The Human Hunter

Chapter 13

When they finally got close enough, Emma could see a dim light way at the far end of the corridor. Different figures were moving beyond the tunnel and the sound of an odd type of music hummed around them. It didn't sound like anything she'd ever heard and tugged at her curiosity. Legs set her down a few feet from the entrance and fixed her dress a tiny bit. When he'd finished, the back portion fell correctly and the front was an inch or so below her knees.

"Alright. Some rules for this event," he said as he straightened back up.

"You will stay with me as much as possible. I will likely be pulled away to discuss some things with other trainers at random times, but I must stress this greatly. If anyone requests something of you, decline politely. Do not, under any circumstances, accept a request. The drinks can be poisoned with venom, and the food as well. They also know how to work their way around a human verbally, so be on your toes and behave. Some may try to get closer to you and even pretend to be human. Just keep calm and don't pay them any direct attention. Do I make myself clear?"

Feels like a gathering of wolves just waiting to bite into some sheep, not a party.

Emma licked her lips nervously and nodded as he offered her his long, slender arm. Linking hers with his, they slowly began to stride into the decently lit room, She had to focus on her steps because Legs's gate was easily twice that of her own. As they got closer, she realized that the glow in the room was coming from the usual worms on the ceiling, but there were also several old lamps with glass jars, each one filled with the small illuminating bugs.

Emma glanced up from one such jar to look at the other people in the room. The kin were easy to pick out of the throng, mainly because most of the humans were smaller and honestly looked terrified behind their excited masked expressions. Several had bruises on their arms and legs while others were clearly uncomfortable, yet still being forced to dance to the strange music. All of them, however, be it kin or human, were dressed impeccably in dresses or tuxedos with silk bow ties. The slaves were in spider-silk garments while the kin wore normal dress attire.

Hmm.

Thinking of that, she looked around a bit more and found a young male kin standing near a large web woven beautifully against the wall. His clawed fingers were moving over the threads, just barely touching them, yet making the most haunting sounds she had ever heard radiate from the silk. Beside him were several others, all male, strumming away at different instruments made with what appeared to be wood and spider silk.

"Come, dance," Legs said, his voice stealing her attention away from the kin and making her shift into his arms so that they were both comfortably in a simple dancing position. She was no ballerina, but she managed to stay in step with Legs as they began to dance carefully among the others present. While they moved, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. She also couldn't think of anyone else who gave her the disturbing feeling of a spider crawling up her spine like Madam's attention had. After some time, the pressure vanished, allowing her to release a quiet sigh of relief. The respite only lasted a minute, however, because Legs got called away.

Immediately, kin began to drift closer to her. They hadn't dared to try before, when she was with Legs, but now that the trainer had left, they seemed to be much more interested in her than they had previously appeared. The air in the room suddenly became thick with tension and it rose by the second. She carefully slipped between two dancing kin, their attention having not yet zeroed in on her. She wasn't so lucky with the next several she tried to move past.

She noticed several winding paths leading up into different areas and tunnels as she backed away from the pair of kin watching her with disturbing grins. She knew right away that she needed to get into one of the tunnels without a kin following her, but every time she tried to disappear into the crowd she just got closed in further. It was like some sick game. None of the kin stopped dancing, yet many of them seemed to be easily countering each move she managed with little effort. She was a retrieved human that had lost her protection.

After nearly twenty minutes, she was just about pressed up against a wall by two males. Her mind was running on overdrive as she tried to find a way to escape to safety. If that even existed anymore. She thought that she was done for when a female suddenly stepped between the two males and she immediately recognized her as the one she hadn't pulled into the back current pool. Oh no. Emma swallowed hard and was about to try her luck with crawling through the crowd when there was a sudden, terrified yell from within the throng of dancers that made everything suddenly cease. The music stopped, as well as the dancing, and most importantly, the woman who had been about to reach for her.

The next thing she knew, there was a rush of people toward the middle of the room, and the screams got louder and louder from whomever she now knew was being attacked. The thought of not trying to help made her stomach churn, but she was basically useless against any of the kin.

I'm sorry whoever you are, but thank you for the opportunity. I won't waste it.

Emma quickly shoved her way through the frenzied kin and took the first path she could get to that lead upward. The second she got into the upper right corridor, she pressed her back against the wall and tried to calm her thundering heart and gasping breaths. Several more screams began echoing through the giant room to her left, but she didn't dare risk trying to look and see what was actually going on. Her blood was already running cold and getting chillier with each new yell that sounded. For once in her life, she was absolutely not curious about seeing what was going on and instead began to back away into the darker space behind her.

"Wow, that hunter certainly did a good job. Nice to see you again, Emma."

If her blood had been chilled before, it became ice right then. Even though she desperately wanted not to turn around, she knew that she couldn't ignore him. She never could.

Jake.

Biting her lower lip hard, she slowly allowed her body to turn, only stopping when her terror-filled gaze fell upon the one person she had never wanted to see again. Her ex from high school stood before her, his eyes hungry. She remembered the look, and it scared her right then, as much as it had before she'd broken up with him years ago. She thought about trying to escape him, and did begin to turn and run, but he was faster, and much stronger. He had her shoved up against the wall of the open tunnel in seconds, his rough handling easily tearing at the thin thread Widow and Legs had woven for her. For some reason, seeing the dress tear made her heart hurt. She didn't have time to think about it, though, because Jake shoved her again, even though she was already against the wall, then leaned forward and eagerly claimed her mouth with his own.