The Hunters

Dillon paced back and forth across his room, thinking. His blood boiled.
I can’t believe her, he thought. How can she say that I am in
danger when I’m with her?
He said this without thinking and couldn’t bear to think about the
reality of what he was saying. The thought of the fact that Willow
could hurt him crossed his mind and his arms got goose bumps as he
remembered when Willow had drank from him. He shivered.
Suddenly, there was a thump down the hall, followed by a series
of hard-falling, booted footsteps. They were coming his way.
Dillon went immediately to the door. He opened the door just
wide enough to see down the hallway of the shabby apartment
building.
It was the Hunters. He quickly closed the door. Then, with his back
against the door, his mind began to race.
They were here for Willow, or maybe they wanted Church or Juliet
or Kris. They might even be here for Stasia.
Please not Willow. He thought. Then he remembered that Church,
Juliet, and Kris were gone.
The footsteps passed his door and stopped…and so did Dillon’s
heart.
“OPEN THE DOOR!” said a Hunter in a thunderous voice, scaring
Dillon. He heard Willow’s door splinter under a pressure unknown to
Dillon.
Dillon froze. He wanted to burst out and tell the Hunters to go
away and never come back, but he knew that that would only get
him killed and wouldn’t help Willow at all.
Then a scream rang out freezing Dillon’s blood, blood tainted with
Willow’s essence.

Willow screamed as Dillon heard more thumps as she struggled
against her captors.

A silent tear rolled down Dillon’s face as he heard Willow plead.
“Dillon!!” she yelled in a sobbing voice. “Help, Dillon. Please!”

Dillon continued to hear her cries for help, through his tears he
heard her fade away. He then heard the tenants of the nearby
apartments come out into the hallway, muttering in disbelief.
Something came over Dillon in that moment, causing him suddenly
to fear no one. He got up, grabbing up his phone and rushed out of
his apartment.
He ran straight into Stasia.
“What the - !” Seeing that it was just Stasia, he walked right past her,
towards Willow’s apartment.
“Sorry, Cranky.” She said in her usual sarcastic voice but it changed
when she saw Willow’s apartment door. “Was that -? Did they -?” she
said unable to find the words to finish as she saw the door splintered
all over the hallway.
“Yes they did.” He said through his teeth. His phone, still in his hand,
was almost crushed in his fist.
He carefully stepped across the threshold into Willow’s kitchen. The
apartment was a wreck; there was a trail of broken things along the
path in which they had dragged Willow.
“Oh my Goddess!” Stasia cried as she saw the mess, putting her
hand over her mouth.
Dillon followed the path of destruction through the apartment,
stepping from the living room into the little hallway that lead to
Willow’s bedroom and to the closet that she used as an art room for
her paintings.
The path led to the art room. The hall seemed like an endless
journey. He picked up the phone and pressed speedial #1. It rang
as he stepped into Willow’s art room. He took in the wrecked room,
the splattered paint and ripped canvas. Willow’s paintings were
destroyed.
Church picked up on the third ring. “What’s wrong, Dillon?”
A silent tear rolled down Dillon’s cheek as he took in the realization
of the situation.
“She’s gone, Church. They took Willow.”