1 Chapter One

{You took and took and took.

Stole my years,

Incited my endless tears,

You silenced my memories,

Turned me an empty vessel of miseries.

Just who the hell do you think you are?}

A fog floated about the air, whispering a warning of the heaven's wrath that was about to rain upon the earth. She could feel the dryness that clung to her exposed skin resulting in goosebumps at the chill that came with it. Gone was the sun that had not so long ago tried to peak through the thick branches attached to the masculine tree barks, in attempt to see what happened beyond the cage of the abundance of trees. It was now shrouded by grey skies that wore gloom for armour and marched to war.

Yet she cared little about heading home as silence cloaked the forest with the air of anticipation at her raised bow, her arrow stretched back. She took a slow breath in, before letting it out, the deer stood oblivious, occupied by the grass that seemed most appetizing as it kept on ripping at it. With one silver orb behind her lid, and another open and on perfect target, she would have had her game, had it not been for the piercing pain that came with a resounding sound loud enough to startle the animal away in fright.

Having been crouched on the ground with one knee kneeling, the pain ricochet through her shoulder, caused her to discard of her weapon, and palm the ground in attempt to steady herself. Her groan of pain should have been a clear warning to her assailant, yet with his human hunter ears, they failed to hear the warning undertones it bore, his cowardice the very reason he was unable to see a certain lethal storm that brewed within the depths of her silver pools, her tides raged in anger and her pain disappeared into nonexistence.

Her very injury told her of his clear intentions therefore, deserving of her wrath she was about to bestow upon him. She felt the change in the air as another bullet aimed for her again, this time she moved quick enough to evade it, the man that had stood behind her now stood before her as she turned, wasting naught but a second, she ran straight for him at a speed that was nowhere near her limit yet beyond that of a human.

Because of her remarkable stealth, his attempt to keep her at bay by hurling more bullets her way however, proved futile as she weaved through them, he didn't get a chance to react when her legs wrapped around his neck only to catapult him to the ground in a quick swoop, her fist packed enough power that the punch to his temple was enough to fell him. She stood, her eyes flitting around her surroundings in search for any more of his kind, seeing none, she gave little attention toward the dead lump of a corpse near her feet and walked toward her long since discarded bow and arrow along with the quiver, even though her eyes told her otherwise, she knew he wasn't alone.

Returning to the damp cold soil, she crouched, her palm to the ground, eyes closed she could almost see the threads that intertwined beyond the ground, from the life that weaved through the roots of the trees, to the sound of pitter pattering of animals and insects above ground, and as if sifting through frequencies of a radio, she came to stop at one, the awkward unsynchronized thrums that didn't belong to the forest, footfalls and with every ripple she could tell how many came her way. Shutting off her connection with the earth, she scouted for a tree she could climb and she didn't have to look too far. Ten feet from where the corpse lay, stood a masculine bark that stretched tall, extended into thick branches and amount less leaves she knew she'd be able to hide beyond long enough.

That is when the heavens fired, it wasn't a slow descent of soft water droplets that barely scathed the ground, but a torrential pour of such bullets it was enough to make the earth bleed water as it poured. The skies let out a war cry of storms hurling lighting so hard it almost split the earth into two, the war had begun and the heavens cared little for casualties as if its wrath had been a long time coming.

Amoura cared little for the furious rain that beat against her skin, nor did she have time to contemplate the reason behind the sky's rage, after all, she had her own battles to fight, and one was already knocking at her door. As she sat with the thick branch between her thighs, her bottoms sat comfortably atop the uncomfortable wood, she saw them from a distance away as they stalked through the forest, skittish like frightened kids in a horror house. They had guns and all she had was wood for a weapon, it may have seemed hardly fair, however the fact did little to instill even a spec of fright in her.

She didn't wait for them to figure out that she might be above them as they came upon their fellow deceased hunter, she raised her bow, one, two, three bodies down, she cared little for the now ruined picturesque portrait. The leaves that had been a blooming green with life, now bled crimson of her enemies as she impaled them to their demise. The air that had been purified now had a metallic stench, and such a picture brought the ground to bloody tears.

Only when the hunters lay dead did she take in the debris beyond, and a part of her reveled at the morbid portrait of death she caused, and she could swear if she inhaled hard enough she could almost hear their very souls writhing and the scent of their charring skin potent enough she could almost think that she stood in the blazing pits of hell herself.

She didn't feel an ounce of remorse, shame or regret at her actions, to her they deserved the very worst fate could give, for what they had done to her. Yes, their death wouldn't return her the years they had stolen from, her very innocence, however, it satiated her vengeful heart, and figured she was doing the world a solid by ridding it off of them, they were part of the worst kind to ever exist. She was ripped from her thoughts by a voice she had hoped to never hear yet part of her was waiting for him to arrive.

"Quite the damage you caused here" his tone had a teasing amount of amusement as the man stood, his eyes flitting around at his dead men. He felt nothing for the fallen for he believed that in such situations, casualties were a given. Although he partly seethed at their incompetence to catch one measly girl, then again, could he blame them, he thought, lifting his head up to look at his wondrous creation, he was almost convinced that he had created a daughter of Lucifer himself with what she could do, her stormy eyes didn't help with the amount of cold they held as she stared at him, her face cold marble, expressionless.

"And I'm yet to catch up with you" her tone held shards of ice, it was a wonder his ears weren't bleeding as he chuckled.

"Right, well come now, I believe you've had your fun" he ignored her jab as he stated, he beckoned with his fingers.

"I'm not going back Larry" her tone was final, no room for discussion, determination squeezed through enough, it annoyed him. He thought she'd realize that there's no getting out of this and then she'd willingly return, yet with the look of steel resolve painted upon her face, he knew he had thought wrong.

"Yes, you are" he said, as if speaking to a child that was throwing a tantrum and being stubborn, her resistance was quick to agitate him. Yet he held comfort in the fact that she wouldn't do a thing to him, and more of his man were beyond the trees waiting for his signal.

"Besides, you can't run forever Amoura" he added

"What makes you think I won't get rid of the reason I had to run to begin with?' she questioned

"Because" he began as he took enough strides until he stood near her yet a distance away enough to dispel any of her attacks on him should she try. 

"Even if you kill me, you'll still have to run, because every single one of my men, my associates that happen to be even more powerful than I, will be after you, so you see? You can run, but you can't hide, now come" she seethed at his notion that she'd still give in, for she would rather die than return to her caged prison.

"You've got a point Larry, but…I think I'll take my chances" she said, she lifted her leg up with intention to get the knife she had shoved there, now that she didn't have anything else for a weapon. She would have killed him, and he knew that too hence he was quick to press the button at her movement, temporarily seizing the entirety of her body as she fell to the ground in spasms as if she had been electrocuted. She gritted her teeth in pain as it slithered through her every vein.

The rain didn't help as it still poured with fervor, the skies booming as if further enraged by what it was being forced to witness. The mud painted her silvery white strands brown with dirt as she rolled her head to face up. She took comfort in the cold water droplets that seemed in a hurry to aid her oncoming headache, she still heard his steps toward her despite the white noise puddle drums as the rain pelted against the water.

Larry sighed as he stood by her head, looking down at her pained expression, a little snake of a smile slithered onto his lips as it always did at the image of her pain, he always took it as a sign of victory.

"See, if you had come willingly, there'd be no need for such drastic measures" he stated. His black attire was drenched as it clung to his skin, his short greying hair was no better as it clung to his forehead. As she lay on the ground looking at him, her pain long since faded, with her kind of mind, pain only registered for just a minute and then it was gone, it was Larry's doing, even though he seemed unaware that she no longer lay simply because she was in pain. Looking at his oddly satisfied face, she wondered how such handsome features were bestowed upon such a dark soul that was his, how his eyes burst green with life yet seemed most alive when in the presence of death ad how his intellectual mind was wasted on finding ways of agonizing torture that brought upon a slow painful demise.

He was the leader of the hunter group responsible for her kidnapping when she was five, only to keep her caged, experimented on and punished at any undesired results. He was the object of her very hatred, he had turned her into this weapon yet she found it poetic that his very creation was about to be his very downfall, or was it the ego? She cared little to contemplate the notion as she extended her arms up fast enough to catch him off guard, she gripped at his legs and yanked at them hard enough she brought him to the ground.

Not daring to give him enough chance to get up, she got up only to climb onto his body, her knife now in her hand, she held it at his throat. His face was stunned as he felt the cold steel hardly pressed against the skin above his air pipe.

"See you in hell, Larry" at her words, and desperate need for her freedom, she made a cut deep enough it deprived his throat of its basic need, as he suffocated from the lack of air, drowning in his own blood that peeked through his lips, she exhaled as if she were the one taking her last breath. Wiping her knife against his weapon vest, she shoved it back in her boots, only to rob it of its contents. Only when she fully stood up and above the dead hunter leader, did she see the red light of a small device near his hands, having fallen out, and she concluded that it was what had caused that dreadful spasm pain. Picking it up, she clutched it in one hand, four knives stuffed in her back pockets, she reached for the gun on the ground, that's when she heard a sloshing of footsteps in a distance.

Placing her palm on the ground, one last ask to the earth, she felt the out of place thrumming yet again, except this time, it wasn't headed her way, it seemed that they were retreating. The hunters, having witnessed her skill many times before, and the death of their leader, they knew that even though they outnumbered her, she could still cause their death, and so chose to not take that risk, for if they happened to give her even the tiniest of opportunity, they wouldn't leave alive, therefore, thought it better to retreat and regroup, after all, they weren't the only group of hunters in existence, even their leader had a leader.

[Well, that was entertaining] said a voice in her head, it was filled with youthfulness she felt a pang at having been the reason for its abrupt end of life.

{Don't beat yourself up over it dear, we all know it needed to be done} another said, so motherly, it cocooned her heart with yearning

||Talk for yourself, would have killed the bitch if she weren't such a freak|| his voice was angry laced with gruffness she didn't appreciate, his comment made her seethe thinking if only she could rip his head off again

[You're just angry you got bested by a girl,] defended the young lad

||Shut up! || The old man spat

[Make me came] the young lad's childish taunt, to which she couldn't help but chuckle to. 

"Thanks" she whispered under her breath at the motherly voice, she felt her assurance before she built walls up, to keep from hearing the voices as they bickered amongst themselves. 

She felt gratitude for the woman for she reminded her that she had naught to feel guilty for, she had had no choice but to kill the wolves, alas it be her sweet Anna pushed against the edge of death. But in the end death claimed her anyway. She thought, the very memory of the little bundle that had brought her joy brought about an agonizing ache that suffocated her heart she almost thought it would stop beating, yet it beat on. Fighting against the sting clouding her eyes, she walked in the direction of the cabin that had become home for the last two weeks.