1 Chapter 1: THEM

The memory was fuzzy. Like a big pink eraser had come through, blurring the scenery. I knew there had to be a floor, because I had tried to run away. I knew there were things, maybe people around me, because I had run around and over the obstacles. I knew I had worn tennis shoes with laces because they had tripped me right when I thought I could get away.

The only clear pictures were of the... well, they weren't people. They walked differently. They were regal.

One was a girl, tall and lithe. She reminded me of a panther, a toned huntress, proud and majestic.

The other was a man. If the girl was a panther, the man was an elephant. Easily six and a half feet tall and made of pure muscle, but without the awkwardness of extreme bodybuilders.

It was like they had been made to compliment and oppose each other perfectly.

She was speed.

He was strength.

She was dark, from her skin to her clothes.

He was light, from his hair to his knuckles.

I was leaning against something when their gazes met mine. I hadn't seen their eyes before. They were chilling. They were not the eyes of anyone I had ever seen before. They were the eyes of hunters.

My breath stopped and my heart sped. I couldn't move. The hunters prowled forward, but all I could do was watch until I could read the insignia on their jackets. Four ornamented letters stared back at me. T- H- E- M.

Who was THEM?

It was the humor of the question that knocked me back to common sense. Finally I could do what my mind had screamed... RUN!

I had always been fast. Always. I knew where I was going, all the shortcuts, all the things that could slow me down. My breath was not even ragged after minutes of running at full speed. With all the certainty of youth, I was invincible.

I remember aging in that fall.

I was not invincible.

Not even close.

Tripped up by a stupid shoelace.

That didn't even matter. The Panther was waiting in front of me and The Elephant was steadily gaining behind me. I would never have escaped.

Never.