Chapter 22

REID:
I completely back away from the door, keeping my guard up as I fix my focus on it. Why can’t today just be an absolutely normal day for me?
‘Are we safe? Am I safe?’ I ask Bryan who hasn’t said a word since he instructed me from moving further to the entrance.
‘I don’t know,’ is his panicky response which is starting to affect me as well. ‘What I do know is that we are surrounded by something that is out of the ordinary which is why you need to be extra careful right at this moment,’
A knock on the door again. And then another. And then another. This sure doesn’t look good.
The scent has completely been masked now. No way to figure out if it is someone or just a thing out there.
The instance a knock comes through again, I ask Bryan using my voice, “Don’t you think we need to make a run from this?”
‘And risk your safety?’
“So you mean I should stay in here all day while some maniac out there continues to taunt me? Is that what you want me to do?”
Bryan scoffs. ‘Put down your ego, Reid. This is not the time for it,’
He sure hit me right where I did not expect it. But I would have to ignore his words as I do not intend to get into a trade of words with him now.
A creak on the door takes my focus back to it. I realize that it is starting to open slowly, and what only confuses me more is when I can see no reflection outside the room after it opens up completely.
What then just pushed it open? Someone is surely playing games with me. And even though I am somewhat worried right now, I cannot help but feel infuriated at this time-wasting moment I am going through.
In a blink of an eye, everything transforms. I can see something just outside my room now. Something I would call familiar.
The slimy substance. Yes, the similar one which was found in three of the households that experienced total wipeouts. Except this one is different from the rest.
It looked like a river of the substance was right outside my room due to the gigantic feature it has taken. What in the world is this? I wonder. And it is rather irritating than strange to me.
The aura around the room suddenly thickens as well and I realize that I have begun to move backward. Although the substance does not look threatening, my whole body cannot seem to handle the pressure. It feels to me like the substance could jump on me if care is not taken.
I thought I saw the substance moving. Yes, I am sure of that. It just moved right before my eyes. I really should be scared right now but who cannot take the idea of being that way over something like that.
With a single blink of my eyes, suddenly, everything seems to be back to normal. And not just normal, because instead of the substance outside there, all I can see is Hunter who has his brows raised at me questioningly.
“What’s going on with you?” he asks in a tone filled with clear curiosity.
I try to regulate my heartbeat so as not to give away the fact that I had just gone through a rather surprising pressure. “Why were you playing games with me?” I almost yell at him as I question him.
The questioning gaze on his face doesn’t fade away. It only increases as he responds to my question, “Games? What games?”
“Weren’t you the one messing with my mind just now?”
“What are you talking about, Reid? I just got here now,”
Okay, now I am totally confused. What in the world is going on? The way he is speaking, I can sense that he indeed has no idea what I am talking about. So what did I just experience not too long ago?
“I guess I must have been hallucinating,” I tell him as I turn around with a hand to my face.
His footsteps into the room are a bit loud which notifies me instantly that he has joined me in here.
“What were you hallucinating about?” I hear him ask.
“Don’t worry about it,” I say, “It’s stopped now.”
“Well, it sounds really serious to me. You sure you don’t wanna talk about it?”
“I'm good,” I tell him and then sit on my bed with my hand still on my face. I can’t seem to get the picture of what transpired not too long ago out of my head. How could that be a mere hallucination though? It felt real to me.
I look up to see Hunter checking himself out in the torso-length mirror I have in the room. “Why are you here?” I have to ask because having him here with me is not what I want.
He turns to face me. “I needed to talk to you about something,” he says.
My curiosity is piqued instantly because I know that Hunter never speaks such words without indeed having anything serious to say.
“Okay?”
He approaches where I am seated which is my bed. As he is on a jacket, his tatts are hidden away from eye view except for the ones he has on his neck.
“It’s about the issue on ground,”
“What happened to it?” I ask, already aware of what he is referring to.
“I think we need to see the Elder once more so he can give us a clearer idea of what we need to do to curb the situation. I don’t think using mere intellects would work this time around,”
I narrow my eyes at him after he said that. Although I clearly understand him, I have a feeling that he didn’t just think this through without a genuine reason other than the pack’s situation.
“The first time we were there, did he really do anything to help us?”
“No, but—”
I cut him off. “The only thing he did was keep talking about a prophecy and it being upon us. Is that what would help us with the crisis?”
Hunter takes his time before responding. “No,” he says, “but I have it in me that he would surely have something for us. We just need to ask the right questions and we would be pointed in the right direction,”
“A direction that involves prophecies?”
“Something like that. Wasn’t he accurate when we were there? It was after he mentioned something similar to our situation did it happen again. If he can know about it, then I am sure he would be able to help us out. He just might be able to provide us with a solution,”
I stand up from the bed, willing to face him directly because I am starting to get suspicious. “Tell me, Hunter. What gave you this idea? I know you didn’t just come up to me after thinking it through like that. Something significant must have happened that led you to me,”
He shrugs. “Do you think something serious would make me decide this? Nah, I’m good. I was only thinking about putting the situation to point zero so as not to escalate. Because if it does escalate, there would be no way out for the pack,”
I nod, acknowledging his words. He sure makes sense and even though I am still skeptical about the whole setting, I have to regard the fact that he is actually making a lot more sense than I expected him to. Guess the peck of being a beta was telling on him full-time already.
“You’re right you know,” I start to say as I walk up to the window that would have been my escape routine if the supposed hallucination had turned out to be real. “But what I want to know now is why all of a sudden? Hunter, I know you more than this. Something must have happened for you to come up with such an idea. And I will rather you spill now,”
“C’mon, believe me. Nothing happened, honestly. I just had a go at the thought and decided to share it with you,”
I look back at him. “Did you have the same hallucination as I did?” I ask him.
“What hallucination?”
A twitch on his face tells him he is trying to feign oblivion. My observant nature made me see through him.
“Did you have some weird insight about something that you thought was real? Because I did. And that is why I think you also did as well,”
He has his eyes sternly focused on me. And I can tell that he is battling with himself to tell me or not about what he experienced.
“Did you or did you not?” I ask as a way to trigger him to speak already.
Eventually, he says, “I did. And believe me when I tell you that I am scared as hell...”