Hunters Series - Burn Part Three

Sleep is something that people need and a lot of us love to end our hard days with a little bit of that dark rest, but me, I couldn’t sleep at all. I wondered if it was because of the little dolls staring at me from across the room or if it was just thinking about the things that had happened recently.

I sat up in the bed and looked at the window. It was dark and there was snow falling blankly to the ground. It looked peaceful and happy, like a Christmas card with the happy family signing on the bottom left sending love to those that lived far away. Nothing like my life had ever really been.

I got up from the bed and looked around the room. Maybe a midnight snack was in order.

Anything was better than being in this room.

I opened the door and looked down the hallway. It was dark and clear, like I’d expect it to be at this time of night. When I got to the edge of the stairs, I saw that there was a light on in the living room. When I looked a little closer, I realized Paige was sitting there looking into space. She had a cup of hot coffee or something like that sitting on the table beside her and her legs was curled up beneath her.

I wondered if I should just turn around and go back up the stairs, but instead, I popped around the corner and walked up to her.

“What are you doing up this late?” She said looking at me.

“I thought I’d make a midnight snack. Do you want one?” I smiled brightly and started towards the kitchen.

“Sure, sounds nice.” She called behind me. I didn’t look back at her as I walked.

The kitchen was as nice as the living area had been and hadn’t changed at all in the ten years that it had been since I was last here. The walls were still bright white and the counters clean and day. I wondered if she ever really used anything in here or if she just ordered out all the time.

I opened the cupboards above my head where the cookies used to be. Of course I was too short to reach the top, so I ran my hand across the shelving. Sure enough, there they were. Right where they always were.

I smiled and grabbed them off the shelf. I heard footsteps behind me. They were heavy, too heavy to be Paige. I froze for a moment then remembered what I’d been taught all those years ago.

Don’t be afraid of them.

I whirled around as fast as I could and was met face to face with a… human?

He was around the same age as me with short blonde hair that matched mine and dark eyes. He just smiled and grabbed the cookies from my hand. I opened my mouth to protest but he was gone before I could speak.

I followed him into the living room ready to give him a piece of my mind when I saw the scene that was playing out in the room I’d been in only moments ago.

There were several people standing around the living room talking. I searched the room for Paige, but was not able to find her. When they saw me, they stopped talking and looked at me with squinted eyes.

“Who are you people?” I said in my most forceful voice, crossing my arms in front of me. An older man with black hair and glasses looked my way and then spoke.

“I could ask you the same thing.” He eyed me and I glared back at him.

“Relax boys; this is Paige, Jacks kid.” Paige reappeared into the room. “She’s staying with me for a little while.” With that brief explanation, they looked back to Paige.

“What did you find?” The older man asked walking towards her.

“Not much really. Max said that she would talk to some of her contacts, but I think we are on our own for this one.”

“Max, the witch? I wish you wouldn’t tell her everything. I don’t trust her.”

“Yeah, well I do and she’s a hell of a witch and good at what she does.” Paige crossed her arms in front of her in a defensive stance that I recognized. I couldn’t help but crack a smile. The man caught my smile and glared at me. I slid it away and listened to what was going on, trying to make sense of what was being said.

“This demon is a tricky one. He can make himself invisible to those that he doesn’t want to see him. He also has connections, but that’s all I know.” She said sitting in the chair that she was just relaxing in.

“Connections with the big guys in hell? Is that what you’re telling us?” He sighed.

“That’s what Max got from her sources, so I’m going to say, yeah.” Paige hated when people acted like she didn’t know what she was talking about. Just because she hadn’t hunted in a while, didn’t mean that she didn’t know what she was doing.

Paige looked in my direction and then at the four guys standing in her living room. “Sorry, Talia, I forgot to introduce you to the boys here. This is David.” She said pointing to the one that had been talking. “This is Caleb.” She was pointing towards another older man standing in the back. He raised his hand to let me know which one he was. “This is Scott,” The dark haired man on the end raised his hand as well and smiled, “and this one is C.J,” she said pointing to the guy that had stolen my cookies. He was standing against the wall chowing down on my midnight snack. Paige realized that he was eating her cookies and made a face before jumping up and snatching them out of his hands. C.J protested a little until getting a glare from Paige, and then he settled on leaning against the wall.

“You boys can stay here tonight, but then you should be moving on. You got a hunt to do.” Paige pulled a cookie out of the bag and popped it into her mouth.

I decided to retreat to the bedroom that, only an hour ago, I couldn’t get out of fast enough. The room hadn’t changed in the short time I’d been gone from it and I decided sleep was just not in the cards. I sat on the edge of the bed watching the snowfall and waiting for the sun to rise.

***

Morning finally came as it always does and I decided that it was time to get going on the day. The guys had left early to get to wherever they were going, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them, at least not until they ran into a different problem and came back with their tail between their legs, begging for help on their hunt, but still trying to seem like they had it under control. Typical hunter. I could say that because I wasn’t a hunter, not yet anyway.

As much as I wanted to be one, my dad just didn’t want me to go down that road. I guess if I had children, I’d be the same way.

I made my way down the stairs again as I had the night before and started towards the kitchen. Everything was quite and Paige was clearly still sleeping. I hoped that I could make my eggs without anyone sneaking up on me again. When I was done with my breakfast, I decided to catch some TV. Stupid really, but when you travel as much as I had, you really didn’t get to see the new shows that everyone else was always talking about.

I watched for a few hours and when it got to be about noon, I wondered why Paige wasn’t awake yet.

Something just didn’t feel right.

I walked back up the stairs past the room that I had been sleeping in and stopped at the door at the end of the hallway. I knew that this was Paige’s room from when I was a child staying with her.

I slid my hand over the wood to the doorknob of the door. It was cold and unnerving. I took a breath as I turned the knob and opened the door.

“Paige. Are you in here?” I started, but was cut off by the sight in front of me.

Paige wasn’t in her room. It was completely empty except for her bed and the gold and white blankets that covered it. Her room was as decorated and beautiful as the rest of the house.

I looked at her night table in passing and saw something that did seem out of place. It was an SD card for a computer. I picked it up and looked at it and curiosity got the best of me. I walked down the hall with the card in hand and pulled my computer from under the bed. When I looked at what was on the card, it surprised me. It was a list of all the hunters in the US and what they did best. This must be where Paige gets her information. I took the card back out of the drive and headed back to her room. This card was not my business and I probably shouldn’t have looked at it.

The problem at hand was still not solved. I had no idea where Paige had gone and why. I could wait here and see or I could go out and look for her.

I guess I should start in the house.

I started in the bedroom that I was just in and worked my way down the hall and through the other rooms. They were all used for mostly storage and were easy to search and went quickly.

I made my way down the stairs and started looking in the rooms that were common in a house this size. I checked the dining room, the living room, and the kitchen, but still no Paige. I looked out into the snow to see if there were any tracks, but there was nothing. No car tracks, no boot prints, nothing.

I began to wonder if I was losing it. What if she had gone into town before the snow had gotten too bad? But then again, I knew that the snow had been going on for three days. If I knew it, then she did too.

I sighed and reached for my coat.

When I opened the door, the first thing that I felt was the bitter cold stinging at my face. I had forgotten how cold it can get up here.

The snow was crunching under my feet as I walked toward the barn not even fifty feet from the house. The door was closed and there was no sign that she had been out here at all. My hand reached for the door and turned the knob to see an empty barn except for the old 77 Vega that she had once driven all over the United States when she was hunting for vampires not long ago.

When I looked a little closer, I realized that the keys were still in the ignition waiting for the next time Paige would get around to taking it out for a spin.

I turned back to the door, feeling like an idiot for being so worried when something in the corner caught my eye. I looked closer and saw a handprint marked on the wall to my left. I followed my gaze to the spot on the wall and realized what it was.

Blood.

I started to panic, but forced myself to take a breath and follow the trail of blood that ran on the ground until I got to a bloody arm.

It was Paige’s and the rest of her was not far behind the arm.

I gasped and backed into the wall. My hands had flown up to my face covering my mouth so that no one would be able to hear me freaking out. I knew deep down that whatever had done this was still here and might be looking for anyone else that is close by.

I pulled myself together enough to try and think about what I was going to do. What were they here for? Then like a rocket it came to me.

The list.

If they knew who all of the demon hunters were, they could lure them into a trap and kill them before the hunters got to them.

I had to get to it first.

I snuck very quietly from my spot and looked through the open door. There was no one in sight. That was a good thing. I maneuvered my leg out the door and stepped back into the steps that I had created coming out to the barn. There were no other footprints in the snow that I could see and maybe that meant that there was no one else there anymore.

Unless it was a water demon using the snow, then I was screwed.

I backtracked into the house without much incident and carefully started for the stairs. So far I was not running into anything that could stop me, and then it happened.

The demon showed its face.

It came around the corner from the stairs and started milling around in the living room. It was indeed a water demon that was looking for the list. It had to be, but why was my dad not following it and getting ready to kill it?

The water demon didn’t look like a human at all. They have large blue eyes and more of a fish look to them. They are made to live in the water so they look like it. Some water demons can change their look slightly so that they can move through the world without being noticed until it’s too late, but this one, he liked his fishy hands and stayed that way it seemed.

I kept around the corner as quietly as I could and started to climb the stairs. I kept an eye on the demon, but he continued doing what he was doing and left me alone. Once I was at the top of the stairs, I hurried my walking up so that I could get what I needed and get out. When I got to Paige’s room, the door was standing open. I poked my head around and looked to see if there were any other demons in the room.

There weren’t.

I took a deep breath and went straight for the night stand. I took the card and held it in my hand. What if they caught me with this? They could just take it, but I couldn’t leave it here. I cupped my hand around the card and placed it in my pocket. This was a chance that I was going to have to take. I left the room and hurried down the hall. When I got to the end of the hall, I heard noise going on downstairs.

It was another demon.

He looked like a man. His blonde hair was long and well kept and he wore a suit of all things that made him look leaner than most demons. Many will indulge while they are working here, but he clearly didn’t do that so much.

“Where is the list?”He said to the water demon.

“I haven’t found it yet.”

I back peddled to try and find a way to get out of the house, but the windows were all too high to jump from. I had to figure something out. Before too long, the house would be swarming with demons.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and realized that I had two choices, hide in one of the rooms and hope they left or face them head on and hope that I could take them.

I picked the latter.