The Monstrous Hunt

by Tara K. Young

checked the next car and the next before she stopped me.

  "Wait," she said. "We aren't that far from the restaurant."

  "And?" I said.

  She looked around. "And there aren't any of those things. Weren't they following us?"

  I had been in the middle of groping a modified Evo with bright orange rims. I stopped and looked around. She was right. It would have taken only moments for them to catch us. Standing up, I brushed my hands off on my jeans.

  As I looked around, trying to see any sign of a Myyga or a crest anywhere even on the other side of the river, I noticed the city sounded like the city. It sounded like cars and people were moving around but I could not see anyone.

  Amelia seemed to notice it as well; she walked down the pavement towards the restaurant and turned the corner. When she went out of my sight, I ran after her. She had stopped immediately out of my view and was looking up the street at the people going in and out of shops and pubs and running to catch busses.

  "Not again," I said.

  She turned her head abruptly to look at me. Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'Not again'?" she asked.

  "This happened to me earlier," I explained. "It seemed like everyone was gone. I saw strange things and then everyone was back. I don't know what's going on."

  "Why did you want to leave York?" she asked.

  "When I tried to leave before, those things stopped me," I said. "They are the things that killed those people and I saw them make more. They just took three people and turned them into monsters right in front of me. The more time passes, the more I see. Everyone is in danger but no one can see what I can."

  "We need to tell someone," she said. "Let's go back to the restaurant and get my friends. Sarah has a car. We can all leave town."

  I turned to face her more fully. Her hair was sopping wet; her face strained with the events. I thought of the things I had encountered at the crime scene. Its low song threatened my insides again. I reached up and put both my hands on either side of her face. She flinched at first but did not push me away.

  "Your friends despise me. To some extent even you hate me. Why would any of them believe anything I have to say?"

  She tried to respond but I didn't let her. I needed to make her understand. I held her face more tightly just to make sure he knew I was serious.

  "There is something scarier than even those pointed face monsters," I said. "It almost got me too. It was the worst violation I have ever felt in my life. It is coming after us. It is coming after you because of me. We can't risk your friends trying to stop us from getting away. Maybe they will be alright. There were several people at the crime scene that were completely unaware of the thing and they were unharmed. If your friends remain ignorant, they will be fine but you saw those things. You are not ignorant. It will come after both of us."

  She said nothing so I pleaded. "Come with me. Run with me right now. We don't have the luxury of hoping people will believe us right now. Please."

  As she looked into my eyes, I was sure she was going to run. She was shaking. She nodded despite how firmly I held her.

  "I'll tell Sarah I need to change," she said. "I'll get her keys."

  Until her reply, I had not realized I was holding my breath. It felt cleansing to finally release it. With this new sensation flooding my muscles, I released her.

  "Sorry," I said, realizing it might have been a bit much.

  "Wait here. I'll be right back," she said before running up the street towards the restaurant.

  As I waited, I concentrated on steadying my breathing and getting my heart to follow. I turned to look back out over the water.

  I still couldn't see anyone on the banks of the river and it unnerved me. Minutes passed and the city noise began to quiet. My efforts of calming myself were undone within a breath. I spun around and began to run up the road. When I was halfway, I heard footsteps hitting the paving rapidly. Amelia came running around the corner.

  "They're coming!" she yelled to me as she ran. "The Car is parked on the other side of Clifford's Tower."

  When she reached me, we ran together back down along the river until we got to a small grove of trees. She guided me up a slope through the trees to the road. On the other side of the road was a large mound atop of which was an old stone tower. It was shining yellow-white in the sunlight. She ran around the base of the mound and I followed.

  A sea of cars met our eyes on the other side. She seemed to know where she was going and I continued to chase her until she stopped at a small, white Fiat and climbed in.

  I jumped in the passenger side and had barely shut the door before she had already started it and we were driving away.

  "What the hell is going on?" she screamed at me.

  "I have no idea either," I yelled back.

  Between gear changes, she reached up and tugged her hair nervously to force it behind her ear. "Everything was fine. I was going to leave. I wasn't even going to come back. Everything was bloody fine," she said.

  Despite her ramblings showing she hadn't planned on trusting me after all, I was too curious. "What changed it?" I asked.

  She glared at me but didn't say anything for a moment then continued to talk without answering me. "No one was in the restaurant. Sarah's purse and all the other girl's belongings were there as if they should be sitting right there. One of those weird knights walked out of the bathroom. I freaked. I grabbed Sarah's purse, got the keys and threw the purse at the thing and ran."

  I refused to let her get away with anything. "What changed things?" I said. "What happened?"

  She glanced at me. Her fingers twitched rapidly against the steering wheel. "I thought about why we jumped in the river and that you've seen more of this than I have. I decided to trust you and come with you after all. All this has something to do with you."

  She was so furious that was the last thing she said to me in the car. She wouldn't speak to me the entire ride. She just stared straight ahead as she drove us from the city.

  Sitting there silently, I became angrier and angrier. What did any of this have to do with me? Why was I the one the Myyga had chosen?

  Are you really that clueless? You are the one that ruined everything.

  I didn't do anything wrong. I went to York to find a girl. It's the Myyga that ruined everything. Why did they have to start going after people? Why couldn't they just let me leave?

  You think that just because now you could see them that was the first time? You are truly arrogant. Why should the Myyga have to fix what you started?

  I didn't start anything!

  The moment you interrupted the first Myyga, you consigned it and the man to the worst of deaths. Even after you saw what happened to it due to your actions, you did it to two more Myyga and another human. The thing you seem to be best at is sending those who were never meant to die to their deaths and those who were meant to die to Hell.

  If you are implying I had anything to do with her death then release me and maybe I will do you the same courtesy.

  I would be insane to release you in your state. If you are still too arrogant to believe me, then recall for me what happened when you fled to the Dales.

  When we arrived in the Dales, Amelia decided to speak to me again. She said there were caves throughout the area and that we could easily find one and take shelter there. She stopped the car along the road. We got out and began to hike up the nearest hill looking for one of the caves.

  After an hour, we climbed onto a plateau that was scattered with boulders and overlooked the valleys below. Along the rock face, we found a small opening just large enough to crawl through. There was a large enough pocket inside the rock for us to stay comfortably, even if it did smell strongly of powdered rock. Even though it was still afternoon, we both wanted to climb into the cave and hide. Being on a highly visible cliff was not comforting.

  We managed to make a fire, thanks to Amelia's experience camping as a child and my random knowledge from reading trivia websites. We huddled arou
nd it and didn't speak. I continued to run over the events in my head. I tried to figure out what the Myyga had been trying to show me.

  I assumed they had wanted me to stay in York to take care of that thing in the Viking Centre but I could not see how that explained what they had shown me near the Shambles. It did not explain many things. Why were the crests showing up more and more?

  The crests were those who you had consigned to death with your actions.

  I couldn't have been responsible for all of them.

  In the moments you decided to run from York, you were. The moments when you would have faced the beast, they would have lived.

  Then explain to me what happened that night.

  Go over it again and you will see the truth of it. You did not stay in the cave. Think about what happened.

  We had forgotten to get food or any supplies when we ran. We had been so focused upon escaping that it hadn't occurred to us. We quickly realized how foolish that was. Amelia didn't say anything but I heard her stomach growl. With everything going on, she seemed afraid to speak. If staying hidden for just a night would have saved us, I wouldn't have worried about the lack of food, but hiding seemed much more indefinite than that.

  I decided I needed to return to York to get supplies. I planned to make it a quick trip to survey the situation as well. Now that Amelia was out of the city, I wasn't as worried as I had been.

  When I told her, she insisted I not go.