Chapter 60

Chapter 60: Chapter Sixty

Katie lay in her bed tossing and turning uncomfortably. The images of the day refused to leave her mind. The moon goddess’ appearance, finding out Kyle was a werewolf and not to mention, a rogue that was responsible for killing Ash. Ash had been a girl who had finally found a way out of the clutches of the rogues only to have her life taken away from her. ‘When I find you, Kyle, you will have a lot of suffering ahead of you,’ she screamed in her thoughts.

Katie walked out of her bed and got into the shower to soak and wash off for a bit. There was an easier way to get rid of the thoughts that plagued her mind, but a dip in the bathtub seemed appealing to her at the moment and that is what she had decided to go with rather than the painstakingly effective methods that hunters used. Sometimes one just got tired of simply shutting down their urges that cruelly. She allowed herself to relax in the tub for a period of twenty minutes while she let her mind exhaust itself with the needless worry.

She got out and dried herself off before walking up to her closet, ‘Honestly, this is not like me... I have to move on... worrying about the past will only let me miss the present and one can never know when a rare opportunity will come by...’ As if on cue, something snapped in her mind. A familiar rush she’d grown very accustomed to in the past. It had been long since she’d had this feeling...

Blood rushed through her system draining the drowsiness of the impending sleep from her eyes. ‘I didn’t think there was still a rogue with the guts to approach this place... They are getting cocky again.’ A decision for clothing was now made and it barely took her any time at all to dress up and exit the house through the window launching herself into the night... the moon was high and the air was cool against her skin... The hunt was on and the unfortunate rogue was soon within her sight...

....................

Katie’s parents were talking downstairs after having bid their daughter farewell. At first, they’d indulged themselves in idle chitchat that had them laughing, but eventually, they had to talk about it... “What do you think will happen after tomorrow?” Marie asked her husband. It wasn’t the first time they’d asked each other this question, but the closer her birthday approached, the more the reality of the situation dawned on them. They couldn’t help but speculate.

“I don’t know what will happen. This is new for both of us. Her parents were so eager that they even came here without our knowledge. There is even a possibility that they could have bumped into her, but that’s unlikely, they would have recognised her instantly,” he replied before chuckling, “Time flies, honey.”

.....

“Yeah, feels like we only got her a few days ago... Has it really been eighteen years?” she asked.

“Yeah, it has been eighteen years... I’m glad the moon goddess kept her promise,” he said.

“Oh, which one... the one to keep us young until we didn’t have to take care of her anymore or the part of that promise when it explicitly states that we will lose her,” she said.

“Don’t speak like that...”

“I can’t help it... Tomorrow is the day she will most likely be revealed to the rest of the world. There will be no hiding then. We know she can protect herself now and that...” she stopped her ranting when something struck a chord within her senses.

“A rogue... It’s been a long time since...”

“Katie...” Marie was halfway up the stairs by the time she made the realisation of who else must have sensed the intruder. They rushed upstairs and opened the door to their daughter’s bedroom. The wind blew the curtains in, the glass continuously rattled as it was banged onto the wall repeatedly from the force of the incoming stream of cold wind. The girl was long gone... on a hunt as she’d grown accustomed to.

“This will do her some good. I just feel sorry for the rogue that decided to show its face here...” Tom said.

..................

Katie spotted the Rogue running in human form. He was a grown man, unlike the young boys and girls she had been forced to slaughter not too long ago. His skills of stealth were astonishing as he zipped through the trees almost noiselessly. He seemed to have a destination in mind as he ran in a relatively straight line. She’d met a number of rogues that knew how to be stealthy and few of them matched this man’s skills.

Using the map in her mind, she could tell that this man was headed for Kyle’s house. Kyle always claimed his parents were always on business trips and that it was better for them to travel less to reduce their risks of an attack. It was now clear that the house was not actually owned by anyone. He probably paid the rent himself from the money he received from the rogues that sponsored his spying operation.

Katie ran in a fashion that matched the man’s steps so that he didn’t notice when she stepped on the ground. With this skill, she could follow him for as long as she wanted. She had a number of things that she wanted to do to him, but the most important objective was to take him alive. In the meantime, while she played her game of cat and mouse, she observed the man’s features. He was clearly a fighter as his body was covered in scars.

He had astonishing endurance as he didn’t break his pace the whole way or even start to sound out of breath. For one to keep such a pace and also stay as quiet as he was, they would have to run and rest the moment they got even the slightest bit tired as continuing would only cause them to lose the advantage of stealth with the noisy heaving.

Once they were a mile away from the town, the closest she’d ever let a rogue get to the town, she finally came to the conclusion that this man knew where Kyle was. She could tell because he looked to be headed in the direction of his house. Kyle had probably forgotten something very important there and this man was supposed to retrieve it. There was no telling which direction he’d come as it had become clear that rogues never used direct routes to avoid the possibility of hunters retracing the steps.

‘My top priority is to capture this man alive... even if I have to break every bone in his body,’ she thought before speaking to announce her presence. “Would you happen to know Kyle?” she asked him. The man stopped running instantly, allowing Katie to stop as well. She could already tell he was on high alert. His face, if only momentarily, was the epitome of fear. It was a common reaction whenever she found a rogue that was skilled in the art of stealth.

“So, I finally meet the one they call the Rogue killer,” he said, his voice was hoarse and his accent sounded foreign, each word coming out forced and the syllables strained.

“What’s with your accent?” she asked, amused for a moment.

“You’re toying with me, aren’t you? You’re that cocky... You’re a freakin’ teenager. I’m not going to be intimidated by a...”

“Blah blah blah, you’ve been more boring than I expected. I wanted you to give me more of a challenge. Take a few turns on the way, notice me and at least try to throw me off course, but for two whole miles, you’ve been running in a straight line at the same obnoxious pace as if there is no one watching you. You seem skilled in moving silently, but when it comes to detection, you just suck,” she said, making her voice sound like that of a judge in a competition.

“What do you plan on doing to me?”

“Oh, you really want to jump to that conclusion? Well, there is really no way out for you in this situation. I initially wanted to get violent with you, but the fear on your face was just too priceless. I lost my motivation when I saw it,” she said, smirking as she riled him up.

“Is that so? I’ve heard many tales about the rogue killer, but none of them said you were a talker,” he said.

“You’re well informed, I’m not... I just wanted to grant you the honour of being the rogue to last the longest amount of time without an injury from me after we meet,” she said.

“You know how to run your mouth. With how you’ve been keeping up with me, I know there is no way I’ll escape you, so in that case, I’ll just do what I was trained to do...”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“Kill you...” with that said, the chorus of breaking bones and body metamorphosis began. Katie looked away for the most part of the process. She was feeling in the mood for a good fight to vent her frustrations and this wolf was providing the opportunity.

“Are you done yet? Growl when you’re done shifting... we need to get this over with,” rushed footsteps reached her ears in time for her to leap away. From the corner of her vision, she saw the wolf continue to lunge at her, its jaws wide open ready to tear whatever flesh it got a hold of. “That’s not fair, you know,” she whined before darting out of the wolf’s way at the last minute. The evasion got the wolf angry and prompted him to go faster on his next attacks.

After five minutes of what seemed to be futile attempts at trying to get to her, the wolf took the next option... dashing away in the hopes that it could escape her in its wolf form. Katie caught the wolf’s tail in one leap and pulled it back slamming it into a nearby tree, “I thought I told you that you can’t escape me. No matter what you do, there is no way out for you.”

The wolf shook off the dizziness and got up for its next attempt which Katie gladly allowed. The wolf circled her baring its fangs before dashing in the opposite direction when Katie least expected it. The hunter sighed and rubbed her forehead, nodding in disappointment, “He’s quite clever to know he’s beat.”

Demitri ran as fast as he could, thoughts of prayer to whatever god watched over the rogues out there moving through his mind. He had given it his all and the girl was not even out of breath yet. There was nothing he could think of that could work on her. How she could even see clearly in the middle of the night bothered him so much. Was she a pro hunter? From the way she’d tossed him around, she seemed to be a pro hunter, but then he couldn’t tell what Prometheus gift she possessed, he wasn’t light for a werewolf and at the same time, she’d caught him astonishingly fast. There was...

His thoughts came to a painful stop when something rammed into his side with a force he could only compare to that of a train as he imagined it felt when hit by one. The wolf flew into the tree nearby, the painful crunch of cracking bones filling the quiet night. Pain riddled his body and ran through his spine denying him the ability to walk. He panted on the ground, trying to keep himself from moving any more than he needed to. He hadn’t even noticed when he’d been hit or what had hit him.