Page 6

The Hunter

It’s not very often that people surprise me.

I expect the worst from everyone, even myself. Especially myself.

But when that voice registers through the fog of agony clouding my head, all I can feel is astonishment and the cold press of metal in the back of my skull.

“Glad you could figure that out, Jason Scott. Now let’s see those hands, otherwise, this

single bullet will find its way in both of your fucking heads.”

The exact feeling is reflected on Jay’s face as his features slacken and eyes widen, his voice saturated with utter bewilderment as he mouths, “You?”

“Yes. Me.”

Mother… fucker.

My mind races, circulating through each encounter with her and trying to figure out how the fuck I missed this—missed her being a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

She played her part pretty fucking well.

“This really hurts my feelings, you know,” I say through clenched teeth, the muscle in my jaw pulsating.

“Why do I get the feeling that you’ll get over it?”

A man’s tortured scream rings out from someplace to my left, the heavy smoke concealing him.

A bomb went off somewhere, blasting me back into the stone altar they used for their sacrificial rituals. I’ve no idea what the fuck kind of damage I took, but if the increasing pain in my entire body is anything to go by, I need to get to a hospital.

And I don’t need a fucking fortune teller to inform me that getting help is not in my near future.

The man-made underground cave we’re in is still swarmed with chaos, wails of agony and terror bouncing off the stone walls, worsening the pounding in my skull.

This hellhole is where the Society sacrifices children. Some type of initiation in order to be welcomed into a club that provides them with an ample number of innocents to rape and murder.

Leaked videos surfaced on the dark web, the first one being nine months ago. Since then, I have worked day and night to get into this ritual.

And I finally did.

But evidently, the Society saw me coming and planned for my arrival.

Dan—the man who got me in—had mentioned they caught the culprit who was leaking the videos.

I was too distracted to realize the trap when another video popped up on the web afterward. A video that was intentionally uploaded, knowing that I’d see it and find my way into the club. They were drawing me in so they could take me out.

“You cost me a little girl, Z,” the bitch says from behind me.

“Sounds like you knew that was a risk,” I counter, a tad breathless. It hurts to even fucking breathe, and the pain is growing by the second.

The little girl who was offered up to me and three other men on the altar had been taken out of here, hopefully before the explosion. I entrusted her safety with one of my men, Michael, and I haven’t heard from him yet.

“Both of you—up. You’re coming with me.”

“I may be a tad fucked up at the moment, but don’t expect me not to kill you the first chance I get,” I warn, nearly groaning when my back spasms. Fuck me, more than anything, I wish this shit were like in the movies where getting blasted by a bomb and proceeding to save the world directly after was possible.

“You’re not going to do that, Z. You want to know why?”

I freeze, a sinking feeling already forming in the pit of my stomach. It’s like the mouth of Jaws just opened up, and my heart is the unsuspecting swimmer about to get swallowed whole. She better not say what the fuck I think she’s going to say, or I’m going to lose my shit.