A Hunt In The Night - 1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Things are the same as always here. Today I got another assignment. Someone who accidentally killed his neighbor. His abilities manifested in the form of a metal spike from the ground. I am supposed to bring him in by tomorrow. I’ll do it. I always do.

As always my Hunts are perfect. I caught the guy easy. Nothing to do since I neutralized him so I went to a movie. Boss wouldn’t be happy about it but I did it anyway. I deserved a break. I mean 22 Hunts in a row? Give a guy time to rest. I have had barely any sleep in the past three days. I was running on empty. I bought some popcorn. Why not go all the way with this movie? Why not, indeed. It was one of those movies where the main characters were being hunted by a person with some sort of power. If only they knew that it really does happen. Every day.

My day is really taking a turn to bad. Another one. I’m starting to not enjoy my Hunts. They won’t tell me about this one. All they will say is that he is able to memorize things instantly. What a lame ability! But then again, never underestimate an ability. I once met this one guy who could see in the dark. I thought that that would be easy. But when he almost killed me while I couldn’t see him made me reconsider. He almost did kill me.

“Are you sure you can handle this?” My best friend, Sara asks me. Us Hunters aren’t that easy to dissuade.

“Of course, Sara. I could do this asleep.” Which I very well might do. But she didn’t need to know that.

“Are you sure? I mean you haven’t been sleeping that well when you are sleeping . Which brings me to another point. Which is that you haven’t been sleeping at all.” She was like the mother I never had.

“Yes, I’m sure. And I have things to do. Hunts to finish. Have no time for sleep.” I mumbled with a muffin half in my mouth and the other half somewhere in my stomach.

She is tired also, her coming back from her 13th Hunt in a row. “Well I don’t have to leave for my Hunt until tomorrow, so……” She yawns, her mouth becoming a huge gaping hole. Darn her, I yawn as well. She is about 16 and she lives with me at the Compound. We both lost our parent when we were kids. The Compound took us in and gave us a place to live. They were the ones who trained us, they taught us about the Talents. The taught us how to catch them and how to identify them. Now I worked for them. The Compound is our home and I don’t want to change that.

Sara says goodbye and walks away. I am left at the kitchen by myself. Great. Now what do I do. Well, I could use the rest and I don’t have to leave for a while. I head to my room. I haven’t really been here in a while. My bed is still unmade and my books are still on my nightstand. I really ought to pick this place up. Then again, I would just make it a mess again.

I grab the closest book and find where I left off. After about 120 pages I stop and sit back up. It’s getting pretty late. I need some food. I throw the book back on the nightstand and walk to the kitchen.

When I reach the small room I reach into any cabinet. When I find some cereal and a bowl I make breakfast for dinner. There are about twenty-one Hunters still alive. This being a hazardous job and all. But Boss is training some recruits for the job.

“Yo, Zak. What’s up?” I look up from my cereal. Leo Blaze. Appropriate name considering his Talent. The natural pyro. He was one of our only Hunters who was a Talent themselves.

“Nothing, Leo. Now what are you doing up at 3 in the morning?”

“Nothing. I’m always up this early. Well, actually I’m up all night. Why do you think I’m always asleep during the day?” He smiled taking the spot next to me at the table.

“No reason. I just thought you were lazy.” I chuckled as he glared at me. “Just kidding. I really don’t care.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I missed you.” He smiled and blushed making him look even more cute.

“Missed you too….When do you have to leave again?” He asked, the smile running away from his face. We had barely been with each other for the past two weeks. Him being sent out for missions while I was sent when he came back. I had been requesting for us to be sent together but Boss never let it happen. He said that us being together would make us more emotional. And he couldn’t afford that.

“Soon. Noon today.” I frowned and placed my forehead against his.

He sighed. “I really want you to stay. Being a Hunter is starting to ruin my life. I can’t have a normal life and I can’t spend time with the man I love. After my next mission I’m going to resign. Go and live with a friend of mine. You could come too.” He took my hand.

“We’ll see after we get back.” I kissed him again. “I’ll be back soon.”

Leo stood up and left. Did he really plan to leave? Would I go with him? I walked back to my room and sat on my bed again. Being a Hunter was making my life harder than it needed to be. But I couldn’t just give up and abandon it. But he was right. I wanted to have a normal life. To not care about things like Talents and to be with the man I loved. I laid back on the pillows and I tried to sort out all my thoughts. By about 6 I knew what I would say when I got back. I would go with him. I would leave. ‘He will be so happy.” I smiled at the thought of his reaction.

“Zak, time to go. Get your lazy ass up!” I opened my eyes to Sara’s loud voice slamming into my room.

“Shut up! I need sleep.” I mumbled through the blanket. I could hear the door open and felt as Sara pulled me off the bed. I hit the floor with a thud. “Fuck! What was that for?!”

She yanked me up and threw some clothes at me. “We have to leave in 40 minutes. So get dressed and get ready.” I pulled on the shirt she gave me and I got dressed as fast as I could. After I got dressed and brushed my rats nest of hair I quickly ducked into Leo’s room. He was asleep on the small couch he had. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“I love you and I can’t wait to see you again.” I whispered into his ear. I knew he couldn’t hear me but I still wanted to say it.

When I ducked back out of his room, Sara was waiting for me. “You all set we’ll be leaving now.” She brushed her red hair out of her face and lead me to Boss.

I turned back to her before we went into Boss’s room. “Hey, do you know when Leo leaves for his mission?”

“Tomorrow.” She said as she lead me to see Boss. After he gives us all the information on the man we leave. After taking about to days to find him, we reported in and told them that he wasn’t a treat. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.

When we pulled back into the Compound I headed right for Leo’s room. He wasn’t there and no one would tell me if he was back yet. No one seemed to know or they wouldn’t tell me. Finally when I asked Andrew, one of the people in charge of training, did I get an answer.

“Sara knows where he is. You should go ask her.” He pointed me to one of the back training rooms. One of the private rooms.

“Sara?” I called out into the room. She stopped fighting the simulations and she turned to see me. I ran up to her when I saw her face. She was crying. When I reached her she fell into my arms. “Sara, what’s wrong?” I asked her. She looked up at me.

“Leo.” She said before she started to cry again. I froze.

“What about Leo?” I asked.

“Zak. He didn’t make it.” She was crying even harder than ever before.

“He….didn’t…make…it?” I started to breath deeper and I tried to take in this new information. Leo. My beloved Leo. He didn’t make it back. He was dead. “How?” I asked quietly.

“Ice Talent. They were fighting when Leo didn’t see him freeze the ceiling. It started to collapse and it fell in. Leo tried to get out but his fire became to out of control and I burned the remnants of the house down. They didn’t even get the Talent, he escaped.” She was crying over Leo, her brother.

“We were going to leave. We were going to resign when he got back. He wanted to live a normal life and he wanted me to live with him. I was going to say yes.” I was crying now. The despair was slowly becoming rage. “He’s going to die. I will kill him. I don’t care how long it takes me I will kill him.” I growled. I pulled Sara out of my arms. “Are you coming with me?”

She wiped the tears off her face and nodded. We both got our stuff and she hacked into the Compound computers to find out the Talents information. When we found out the last know positions we set out.

I took us a couple of days to find the man. He was hiding in a small motel in the countryside. We waited till we could catch him alone. After a while of painful waiting and thinking about our beloved, lost Leo, we made our move. I didn’t hesitate when he begged for mercy.

“You didn’t give that to Leo did you?” I asked him. He didn’t know who Leo was. “Leo was the man who was sent to make sure you wouldn’t hurt anyone. But you killed him.” I pulled the whip tighter around his neck.

Gasping for air he said he shouldn’t have done it. That he was sorry. But that wasn’t going to bring back Leo.

“You can’t be let to live. You’re a hazard to people everywhere. My brother, Leo, proved that.” Sara said. Before he could say anything else I kicked him off. The whip becoming a makeshift noose. He died instantly. After disposing of his body we headed back for the Compound.

That night a memorial party was held in Leo’s honor. I danced with Sara as we tried to comfort each other but it just ended with us crying every time someone said his name. I promised myself that I would keep Hunting. I would do it for Leo. I would make him proud. I would love him even though he was dead.