GAME ON - GoM 2

14

Alex and Claire checked that the kitchen was empty and traded a puzzled look. The girl closed her eyes, breathed deep and focused. Was there any other living being in the house? Where was the offspring? Now she sensed it clearly: a core of hate and fear wishing to be invisible. It was in the bedroom, like the adult feebler. That was way she hadn't sensed it before.

Claire signaled Alex, who nodded and let her take the lead back to the bedroom and up to the closet. They traded another look. The girl saw Alex stood only a step away, shotgun to her face and a finger on the trigger. So she opened the closet wide. And froze.

Because the creature hiding in there was nothing like the one they'd already killed. It still had eyes on its face, and a fair mop on top of its head. To make it even worse, it wore human clothes. It couldn't be an avid parasite that drained people's energy to death in order to feed. It was a child. A scared little boy, curling up in the bottom of the closet, trembling from head to toes and hiding from his mother's killers.

Her own emotions clouded her perception, and she failed to sense the immediate danger. Because the small feebler noticed her hesitation and jumped on her, letting out a snakish hiss. One moment it was bracing its knees in the closet. The next it was sinking its long claws in Claire's shoulder, open mouth, fangs ready to pierce into her neck and kill her.

"Claire!"

The girl didn't need Alex's shout to react. She fought back, feeling the sharp claws rip her flesh open under her clothes. She was able to shake the feebler off, throw it down to the floor and step back. Two shots echoed in the room and the small creature crumbled down, dead.

Alex bit her tongue to keep from scolding Claire. The girl stared down at the feebler, welling eyes, arms limp, fingers loose around the wakizashi hilts.

"I'll be outside," Alex grunted. She dodged the dead adult feebler and headed for the front door.

Claire didn't even blink.

Out on the street, Alex rested against the Hilux side. She knew what had just happened to her niece. It was one of the main reasons why she insisted that 'Claire' and 'hunting' didn't fit together in the same sentence. It wasn't only the girl's empathy, exposing her to whatever the creatures might feel when she faced them. It was something more ordinary: she had too kind a heart, always trying to understand and forgive people's flaws, convinced that everybody was basically good. The reason why other people's pain, fear, sadness had always been Claire's weakness was because she couldn't help feeling compelled to do something about it. So she'd let the little feebler's emotion get to her, and lost sight of the actual danger it posed.

Alex snorted under her breath, still trying to find the bright side to the whole situation. Maybe now Claire would trade back books for spoons and potions for meals? She dropped her rant when she saw Claire come out of the house and press on across the yard toward the Hilux.

"Hey, you okay?"

Claire avoided eye contact with her and got in the truck, tossing her blades to the backseat.

"Awesome," Alex grunted, circling the Hilux to climb in behind the wheel.