The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

When a man stepped from the shadows and Charlie knew why she knew the voice

“hello my old friend” he said

“peter, How?” Charlie asked

“I was there the night you went for him” Peter replied

“I had no idea that you were there, when you did not bring me any information, I thought that you had decided that you would not help me and that you would obey what Paul had told you” Charlie said

“I asked one to many questions and got myself caught, I told you that I did not care what your father had ordered me to do, my loyalty laid with you and him but you would not have come for me, you only went for him” Peter said

“I would have tried” Charlie said “you were my closest friend Peter and Had I known I would have tried to save you from this fate” she added

“I see the story of your down fall is wrong” Peter said

“apologies if that disappoints you but it would seem that your so, called king lied” Charlie said looking at Peter with great sadness in her eyes

“do not be sad for what I have become, you leaving me was the best thing that ever happened to me, besides who doesn’t want to live forever” Peter said

“it is not really about sadness, it is about the way the world should be, you live and you die” Charlie said

“you and I both seemed to have missed the part about dying” Peter said

“that was not my choice, the Dean took that from me” Charlie said

“but even you must admit that living forever is good” Peter said

“no, I hate every moment of it, my time has long since gone that is why I left this world that night” Charlie said “I knew that I was destined to live in this world forever and watch everyone that I cared about die” Charlie added

“you left because you are a coward” Peter said

“I am no coward Peter, I was scared, I did not want to become like them, needing something to keep me alive, I had spent my life training to fight what I was to become and I had spent my life protecting humans from them, I did not want to harm any of them” Charlie said

“scared why would you be scared of becoming better?” Peter asked

“enough of this chatter, let us finish this, what is done is done and cannot be undone, let us end this and you can leave this world” Charlie said

All at once the vampires seemed to run at her, she had to think fast, in theory Jack had all the villagers safe in the town hall so, she could use the houses. Charlie quickly raised her hands “luminasoareli” she shouted and they were blinded long enough for her to make a dash to the nearest house, she dived in and out of the houses for about 15 minutes counting as she went, if she was right there should be four and Peter left, if she wanted to get to Peter she would have to go back out, it was odd to her that Peter thought that they could defeat her

“no more games Peter” she said stepping out of the house

“finish this now” Peter said to the other four, one did get close to graze her but come on did none of them learn to fight anymore.

“you thought they could kill me” Charlie said looking disappointed

“I see you still train as I do “Peter said

“I do, in case anything like this ever came up” Charlie said “plus I did not have much else to do and loads of time” she added

“the same, many believe there was none that could face us but me and the king knew that someone would” Peter said

“who is this king?” Charlie asked

“one day my friend you will find out, if you live long enough” Peter replied starting to pace

“why won’t any of you just tell me?” Charlie asked

“why are you trying to stall me with all these questions, are you afraid of what I have become?” Peter asked

“why would I be afraid of you?” Charlie asked

“because I am faster and stronger” Peter replied

“why are you all so damn stupid, I am like you, you are not faster and not stronger than me” Charlie replied

“you always think you are better than anyone else, you can never admit that you are not” Peter said

“I don’t think I am Peter I know I am and I have always been” Charlie replied

“still as certain as you always were” Peter said smiling

“why would that ever change, I am still the same person that I have always been, I was and still am the best of us” Charlie said “let us finish this” she added drawing her sword ready to fight, this could be harder than the others, yes Peter was a vampire but he had trained since a child as he was a hunter too, Peter didn’t say anything to her just ran straight at her, he didn’t even have a weapon in his hand, for 15 minutes they were fighting and Charlie hadn’t even managed to graze him.

Peter was still attacking and Charlie trying to find a way to end it, he began to attack faster, in her haste to end it she missed the dagger that Peter had pulled from his waist band and plunge it into her side,

“I see that you still use your dirty tactics when fighting and you seem to have gotten better” she said pulling back and holding her side as the blood ran through her fingers

“as I said we train daily” Peter replied

“not enough” she said, she knew that because Peter thought he had won, he would run at her, she took a deep breath, stood up and swung her sword taking his head

“goodbye my old friend, may you finally rest in peace” she said and had to compose herself a little, after all they were once very good friends and would have done anything for each other, even though it had been so many years she was still said that he had gone from this world

Charlie walked back into the village in hope that she would find Jack alive, when she reached the village hall, she covered her side, if any of them saw her wound they would freak, a human with have died from a wound like that, Charlie expected to walk into the village hall and too find everyone happy that they had been saved from the vampires and not shouting at Jack.

“what is going on?” Charlie asked Jack as she entered the hall and a silence fell on everyone

“nothing I can’t handle” Jack replied

“it really looks like you have it under control” Charlie said sarcastically

“I do have it under control, they are just being awkward” Jack replied

“awkward” said the oldest

“Len please let me explain” Jack said

“you think us awkward, let me tell you something boy, you have always created trouble for everyone here in this village, no one wanted you to come and rescue us, you and this woman have now caused us more trouble than we need” Len said

“we never meant to cause you trouble” Jack replied

“you never do” Len said

“I only wanted to save you” Jack replied

“we didn’t want to be” said a woman

“Julie I could not let you live as their prisoners” Jack said

“as their prisoners at least, we would have been alive now, we will be hunted” Len said

“now hold on one damn minute, Jack risked his life to save yours” Charlie shouted with Jack staring at her, that was the first time she had used his name since they had met.

“leave it” Jack whispered

“no, I will not leave it” she said to Jack and turned back to the others “none of you should be happy to be their prisoners, Jack did the right thing setting you free” she shouted annoyed with how they were behaving

“who are you anyway?” Julie asked

“a friend” she replied

“I have never seen you before and with a weapon like that you could be here to kill us” Julie said

“if I was here to kill you do you not think that I would have already done so by now” Charlie shouted

“you could be waiting” Julie said

“that’s enough, she is from the cabin” Jack said as he could see the look of annoyance on Charlie’s face

“the witch” said Julie

“she is not a witch” Jack said

“and I suppose a woman is going to protect us” Len said

“you think that because I am a woman, I cannot protect you?” Charlie asked

“you can’t” Len answered

“you have no idea who I am and what I can do but no I am not going to protect you, you are going to protect yourself, I have more important things to do than worrying about protecting you” Charlie said

“and how are we supposed to do that?” Len asked

“I will show you” Charlie said

“but they move faster and are stronger than us” Julie said

“you think that you cannot beat them because they move faster and are stronger, they have their weakness” Charlie replied

“and I suppose that we are not meant to sleep” Len snapped

“you can sleep peacefully” she said getting some of the bags of powder out of her bag “if you spread this around the entire boundary of your village, they will not be able to cross is” she added passing the bags to Len

“powder won’t do anything against them” Len said looking inside one “why should we trust you?” he added

Charlie was getting annoyed with these humans and their stupid bloody questions, not wanting to believe a word that she was telling them, the wound that she had was beginning to take its toll, she needed to rest, she could feel the blood running down her side, Charlie wanted to leave but these humans wouldn’t leave her alone, Jack could see by the look on her face that she was angry

“listen if she says it will work, then it will work” Jack said and Charlie turned to walk away from the damn humans when one grabbed her arm

“did you see my son?” she asked

“what?” snapped Charlie

“my son” replied the woman

“what about him?” Charlie asked

“have you seen him” the woman replied

“no” said Charlie

“you must have seen something Sammy was taken by Duke, just before you arrived” the woman said

“no, I haven’t seen him” Charlie replied

“you must have seen something” the woman said

“he is dead” Charlie snapped trying to get the damn human to leave her alone

“what” wailed the woman

“Duke had just eaten before he come out of the house so, if he had taken your son just before then he is dead” she snapped back pulling her arm away and walking from the hall to the sound of the woman howling in pain, she walked from the village to find a quiet place to rest for the night, she needed rest and to heal but most of all she just wanted away from the damn humans.