Chapter
One
The helicopters
buzzed like agitated bees over the LA freeway car chase. On the ground, an army
of police cruisers slowly trailed a green Taurus. The driver had distracted the
police and kept the networks busy for almost an hour, but its main goal was
avoiding the black Mustang lingering behind the chase.
Seething in the
black Mustang, Lila knew she should give up the hunt. Knew any other hunter
with more years under her belt would have given up as soon as the villain ran a
red light and caught the cop’s attention. Knew no conceivable plan ended with
her killing the monster with all these humans in between her and the target.
Lila knew all
this, but refused to relent to the bad guy - let alone admit her failure. She
would find a way to kill this villain even if it took her another hour.
No matter the
cool Southern California weather, Lila felt
overheated. Every inch of exposed flesh stuck to the Mustang’s leather seats.
Sweat stung her hazel eyes even after she flicked the air conditioner to high.
The heat came from her forever roaring temper.
Lila hated the
Mustang. Hated the human who owned it and only listened to weird music. Hated
the police for their passivity during the chase. Hated the helicopters for
watching and videotaping everything. Hated the villain for wasting everyone’s
time. Hated herself for allowing the villain to have its fun when it should
have been dead hours earlier.
Most of all,
she hated the annoying itch along her spine. Hunting her for three days, the
itch caused Lila to lose her concentration this morning, allowing the villain
to escape. Yes, most of all, Lila hated the itch.
It was still
there too. Still invisible to her sight while making plans about her future.
Her itch was a powerful being - something much grander than she or the villain
in the Taurus - and it clearly viewed Lila as a target.
How much
simpler things had seemed three days earlier when Lila arrived in LA. She found
a villain’s paradise with hordes of bad guys, endless victims, and not a hunter
in sight. Quickly stopping much of the mayhem she witnessed, Lila embraced the
city as more than just the perfect vacation spot. For an eager hunter looking
to do real damage, LA appeared to be an ideal home base.
Yet during her
first day in the city, Lila felt the itch - that piercing, relentless,
maddening itch - while she hunted a dozen villains with a criminal racket in Long Beach. At first, she
refused to acknowledge this new player to the game. When she hit rough traffic
in downtown LA though, Lila made her move and lost her stalker with some fancy
driving.
The itch caught
up with her the next day while she walked down Main Street at Disneyland.
Once again, Lila found it easier to ignore the problem. She focused on getting
a picture with Mickey Mouse and riding roller coasters. All day, she felt the
itch tailing her as she played tourist.
It hovered nearby
while she ate at Pizza Planet. It lingered while she shopped for shirts in
Downtown Disney. It even joined her on the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. All
the while, Lila tried to spot her stalker to no avail.
That night,
Lila bunked at the Disney Hotel along with the itch who never strayed far.
The next
morning, Lila lost her itch again and headed back to LA, looking for villains
to kill. Finding three with a woman in their trunk, Lila got to work. She
quickly dispatched two villains before the itch reemerged, stronger than ever.
Turning towards
its powerful presence, Lila lost her concentration just long enough for the
last villain to escape and steal the Taurus. Taking the Mustang, Lila gave
chase. The police soon joined in and she ended up playing the odd man out.
From her spot
behind all of the police cruisers, Lila could barely see the Taurus. As if to
irritate her even more, the phone in her duffle bag began to ring again.
For nearly
three days since Lila left his Nevada
safe house, Sawyer had been trying to track her down. She assumed he wanted to
lecture her on how new she was to hunting and just how careful she needed to
be. Knowing Sawyer would love to hear about her present predicament, Lila
ignored the phone.
Maybe it was
her pouty lips or sun-kissed face, but something about Lila made other hunters
want to baby her. They felt compelled to take her under their wings and tell
her she was doing everything wrong. Whatever those old dog hunters thought
about Lila, she didn’t possess a fragile bone in her body.
Lila’s
personality was all bite and no bark. Never one for strategy, she instead ran
toward danger, never from it. Lila wasn’t a thinker, but a doer which was why
hunters like Sawyer annoyed her so much. How difficult could it be to stay
alive if a hunter thought a problem to death and never left his safe house?
Hiding didn’t appeal to Lila, so she came to LA to cause trouble on her own.
Unfortunately,
trouble was what she was in as the itch nipped at her spine once again. A taunting
fear slipped into Lila’s consciousness as she accepted how the itch’s patience
would eventually wear out and whatever it wanted would come due.
Maybe it was this
fear, but when the phone rang again, Lila answered.
Sawyer sighed
loudly at the sound of Lila’s voice. So loudly, she had to pull the phone away
from her ear.
“Baby girl, I
was sure you were dead. Just positive,” he said then called out to his wife
Daisy, “Lila’s alive after all. I guess I owe you a twenty.”
“If you were so
sure I was dead, why did you keep calling?”
“You were
ignoring me, huh?” Sawyer grumbled like a dad having to track down his wayward
teen.
“No, I’ve just
been busy.”
“Sure, baby
girl. I did think you were dead, but Daisy saw this thing on TV and figured you
were mixed up in it somehow. I told her if you were alive, you’d never be dumb
enough to get into a rumble with the cops. She said I ought to call you again
and so here we are.”
Dumb. Lila was a lot of things –
impulsive, impatient, insensitive to the feelings of others - but dumb wasn’t
one of them. Yet her failure to kill this villain itched at her ego, much like
the itch of being hunted by something more powerful than her.
Lila couldn’t
share any of these concerns with Sawyer. The suffocating surrogate daddy who
thought Lila was too inexperienced and reckless to leave Nevada.
“Daisy’s right
again,” Lila said. “I’m killing this villain, no matter how many cops stand in
my way.”
“Yeah, good
luck with that, but you’ve got bigger problems.”
“How do you
figure?”
“A big dog’s caught
your scent.”
Lila rolled her
eyes, already desperate to get off the phone. “What does that mean?”
“It means
you’re on some big dog’s radar and now he wants to find you.”
“So?”
“So this guy
had wild vibes that scared the Dobermans half to death. Quite frankly, even
Daisy and I were terrified of him.”
Lila sighed,
ready for more babying, more unnecessary worrying and advice.
“I still have
no clue what you’re talking about.”
“The day you
left, a hunter showed up looking for you. Said his name was Roman.”
“I don’t know
any Roman, but who cares? Why are you all freaked over a hunter?”
“He was like no
hunter I’ve ever met and he was real keen on finding you. When he first showed
up, I figured he was just a male sniffing around the new girl in town. This
guy’s vibes weren’t normal though. We’ve also been hearing rumors about a rogue
big dog. Since you’ve been making some noise lately, I figured a rogue might want
to take you out.”
Combing her
dark auburn hair into a ponytail while driving with her knees, Lila asked, “If
he’s rogue, why didn’t he kill you and Daisy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he
threaten you?”
“No. He was a
friendly enough fellow, but his vibes felt wrong. The dogs hated him.”
“They hate me
too.”
Sawyer paused,
as if once again wondering why his dogs disliked Lila so much. Apparently deciding
he had bigger issues before him, Sawyer continued.
“Yeah, but not
like they hated Roman.”
“Okay, well,
this is all very interesting, but…”
“But nothing,
baby girl. This guy wanted to find you bad. Said he knew you’d been here. I
told him you’d gone east. He acted like he believed me, but his car headed
west.”
Roman. Ah, so her itch had a name.
A big dog felt
right with the level of power radiating from the itch. Unless he meant her harm
though, why all of the cloak and dagger? Lila worried again, but then Sawyer’s
words reminded her why fear was the enemy.
“You ought to
hightail it out of LA and come back to the safe house.”
“What for?”
“To be safe,
Lila. What do you think safe houses are for?”
To hide from a hunter’s duty. It’s what Lila
thought, but didn’t dare say. Sawyer might be a pain, but he meant well. He was
also one of the few hunters she trusted.
“Ok, I’ll head
back once I’m done with this villain.”
“You’re
kidding, right?” Sawyer said with a rambunctious laugh. “Sweetie, you’ve got no
shot at this villain. Just give up the chase and head back here before Roman
tracks you down.”
“I’m not
letting this villain live.”
“You know, this
is exactly why I didn’t want you going out on your own. You’ve got the hunter
sickness. We all have to fight it, but you’ve already got it bad.”
“Don’t Sawyer
me, girl,” he growled then sighed. “Look, God made hunters beautiful and strong
and fairly indestructible which makes us arrogant. It’s our Achilles’ heel,
Lila. We ain’t got freewill like the humans, so to make things a bit trickier
for us, God gave us the burden of giant egos. Your ego’s gonna be the end of
you.”
Even if Lila
wanted to bail this chase and head back to Nevada to hide from the scary big dog, the
itch would just follow her. No, she needed to ditch Roman before she made her
escape from LA. That was when the exit strategy Lila had been waiting for
finally emerged.
“See you soon,
Sawyer.”
“Lila, wait…”
Hanging up,
Lila tossed the phone in her duffle bag. Rummaging through the bag, past the
Mickey Mouse ears and an assortment of weapons, she found her Glock.
This exit
strategy was like all her strategies - do whatever necessary to win.
Lila wasn’t
sure why she took so long to see what was always in front of her. Maybe her
confidence had wavered because of the itch and losing the villain? Yet her old
arrogance roared back to life and her plan was clear. The villain’s escape
ended now.
Hanging from
the Mustang’s window, Lila took aim at the police cruiser bringing up the rear of
the chase. Firing once, she watched the shot rip through the back tire, causing
the cruiser to hobble to the divider. Giving the gas pedal a kick, Lila raced
towards the army of cruisers ahead of her, dodging the ones she could and taking
shots at those she couldn’t.
For a few
minutes, chaos reigned as cars screeched and shuddered from the chase’s sudden shift.
Once Lila spied God corralling the humans to safety behind her, she made a
beeline for her fleeing villain.
Up ahead, the
Taurus sped over a bridge with only a metal railing separating the road from
the gorge below. Seeing her chance, Lila exchanged the Glock for a flare. She
pressed the gas pedal to the ground and aimed for the Taurus.
While lighting
the flare, Lila felt the itch’s presence growing again. In the rearview, she
only spotted approaching police cars. Somewhere the itch lurked though,
watching the chase play out. If Roman wanted to see what Lila was made of, she
was happy to give him a show.
Roaring into
the Taurus, the Mustang shoved both cars through the railing. Spiraling once,
the Mustang landed atop the Taurus and smashed it into the ground. Lila’s flare
ensured both cars soon burst into flames.
The fire
billowed smoke high into the air, causing the choppers to back off from their bird’s
eye views of the crash. As a legion of police cruisers lined the highway and
their occupants stared down at the fiery mess below, the villain’s run for
freedom came to an end.
And the itch’s job just got a little bit
harder.
