The Runaway Huntress

Bang! Bang!

 The gunshots made her stop on her tracks as she looked behind, though she was already kilometers away from them. "No! Dad! No!"

 She suddenly woke up, panting heavily. She had dreamt of it again. It's been nine years, and yet the memory always haunts her. The guilt of leaving her parents behind to save herself devours her. The pain left her numb and void inside. Since she can't sleep anymore, she got out of bed and went to the bathroom.

 Facing the sink, she turned on the water and splashed the cold liquid on her face. Looking herself up in the mirror, water dripping from her chin. Then she stared into her dead eyes, slowly coming alive as golden rings like rays of the sun about to set were staring back at her. A sight anyone could gasp for. The burning yellow formed in her black pupils as memories flashed. Even the cleanest, coldest of water can't tame her raging anger. The scene haunts her even when she's wide awake.

  "Mom!" The cries of an eight-year-old girl. Her mother was held captive by two strange men that suddenly barged into their home.

 "Go to your daddy, sweetie. Go to him!" Melicia pleaded for her daughter to escape.

 "Go! You need to listen to me! Please save yourself. Run, Melisca! Run!"

 The child followed her mother's request. Her little feet shouldn't be taken lightly, for she has the speed of a wolf.

 Another memory shifted when she was barely eighteen.

  "I said run!" Her father shouted, holding down his brother.

 "No! I'll fight with you!" She stated bravely.

 "Your mother wanted you to live. Don't put it for nothing, Melisca! Only know that we both love you endlessly. Go! Run for your life! Leave!" Cabril can't hold his brother down much longer.

 With tears of hopelessness, she turned around and started running away for her life.

 She closed her eyes as she shut down the memories that were engraved on her mind. Faces of her parents pleading for her life, their cries for her to escape, repeatedly crushing her inside. Even gasping for air was painful enough. Hot tears she didn't know had been bottled up, sliding down her pale cheeks. Hatred was even an understatement of what she felt by then. She exhaled heavily to somehow ease the pain of her constricting chest.

 Haven't noticed that her grip on the sink made the concrete crumble, and blood dripped from her hands down to the tiled floor. Opening her eyes, gradually, the yellow faded, wishing that pain would go along with it, but it remained deep within her soul. She can almost taste in the air her greed for revenge, the boiling sensation erupting inside her. Though reeking of spicy anger, she welcomed the feelings, for it's what's only keeping her alive. The courage to breathe beyond the guilt that was suffocating her. She placed her hands in the running water, watching her own blood flush down. A thought that soon it would be their blood she's cleansing away from her bare hands. Then the cut closed itself. But her soul could never be healed, laying inside her in broken shards.

 She trutted out of the bathroom and went to the terrace. The apartment she's temporarily staying in was a shabby one, as with the whole building. She won't be there for long. She arrived yesterday, only there to capture someone. A wanted criminal for killing his wife in jealousy.

 Melisca Lorwey is a bounty huntress. She works for the authorities. She started eight years ago when she saw on TV an ad about a missing criminal with a large amount on his head. Giving it a shot since she's only living by herself and can't get a stable job.

 After two days, she presented the criminal to the police station and applied to be their bounty hunter. At first, they denied her application because she doesn't have any knowledge of law enforcement, but she challenged them. If she succeeds in her second hunting, the job would be hers, and the pay would be the exact amount of the deal. Since then, she had never failed any single assignment they had given her.

 She loves her job, the adrenaline of every chase, the thrill of every hunt, and the feeling of triumph upon capturing and surrendering them to the authorities. But she doesn't want to stop there. She would kill them soon. Her family murderers. After this assignment, she would take leave from her job to start hunting her own criminals.

 She saw the cigarette box she had left there yesterday night, taking a stick and lighting one. Her view from up above was not that bad. She was on the sixth floor of the building. The shadows of the sun were sneaking to show up, chasing the night sky away. 

 Looking down at the empty street, something moved there that caught her attention. A figure hiding in the shadows. She zoomed in her eyesight, bringing out the yellow rings in her pupils. That happens whenever she uses her wolf sight or strains to use her abilities.

 Smelling the air, she immediately knew the scent that confirmed what she was seeing. The figure below is her man to capture. But she sensed something else. There were other people in the area, hiding in every corner. So, there were also others hunting her bounty, but she won't allow them to take him from her. 

 She quickly went inside and wore the clothes she'd taken off before going to bed. A gun in her waist, knives inserted in both her boots, then she put on her leather jacket, hiding her pistol. Twisted her long hair into a bun and lastly her black mask that covers her nose down to her chin so she won't be recognised easily. She snatched her phone on the table and glanced at the time. It's already 4:30 am. She pocketed her phone in the zipper lock of her jeans and left the apartment. Nothing else to take with her.

 As she passed down the lobby, the caretaker's snore at the reception desk was loud enough to be heard in the entire ground floor. Walking past him, the whole building seemed quiet, undisturbed. Sneaking out, sensing her surroundings, nothing changed. It seems like her bounty was still in the same area where she had seen him from above her room. But before getting to him first, she had to take down her competition silently.

 She sensed someone near the street across the apartment building. Since it's still dark around, maybe no one would notice her inhumane speed as she used it to get the first person down. He hadn't even responded when she appeared behind him. He was knocked down on the ground after she punched his jaw, which probably got broken because of the cracking sound.

 "One down. Many more to go." She sighed and moved on to her next target, careful to get unnoticed.

 Her bounty showed up to the street and walked carelessly like nothing's going on. She just knocked up the third person when she saw him moving away from the area where he was hiding.

 "What's he doing?" Sensing that the people around were following him also, she moved then. "Oh no, I won't let them have you." She's about to run on the next target when she heard a charging of a gun, and that made her turn in its direction. Hurrying to that person before he pulls the trigger, she appeared right in front of the gun, which made the man startled. That was reckless, for he could have shot her unintentionally, but he only flinched. Though it wouldn't kill her if he did.

 "W-who are you?" He asked, pointing the gun directly to her chest. He sounded frantic. In just a blink, she was now behind him and his gun at her hands, pointing to the side of his head. Melisca held the guy hostage by strangling him.

 "Shh. Make any noise and I'll pull its trigger." She whispered in his ear, then she pushed him on the ground, completely locking his body, unable to get free. If he's struggling to get up, she can't even feel his strength.

 "W-what are you?" She could hear the tremble in his voice and felt the rapid heartbeat of his body.

 "Human, of course." Partly true. "Why are you after him?"

 Another gun-clicking sound caught her ears. She jabbed her captive by the end of the gun at the side of his head, which made him unconscious. A quiet sound of a silencer made her leap to her bounty and push him aside, which made them crash into a solid wall. The bullet almost got her, but it went straight to the lamppost, broken. Now, no light was visible in the area, only the glow of the moon fading above.

 She groaned when something suddenly pricked her. It made her lower body unable to move. Melisca tumbled on the ground as she saw the syringe sticking out from her right leg. Then she was surrounded by the people she followed earlier. The men she took down one by one. Now, their guns were pointed at her. Great.

 "Finally got you, bounty hunter." The person she just saved spoke.