Tanya and I used to be two average girls who went to an average high school and did average things with average people. Nothing exciting ever happened in our lives. Then one day, she had the brilliant (and I use that term loosely) idea to sneak into her grandmother's basement and read the books she'd always forbid us from reading. I told her I didn't want to. I told her that it wasn't a good idea. But she didn't listen to me.

In fact, Tanya never listened to me. It was always "what could go wrong?" and "don't be such a baby!" 

In a way, I'm glad she didn't. If she had, I wouldn't be doing my part to save the world. Even though "saving the world" usually put me in situations like this one.

His eyes were cold and dark. Hungry. Lustful. Desiring. I could feel them hunting me, even though I couldn't see his face. I considered myself psychic, but I didn't have to be to know the thoughts running through his mind.

Those nasty, evil thoughts.

Maybe, just maybe, I could outrun him. Outsmart him. Get him off of my back. Maybe, if I moved my feet just right, I could get away without him even touching me. Psh, who was I kidding? That's not going to happen. I've never been athletic and I've certainly never been smart. Those were my two biggest faults. Those, and my habit of not telling people where I was going. The only person who knew I was out here in this dark, desolate forest was Tanya. And she was the one that set this whole thing up.

His sinister smile crept up onto his face like a lion on its prey. He's the hunter, I'm his food. I felt the way his lips curled up and revealed his cracked teeth behind me. Time was running out.

I made one last effort to console with him. "I'll give you anything, just please don't hurt me!" I begged. He cackled, amused by my childish pleading.

"You know what I want," he declared.

I gulped. If Tanya was going to save me, she'd better do it now. I could not be his bait any longer. With every passing second, I was getting closer and closer to the horrible fate she promised I would never see.

Suddenly, my head filled with a shriek so loud and piercing that I couldn't even hear my own thoughts. Following it, came a burning sensation at the back of my throat, and I realized the screaming belonged to me.

Then, "What do you think you're doing?" The words wrapped around me like a blanket in a snowstorm. Comfort. Warmth. Life.

I whip my head around and notice that the man has as well. We are both staring at the source of the sentence. His demise, my savior. Now, it's my turn to cackle. She's going to do all the things to him that he was planning for me.

"Revenge is sweet, isn't it, James?" I taunted. "All those people you killed. Over what? A silly little piece of paper?"

He glanced back at me, his eyes filled with everything from anger, to guilt, to fear. It's the most wonderful I think I have ever seen.

"N-no. I didn't d-do it," he stuttered.

Tanya strolled up to him like she would any old friend. "Really? Because I find that hard to believe," she stated.

I looked at her and tapped the middle of my forehead just above my eyebrows. She nodded in agreement, knowing my request.

Placing one hand on his shoulder and the other on his forehead, she uttered the words I'd heard her say countless times before.

"Oh powerful god of the underworld, bless this sinner's life, for he knows not what he has done, and lead him to back to the hole from which he came. As I say these words, I pray that you hear him and banish his soul to Hell for all eternity."

It was an old curse, one that we had discovered in her grandmother's basement just months ago. Within seconds, a dark angel appeared.

"Again, guys? I can't keep leaving my station. What do you want?" Carlos, the angel, said.

When we first said the curse that day in the basement, Carlos had appeared. He had blond hair, strikingly blue eyes, and an unnatural beauty that no earthly being could posses. Tanya was instantly smitten. After that, she found any and every excuse to call him back. Soon, we became friends with the angel, but it wasn't until recently that we learned he was a dark one. I guess we should have figured given the nature of the curse, but neither of us were that smart.

"Take him," Tanya demanded, pointing towards James.

Carlos rolled his eyes. "I can't just take whoever you want me to. I need an actual reason and you know that."

I sighed. Usually, I was the one to provide the reasoning. "He's killed twelve people that we know of."

Carlos rolled his eyes as he always did. "Straight up murder is not something for which I can take someone."

"But they weren't just any twelve people," I explained to him, "they were people off of The List."

Upon hearing this, Carlos's whole demeanor changed. The number one rule of a Hunter was to not mess with any name on The List. Murdering the people whose names were on it was the worst offense any living person could commit. "I guess I better take him then."

James's eyes went wide as he realized he had finally been caught. "I didn't know they were on The List!" He lied.

"I'm sure," Carlos replied sarcastically.

A dark light flooded through the open field and in an instant, James and Carlos were gone. Tanya stuck her hand in the air and I high-fived it.

"Another job well done, Em," she declared.

I nodded. Yes, a job well done in deed. The other Hunters would be pleased to hear we had captured the one ruining The List.

James had been tracking down Hunters that were sent out to protect the most valuable names on The List. Once he found them, he would torture them until they told him how to get to a Name. That's when he would kill the Name. His reasons for doing so are unknown as most things with Answers are.

The List was, as you've guessed, a list of names. Contrary to popular belief, the names were not ordinary names placed on there for no reason. Most people dismissed The List as a joke, but the Hunters knew exactly what was up. Every person on it was valuable to our world in a state of utter chaos. Who came up with it, no one really knew. One day it just appeared in the Hunter's HQ with little explanation as to what it was for, but the intentions were clear. We had to protect these names at all costs.

People like James thought it was a joke. They were a part of a group called the Answers (but if you ask me, "answers" are the last things that they have or provide). The Answers were the ones who didn't believe in what the Hunters did. They thought that the Earth and all its inhabitants were created to destroy, so they fought against the Hunters who strive to protect.

It was a bit confusing, but it was what this world had come to. Some people made it their life's goal to gain knowledge and understand it all. Those are the people that fail. You can never understand it. Some things are created for the sole purpose of messing us up, and this was one of them.

"Let's go tell Wanika what just happened," I suggested to Tanya. Her eyes light up at the mention of our role-model.

"Can I be the one to tell her?" Tanya excitedly asked like a child begging for candy.

I laughed and nodded my head yes. Tanya wanted so bad to please Wanika. She made it her life goal to become Wanika's right hand man. Tanya punched the air as she exclaimed her joy for the deed we just did.

We rolled up to the giant gold gates of the Hunter's Headquarters. We hadn't been here since last year's meeting to discuss the problem with people of The List being killed. Tanya could barely contain her excitement as she told the guards our reason for requesting admission.

"We have found Answerman James, and we have sent him to Hell with the angel called Carlos," she explained. All of the guards' eyes got wide and they began to whisper among themselves.

"Go on in," the biggest of the guards said. He pressed a button on his belt and the gate opened wide.

It was supposed to be a few hours before Wanika became available, but as soon as she heard about our accomplishment she cleared up her schedule. Tanya couldn't believe that Wanika made time for us. It was almost a dream-come-true for her. She was practically floating, while I was extremely nervous about a one-on-one with the boss.

When I entered her office, I couldn't believe my eyes. I would have thought that the leader of the Hunters would have the most elegant and extravagant working space imaginable. Instead of pearly white floors and expensive, sophisticated artwork, she had different types of weaponry and high-tech computer equipment strewn around the room. I couldn't help but stare in awe and neither could Tanya.

"Not your typical leader style business area, I know. But when you do what we do, you kinda got no choice," she said, noticing our expressions. Then she walked over behind her desk and propped her feet up on it. The action made this feel like casual matter and instantly put me at ease. "So, I hear you've captured Answerman James."

Tanya walked over to the seats in front of her desk like it was the most casual thing in the world. I silently followed behind her.

"Yes, we have. In fact, I summoned Dark Angel Carlos to come and take James to Hell. Alive," Tanya replied like it was no big deal.

Wanika grinned, obviously proud of us. "Nicely done, ladies. He needed to be taken care of."

Tanya beamed and opened her mouth to say something else when all of Wanika's computers started flashing warning signals. There was no sound, so I figured that whatever it was couldn't possibly be that bad.

"Oh no," she muttered to herself. She tried to subdue it, but I could hear the worry in her voice. Something was wrong.

"What's going on?" I asked her.

She gulped and rushed over to the big computer on my right. "It's a silent warning. Elias the Brave set it up so that if something went wrong around enemy stations then he could signal me. It's Morse code." Her voice cracked at the mention of Elias and I understood why.

He was the smartest, kindest, and bravest Hunter that anyone ever knew of. He used methods of peace to try and stop the Answers and protect the Names. A week after last year's meeting, he set off on a quest to find the leader of the Answers and offer a proposal: they stop looking for the Names and we will stop hunting down the people with evil powers. As he entered an Answermen base camp, he was ambushed. There wasn't an inch of skin left uncut and not a single organ left unpierced by bullets. He didn't stand a chance.

"What's it saying?" Tanya questioned as she reached for my hand, something she only did when she was frightened.

It was two minutes before she deciphered the flashing message. "North Korea has attacked the main Hunter base."

My stomach dropped. No, this could not be happening. There was no way anyone could find the Hunter base. It was hidden on an unknown island with security that even the ones with evil powers could not infiltrate.

"Who lead them there?" I asked. Wanika just shook her head and told me she didn't know.

"I did." Just then, a drastically beautiful figure emerged from the shadows. One with blond hair and blue eyes. A figure that could only belong to one person.

Carlos.