When she remained silent, I reminded her, “I can cause all kinds of pain for little Sammy. Do you think Jason would be pleased to hear his little brother got hurt because his girlfriend wouldn’t answer a couple questions?”
“Jason would be pleased to put a bullet between your eyes!” She snapped angrily.
“I doubt that,” I said with a slight smile and shake of my head. “I think a man with his abilities would probably come up with something a little more creative than a bullet to the head. Maybe something more along the lines of a slow, painful death by suffocation in a spontaneously created mud pit, don’t you think?”
“You… I don’t…”
“Yeah. I know a little more about your boyfriend than you thought, huh? Now, why don’t you just tell me where he went, and who was with him.”
It took her a few minutes to decide to answer, but she finally said, “He’s in the woods looking for you. The man with him is an FBI agent named Mark Jones.”
“Thank you. Who exactly is Mark Jones? Not just some random FBI agent, I think. Jason seemed awfully pleased to see him for that.”
“He’s a friend. They haven’t seen each other in a while. I’d imagine, with Sam missing, Jason would be very happy to see Mark.”
An FBI agent friend. There was more to that story, but now wasn’t the time. A flash of fear went through me when I heard the FBI was involved in my case, but I hid my nerves before the girl noticed. “What’s your name?”
“Why do you care?” she snapped. “I’m a hostage you think will help you gain leverage against Jason. Why do you need to know my name?”
I shrugged. “Why not? My knowing, or not knowing, your name won’t help you in any way. If it makes you feel better, you can just tell me your first name. Besides, do you really find it wise to annoy the man who could hurt you and Sam?” I parked the car in the garage, and shut off the engine as I finished speaking.
“Fine. My name is Hannah. And Jason’s gonna kick your butt for this, you know that? You claim to know about him, so you should know that he’s not one to take threats to his loved ones lying down. He’ll come for you.”
Opening the door, I leaned in to drag her out of the car. “That’s the idea.”
FORTY
Jason
We searched several properties, some of which were pretty deserted. There was one broken down old cabin where I couldn’t feel any kind of echoes or vibrations from human traffic. Only the occasional animal. I either didn’t have the ability to identify the different animals, or I just hadn’t been around animals enough to learn the skill. We were in the woods for about two hours, spent mostly in silence except for Mark asking if I noticed anything, before I felt something worth mentioning.
“Someone’s here.” My voice was calm and quiet. I didn’t want to alert the man following us that we were aware of his presence. “He’s difficult to pick up, but someone is definitely behind us right now.”
Mark hesitated for about half a step before falling back into his previous pace. As dark as it was in the woods, he didn’t bother trying to look behind us for verification. “How certain are you that he’s following us? And how far back is he?”
Without changing my pace, I concentrated harder on identifying the person behind us. “He’s close.” I kept my voice barely audible and kept walking. “Let’s see if I can slow him down a bit.”
With each step I sent spikes of power through the earth back toward our pursuer, trying to raise the dirt in front of him to trip him up. He avoided the first trip point, so I sent more energy to sink the ground where he walked to make him fall into the newly formed pit. Mark ran into me when I stopped in shock. The man kept walking as if nothing changed. “It’s him,” I whispered. “It has to be.”
“Who?”
I turned and started walking toward the killer. “The man who has Sam. He’s the only one I’ve met who can stand in front of me and completely absorb or block any power I send his way. This guy is walking over my speed bumps like they’re not even there.”
Mark rushed to get in front of me, grabbing my arm to slow me down. “You can’t just go after him, Jason. He knows about you, and if he can block your abilities…”
“You have a weapon, Mark,” I stated. “Even if he can get past my abilities, I doubt he’s bulletproof.”
Both of us jumped a little when we heard laughter. “Not bulletproof, no. But I am very gifted at avoiding that… unpleasantness.”
“What are you doing here?” I called out, trying to hide my discomfort at being unable to locate the man. “You’ve taken a lot of people, and there’s no record of you taunting the families of your victims.”
When he responded, his voice showed some irritation. “I told you, Jason. You’re special. A dangerous prey I’ve never faced before. Why wouldn’t I want that rush?”
“Jason.” Mark’s voice held a warning tone. He almost certainly wanted me to hold my temper, and get as much information as possible.
Taking a deep breath, and letting myself relax before answering, allowed me to sound like I still felt in control. “Okay. You have me here, so why do you still need Sam?”
His voice came from behind us now, and I was slightly shaken at how easily he was able to move without my sensing him. We whirled around to face him when he said, “You’re a different kind of prey. I’m still deciding if I kill you, or sell you to the highest bidder.” I had to bite my tongue to keep from lashing out. Mark’s heart beat sped up, and he needed to take a breath to keep from responding. “If I sell you, I still need the feeling of a kill. Little brother will do nicely. And now I have the little lady, Hannah, as extra insurance that you’ll keep playing my little game.”
I slowly lowered myself to the ground while he spoke, directing it to show no change in pressure. While I could send energy without my hands touching the ground, it was still easier to direct and send more powerful waves of energy toward my target when in contact with the ground. Before he finished speaking, I used every ounce of anger and fear to attack the man who now held two of the few people I cared about.
With the boost in emotions from his revelation that he now had Hannah, I was able to pinpoint his location, and launch a more targeted attack. The ground heaved, groaning as I forced tons of dirt and rock to the killer. I was rewarded with a grunt and yell of surprise when my power finally managed to hit the man. “Gotcha.” Once the dirt hit the killer, I attempted to use it to cover him in a cocoon of hardened earth he couldn’t breathe through.
Mark took a step back, his weapon drawn and flashlight aiming in the direction I faced. His breath caught in his throat, and his heart raced as I showed my sheer destructive ability. The killer’s counterattack wasn’t completely unexpected. My adversary obviously had some sort of ability in order to be able to counter my attacks. But I hadn’t thought through it enough to avoid it. So when the ground opened under Mark—sending him to the ground in an undignified heap, his gun still clutched in his hand—I was unprepared, and froze for a moment.
A lot can happen in a moment. Like the moment I realized living with my father was no longer an option. He came home from work, not even drunk yet, and started in on me as soon as he walked through the door. It wasn’t anything new, but he told me he would never let me leave. At that moment, I knew I was going to leave him as soon as I could, but he told me he would kill me rather than let me go. That was the moment when I decided to kill myself, and take the pleasure away from him. When my attempt to die failed, I chose a different path. The next time the monster left me alone, I ran.
That moment led up to a lifetime of experiences I would never have had otherwise. I was free of my tormenter for the first time in my life, and I strove to enjoy that freedom. Even if the freedom led to a different kind of suffering. Some of those experiences I could definitely have done without, but the point is one moment can change everything.
In this instance, one moment I was winning the fight with the unknown assailant and the next he threw me
against a tree. Without touching me. The same attack I used on him, he turned against me, and I had no defense. Mark was back on solid ground, but still shaken by his fall. And I was completely taken off guard by the sudden show of a power that matched my own. The wall of dirt hit me at chest level, knocking the wind out of me and launching me back into the trunk of a rather large tree.
I was probably lucky the tree was so large, or my body could have wrapped around it and broken my back. As it was, I lay on the ground dazed, and was struggling to get my breath back when the killer stood over me in the darkness. “Now you understand the game. Until next time.” He dropped out of sight and I couldn’t concentrate enough to track his movements.
Trying to get up to go after him was a waste of effort. My back, although not broken, was plenty bruised, and I still couldn’t breathe properly. “Mark!” I wheezed out, trying to convey to him to go after the man, to find out where he was going.
The light from the flashlight shone toward me, and I raised a hand to block the light, wincing at the brightness. “Jason! What was that? How the hell did that guy do that?”
Finally able to breathe, but still a bit winded I answered, “The same way I did. He’s like me, Mark. He’s a Tracker.”
FORTY-ONE
Sam
Most people like surprises. A lot of them say they don’t, but are secretly thrilled when someone jumps out at them with something they weren’t expecting. Some like the adrenaline rush of shock that flows through their entire being; others think surprises are ways for people to prove they care. To be fair, those kinds of surprises are usually good ones. A surprise birthday party, or surprise visit from someone you haven’t seen in a while, stuff like that. They are things people can enjoy.
I, for one, have learned to hate surprises. Nothing good has ever come from a surprise. The first one I can think of is the day I found out I would be leaving my father and brother to live with mom. Until that point, my father never laid a finger on me—although I suspected he did much more to my brother, even before mom and I left—so the idea of leaving them wasn’t pleasant. My brother always cared about me, and my mother took me away from him. I’m still not sure why, since she spent the next few years almost completely ignoring me.
The next horrible surprise was receiving the news my mother was missing and presumed dead. I may not have spent much time with her, or approved of her lifestyle, but she never physically abused me. She also always managed to keep a roof over my head, and food on the table. Sure the roof sometimes leaked, and sometimes it belonged to one of a long line of ‘uncles’, but it was protection from the elements. She was still my mother. Hearing she was gone when I was only seven was not easy, and led to the extremely unpleasant reunion with my father. Jason was gone by then, so it was just me and dad. Not a good surprise.
The only time I was surprised, and actually happy about it, was when Jason came back for me. Dad wasn’t as horrible to me as he’d been to Jason, but the morning Jason rescued me from him, I was pretty beat up. The night before my rescue, dad was out drinking, and came home angry. He was ready to hurt me for the slightest fault. So when my big brother came back from wherever he ran off to, I was ready to follow him. Even when he told me there would be no roof, and not always a ready meal, I wanted to be away from our father.
One surprise in my life had been good, but this most recent one? Not so much. Hunter came back, carrying an unconscious woman. He dumped her on the foot of the bed without a word, and marched away. I brushed the long blonde hair out of the woman’s face and gasped. “No!” Checking for injuries, I tried to get her to wake up. “Hannah! Are you okay? Hannah, wake up!” I kept my voice low, but couldn’t hide the panic. How was she even involved? Thinking back over the course of the day, I realized the shock and joy Jason felt early in the afternoon, must have been Hannah arriving.
She groaned and began to stir, as Hunter returned with another chain. He used the new chain to attach Hannah to the foot of the bed. “Sorry, Sammy. You’re going to share your space with Jason’s little girlfriend. You two behave yourselves while I go visit big brother.” With a smile and mocking wave, Hunter sauntered out of the room. The front door slammed behind him. I was left with a semi-conscious friend, and several questions.
About fifteen minutes after Hunter left, Hannah moaned and sat up. She absently rubbed her free right hand over her now chained left. “Wha…?” She looked up and saw me, smiling despite our situation. “Sam!”
“Are you okay? What happened?” I asked. “How did you…?” I trailed off when I saw the tears in her eyes, and she reached to give me a hug.
Still in shock, I hugged her back. We held each other in silence for several minutes before she pulled back and smiled. “Sam, I’m so glad you’re okay! Jason’s been so frantic looking for you. He called us, Sammy. It took you getting kidnapped, but he finally called us.” Her smile faded, and she sobbed. “Now we’re both in trouble. Oh, Sam. I’m so sorry. I’m all over the place right now.”
My eyes began to burn and fill with tears at the sight of one of my favorite people, someone I considered family, breaking down in front of me. “Hannah,” my voice cracked. “Is he okay? I mean, I know he’s worried and scared, but what has he been doing?”
She leaned back against the wall, and I handed her the pillow to cushion her head. Hannah took several minutes to calm herself enough to answer. “He’s looking for you, Sam. He looked for almost two days before he finally called for Alice. It was only after calling her that he decided to talk to the police about your disappearance. You know Jason, always hesitant to trust anyone but himself with your safety. Mark Jones is here too. He’s working with Jason and Detective… Nickels, was it?” I nodded. The name was familiar, but I was surprised Jason would so readily work with him.
“Nickels has been trying to figure out Jason’s issues since they met. He’s always asking questions Jase doesn’t want to answer. Honestly, he’s never seemed overly fond of the guy.”
She shrugged. “They seemed to be working pretty well together from what I could tell. Although, he has no clue what Jason is capable of. But Hunter does, doesn’t he?”
Nodding an affirmative I added, “Not only that, but Hunter can do the same things as Jason. From what he’s said, he has the same control over the earth as my brother. Hannah, Jason doesn’t know. He has no idea the man he’s tracking is planning to do the same to him.”
There was silence at the other end of the bed as Hannah contemplated what I told her. Or she was in shock. One of those. “This guy confronted Jason in the woods after he took you. He stopped Jason from hurting him with his powers without putting forth any visible effort. At least that’s what Jason said. So you’re telling me Hunter is able to block Jason’s abilities because he has the same ones?” Waiting for my nod, she paused. When I agreed with her statement she continued, “Was it because of Jason’s power that you were targeted?”
“I don’t think so,” I said as I considered the events of the last couple days. “He took me because I was available to him. I think he found out about Jason’s abilities when he went looking for the person who got too close to his previous hunting ground. I’m assuming that was Jason, so I guess indirectly it was because of Jason’s powers.”
She sighed and rubbed her hand over her eyes wearily. Dropping one hand onto my shoulder, she asked, “You aren’t hurt, are you?”
“Just my wrist,” I said, holding up the bandaged appendage. “Sores from the chain, before he put padding on it.” I noticed he added padding for Hannah with very minimal prodding from me. Some of my emotional conditioning was sticking with him then. Interesting.
She narrowed her eyes, about to ask a question when we heard the front door slam. Hunter’s normally silent footsteps now pounded up the steps in agitation. We both jumped when he slammed the door of the room open, the impact making it crash against the wall hard enough to leave a dent. He was breathing heavily, covered in dirt from head to toe. Hunter was also bleed
ing from a couple locations, including what looked like a large gash on his arm. He apparently went one on one with Jason, and came up a bit short.
When he spoke his voice was filled with fury, the most emotion I ever felt from the sociopathic man. “Tell me everything your brother can do, little Sammy. I won’t be taken by surprise again!”
FORTY-TWO
Hunter
There are only a few times I can remember feeling enough anger to have it show. When I was a child, about thirteen or so, I got angry at my grandfather for… well, the exact reason is something I can’t remember clearly. I was so angry I yelled at him, and hit him. Another time was in college while I was dating a girl who cheated on me. I managed to refrain from hitting her, but it was a close thing. Instead, I found the guy she’d been with and beat him to a pulp. He spent about a week in the hospital, but never gave my name to the police when they questioned him about the attack.
The next time I truly felt anger was what changed the course of my life. Another man approached my wife and showed interest in her. That led to one of the few major fights I allowed to happen in my marriage, because she’d been flattered. Instead of being disgusted that a man would make an advance on a married woman, she took it as a compliment. I couldn’t allow the insult to stand. By then I was in control enough to hide my true rage until I was able to abduct the man. He became the first victim of my hunting games.
Now my anger flared again at the new awareness that this Jason person might actually be stronger than me, and his little brother wouldn’t tell me about his abilities. “Tell me, boy!” I spat, lunging toward him, but pausing when the girl rushed to get in front of me.
Hunter Page 15