It was said that being a teenager was the worst time of your life. Everything is changing both physically and emotionally and yet you are thrust into the most intense situations of your young life, discovering heartbreak, anxiety, low self esteem, high expectations, bullying, parents, and peer pressure along the way. It was a wonder to Sophie Pace how anyone survived. Some didn't, she quickly reminded herself. Any of these were enough to make anyone kill themselves. Many times Sophie had thought about just ending it. No one was cutting her any slack, including life itself. It seemed that only death would free her of these burdens. Sophie knew there were far worse things that could happen such as being raped or murdered. But, she never thought that being hunted down by aliens would be on the list.
Sophie sat in the principals office again. At least this time, this visit was somewhat legitimate. She rubbed her sore knuckles, which came from beating up Blaine Hopkins during gym class. There were a couple of scratches on her face that burned. The other times she was in the principals office was when Blaine and other students would band together to lie to teachers. No one will believe ten against one's word. It might as well have been ten against zero.
Until today.
It was just an ordinary day in gym class playing basketball when Blaine repeatedly hit Sophie with the ball. On the side, on the back, and even on the butt. He and his other friends would look and laugh with each other thinking they were so clever. However, it was game over when Blaine kicked the basketball, which hit Sophie in the face. Pain exploded throughout her left eye and skull. Sophie quickly got up and turned around, covering her tears with one hand and a veil of short dark brown hair. Don't cry, don't cry, don't let them see your tears, she repeatedly told herself. However, that pain and sorrow quickly melted away into rage.
Before Blaine knew what had happened, Sophie strode towards him and punched him square in the cheek. The blow caught Blaine off balance, who nearly tripped over his feet. Sophie then tackled Blaine to the ground, climbed on top of him and began punching him in the face. For a football player, Blaine sure sucked at fighting. He wasn't able to stop most of her punches. Blaine merely clawed at her face like an angry cat. She would merely bat his hands away and continue punching him. All the other classmates began crowding around and cheering "Fight, fight, fight!" in unison. Surprisingly, none of Blaine's friends helped him. A pair of strong arms wrapped themselves from underneath her arms and pried Sophie off of the bloodied Blaine. She continued to snarl at Blaine like an animal, attempting to lunge at him only to be restrained by Mr. Codwell. While Sophie was not a particularly violent person, she felt that she had no choice. After that, Blaine Hopkins never bothered her again.
What Sophie Pace didn't know was that someone else had been watching the entire scenario. A violence intended to end a violence only aroused a desire for more violence within the creature.
Invisible to the eyes and seen from above in the branches of a tree. He watched as the young lou-dte kale screamed expletives at the young ooman whom she defeated. Watching the fight had been the most amusing thing he'd seen all day. His orders were too observe the humans. A boring and tedious task. There was nothing interesting about these creatures aside from killing them.
That was, until this little suckling female came along. The lou-dte kale had some fight in her and reminded him of the other females of his species: larger, stronger, and dominant. Pissing off a female was the stupidest thing a male could ever do. An angered female was far stronger than even an armed male. That made mating for his kind very complicated.
But, not this little lou-dte kale.
She along with her entire species were pathetic and weak compared to his. However, that didn't mean that they weren't entertaining. Otherwise, there would be no point in hunting them. That was all their species existed for was mere entertainment.
Hunting and killing this female suckling was going to be entertaining.
Sophie felt relief after getting off the phone with her angry Dad. Her parents were at work and unable to pick her up. That meant that she could walk home by herself and do what she liked. Looking back on that, Sophie wished her parents could've picked her up. But then wondered if that would've changed anything or made things worse.
Sophie had left the school early with an ice pack taped to her knuckles. She opened her bottle of Mountain Dew and took a long drink. Almost immediately, she stopped and looked behind her. For no reason at all, Sophie had a feeling that someone was watching her. From the corner of her eye, she saw something move. Or at least, she thought she did. Sophie didn't see anything. Only what appeared to be a slight blur in the side of her vision. Sophie settled for that reasonable argument.
There is no reason to be unsettled, Sophie told herself. She was just tense after getting into a fight at school. She ignored it and continued down the sidewalk towards Bryson's house, which was just a block away. It was a warm spring day out in Los Angeles. The birds were singing and the sun was shining. This was the perfect day for Sophie to drink soda and play violent video games with Bryson.
Sophie had already forgotten about the strange feeling. She waited at his front doorsteps for her only friend for an hour. After school was out, Sophie spotted Bryson approaching, with his shortly trimmed brown hair and lank face. Upon seeing her, a smirk formed on his face. "Hey stalker," Bryson smiled. "Heard you beat up Blaine."
"I did," Sophie replied with a wider smile, holding up her bruised knuckles to him as proof as proof. Byrson slapped her on the side of the shoulder. "Wish I could've been there." he sighed with disappointment. They both stepped onto the porch to his apartment.
Together they played for hours. Call of Duty, Super Smash Bros., Kirby, 1980's Arcade games, and so on. Her mind was hazed by the extremely bright TV screen in Bryson's dark and smelly room, as well as all the soda Sophie had been drinking. The pixelated violence and gore didn't faze her but succeeded in taking her mind off the present. She and Bryson talked, laughed, and cursed throughout the day whilst playing the video games. Though her head and eyes were starting to hurt from playing so long in the dark. After looking at her watch, Sophie didn't even realize how late it had gotten.
Bryson turned the porch light on as Sophie stepped outside. She collected her backpack and an extra can of Mountain Dew. "Hopefully Blaine won't bother me anymore," Sophie said, although she wouldn't mind beating him up again.
"I don't think anyone will be bothering you anymore after that," Bryson laughed. Sophie couldn't help but snicker with him. After bidding each other good bye, Sophie walked down the porch steps from his apartment and into the night. She walked on the sidewalk underneath the streetlights, the only relief she got from walking in the middle of the night. Jame was dreading her return home. If her parents were home, she was so screwed. Her father had specifically instructed her to come home and basically do nothing, since the internet and video games were now off limits.
Walking in a train of thought, Sophie spotted the streetlights from a nearby side street suddenly go out, and to her shock, she thought she saw something move before disappearing from her sight. Sophie immediately wrote it off and looked away. The darkness of the night always brought out the paranoia within people. That was the basis for most horror films.
Sophie continued along her way with a light smile on her face until a loud scraping sound caught her attention. She was so startled by the noise that Sophie had jolted backwards. She looked across the other side of the road, in the direction of where it had come from. It sounded like someone had dragged a blade along a piece of metal. Sophie also noticed a street sign from where the metallic noise had came from. A street sign that had a metal pole. She immediately felt scared, but against all senses, Sophie walked across the street. She was determined to prove to herself that there was nothing to be afraid of. Though Sophie was absolutely certain she heard the noise. It was so ear-splitting loud.
She stood beside the pole for a moment before examining it. Through the darkness, Sophie noticed a long line running down the side of the pole. It felt rough to her fingers while the rest was smooth. It looked like someone ran a blade down its side. Looking back down the side streets, Sophie spotted the broken streetlights. She marched across the empty street to investigate. All the while feeling completely vulnerable out in the open darkness. Sophie approached the nearest streetlight, noticing the broken glass on the pavement. The light bulbs didn't just go out, she thought to herself. They were shattered.
In the middle of the glass, Sophie noticed an object resting in the middle of it. She got down on one knee and took it off the ground. It resembled a ninja star but Sophie didn't recognize the metal or the design. There was something almost science-fiction about it. She got up to walk further down the street, looking at the other lights, all somehow broken. There were more of these ninja stars in the shattered glass. Sophie picked up each one, which were almost the size of her hands.
Sophie then stood still, examining these strange looking ninja stars in the darkness. She didn't know if she was going crazy or if she was being stalked by a pack of ninjas. Someone had thrown these "ninja stars" at the streetlights while she was walking home. It couldn't have been Blaine and or anyone else for that matter. The streets were empty, or at least they looked to be that way. Sophie placed three of the "ninja stars" into her single-pocket sweater before holding the other in her hand for safekeeping. She quickly ran across the street towards the working streetlight.
As Sophie was about to continue walking, there was a loud thumping noise and someone had appeared only a few feet away from her. "What the fuck?!" Sophie screeched, jumping backwards. It wasn't even a someone, it was a something. And it had just jumped out of nowhere in front of her. She quickly realized that this thing had jumped off of the streetlight above her. Had it been up there this entire time just watching her?
The creature stepped into the light allowing Sophie to see it properly. She wished that the creature had taken out the lights above them. Sophie was too horror struck to move or even take a breath, her brain was still trying to register what was happening. Then it cocked its head to the side while looking at her. Not only was this creature tall and large, but it was extremely muscular, which was the only thing that didn't surprise her seeing as how it jumped off a streetlight without breaking its ankles or so much as a drop of sweat. It had to be at least seven feet tall. There was no doubt that this thing was strong and resilient too. While its body was similar to a human's and had its face hidden behind a bronze metal mask, Sophie knew it was far from human. It appeared to have long, leathery dreadlocks for hair and was wearing various pieces of armor and weapons.
The creature was just standing there watching the horrified Sophie. It was like the creature wanted her to get a good look of itself. For a few more moments, Sophie continued to stand there unable to move or breathe, until she let out a slight gasp. The creature made strange clicking sounds, which terrified her even more. It extended its left arm forward in the direction of Sophie. With a swishing noise, a pair of long blades with a serrated edge shot out of the device on its wrist.
Sophie drew in a quick breathe with a horrific realization of what it had in store for it. She had already guessed that this creature's intentions weren't friendly from the way it terrorized her earlier. But this only confirmed it. The fear that once paralyzed her was now forcing her to move. Run, she told herself. No matter how futile it would be.
Sophie spun around and did just that, sprinting down the sidewalk as fast she had ever run before. She didn't dare look back, knowing that if she did, the last thing Sophie would ever see was that creature running its serrated blades right through her. But even then, Sophie knew that the creature could easily outrun and kill her.
To her surprise though, after running for what seemed to be about a minute, nothing had happened. She didn't hear the large creature thumping behind her like she thought it would. Sophie heard nothing from behind her. Despite being out of breath, Sophie decided to halt to a stop. It was probably the stupidest thing to do but either way Sophie figured there was no running out of this. When she dared to look behind her, the creature was no where in sight. And that terrified her even more. Sophie began to panic as her eyes darted everywhere looking for the creature. It disappeared as quickly as it reappeared. Although she was stricken with fear, the anger overcame her just like it did with blame. Now it seemed to clear her panicked mind.
She gripped her hands into balled up fists and stood defiantly with her legs apart. Sophie was every bit terrified but also every bit as angry. "Where the fuck are you?!" Sophie shouted into the lit streets. "Just leave me alone!"
Sophie was panting with anticipation for what would happen next. For a few moments, nothing happened and the silence was tearing her apart. Though she got her answer soon enough.
The streetlight from down the sidewalk exploded like the other ones did earlier. One by one they all were being shattered until the one above her did too. Sophie ducked and covered her head as the broken glass bits rained down on her. She let out a loud shriek. There was a metallic clang as another one of the creature's star-shaped weapons landed beside her. Now, the street was completely dark. The only thing she could hear were her quick and raspy own breathes.
She was in her own local neighborhood. Despite knowing that no one could help her, that being if they even made it in time, Sophie was too blinded by fear to hold it in any longer. "Help!" Sophie screamed on the top of her dry and tired lungs. "Somebody please help me–"
Sophie was cut off when there was a loud shinging noise from behind her and felt two sharp pains rake across her back. She let out a loud cry of agony before collapsing onto the broken glass, which pierced her body and only worsened her pain even more. Looking behind her, Sophie saw what appeared to be fluctuations in the light. It suddenly dawned on her. The creature could turn invisible, or at least, partially. She could see a silhouette of the creature similar to a heat haze, but this would be hard for anyone to spot, especially in darkness. This allowed it to hide in plain sight...as well as hunt. Just like this monstrous being was doing to her.
The creature grabbed Sophie by the neck, its skin felt like a reptile's, and tossed her onto someone's lawn. Sophie let out a loud grunt upon impact. She must of weighed nothing to the creature seen as how it effortlessly threw her across the yard. The moment Sophie tried to get up, the creature grabbed her by the mouth, thereby preventing her from screaming, and slashed her left arm with its duo wrist blades. Her screams were muffled as the creature continued to cut and slash her across various parts of her body. After what seemed like an eternity, the creature dropped her limp body to the damp grass. Sophie let out a ragged cough before groaning in agony. Any scream or cry for help would earn her more cuts. She knew that now. Her vision was also getting blurry and she felt lightheaded. Sophie wondered how much blood she was losing.
Not that anyone could stop this monster. It was too powerful.
A couple of stray tears managed to escape from her eyes. "What...what the hell are you?" Sophie whimpered. "Why...are you...doing this?"
The creature simply tilted its head at her like a curious cat would. The only answer she got were the clicking noises again. She wondered if the creature even understood her. Even then, Sophie was certain that there was no talking her way out of this one. She couldn't even talk her way out of an argument with her parents or her younger brother Jacob.
It didn't continued 'talking' or clicking at her, but rather, started fiddling with the device on its other wrist. Sophie expected more blades or some other weapon to pop out, instead, voices did.
In clear and proper English. Her eyes narrowed upon hearing it. "Fight, fight, fight, fight!" the voices were chanting. She recognized these voices. This was from her fight with Blaine earlier today during gym class. Sophie could hear her own shrill and pained voice screaming swear words and other threats at Blaine, warning him never to pick a fight with her again. This creature had been there today and no doubt witnessed this fight. Sophie could only breathe, not understanding why any of this was relevant to attacking her.
"Are you here on Blaine Hopkin's behalf?" Sophie then let out a somewhat crazed chuckle. "Is that what this is?...payback?"
The creature said nothing, only retracting its wrist blades, much to Sophie's relief, only to pull out a hunting dagger from it's belt. Sophie wondered if it was going to finish her off. The creature moved closer and knelt down to grab her by the throat. It picked her up, holding her almost two feet off the ground and only inches away from its mask. Its grip was cutting off all the air from her neck. Sophie felt for sure that her head was going to explode from how tight it was holding her. Plus, being held by the neck above her ground wasn't helping either.
She could hear the slight clicking from behind it. Sophie also heard a slight metallic chink from her sweater. Her eyes went wide as she suddenly remembered placing the creature's "ninja stars" inside her sweater pocket. Renewed hope to fight back immediately surged through her. The fear dissipated for only a moment. But it was enough to fight back.
As the creature prepared to disembowel Sophie with its large hunting knife, she had already reached into her pocket, grabbing its "ninja star", and slamming it into the creature's neck. The creature let out a loud animalistic roar akin to a lion's, dropping Sophie in the process. It clearly didn't remember that Sophie had collected it's star-like weapons it had thrown at the streetlights earlier. Despite the sharp pain and amount of blood she was losing, it was as if none of that mattered to Sophie. The adrenaline was causing her to ignore it and run for dear life, which she did.
Sophie couldn't believe that she had managed to out best this nearly invincible creature. Maybe it wasn't as invincible as she thought it was. Or at least, as smart. Although she couldn't feel her pain as much, the cuts to her leg prevented her from sprinting. Sophie was limping down the street towards her house. No, she couldn't endanger her family like that. Sophie stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the enraged creature.
She put on her brave face as the creature stood a couple yards away from her, clutching its profusely bleeding neck with it's arm with the wrist bladed device. To her surprise, its blood was a luminescent green. It almost looked like that glow-in-the-dark green goo you would see in television commercials. The creature wasn't dead, nor did Sophie expect it to be, but it sure as hell looked pissed off. Sophie couldn't stand anymore. She fell down to the cement ground before her.
She was absolutely exhausted from all the running as well as the blood loss. The pain in her numerous lacerations across her body didn't help either. I'm fifteen years old, I don't deserve this. Sophie told herself.
The creature merely walked towards her although Sophie noted that it was guarded this time. Sophie turned her head to look up at it. She couldn't see the color of its eyes through the mask but Sophie could still feel the wrath of its stare. "Is that all you got?"
The creature let out a roar in aggravation for her defiance, before kicking her in the face. The blow knocked her over to the side. It was a wonder to Sophie how she didn't break her neck from the impact. Instead of screaming like before, Sophie began laughing. It almost sounded like she had lost her mind. She was in no position to be laughing but she did anyway. If this creature was going to kill her, Sophie would make sure it didn't get any pleasure from it. "How does it feel? To have been stabbed in the neck with your own weapon?" Sophie taunted before snickering. "By a one hundred pound, fourteen year old girl? I thought you were nearly invincible. Clearly, I was wrong."
That seemed to be the last straw for the creature as Sophie knew it would be enraged by her taunts. Sophie was too injured and too tired to care about her life anymore. There was no escape. The creature let out another roar before drawing the two blades from the device on its arm again. It charged after her several feet away in only a couple of short strides, raising its arm to stab her with the wrist blades and end her life. Sophie closed her eyes.
However, instead of feeling two sharp blades gut her, she heard a loud shing! noise, like the clashing of metal. When she dared to open her eyes, Sophie couldn't believe what she saw. Another creature like the one attacking her appeared, it had deflected the blow Sophie was about to recieve from a weird looking spear. It...saved her? Sophie couldn't believe it.
The other creature that appeared seemed to be different from the one that had been hunting her. It was bigger, wore more armor, and had several scars decorated all over its body. Immediately, the creature backed away and retracted its wrist blades. The other creature sounded angry as they conversed in a series of clicking noises. Sophie couldn't understand them but knew what they were arguing about. This creature was probably older, probably the other one's superior officer or father or something. Whatever relation they had, it was clearly reprimanding the younger creature in a harsh tone, before smacking it in the face. Letting out a whine, the younger creature bowed its head to the superior and was quiet. The elder waved an arm and motioned for it to leave. Sophie watched as the youngling pressed a couple of buttons on its device, turning invisible once more. She had no idea where it went off to but was nonetheless glad it was gone.
Her train of thought was smashed when the older creature turned its attention to Sophie, who tensed in response. She could only wonder what would happen to her now. Maybe this creature wanted to steal the younger one's kill. There was no way she would be making it out of this alive. Sophie had already accepted that five minutes ago. After stepping in front of her, it knelt down on one knee and placed a hand on her shoulder. It seemed to be examining her wounds, its scaled fingers felt weird on her bloodied and sweaty skin.
The creature didn't appear to want to hurt her given that it wasn't attacking her. But, the other one had been toying around with her before finally deciding to harm her. Maybe this one wanted to do the same as well.
Sophie winced when it touched the long gashes across her back, pulling out a piece of glass from it. "Are you going to kill me or what?" Sophie asked in an angered tone, irritated from all its proding and poking. She already knew the answer but was tired of having her pain prolonged any further.
To her surprise, it answered her. "No..." the creature said. "Apologies...youngbloods...are so eager...to hunt."
Her jaw hung wide open. It spoke to her, in clear English. Sure, the creature sounded like it had swallowed a porcupine, but it could speak her language. That only made Sophie wonder just how much these creatures knew about her planet and species.
"Wha...youngbloods?" Sophie mumbled with a mix of confusion and disorientation. She couldn't concentrate with the blood loss and her injuries.
"Not Blooded warriors...youngbloods...are not to hunt humans," the creature responded as carefully and clearly as it could. "Least of all...child-bearers..."
Sophie already knew these creatures hunted her kind. She kinda guessed that from earlier. But now there was some sort of warrior code that prevented 'youngbloods' from hunting humans. She was trying to keep up with this warrior but honestly only cared for her life at this point. Maybe there was a chance she could make it out of this alive.
The hunter spoke good despite English not being its first language and having to wear a mask. She noticed that there was a marking on the mask that the other one didn't have. That must have shown that this one was a warrior. "He was...only supposed...to observe..."
Sophie let out a snort at that, slightly lifting her bloodied wrist. "Your buddy...kinda sorta...didn't." she spoke softly, letting out a rough cough. The hunter nodded its head once with acknowledgement. "And still...you...fought...back..." it stated, almost in an impressed tone. "Got...Kvar'thwei...in...the neck."
"I didn't fight, I ran around...screaming and being terrified..." Sophie sighed. "But yeah, stabbing him in the neck...guess that counts...as fighting back."
That thing that attacked her had a name? Kivarthway? Was that it? It was hard to tell with the clicking noises helping pronounce the name. She nonetheless listened for this creature's answer.
"Oomans...so...clever..." the older hunter stated, tilting its head to the side. "They...provide...a good...hunt. But...we...do...not...hunt...child...bearers...normally."
"Lucky me."
Her eyelids were starting to droop. Sophie was certain she was going to pass out any second now. She couldn't so much as move without pain shooting throughout her body. Plus, with all the blood she knew she lost, it felt better to Sophie to lay on the ground. "You wouldn't by chance...mind dropping me off...at my house...or a hospital...would you?" Sophie grumbled with pain.
The creature retracted its other worldly like spear before slowly and carefully sliding both of its arms underneath her, lifting her up with no effort at all. Sophie inhaled sharply from the sudden pain. She took that as a yes. "Your...house?..." the older hunter asked.
Sophie pointed at the house they were in front of. "It's the building...behind this one..." she directed him.
It strode into the driveway, Sophie was worried about being seen. There were lights inside the house which meant that people were in it. But she said nothing. This creature seemed to know what it was doing. To her immense shock, the hunter merely jumped onto the roof of the house, landing with a mere thump. She clung onto the older hunter's armor for dear life after that. The inhabitants of this house were no doubt probably spooked from the sudden thud on their roof. Hopefully, they thought of it as just a ghost.
The hunter walked across the tiled roof until they reached the edge of the house, and already knowing that they were going to jump, Sophie closed her eyes and held on tightly to the creature. She embraced for the feeling of free fall, but dreaded the landing the most. Sharp pains shot up through her body just as she expected. Luckily, it was only about a fourteen foot drop.
Now, they were in the backyard of her house. The porch lights were on with her parents home, which made the hunter reluctant to expose itself. "This is far enough..." Sophie then said, sensing how uneasy the creature was about drawing closer. It gently laid Sophie onto the grass. She let out a sigh of relief that her ordeal was now over.
The hunter stood up as she looked back at him, now curious as to what was behind its mask. Being rescued and taken to her house was the last thing Sophie expected to have happen to her tonight. Then again, she didn't count on being hunted and attacked by an alien creature either. "Thank...you..." she breathed.
Sophie wanted to say more but those were the only words she could muster. The older creature nodded and without further adieu, activated his cloaking device. The girl didn't hear the hunter leave. But Sophie knew he was gone.
Sophie let out an exhausted sigh, thinking about what the hell she was going to tell her parents. She was certain that no one would believe her hence why the other hunter let her live. At least this would get her out of trouble with Blaine Hopkins earlier. She was attacked while walking home...yeah, that would work. Sophie pulled out the other three starry-like weapons that were still had hidden in her now bloodied sweater pocket. Those, along with the numerous scars across her body she was bound to have from her injuries, would be the only proof she had that this night had occurred.
Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this. I watched some of the Predator movies, including the awful ones like Predator 2 and AvP: Requiem. It inspired me to write a story about it, kinda because I hope to bring some justice to the series even if it isn't canon. I'm excited for the new one that's coming out in a year or so. Just to let you know, this takes place four years before the Predators movie with Adrien Brody and Eric Foreman. Things will pick up shortly after this, I promise.
Yautja terminology:
Lou-dte kale - means "child-bearer". It's used as an insulting term as demonstrated from Kvar'thwei repeatedly referring Sophie by it. But like he said earlier, only a foolish male Yautja would say this to a female Yautja's face. I'd say it's equivalent to saying the N-word to a black person by Yautja standards.
Ooman - means "human" basically.
Got this from the Predator wiki if you're curious.