The eyes of the hunter (II)

The silence between them was heavy. If Snow could cut the air, she would have been able to slice it with a butter knife and probably jump out screaming in the hopes of breaking the silence.

The man looked at her with interest, enjoying the colorful expression that she was giving him. He didn't attack nor even touched her but waited.

"You killed them?" Snow's voice was soft with disbelief. Even though she couldn't move, her lips were able to spit out those words like they were hot pebbles.

"Yes."

"Why?"

Her mind whirled in confusion, telling her that whatever or whoever this man was a serial killer. The thought of being in his hand made her want to run. Still, she tried to circulate her magical energy to break apart from his grasp even if it was a slow process; she diligently attempted to break out.

"Because I am bored." The man casually replied as if it was a typical everyday answer. "Why wouldn't I?"

"You're insane." Snow could feel a bit of her fingers in control.

"I know, darling." He chuckled, "But no matter, I have a name. I shall grace you with it." The way he said it was as if she was in the presence of a priest being blessed by a holy spirit.

"No." Snow didn't want anything to do with him.

Flabbergasted at her sharp denial, he clicked his tongue and shook his head. "That isn't nice, Snow. When you give me your name, it's the same as I give you mine."

"I never gave you mine." She spat. There was no way she would give him her name.

A nod followed after as if he was thinking over what she had just said. "No. I'm quite sure you had. It was even before we met at the Cantosona club. Should I say a few years back when you helped a poor homeless man, living off the street?"

Snow was confused and unsure of what he meant. There were a lot of times when she helped someone out, maybe not as often as she wanted.

"The time when you stopped to give me a pizza as you saw the state of wear I was." He spoke in a serious tone as he was reminiscing of his past. "You saw me sitting out in front of the Galeo's Pizza shop, and you ran in to grab me a pizza box."

"Ah." Remembering the time, she did grab a pizza box for a homeless man and gave him the whole table. But she didn't remember the man's face, it was a bit groggy as the following day she gave food to another homeless person off the streets.

"It seems you don't really remember." The man replied. "No matter, my name is Levian."

Snow wasn't sure how to answer. His name sounded so ordinary; she wasn't sure to stare at him crazily or laugh.

"Levian." Snow caught his attention as he blissfully smiles at her for calling out his name. "How did you turn from a homeless to where you are now?" Snow couldn't help herself from asking.

"Simple. Life." He didn't say anything anymore and shrugged, giving her a very ambiguous answer, which she wanted to kick herself for even asking.

"Now, a man got to go out and change the world." He winked at her at his proud declaration.

Already, her whole arms were in full control, but her leg wouldn't listen. It still wasn't enough.

"What are you trying to do?" Snow tried to stall more for time. "Are you trying to start something that you shouldn't have?"

Levian gave her a fake flabbergasted gasp as if he was very offended. "I never would."

"Lies." Snow hissed. "You killed all those innocent women and children."

With a wave of his hand, Levian didn't find anything wrong with that. "They were for a good cause."

"How is killing people for a good cause? It's disgusting." She spoke out, she was now able to move her upper body.

Levian shook his fingers at her. "They are for the greater good." He threw out his hand in a wide gestor, puffing up at the sight of his grandiose plan. With pride, he continued to rant.

"To save this planet, one needs a Hero to protect it."

Snow wasn't sure how he fell in the category of a Hero. From her view, he was a straight-out villain.

"You are no Hero."

Before she could continue on with her sentence, she was abruptly stopped with a knife at her throat.

"I never said, 'I' was going to be one."

Snow felt a sharp pain pushing into her throat, making her flinch. The cold blade licked her neck, telling her that the wrong one move, and she was going to be gutted.

"Then, who?" She spoke with a shiver of false bravado. "Mike?"

With a loud, angry spat, he cursed. "That fake Hero? That is no Hero!"

For a moment, Snow thought she would die on the spot as his eyes glowed hot red. If she stare any longer, she felt as if she would become trapped in his endless torture.

Pulling back his knife, he turned his back away from her. "You'll see." He reassured her. "You'll see my plan when it comes."

Disappearing into the shadows, Snow was left alone in the dark. The magic that was constraining her was let go, giving her room to breathe. Looking around, she sent out her magic to engulf the room itself to check if he was still there.

"He's gone." Snow let out a sigh, fully realizing that she was alone, all the muscles were finally relaxed.

Her emotions were in an unexpected roller-coaster ride, making her realize how grateful she was that she didn't just cry out in panic, scream, or lose her mind. Better yet, she was happy that she was alive.

She cursed at herself for being so weak. Unable to do anything but be thrown around by a killer as if she was some kind of toy. Her resolve strengthened, she decided to get stronger even magically. No more was she going to be easily overcome by strangers as she promised herself silently.

Without realizing it, she walked out of her door. Looking around, nothing was disturbed.

Her feet quickly carried her towards Heather's room. Turning the doorknob, she noticed that her door was unlocked. Quickly, she turned the doorknob, pushing her way in. Worry creased her body as she wondered what could have happened to her best friend.

Upon entering, she saw disheveled books scattered out the floor as well as her laundry. She could see ripped up clothing and even some form of red splotches soaking the rug.

"Heather?!" Snow ran over in a panic. Praying in her heart that she wasn't dead.

Heather was laid out in an unladylike manner. Her shirt was half pulled up, almost showing a bit of her cleavage, while her hand was rubbing her belly in a circular motion as she smacked her lips a few times.

Snow stopped in front of her bed. She looked down at her friend to check if anything was wrong. So far, she was okay without any problems.

Reaching, over towards the blanket, she pulled it up.

Heather groaned and smacked her lips as she mumbled some incoherent words.

With a shake of her head, Snow looked at her friend's horrible sleeping posture.

"What am I going to do with you?" Snow sighed, glad that her friend was okay. She left the room, closing the door gently behind her.

Snow legs started to shake, making walking difficult. Her jelly-like hand reached out to the nearest chair. She pulled herself up, sitting down with a slump. Flopping over, she leaned on the table as she couldn't sleep. This was going to be a long night as she stayed up to stand guard.

#####

Snow watched Heather walk out of the room with a yawn. She rubbed her belly and played with the end of her hair to come out to grab a cup of coffee and get ready to start another day of her dungeon life.

With a startled yelp, when she saw Snow disheveled self, she couldn't help but speak out. "What the hell happened to you?"

Slowly, her head moved in a bobbing motion, Snow gave Heather a look of "what-do-you-mean-I-look-okay" expression. Her heavy bags under her eyes made her look a bit more wild and crazy from the lack of sleep.

"Did you stay up all night?"

Snow nodded, she felt like her head would fall off from how tired she was.

"Why? Were you too excited to leave or something?"

Snow shook her head no.

"But I thought you were." Reaching up towards the cabinet, she pulled out a bag of coffee. "You were all excited and stuff yesterday. Don't say that you gave up on the notion of going out and doing what you had planned."

With a heavy sigh, Snow dropped her head onto the table and spoke, "No, we had a break-in last night."

Heather froze in midway in putting the coffee pot. "What? Someone broke in?"

"Yea."

"Is that even possible?" Heather placed the pot down, looking over towards Snow as if she was making things up. "I didn't hear anything."

"Because you are a heavy sleeper. The intruder went into my room."

"Come again?!"

Heather quickly walked over towards the table, giving Snow a very concerned expression that told her that she was not okay that she wasn't informed.

"How? There are guards stationed outside…..ish."

"We don't have guards, Heather. I already went and hired a twenty-four-hour guard to watch over this place."

With an exaggerated sigh, Heather was back to her perky self. "That's good. I can't believe I fell asleep through all that though why didn't you wake me up? This is still something serious."

"Because I hired the guard at that time, so we were fine."

"Are you sure you want to be going out during this time?" Heather once again started to brew her coffee. "You want one?"

"No, thanks. I'm going to take a nap. Could you inform the others that the time would be delayed? I don't think I'll have the energy to move right now, or I'll collapse on this journey."

Heather closed the coffee top. "Yea, go on and sleep. Don't worry about it. I'll get the other's ready when you wake up. When you are more sound in mind I'm going to ask you for what has happened."

"Sure." Snow got up, she slugged her way towards her room. Every step she took, her feet felt like weights, pulling her down into the abyss called sleep.

Eventually, she made her way in the bed, taking a moment to look around with her magical energy that still graced the room. She was glad that her magic still hadn't run out. Her paranoia kept the magic fresh.

With every ounce of physical and mental energy she could muster, she plopped herself onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.