Chapter 1: Depths
'Run, don't stop. Run.'
The voice is like sweet butterscotch; a siren's song. It is her voice. A voice I still cherish, but is now a dire warning. I oblige her request and run faster. Rain pelts against my face and blurs the world around me into mixtures of browns and greens. The surrounding forest quakes visibly from an ear-piercing scream echoing around me. My body crouches in reaction to the sound, ducking just in case something comes down at me. Blood trickles down my ears and along my neck, but I refuse to give in to the pain.
Behind me, she follows, if she hasn't caught up already. My eyes search the tree canopies where a flash of gray passes by. It is a beast of a creature known as a Furie. Its bat-like wings flap powerfully, sending gushes of leaves and debris flying past me and pelting my back. It is an ugly creature with gnarled teeth that looks like long needles with dripping yellow saliva that turns to acid when it touches anything. Red eyes with no pupils, bald ashy gray skin. A long, thin tail whips in the air and her hands point into deadly claws and her feet to talons. The worst part of it is that she can shapeshift into a human.
Just hours ago, I was walking down the streets of a small town called Forks, searching for a new location to escape to, especially after my mother's death. When I saw an elderly crone watching me with a wicked smile on her wrinkly face. I knew right then I was being stalked by a Furie.
Humans don't see their cold black eyes or the smell of sulfur that radiates off of them. They can't sense the immediate danger or see the head of snakes that curl and slither under the bandana on her head. They, however, can get pulled into the temptation Furies give off, a kind of way they lure their victims in order to get their vengeance. While we get repulsed. With a blink of my eyes, this woman tore from his human flesh and into the monster of old. Red eyes gleamed at me from seven feet high. The very sight twisted my insides, and I leaped into action.
Here I am now, running for my dear life, the Furie's wings tearing at the tops of the tightly knitted trees. Screeching louder as it gets angrier that it can't reach me. One would think I am safe, but I know if I stop, she'd shapeshift into a human again and enter the forest that way.
Luckily, my speed is faster than the average human's. I bolt around trees and boulders. Up ahead, I see the gray sky and its beckoning horizon. The sound of waves crashing against rock barely reaches my ears between the Furie's screams. My legs have never ached so much in my entire life. This isn't normal for me. Running isn't my thing. My mother and I would have had to kill this monster, but now that my mother is gone, so are all our weapons. I was left alone, without protection in a world full of monsters and humans. With me caught in-between.
We were meant to kill monsters, like Furie's and demons. Coming from a long lineage that dates back to the Greek Gods, back when Artemis, the Goddess of the hunt, granted my family with particular abilities. This is when demons, vampires, werewolves, and more ran from us instead of hunting.
They want me like they wanted my mother. They want me all because my father was…
The world ends below me. A clash of salty air stings my cheeks and I am tumbling down towards the black water that cascades against the cliff walls behind me. Landing in the water is like hitting a brick wall. Everything tingles painfully. The current is strong, tumbling me here and there, like a rag doll; all around is darkness. No light. The air quickly leaves my lungs the more I am battered.
At my sides, my arms wail. I don't know which way is up and which way is down. Golden brown locks tangle up in my face, and I claw to release my sight from my hair. But I am thrown back. Something hard smacks into my head, and a crack echoes in my ears. My body becomes stiff and unmoving, even against the current.
The edges of my vision blur. But I manage to see before me, amongst the darkness of the depths, my mother and father. My mother's green eyes and my father's celestial blue. He smiles as bright as the sun. It is like how I last saw him when I was six before he was killed.
'I'm sorry,' is all I can think, 'I failed you.'
My father reaches for me; a welcoming hand opens and upright as if beckoning for me to grab it. He's always been strong, toned, and sun-kissed. With little energy, I reach for his hand, and as I do, another current smashes me against the cliff. My head slams against the rock once again, but this time, my vision goes black.
'I'm sorry, Furiae,' is all I can hear them say.