Seeing Silver (chp 2)

Chapter 2

Rachel still did not move or speak, nor did she want to. Her life was going to end, right now, but she didn't care. She'd never thought she would die in a forest, much less be killed by the friendliest man she knew, but where you died and by whom seemed to matter very little when you had Wervin's Curse.

'There you are'. Terrence had said that the moment he saw her. For him to say that meant only one thing: he had been hunting her like he'd been hunting some dangerous animal. An animal. Three days ago she was an ordinary person and now she was being hunted like game! Was this how it had been with everyone who contracted the curse? Had the missing ones been hunted but never found?

"I'm sorry," Terrence repeated. Rachel saw him close his eyes, clearly not wanting to watch the murder he was about to commit. It was obvious to her that she did not want to do this. It just wasn't in his character, and it didn't seem like he could conjure up enough malice to kill someone he'd known for eleven years. Terrence stood with the rifle aimed at her for another twenty seconds, trying to pull the trigger and be done with it. But it never happened; a bullet never emerged from the rifle. Finally, having lost all hope in himself, Terrence screamed and threw down the rifle with such force that it broke in two on impact. Rachel's silver eyes flashed to the broken gun and then at Terrence, who had begun weeping on the spot.

"I--I can't do it," he said through sobs.
Rachel watched him cry for about a minute before it finally hit her that she wasn't going to die after all, and she unstuck her feet from the ground. She felt her voice returning to her throat, but she didn't have anything to say, so she stayed silent. After all, what do you say to someone who told you he was going to kill you? More so, what do you say when he decides against it and falls to his knees weeping?

Terrence finally stopped sobbing and looked up at Rachel with teary eyes. Rachel looked back at him, her face expressionless since she didn't want to reveal to him what she was feeling, but more because she didn't even know what she was feeling. She wondered if she should be angry at him for hunting her down and threatening to kill her, but she didn't feel angry. She felt nothing. Nothing at all.

Terrence apparently expected her to speak, but since she didn't, he decided to have the first go.
"They...they sent me to kill you," he said. "The town...ordered me to find you and kill you," he said weakly.
Oh, so you're explaining yourself?! Rachel thought. She had meant for these words to come out of her mouth, but for some reason they never left her mind. She was feeling anger now but she still kept her face expressionless.
"I didn't want to though," he continued. "I--I told them to send someone else. Carrier or not, I didn't think I could kill you."
He paused there, waiting for Rachel to give him some sort of feeback to this, but she still said nothing.

"But...they told me to do it because I'm the only hunter in town and I have experience."
With every sentence he spoke, it seemed to be getting easier for him to talk and there was little trace of sob in his voice. He reached his hand to his eyes and wiped out the last few tears.

Rachel had completely forgotten that Terrence had been a hunter. Not many in people in town remembered either. He had given up hunting about six years ago after a last hunt in this very forest. He had tracked down a deer that kept slipping away from him and when he finally raised his rifle to kill it, it had moved at the last second and he hit and killed its fawn instead. When he saw its body lying in a heap in the dirt, he suddenly felt devastated. He had killed something so young, so innocent, so undeserving of death. And he vowed never to hunt again.

It wasn't until just now that Rachel remembered seeing a deer's body in the back of his truck on the day she had met him.

"I told them that I vowed never to hunt again. Mayor Schumann didn't care though. He's angry that the curse has reached Reinton. He wants you dead."
Though she probably shouldn't have been, Rachel was shocked and startled at those last words. Mayor Schumann wanted her dead? She knew him very well. Reinton held several organizations to donate food or raise money to assist its neighbor town, Gristol. Every single time one of these organizations popped up, Rachel was almost always the first to volunteer. The organizations were always led by the mayor, and he was pleased at Rachel's efforts to help, which were greater than everyone else's who signed up. At the end of the event, when the supplies were shipped, Mayor Schumann smiled and shook Rachel's hand, congratulating her efforts. Since these events, Mayor Schumann had kept a close, friendly relationship with her and constantly told her that he wished that "everyone else in town was half as giving" as she was. To hear now that he wanted her dead was even more shocking than seeing Terrence point the rifle at her.

Terrence paused again as Rachel gaped and a look of complete shock had streaked her face. He waited for her to speak, but Rachel still had no idea what to say. He sighed and continued.
"Of course he told me that I wouldn't be charged for your murder and instead I'd be known as a hero for stopping you before you had a chance to kill anyone."

I'm not killing anyone! Rachel had again intended to speak these words, but they still never left her mind.
"I finally agreed to do it after he threatened to force me and my family out of town for not serving my civil duty to the town. Before I left he told me only one thing; he told me to 'make you understand.'"
Terrence paused for a third time, watching Rachel's expression of shock which had widened after Terrence had explained more about Mayor Schumann wanting her dead.
Her legs suddenly felt too heavy and she fell to her knees. Terrence swallowed and continued again, but what he said next only widened her expression more.
"And I set out to hunt you yesterday. I searched all night fruitlessly for you. I learned that hunting a human is a lot different from hunting a deer. Humans don't leave feces on the ground."
And he chuckled at this last sentence, and Rachel felt a hot spark of anger. How did he dare chuckle at a time like this? Terrence straightened up his face and continued again.

"And now here I found you. It was quite sudden for me; I had expected it to take another day or two, or at least that's what I hoped. I never did want to kill you. I hoped that maybe I'd be lucky enough to not find you and after a week I could come back and tell Mayor Schumann that you were now one of the missing. He wouldn't be happy, but at least he'd know that I tried." He looked down at his broken rifle. "But now my gun is broken, and it was the only means I had of killing you." He looked back up at Rachel. "So now I'm giving you the chance to become one of the missing. Get out of here; as far away from Reinton as you can. Don't look back."
And he took off the backpack he was wearing and threw it at Rachel's feet.

"Take it," he said. "Some supplies for you. There's quite a bit of food in there since I found you quicker than I thought I would."
Rachel suddenly brightened up. The word "food" was the greatest word in the universe to her now.
"There's also and EasyTent and a flashlight, as well as a flask. You should collect some fresh water from that stream."
Rachel could hardly believe this. The man who had just nearly killed her now became her salvation.
"Oh, and there's a pocketknife. I give it to you with great hesitation, though I do not believe the blade is sharp enough to kill."
"I'm not killing anyone!" Rachel said sharply. She finally found her voice. Terrence widened his eyes. He had apparently given up any hope that Rachel was going to speak to him, so when she did, he was taken by surprise.
"Yeah," Terrence replied, unsure of how to respond to this somewhat insincere statement.
"Mayor Shumann told me not to come back any less than a week unless you were dead, so I'll just hide out for a while. You take all that"--he pointed to the bag--"and get the hell out of here." Maybe you can--"

He stopped. He was going to say "maybe you can find someone who can help you", but who in their right mind would assist someone with Wervin's Curse? They were "condemned", meaning that there was nothing you could possibly do to stop their inevitable decent to death.
"You'll make it," he said, hoping that it would bestow confidence in her. It didn't work. Rachel knew that she was already good as dead.
"But you're on your own now. I can't help you anymore. Just start heading away from here, and I'd advise you to stay away from any other towns, too. For your sake, and the sake of the residents."
"I'm not killing anyone!" Rachel repeated loudly.
"I hope not."

Rachel picked up the backpack and put it on. Terrence sighed, and at another loss of words, he said "Good luck."
Rachel knew she probably shouldn't say it, but she couldn't help herself.
"Thank you," she said reluctantly.
Obviously, Terrence, like Rachel, did not seem to think he had much reason to be thanked, and he stared blankly at her.

Assuming that he was done talking and clutching her backpack of salvation, Rachel turned and walked deeper into the forest.