I PRETEND TO SLEEP while my babysitter sits by the door in her chair. She isn’t doing her job very well. I’ve already seen her doze off a few times. She tried fighting sleep the first few times it threatened to take her over, but now she’s just sitting there snoring. I’ve been thinking about sneaking out, but I haven’t really considered it until this moment.
Since I’ve been living at the base, I’ve noticed it empties at night. Hunters try to keep their hunting times to daylight hours since evil thrives in the night. However, there are still a few hunters that stick around after dark, and Fiona stays here now too, but I don’t think it’d be particularly difficult for me to sneak out—especially since Fiona is currently out on a mission with Gold Team that couldn’t wait until morning. The hunters mostly worry about regulating who comes in, not who leaves. Footage of me will probably be caught on cameras somewhere, but I don’t think anyone is going to come out and stop me as long as I get out of here without my babysitter noticing.
I watch the snoring hunter who’s supposed to be watching me for a moment longer before I carefully get off of my bed. The springs in my mattress sound loud like scraping metal, but it doesn’t seem to bother the hunter. I try not to pay attention to the anxiety threatening to flood through my body. Every little sound I makes seems amplified as I crawl out of my bed, get dressed, and pack items into my backpack. I basically have one eye glued to the hunter and the other glued to all the things I’m trying to get done.
If I’m going to be confronted by Arsen, I’m going to be ready for him.
Once I have everything I can get, I quietly haul my backpack onto my back. I have my small silver knife concealed and easily accessible in the custom belt Fiona got me, and I wear my black diamond attached to my silver chain necklace as usual. The plethora of charms and herbs in my backpack all combined should make me unappetizing to most monsters preying on humans, not to mention the fact that I have vervain running through my system. But maybe a demon won’t be deterred. It didn’t stop him from wrecking my house and killing my parents. I wish I was allowed to have my own gun. I’m a good shot, but there’s no way I’m going to risk getting out of here by trying to borrow one.
I shake my head and try not to think about what’s to come. It’ll only make me anxious and stop me from doing what I have to do. I don’t have time to dwell on my fears. I can’t put this off any longer. I have to end this.
As I sneak out the door, past my hunter babysitter still captured in the arms of sleep, I realize that this whole thing has probably worked out for the better. If I’m the only one going out to hunt Arsen, I’m the only one that might get hurt. I can’t let him hurt anyone else. I can’t let him kill anyone else. I can’t see that ever again.
I walk down the halls in my winter coat, prepared for the cold night outside. I keep my hood close around my neck, but I don’t put it over my head. If I did that, I’d end up looking suspicious. All I have to do to get out of here is not to draw attention to myself. As long as no one realizes it’s me, I’ll be fine. I keep a vigilant watch out for any hunters walking the base alongside me.
My fears are unfounded. I don’t run into a single soul, even as I open a door to the outside. Just as I expected, the night is cold. It’s snowing, but the snowflakes are small and the wind is fierce. So instead of the fluffy snowflakes you always see advertised on the Christmas holiday cards, these snowflakes are like little shards of ice that dig into your skin on impact.
I pull my hood over my head and do my best to hide my face from the storm. I walk far away from the base, but I stay among the warehouses. I don’t want to wander into the city because I don’t want to get anyone else involved, so it’s just me and the big abandoned warehouses. All I can hear is the wind howling in my ears and the biting ice burning any exposed skin.
That’s when I start to feel it. That feeling of being watched, a pair of eyes searing two holes into the back of my head. But I know I’m not being watched by just anyone. I don’t know how I know it, but this feeling of power, of foreboding, this feeling that makes me want to shiver out of my skin is from Arsen.
I start checking the doors to the warehouses and find one that isn’t locked. I slip inside to find the place completely gutted with some open windows farther back, letting in more of the cold wind and covering the floor in thin ice. I move to an area without windows and already feel ten times warmer now that the mind-numbing wind is no longer buffeting me.
“I know you’re there,” I say as I drop my backpack on the ground. I try to sound convincing, but the shaking in my voice probably makes my fear easy enough to see.
I ease my silver knife from my belt, reminding myself to keep it together. After taking a deep breath, I continue, “It’s just you and me now. Let’s end whatever this thing going on between us is. You’ve been watching me. You killed my parents. You tried to mine Didi for information. I don’t know why, but you want me for something, right? Well, I’m right here. What’s stopping you?”
My hands are trembling so bad I can barely keep a hold of my silver knife. The weapon isn’t going to do me any good if I can’t get a handle on my nerves. I’ve been through combat training during my time at the base. I perform decently now. But this is real! This is dangerous. I’m afraid, and now I wonder if such a small silver knife will even do the job. What was it I learned about demons? It was something Rynne told Fiona, something I learned in one of my classes. Silver harms demons, but to really kill one, you have to carve out their heart and stop it from regenerating. My blood runs cold, and I realize just how unprepared I am.
Rynne. I wish Rynne was here with me. I’m so scared, but if he was here, he’d make it all okay. He’d somehow make it all okay. I need his light.
Rynne.
A dark, sensual voice comes from the shadows. “I was hoping you would be the one to give me answers.”