Chapter 1
KADE ASHFORD
What am I supposed to do now… was the only thought on Kade’s mind as he watched over the sleeping girl next to him in the middle of the forest . He kept watching carefully, as if guarding her from something. Kade wore an exhausted expression, and reasonably so, as constantly being hunted was too much for most seventeen-year-olds.
He looked at the girl laying on the rock and sighed. She looked to be around the same age as him, and her eyes were closed peacefully. The girl had fair skin and smooth, black hair that flowed down to her shoulders, which would have made her look like an ordinary, and rather pretty, girl if not for the wounds all over her body.
When Kade continued to stare at the girl, her eyes shot open, and she immediately sat up, her wide, ruby-red eyes full of confusion.
She looked left, then right, then at Kade. She frowned.
“Um…” she said in a clear, smooth voice. “Are you okay…? You’re crying.”
“Huh?”
Realizing that he did, indeed, have tears streaming down his face, Kade quickly wiped his tears and blinked rapidly.
An awkward moment passed. Then two.
Finally, the girl asked, “So, what was I doing sleeping here? And what were you doing next to me? Who are you?”
She was clearly alert and suspecting, but there wasn’t a single hint of weakness or hesitation in her crimson-colored eyes.
Kade opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by sounds of people talking in the distance. Their voices were muffled, like they were speaking through masks. Their steps were heavy, and their movement sounded too coordinated to be normal people.
“Shit, they found us already,” Kade hissed, his face immediately turning into a scowl.
“Huh? They’re after you, too?” whispered the girl, her expression turning equally serious just as fast. She had already realized what was going on.
Kade nodded.
“We need to hide.”
The two of them quickly took cover near the surrounding trees.
The footsteps got closer and closer until ten people in combat suits and bulletproof vests appeared. Each of them were holding a gun, and their shiny silver helmets had red stripes on them. Kade and the girl both knew all too well who these agents were.
“If they’re after you too,” whispered the girl. “I’m guessing you’re cursed too?”
Kade nodded again.
“I’ll tell you more later. For now, we need to get away from here.”
The girl gave a stern nod, but the curiosity didn’t disappear from her eyes. Behind that curiosity, however, there was always a layer of terror that never quite disappeared no matter how much someone got used to this situation. Their lives could be stolen from them with one wrong move, after all. One wrong step, one accidental sound, or even one breath too hasty could be all it took to breathe one’s last. Kinara was an unforgiving nation.
It was a tragic thing, really. ‘Cursed’ people like Kade and the girl, labeled as ‘phantoms,’ were constantly killed by the Kinaran government in order to keep this world more ‘normal’. People like them were considered mutants and literal curses to society. Needless to say, phantoms were seen more as diseases and threats rather than humans.
“We have to hurry,” said Kade again.
Kade and the girl scurried swiftly and quietly through the forest, hiding in the trees and the bushes. Kade could feel his heart beating against his chest, but this wasn’t the first time he had found himself stuck in this kind of situation. He had seen way too many people die because of careless mistakes.
He considered just killing all these agents, but that would just let them know where he and the girl were. He decided to keep that as a sort of last resort if running away failed, and judging from the girl’s actions, she seemed to have reached the same conclusion.
“It was around here somewhere,” he heard one of the soldiers say. “I swear the radar said someone around this area just used their curse.”
“So that’s how they found us,” said the girl, to herself more than anyone. She knit her brows in a slight frown and said, “That’s weird, though. Normally, the energy we give off isn’t nearly enough to trigger their sensors.”
Kade had an idea of what created the massive energy burst, but it didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was escaping these soldiers without being noticed.
Then, the soldiers said something that caught Kade and the girl’s attention.
They both froze in place as one of them said, “I wonder if it was the Vampire again.”
“Who?”
“The girl we call Vampire. Her energy discharge has been getting stronger and stronger recently. We need to hurry and put her down as soon as possible.”
So they’re after a specific person.
“Hey, change of plans,” said the girl from next to Kade, her collected face from a moment ago nowhere to be seen. “We’re getting rid of them here.”
Her bright red eyes carried so much intensity they may as well have been glowing.
It wasn’t the first time Kade had seen this kind of expression. Cursing under his breath, he watched as the girl pulled out a butterfly knife from the inside of her jacket.
Time for that last resort then, I guess, he thought to himself bitterly.
“You’re tired. You stay here,” whispered Kade. “I’ll do it.”
Without waiting for a response, he pulled out a small handgun and silently moved toward the unit, hiding in a bush. He put a suppressor on the gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Making no sound, the bullet landed perfectly in the small gap near the neck that the armor didn’t cover.
Blood spewed, and the agent fell to the ground.
“There’s someone here!” one of them yelled.
But before they got a chance to react, another one fell.
Kade turned his head to see the girl pulling out her knife from the soldier’s neck, extracting a horrible sound. Cursing again, Kade quickly came out of hiding and went in head-first to help the girl.
Of course, the other soldiers took notice immediately and started firing at her. That’s why Kade had wanted to do this while being hidden. Before any of the bullets could hit her, however, she was gone.
She appeared behind another soldier, ready to strike again, when another person noticed and took aim at her head.
Just before he shot, Kade pulled him into a headlock, stuck his gun under his helmet, and shot.
“Hey, be careful, will you?” he grumbled, dropping the limp body as the girl pulled out her blade from another throat.
Kade quickly took cover behind a tree again, just in time to avoid all the bullets flying toward him. As he peeked from the side, he saw the girl continuously disappearing and reappearing again in a different spot in the blink of an eye.
Their attention instantly turned toward the girl, and Kade took advantage of that.
“W-watch out! She can telepor-” the soldier’s sentence was cut short by a bullet piercing his nape.
In just a matter of moments, there was only one person left, who was disarmed and on the ground, bleeding and desperately crawling away from them.
“You okay?” Kade asked the girl, knowing it was a pointless question.
“Of course. I’ll have you know I can take care of myself,” she scoffed, walking closer and closer to the last soldier, playing with her knife in her hand. “By the way, I don’t think I’ve said it yet, but my name is Violet Rose.”
She plunged her knife into the soldier, putting an end to his squirming and pleading in a burst of blood. Looking at Kade, she wore a cheeky - almost arrogant - smile, and her eyes were once again shining with curiosity.
“So, what stupid ability are you cursed with?”
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