บท 5: Chapter Five
The bell went while Katie was skimming through the contents of the book. Nothing in the book said anything about a werewolf that could hide the gleaming quality of their eye colour. The book was specific on the fact that there was nothing on the topic. A werewolf was born that way and would be that way till the day they died. Something was not adding up and the more she wracked her head about it, the more frustrated she got. She flipped through the pages once more before loudly shutting it, frustration coursing through her every pore.
"Umm… Katie, the bell has rung. If it's not too much trouble, could I ask you to exit the library?" the soft voice of a frightened librarian came from the front desk. Katie got the book and carefully placed it back in its spot on the shelf, her hands shaking vigorously while she did this. With the shivers she was having, there was no way she would be in a position to help anyone. If anyone else got to see her in the state she was in with Sandra, all hell would break loose which was the opposite of the standards she had set with her services for the school. With next to no information of what was going on with her, there was no telling when it would happen again, which made her presence in the school a bad thing. She couldn't be the one to start a commotion. This day was as good as over anyway. She might have been curious to hear what Kyle wanted to tell her earlier that day, but that would have to wait.
Katie made her way for the exit of the library and started walking fast towards the main door. Once she was out of the main school building, she began pacing to the main gate. Her aim was to get as far as she could from the school and head back home where her guardians had to explain what it was that was going on with her. Even if there was a slight chance she was overreacting, this was no time to be casual about it. Right when she was about to exit the large school gate, the sweet scent from earlier hit her nostrils again. This was just a reminder of how much trouble she'd be in if she wasted another second at the school. Before anyone could think of uttering her name, she was out the gate and out of sight, running very fast for even her human standards.
Katie ran through the forest that was not too far from the school. The same colossal forest that housed the cabin that his guardians had raised her in, training her to be the perfect hunter with each passing day of his childhood. Only Sandra knew about her home in the woods and that was only because she was a hunter as well and her parents were close friends of her guardians. The other hunters at the school, including Kyle, had no idea of its location. The cabin is where the Chase family spent most of its time, and she had been asked to go there if there was ever an emergency.
On the other hand, for public appearances, they had a nice home in the estates along with everyone else in the town that they provided as a home address and kept inconspicuous. A few minutes were all it took, rather than the half-hour she usually spent running to the cabin. Katie almost fell when she noticed she had reached the cabin in a far shorter time than she normally did. She looked back where she'd come and at the cabin, then at her watch and trying to make sense of how fast she had gotten there without drawing on her powers as a hunter.
'What's going on?' she thought before walking up to the front door of the house and knocking at the door.
The door swung open before she was engulfed in a big smothering hug. "Oh, there is my big baby," her aunt cooed once she was in. She was like a mother to her, but ever since she was a child, she had always insisted that she refer to her as her aunt even though it didn't make sense and as such, she had grown up knowing her aunt to be the most important female in her life. She froze at the door, however, unable to respond or hug her aunt back, the thoughts that were running through her head were beginning to overflow and the headache was getting worse. The White wolf dream threatened to resurface.
"What's wrong with me?" she whispered in her ear. Her aunt went still, pulling away slowly such that she could look her straight in the eye and once again… shock was written on her face, a stray tear falling down her cheek, however, she did not move away from her but rather gave her another hug, "Oh, honey, nothing's wrong with you."
"Honey, did you say Katie was…" her uncle also froze upon seeing her eyes. A look of worry soon replaced the look of shock. Katie could only imagine one thing was making them freeze, her eyes were no longer their usual deep blue… Just like Sandra had said earlier, they must have shifted to a bright intense blue. Although the reactions that she was getting from her aunt and uncle weren't what she was expecting. They actually didn't seem surprised to see her like this.
"I'm sorry, Katie." Her ears went sharp on hearing his aunt speak that she could hear her heartbeat. Her face, her tears, her heartbeat… all these three did not convey an emotion of fear, but deep sadness…
...........
Sandra made her way to the cafeteria, her fears had doubled at the end of the tour instead of reducing. She didn't bother checking the classes since she already knew Katie was not going to be in any of them. She got to the cafeteria panting lightly, a thin film of sweat coated her forehead. The cafeteria of the school was designed such that it accommodated the hunters as per Katie's request when she was in her first year of high school. She had come up with a design of her own making… some kind of pub at one side of the cafeteria that accommodated the hunters. Instead of ordinary school chairs, sofas and bar stools were put there as well as a glass table and the rest all according to her tastes.
The partition had a food bar of its own that meant hunters did not have to get food along with everyone else. Hunters were also allowed to hang out there whenever they felt like it. The other students would have envied them if it wasn't for what they went through to actually be worthy of such privileges. Being a hunter meant you would have to be on the lookout for any rampaging werewolves, not to mention protect the school from outside attacks as well. This was not all though, hunters were supposed to train hard and daily if they were to ever become full-fledged hunters one day.
The place was mainly dark-themed, with black being the most common colour on every piece of furniture. A small bowl on the glass table held throwing knives that the hunters usually used to play darts at the dartboard mounted on the wall on one side of the designated hangout spot. Katie always sat in the middle of the three-seat sofa… usually with Sandra on one side and Kyle on the other before they discussed issues concerning the conduct of the werewolves and how to reduce violence any further if they needed to.
Kyle sat in his usual place striking away at his computer… "Have you seen her?" Sandra asked, having scanned the whole cafeteria for Katie.
"No… but you won't find her in the school," he said, turning the laptop around for her to see, "cameras saw her leaving the school. She seemed in a rush too." Sandra watched the video of her best friend rushing to the gate and vanishing from the screen once she was within five feet of the gate.
"Your video looks corrupted," Sandra pointed out.
"That's what I thought at first until I slowed down the video. Pay closer attention," Sandra watched, keeping her expression neutral as Katie went through the gate at inhuman speed.
"We all know she is fast, don't we?" Sandra said.
"We are all hunters here, Sandra… raised by hunters to keep the peace between the werewolves and the humans… well, except for Kyle of course," one of the hunters around, Shaemus, spoke up, "and we are all taught the true limits of the human body. That's why we are taught to use weapons to make up for it."
Sandra kept quiet for a bit, carefully picking out her words, "Do any of you have your licences as graduated hunters yet?" she asked them.
"Come on… that requires one to take an exam that even the best hunters took after years of training and besides, the minimum requirement is that one must have obtained a Prometheus gift," Shaemus spoke up, the others agreeing with him, chuckling at the stupid question.
Sandra calmly waited for their laughter to die down before she spoke up, "Katie has one."
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