Chapter 12: Should’ve Gone on Vacation
His parents had finally left him alone to rest, the night shift nurses had finished checking on him and he finally had the silence he needed.
Malik hopped off the bed and immediately regretted that too fast action, having to lay a hand down on the soft mattess to steady himself.
Everything about his body felt so weird, not including the fact he'd starved.
His legs felt sturdier, his arms a little thicker and even his already sharp senses overheightened. He did not need to hear one doctor down the hall having his little rendezvous with one of the nurses.
The most confusing and somewhat alarming part though was that he could no longer feel the Naiad that had blessed him. Most deities and spirits were did not speak to their little disciples, but the hunters still felt their presence.
The presence he was feeling was a different being entirely and that added to one of the mysteries he needed to solve.
Nobody on their little broken earth had ever heard of hunters receiving a second blessing. Sure, some deities and spirits have terminated Blessings, but receiving a second one after had never happened before.
So what exactly was this abyss like presence swirling within his core?
"Oh. You're up."
Malik sighed heavily as he tilted his head up to the ceiling. Whichever god was watching over him clearly didn't give a shit about him.
He turned around to see that odd woman with the orange suit standing by the door. Looking all casual like it wasn't 3am in the morning and he still had no idea who she was.
"Visiting hours are over," he said before moving back to his bed, not at all comfortable with the hospital clothes he was made to wear.
"They make exceptions for me."
So she's important and she's hovering round me. What the fuck have I walked into?
"Hmm." He sat up cross legged on the bed, eyeing her. "You coming in or not? Cause I'd like to sleep if ya don't mind, ma'am."
She chuckled at his words, hopping off the side of the door and walking in as she closed it behind her.
She moved to lean against the closed door.
It was odd being able to see her so clearly despite how dark it was in the room, not even a full moon out to light up the place from the window.
He'd thought she would've turned on the light but something told him those glowing cat eyes weren't just for aesthetics.
"Ma'am? I ain't old enough for that now," she said lightly, an easy smile playing on her red painted lips. "Them eyes of yours working well here?"
"Yeah," he said with a sigh. He picked up the bedside mirror again to look at his eyes. They were a vivid and glowing green and he didn't quite like the idea of having green headlights for eyes.
"You gon tell me what's going on then…Miss?" Malik asked as he continued to stare at himself in the mirror, thinking about how he might've needed to get his braids redone. They were looking a little messy.
"I was hoping you could've, Mr Chen."
She was suddenly beside him, moving at a speed that was hard to follow. And he'd heard her. It should've been impossible from what he could've guessed, but he'd heard her move before she'd even done so.
The whole situation was making his headache worse.
"We entered the gate, everyone started vanishing one by one when they'd left or tried to leave the central area. I was last to go poof." He put the mirror back on the side table and looked up at the tanned woman.
"…That correlates with what your teammates had said except for one thing, Mr Chen."
Huh. So they made it. Good for them.
"They'd all appeared outside the gate the day y'all went in, right before it was about to collapse. You were gone for five days and then out of nowhere, you reappear out of a collapsed gate. Why it just don't make no type of sense."
She'd spoken with sarcastic laughter in her voice, running her hand through her long black hair repeatedly.
"I dunno what to tell ya, miss," Malik said carefully, not fully sure what exactly he wanted to reveal to the strange woman standing beside him.
Hell. He didn't even know her name yet.
"I want you to tell me everything that went on in there."
Her easygoing vibe had just disappeared like it'd never been there.
Malik's hands fidgeted, the sudden need for either Nala or a cigarette hitting him like one of them trains.
"Why I gotta tell you…miss?" He was agitated but he wasn't about to forget the old southern manners. He was blunt, not mannerless.
She chuckled wryly, being out a badge for him to see.
One look at the badge had Malik groaning as his back fell on the bed.
Just what a technically illegal resident of a technically banned to live in city needed. The government's set of hunter dogs on his ass.
"Oof. C'mon now, Mr Chen," she said as she pocketed the badge. "We can't be that mad, can we?"
"What's the Association want from me?"
He'd avoided them like the plague, especially knowing his dad worked in the U.S department of Hunters which oversaw the Hunter's Association. He'd missed routine license renewals, had a collection of calls from them and even had an unpaid fine for unnecessary property damage in one of the upper class neighborhoods.
Getting a visit from them was never good news for a hunter like him, and getting news from one of them meant that those at the top of the Association had their eyes on him.
At that point, Malik didn't even care about what the fuck happened to him. He just wanted to sleep. Things were getting too damn complicated and he despised complicated.
"What does the Association want with you? Why I already told ya," the woman, Mrs Andrea Batista, said with a shrug. "What happened in there and why did you come back with a new Blessing?"
That had him turning his head on the bed to look at her with a raised eyebrow. He'd definitely not updated his hunter profile so how exactly did she already know that?
He stayed silent for a while before slowly sitting back up, his green eyes not leaving her orange-red ones.
"You're that celestial tiger lady people talk about, ain't ya, miss?"
He'd only heard rumors about her. Ones like how her Blessing let her see deep within the soul of other hunters, even seeing their own Blessings.
He almost wanted to ask her just what exactly had chased away his Naiad but in a way, Malik was a little scared to ask. The depth of the presence he was feeling was too overwhelming that no matter how much he'd been trying to ignore it throughout their conversation, it left a sense of panic deep in his gut.
It was that same feeling he got when he'd gone for a mission in the sea and had stared into the never ending abyss.
Her smile only got wider at his question, revealing a set of fangs that would've had a regular civilian a little scared.
"The one and only. You're also avoiding my question."
"Thas' cause ion really know how to answer it, miss. I have no idea what happened in there."
She sighed heavily, glancing at the clock on his bedside table. 4:03am.
"Look," She reached into her other pocket and pulled out a sleek black card. "Would've sent this straight to your visor instead of using paper like I'm tryna be all hip and vintage, but ya don't got it so here. My visor I.D's on there. I already got yours."
Creepy.
"It's late, you're worn out and unwell. You'd be brought to the Association soon either way."
All the way in New York? Fat fucking chance…miss.
"Do I gotta a choice in that?" he asked as she already made to leave, opening the door of his room.
She turned and gave him a wide and toothy smile, looking almost bubbly.
"Now, now, Mr. Chen. A choice? In these trying times? You're asking for a hardly found luxury. Sleep well, kid. See ya when I see ya."
When she left, Malik threw the card on the bedside table and floppe back on the bed.
He stared up at the ceiling and forced his mind to slowly go blank. He was done with thinking for the evening, just wanting the exhausting ass situation he was in to leave him alone.
He couldn't ignore a small regret he'd had though.
I should've gone on that damned vacation.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone