A Vision of Hope

Walking along you laughed when you heard the others laughing, wishing that you could listen properly to the stories that your friends were talking about. Instead, your eyes kept discretely looking towards to men in dark uniforms, weapons visible as they spoke amongst each other over their lunch. They were obviously relaxed, slumped down in their seats. 

Even before you had agreed to go to this, you knew that you wouldn’t be able to just relax with friends. The whole shopping centre was full, people spending their weekend in an enjoyable way before another week of work or school started. Their chatter was loud, making it hard to hear anything, and the only natural light came from the large windows around the sides of the food court. 

“____!” a loud voice called into your ear, bringing your eyes back to your friends, faking a smile at them. 

“What?” 

“Just wanted to know if you were okay…” Jade asked, brushing her bleached hair out of her face. 

“Yeah… yeah I’m fine” you answered, forcing the smile to grow a bit as you looked at her. 

“Did one of those guys catch your attention” the blonde teased, a smirk on her face. “I can remember that you said your worst nightmare would be dating one of the hunters or a police officer.”

“That’s because it is one of my worst nightmares. I’d die of a heart attack every time they went to work” you said, the smile fading off of your face for a second as you looked to where they were sitting. 

“And yet you’re looking at them like your interested in one of them” Tara teased, joining in now, winking at Jade. Already you knew that this probably wouldn’t end too well. 

“Just because they’re hunters it doesn’t mean that I can’t look, actually dating them wouldn’t work though” you answered as evenly as you could, rolling your eyes at your friends. Both of them enjoyed gossiping, and most of all enjoyed talking about boys. However, they never knew that in all of these conversations you lied. 

It wasn’t that you thought any of them were cute. In fact, all of the one’s sitting there seemed rather plain, despite being well-muscled which had obviously struck a cord with both Jade and Tara. Instead you were watching them nervously, your entire body tensing as you noticed them getting up out of the corner of your eye. You couldn’t appear too jumpy, not right now. Still your eyes quickly scanned around the room, trying to find the quickest escape route if they did notice you. 

—————

a) I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m really, really dead!!!

b) If they get too close, there’s a fire escape in the back corner which leads to back streets that I can use to get away

c) Why would I be scared of these people?

d) If I just don’t let them out of my sight…

e) Well… their muscles do make them kind of cute?

—————

Thankfully they quickly had thrown their food out, whilst you only half-paid attention to the teasing that was aimed at you. As they walked out of your sight, you rolled your eyes at your friends, pulling your phone out to pretend to fix your hair as you used the camera to keep an eye on the men. 

Sighing in relief after they left, you finally had the ability to focus all your attention back on the relentless teasing that was coming from Jade and Tara, kind of wishing that they understood why you had acted in the way you did. 

Unfortunately they would never understand. 

To them, the hunters were the pinnacle of society. They were brave, loyal and provided safety to all the people throughout the world. However, you were exactly what they were hunting.