Hunter

(set: $number to (random: (0,1)))(if: $number is 1)[(set: $kerrity to "human")]Above all else, Adam Sinclair was a Hunter. He had been a Hunter from the moment his father had pressed the long silver knife into his ten-year-old hand. "We're the protectors of humanity, son," his father had said. "We helped found the Order of Hunt, and we will always be part of it. Someone has to keep the Nightmares at bay." No one knew where the Nightmares had come from, only that they’d been on Earth at least as long as humans, that they were the bite behind every monster story, everything that went "bump" in the night. They were the perfect predator, with foot-long claws that retracted into their hands, superhuman speed and sense of smell, and eyes that saw perfectly even in the dark. They killed infrequently but brutally and randomly. They fed on the fear and pain that emanated from their victims as they died. The Nightmares could never be completely stopped. But every time Adam slid his silver blade across a Nightmare's throat, he was saving the lives of every innocent human that the monster would have killed. And that was enough. This was what Adam was thinking as the black blood of the creature he had surprised gushed out, splattering the apartment. The creature’s last cry died in its throat as Adam stepped back and let it fall to the floor. A clean-up team would come through in a few minutes and dispose of the body and the blood. As far as anyone who knew the human alias of the creature was concerned, he would have simply disappeared without a trace. It wasn't entirely unprecedented in New York. Adam knelt beside the body. Moments after the creature’s heart stopped beating, its long silver claws slid out of its hands. Adam gripped the claws between his fingers, carefully avoiding the sharp blades, and yanked them out of their sockets. Adam cleaned the blood off his hands and knife in the creature’s sink. He left the door of the apartment open a crack so the cleaning crew could get in. He had plenty of time to catch the 2 am train. By day, Adam was a perfectly normal 27-year-old stockbroker, with a college degree, friends, a good job, and an apartment he lived in with his girlfriend, Kerrity Thompson. He took the subway to work every morning, hung out with Kerrity and their friends every evening, and slipped out in the middle of the night to Hunt about once a week, whispering to Kerrity that he was going for a walk and she should go back to sleep. He kept his knife in the back of his closet, right beside the ring he was planning to give Kerrity when the time was right. It was frowned upon for members of the Order of the Hunt to get married--they were better warriors if they were unattached. But Adam was one of the best Hunters the Order had in New York right now. He loved Kerrity, he wanted to be with her forever, and his supervisor, Bella, would just have to deal with it. Adam got off the train at the 104th Street station and headed to the park about a block away. A dark-haired woman in a black trenchcoat stood underneath a streetlamp, looking like she'd stepped directly out of a cheesy detective novel. Sometimes Adam wondered if she actually had. “Beautiful night, Bella,” Adam greeted her. She didn't smile. “Is it done?” Adam placed the claws in her hands. “No problem.” “Good.” Bella slid the claws into one of her coat’s large pockets. “Here’s your next target.” She handed him a small piece of paper with an address written on it. Adam read the address and laughed. “Wow, Bella, really? This is //my// address." "Is that so," said Bella, not asking. Adam glanced from Bella to the paper. "What's going...on..." Realization hit him in the gut before he finished the sentence. Everything seemed very far away, and he could feel every beat of his heart. “Kerrity...she can't be. There's no way.” "Have I ever given you a bad tip before?" Adam crumpled the paper in his hands to stop them shaking. "Bella, I can't." “Can’t?” Bella raised an eyebrow. “Loyalty to humanity first, Sinclair. You know that.” He did. Adam closed his eyes, steadied himself as he felt the ground beneath him spinning out of control. How could someone as kind and precious as Kerrity be a monster? Bella was studying his face. “Would you rather I send someone else?” “No!” He blurted out the word before he realized what he was saying, but it was true. It should be him. It would be better for Kerrity if it was him. He could do it while she slept. She wouldn’t ever have to know what was happening. “Good." Bella turned and began to walk away. "Bring me her claws when it’s done,” she called over her shoulder. Numbly, Adam walked back to the subway station. He rode home, the train car shaking underneath him, empty except for himself and a shabbily dressed man asleep in the corner. Adam was unaware of anything except the knife in his pocket and the address in his hand. He climbed the stairs to their apartment and slipped silently into the bedroom, trying not to wake her, as he always did when coming home from missions. Kerrity lay on her back, her hair splayed across the pillow, fast asleep. The light from the open door lit up her face, and a small, content smile played across her lips. He wondered what she was dreaming about. He wondered if it was him. He raised the knife. One stroke, between the ribs and directly into the heart. She would never know what happened. Except... A whisper of doubt brushed through Adam's mind. //What if Bella was wrong?// After all, Adam had lived with this girl for a year, had known her for three. How was it possible that he'd never noticed what she was? He had to be sure. But then again, Adam knew better than anyone else how dangerous Nightmares could be. If he lost the element of surprise, he might not walk out of this apartment alive. Was it worth the risk? (if: $kerrity is "human")[ [[be sure]] [[strike first]]](else:)[[[be sure->check]] [[strike first->don't check]]]

He had to be sure. "Kerrity," Adam said, quietly. "Wake up." Kerrity opened her eyes, her words blurry with sleep. “Adam? Darling, what’s wrong?” “I know what you are,” Adam said. "What?" She sat up and stared at him, utterly confused. "I know what you are, Kerrity. You're a Nightmare." "I'm a...are you dreaming, sweetheart? Are you--oh my God, where the hell did you get that knife?" She was up, frightened in her confusion, scrambling away from him. She seemed genuinely panicked, confused, human. But how could he be sure? "Kerrity, I need to cut your arm," he said, moving towards her. "//What?//" She backed away from him in terror. "Please, babe, just trust me. I just need to see the color of your blood." "Absolutely not!" "Kerrity!" he half-shouted. "Do you trust me?" She looked at him, at his eyes, wild with intensity, at the huge silver knife in his hand. "Please just tell me what's going on." "After you let me cut your arm." "Fine! But I'm not letting you get anywhere near me with that thing. I'll do it myself." "I'm not giving you my weapon." She stared at him with exasperation, confusion, fear. Then she grabbed a pair of nail scissors from her bedside table. Flipping them open, she drew the slender blade across the back of her forearm, leaving a narrow line of red blood. Human blood. Adam's knees went weak with relief. He dropped his knife. "Kerrity. Oh my God." He took a few steps toward her, ready to wrap her in his arms, but she stepped back, holding up the nail scissors threateningly. "What the hell, Adam. Tell me what's going on, //right now//." He told her. The truth. Everything. When he'd finished, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, in shock. "So your...supervisor--" "Bella." "Bella, she wanted you to kill me? Why?" "Maybe she was just wrong. Or maybe she wanted test my loyalty. Hunters aren't supposed to have attachments, families. They're not supposed to love people as much as I do you." "So what are you going to do now?" Adam hadn't really gotten that far. "Leave the city, probably. Bella will be angry that I didn't follow her orders. I'll have to start over. But it doesn't matter, Kerrity, because you're //you//. And you can come with me, and we can be together. We're going to be okay." "And what if I had been a Nightmare, Adam?" Kerrity's voice was suddenly and unexpectedly sharp with anger. "What if my blood had been black? Would you have killed me?" "Well, you wouldn't have been //you//, you would have been a monster--" "A monster?" Kerrity laughed, an empty sound. "So our entire relationship you've been lying to me, sneaking out to kill monsters who look and act exactly like people. Maybe they are just like people, Adam, did you ever think about that?" "But they're not--" "But did you //think// about it?" He hadn't. "You would have killed me. It would have still be me, claws and all, and you would have killed me. Either you're having a psychotic break or you're telling the truth, and the truth is even more terrifying. And either way, I'm leaving." "Kerrity, please--" "I'm //leaving//, Adam. And you can't stop me." He couldn't. He didn't. She slammed the door behind her, leaving Adam sitting alone on their bed, turning his knife over and over in his hands. He flung the knife down, letting the point stick in the carpet, and dropped his head into his hands. She was gone. She was gone, and she wasn't coming back. //Are you happy now, Bella?// This was exactly what she had wanted. He was alone. Bitter. Isolated. With nothing to lose. How was that for the perfect Hunter? //ending 1 of 5// //[[how this story works]]//

He plunged the knife down with deadly force, straight into Kerrity’s heart. Her body convulsed once, then was still. Adam stepped back with a shuddering half-sigh, half-sob. He had done what he had to do, what he was responsible to do. But something was wrong. Her claws--where were her claws? Usually they came out within seconds of death. Where were they? He checked her pulse. Nothing. She was definitely dead, so where were her claws? And her blood--on his hands, it was dark, but not dark enough. Adam felt like he'd been hit in the stomach. //No, no, no.// He grabbed her small white hands, turning them over in his, feeling the joints and muscles of her unmoving fingers. She had no claws. Her blood was red. She was human. And he had killed her. Adam pulled his girlfriend's body into his lap, clutching at her hands, drawing her to him as if he could put somehow put her back together, as if he could undo what he had done. This was Bella's doing. There was no doubt in his mind. All that talk of loyalty to the cause and to humanity. She’d figured out he was planning to propose, to tie himself down to another human in the way no Hunter was supposed to do. She’d tricked him into killing Kerrity, to make him into the perfect, single-minded, perfectly loyal Hunter. He wanted to destroy Bella, to plunge his knife into //her// chest, to know exactly what he was doing this time. She'd wanted to create an unfeeling killer--she had. He knew he'd never get close. She'd be expecting it. She had the entire Order of the Hunt to protect her. But he was willing to die trying. Or he could just die here. He could take Bella's best asset away from her. He could die beside Kerrity, let it be a murder suicide, let it be a human way to die. Did it matter what he did? She was gone. Adam laughed darkly, a hollow sound in the breathless apartment. It didn't matter. Killing Nightmares, Hunting, none of it mattered. He had just realized it two minutes too late. Hands covered in the blood of the best thing in his life, he picked up his knife. //ending 2 of 5// //[[how this story works]]//

He plunged the knife down with deadly force, straight into Kerrity’s heart. Her body convulsed once, then was still. Adam stepped back with a shuddering half-sigh, half-sob. He had done what he had to do, what he was responsible to do. The black blood was gushing out of her body, pooling on the sheets of the bed they had shared. The claws were sliding out of the hands he had held so many times, memorizing their softness, their weight, the soft nails she always bit down to the quick. How had this happened? How had he--//he//--fallen in love with a Nightmare? //They were right//, Adam thought bitterly. Emotions couldn't be trusted. They outweighed even the best logic and observation. Kerrity could have overpowered and killed him at any time, and he had loved her so damn much he was blind to it. Well, never again. There was a reason Hunters weren't supposed to let themselves get attached. This was it. He yanked the claws out of her hands and left the door unlocked for the cleaning crew. //ending 5 of 5// //[[how this story works]]//

No. It wasn't. It never had been. The Kerrity he had known, loved, was gone. This monster had taken her from him. It had to be destroyed. Adam sprang toward the bed, knife in hand. Kerrity rolled to the side with superhuman speed, evading his first attack and swiping at him with her claws. Adam felt white-hot pain across his face as the left side of his vision went red, then black. Kerrity was scrambling toward the door, a scared animal trying to bolt. He grabbed her ankle, sending her crashing to the floor, and she flipped around and //snarled// at him as he lunged off the bed and onto her, driving his knife into her chest even as he felt her claws puncture his lungs. He collapsed, rolling off of Kerrity, who was matching his shallow breathing beat for beat, their limbs still overlapping, Adam's knife still sticking out of Kerrity's chest, just above her heart. Kerrity struggled to push herself up, crawling a few feet toward the door before falling again, her claws retracting as she pressed her hands against her own wound. Adam gasped for breath as his lungs collapsed. He watched as Kerrity's attempts to stop her own bleeding and move toward the door became more and more feeble, until at last she lay still, as his own vision faded out and all he could hear was his own heartbeat. Their blood soaked the carpet, red and black. //ending 3 of 5// //[[how this story works]]//

Adam let his knife clatter to the floor. "No. Damn it, Kerrity, of course I'm not going to kill you. How could I?" “You’re not?” said Kerrity with cautious relief. “I know you, Kerrity,” Adam said gently, clambering onto the bed. Kerrity sat back warily, slowly retracting her claws as she listened. “I don't care what they say. I //know// you, and you’re kind and creative and generous and wonderful. You’re not like the others I’ve killed. You're not a monster like them. And I love you.” Kerrity’s eyes were glistening with tears. “So...what now? What will we do?” she whispered. “Let’s run away,” said Adam. “We can't stay here, the Order will come after me. So let’s just go, now, just you and me. There's a ring for you in the closet, I've been waiting for a month for the right moment to give it to you. We can go somewhere nobody knows us and start a new life together, not as a Hunter and Nightmare but as Adam and Kerrity Sinclair. I want to be with you forever, claws and all.” He studied her face, taut with tension. He'd meant every word of it. //Please say yes.// They were close enough for their faces to touch. “Oh, Adam,” Kerrity murmured. "Of course. Of course I will. Let's go somewhere we can be together." She leaned toward him. Adam closed his eyes and waited for their lips to touch. Kerrity stabbed her claws into Adam’s abdomen, hooking them up under his ribs, puncturing his lungs and damaging his heart. Adam felt the shock shudder through his body, his blood like ice, in his throat, choking, gasping, the breath leaving him, his body crashing to a halt. “Nothing personal, love,” Kerrity murmured in his ear. “Self-preservation.” She drank in the sweet smell of fear and pain as she pulled her claws out and let the dead man drop to the mattress. Stupid humans, making decisions based on their emotions. Quickly, she changed out of her bloodstained pajamas, then opened the closet and located the small ring box. She flipped it open and smirked. A diamond this size would fund her escape quite nicely. Kerrity left the apartment without looking back. //ending 4 of 5// //[[how this story works]]//

Thank you for reading "Hunter"! When I wrote the first draft of this story in 2014, I couldn't decide how I wanted it to end, so I just wrote several different endings and figured that with time I'd realize which one was best. Instead, time let me discover interactive fiction and realize I didn't actually have to pick just one. I wanted to create a story that both gave the player agency and made them dependent on chance. "Hunter" accomplishes that by allowing the player to choose whether to wake Kerrity up or strike while she is asleep (along with an additional choice in one of the branches). However, whether or not Kerrity is actually a Nightmare is dependent on a virtual coin flip. The idea is for the characters and their attitudes and reactions to remain largely consistent throughout the endings, influenced only by the player's choices and this single random variable. I hope you enjoyed your experience! If you have any thoughts about the story or if you would like to see my other work, follow me on twitter at @HannahLMcLean or check out my website at https://mcleanhannahl.wixsite.com/website Hannah McLean, 2017