Darkness Awakens_Chronicles of Hunter

by Frank Perez

  Michael didn’t take his eyes off The Jackal who was struggling to get up off the floor, “Quickly. Take Ren and get out, she’s dead otherwise.”

  One of the sacred points in his training was that no Watcher would attack another without the express approval of The Five, something which had never happened, and yet; he stood there considering the total annihilation of another brother. I can’t do this. It’s not right.

  Reweaving the original power, he aimed at The Jackal. This hit wouldn’t destroy him but it would leech away all of his power, giving him plenty of breathing room. The initial wound in The Jackal’s stomach would take a long time to heal now rather than the couple of minutes it would have otherwise.

  Remembering one of the newer planets he’d found at the edge of the Universe, he willed The Jackal away with a wave of his hand, transporting him across millions of light years then turned to scan his surroundings, in search of the other source of power.

  Only a hint of it remained near the couch that Ren had been sitting on. A whisper. Not enough to gain any insight into who had been there.

  With no other immediate threat, he turned towards the door that led into the kitchen. Somehow he would have to gain the trust of Ren and her male companion. Easier said than done, he thought to himself as he strode across the living room. Especially when your daughter has disappeared into nothing right in front of your face and you've no idea what’s happened.

  Chapter 4

  Hunter and Ren bounded down the stairwell keeping the mystery man in sight.

  He’d stayed just outside the kitchen door after the chaos, looking at Ren. “We need to go, now!” turning around and heading for the open door.

  Taking only a moment, she launched herself after him, “Come on Hunter. He’s got to know something about Bonnie!”

  The stranger turned his head as he was running in front of them, "Quickly now. It won't take the Council long to find out something is wrong and send more Watchers this way."

  Having just witnessed her daughter disappear in her arms, followed by a close encounter where both she and Hunter should be dead, she was unwilling to lose sight of the only one amongst them who may hold some answers. Tears ran down her cheeks but she kept her wits about her as she followed the man into the lobby and out into a rain soaked street.

  Turning left outside the door, the stranger headed to an alleyway that ran up the side of Ren's apartment. Without hesitation he ran through the alley and continued on until coming to a sliding stop underneath a streetlight with a broken lamp.

  Turning, he grabbed Hunters hand "form a circle, hold Ren’s hand," he whispered, "We need to get as far away from here as possible."

  Having witnessed the chaos and mayhem in Rens’ apartment, Hunters brain was a-whirl with thoughts, none of them coherent. He held out his hand and grabbed Ren not even understanding why the robed figure had asked him to.

  The stranger made a gesture with his free hand that appeared to circle the three of them. Hunter watched in amazement as a swirl of golden mist surrounded them. Without Warning they dissipated leaving no signs of them behind in the alley.

  Hunter and Ren sat across from their mysterious savior in a dimly lit diner.

  The puffiness and redness of Ren's eyes a sole reminder of the tears shed for her daughter Bonnie while the three of them made a mad dash through the deserted city streets, looking for a place to hide, to stop and think.

  Bonnie, she thought to herself, her sweet adorable and innocent little girl vanished while she was holding her in her arms. How could that be? No-one just up and vanishes like that? Well, almost nobody she amended, remembering how the stranger had waved his hand and made all three of them appear somewhere down-town. A solid fifty miles from her apartment.

  A lone waitress stood by the counter ignoring them. She had just served them coffee and would wait to see if they needed anything else though they didn’t have the look of her usual hungry customers. A tip would not be forthcoming.

  Hunter looked up at Ren’s face. He could see her struggling with what happened, struggling with it himself. First her daughter Bonnie had disappeared in front of their eyes, screaming as if she was in pain. Then the other watcher appears out of thin air, uttering soothing words. Words meant to gain their trust. Something they had almost gone along with until the second one showed up. What followed was something that would be seared into his memory forever.

  The two of them, identically dressed, in some kind of fight, lighting up the entire room with pure energy.

  He stored the image away in his memory, it might actually make a good story one day, if he ever went back to writing that was. His brain was struggling to make sense of everything. He reached his hand toward Ren’s hand to offer some comfort but drew it back. He was still uncomfortable with human contact.

  Ren saw Hunter stop his hand as he caught himself moving to take hers and smiled. A small, tired and weary smile. It was the first time she had seen any normal behavior from him and it had come when she was most vulnerable and not expecting it. She reached for the sugar and placed two teaspoons into her coffee, stirring in a daze. Hunter realized he would have to take the front foot and move things along, for Ren’s sake, if not his own sanity. “So, where do we begin?”

  “I’m not entirely sure," the strange man uttered, “This goes beyond anything I’ve ever come across.”

  Hunter slammed an open hand on the table in front of him, “Well, let me kick it off then. I’m Hunter and this is Ren. Now why don’t you start with just what the Hell has happened to Ren’s daughter?”

  Ren looked towards Hunter with amazement at the vehemence in his voice.

  She hadn’t realized that Bonnie, or herself had meant anything to Hunter other than the relationship between publisher and writer. She shook her head. She must be misreading the situation.

  Bonnie’s disappearance had her head muddled, and she wasn’t thinking clearly. Yet somehow, she wasn’t entirely convinced of it. Hunter may be a brilliant writer but she had never seen him show any kind of emotion before, not even when she had presented him with awards and cheques with lots of zero’s in it. Surely that would have been the key to seeing some emotion in the man and yet now, looking at his face, pure anger was radiating from his entire body aimed entirely at the stranger sitting on the other side of the table.

  The Watcher looked at the two people before him organizing his thoughts. He had gone nameless for so long he was unsure of where to begin. Watcher was the only term he had gone by for a long time. But I’m no longer a Watcher. He reminded himself, all that is behind me now. But what am I now? Who am I now? I don’t even have any memories of the person who existed before Watcher!

  Recalling the name he'd gone by prior to beginning his training, he began “My name is… Michael and until a few hours ago, I was a Watcher, a select group of people who have been specifically trained to keep the peace in the universe.”

  Ren broke into Michael's narrative mid-sentence “I don’t give a damn about any of that.” She uttered through clenched teeth, the fury coming off her in waves “tell me what happened to Bonnie-right now.”

  Michael sighed as he took in the veiled sorrow in Ren's eyes. Guiding a little of his power over her so that she would see that he wasn’t lying and hoping to calm her down a little.

  Hunter looked over at the swirling colors that had appeared from Michaels' hands and floating towards Ren, “What the Hell are you doing?”

  After what he had just witnessed in Bonnie's room, he wasn’t about to trust a light show like that too soon.

  Michael looked over at Hunter “You can see the power?”

  "Of course I can see that stuff. You’d have to be blind not to see it and you’d better stop that shit or I’ll knock you right off that chair and call the cops."

  Raising his hands in surrender, Michael added “You misunderstand its purpose. I was just trying to calm the situation down a little, to try to make some sense out of it. No harm was intended, believe
me.”

  Ren looked between the two men not understanding what they were talking about but not liking what she had just heard. “I don’t know anything about any power but believe me, you’d better start giving me some information, like right now about what’s happening. Don’t try to calm the situation or anything else.”

  “Okay. Well, as I just said, my name is Michael and until yesterday I was a Watcher. I guess you can call me the first official, former Watcher now. Your daughter has been transported somewhere,” holding his hand up, forestalling the question he saw coming, “I don’t know where… yet or by whom. Although I have a fair enough guess as to the why.”

  “Like I said, I’m a Watcher, used to be a Watcher.” He corrected himself. “And one of the things I do is to nurture and guide developing species as they grow through maturity to possible enlightenment.”

  *~*

  The Jackal lifted his tired head off the sandy floor. He knew that he was no longer on the same planet as The Failed Watcher but at least he was still on the same plane. He had underestimated the power that the failure possessed. A lesson that he’d learned the hard way and not to be repeated.

  The effort of lifting himself off the ground and onto his knees almost made him retch. He’d never felt so much pain in his life. He concentrated and sent the force through his body, assessing the damage. Lots of broken bones, cuts, lacerations and the open wound on his stomach, which was still bleeding. Normally his internal force would have begun the healing process already. This time however, he was almost spent.

  Anger and rage bubbled through his demeanor. No one had ever bested him and made him feel as useless as the failure had just done. He’d been caught unawares not expecting him to be present. The Five were supposed to have handled that. They would pay for their transgressions in time. First, he would take care of the failure himself.

  Shifting on his heels, he sent his presence outwards, seeking some force to bring into himself, to allow him to heal quicker. Much to his annoyance, there was little of it to be found anywhere on this forsaken piece of rock. He would have to rely on his own internal power although that would take a longer time to raise the energy to do so.

  He could always gather himself and call on The Master for help. He would be healed and fully powered instantly but he was loath to do so. To do that would be to show weakness in front of The Master, something that he would never do. The pain that he was currently experiencing would be nothing compared to what the Master would inflict on him.

  The presence of one of The Brethren within the room of the young girl was something that he hadn’t expected either. Twice in one day he’d been made a fool of and both times seemed to point back to the Five. They would keep, for now.

  There was only one course of action as far as he was concerned. Heal himself, deal with the failure and then report back to The Master, avoiding any mention of his own failures.

  With this plan in his thoughts, he settled back and concentrated on regenerating his life force. Stretching forth his awareness, he found a small clump of trees in the distance. Normally he would not even notice the power of that kind of life-force but now, he would take everything he could get his hands on. A slow process, but he had nothing but time.

  *~*

  Ren sat back in her chair, stunned. “Your fault?” she uttered. “Explain very carefully what you’ve done with my baby.”

  Hunter sat forwards in his chair, placing his elbows on the table in front of him. A wave of raw fury was coming off Hunters entire body though outwardly he appeared calm. Michael would have to be careful how he phrased the next part of the conversation or no trust would be able to rise between them. “The people of this planet are ones that were entrusted to me centuries ago and, since the beginning, I’ve been trying to guide you all in the right direction. I haven't let one species under my care not find enlightenment. This one however, has caused me nothing but concern for a very long time. When a species moves into its enlightened stage, individuals that live on the planet will start to show promise in the power. As a Watcher, if I came across any of these individuals with the potential to harness and use that power, my instructions were to transport them to the initiation temple for testing and if they were successful, they would be trained in our ways.”

  Michael paused for a moment to let them take in this information. It also allowed him a moment to check the aura emanating from Hunter and Ren.

  The silent fury so evident a moment ago had dissipated a little, but he still needed to gain their trust. “A couple of months ago I came back to Earth for a final look. All around me I saw nothing but chaos and destruction. It wounded me. However, as I was about to take my report back to The Council, a spark of power hit me.” Leaning forward towards them so they could see the seriousness of what he was about to say “Power, in any form has never been found on any species that is so far from enlightenment before, ever!”

  He paused and took a sip of the lukewarm coffee before him, noting the subtle patterns in their auras.

  What he had just said would have knocked any other being on any of the enlightened planets on its backside, yet they were barely moved. He had to remind himself that they were completely unaware of the enormity of that statement. It was like trying to make a newborn understand the enormity of gravity.

  “I should have reported back to The Council straight away but I guess you could say that my… pride made me wait and watch the power for a little longer.” Looking over at Ren, he continued “that power, Ren, resides in your daughter. For the past few months, I’ve been standing guard over her and watching the power continue to grow.”

  Hunter sat back in his chair, seeing where this was going. “So essentially you set your goons on Bonnie and now she’s at this… whatever training. How the fuck do we get her back?”

  Michael sat back in his chair, taking a deep breath. Hunter’s fury was justified and he allowed it to wash over him without affecting him. “Not quite Hunter. That should have been what happened but… no. I watched and waited, seeing Bonnie’s power continue to grow. Until yesterday. When she had that nightmare last night, her power flared beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”

  The raw fury returned to Rens aura in a tumultuous wave that almost felt like a physical blow to Michael, “Last night’s nightmare?” she whispered “You’ve been like a peeping Tom in our lives for a few months now? How dare you? What the Hell gives you the right to do something like that?”

  Hunter reached out his hand and placed it on Rens with no hesitation this time, as furious as she was but also determined to hear the rest of Michael’s story and they needed to stay as calm as possible for that to happen. “And then what happened? You reported back to these… Five?”

  Michael placed his open palms on the table face-down. Sitting forward once more, a gesture meant to show he was not manipulating any of the force. Hunter leaned forwards regarding Michael’s hands, giving him a small nod to show him he understood and waited for him to continue.

  “And then yes, I went to The Council to report what I had found. You need to understand that The Council has overseen every part of our lives since its inception millennia ago. Only the wisest elders are selected to be a part of it, guiding all in maintaining enlightenment. Only for a while now, I’ve doubted them.”

  Michael's face took on a far-away look like he was reliving something terrible. “Their auras shifted in color slightly. Most Watchers don’t have the power to be able to see The Council as I do. When I reported what I had seen, what Bonnie’s power was like, they shift was enormous. They were border-line… evil, for want of a better word. That’s when I did something totally forbidden. I eavesdropped on their conversation without their knowledge. Something has happened to The Council, to The Five,” he paused “and frankly, I stopped trusting them.”

  Hunter let Michael pause for a moment as telling this story appeared to be giving him physical pain. He turned his face to Ren to see how she was coping and saw her looking straight
at him as if questioning whether to believe Michael. Hunter gave a small shrug of his shoulders, unconvinced, but willing to let Michael finish.

  He looked down and noticed that he had been holding Rens hand the entire time without realizing it. He made a move to release her hand when Rens fingers tightened on his, urging him to keep holding on, which he was more than happy to do.

  *~*

  Michael broke out of his reverie facing Ren "I listened in on their plans, Ren. I didn't trust them to tell me the truth and decided on the spur of the moment I would listen in to their deliberations before they summoned me back. Seems my instincts were right. Not a second after I had supposedly been removed, the five spoke to another being. One I've never seen before. Now, remember what I said? The Five are supposed to be the ultimate arbiters. They answer to no-one, and yet, they all fell to their knees when this person appeared. The one they call Master."

  Hunter watched as Michael took another gulp from his coffee, doubting that he had even tasted it. "This Master told them to capture Bonnie and then to dispose of me. No, wait, capturing Bonnie only if they sensed the power, is the way he put it." The intense eyes focused on Ren, making sure she understood what was coming next "Too much power and they were to obliterate her entire being."

  Michael raised one of his hands to forestall questions, eager to get the whole story out as both Ren and Hunter leaned forwards to interrupt, "They sent that first Watcher you saw in your daughter's room Ren. Someone they called The Jackal. The rest you know. Except for one thing. I was on The Jackal's trail the entire time. The trap that has caught Bonnie, I don't think that The Council was behind it! I read his aura-he was as surprised as everyone else. He had no idea it was coming. That's the reason that I could attack him as quickly as I did with no warning. The result may have been completely different otherwise."