all without Lucy noticing.
Lucy was nothing if not punctual. Her door opened at exactly 4:00 am. The second her back was turned, Lexia ran for the door, her fingers touching the edge seconds before it slid shut. Not daring to breathe, Lexia pushed the door opened a few centimeters more and slipped inside, allowing the door to close.
Listening, Lexia waited for Lucy’s footsteps to grow distant, only they were growing nearer.
Fuck! Scanning the room, there was nowhere for her to hide. Her heart hammered in her ears, each frightened beat a countdown to her death. Lexia flattened her back to the wall as the door swung open, nearly hitting her in the face. Lucy dashed in, picked something up and left before the door had even started to close.
It took a few minutes for Lexia to breathe again. With her back still plastered to the wall, she tried to calm herself. Jesus, I’ve not been that frightened in a while.
Shaking her head, Lexia focused on the job at hand: finding information. The first few drawers she came across held files on the hunters. She flicked through them until she came across Derrick’s. There wasn’t much she didn’t already know, except for an address and the names of his wife and child. He never spoke of them, apart from mentioning he had a daughter the other day. Derrick had always referred to his wife and daughter as ‘my family.’ Lexia had presumed he’d meant parents and siblings. Derrick didn’t look old enough to have a daughter near her age. Flipping back to the first page, she noted his age, thirty-seven. She must have been pregnant when he enlisted. Has he even seen his daughter?
As she folded the file back up to put away, a photo fell out. Picking it up, Lexia stared at the picture, feeling her heart break for Derrick. The woman in the picture held a newborn baby. She looked so young, too young to be all alone with a new life. She knew she shouldn’t, but she did. Lexia slipped the photo into her back pocket and vowed to get Derrick home to his family. He would be free and he would see his daughter and wife again.
“Where do you keep the good stuff, Mother?” Lexia asked quietly, pushing the filing cabinet closed with her hip as she scanned the room again. “You wouldn’t leave it in plain sight…Or would you?”
Lexia walked over to the bookshelf. Surprisingly, Lucy had large selection of books, but Lexia struggled to imagine her relaxing with a book. Randomly pulling books from the shelf, she flicked through their pages finding nothing until the sixth book. Hidden inside was a photograph. Lexia froze as she looked at it. She remembered the day perfectly; her seventh birthday. She remembered how she’d wanted a tea party on the lawn. The weather hadn’t really been suitable but her dad had gone ahead anyway. The picture showed Lexia laughing at her dad as he fiddled with the toy teacup. Alice was there too, rolling around the rug, laughing so hard she’d started to cry.
Why would you even have this? Were you there watching?
It took all her will to slip the photo back and slide the book into its spot. Carrying on with her search, Lexia had almost given up hope of finding anything else when a large book in the far corner caught her eye. She opened it to find it wasn’t a book at all but a box. Hidden inside was the journal Lucy had been writing in the other morning when Lexia had caught her off guard.
Her body fizzed with anticipation and unease as she randomly flipped the journal open. What secrets lay within these words?
Maura joined us today, but sadly not as I had hoped she would. I was forced to threaten the animals she so loves in order for her to come. That animal, the panther she loves, I see what they have is strong, but with time I will alter that. I have many experiments to run on her, samples to collect. So much information I have been longing to gather for years. The weeks that follow are sure to be illuminating and exciting.
Turning a few more pages, she read on…
From the studies I have conducted, Maura is by far superior to the other hunters. Being born with the hunter genes has made her far stronger and more resilient than I ever could have imagined. The only problem is both sides of her