Hunted (2)

Hunter scrammed through his grandpa's home, trying to find a phone. "I'm guessing my grandpa took his phone with him." He ran to his room and locked the door behind him. He went up to the room's wall and picked up the rifle his grandpa gave him. This rifle was rusted throughout and felt like it could snap at any moment, but that was the very least of Hunter's concern in this scenario. Scurrying his drawers for ammo, he scraped up three bullets. "I only have three bullets left so I have to make this count." 

Hunter felt a little confident that he could take on this random creature. He spent days hunting with his father and was told he was a good shot. His skills in sharpshooting were comparable to the best snipers on earth and that statement wasn't a stretch at all. "Alright, I got this," he said.

Taking a bold stand, and straightening up his back, his confidence started to build up. ("I have a gun, I should be fine...") and then, a looming darkness crowded his mind. That rushed-up confidence just now quickly shriveled up and turned to dust knowing that whatever he is fighting isn't human at all. 

Breaking out of thought, he heard footsteps go through his house. The footsteps were loud and heavy and you could feel each thud reach his room. ("He's getting closer.")

Hunter could feel his chest pounding, his breaths quickening, and himself shaking. Each footstep got closer and closer before ceasing at the door. ("What, why did the footsteps stop?")

Crashing through the window was the corpse of Jaylen. His body was only the upper torso and it sprayed blood everywhere through the room. Hunter screamed in terror seeing one of his best friend's mutilated body in a terrible state. He shot a bullet at the window in a panic before it was revealed that Saul was being held at the window by his head. Saul's face was brutally disfigured as if he took hours of beating but he wasn't dead—yet. It seems that the bullet that Hunter fired off had hit Saul directly in the heart, giving him a slow and painful death.

Hunter was paralyzed with guilt as he observed the consequences of accidentally shooting his friend, created by the sinister plot seemingly orchestrating Saul's fate, leaving him unable to take even a single step. "W-What have I just done..." 

Emerging from the window was the bloodhound, the evil that had done this all to begin with. "I've taken care of your pathetic little friends, now it's your turn." His finger aimed its sights at Hunter's head, an impending doom that Hunter could not avoid. Hunter gathered the words he believed might be his final utterance, convinced that his story would conclude at this very moment.

"You killed my friends, you fucking-"

* * *

Darkness. 

All Hunter could see was darkness. His words were cut off so suddenly, leaving only an empty void within his sight. 

Then, a light dimmed in that void. The more he got closer, the brighter it got. He went closer and closer before awakening.

It was a forest—a forest is what he was seeing. This forest was calming, something that felt unreal about it. As he was in a daze of watching the beautiful view of the forest, Hunter realized he was sitting by a tree for no apparent reason. He got up from where he sat, observing his surroundings. "What is this place..." 

The words he had just uttered were shot out absurdly and sounded like a weird gurgling noise. He insisted on trying to talk more but was shut off by his vocal cords not working correctly once again. ("What is going on-") He then saw it.

His body was a dark green and very disfigured. He had a big belly even though he considered himself to have a small body. His height was around 4'6, way shorter than what he was on Earth. ("Why do I appear like some ugly goblin?!")

Hunter's ears perked up hearing rustling going by in the forest. Then, coming from the bushes was this young boy with white hair dressed in a fancy beige court suit and right next to him was some Quokka. "Okay Gray, there's a goblin right there, beat em' up!" the Quokka said. The boy right next to the Quokka slowly approached Hunter in a boxer's stance.

("Why did that Quokka sound like Ben and what does he mean by Gray?")

Then, a right hand is sent directly to his face as Hunter is in awe. Hunter recoiled back from the blow as it was so sudden. "Hold up, wait a minute!" he cried but it came to no avail as his speech was still messed up. Trying to stand up again, he's hit with another blow but this time to the stomach. The blow felt like a sledgehammer slamming into his stomach as if it was jamming up his insides. 

Why was he doing this—weren't we friends? Why is my friend beating me up?

As his world blurred into darkness once more, an uppercut found its way to his jaw, and in that fleeting moment, he caught the echoes of their last conversation before his mind shut down.

"Gray, I told you to keep your wrist and fist aligned with your arm, we don't want you to have injuries again! And also you need to remember that you need to punch with the last three fingers of your fist-"

"Yeah, um Ben, stop your nagging as usual."

"W-Wha- nagging?! I'm trying to give you valid advice!"

Hunter slowly drifted away, listening to their conversation. ("They're having fun... without me? First, they beat me to a pulp and then enjoy their times together without me?")

His vision went dark once more.

***IN THE DARKNESS OF HUNTER'S MIND***

[I was always a person who just wanted to be valued. I had friends but... I felt like they truly didn't value me.]

Hunter walked down the school hallways, seeing his friends converse with each other. He aimed his head to the ground, continuing on walking by.

I always supposed that my friends had favorites in the friend group, and it was pretty clear that they did. They never interacted with me or laughed at my jokes. I always had to interact with them to get attention, and I always had to feel like some background character with all of my friends.

Attention huh, I desperately wanted that I guess.

After school, Hunter called his Grandpa to pick him up as usual. 

He didn't pick up.

"Sorry bud can't pick you up, the sun looks great today." 

The text message said. "Oh damn, I need to walk home now."

As Hunter cruised home, a familiar face approached him. It was Ben, being all upbeat as usual. "Hunter, what are you doing here?! Wasn't your Grandpa coming to pick you up?"

"Well, all he said was that the sun looked great today and left me here!" Hunter answered. 

Ben began laughing out loud. "Bro, did he really just dip you at school like that because he wanted to go stare at the sun or something?!"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Alright then Hunter, I'll walk with you home!" 

They walked to his home together, talking about random things as per usual. It was fun and enjoyable, and Hunter genuinely liked it a lot. He had a thought in his head thinking: ("Maybe Ben was a true friend after all.") and looked forward to seeing him the next day. This was until then Hunter tried approaching Ben once more at school. Ben was then bombarded by his other friends, Jaylen and Harold. The three of them soon walked off, leaving Hunter in the dust once more.

Hunter's joy in his face fizzled out, seeing Ben and his friends walk off.

"That's right... I'm just some background character."

(ROAR)

He woke up from the roar of thunder, screaming through the sky. It was a rainstorm and he was laying in it for who knows how long. ("Why would Gray and Ben beat me up like that and leave me in the rain...") Walking off, cold and beaten, he tried finding some shelter. His options for shelter were very slim and ineffective. 

He could try going under a tree, but the rain is pouring so hard that it would be pretty much useless to go under one. The idea of going into a cave came up as well but he couldn't find any caves nearby him. ("Will I ever find any shelter?") As he kept searching for some sort of comfort, he managed to find a campsite with many tents. "Finally, some shelter!" These tents had the chance of being crowded but it was a last-ditch effort from this insanely cold rain. As he stormed through one of the tents, it appeared to be a female and a male making out in it. 

One had the attire of a knight, with orange hair and a giant steel sword that was planted right next to him. It had a gold outline around the blade and it seemed to be in pristine condition. The other was a petite blue-haired woman in a black and purple wizard outfit. ("Wow, they're some fantasy cosplayers or something...") The woman who noticed this uninvited guest stopped her romantic kissing and screamed at the top of her lungs. The knight then kicked Hunter out of the tent with full force behind it. ("The kick hit way harder than what Gray did!")

Hunter writhed on the floor in pain, grasping onto his stomach. Many different people began exiting their tents, all dressed in fantasy armor and clothing just like how Hunter saw in the shows. There was a dwarf, an elf, a lizardman, and even a demon in their party. All of them had gear that didn't seem cheap at the very slightest. 

"P-Please..." Hunter uttered, but it was still the same result—the raspy voice that nobody could understand. The knight came out of the tent with the wizard and planted his blade into Hunter's arm. "Look at this little goblin who decided to try to peak into our tent..." the knight said. 

The elf looked down at the goblin with a face of disgust. "Even mere trash wants to indulge in the pleasures of the hero's party?" 

The knight kept swirling his blade around Hunter's arm at a very slow rate, trying to make him feel the pain. Hunter screamed in agony as the pain was unbearable for his tiny goblin body. The demon grinned at the sight of this. "Ooh, I want to try to have fun too!" The demon got a needle out and plucked it into Hunter's body. Hunter screamed even louder, beginning to cry blood from his eyes. 

It hurt.

It hurt badly. The pain was surging through his body, it felt like millions of needles were digging into his skin. The entire party of heroes was grinning and laughing, seeing his existence as a mere joke for entertainment. 

The torture ensued as everyone wanted to try out different types of suffering on Hunter. They thought it was funny seeing a little goblin squirm around in pain, so they tortured him for hours on end. Ripping out his eyeballs, fingernails, and toenails, dismantling him limb by limb, using him as a test dummy, and even more. 

Hunter wanted to die but he couldn't, he was constantly being saved by a healing incantation every time he would be near death. 

("Weren't these people called heroes? Why are they torturing me... WHY WON'T THEY JUST KILL ME ALREADY!")

And then, for some reason, as the thought came to him, he seemingly blipped into a cavern. This cavern seemed desolate and had a water droplet constantly echoing through the cave. Glancing over his shoulder, he beheld an odd rift, its aperture slowly contracting as if sealing shut. It was made out of a multitude of blue neon squares. He put his hand out gradually towards the squares, feeling some sort of connection with them.

As soon as they collided, Hunter somehow absorbed the squares into his body, as if it was there from the very beginning. Unable to say a word, he then collapsed. His body was sore, and he was tired. Water droplets from the cave kept falling onto his face. He was annoyed but he could barely move out of the droplet's way.

He was in some ugly body, a complete laughing stock, in another world, lonely, hungry, and beaten mercilessly. Hunter felt something emerge inside of him. It built up to its breaking point but his brain wouldn't let him release it all. The water droplets still fall on his face.

So because of this, he just spent hours lying there, reconciling everything. The water droplets continued to fall on his face.

Water droplets descended upon his face over a period of time, one by one, tracing a solemn path down his cheeks. In short order, the moisture multiplied, culminating in a cascade of tears, giving voice to his silent sobbing. 

His sobs were drowned out by the rain, the rain that poured over the lands.