The Crimson Hunt

by Smith, Victoria H.

  I ducked behind a nearby train, then another, and another. The sounds of grinding rocks under someone’s shoes grew louder with every step and every train I sought coverage behind. I kept running, weaving through what seemed like a labyrinth of trains closing in on me. The pursuit stopped when I became blockaded by several trains situated together. There was nowhere to turn but back.

  I shook, staring up at the wall of them. My lungs no longer took in air. My body was frozen in fear, the movements behind zoning in on me. I willed my legs to move, but they wouldn’t. Tears spilled from my eyes and made their way to the earth in a constant trickle. The dirt clotted on impact.

  “Ariel ….”

  The melodic voice sounded close by, and the volcanic heat of my body blazed in response.

  “Ariel, why are you running?”

  I couldn’t see him, but I knew who he was. I closed my eyes and turned around. The blurry vision of Gemini appeared through my tears.

  He stood in the distance, staring me down with a set of near-glowing chestnut eyes. The color was so clearly seen from far away. Too clearly seen.

  “Do you want to know how I knew he was lying?” he asked

  The words held a slight hint of his song voice, taunting me.

  He put his hands behind his back and walked my way in slow strides, kicking up rocks with his black boots with every step. “Luca’s never been very good with … emotion.”

  I struggled for breaths, the fear suffocating my lungs.

  “That was always my area of expertise. You see, I understand your pathetic need for touch and affection, and I readily give it, but Luca ….” He sighed. “He never saw the point of building relationships with you people. He never saw the point of making a pig into a pet if you were just going to go out and shoot it later.”

  I flinched. He really was sick.

  “That’s why I found it odd by our conversation a minute ago, which I know you overheard. I didn’t even need my monitor. I’d recognize that jet-black hair anywhere. You might want to tuck it into your hoodie a little better next time.” He winked.

  Why was he doing this to me? Why wouldn’t he stop his sick games? And what monitor was he talking about?

  He stopped several feet away, his face serious for the first time. “It was your name. It was your name, Ariel. As soon as he said it, I knew he was lying. There was feeling in his voice, something I’ve never heard before. I have to commend you on this victory. Luca …. He is the best at what he does and you …. You broke him.”

  I swallowed hard, my mouth as dry as the Sahara desert, but I had to ask. I needed to know why he chose me. “Why are you doing this, Gemini?” My voice was but a crack.

  His expression grew incredulous. “Why?” The darkness overtook his face, his expression now wicked and piercing. “Because I refuse to let you come between me and my home.” There was disgust in his voice, his melodic tone no more.

  I didn’t have time to ask him another question before he raised both hands in my direction. A fluorescent light composed of violet and aqua strands emanated from his palms and fingertips. The glow gunned straight toward me.

  That light …. The same light I’d seen on Piper’s face.

  The light impacted my body and every muscle within me locked. I was bound. He did something so strange to me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move anything. I couldn’t even blink. The hold was so strong. How did he do this?

  He lifted his hands and I was lifted into the air. I couldn’t even move to struggle. I was stiff and frozen in mid-air with no way to defend myself.

  “I will save him from himself!” He pulled his arms back and lunged forward with vigor.

  My body slammed into a nearby train with crushing force. I fell toward the ground and the bones shattered throughout my body when I hit the rocks. Unconsciousness beckoned from the pain, but my body wouldn’t succumb. I was forced to continue to watch as he killed me.

  Gemini lifted his hands again. The light built between his palms in a thick, electric cloud. The orb grew into a massive colossus of light and when it seemed it couldn’t get any bigger, he reared back and threw it at me like one would throw a dodge ball.

  The orb claimed me and I convulsed. The pain was excruciating. My body seared all over like millions of daggers were inside my body attempting to rip themselves out of my flesh. Thousands of tears appeared on my skin and blood seeped from the wounds. The red spilled from my body and pooled beneath me.

  My bloodcurdling screams could be heard in hell. I wanted it to stop. I wanted it to be over, but I knew the feeling wouldn’t let up. I knew it wouldn’t stop until he was done with me. I just had to wait until my body finally quit the battle of life.

  “Gemini, no!”

  Through the lens of both life and death, I saw Luca coming toward us.

  Gemini immediately turned around and the hot, blood-searing agony abated some. He crouched down low, his hands out in front of him.

  Luca whipped his own hands back and to the side.

  A flicker of light started to build in Gemini’s palms, but before the light could fully appear Luca lunged forward and threw his own. His light was so bright, exuberant and powerful with its thick violet and aqua strands. The force of it impacted Gemini and sent him to the ground. His body jerked and jolted.

  Luca walked over to Gemini lying broken on the rocks. “I am sorry, my friend.” He bent down and put his fingertips to Gemini’s forehead. Gemini’s erratic movements slowed, and then stilled altogether.

  Luca ran toward me. He leaned down and gathered me in his warm, steady arms.

  There were tears in his eyes. I’d never seen him cry before.

  He rocked me back and forth, the way I had the day of Piper’s death. His hand smoothed away the hair from my eyes, then his fingers caressed my cheek gently.

  I knew this was our last moment together.

  “It will be all right, Ariel.” He touched my brow with his fingertips and a pressure built inside my head.

  His face dissolved before my eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The light was so bright, but so far away. I couldn’t reach it.

  Ariel.

  It was beautiful. The voice of the light. Why couldn’t I reach it? Why couldn’t I touch it?

  Ariel, please.

  The light was fading now, and I grew panicked. Why was it leaving?

  Ariel, please ….

  I cried, my tears streaming. All I could do was watch as the last of the beauty faded from my sight.

  Ariel, please do not ignore … the truth.

  I was left with those last words, then there was complete darkness once again.

  *

  My eyes were weak, fatigued. When I opened them, the light of the room burned my retinas, and the coverage of my blanket made a useless barrier. My thoughts slowly came back, and with them, all the fear and heartbreak of that day.

  The room wasn’t cold like the train yard. The warmth of the handmade quilt covering my skin made me believe I was home, home again with my family. For a brief moment, I grew excited that, that painful day was only a nightmare, a figment of my imagination. But as my consciousness came back to me in full, I realized the foreignness of this place.

  I felt drunk, like the feeling of waking up on the floor after a wild party. The fear hits immediately upon seeing unfamiliar surroundings, but eventually it all comes back. When the memories resurface the nerves ease. I felt like that, except my nervousness wouldn’t leave my body.

  Thinking back, I remembered pain. I remembered the most intense pain I had ever felt in my entire life. I remembered begging for relief. I remembered begging for death.

  I lowered the blanket and sought out my lacerations, but they were gone. Lifting my arm to the light, my limbs fully functioned without any breaks. My body had healed, and I felt normal again. Maybe even better than normal. What happened? What had they done to me?

  I pushed myself up into a sitting position and took in my surroundings
. The smell of the country room reminded me my senses were alive and well. The floral wallpaper and hand carved furniture brought tranquility and peace, instead of the immense fear of before.

  I touched my feet to the floor. The woven rug underneath offered them comfort and solace.

  My steps carried me to the seat of a four-glassed window. The beauty of this world brought my body peace. I’d seen places like this before, but only driving through. The far stretched cornfields could never be witnessed in the city.

  The environment gave me the strength I needed to get up and figure out what direction my life was headed next.

  I couldn’t believe such a beautiful place could be dangerous to me, but I had to be ready for anything, especially after finding out about Luca. Whoever or whatever he was.

  There was a bathrobe on the door. I grabbed it and put it on. The light blue terry cloth fit my body like a glove, as if the clothing was made for me. The slippers and nightgown I wore had the same effect. What was this peaceful place I stayed in, and who brought me here?

  I walked over to the glass doorknob and turned it soundlessly. Wherever I was, I didn’t want to be detected. Through the crease of the door, the delicious smell of warm cinnamon rolls wafted in and made my mouth water. I really wondered if I was at my family’s house. My mom used to make those all the time.

  I pinched myself. The pain reminded me I was in the present. I continued on my journey for answers.

  The creaks of the floorboards under my feet sounded deafening, but I think only to me being as cautious as I was.

  Voices sounded downstairs and my heart leaped into my throat. There was no way I could sneak past if there were a bunch of people down there. I strained my ears to hear what the voices were talking about, but the words they spoke were ones I didn’t understand. They were speaking some kind of language I didn’t know, Italian maybe? I took Italian freshman year for about a week before switching to Spanish, and I recognized fragments of the language in what I heard, now. After the attack in the train yard, I half expected my ears to be met with some kind of strange extraterrestrial language, so this was a relief. Maybe a family had found me and taken me in.

  I walked down the hall. The walls were covered in the same floral wallpaper as the room I awoke in. Country accents and wall ornaments decorated on top.

  At the end of the hall, I approached a stairwell and made my trek down. The hairs of my arms stood on end the whole length of the journey.

  The voices stopped when I reached the last step. I’d been detected.

  The soft, brown hair of a middle-aged woman was wrapped in a bun. Her dripping wet hands froze over her dishes, and the flow of her dress moved in response to the high ceiling fan.

  A man of the same age stopped eating his warm cereal mid-bite. He sat at an old table across the kitchen from the women and her dishes. A brown, linen messenger hat sat atop his head with a bald spot creeping out. And he wore outdated suspenders, which held up his brown trousers.

  These people didn’t look dangerous to me, at all, but I learned the hard way appearance wasn’t the best thing to go by when judging character.

  “You are up. Are you hungry, dear? I just took the rolls out of the oven.” The woman’s thick Italian accent complemented her calming demeanor. She gave me a warm, affectionate smile.

  My instincts told me I could trust her. The kindness on her face eased my nerves. I slowly walked toward them. Their faces became clearer and I got a good look into their eyes. Her eyes were a honey brown and his were a liquid, silvery gray, but they both held the same intensity, the same unusually bright hue of both Gemini’s … and Luca’s. They almost had me fooled. I froze in my tracks. “Who are you people?” My tone stated I meant business.

  Their composure didn’t waver. In fact, they were calmer than ever, but didn’t respond to my advances.

  “I’m going to ask you again. Who are you people?” My voice shook.

  The woman stepped forward. “I am Bernadetta and this is my husband, Giovanni. We are,” she said, looking to her husband, “Mr. and Mrs. Grinaldi. Luca’s parents.”

  I stepped back, holding my chest. This couldn’t be possible. I must have gone insane. I was trapped by them. They were everywhere. “What do you mean you’re Luca’s parents? Where is Luca?” I backed into an end table.

  The woman with the kind face walked a few steps toward me.

  My hands tensed on the end table and she halted.

  “Luca thought it best that, after your ordeal, he not be the first person you see,” she said, calmly.

  That was probably a good call on his part. I was more inflamed than ever. “Where am I?” The two could very well lie to me, but they didn’t lie about their identities, so I figured I might as well ask.

  Bernadetta smiled. “You are at our home.” She gestured to the space around her with her hands, then folded them over her waist.

  Giovanni rose from his chair and stood next to his wife. “You were badly injured. Luca brought you here to us,” he said, his voice heavy with the same accent as his wife.

  There was so much warmth and, dare I say, love in their eyes. They both looked so normal. How could they be so evil?

  “Are you sure you do not want something to eat? You have been asleep for quite some time. It might be best to get some solid food in you.” Bernadetta grabbed the plate of cinnamon rolls off the table and walked toward me.

  I backed away. I didn’t want anything from these people.

  “We are not going to hurt you, child. If we were, we would have already done so. Please, do not be scared,” Bernadetta pleaded.

  I didn’t believe her. For all I knew, they were just trying to get me healthy so they could experiment on me or something. I didn’t trust anyone anymore, no matter how kind their eyes were. The screen door was to my right. I bolted through it before they could get any closer.

  “Wait! Ariel, please!”

  Bernadetta called after me, but her call was pointless. I wasn’t turning back for anything or anyone. I didn’t make my journey very far before I slammed into a brick wall—or what felt like a brick wall. I stumbled back and stared into Luca’s bright eyes.

  “Ariel …. How are you?” He looked startled, but his smile shined as brilliant as ever at my presence.

  “How am I? How am I?!” I was enraged by the insulting question. “How do you think I am? Who are you? What are you?” I stepped back from him, the fear making me shake.

  Luca cringed. “Ariel, please. Do not be scared.” He walked toward me.

  I jumped back. “Who the hell are you?”

  He stopped walking. “There is … so much to explain.” Somberness made its way to his eyes and his lids flicked down.

  “Humor me.” I was ready for whatever he threw at me. I deserved answers.

  He took in a deep breath, focusing hard on my eyes. “I ….”

  The fear emanating off him was so strong I could feel it myself. Whatever his dark secret was, he was reluctant to tell me.

  His lips parted again. “I am not of this world …. Your world.”

  What was he getting at?

  “I come from a world known as Elda.”

  Was he seriously going with this angle and expecting me to buy it?

  “Long ago, it was prophesized that my world would be destroyed by ripples catalyzed by people of Earth.” The silence between his words deafened. “I am a part of a program that eliminates those ripples.” He voice wavered at that last part, his eyes fighting hard to stay focused on mine.

  I couldn’t formulate my body to make a reaction. He couldn’t be telling the truth. He had to be playing more games with me, more lies. I shook my head. “No. No, I don’t believe you. You can’t expect me to.” My body shook with fear. Any calming effect I received from this beautiful house, from this beautiful farm was gone.

  “Ariel, please. I am not lying to you. I never have. Everything you have asked of me I have told you the truth. I could never lie to you. You had to have
seen the signs. You know what I am saying to be true.” He took a step toward me.

  I took a step back, continuing to shake my head.

  He raised his hand out to me and in his palm was a single lavender seed. Within an instant, the seed transformed into one of the beautiful blooms he’d given me. It grew to life from the power of his hand, and now hovered over his palm.

  My hand went to my chest, desperately trying to hold in the panic that erupted like a volcano inside me. I was no longer shaking, but now, convulsing. This information was too much. I couldn’t handle any of this. This was ….

  A prick of pain on my neck finally erased the anxiety.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I awoke the next day and locked myself in my beautiful room. Not that it mattered. I was sure they had the key … or could open it with a glowy wave of their hands. My ordeal left a deep seeded root of fear inside of me, and I couldn’t make myself do anything but stay in the room.

  Everyday, Bernadetta would deliver my food and ask me if I needed anything. Everyday I wouldn’t respond. I’d only accept the food after she left. I had my own shower and bathroom connected to my room, so I could keep myself comfortable for a while without any assistance.

  One day, Luca came by. He wanted to speak with me. I refused to respond and he eventually left. That was the last day I heard from him. He knew I wouldn’t talk to him until I was ready. They all knew.

  I thought a lot about Luca and the events that led up to this moment: Piper’s warnings about him and Gemini, the mysterious deaths on campus Luca clearly kept from me because he was most likely involved, the “ripples,” as he called them. Everything led up to my ignorance of the truth. Everything led to Luca and the trap he created for me to gain my trust and feelings.

  Everything made sense. Everything … but the day he saved me from Gemini. Why build such an elaborate string of deception to get someone in your full control, then let the chance pass you by? I knew the truth lay beneath his words, but my crippling fear wouldn’t allow me to seek out the information.