The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

It took Charlie 20 minutes to get back to her cabin, as she walked through the door, she packed all the silver she had in a bag and placed it by the front door ready to take back to the village at dawn, Charlie decided that she would stay in the cabin for the night and read the book that she had brought back with her, Charlie sat on a chair and opened the book, she began to read after about an hour she came to a chapter called ‘the bravest and strongest of them all’, why did people always have to make up stupid titles she thought as she began to read the chapter

“what a loud of rubbish” she said slamming the book down on the table next to her, it was no wonder Jack hated the person she truly was, this book made her out to be some sort of monster, who had betrayed her kind, she picked the book up again and looked inside the front cover to see if there was a date, it said 2242, 10 years after she had left the world and come to the cabin, she read the first two paragraphs again

Leanna was a young female hunter, who all vampires feared, she had been trained to fight them since the day that she could walk, it is said that Leanna felt not sadness for anything that she killed, some would have us believe that she had no feelings at all and that she was happy to kill anything be it vampire or human, stories that are told of her say that she was the fastest and strongest of all hunters so, she began to train everyone else, most hunters did not face there first vampire until they came of age, 18 to a hunter but it is said that Leanna faced her first at the young age of 14 years old.

It is said that one night she summoned all other hunters to her to begin and assault on the Dean but upon arriving at the Deans hideout, she stood and watched all of her friends get slaughtered and killed in cold blood, Leanna did not lift her finger to help anyone, she let them all die, nobody knows what happened to her as no one found her body amongst the dead, the Dean claimed to have killed her, after she brought all of her friends to him like he had asked.

Leanna slammed the book down again, there was still plenty more to read but she had read enough, how the hell had they got it so wrong, she picked the book up and threw it into the fire nobody needed to read rubbish like that, it was an hour before dawn when Charlie awoke and picked up the bag of silver and headed back down to the village, when she reached the village she could tell that Thom was already n the forge working, she could smell the fires

“good morning, is that the silver?” Thom asked

“yes, it is” Charlie replied putting the bag down and picking up one of the swords that Thom had made

“do you approve?” Thom asked

“no” she said and noticed Thom was looking at her strangely “the tips of the sword are wrong and so is the point on the arrows” she added

“how can I change them? To make them what we need” Thom asked

“let me show you” Charlie said and put a sword and arrow head back into the fire to heat up so, that she could work with them, when it was hot enough, she pulled the sword out first and began to draw the blade out further which meant it could be sharpened all the way around the end

“if you stretch the blade out like this, then you will be able to sharpen the whole end of the sword so that no matter what side you hit them with, it will burn and cut them” She said quenching the blade and taken it over to the grinder so, that she could show Thom what she meant

“that I can do” Thom said “and what about the arrow?” he asked

“that needs a slight barb on the tip so that they cannot pull it out” Charlie replied showing him

“ok, right I need to melt the silver” Thom said trying to pick the bag up and put it on the table but being human he could not move it from where it was, you she had plenty of silver in the cabin for an occasion such as this and with it all in one bag it weighed more than an average man

“I will leave you to it” Charlie said having noticed that he was struggling she went and picked the bag up and put it on the table for him

“what the hell” Thom said and picked up the sword that she had just finished

“what?” asked Charlie

“what are you?” Thom asked

“I am Charlie” she replied

“I did not ask you who, I asked you what you are” Thom said “help” he shouted

“you do not need help” Charlie said just as Jack came into the forge with the rest of the village behind him, he went to walk up to Charlie first

“don’t go near her” Thom said but Jack didn’t listen

“what did you do?” Jack asked Charlie

“nothing” she replied

“so, Thom is holding a sword at you for nothing is he?” Jack asked and turned to Thom” what is going on?” Jack asked Thom

“she, she, she picked up that bag” Thom replied with his hand shaking but still pointing the sword towards her

“it’s only a bag” said Jack

“you pick it up then” Thom snapped

“fine” Jack said and he went to move the bag but again he was human and could not even move it

“see I told you” Thom said to Jack “pick it up”, he said turning to Carlie

“for heaven’s sake it is only a bag” Charlie said and went over to were the bag was and she picked it up again, everyone but Jack gasped

“she is one of them” Thom shouted

“Thom, listen” said Jack walking towards him

“she’s a vampire” Thom said

“for heaven’s sake” Charlie said and she stepped outside in to the sunlight “if I was one of them, then I would be dead” she added “you all know that sunlight kills them and as you can see, I am not dead” she added

“you are” Thom said still pointing the sword at her

“fine, come here” Charlie said

“why?” asked Thom

“your sword is silver, if I am indeed what you think I am then the silver will burn my skin” Charlie replied holding her arms out so, that Thom could put the sword against her skin

Thom walked up to Charlie and placed the sword on her arm and nothing happened, that should have told him that what he thought was wrong but it didn’t and he pulled the sword away and plunged it into her chest, luckily it missed her heart, as Thom pulled the sword out with blood running down the blade, Charlie fell to the floor and to everyone’s surprise she was still alive

“you bloody idiot” Jack shouted going over to her “help me get her in” he shouted

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” said Thom going and helping Jack to pick her up, the two of them carried Charlie into the nearest house leaving a trail of blood behind her, they could all hear the whispers of everyone trying to find out what she was

“Charlie are you alright?” Jack asked

“get out” Charlie screamed as they put her down on a sofa, she had just enough energy to drink some tea before passing out from the loss of blood, Jack and Thom walked from the house, once they were outside Jack turned to Thom

“you bloody fool, she is here to help you and that is how you repay her by trying to kill” he shouted and punched Thom

“I had to know” Thom said

“you had to know so, you try and kill her, she walks in the sunlight and silver does not burn her skin, she has shown you everything that you need to know to protect yourselves from them, if she was a vampire do you think any of us would be alive no, you would all be dead, if she was not something different then you would all be dead but never mind you had to know, maybe you want to stab me, you know to make sure” Jack shouted

“I said I was sorry but it’s your fault you should have told us” Thom snapped

“told you what that she is part vampire, would you have acted any differently, would you have even listened to anything that she has said, you are stupid and would not have understood, none of you would” Jack shouted and turned away from everyone, he walked off and into his own house, he was done, he would not help them anymore, not after what had just happened, as the sun came up the next morning Jack got up and went outside, just in time to see Charlie walking from the village.

“Charlie” he shouted running after her

“what?” she snapped at him

“where are you going?” Jack asked

“away from here” she replied

“why?” asked Jack

“because it is time” she replied

“you need to say goodbye” Jack said

“I do not” she replied and continued to walk “they tried to kill me and if that sword had been a few centimetres higher they would have” she added

“you do Charlie, it is polite” Jack said “he did not mean to do it” he added

“how did he not mean to do it, did he not pull the sword back and push it into my chest?” Charlie snapped turning to face him

“he was scared and didn’t understand” Jack replied

“So every time that someone doesn’t understand I am going to be stabbed” Charlie shouted

“no, not everyone will react the same way, you need to go back and say goodbye, no matter what happened it is the right thing to do” Jack said

“fine” Charlie snapped “even after what they did to me you still want me to go and talk to these stupid humans, if that will shut you up then I will” she added and walked back to the village, where it seemed everyone had heard Jacks shouting and come to see what was going on

“I am so sorry” said Thom

“as you can see, I am fine, it is time, that I left” Charlie said

“but you can’t” said Len

“I am, I have out stayed my welcome and it is time I moved on, besides I have nothing else to teach you” Charlie said

“but we need you” said Jane

“you do not need me, you have Jack” Charlie replied and turned to walk away

“hold on, they don’t have me I am coming with you” Jack said “”no” Charlie said

“why?” asked Jack

“because I said so” Charlie replied

“fine, you go and when you are out of the village, I will follow you, I want to help” Jack said

“fine” she snapped “we leave now” she said and walked away

Jack rushed around and said goodbye, he also picked up a few things, he followed Charlie quickly out of the village, would the next place be any easier of that she had no idea, Charlie walked slowly from the village waiting for Jack to catch up, she didn’t need the help of any humans, they were stupid and attacked anything that they did not understand, like this village, she had tried to help them and they had tried to kill her.

Charlie had no idea of Jack would be much different, he had accepted that she was what she was but that was only because he probably didn’t fully understand what that was, there were probably things that she didn’t understand about what she was, Jack had also accepted magic, which most humans would not, maybe he was different after all thought Charlie just as Jack caught up with her

“do you think they will be safe?” Jack asked

“they should be, the vampires should have been back to him by now, he should now know that someone is fighting them and that someone will come for him, he should hunt me now and not them” Charlie replied

“why would he hunt you?” Jack asked

“he is a vampire and they always have hunted us that have killed them” she replied

“but how will he know, his men are all dead” Jack said

“because he will soon learn that there is someone killing his men” Charlie replied

“how will he learn that?” Jack asked

“because someone will tell him” Charlie replied

“who?” asked Jack

“the boy” Charlie replied

“what boy?” asked Jack “Jane’s son” Charlie replied

“you said he was dead” said Jack

“I did and he is in away” Charlie replied

“so, he is not dead?” Jack asked

“he is, he is a vampire and was probably sent back to the king with a message that there is someone who is strong enough to face him” Charlie said

“why did you tell Jane that he was dead?” Jack asked

“because at the time I did not know, it was only after when I tried to find the body that I realised what had happened” Charlie Replied

“but that was two days ago” Jack said

“It doesn’t matter, Jane thought that her son was dead and that was better than knowing he was one of them” Charlie replied

“where now?” Jack asked

“onwards and towards him” Charlie replied

“are we going straight to him?” Jack asked

“no, we will stop at all the villages between here and him, we will save as many as we can” Charlie replied and the two of them continued on their journey.