ChapterTwentyNine: The Monsters Within

January 2156

At the same time, Hannah woke up in James' arms with a headache pounding hard in her head like a hammer. She groaned in pain, waking James up. He saw her holding her and clenching her teeth.

He asked, "Hannah, what's wrong?"

She looked at him with pain in her eyes. She replied, "My head hurts so much. There's also some female voice in my head. It sounded like my own voice, telling me to 'let her out.'"

James thought for a moment, then he said, "That's your Hunter speaking to you. She's telling you to let her out."

She shook her head quickly out of fear. She said, "I can't! I can't let this monster come out!"

He hugged her as he told her, "I'm right here. Let her come out. I promise everything will be fine."

Hannah sniffed as she both scared and in pain. She closed her eyes to try to relax herself. Then she mentally said the voice in her head, "Go ahead."

With that, she groaned in pain as her fangs began to sprout, and her nails began to sharpen. She gripped the duvet underneath her body. She clenched her teeth to prevent herself from screaming. James watched helplessly as Hannah's Hunter was emerging.

Suddenly, she stopped writhing and groaning in pain. She opened her eyes, revealing her blackened eyes with red pupils. She sat up, and looked at James. He also sat up. He looked at her with only love, no fear in his bones. He smiled at her lovingly and warmly. He gently stroked her light, blonde hair as he continued looking into her eyes.

She just sat there, calmly staring at him. Then he said to her softly, "Your eyes are so beautiful. I love you so much."

He kissed her lips gently. She slowly kissed back, and hugged him. James smiled at this gesture. Then he whispered in her ear gently, "It's okay. You can mark me. I'm yours forever."

She slowly moved to the corner of his neck and shoulder. She slowly sunk her teeth into the corner. She withheld her venom instinctively as she marked him, claiming him as her mate. James grunted in slight pain, but he was still holding her. He gently rubbed her back.

She soon withdrew from the croak of his neck and shoulder. She looked up at him, and said clearly in a slightly higher pitched voice, "Cuddle me...please..."

James smiled, and did as she wanted him to do. He noticed she was beginning to fall asleep. So he whispered one more time in her ear, "I love you."

She smiled weakly, and whispered back, "I love you too."

With that, she fell asleep. A few minutes later, so did James.

It was about noon when the couple's phones on the nightstand went off. Both James and Hannah woke up to their sound of their phones. James looked at her eyes, noticing they were back to their near-colorless eyes.

He smiled at her as he asked, "Do you remember everything?"

Hannah smiled, "Yeah, I do remember everything. Thank you."

He kissed her nose gently. He handed her phone to her as he got his. They both received a text from Cassie. She told to meet at the park near their school. They looked at each other, wondering what was going on. They also saw she texted Damon too.

A few minutes later, all four gathered at the park. The sky was blue, yet the weather was cold like a normal winter. Not as cold as the nuclear winters back on Earth, but still cold. James asked, "So why are we here?"

Cassie explained, "Last night, there were Native attacks in all of the Six-City-States. Only one was on live TV. All of the news outlets on both here and Earth are talking about it. I saw comments from the Undergrounders still on Earth on some of the news articles. They don't want to come here. They're scared, but they have no choice. They have to move here. As for everyone else, everyone is demanding to know the truth about the Natives."

The three gasped in shock when they heard this news. All three were at family dinners and parties at the time of the attacks. No one really knew what was going on. It was all happening at the same time. Now the situation has become serious.

Damon said, "Cassie told me a while back about the military forming a new division that will recruit the Hunters. They won't be trained to go to war. They'll just be sent as both historians and time travelers."

James and Hannah, though both wearing sun-goggles, looked at Damon. Hannah said, "I don't know about that. I mean, time traveling? Isn't that a somewhat new thing?"

Cassie added, "Yeah, and only the military uses it. They have had sent some of their soldiers to test it out, and they came back with accurate history. You two don't have to do this, but be prepared if and when the military will try to recruit you."

James said, "I want to know the truth as much as the next person. But time traveling is very risky."

"I know."

With that, the four become quiet.

A bit later. Hannah returned home. As soon as she entered the house, she saw her parents staring at her. Even though they were wearing sun-goggles, she could feel their disappointment seeping through their faces.

Feeling tired of this, she walked up to them. She told them, "Look, I'm still your daughter. I'm still human. Sure, I have this other personality in my head. I have fangs. I have sharp nails. But no different than I was before I became a Hunter. I'm still the same girl you two made with love."

With that, the two walked away from her. Hannah then asked them angrily, "Will you please stop rejecting me and treating me like some alien and stranger?!"

They continued ignoring her as they went into their home office. Hannah huffed in anger as she stormed up to her room. She took out her phone, and began texting James.

At the same time, James entered his house. Like Hannah's parents, his own parents have been ignoring him ever since he revealed to them he was now a Hunter. Eating together with his family would always feel awkward. His parents would either ignore him while talking to his siblings, or everyone would be silent.

He was thinking about whether or not to join this new military division. Ever since Hannah first told him about the Natives, he was curious to what these people were like. Yet, he didn't want to believe there were people that were not Gen-Mods living on GH569. He was about to move there. Humans, for years, had been trying to make contact with any possible alien civilization. Now he sees that not only there was a somewhat primitive group of "aliens" who look exactly like humans; there were others like them on Earth as well. To make things worse, these Hunters were capable to turning Normals into one of them. And James was now one of them.

As he walking to his room, he got a text from Hannah. He entered his room, and sat on his bed. He read what she said: "I'm joining that military division."