Justin, however, squirmed anxiously
in his spot.
A couple of the others came over
and joined in.
Olivia panicked. “Oh no, how do we
get away from them?”
“Are they going to hurt us?” a boy
named Ricky asked.
Beth’s question caught my attention.
“How did they get here so fast?”
Justin added innocently, “Maybe
they are only following us, not hunting us.”
The rest of the other clan members
had joined in on the discussion. Will said, “Yeah, right,” “Since when has a
Hunter ever simply followed and not killed?”
Kayla put in her two-cents, “We’ve
got to stop them. How about we ambush them from the trees?”
Chris took charge and said, “No,
they would detect your scent on the bark from climbing,” He looked at me and
opened his mind,
“You can do everything else; do you think you might be able
to kill them with your thoughts?”
“No!” I was surprised he would even
ask me something like that.
I studied Justin’s eyes again and
entered his thoughts. He was given the special scent to spray the trees as breadcrumbs
for the Hunters to follow. But who gave it to him? That particular part of his
brain was blocked. I went back in his mind to the scent bottle he was using. It
was my perfume! The image abruptly disappeared.
“Get out of my mind, muck!”
Justin said with his mind and stood and stormed away from the group.
I immediately looked at Beth wondering
if she’d given it to Justin, but her mind was blocked. The other clan members
were talking amongst themselves about different ways to defeat the Hunters. My
eyes wandered over to Chris and his thoughts asked me,
“What does Justin
know?”
“Too much.”
“Did he know you were reading
his mind?”
I nodded wondering how Chris knew
what I’d done.
“Is he responsible for the
Hunters following us?”
I nodded again.
“How?”
I pretended to spray perfume and
rub my wrists together, with my thumb, I pointed to myself.
“I’m going to kick his butt!”
“No, we need him to talk.”
“Well, we’re in a dilemma now
aren’t we? The sun is setting and the Shadows are deadly. Hunters have their own
ways of avoiding the Demons at night, but the moment dawn breaks tomorrow they
will be hot on our trail once again,” Chris said out loud.
“Then we’ll have to beat them up. I
mean we’ll have to wake before they do and get on our way. We can all wash down
with the water and try to minimize our scents making it harder to track us. Until
then, we are staked down for the night.”
“I need to go talk with Justin. Don’t
worry, I won’t do anything stupid.”
He was telling me not to worry?
“But you don’t know what to ask him.” I got up with him. He took my arm and led
me away from the group. Once we were far enough from everyone, I said, “Someone
else is orchestrating this. They gave him my perfume for the Hunters, but he
closed his mind before I could identify who it was.”
“I’ll talk to him. Stay here and
try to figure out a plan.”
My eyes followed him as he walked
away and over to the far corner where Justin was sitting alone. The group in
front of me hashed out plan after plan of how to defeat the Hunters. With every
idea came a problem to be resolved. I couldn’t help but wonder if Beth was our
enemy also. Her mind was a vault, and I didn’t have the combination.
I stood and walked over to the fire
by the entryway. The darkness had settled in so quickly and completely. I
glanced over my shoulder at everyone. No one seemed to care I was standing so
close to the doorway; so close to the Shadow Demons. I slowly pulled my foot
out of my shoe, and, using my toes, flung it out of the cave into the dark. Even
though I was fairly sure I would be immune to the Shadows, I wasn’t completely
sure. Now that I had so many powers, I could only assume I had a scent too. My
shoe had fallen out of sight, so I pulled out one of the burning sticks from
the fire and tossed it out near where I figured my shoe was. I needed to find
out if the Demons had shredded it. The flaming stick landed almost on top of my
perfectly intact shoe. Now I had a bigger problem. My shoe was about to burn! Clearly,
the Demons had no interest in me or the diamond, so, I ran out of the cave.
“Calli!” Chris’s panicked voice was
closer to the entryway than I’d thought. The last thing I wanted was for him to
think I’d just died, so I answered back.
“Chris, I’m alright. I’m going to
go scout the Hunter’s camp.”
“How…? Come back! The Demons! You’ll
die!”
“I’ll be alright.” The rest of the
Runners crowded the cave opening, murmuring in amazement, as I slipped my shoe
back on. My actions were highlighted by the burning stick I’d thrown out. I
left the small flame and made my way into the night, and into the Shadow
Demons.
Isn’t it interesting that from a
normal human’s viewpoint, being able to run fast or read minds or to possess
any of the other abilities would be every person’s dream? How many times had I
ever wished to see the future or know what others were thinking? Yet, now, at
this exact moment my lackluster human self possessed more ability than anyone
in the cave because I could walk among the Shadow Demons.
Nothing could have prepared me for
the traumatic images of the actual Demons. They were everywhere, floating just
above the grass line, with huge clawed feet and hind dew claws similar to a
cat’s. Their bodies’ thin shriveled forms had a dry leather looking skin
stretched around skeletal frames with heads of assorted animals; dogs, cats,
bats, alligators, elephants, lions, bears, birds, cows and horses, to name a
few. Each hand had three fingers or digits with terribly long claws, and eye
sockets devoid of eyeballs which glowed red.
As I walked, they moved out of my
way not giving me any regard other than acknowledging my presence. Instead,
they were all focused on the cave opening, waiting, hoping for a meal. As the
last flickers of light from the burning stick extinguished, the Demons glided
all the more closer together.
I emerged out of the mass
congregation and stood in the darkened forest. The stars above twinkled and I
heard the water trickle by in the stream. I breathed in a lung full of crisp
air, caught the scent of the Hunters and off I went. Even if I didn’t have the
olfactory ability, I’d only have to follow the noses of the gathered Demons
that were all pointed in the direction of the hiding Hunters, the same as with
the Runners.
The Hunters had constructed a tent
system made of a material I’d never seen before. I figured it must be some type
of magical cloth used to ward off Demons. They had a fire going inside and four
individuals’ silhouettes danced on the walls of the tent. The smell of bad
intentions permeated my entire being leaving nothing to doubt. These individuals
were our enemies and they meant to kill us. However, a familiar scent hit my
nose. I closed my eyes and inhaled the realization that two of the four occupants
were Runners. Why were Runners and Hunters together? Perhaps they were their legs
the same way Chris was my legs. Maybe they were traitors and worked for the
Death Clan, like Justin.
I sat down on a fallen tree to mull
over the situation. Runners, whether good or evil, carried the Hunters at the
same speed as our group. There would be no outrunning them, they would catch up
with us. The diabolic odor told me they meant to kill us, not merely follow us
as Justin had suggested.
An idea came into my mind. I’m fast
for a human and I could run most of the night, using the perfume and spraying
trees to set up a false trail in the opposite direction. The Hunters would
follow the markers well into the morning giving us time to further the distance
between us. All I needed was the perfume.
I made my way back to the cave,
stepping through the even thicker gathering of Demons outside. Upon entering, I
was immediately assaulted by Chris. His arms pulled me tight against him as he
stepped backwards to the cave wall. Shaking and with me wrapped tightly in his
intense embrace, his body slid down the wall. I looked into his moist eyes and
he opened his mind to me.
“Why? How? You should be dead! I
thought you were dead! Don’t ever scare me like that again!”
“I’m fine, Chris, really.”
“I don’t understand what you
are.”
“Join the club. Let me up, we’re making
a scene.” Beyond the fire the clan members stared with open mouths.
Justin pushed his way through the
crowd, “What … are you?”
“You tell me and we’ll both know.”
“Are you a witch?” Kayla asked.
“No, I’m not.”
“How can you go out among the
Demons and not be killed?” Will motioned to the cave opening.
“I don’t understand it either, I
only know the Shadow Demons aren’t interested in me. But, more importantly,
there are two Hunters and two Runners camped about five-hundred yards
downstream with a whole herd of Demons surrounding their tent. Outside this
cave are twice as many waiting for someone to fly out to feed them.”
The questions came at me instantly.
You can see the Demons? What do
they look like? Why didn’t they eat you? The Hunters stay in tents? How do you
know there are four of them? What makes you think Runners are with them? Who
are they?
My eyes were on Justin. I asked
him, “Where is it, Justin?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You closed it off from me and then
told me to get out of your mind.”
The other members had quieted down
and were trying to pick through our conversation.
“What difference will it make? They’ve
already caught us.”
“The difference is we have at least
six hours before they can leave their tent. I can go out and set up a decoy trail,
sending them on a wild goose chase tomorrow. Now, Justin, where is it?”