Émilie leaned into the wind, her golden curls flying in all directions and the air playing across her face as she jogged through the deep green forest of France towards Scarlet's farm near Rieux. She could've walked, but, well… she was not as calm and patient as she liked to pretend to be. Though Émilie loved visiting her friend Scarlet, the peregrination was not her favorite part.
She turned towards the path curving off as far as she could see. Émilie didn't know these parts very well, but she thought she could see a field of pretty flowers up ahead. She sighed and slowed down enough to pull her hair into a bun so it didn't cloud her vision, then continued towards her Scarling with a basket around her arm to hold the potatoes, beets, lettuce, and onions (tomatoes had recently become off-limits, since Scarlet had married Wolf, the boy who Émilie had once liked, thinking that he was a street fighter, but had turned out to be Lunar, part of a creepy wolf pack, and very in love with Scarlet. It was a long, complicated story.).
Reaching the flowers, Émilie stopped and wandered into the patch of flowers she had seen. Maybe she could bring some to her friend as an apology for the last time Gilles had tried to short change her (which was more often than anyone but Scar would admit). The flowers could even be sold at one of the many markets and restaurants who bought from Benoit Farms and Gardens.
Hesitant, Émilie considered how much time it would take to just gather a few blossoms and continue on her way. As she vacillated, the field shone invitingly. The dappled sunlight was a beacon among the dark, covered woods. Émilie sprinted into the field with near glee.
Émilie waded deeper and deeper into the flowers, each time a flower catching her eye only a little farther away. Before she knew it, she had somehow wound her way to the center of the field. It suddenly occurred to her that she might not be able to find her way back. She frantically looked behind her, but realized that there were two parallel paths on either side of the clearing, and then forest everywhere else. Émilie had no idea where she had come from.
In her panic, she reasoned that it was actually quite simple. She just had to follow her trampled footsteps in the flowers back to the trail. However, one quick glance back confirmed that her winding path would take an absurdly long time to trace, with a good chance she would lose it anyway. Stupid springy flowers. Émilie resolved to just pick a direction and see where it took her. The last option would be to wait for someone to find her, but this place was so secluded that it could take ages. There was no way Scar would wait that long, best friend or no.
Émilie picked the path on her right on a whim. Gathering up her bouquet into the basket, she was ready to go.
It felt like she had been walking for hours. On second thought, it probably had been hours. Two, at least. This didn't look at all like it had the first time she had walked here. Émilie was ready to turn back when she spotted something in the distance.
It was a house! It definitely wasn't Scarlet's house, but Émilie had only arrived this way once, the rest of the visits being by hover car, so maybe it was just some random corner of the farm she hadn't seen before.
Émilie walked up onto the wide, seemingly neglected porch and knocked on the door. "Hello?" she called, hoping that someone would be there. "Scarlet? Wolf? It's Ém! Can you hear me?"
When she didn't hear anything, Émilie decided to investigate. Surely, she would find Scarlet in there and all would be fine. Taking a deep breath, she pulled open the door.
"Scarlet!" she called. "I'm here!" No response. Her words echoed through the house back at her.
She looked around at her surroundings. It was empty but for what looked to be an out-of-place stage in the center, and everything was covered in grime. More dust motes floated through the air. She noted that it was much larger and emptier than its outer appearance.
Sitting on the edge of the platform were three portscreens. Odd, Émilie thought. She wandered around the room over to the row of devices. This felt like a test.
She clicked one open and tried to figure out who owned it, but the whole thing was empty. The home screen was still the default. The settings were the way it had originally been, with no sign of changes. The data usage showed that none of the storage had been were no contacts, no apps, no pictures, no trace of the person who had owned it. It was a brand new portscreen.
She tried the next one, but there was a passcode, and no matter what she tried, Émilie couldn't open it. She could see a picture of chains as the home screen. Weird. This one was probably full of stuff, but it was locked tight.
Now, the final portscreen. It asked for a word passcode. She typed "password," and it actually worked. Émilie resisted the urge to laugh out l0ud. She scrolled through the contacts. They were all people she didn't know. She saw generic French names like "Emma," "Louis," "Jade," or "Pierre." Desperately, she scrolled through more, suddenly feeling a bout of extreme terror. Hadn't Scarlet mentioned an abandoned house nearby, like a fight club or something?
This couldn't be Scarlet's house. She knew it for a fact. And why had she even picked up the phones, anyway? This had been one whole bad decision from the start, when she first decided to walk to Scarlet's. She had to leave.
Before she could, a crowd of people- if you could call them that- pushed through the same doors she had entered through. They were yelling and screaming rowdily, and all had weird disfigurements or additions, like a portscreen in the arm or teeth on a scalp. And they were all coming towards her.
Émilie heard someone yell, "She's found the portscreens!" as another declared, "Get her out! She found us without the approval!" As any person, guilty or innocent, would do in that situation, Émilie ran. She got as far as the back door before they caught up, and tackled her to the ground. An arm pushed down on her throat
"Why is someone like you here? And why were you not at the meeting place?" the one holding her growled. Past the white spots obscuring her vision, Émilie could see that he had fur all over his body and animalistic appearances. She writhed in panic for a moment, thinking that it was one of Levana's hybrid soldiers, before she realized that those weren't a threat anymore. This man resembled more a bear, perhaps using similar techniques to Luna's scientists to form him. While she had thrashed before, now she couldn't move in terror. What was he doing here? What were all of these people doing here?
She thought of all her assets, and found only one. Attempting to smile prettily as well as she could in her condition, Émilie gestured toward her neck. She was partially released. "Apologies, Mr…. Um- Mr. Bear. I-I was lost looking for my friend's farm," she croaked as sweetly as possible in her current predicament. She figured there was no reason to lie.
The bear-man moved back a little. "Wolf?" he growled.
"You know him?" she asked desperately, hoping for a way out.
"Yeah, I know him," he sneered, glaring at Émilie. "His girlfriend called the police on us one time, right after he became the first one ever to beat me in a match. Sound familiar?"
Émilie shook her head vigorously, trembling with fear.
"I had to change everything about me to escape the humiliation of defeat. The Hunter is no more." Mr. Bear stared into the distance dramatically.
Émilie stifled a snort. Fragile, much? However, his shift had made an opening. She took her chance. Émilie dove between Mr. Bear's legs and ran as fast as she could towards the exit, not bothering to look back. She could hear them following her. They were gaining on her quickly. She put on one last boost of speed, using the last of her energy, drained by the excitement.
To her astonishment, she actually made it. She slammed the door behind her just in time and staggered to a small gathering of bushes nearby as the fighters and spectators pounded on the door behind her. As she crumpled to the ground and her lids slid shut, she briefly wondered whether they would maim her or strangle her and dump her in the woods once they found her in the bushes. Whatever the case, she could do no more now but faint into a dreamless sleep, shaken by the events of the day.
Ch. 2 coming soon!