Paths of the Hunter, chapter 13
Title:Paths of the Hunter, chapter 13
Genre: Dark is Rising fanfiction
Rating: PG (hints of romance, implications of behind-closed-doors)
Chapter 13
Amy woke the next day to the sun shining through her window. Her ankle throbbed, her stomach felt like a bottomless pit, and every muscle was either sore or stiff, but she felt great to be alive. It was a new day, and she was waking up safe in her own bed.
She rolled out of bed, looking at the alarm clock. She had missed English. She wasn’t going to go to anthropology today. She just did not want to deal with Dr. Cheng. He would be furious with her for escaping, but she suspected that the two punks that had let her, and more importantly, Will, escape would receive the worst of his wrath.
She took her time dressing and making breakfast, knowing that she had all the time in the world if she wasn’t going to class today. There was no way that she would be meeting Candace for lunch. She frowned as she flipped her pancakes. What was wrong with her best friend? What could have possessed her to join the enemy? Or had it always been her intent to leave Amy behind when they found some sort of real power?
She flopped the pancakes onto a plate, and limped over to the kitchen table. She was halfway through when the phone rang. She stretched to grab it, and answered after swallowing her mouthful. “Hello?”
“Amy?” Candace was on the other end, and Amy felt a kind of cold lump settle into the pit of her stomach.
“What’s up?” Amy replied, not exactly warmly.
“You didn’t meet me for lunch today, so I was worried about you.”
Amy bit back a million different replies, none of them very nice. Had Candace even thought about what could have happened to Amy in that house? Had Candace been worried about her then? What about when Candace drugged her with something in a handkerchief, knocking her out? “I’m just fine,” she told the other girl coldly. “Thanks for your concern.” She hung up the receiver. She just was not going to deal with it.
The phone rang again, but Amy ignored it. Only when it kept ringing over and over did she bother do anything about it. She unplugged the jack from the wall and went back to eating her pancakes. She was too mad at Candace to deal with her ex-best friend right now, and she was pretty sure that she had good reason. This was not some petty disagreement; this was a serious breach of friendship.
She thought about all that had happened in the last few days. Had it really been only a week or so since she met Will Stanton? It felt like so much longer, more like forever. So much had happened to her in that short time, and not all of it as painful as her ankle. She smiled at the thought of him, knowing that she really shouldn’t. But she knew that she was going to see him again today and that made everything that much better.
She caught the sound of the door at the end of the hallway opening, and she limped over to the door and turned the deadbolt. If it was her roommate, then she could go get the resident assistant to let her in. If it was Candace, Amy didn’t want her in here. She would have to get their combination changed now, another minor annoyance.
Someone knocked on the door, and Amy ignored it, pouring more syrup on her pancakes. She was going to be stubborn to the bitter end about this one. When there was no answer, the person at the door tried the combination. A muffled curse was followed with a pounding on the door. “Amy? I know you’re in there!” Candace’s voice came. Amy ignored her. “Open up! I just need to talk to you!”
Amy shook her head as she finished her pancakes and limped over to the sink to do her dishes. Candace could pound all she wanted, but eventually the RA would want to know what was going on in her hallway. Candace had better have a good explanation. Of course, she would probably have some story about being concerned for Amy’s mental health. Amy sighed. She just couldn’t win.
She finished her dishes and left them to dry in the dish drainer, and plugged the phone back in. She limped back to the bedroom and grabbed her coat and car keys, and set up a chair by the door, waiting for Candace to go away. When the pounding stopped, and she heard the door at the end of the hallway open, that was when she stood and undid the deadbolt.
She turned out the lights and opened the door, cautiously looking up and down the hallway. Candace had given up and gone away. Amy checked to make sure that the Sign was in place on its new chain at her throat, since the other girl would more than likely come back looking for it.
She limped down to her car, watching carefully for anything that seemed out of place, sensing around her for the fear and hopelessness that indicated an impending attack from the Dark. There was nothing but the faded Wyoming autumn sun and the last stubborn bits of snow from two nights ago. Most of the snow from the blizzard had already melted in the October temperature seesaw. She was grateful for that, at least. It would make driving with a bad ankle less dangerous.
She got in her car, still looking over her shoulder, and locked the door behind her. She didn’t like this paranoia at all. What had Will gotten her into, really? And why was she running to him right now, this very minute? It certainly wasn’t to make her life normal again.
She made it to his apartment without incident, even though she noted which cars sitting in the parking lot had people just sitting in them when she got there. It was unlikely that anyone would try anything in broad daylight.
She pulled herself up the stairs to Will’s apartment and knocked on the door. He opened it after a moment, looking not quite surprised. “Hello, Amy,” he greeted her.
“Hi,” she answered, suddenly wondering what she was really doing here. “I said I would stop by, so here I am.”
He smiled that ready grin of his. “Come on in,” he said, gesturing for her to enter. He was so calm, so cool and collected. Amy wondered how he managed when she found herself fidgeting at the edge of her seat on the couch.
“Candace is trying to act like nothing happened,” she finally blurted, needing to start somewhere. She could not just sit in silence with him, not when he could quite literally hear her thoughts. Those were too loud for her own comfort right now. “I just don’t get it. How could she possibly think that everything was okay?”
“I don’t know. Could be that she’s under some sort of spell. But her actions just don’t seem to fit with someone who is being controlled. At least, not with someone who is being controlled by spell craft.” He leaned back on the couch next to her, and she smiled at his socks as he put his feet up on the coffee table. They were orange and purple and black stripes with bats on them- Halloween socks.
“Cute socks,” she laughed.
“I need to do laundry,” he said sheepishly, shrugging. “And it is almost Halloween.”
“I guess it is. The college always has a huge Halloween dance, and they’ve already got their posters up. I was looking forward to it, but I’m not sure it’s going to be safe to leave my apartment.”
He shook his head. “I can see why you’d be worried about Halloween.” There was a distant look in his eyes, as though he was remembering some long ago event, and then he turned his attention back to the present. “It used to be the last day of the year, you know, the day the old year died.”
She nodded. “I think the pagans still celebrate it that way.” She studied him for a moment, trying to figure out what was so different about him today. He seemed younger, more relaxed, than he ever had in the time she had known him. Maybe that was just because he was in the sanctuary of his own apartment. Maybe he trusted her enough to let his guard down here. But if that was the case, why was there so much tension in the air between them?
“So why did you come today?” he asked her, even though he had to know. “There’s not much we can do about Cheng at the moment. He’s probably already moved his base of operations. We have to wait for him to show his hand again.”
“I came because I don’t like waiting,” she replied. “And because I wanted to be someplace safe with the one person that can protect me from the craziness that is suddenly in my life. I’m not used to being kidnapped or attacked by dark forces or any of that. I’m not used to not being in control of my life, not like this. And I’m certainly not used to having feelings for anyone when I’m supposed to be concentrating on school, much less someone who is older than me and who has a mysterious, dark past. I don’t want to be falling for you. You don’t want me to be falling for you. You don’t even want to think about falling for me because of your great quest. You won’t acknowledge my feelings, and heaven forbid you should even think about acknowledging your own. You just keep living in this cold, remote world where nobody can reach you and try to heal your heart or relieve your loneliness for even just a little while.” She took a deep breath. She hadn’t realized that all of that was bottled up inside like that.
Will just stared at her, seemingly at a loss for words. He looked old again, tired and lonely. When he spoke again, it was very quiet. “You don’t know what it would mean to love me, Amy. I don’t stay in one place. I’m always focused on my job, the job of watching for and defeating the Dark. I don’t have time to be in love, or the luxury of letting myself feel real emotion. And even if I were to settle down with someone, that person would grow old and die while I remained almost unchanged. I’m not like everyone else, Amy. You know this; you see it every day you’re with me. So why do you insist on caring about me when all it can do is end up in your own pain?”
She smiled at him, the sweetest smile that she could manage, and put her hand on his arm. “Because nobody, even the Lady’s Watchman, should be alone. You need a rest. I’m starting to think She wants me to help you have that rest, if only for a little while.”
He placed his hand gently over hers on his arm, looking away out the window. “Maybe so, but there’s unfinished business to take care of right now. We need to take care of Cheng before he destroys this whole city.”
“Will, look at me.” Amy was surprised at the gentle demand in her voice, and apparently so was he, from the way he turned. “You said yourself that we need to wait for him to show himself again. Let’s take a day off.”
“And do what?”
“Watch TV. Talk. Cook. Something. Anything that doesn’t involve danger.” She laughed. “I need a day off from danger.”
She grew very still as he reached up to gently touch her black eye, her heart pounding as his gray eyes scanned her face. “Yes, you could use a day like that.”
Embarrassed, she poked him in the ribs. “I just want to not think about the Dark today.” He squirmed, and she raised an eyebrow. “You’re not ticklish, are you, Will?”
He shook his head “no” far too quickly, the grin returning. “What would give you that idea?”
She tickled him in the ribs again, giggling as he squirmed away from her. “The fact that you’re running away from me.”
“Oh yeah?” he countered, and all of sudden she found herself on the receiving end. She laughed and twisted as he tickled her, trying in vain to escape from his strong grasp. She made it to the other end of the couch before she ended up pinned under him while he tickled her mercilessly, laughing.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop! Please!” she gasped, breathless and grinning. He backed off, still holding her down to keep her from tickling him again, and the details of the situation suddenly hit her. She turned a bright red as she realized that he was making no effort to move away, and that she rather liked this arrangement. He reached out with one hand to touch her cheek, the intensity in his gray eyes as he scanned her face suddenly far more than she knew what to do with.
“I really shouldn’t be doing this,” he said quietly, shaking his head and setting her hands free. He was suddenly more vulnerable than she had ever seen him, and that set her heart pounding faster than any attack from the Dark could.
She reached up and smoothed that one particular lock of hair out of his face, feeling suddenly very shy. “Doing what?” she asked innocently.
He smiled with a little laugh. “Falling in love again.” He met her eyes, and the next thing she knew, his lips were pressed to hers, warm and gentle, but demanding at the same time. She responded, timidly at first, then with more passion as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. Unsure of what to do with her hands, she found one entangled in his hair and the other resting in the small of his back as he started kissing her face and neck gently. “Are you okay with this?” he asked, pulling back a moment to let her breathe.
She wasn’t sure how to answer that one. Something told her that this was stupid, that they couldn’t afford to get distracted this way. But something else said that this was what they both needed. She nodded, and smiled at him, relieved to finally be seeing some honest emotion from him. “Just be gentle with me.”
“I will,” he promised, and she knew that his word was good. With another kiss, he scooped her up in his arms to carry her back to his bedroom with the blue and gray quilt.
Genre: Dark is Rising fanfiction
Rating: PG (hints of romance, implications of behind-closed-doors)
Chapter 13
Amy woke the next day to the sun shining through her window. Her ankle throbbed, her stomach felt like a bottomless pit, and every muscle was either sore or stiff, but she felt great to be alive. It was a new day, and she was waking up safe in her own bed.
She rolled out of bed, looking at the alarm clock. She had missed English. She wasn’t going to go to anthropology today. She just did not want to deal with Dr. Cheng. He would be furious with her for escaping, but she suspected that the two punks that had let her, and more importantly, Will, escape would receive the worst of his wrath.
She took her time dressing and making breakfast, knowing that she had all the time in the world if she wasn’t going to class today. There was no way that she would be meeting Candace for lunch. She frowned as she flipped her pancakes. What was wrong with her best friend? What could have possessed her to join the enemy? Or had it always been her intent to leave Amy behind when they found some sort of real power?
She flopped the pancakes onto a plate, and limped over to the kitchen table. She was halfway through when the phone rang. She stretched to grab it, and answered after swallowing her mouthful. “Hello?”
“Amy?” Candace was on the other end, and Amy felt a kind of cold lump settle into the pit of her stomach.
“What’s up?” Amy replied, not exactly warmly.
“You didn’t meet me for lunch today, so I was worried about you.”
Amy bit back a million different replies, none of them very nice. Had Candace even thought about what could have happened to Amy in that house? Had Candace been worried about her then? What about when Candace drugged her with something in a handkerchief, knocking her out? “I’m just fine,” she told the other girl coldly. “Thanks for your concern.” She hung up the receiver. She just was not going to deal with it.
The phone rang again, but Amy ignored it. Only when it kept ringing over and over did she bother do anything about it. She unplugged the jack from the wall and went back to eating her pancakes. She was too mad at Candace to deal with her ex-best friend right now, and she was pretty sure that she had good reason. This was not some petty disagreement; this was a serious breach of friendship.
She thought about all that had happened in the last few days. Had it really been only a week or so since she met Will Stanton? It felt like so much longer, more like forever. So much had happened to her in that short time, and not all of it as painful as her ankle. She smiled at the thought of him, knowing that she really shouldn’t. But she knew that she was going to see him again today and that made everything that much better.
She caught the sound of the door at the end of the hallway opening, and she limped over to the door and turned the deadbolt. If it was her roommate, then she could go get the resident assistant to let her in. If it was Candace, Amy didn’t want her in here. She would have to get their combination changed now, another minor annoyance.
Someone knocked on the door, and Amy ignored it, pouring more syrup on her pancakes. She was going to be stubborn to the bitter end about this one. When there was no answer, the person at the door tried the combination. A muffled curse was followed with a pounding on the door. “Amy? I know you’re in there!” Candace’s voice came. Amy ignored her. “Open up! I just need to talk to you!”
Amy shook her head as she finished her pancakes and limped over to the sink to do her dishes. Candace could pound all she wanted, but eventually the RA would want to know what was going on in her hallway. Candace had better have a good explanation. Of course, she would probably have some story about being concerned for Amy’s mental health. Amy sighed. She just couldn’t win.
She finished her dishes and left them to dry in the dish drainer, and plugged the phone back in. She limped back to the bedroom and grabbed her coat and car keys, and set up a chair by the door, waiting for Candace to go away. When the pounding stopped, and she heard the door at the end of the hallway open, that was when she stood and undid the deadbolt.
She turned out the lights and opened the door, cautiously looking up and down the hallway. Candace had given up and gone away. Amy checked to make sure that the Sign was in place on its new chain at her throat, since the other girl would more than likely come back looking for it.
She limped down to her car, watching carefully for anything that seemed out of place, sensing around her for the fear and hopelessness that indicated an impending attack from the Dark. There was nothing but the faded Wyoming autumn sun and the last stubborn bits of snow from two nights ago. Most of the snow from the blizzard had already melted in the October temperature seesaw. She was grateful for that, at least. It would make driving with a bad ankle less dangerous.
She got in her car, still looking over her shoulder, and locked the door behind her. She didn’t like this paranoia at all. What had Will gotten her into, really? And why was she running to him right now, this very minute? It certainly wasn’t to make her life normal again.
She made it to his apartment without incident, even though she noted which cars sitting in the parking lot had people just sitting in them when she got there. It was unlikely that anyone would try anything in broad daylight.
She pulled herself up the stairs to Will’s apartment and knocked on the door. He opened it after a moment, looking not quite surprised. “Hello, Amy,” he greeted her.
“Hi,” she answered, suddenly wondering what she was really doing here. “I said I would stop by, so here I am.”
He smiled that ready grin of his. “Come on in,” he said, gesturing for her to enter. He was so calm, so cool and collected. Amy wondered how he managed when she found herself fidgeting at the edge of her seat on the couch.
“Candace is trying to act like nothing happened,” she finally blurted, needing to start somewhere. She could not just sit in silence with him, not when he could quite literally hear her thoughts. Those were too loud for her own comfort right now. “I just don’t get it. How could she possibly think that everything was okay?”
“I don’t know. Could be that she’s under some sort of spell. But her actions just don’t seem to fit with someone who is being controlled. At least, not with someone who is being controlled by spell craft.” He leaned back on the couch next to her, and she smiled at his socks as he put his feet up on the coffee table. They were orange and purple and black stripes with bats on them- Halloween socks.
“Cute socks,” she laughed.
“I need to do laundry,” he said sheepishly, shrugging. “And it is almost Halloween.”
“I guess it is. The college always has a huge Halloween dance, and they’ve already got their posters up. I was looking forward to it, but I’m not sure it’s going to be safe to leave my apartment.”
He shook his head. “I can see why you’d be worried about Halloween.” There was a distant look in his eyes, as though he was remembering some long ago event, and then he turned his attention back to the present. “It used to be the last day of the year, you know, the day the old year died.”
She nodded. “I think the pagans still celebrate it that way.” She studied him for a moment, trying to figure out what was so different about him today. He seemed younger, more relaxed, than he ever had in the time she had known him. Maybe that was just because he was in the sanctuary of his own apartment. Maybe he trusted her enough to let his guard down here. But if that was the case, why was there so much tension in the air between them?
“So why did you come today?” he asked her, even though he had to know. “There’s not much we can do about Cheng at the moment. He’s probably already moved his base of operations. We have to wait for him to show his hand again.”
“I came because I don’t like waiting,” she replied. “And because I wanted to be someplace safe with the one person that can protect me from the craziness that is suddenly in my life. I’m not used to being kidnapped or attacked by dark forces or any of that. I’m not used to not being in control of my life, not like this. And I’m certainly not used to having feelings for anyone when I’m supposed to be concentrating on school, much less someone who is older than me and who has a mysterious, dark past. I don’t want to be falling for you. You don’t want me to be falling for you. You don’t even want to think about falling for me because of your great quest. You won’t acknowledge my feelings, and heaven forbid you should even think about acknowledging your own. You just keep living in this cold, remote world where nobody can reach you and try to heal your heart or relieve your loneliness for even just a little while.” She took a deep breath. She hadn’t realized that all of that was bottled up inside like that.
Will just stared at her, seemingly at a loss for words. He looked old again, tired and lonely. When he spoke again, it was very quiet. “You don’t know what it would mean to love me, Amy. I don’t stay in one place. I’m always focused on my job, the job of watching for and defeating the Dark. I don’t have time to be in love, or the luxury of letting myself feel real emotion. And even if I were to settle down with someone, that person would grow old and die while I remained almost unchanged. I’m not like everyone else, Amy. You know this; you see it every day you’re with me. So why do you insist on caring about me when all it can do is end up in your own pain?”
She smiled at him, the sweetest smile that she could manage, and put her hand on his arm. “Because nobody, even the Lady’s Watchman, should be alone. You need a rest. I’m starting to think She wants me to help you have that rest, if only for a little while.”
He placed his hand gently over hers on his arm, looking away out the window. “Maybe so, but there’s unfinished business to take care of right now. We need to take care of Cheng before he destroys this whole city.”
“Will, look at me.” Amy was surprised at the gentle demand in her voice, and apparently so was he, from the way he turned. “You said yourself that we need to wait for him to show himself again. Let’s take a day off.”
“And do what?”
“Watch TV. Talk. Cook. Something. Anything that doesn’t involve danger.” She laughed. “I need a day off from danger.”
She grew very still as he reached up to gently touch her black eye, her heart pounding as his gray eyes scanned her face. “Yes, you could use a day like that.”
Embarrassed, she poked him in the ribs. “I just want to not think about the Dark today.” He squirmed, and she raised an eyebrow. “You’re not ticklish, are you, Will?”
He shook his head “no” far too quickly, the grin returning. “What would give you that idea?”
She tickled him in the ribs again, giggling as he squirmed away from her. “The fact that you’re running away from me.”
“Oh yeah?” he countered, and all of sudden she found herself on the receiving end. She laughed and twisted as he tickled her, trying in vain to escape from his strong grasp. She made it to the other end of the couch before she ended up pinned under him while he tickled her mercilessly, laughing.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop! Please!” she gasped, breathless and grinning. He backed off, still holding her down to keep her from tickling him again, and the details of the situation suddenly hit her. She turned a bright red as she realized that he was making no effort to move away, and that she rather liked this arrangement. He reached out with one hand to touch her cheek, the intensity in his gray eyes as he scanned her face suddenly far more than she knew what to do with.
“I really shouldn’t be doing this,” he said quietly, shaking his head and setting her hands free. He was suddenly more vulnerable than she had ever seen him, and that set her heart pounding faster than any attack from the Dark could.
She reached up and smoothed that one particular lock of hair out of his face, feeling suddenly very shy. “Doing what?” she asked innocently.
He smiled with a little laugh. “Falling in love again.” He met her eyes, and the next thing she knew, his lips were pressed to hers, warm and gentle, but demanding at the same time. She responded, timidly at first, then with more passion as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. Unsure of what to do with her hands, she found one entangled in his hair and the other resting in the small of his back as he started kissing her face and neck gently. “Are you okay with this?” he asked, pulling back a moment to let her breathe.
She wasn’t sure how to answer that one. Something told her that this was stupid, that they couldn’t afford to get distracted this way. But something else said that this was what they both needed. She nodded, and smiled at him, relieved to finally be seeing some honest emotion from him. “Just be gentle with me.”
“I will,” he promised, and she knew that his word was good. With another kiss, he scooped her up in his arms to carry her back to his bedroom with the blue and gray quilt.