Hunter

by Adrianne Lemke

  Maybe I should talk to Dustin first. He might have some suggestions for how I could tell Jason. Of course then I’d have to tell him. Why I hadn’t told Jason as soon as he’d shared his ability with me, I’ll never truly know. But it was a secret that held a life of its own, and it wouldn’t be given up easily.

  The bell finally rang, and I trudged off to lunch. The rest of the day passed in boredom as I couldn’t fully concentrate in any of my classes. I thought Jason might be picking me up from school since he really didn’t want me walking home, but his car wasn’t at the normal pick-up spot.

  His emotions had been all over the place today, and as I left the school I was hit by such a strong feeling of despair and failure that I had to lean against the wall to steady myself. “It’s not me,” I muttered to myself. “I’m fine. Jason’s feelings not mine.” My eyes filled with unshed tears that Jason would never allow himself, and I lightly hit my forehead against the wall. “Stop. Not my feelings.” I shook my head slightly and pushed away from the wall. No one had noticed my minor breakdown, so it was easy to pretend nothing had happened when Jake approached me. “Hey, can I come over to study history today? I need some help with remembering the dates, and you’re pretty good at them.”

  I plastered a smile on my face, hiding the negative feelings I kept getting from my brother. “Sure, but we’ll have to walk.”

  He shrugged, sauntering off with an easy grin, “No prob. I could use the exercise after being cooped up all day.”

  “Will your dad pick you up later?”

  “Not sure. I guess if he has to. I’ll call him later. He’s the one who told me to ask you if I could come over to study.”

  We walked for a while in silence, Jake occasionally skipped off to the side to throw a rock. “Do you wanna cut through the woods?” he asked when we got to where the paths into the woods started.

  I almost said yes, but then remembered my promise to Jason. “Not this time. Let’s keep going and we can stop in the gas station for some snacks. We’re a bit low at home.”

  He accepted my answer without question, and we continued on our walk. “How’s your brother doing?” he asked after we stopped for snacks. “You usually don’t let people come over on short notice.”

  “He’s fine,” I lied, feeling the strength of his misery almost overwhelming me. I could tell that he was almost to the point of losing control of his power. All I wanted to do was call him to find out what was wrong, but until he knew about my abilities, it wouldn’t make sense for me to call. “But he’ll probably be working late tonight, so he won’t mind if I have someone over.” And if he came back before Jake left, maybe it would give him something to think about besides whatever was causing him so much distress now.

  Jake wasn’t the suspicious sort, so he accepted my answers without question. We got to my house and set up our books at the coffee table after I cleared Jason’s files from it. We’d only been studying for a few minutes when I gripped my book—hard! The edges cut into my hands, and I squeezed my eyes shut tightly as I tried to separate myself from my brother. I felt Jason lose control.

  His powers had erupted, and I had no idea why.

  TWELVE

  Hunter

  I dumped my victim’s body near the creek where my potential next target, the brown haired boy, had been watching the birds. Using this area was not to make it more difficult for me to grab him, but to allow myself plenty of room to hide to see who showed up once the body was found. I decided to figure out who in the police department would be in charge of hunting me, since I was having no luck finding the ‘mystery man’ who came so close to my hunting ground. It was always good to know who I was up against.

  I set up a tent in one of the camping areas near the creek, but a ways downstream from where I left the body. I would be close enough to tell when the body was found, but probably far enough away to not attract attention. All afternoon and overnight I acted like a normal camper, hiking the trails and sitting by my little campfire, knowing all along that my time was running short. I had to be back at work on Tuesday, so the body had to be found sometime today.

  The trail where I left him was one of the more popular trails, but apparently not many people had taken advantage of it in the last couple days. After sitting in the tent waiting for about two more hours, I decided to make my lunch. The interruption came while I was eating: screaming and pounding footsteps through the ground as the body was discovered, followed shortly by the wailing of police sirens approaching the scene.

  My face stretched into a smile. Good. Soon I’d be able to put faces to the officers pursuing me.

  After all, it would seem more suspicious if I didn’t go to check out what was going on, than to sit here listening to it without curiosity. I’d be one face in a crowd of hikers and campers, and no one would know I was there.

  When I reached the scene, it was already closed and taped off. There weren’t a lot of people around, but enough to give me some cover. Several officers were on the scene, keeping people far enough back that they couldn’t see details on the body by the creek.

  Details, like the knife I left with him. The cut that went deep into his throat. The small cut on his right hand from handling his knife incorrectly. The smears of blood across his face and chest from the wound on his neck and the—probably unnecessary—fatal wound to his chest. Random smears and tears in his clothing from being dragged from one location to another. All things I knew about, but couldn’t see from this vantage point.

  Nor could I see the important players in the game. There were only first responders so far, but they’d done an admirable job containing the scene for the detectives who were sure to follow. They were already talking to the man and woman standing inside the tape; probably the people who found the body. Both seemed upset, but were holding it together for the time being. They were young, clinging to each other like they couldn’t even consider losing one another. Engaged. Or newlywed. It was hard to tell which without seeing the woman’s finger.

  Another police vehicle approached and a young man stepped out, badge clearly visible on the clip attached to his belt, gun just as visible, strapped to his hip. The first responders approached him. Clearly he was the detective on the case. I frowned. He was young; probably newly promoted to detective. Only a handful of cases under his belt, but he held himself with confidence as he surveyed the scene.

  A slightly older woman exited the vehicle next to him. The senior partner. She was in her forties, but in excellent shape. She held herself with just as much confidence as did her younger partner and both approached the body by the creek, peering at him carefully before conversing for a moment and approaching the young couple.

  These were my hunters. These two detectives would scour the evidence, and try to guess at my motives and find me before I could find another victim.

  Too bad for them. I already found one.

  THIRTEEN

  Jason

  Yesterday the trails were busy, but with the workweek starting today, they were nearly deserted. The few hikers I came across were unaware of my passing. Most were almost a mile away by the time I felt them. I could still feel echoes from the runner I noticed on Saturday, but they were pretty faded, and I still wasn’t convinced they meant anything. Private property signs were prevalent along the edges of the trails where people had cabins or hunting property. It would be hard to sort through them to find our killer.

  If he was even an owner. That he would be using property not belonging to him was a little more unlikely, but it was still a possibility. If he watched the owners enough, he’d know when they would be around, and plan his kidnappings and killings around that schedule… but that ran the risk of having the owner come back unexpectedly and ruin his plans. I shook my head. “No,” I said aloud. Not likely.

  The clock was ticking on Shawn Henderson’s life, and I was no closer to finding him. “Come on,” I muttered, punching the dirt in frustration. “Give me something.”

  The runn
er was the only unusual thing, so I decided to follow his trail and see where he’d come from before the echoes completely dissipated. It took about twenty minutes to walk through the trails to where the runner had been, but I still felt nothing abnormal about his tracks. Nothing indicating a follower. Only that he’d run in circles, possibly around his own property.

  I concentrated my abilities on the edges surrounding the runner’s path, and frowned in confusion. The edges were not the normal soil… My phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. “Hello?”

  “Jason, it’s Scott Nickels. We just got a call from a hiker. They found Shawn Henderson.”

  My heart dropped and I punched the ground again, causing it to rumble loudly. “Where?” the word escaped through clenched teeth.

  “Near the creek about a half mile into the woods.”

  “I’m in the woods now. I’ll find you there shortly.” I hung up, not waiting for a reply and not concerned that he’d think badly of me. As a cop, he would understand.

  Keeping my power in check hadn’t been this difficult for a while. Events of the last few days had brought my feelings of fear, anger and frustration to the forefront again, and the powers I’d kept leashed for most of the last two years were again straining to take over. I stood for a moment waiting for the ground to stop shaking around me, breathing deeply and exhaling, my fists clenched by my sides and eyes closed.

  It took several minutes, but I finally regained control. Notes from the previous cases floated through my mind as I walked the trails back to the creek and the body of my client’s son. I heard the scene before I saw it, and felt the movement of several officers. My footsteps slowed. Honestly, there was no need to rush to see my failure. Someone finally turned off the sirens, realizing there was no need for them at the moment—all they had done was attract the attention of hikers—but the flashing lights remained.

  Crime scene tape was already strung around the trees in a horseshoe shape around one section of the bank near the creek. I stopped outside it and waited, watching while Nickels and another detective I didn’t know interviewed a couple, probably the ones who’d found the body, judging by the haunted look in the man’s eyes and the tear tracks on the woman’s face.

  For now, officers taking photos and hunting for evidence hid the body, and I was glad. Nickels and his partner finished their interview and he turned, waving me in as soon as he saw me. I stepped under the tape and approached him, several hikers muttering to themselves as they saw a random person allowed access.

  “Detective Nickels,” I said with a nod. Despite myself, my gaze shifted toward the now visible body.

  “Jason,” he acknowledged. “Did you find anything out there?” he waved vaguely at the surrounding woods, his voice hopeful. When I shook my head he rubbed a hand through his hair. “Ah well. Guess it was too much to hope that you’d find the original crime scene. This is just a dumping ground. Tons of evidence that the body was moved.

  “It’s him for sure?” I asked, not realizing how much I wanted him to be wrong until I asked.

  There must have been something in my voice, because instead of answering directly, he waited a moment before speaking, gazing at me thoughtfully. “This isn’t your fault, you know.” His voice was uncharacteristically soft, and he nodded his head as he spoke. “You found the link between him and the others…”

  “No,” I interrupted. “Sheila did. She pointed it out to me and I showed you.”

  Waving off my dismissal he continued, “Either way, now we know more about what we’re dealing with. He was found holding a knife. The killer either didn’t notice or didn’t care but there were some flecks of blood on the blade that we don’t believe came from the victim.” His voice gained intensity as he tried to convey some sort of silver lining into a tragic event. “We could have the DNA of our killer.”

  “Which is only useful once there’s a suspect,” I answered pessimistically. A dead child didn’t bring about much hope.

  Nickels winced, but didn’t back away. “True. But it’s something.”

  I met his eyes for a moment before turning back to the body. “I want to keep working on this. For him, and for my client. I need to help find the monster who took her son.”

  “I have to talk to the captain, but I could possibly get you hired on as a consultant. Hold off on field work until I get you approved, okay?”

  His quick approval stunned me for a moment, but I nodded. Right now no one else had been reported missing, so it was unlikely that I’d find anything the police wouldn’t. “If you happen to stumble across anything useful, or if you think of anything, stop by the station or give me a call.”

  “Sure,” I said meeting his eyes again. “Thanks, Nickels.”

  Since Saturday Nickels was being friendly, and not asking too many questions about me. Either he finally figured out I wasn’t going to share my past, or just decided to hold off until I was less on guard around him. Whichever it was, I appreciated the break.

  “Oh, and Jason,” he paused as he walked away, turning back toward me. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember, we couldn’t find him either.”

  I gave him a curt nod and a small smile. Maybe he wasn’t so bad, but that didn’t mean I would share my life story with him. After speaking to his partner for a moment he returned to my side, watching in silence while the medical examiner finished his on-site exam and approved the boy’s body for removal from the scene.

  It was a struggle to keep my face impassive, and hide the turmoil I felt at the death of the boy I was hired to find. I remained expressionless until they started maneuvering him into the body bag. At that point, I caught sight of his slit throat and began swallowing convulsively, clenching my fists at my sides.

  “You all right?” Nickels asked gently. From his tone I realized he wasn’t. No cop was ever really okay when they saw a dead child.

  I debated about lying, but knew I couldn’t pull it off, so I shook my head. “Not really, no,” I admitted.

  Too many bodies in my past; several of which had their throats slit. Erin was the first that came to mind, and I flashed back to the day when Alice drove me to the park to see her body; small and bloody. Dead before she reached her fourteenth birthday. And we were the only ones who cared. Her street family. Her blood relatives didn’t care enough to return the call I made after she was murdered.

  My father was another—an abusive monster that I hated, but didn’t want dead; behind bars, yes, but not dead. Jeremiah Mason—or Kindred, as I know him—took away that option when he slit my father’s throat ear-to-ear. I hadn’t wanted him dead, but I still felt a guilty relief that he was.

  There were other victims I didn’t know personally, killed in my name because Kindred deemed them a threat to me. He sent me pictures of all of them. Their wounds were inflicted with the same viciousness used on my father.

  “Jason? Jason!” Nickels’ voice broke through the blood rushing through my ears and I heard rumbling and creaking as the big trees protested the grounds violent motion.

  “We need to go! There’s an earthquake!” his voice was urgent, but not panicked. A good officer who kept his cool in any event, he earned more respect from me for that ability.

  I took several deep breaths and slowly unclenched my fists, so the violent shaking slowed, and then stopped. I finally looked up at Nickels and saw that despite his calm tone he was wide-eyed and a bit pale. “You okay?” I asked; my voice hoarse and feeling like it hadn’t been used in days.

  He gave a short bark of laughter, shaking his head and looking around at the slight chaos caused by my quake. I cringed slightly at the total loss of control, something that hadn’t happened for quite a while. “You were the one having a panic attack,” he said. “I should be asking you. I’m fine. Just wasn’t expecting some random earthquake.”

  I nodded, feigning agreement. Although I hadn’t expected to lose control, so the quake was unexpected. My gaze slipped back toward the M.E.’s van. “Hey,” Nickels said, snap
ping his fingers in front of my face. “This wasn’t your fault!” he repeated emphatically. “Nothing you did led to this.”

  “I know. It’s not that.” I hesitated, and considered my options. I could continue to let him stew and know nothing about me or my motives. Or could share one tragic segment and give him a glimpse. He waited patiently. I sighed, rubbing my hands together uncomfortably in front of me. “You may have guessed, but my past isn’t exactly happy. A girl I cared about deeply was murdered in a similar way. This,”—I gestured at the scene—“brought those memories out. It won’t happen again.”

  Without looking at him, or waiting for a response, I turned and walked away. Nothing he could say would make anything better.

  FOURTEEN

  Sam

  Waiting for my brother to return home was only bearable because there was someone else there to keep me company. Even with his unquestioning nature, Jake started giving me sideways glances when I kept looking up at every noise and shaking my leg, or tapping my finger restlessly. “So, you wanna watch a movie or something?” he asked, gesturing toward the TV, obviously trying to distract me.

  “Nah. We need to study, J. You need to do well on this test, or you’re gonna end up in summer school,” I finished with a shudder of mock horror.

  His wide-eyed look of terror wasn’t as fake. “You’re right. Let’s study. I am not ending up in school this summer.”

  We continued quizzing each other for about an hour before Jason arrived home. His emotions were evened out, but now he faced the exhaustion after the outburst of his power earlier. His face was pale, and his hand, reaching back to close the door behind him, trembled. “Everything okay, Jase?” I knew it wasn’t, but I always gave him the option of telling me what happened.

  The brown eyes that met mine were haunted. They normally held only a hint of the pain he’s been through, but the depth of emotion in them now was fresh, and not yet hidden. “What happened?” I asked, losing all semblance of distance. “Can I do anything?” Jake watched in silence. He didn’t know my brother well, so he was unsure how to handle seeing Jason as he was now.