Hunter: Begin Again

Four.

Licking my lips, the tang of whatever they had used to knock me out snapped me out of my dreams. My head was pounding and opening my eyes, the dim light was enough to stop anything hiding in the dark. The handcuffs that kept me from moving my arms were not as welcomed as the lighting.

Slowly I managed to sit up, looking around the rather modern and luxurious bedroom. The walls were a simple pale blue and black drapes blocked the window. The sparkling of the chandelier above me got my attention and positive I was alone; I got up and walked around the space, hoping they had screwed up and left the key sitting on the dresser.

I wasn't that lucky and before I could look around anymore, tree boy was back and pulled me out of the bathroom.

"Let me go!" I don't know why I bothered screaming at him, he wasn't going to do what I asked and he worked himself at such an angle I couldn't really fight him off either. My verbal attack was pathetic, and with my final insult I decided just to shut up. "I know termites and I'm not afraid to use them!"

We left the bedroom and he pulled me along by the chain between the cuffs. I figured he was going to take me to Aaron; at least I was kind of hoping that as it was better the devil you know. In one last attempt at breaking free, I threw myself at him. He was like concrete and didn't even stumble, just made some grunting sound and kept going.

"What are you?" I called out, trying to take note of the way we were going.

"Gub."

"Gub?"

Was that his name or his species or was he just making sounds?

"Well Gub, where are we going?"

"Boss."

So he did speak.

As we got the top of the stairs, Gub kept walking and stopping I weighed up my options. Falling down the stairs might not be as bad as it sounds so holding my breath in preparation I gathered myself up and as Gub turned to see why I wasn't moving, I charged - tackling him. Not expecting it, and already balancing on the edge of the stairs, he was easy to knock down this time.

Even better, he let go off the chain between my wrists and I was able to grab the railing while he tumbled down like a log over a waterfall. I wanted to stare at him longer; I'd never seen anything like him. He was literally a tree, a slightly human shaped tree and the jerk even gave me a splinter.

Standing up, I turned back the way we came and started running. The corridors were bare and lacking any homey touches so I wondered if Aaron had just moved in. It also made them all look the same and taking a few wrong turns, I ended up at the top of another staircase and with nothing to lose ran down it.

The smells of bread baking had me following my nose and seeing the metal swing doors of a kitchen, I peeked through the porthole style window to see an old lady, kneading dough while beside her a tray of rolls sat cooling.

Whistling a tune to herself, I waited until she disappeared and slunk through the doors. Seeing the knives on the wall to my left, I could hear her in another room and quickly took down a meat cleaver. Leaving the kitchen, no one had come running down the halls that surrounded me yet and hiding in a door way I started to try and cut the chain between my wrists. A few near misses that would have ended up with me one handed, I finally started to dent the metal. It wasn't great quality, but I couldn't get the strength up to get a clear cut. In the end I nearly broke my wrists by using my foot to push against the weak spot and crying out, the chain gave way.

Red marks made my wrists swollen from the pulling, but I could move easier. Leaving the actual cuffs on as new bracelets, I kept the cleaver close as I planned my escape. Kitchens were normally near back doors and if I could get find that, I could get out - even if I was curious to see what Aaron wanted. It was then the prickling on the back of my neck sent a shiver down my spine. That only meant one thing; trouble.