They drove out of Aldock and further into the city, travelling down quiet, dimly lit roads. A sign emerged from the darkness, stating that ‘Korvas’ was straight ahead. They carried on driving forward.

Rosa recognised the name. She’d been to Korvas before when she younger with her father. They’d came to look at some sort of academy, but in the end her father decided against her going there. However, that was a long time ago and now all she could really remember was it being a secluded area of Liverpool.

The car turned right leaving the main road behind and entering a tree covered crescent. Rosa’s eyes numbly wandered around their surroundings. Despite the poor visibility the night brought, the houses where clearly old and grand. She didn’t count many as they drove through the crescent and they each had their own privacy.

They reached the end of the crescent and the car pulled into a house’s driveway. Louie switched off the engine and exited the car and cold air flooded the interior. Rosa shivered. Louie then grabbed her belongings from the back seat and wandered across the house’s front garden. She watched as he unlocked the front door and the house’s light bathed the street. He then returned to the car and opened her door.

“Come on kid. Let’s get you inside” he said.

Rosa left the car and wandered down the street and along the front yard. The ground was cold and wet, slowly drenching her socks but she didn’t care. She felt no sadness, no anger, no happiness. She was just numb.

After Louie locked his car, he quickly joined her inside and locked the front door.

“This way” he stated, grabbing her bags and suitcase before heading up the stairs. Slowly she trailed after him upstairs, they headed down a hall before taking a left through a doorway. Rosa found herself in a bland room, only containing a bed, wardrobe and nightstand. Most likely a guestroom. Louie placed her belongings onto the bed and turned on the light.

“You can stay here” Louie told her, “Bathroom’s the next door over”.

Rosa nodded, weakly.

“Do you need anything?” he asked, “… want to talk?”.

Rosa shook her head. “… I think I just need to get some sleep” she told him.

Louie stared at her for a time before finally nodding. “I’ll leave you to it then” he said heading towards the door, “if you need anything just call me. I’ll hear you”. Then he was gone and Rosa was all alone.

Instantly, her body began to feel cold. Maybe she shouldn’t have sent him away, his presence strangely brought some kind of warmth. Rosa switched off the light and sat on the bed. She done nothing, didn’t even move. She just stared at carpeted floor, where her eyes had landed when she sat.

Time passed, she didn’t know how long, but she remained sitting in darkness. Despite what she claimed, Rosa couldn’t sleep. Her mind tortured her, she couldn’t get the images out her head. All she could smell was death, all she hear was their screams, all she could see was … her parents.

Rosa’s soul broke, the cracks had grown too deep and it could no longer hold itself to together. It all hit her at once.

Her body crumpled, collapsing into a ball on the ground and she wept. Her throat burned from the wailing and a constant stream of tears flooded down her burning face, no matter how many times she wiped them away. Her breathing grew erratic and her heartbeat felt as if it had gone into overdrive. Was she dying?

Suddenly gentle hands held her shoulders and lifted her to her feet. She had no idea when he’d entered but, Louie was back in the room.

“I know you feel lost but It’s going to be alright Rosa” he said softly.

He pulled her into an embrace and she gladly accepted it, sinking into his coat. His hugs were similar to her father’s. She was guided backdown stairs, her wails slowly subdued to a broken sob. She pulled her face from inside his coat and found herself in the living room, which was being dimly lit by two lamps beside a large TV. The room mainly consisted of a large coffee table surrounded by two couches and an armchair. She noticed the couch facing the TV had been transformed into a makeshift bed, with a quilt and pillows on the arm. Louie pried Rosa off him and placed her onto the couch. Her eyes drifted and she spotted that on the table two steaming cups of tea had been placed on coasters. Louie sat in the armchair and claimed the closest mug while gesturing for her to drink the other. She sat up properly and grabbed hold of the mug, its’ heat restoring a little sensation into her hands. She took a sip and noticed her tears had stopped. Once again a cup of tea seemed to magically make her feel a little better. She really needed to find out what teabag he was using.

“We can put something on the TV if you want” Louie suggested, putting his tea down and searching for the remote, “It’ll help distract-”.

“This is real isn’t it?” Rosa abruptly asked “It’s all real.

Louie hesitated. “I’m afraid so”.

“Why?” she whimpered, “Why has this happened?”.

“I don’t know” Louie admitted, “still trying to figure that out”.

“Who are you?” she questioned, “you’ve been there both times now. Today and in the woods when you … killed that thing”.

“Today was just blind luck. I was meant to meet up with James and when he didn’t show up I decided to check up on him and the family” he explained to her. Well explained somewhat, it still didn’t answer why he’d been armed in the woods and killed the creature after her and it certainly didn’t explain what that creature was or what had attacked them today.

He must’ve picked up on her confusion and scepticism, “How much of the truth do you know?” he questioned.

“The truth?”.

“I’ll take that as none. Rosa this is going to sound extremely strange but bear with me. I’m a hunter. Your father was a hunter, and a very important one at that. The detective job is just a cover” Louie revealed.

Rosa didn’t understand what she was hearing. “… hunter? What do you hunt?” she asked.

“You’ve had a first-hand experience. Twice now even. Many names have been given to them throughout history, creatures of Folklore, creatures of mythology, hell spawn, creatures of the night. But, when it comes down to its simplest form, it’s easier just to say monsters” Louie replied.

“So that’s why you were in the woods. You were hunting that … monster” Rosa stated, the cogs in her mind aligning.
Louie nodded.

“And my parents hunted like you do?”

“James did your mother no. Mary was an officer, they don’t really hunt much and instead handle a lot of the aftermath and running the organisation” Louie answered, “Emma hunts though, exactly like your father”.

Rosa nodded and then it hit her. Emma, she’d completely forgot about her sister. She panicked. “Emma! Is she alright?”.

Louie raised a hand to stop her. “Emma is fine. She’s down south training in the London division, but I imagine after hearing the report she’ll probably make her way back up” Louie said.

Rosa relaxed back into the couch and drank her tea, praying it’d continue to calm her. Despite being overloaded with concepts that should sound absurd, it sat well in her mind. After everything that had happened to her, it made sense, a lot of sense.

“So we were attacked by a monster” Rosa stated.

“Most likely. What monster, I don’t know yet”.

“It was after me, wasn’t it” Rosa said, “Why?”.

“I don’t know”.

“Will it attack again?”.

“Not here and not tonight” Louie told her, “You’re safe Rosa. I promise”. He then stood from his armchair. “Be right back.

Louie headed through a door into the adjacent room. When he switched on the light she could see it was the kitchen. He searched through cabinets until he eventually pulled out a pack of tablets and returned back to her side, along with a glass of water. Removing one tablet from the pack she could see it was the same blue tablet he’d given her earlier. In fact didn’t her parents keep those in the bottom cabinet?

“This is a serenit tablet” Louie explained, “it does a lot of things but mainly it’ll help you sleep tonight. It relaxes you makes it easier to deal with stress and trauma. Why a lot of hunters get addicted”. He then dropped it into the water, were it quickly dissolved giving the liquid a blue hue. “Drink it all” he said.

Rosa nodded before taking of the hold of the glass. She’d long decided to trust the man, if he wanted to harm her he would’ve done It a long time ago. Despite the colour change the tablet didn’t affect the waters taste.

When she was done, a strange calmness flowed through her, the pain she felt began to subdue. Louie swapped the empty glass in her hand for the TV remote. “Put something on the TV to help distract you and then finally get some rest” he said.

“Where are you going?” she asked, slightly worried.

“Nowhere. I’m staying right here” Louie stated.

“All night?”

“All night”.

Rosa slid beneath the quilt covers and rested against the pillow before searching through the channels. She eventually found one broadcasting the cartoons she’d watch when she was younger. She put down the remote and settled into her makeshift bed. Despite not caring if he would, Louie didn’t seem bothered about her choosing cartoons. They reminded Rosa of when she was younger when life was great and so peaceful. That comforted her soul.

As the TV buzzed and she sunk into the pillows, Rosa was eventually able to drift off.