CHAPTER 10 YAY! Rawr! I'm at the airport again, and there is a delay, again. I'm waiting an hour and a half, again. Shall I continue? I should? K. I'm watching a movie, again. And now I'm quitting, no I'm not, yes I am, no I'm not. AHHHHH SCARY! I QUIT! Ok I'm over 10,000 ft in the air, and God, it is gorgeous out. Do my little notes that have almost absolutely nothing to do with the story up here bother you? S.C. Cliff is Santa Carla Cliff, I made it up.

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Rain stopped dead in her tracks. Looking to her right she saw a pair of yellow eyes starring right at her. They were beckoning her. 'Come to me,' they said. She would have fallen prey to them if it wasn't for Marco.

"Love? Come on, David's waiting!" At the mentioning of David she broke the trance and looked at Marco. Smiling, she ran and caught up to the man on the motorcycle.

"Of course, Marco. I just thought I saw a two doves. I think they are supposed to mean good luck." He started up the bike and helped her on. Once he parked she got off. Marco started to walk ahead of her. As small as she was, she had to run to catch up, but on her way to catch up her eye caught something. The Yellow eyes were long gone, but she saw two dead doves.

'IT is going to happen soon, real soon.'

"Maaaaarrrrrccccccoooooo!!!!" she whined. "Wait up!" He stopped and looked back. Marco was very surprised to see how far she had fallen back. Catching up the rest of the night went pretty smooth. All except the part where the SN's showed up. Then the vision time came.

The SN's saw David and Marco with The Child but no Dwayne or Paul. They never learned The Child's name. All they ever her called by was their nicknames for her. A tilt of David's head and she would come bounding up like a lost puppy finally reunited with its loving owner. Matt, their leader, highly doubted that they would ever know. Jason saw the three first. After he pointed them out, Jack, their group leader currently, came up with a plan. Easy enough: separate The Child from the others. After separation, they would basically herd her away, like one would herd a, well, a herd of sheep.

Marco saw them first. "Love, Stick close to me and David."

"Of course, Marco." They started to come. Circling them all, they tried to slyly get in between the group of three. After getting Marco separated from the other two, they started to fight. Soon David literally threw Rain out of his circle. Three people broke off from each group, they headed straight toward her.

"Run!" David's voice was barely audible above the fight, but she still heard it. When she did, she ran like a jack rabbit from a fox. She was frightened rabbit; running was all she could do. They were the sly, witty fox and led her straight into a corner.

She did just as he planned. She ran and they herded. All would work out.

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked around. All that was left following her was one SN. The others broke off slowly. She noted they would show up from time to time, lead her in a- 'they are herding me!' Realization hit her. They never even tried to hurt her. She had to do something that they wouldn't expect. "Are you ready to give up Little Rabbit?" The 'Fox', as she dubbed him, called out.

Not answering she shot to her left. A SN came into view. He braced himself, Rain slid like a baseball player. Surprise hit the guy like a truck, and he froze. She slid right between his legs, but as she went she put her fist in the air and hit him where the sun doesn't shine.

"NONONO!!" His plan was in ruins. The people he had surrounding the boys were gone. The rabbit had become smart.

Running was all she could do. Into the forest and through the bramble. After reaching a cliff not far from her cliff, she sat on the edge. She calmed down and watched Hudson's Bluff. When she was around five she 'claimed' the bluff as hers. The boys laughed at her, but when angry tears hit her eye's they gave in and said it was her cliff. She smiled and saw what she couldn't imagine. Well, she could, but it was to emphasize.

It was happening. Rain stood up. "Hello Child, isn't that what the Head Vampire of your group calls you?" The chilling voice from her head asked her. She turned slowly. "Don't worry, I wont kill you, but I will kill the vampires." He grinned widely with his eyes narrowed. It was a fox-like grin.

"Humans are of no concern to me. I am a hunter made to kill vampires. No, don't speak," he said as she opened her mouth. "You cannot make it to the cliff in time to save the vampires, so I shall leave with everyone now. Do as you will." Her vision was off, but she had to try.

She followed him for a few steps, turned ran and jumped off the cliff. She HAD to try. Hearing his chilling laugh, she knew he was more of a monster then the boys. Tears fell from her eyes. She was going to die and so were the boys.

'Marco, Paul, Dwayne, David. They are all counting on me!' The doubt that was momentarily running through her head disappeared without a trace.

The same feeling as in her vision came over her. 'Hunter, who are you?' She questioned. As soon as the words were thought, they were forgotten. She zipped through the air. Feeling slight joy, she wanted to go up, down, to touch the water, everything. Then she remembered about the bluff.

Looking at the sky, she noted that dawn was coming soon. She went as fast as she could to them and found them all knocked out. She landed and untied David from the steak that the hunter had tied him to. He fell, and she was onto the next person, Paul. She untied him and started working on Marco. Tears were falling freely down her cheeks. She wouldn't make it. Her hands slipped again and again.

"Like some help, Gorgeous?" Paul grabbed the rope and bit through it. He also caught Marco Before he fell.

"Let's go in now." David said. They all entered the cave. David and Paul carried the other two boys, and the seven-year-old Rain held tightly onto the tail of David's trench coat. Once in the elevator shaft, the two knocked out boys were set down, Paul went almost instantly to sleep on the bar from the ceiling, David just starred at the hole which they climbed through, and Rain stared at David. "What's the matter, Rain?" David asked.

"What's a 'Hunter'?" She wanted to ask so many other things and yet that was all she could spit out.

"...It is nothing."

"But David-"

"I said it is nothing!" He hissed out lowly.

"Ok, then what's the matter? You seem stressed."

"The boys and I almost died; what do you think is the matter?" He turned to face her, and she knew it was time to shut up. His eyes were that of a devil. His lips were as flat as the ocean right before a typhoon came. He was calm, the calm before a storm. The calm that scares everyone--one that when people finally think it is all over, they feel as if something is wrong and then, nothing. It was the kind where you know something is going to happen and it doesn't. The wait is the scariest thing. You never really know what's going to happen until it does. When it does, it's a relief because the tension and scarier part of not knowing is over.

Rain felt no relief.

"Watch the entrance; wake us up if anything comes." He flew up and went to sleep. Several minutes after he was asleep she stood up and went to the front of the tunnel that lead to the shaft. Sitting in the sunlight she felt sleepy. She hadn't slept for almost two hole days. She woke up yesterday morning and had been awake ever since.

She sighed and went to her room, or where her room was. Most of it was burned. Grabbing a hold of the blackened metal box from under her bed, she fought to pull it

out. Once it was out she looked around the room once more. Putting the box in the tunnel entrance, she went back to her room. Carefully opening up her dresser she looked through her clothes. Most were either blackened from smoke or had little ember holes. Rain grabbed a pair of jeans and stripped her current pair off and put the new pair on. She left her quiet room and went in search of a fairly decent shirt.

Rain looked through Paul's things and found none that would be anywhere near fitting her. Dwayne owned no shirts. Rain didn't want to touch David's things; she feared he would be mad at her, so she settled on a plain white tank top of Marco's that was in one piece. She quietly checked back on the boys. All was fine.

Going in search of a hair band was harder. When she finally found one in the fountain, she also found she was quite hungry. Unfortunately there was no food in the cave at all. She would have to go hungry till later that night. She wanted so badly to sleep, but she would not go anywhere against David's wishes. Rain settled down in the entrance of the cave and opened the metal box. Inside was her drawing pad and her colored pencils. She took out her drawing pad, set it on her lap, and grabbed a pencil. She stared at it for only God knows how long before she actually saw it. It was wet. She touched the paper to make sure and was positive it was wet. Rain looked at the ceiling, but there was no water dripping. Putting a hand to her face, she realized she was crying again. She set the drawing pad down and went back to her room.

Once in the room, she started to clean: all the useless stuff in one pile, and savable stuff in another. Once she was done with that, she went on to try and wipe the black off the rocks around the room. By the time she gave up she was almost pure black. She looked around and noticed she had an amused watcher. Marco's face turned solemn once he saw her face.

"What's wrong Love?"

"N-nothing. I-it's just that this black won't come off no matter how hard I try." He saw through her lie easily, and she knew he did. "Well, no matter what I do, David doesn't like me. He only cares about you guys. I'm not his family like you guys are." She held as many of the tears back as she could but one or two escaped.

"You know that's not true, Love. He is more protective of you than us."

"What's wrong Love?"

"N-nothing. I-it's just that this black won't come off no matter how hard I try." He saw through her lie easily, and she knew he did. "Well, no matter what I do, David doesn't like me. He only cares about you guys. I'm not his family like you guys are." She held as many of the tears back as she could but one or two escaped.

"You know that's not true, Love. He is more protective of you than us."

'Yeah right,' she thought. "Thanks Marco." She turned back around to the wall with a false smile on her face and continued to try to clean.

Marco wanted to say more, but when he heard her light humming he knew she didn't want to talk to anyone right now. He felt the tension roll off her like it was the only feeling her whole tiny being was capable of feeling. Watching her for only a moment more, he turned and left.

As soon as he left, Rain smeared black back over her face to cover the clean spots the traitor tears left. After several more minutes, she decided to stop trying to do the impossible. No, she didn't mean cleaning. That was actually quite possible. What she decided to stop trying was to get David to notice her, to stop trying to be friends with him.

That was the smart thing to do, right? So why did Rain feel like her heart was breaking? "What am I going to do?" she whispered aloud.