Chapter 1-Back to Reality
A middle aged man walked into the noisy building, and into the main lobby. He had light brown hair, with streaks of white going through it. He had on a black suit, with a red dress shirt under the coat, with a black tie on. He pulled a picture out of his coat pocket of four kids (two boys, and two girls) huddled into a group photo. He walked into the game room, and looked around for a boy in the picture. He walked around, shaking his head every once in a while to remember what he was there for. Finally, he found a boy playing pac-man. He was about fourteen, with light brown skin, and a black afro. He had on blue shorts, a blue t-shirt, and blue sneakers. He played as if he were in a daze.
"Ok kid, let's go." the man said in a deep voice. The boy just waved his hand signaling for him to go away. The man had little patience, and grabbed the boy by the shirt collar.
"Hey." the boy said lazily. "What's your problem old man."
"Hunter, snap out of it." the boy made a puzzled face, like he was trying to remember something. "Come on Bro. Think hard. Try to remember a few things." The boy stood there, trying to think of something to remember, but he couldn't even remember his last name.
"Mabey this will jog your memory. Try to remember Liz, and Mia." He showed the boy the picture, and the boy just stared at it.
"Liz. Mia." the boy kept repeating, as he looked at the picture. Suddenly, he remembered.
"Hey! Who are you? How do you know those names? How did you get that picture?" The boy started asking, as he remembered everything.
"Good. You came to your senses. We'll take this outside." The boy was about to argue, but he remembered where he was.
"Ok." he said, and they headed outside.
They walked outside, and it was the middle of the night, but the city lights kept the city bright. Once they were outside, the man looked at the nearest news stand. "Not too much time has passed. For me at least."
"Ok. But who are you?" The boy asked. The man let out a half hearted laugh.
"I guess she was right. I did rub off on you. Your just as impatient as I used to be bro."
"Bro..." The boy said. "The only guy who calls me bro is..." The boy smiled widely. "DUKE!" The boy tackled him with a bear hug.
"Hows it going Hunter?" he said with a smile.
"Duke. You got... Kind of old." said Hunter.
He laughed, and said "That's what happens after thirty years."
"Thirty years."
"You sound surprised. You know that time works differently in the Lotus Casino."
"Not just that. Also that the prophesy took thirty extra years to get completed." said Hunter as he started to shiver.
"I guess we should get out of the cold." said Duke. They walked on until they got to a parking lot. They got into a black jeep, and started driving through the city.
"I figured you would get that Jeep you always used to talk about."
"Yeah. That one you guys always used to say i'll never get." they sat in silence for a minute, or two, until Hunter finally spoke up and said
"What ever happened to Liz? She became a teacher like she always would say right?"
"No. Instead she became a hunter."
"A hunter? When?" he said sounding surprised.
"A few years after you left. She didn't really like the idea of having just a normal life."
Hunter started laughing after he heard that. "Your kidding. You look like you live a normal life, but you were always the loose cannon. The one who always hated the idea of being normal. Yet the girl who wanted nothing more than to be normal decided to keep the life of running away from monsters."
"Time has a way of changing things. I mean just look at yourself. He pulled down the mirror, and he saw how much he had changed. He looked a lot older, he was taller, and he even had an afro.
"What about you? What are you doing with your life?" he asked.
"Well, i'm a body guard now. I also have a family."
"Wow. Your the last person I would've thought to settle down."
"Yeah." He said passing Hunter his wallet. He looked through the pictures. A lot of them had a woman he assumed was his wife. There were also pictures with a little boy, and girl, which were his kids. He also saw saw pictures with him, Duke, Liz, and Mia in them as well.
"She's pretty." he said after he was done looking through the pictures. "Why do you keep all those pictures anyway?"
"I keep them as memories. Something to hold onto." There was another minute pause, when Hunter finally broke the silence again.
"How has my mom been doing lately?" I took Duke a while to answer.
"She's been doing better lately. After I told her what you wanted me to tell her, she took it pretty hard. It took her a while to get over it. Now, she's alive and well."
"That's good to know." said Hunter, as he wiped a tear from his cheek. He was about to ask if he should've done what he did, but hesitated because of what he might say. He had to change the subject.
"What about camp?"
"You want to know how everyone took the fact that the great hero Hunter had disappeared?"
"I told you before about calling me that." he said with a laugh. Duke also chuckled a little at that. "Well Bro, some took it better than others. Some were kind of glad about it, but you probibly figured they would be."
"Yeah. We sure did make a few enemies back then didn't we?" They kept talking about old times, until they both started getting tired.
"I guess we'll rest for the night." he said looking at the clock that read 12:27. They drove around until they found a hotel to stay in. They checked into a two bed room.
"Alright, you've had a long night." said Duke as they got into the room. "We'll rest for the night, and you can decide what you want to-" he stopped talking whenhe saw Hunter passed out on one the beds. Duke just shrugged and said
"You havn't really changed at all have you? You still act like my little brother..."