Darkest Love

• Sarah Schaer, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2012

I am a dark angel. I am feared by everyone except people who are like me and people who hunt people like me. I’m never in one place for long. Knowing me I will either get myself caught or fall in love. My worst fear is that one day I will do both. This isn’t the lifestyle I would choose. People like me either choose to be or are born to be. I was born to be. Both my parents were killed and since then I have been travelling around alone. I am now in some quiet and deserted town. As I walked, I felt something wasn’t right. I turned my head to look behind me but all I saw was an empty path. I had been to hundreds of towns like this so I didn’t understand what was wrong. Then, I heard a twig snap behind me. I slowly turned around. There, right in the middle of the path, was a hunter. Fear raced through me. “You have no idea how long I have been looking for you,” the hunter said. His voice sounded familiar. “Hello Laura.” How did he know my name?
“Who the hell are you?” I asked trying not to let the fear show in my voice. A deep laugh came from under the hood as he lowered it. “Jake,” I breathed.
“So you do remember me,” he said.
“Of course I do,” I replied. “You saved my life.”
“I did,” he said.
“So why are you hunting me?” I could feel my face going red with anger.“Ever since I saved you, my father has been going on about why I shouldn’t be helping people like you.” I could see this was hard for him.
“So you took his side,” I was really angry now. “You’re just going to undo everything we did for each other and kill me?”
“Laura if your parents asked you to do something before they died you would do it too.”
“They’re dead,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry,” he lowered his voice a little. “But now you have to make a decision. You can stay here and die or you can run.” I thought for a minute. If I stay, I would die a lot quicker, but my parents wouldn’t have wanted me to give up without a fight. So I glanced at him one more time and I turned and ran as fast as I could. Then, after what seemed like hours, I stopped and listened. I could hear Jake’s rapid footsteps coming behind me. He was faster than me but I was better at hiding than he was finding. I started running again. As I got tired, a rush of emotion came through me. What was the point of running from something that was going to happen anyway? Tears started running down my flushed cheeks. I made a sharp turn left and tripped on a tree root. I tried to get up but a sharp pain shot through my ankle. I collapsed on the floor and listened. I could hear jakes footsteps getting closer and his pace slowing down. He was right next to me now. I could hear him kneel down next to me. I braced myself. I knew there would be pain and lots of it. He placed his arms around me and pulled me onto his lap. What was he doing? He wiped the tears from my cheek. Suddenly he placed his lips on mine. Wrapping one arm around my legs and he got me up and said; "Let's go."