My Immortal Phantom

The Hunt

Chapter Nineteen: The Hunt

June POV

Jasper was enjoying himself very much, listening to my wild, uncontrollable screams. Occasionally he would pull me to him and try to rip my clothes off, but I would push him away, fall farther into the fire, and shriek louder. He relished in the challenge, trying again and again until eventually my rejection pissed him off. He began to push me around, calling me a filthy little whore and saying, "Where's your beloved God now?!?"

This really pushed me over the edge, yet suddenly I gained the power to stop screaming, and the fires stopped hurting me. Jasper was staring at me in shock as I backed away from him. I realized that I wasn't going backwards, but rather up. Up, up, above the flames I went, and as Jasper and a few other hell dwellers tried to grab me, their fingers slipped right through my skin.

I sat up, sweat covering my body. I was now sitting on my floor, the same spot I'd been when Jasper had taken over my body. I felt my arms, my legs, my stomach, my hair--which I normally hated but was thankful to feel again--and sighed, leaning on Peter for support. Ember and Liz were cheering and hugging on me, but Peter just sat there, rigid, and stared at me as if I was shooting sandwiches out of my head. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me too much if I could do that now.

"What?!?" I snapped. "Can't a girl go to hell and back without being stared at?!?"

He loosened up, and his eyes began to sparkle as he grinned. My friends giggled. "Typically, no. But with us, that's close to the norm."

I couldn't agree more.

***

Something obviously was bothering Peter for the next week. At first, I assumed shock, but he wasn't over it after the week was over...or the next week. Liz, Ember, and I decided to interrogate him. We checked his room, then searched the house, but he was gone. Each one of us called his cell off of each of our phones three times, but he didn't answer. We hacked his Xbox 360 account and asked his gamer buddies if they knew where he was, but none of them did.

"Okay, let's not panic," Liz soothed as Ember and I began to hypervenalate. "When was the last time you two saw him?"

"Last night," we said simultaneously.

"What time?"

I pursed my lips. "Eleven, I think."

Ember blushed a crimson color. "Four A.M."

We looked at her in shock for a moment, and I had to gag. I was glad that Ember and Peter were happy and all, but it was just too weird for me. Though that was kind of hypocritical, because I dated a demon, so. 

"Shut up, June!" Ember snapped at my disgusted noise.

I shrugged.

"Okay, guys, seriously!" Liz cried.

We put our heads together in trying to think of where Peter might be, but the thing was, he left the house to go to school on the days he had classes, but when he wasn't doing that he was bugging us or on Xbox Live. Fortunately, this town was extremely small, so we didn't have many places that he could be...unless he was fleeing the town.

We went to the grocery store, the two resteraunts, the gas station, and the little shops around the block. Peter was no where to be found.

"What if Jasper killed him?!?" Ember blurted from the backseat.

I unbuckled my seat belt and reached to the backseat to slap her, then settled back into my seat. "Don't you ever say anything like that again!!" I ordered. "Peter's gonna show up... guys, you know what we've forgotten to do? Pray that we find Peter! How dumb are we?!?"