Chapter Ten

The Cruel Awakening

She woke up with the aggravating sound of urgent, rushed movements throughout the house – agitated, rushed voices, quick steps going down the stairs, heavy steps walking fast in the living room. Naya couldn't detect any type of panic, but she could feel the nerves and anxiety.

It immediately sent her on edge. Her heart was racing and she was restless, borrowing from the tension that lingered around the place. It was impossible to stay in bed, she had to get up and find out what was wrong.

She searched for Luke, quickly finding him looking out the window of their bedroom. He was gazing outside, contemplating the skies, tense, obviously nervous and stressed – he knew something that she didn't, it was like he felt something was coming.

It only helped in making her feel worse.

The sun wasn't even close to coming up yet, but the night wasn't deep anymore and the city looked completely peaceful and in calm slumber. But Naya could feel it – the heavy atmosphere outside, like impending disaster about to happen.

"What is going on?" she whispered. Luke looked at her, intense, but unable to communicate what he already knew. He climbed up her body and settled in his usual spot on her shoulder.

She got out of the room just in time to see Nicole, Matt and Adam leaving the house in a hurry, all of them dressed with the same black uniform.

Before closing the door, Adam still found enough time to say, towards the stairs, "Kayla, don't you dare leave this house, you hear me?"

"Stop worrying about me," Kayla replied from upstairs, "just be careful and come back safe, please." The heavy note of concern in her voice was scary.

Adam smirked. "I always do." He winked at her and quickly left, closing the door behind him.

Naya couldn't possibly stay behind, she had to know what was going on. She waited until she heard Kayla's bedroom door closing and, ignoring Adam's advice, followed the Hunters outside.

It was cold and humid and there was no wind, no draft, nothing moved, almost as if Aurora had stopped in time. There was no noise, no birds singing or flying, no cats running – nothing. The sleepy city already knew something was about to happen.

Naya had no idea where Adam and the others had gone, but she knew they had gone there fast – there was no sign of them anywhere. She ran to the end of the street, turned right, ran ahead some more and faced a usually busier part of the city, with a lot more movement and action than their quiet street.

For the first time that night, she saw a few people outside, walking around, their pace hastened, as if they also knew something was wrong by instinct alone.

Suddenly, an alarm rang and it was so loud, Naya had no problem believing it could be heard throughout the whole city. It was painfully loud, urgent and pierced the skies with unforgiving, fierce power, spreading fear and doubt. It was also getting louder and louder, growing, feeding off of anxiety and looming danger. It was a warning.

The few people that were once walking were now running, hiding and it didn't took longer than a couple of stressed moments for the whole area to become completely deserted.

The alarm stopped echoing. The silence was heavy, almost palpable and the deathly stillness left her feeling vulnerable, paranoid, unprotected. It was deeply unnerving. She frantically searched for a sign of peril anywhere, resting against a wall, heart pumping so fast she could almost hear it and feel the blood racing.

Suddenly, something crashed against the building in front of her. Naya tried to shield herself from the falling debris and explosive noise, crushing herself against the wall and protecting her head and Luke with her arms.

It was a beast, clawing its way up the tall building, roaring savagely on its way. It was gigantic, much larger and bigger than Luke in his original form. It had strong, feathered wings, its face resembled that of a starving, feral lion with rows of sharp, long teeth on its mouth. It walked on all fours, with strong, muscular legs and varied shapes of claws, destroying everything on its way.

Naya was in shock, completely paralyzed by fear and surprise. She had never seen anything like it before. It was so real.

"It's a Sin!" she said, almost out of breath.

Luke's glare and defensive, strong posture confirmed what she already, instinctively, knew. It was a Sin, but it wasn't hers, it belonged to someone else, one of her siblings. She didn't even know its name.

The Sin stared at her with defiance, roaring menacingly. She was terrified, frozen, couldn't move. The creature lunged to the ground, landing on the road right in front of her, shattering stone and shaking the ground due to its brutal weight. It ran to her and she wanted to scream but couldn't remember how, she didn't know how to move, forgot how to breathe. Luke jumped out of her arms and stood in front of her, growling furiously, his hair rough and erect, ready to fight for her. She desperately wanted to grab him, but couldn't move or react.

The beast stopped in front of them, massive in size and splendor. It recoiled slightly at the sight of Luke, small and fragile as he looked and, upon looking at Naya, recoiled even more, even taking a small step back. It seemed to have been taken by surprise and then it hit Naya that the Sin could probably tell what she was. It was now hungrily roaring and lunging at them, its threatening sharp teeth in full display, its ferocious, wild eyes promising death, and then retreating slightly again, like it was indecisive, fighting both instincts all Sins shared – devour and destroy everything and self-preservation. If it knew Naya was a Keeper, it knew she was designed to kill it.

There was an impasse and Naya was seriously dreading the end of it. The beast moved to the right and Luke followed it, growling, much more confident and valiant than Naya thought he should be in their current situation.

Eventually, the Sin made a decision – and it was the one Naya had feared. It decided they were worth the risk and attacked.

It happened too quickly for Naya to even comprehend it. The Sin lunged at her again, this time to devour. She had no reaction, the only thing she saw were rows of dangerously sharp teeth ready to tear her apart.

Before she could even scream, something violently hit the beast, causing it to lose its balance and fall to the ground, mid-jump. Naya couldn't see what had done it and didn't have time to wonder, finally awaken from her deadly stupor, she ducked and threw herself to the ground just in time to evade the Sin's swinging tail, as it had quickly turned around, probably trying to find what had hit it. The tail alone carelessly shattered all the windows of the building behind her on impact, so she had no doubt it would've at least broken some of her human-like fragile bones.

Ignoring the chaos for a moment, she quickly got up and ran to Luke, who was lost in the middle of the confusion of debris and angry beast, though to his credit, he didn't seem the least bit overwhelmed, unlike his Keeper. She grabbed him, held him in her arms and turned to see the Sin's tail and back legs ready to strike her as it violently moved, its attention focused on something else. Before it collided with her, someone quickly grabbed her by the waist and jumped, taking her away from the painful death sentence.

Naya recognized the strong arms that were leading her to safety – those same arms had already saved her life before.

Adam ran away from the scene, taking her with him in his arms. She looked at him, craving his eyes once more, but he wasn't sharing them with her, he was looking ahead, completely concentrated on their escape.

He turned left, hiding behind a building's corner, not too far from the battle, and gently put her on the ground.

"Thank you, Adam," she said, but he didn't reply. In fact, she wasn't even sure he'd heard it, he didn't even look at her before running back to the corner and looking at the battle. When he turned to face her, he was visibly angry, upset and Naya found herself flinching a little under his furious glare.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he bluntly asked, making a visible effort not to yell.

"I... I wanted to see-"

"You wanted to see?" he repeated, getting even angrier. "See what exactly? What death looks like?"

"I'm sorry-"

"You could've died a minute ago!"

"I know-"

"Twice!"

"But-"

"Do you realize the monstrous size of your stupidity?"

"Wow... Wouldn't really call it 'monstrous', but-"

"Well, you should, because it was. It was really, really fucking insane!"

"I know!" she replied, abruptly, her tone also rising. Now that the initial shock was wearing off, she was also getting angry, not only because she knew she had been reckless and stupid, but also because it was humiliating and frustrating to know she had failed, she had once again been unable to protect herself. She was a Keeper! She was supposed to know, inherently so, how to deal with Sins. It was her job, her mission, what she was created to do. Pretty soon, she would have to fight and defeat at least six of them. How was she supposed to do it? How was she supposed to protect others from her Sins if she couldn't even save herself? It was maddening and worrying enough without Adam screaming what she already knew at her.

"Are you crazy? What if we hadn't found you in time?" Adam was obviously still very much upset. He was walking around in circles in front of her, waving his arms as he spoke. "What if... If we'd taken just a couple of seconds longer to get here-"

"I know! I know, I know, I know, I know. I'm a fool, okay?" she yelled. "I'm sorry, I'm an idiot! I didn't mean to... I mean, I didn't know, I... I thought... I'm sorry!"

She took a deep breath and they remained in silence for a short moment. Finally, Naya found the courage to look back at him and whispered, "Thank you for saving my life. Again."

Adam's stance relaxed and his expression softened. He sighed and massaged his eyes. Then, he walked to her and stood close, so close their faces were only inches apart, and rested his hands on her shoulders. His eyes burned into hers and she was suddenly breathless, completely entrapped by them – there was nothing else in the world but him.

"Run home, don't stop, don't think, don't look back, don't hesitate. Just get home and stay there with Kayla until we return. Can you do that for me, Naya?"

Completely bewitched by his eyes, soft voice and proximity, Naya could only nod. He smiled and nodded too, a look of relief on his features. A sudden explosion of sound and destruction brought them back to reality and the urgency of it. Adam was right back into Hunter mode, he ran to the corner and eyed her one more time, saying, "I'm trusting you. I want to see you home when I get there." He winked, with a playful grin and disappeared back into the mayhem.

Not wanting to cause any more trouble, Naya immediately complied, at least to an extent. With Luke safely in her arms, she ran in the opposite direction and, when she felt they were at a safe enough distance, climbed a tree and jumped into the top of a roof.

She had an almost clear view of the battle from there. Even though Adam told her to go home, there was no way she wouldn't witness the Hunters and a Sin in action.

Naya quickly regretted it, though.

It was incredible, breathtaking, a spectacular battle of humans vs Sin. From the distance, she couldn't tell who was who, the Hunters were all black shadows, moving so quickly, with such agility and in synch with each other, they hardly looked human, they looked like one, single organism. Their attacks were precise, damaging and fast, their weapons were nothing like the gun she had found in their home, they seemed to use swords and knifes and they seemed to work perfectly on the beast, for it roared in pain and fury every time it was hit.

The beast itself wasn't backing down and surely wasn't making their life easier. It attacked with massive force, brutally trying to kill, maim, devour every single living thing. Naya flinched as it almost hit one of them, before another Hunter expertly slashed its giant paw, allowing the other to escape unscathed.

The Sin was much bigger than any of them, yet that didn't seem like such an advantage, as the Hunters were quicker and worked in perfect symphony with each other to hit the beast in its pressure and fragile points. The Hunters were obviously trained to deal with creatures much bigger and stronger than them, as they jumped higher and moved faster than she knew humans could.

Naya and Luke watched the battle unfold completely lost in the suspense and thrill of it, both sides completely fearless and determined, both sides threatening and deadly.

Her heart beat furiously against her chest as she realized, with horror, that this was what she'd be up against. Soon, when one of her Sins showed up, she would be lost in a battle between that deadly Sin and those deadly Hunters.

As she witnessed the epic fight, she also found herself, once again, lost between two worlds. She wanted the Hunters to survive, to be alright and safe, to succeed – after all, Nicole, Matt, Adam, they were there! On the other side, she thought, as her eyes suddenly stung and her throat ached, that Sin was a part of one of her siblings and, whoever they were, they needed that Sin. Somewhere, one of her brothers or sisters was in awful, severe pain, every time one of those swords slashed the Sin's flesh it would be seriously hurting one of her own.

It was heartbreaking just thinking about it.

One of the Hunters jumped and fiercely, mercilessly, stabbed their blade on the beast's jugular, causing it immediate death. The Sin fell to the ground instantly, causing the earth to shake with the violent force of its impact and slowly, beautifully vanished as the Hunters celebrated their triumph.

Naya was happy for them and, at the same time, deeply, deeply disturbed for her unknown sibling, who would be in extreme pain at that exact moment, like a limb had been cruelly ripped off in cold blood.

She was also majorly frightened. She would have to fight them. And they were amazing and relentless, a force to be feared, powerful. Again, the possibility of running away entered her mind and overwhelmed her body like a primal and deep survival instinct.

"We can't stay here, Luke," she realized with an aching heart. "We can't stay with them."

"Stay with me, then."

Both Naya and Luke jumped at the sound of the unexpected voice. They turned quickly and found a beautiful girl sitting on the same tree they had climbed through, smiling wildly at them. The girl giggled at the sight of their confusion and gracefully jumped, landing on the same roof as them. She walked closer and looked straight at Naya, studying her without blinking.

For some reason, Naya wasn't scared or worried. For some reason, she trusted the unknown girl.

"It is you!" she whispered.

"Do you know me?"

"Of course I do," the girl replied with a warm smile. "Nayara. My sweet little sister."