Hey everyone! Thanks again for all your great reviews, you know what I'm gonna say - keep it up! I know I'm mean for leaving that last chapter where I did... hee hee! Oh well, here's the next chapter. Oh, and to 'prettygirl' - it's not always easy to fight back when someone hurts you, keep reading to find out more! Thanks again and enjoy...
When Hunter got home, he knew something was wrong. Maggie had been crying.
"Mum, what's wrong?" he asked her, worried. But she wouldn't answer him, or meet his eye.
"Mum?" he asked more urgently.
"How could you Hunter?" she said, her eyes filling up with tears. "After everything, how could you lie to us?"
"Lie? Mum, I don't understand. What are you talking about?" he asked, suddenly scared.
"You know exactly what she's talking about." Phil's voice came from behind him. "Where were you today?"
"At work."
"But it was your day off?"
"I told you, Kelly called last minute. It was an emergency."
"Really? So why was it that when we called in to see you Kelly told us that she hadn't asked you to work today? In fact, told us that she'd never called you to come in on any day you said she had. How do you explain that?"
Hunter felt dizzy. "I, I don't know…"
"You don't know, eh? Maybe I can jog your memory." A blow knocked Hunter to the floor. Darkness clouded his eyes and he could taste blood. He heard Maggie scream. Phil knelt down next to him and put his face close to his.
"Do you know what else Kelly said?"
Hunter shook his head.
"She says that work finishes at five for you, not six. She even lets you go early if business is slow and she also say's you're always disappearing during the day. So where do you go for that time, eh?" Before Hunter could answer, Phil carried on, "I'll tell you shall I? She says you spend all your time at the racetrack. Apparently you're a bike racer. Quite good she reckoned."
Hunter stared at Phil in fear as he drew closer; "I can explain..." he tried to whisper but was cut off by another blow, which left his ears ringing.
"I'm sure you can. But it ends now, y'hear. I've called Kelly and said you are unable to work there anymore. There won't be anymore little outings for you. Get to your room. Now!"
Hunter got up, his legs shaking. He felt light-headed and sick. It was all he could do to get to his room without falling over. The beating that followed was one of the worse he had ever known. When he finally came to, it was morning. The door to his bedroom was locked. With a groan he dragged himself over to the sink. The face in the mirror was hardly recognizable as his. Both eyes were swollen and turning purple and his lip, where he had bitten it was red and puffy. He looked at the time. Nearly eleven. He should have been at Ninja Ops hours ago. He'd promised Sensei. He was going to talk to him, try and explain what was happening, but that clearly wasn't going to happen now. What would they be thinking? He'd let them down again. He felt so helpless.
An hour later the door was unlocked and Maggie came in carrying a tray of food. Her eyes were slightly red.
"Oh Hunter baby!" she sniffed. "Look at the state of you." She stroked his hair and held an ice pack to the side of his head. "But you brought this upon yourself you know. Bike racing? After what happened to your…" her voice cracked. She started again, suddenly angry, "How could you lie to us? You know what he's like."
Hunter didn't answer.
She stood up quickly, knocking the tray of food flying. She just stared at the mess, then said, "He says I can leave your door unlocked, but you're not to leave the house. Understand?"
He nodded. With a sad smile she left him. He looked at the food, his stomach growled hungrily but he didn't move. He was just numb.
"Where is he?" Blake said. "I know he's been late recently, but a whole hour? He's gonna have a hard time explaining this one to Sensei. He promised he'd be here. Where is he?"
"I don't know. I don't think he's going to turn up." Shane said.
Little did they know that at that particular time, Hunter was barely conscious in his room. Sensei, after another glance at the clock, sadly decided to start the session without him, in the hope that he would turn up soon. But the training session ended without a sign of Hunter.
Blake grabbed Shane as they went to leave. "I'm worried. This isn't like Hunter."
"Hunter hasn't been very much like the Hunter we know recently." Shane said.
"Will you come with me, to see him? He respects you; you might be able to talk some sense into him."
"Either talk or beat some into him." Shane remarked. He saw the expression on Blake's face. "Oh all right. I want to have a look at his new house anyway. We'll go after you knock off from work. The way he's been recently, it wouldn't surprise me if he's at Storm Chargers."
But before they could get there their morphers beeped with the news that an alien had been sighted.
Shane raised his eyebrows at Blake. "Looks like Kelly's gonna have to wait."
Blake nodded, "She's gonna start to get suspicious man, I swear." he sighed, "Me, Hunter and Dustin are always leaving work at odd hours."
"Well, look on the bright side. At least we'll get a chance to speak to Hunter afterwards." With that he was off towards the quarry, where, surprise surprise, the alien had been found.
"That's assuming he turns up." Blake muttered to himself before running after Shane...
