Hunters

Chapter Four: For the Record

By Nathan Mullins

“Where are we heading Shimmer?” Whisper asked him, as they continued on their journey.

“You know well enough where we’re heading!”

Shimmer’s voice was rough, as he was breathless, and so tired. He was being so harsh, because he was keeping some things well under wraps.

“You sound so upset, so angry, so… well, you sound a little different.”

Whisper was concerned for her friend, but he refused to give in to her questions, until she practically saw him crack, with pure frustration.

“Yes, well, I’m sorry Whisper, but yes I’m so angry right now, so desperate to keep you safe, to look after us both under such terrible circumstances.”

“But you’ve done a good job so far,” she told him.

He refused to believe it. He turned to face her this time. All the time he had spoken to her, he’d been in denial, refusing to look upon her face, and tell her straight, how he felt about her.

“I love you Whisper, always have, but now I see not the passage leading us to safety. There is something I have not told you…” and he trailed off.

He saw Whisper grin, as if she knew all too well how her companion felt about her, deep down. But this something now worried her, because never once had Shimmer ever gone out of his way to keep something concealed from her.

“What is it?”

She sounded hesitant.

They stopped moving, and on their journey, they had come across an old leather settee someone had chucked out for the rubbish men. They sat down on that, and spoke both quickly and quietly.

“We can escape here, you and I, but there’s this 'key’, in which unlocks ‘the doorway’ to Space Time, where there lies our home, but this key… it’s,” and then he was interrupted, by the Hunter’s arrival.

“Go on please, tell your secrets, give us the answer, tell us where we might find this key!”

Hunger licked his lips, able now to kill either of his enemies, without having to be given instructions on where to find the key, only… he craved understanding of one of the only true methods in escaping Real Time.

“Shimmer, say nothing!” screamed Whisper, who was then taken hold of by Hunger’s henchmen, who held a knife up to her, Shimmer now having risked everything.

“Whisper, hang on in there!” he told her. Hunger saw he was willing to cooperate.

“Tell me quickly, or we will kill her!” he roared.

“The key…” he began.

He was sweating under the pressure.

“Yes…” Hunger continued, his eyes narrowing on the boy.

“Is I!” he stated, this fact having some effect on Hunger.

He staggered backwards, still staring at the Rare Kind, unable to take his eyes off him.

“How can this be?” he shrieked in horror.

“It was a power granted by those on my home world, given unto me to protect, but it cannot be used, not any more!”

“WHY NOT?” Hunger bellowed.

“Because I haven’t the energy to regain the power needed to open another dimension, and this fault is your own!”

Shimmer caught Whisper in his arms, as Hunger released his grip on her, the knife in his brother’s hands falling to the ground, far from having marked the girl at all.

“You and I may never see the light of day on a new world, another dimension. But if you kill us, all hope will no doubt be lost, and you will pay the price!”

He gave Whisper a sneaky wink, and they strolled off into the distance, an arm around one another’s shoulders.

Hunger stood back and watched them go, lost in thought and orders he no longer wished to obey, and so turned back to his brothers. He saw their faces, and he smiled, and told them all – “We have made this world our own, and so have the Rare Kind, but the key is not for us to tamper with, and so this must always remain so.”

But something wasn’t set in stone, something Shimmer had in store for his ‘girlfriend’.