Tanya had accomplished many things in her life. She got her school and other local schools to replace the nasty milk at lunch with healthy and delicious apple juice; she saved her best friend from many dangerous situations ; she took down one of her biggest enemies without a fight; and she did her part to save her planet in ways other than recycling. Most would say that she was a rather brave human being.

She would say that she was just as cowardly as anyone else, she just didn't show it. Well, most of the time, that is.

A good example of her cowardice is the day that everything went south. For awhile, the good guys had the upper hand in the war. Everything was going according to plan and only the evil lives were lost. But then a betrayal and a few mistakes finally brought the enemies two steps ahead. To say it was all Tanya's fault wouldn't be true, but to say it wasn't wouldn't exactly be a lie either.

It all started when her and her closest friend Emily got into something they knew they shouldn't have.

***

"Rules schmules- I've got a better idea," Emily's partner said as she happily ran up to the front porch.

Emily lagged nervously behind. Tanya's "ideas" never worked out in the end. One of two things was bound to happen: A) It would much more time and effort than doing it the right way would and the end result wouldn't be worth it, or B) Everything was going to collapse and fail miserably. Emmy didn't want to be around for either.

But alas, they were best friends and she had made a promise to trust Tanya. So she had no choice but to follow, even though it was against her better judgment.

The house that sat on the gloomy hill was the only forbidden place when it came to Hunters. Though it had been a long time since it was last inhabited, it was still rumored to hold evil powers that they worked so hard to get rid of. Opening the door would let them out into the world.

"Tanya, wait!" Emily called out to the girl already climbing the porch steps.

Tanya turned around and stared at her friend in confusion. "Wait for what?" She asked.

Emily nervously glanced around her to make sure that there wasn't anyone else around. If anyone caught them breaking in, they were as good as dead. "Maybe we should just go home and let Wanika take care of things just like she promised she would," Em suggested.

Tanya chuckled at the fear in her voice. "Just trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing!" She declared.

Again, Emily nervously agreed to trust her even though she had a feeling that she shouldn't. She followed Tanya all the way up to the door, but she couldn't will herself to go in. She grabbed her friend's hand the second it reached for the handle.

"You've heard the rumors," she whispered in hopes that Tanya would realize how stupid she was being.

But she had no such luck.

"They're just rumors, Em," Tanya said, turning away from her, "that's all." Then, she twisted pressed down on the handle and pushed open the door.

Emily covered her face in preparation of whatever was bound to come out of that place. They may have been rumors, but all rumors had some truth to them. When the head cheerleader is rumored to be pregnant, it's because someone knew she had unprotected sex with her boyfriend. When the "loser" loner is rumored to be abused at home, it's because someone saw some questionable bruises on their skin. Even if she's on birth control and he's just clumsy, there are reasons these "rumors" start.

So what did someone see to start the rumors about this house?

Tanya walked in without a care in the world. Though nothing came rushing at Emily, something unsettling was definitely in the atmosphere. Apparently, Tanya either didn't feel it or didn't care about it. She had a plan and she was sticking to it.

"You check around the living room, I'm going to look upstairs," Tanya said as she turned on her flashlight.

Emily grabbed the girl's arm. "Are you crazy? I'm not staying down here alone!" She protested. She may have agreed to come here with Tanya, but she never agreed to separating. That was the number one way to get herself killed.

"This whole experience will go by a lot quicker if you do. We can cover more ground in less time," Tanya argued. She had a point, but Emmy still wasn't sold on the idea. There was something about the way the floor boards creaked beneath her feat that made her feel severely uncomfortable.

"I'm not doing it," she stated.

Tanya sighed and sat down on the third step of the dull gray stairs beside them. "Look, nothing bad ever happens on the main floor. It's always the basement or the attic that's haunted, Emily. There's at least three windows and two doors you can escape from. Why do you think I put you here in the first place?"

Emily hated to admit it, but she actually was starting to agree with her friend. Looking around the dark room she could immediately spot the windows Tanya was talking about-they were the only source of light. The front door and the door to the back patio were only about forty-feet apart, so she could easily make it out either one of them. But that was also mean that Tanya was alone. Though she was a good fighter and a brave soul, there was no way in hell that Emily would leave her by herself.

Out of nowhere, a small flame of bravery ignited in Emmy. There was a reason why they were in this house in the first place and they had a mission to complete. If that meant that she had to take one floor while her partner took the other, then that was what would have to happen.

"Alright," she caved, "I got it down here. You head upstairs."

Tanya beamed, proud of Emily's decision. Then she hurried up the stairs to find exactly what it was they were looking for.

Emily started with the old dusty bookshelf that was opposite of the stairs. She read the spine of every book and closely inspected every knickknack and every trophy placed on the shelves. They were all old titles, old figurines, and old trophies for sports that she only ever read about in textbooks. It was slightly creepy, but still nothing out of the ordinary.

She made her way over to the kitchen by the back door. All the food cans in the pantry were way past their expiration date and the counters looked like they were about to crumble to the ground. There was a horrible smell radiating from the refrigerator, but other than that the kitchen held nothing important. She decided to investigate the smell.

Slowly, Emily opened the door to the fridge, slightly afraid of what she might find. It couldn't have been any worse than the impending feeling of doom lurking behind her. Finally, all that was between her and the worse thing to ever hit her nose was the skin of her eyelids that she hadn't realized she closed. It took some convincing, but she finally managed to open them and look at what was causing this place to smell like a mixture of death and year-old vomit.

"Oh my god," she whispered to herself as she tried not to gag. What was in the old food keeper was something she wouldn't have ever imagined seeing again. "Tanya!" She called as loud and panicky as she possibly could.

Tanya came rushing down the stairs, expecting to find her best friend laying in a pool of her own blood. By the sound of her voice, it sounded like Emily was in extreme danger. Tanya mentally cursed herself for forcing Em to stay down there alone.

"Emily! Are you okay?" She screamed, bile rising in her throat as she got closer to the kitchen. "What is that smell?"

"I'm in here!" Emily responded. Tanya ran into the room just seconds late. She quickly had to cover her nose and mouth to keep from throwing up.

"What is going on? What's that smell?" She asked.

Emily motioned into the fridge and Tanya reluctantly looked in. "Oh my god," she whispered in shock. The girls both stared at each other in disbelief. Right in front of them was the book. The thing that was stolen from them so long ago. The thing that they were here looking for clues on its location.

"It's here. The whole time and it was here," Emily said, not able to take her eyes off it.

That's when they heard a click from behind them. Emily's stomach dropped and Tanya gulped. It was a sound they knew all too well.

"You know, there's a reason why no one comes in here," a female voice said. The girls slowly looked behind them and came face to face with their worst nightmare.

They were cornered. Sibyl, the one they were all told to beware, was holding a gun to each of their heads and neither of them had a weapon. There was a sick, twisted smile on her face despite the disgusting smell between them.

"Si-Sibyl. What-how? I thought-" Emily struggled to find the words to accurately represent exactly what she was feeling.

"Thought what? That I was on the other side of the country with all my minions? That I would never separate from the oh-so-powerful Katianna? Not everything turns out like you expect it to," the leader spat harshly.

That wasn't what Emily was thinking at all, actually. She was wondering what Sibyl was doing here and how she ended up with the book. Out of all the things Emily expected, this was never one of them.

Sibyl laughed manically. This was exactly how she always pictured it would be: her with her gun towards the only people who actually posed any threat to her and them not being able to do anything about it. Though, she never thought this would actually happen, it was still a pleasant surprise. Now it was time to do the thing that Kate had always dreamed about.

Maybe if she did it, Kate would think more highly of her. Maybe she would even let her in on one of her and Carlos's plans for once. And to be quite honest, that's really all she wanted.

"You don't have to do this, Sibyl. You're powerful-more powerful than any of us will ever be. We know that! But you can use that power for good instead of evil. You can lead the Hunters instead of the Kallians. Think about how Lady Katianna didn't even name the people after you! And you're the one who does pretty much everything!" Tanya convinced. "If you fought with our side, we would give you the credit you deserve."

Sibyl hated to admit it, but the courageous girl did make some good points. Kate was always taking credit for every idea Sibyl had and everything that she did. Though she was the one who spoke and encouraged the crowds, that was something anybody could do in Kate's eyes. When she had agreed to work with her, she hadn't imagined it being like this.

And, after all, Katianna was going to have Sibyl's sister killed.

Emily could tell that she was considering the offer. Tanya, however was too consumed with fear to notice. When she was scared, Tanya had the tendency to talk really fast without stopping. Sometimes, when she was extremely panicky, she couldn't control what came out of her mouth. She was smart, but she wasn't smart enough to shut up.

"And I think that Katianna, as big and bad as she is, isn't powerful enough anyways. I know you saw what our leader can do. She told me. She could take down Kate with one touch. One. Touch. And if she got close enough, all the things you guys worked for would be gone. Let's stay on the right side of things here. The winning side!" Tanya rambled.

Emily cringed. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. She watched Sibyl's expression slowly transform from consideration to something of wild rage. She nudged Tanya to get her to be quiet, but had no such luck as she continued to run her mouth.

"Even if she wins, she won't stay in power very long! The people will realize how horrible she is and you will too! They will revolt and rebel against her and all her people. She's mean, evil, and blood thirsty. You can't see it, but everyone else does!"

"Enough!" Sibyl yelled, pointing both guns in Tanya's direction. One at her head, and one at her chest. "Nobody talks about Kate like that! Nobody!" She screamed viciously. That was when Tanya realized the full extent of what she'd just done. Before, she had Sibyl right were she wanted her, but now everything would go to hell.

"Look, Sibyl-" Emily tried to calm the leader back down but she wouldn't have any of it.

She turned towards Em, her guns still pointed at Tanya. "You better close that mouth of yours if you know what's good for you."

Emily didn't want to give up, but somehow she just knew that she had to. This situation would end in a death. There was no way both of them would walk out of there alive.

"You people think you're so much better than us just because you want to make everything back to the way it was. Didn't you ever stop to think that if our way of living was supposed to last forever, then it would have? Or were you so consumed with your fear of change that you couldn't pull your head out of your ass long enough to see that things are supposed to change?
"You guys are no different and you two are prime examples of it. You broke into this house against all the advise not to, and you snooped around for something that wasn't even yours in the first place.
"Not only that, but you were too stupid to realize the smell in here was the protection layer of a locked Latin curse book," Sibyl hissed at both of them. Tanya tried to conceal her fear, but it was as apparent as the clothes on her back.

"I'm only doing the only thing I've ever known to," Sibyl calmly explained as if the two girls in front of her weren't consumed with the knowledge that they were going to die.

Then, Sibyl's smile twisted into the most disgusting smirk that either of the cornered girls had ever seen. Without a second fault, she pulled the trigger of one of the guns.

Emily couldn't move fast enough to stop it.

As Tanya's body fell to the floor, Emily's world came crashing down. All of her memories, good and bad, with Tanya flooded before her eyes just like the tears that were bound to come next.

Then, "Stop!"

The voice came from the entrance of the kitchen. The next few moments played out for what felt like an eternity.

Wanika rushed to her sister's side and then tackled her to the ground. Emily fell to her knees to grieve beside her best friend's comatose body. Guards from all different types of Hunter branches came to disarm Sibyl and grab the book from the fridge like it was an active bomb. For them, everything was "go go go." For Emily, every minute felt like years, but they also felt like seconds. Time was slow, yet fast. It seemed like Tanya had always been dead, but it also felt like it hadn't even happened yet.
All she could do was sob over Tanya's blood stained clothes.

Emily couldn't help but be angry at Wanika for not arriving earlier. Before they went in the house, Emily had sent a text to Wanika explaining where they were and what they were doing. She had tapped into Em's phone and listened to all the sound that Emily heard. It was just a safety precaution, no one had expected that she would actually need to act upon what she heard. "
Maybe if she had prepared for that, things would turn out differently.

The guards escorted Sibyl from the house and onto their trucks. The whole way there, Emily could hear her maniacal laughter and still feel her twisted smile. Wanika stayed back to grieve over Tanya.

"She was such a good friend," Emily cried. She grabbed Wanika and pulled her into a hug.

They sat there on the floor next to Tanya's body, holding each other for the rest of the night. Both of them knowing what this all meant.

It was the beginning of the end.

_____________________________

Please don't hate me! I know this chapter is like three days late and I'm sooooo sorry! If it's any consolation, I had written most of it before Wednesday, I just couldn't decide on the way I wanted to end this chapter. There were sooo many different ways and I didn't know which one was the best.

And then we had to drive to Florida on Thursday so I couldn't post then. And we drove back yesterday so I couldn't. I was going to update first thing this morning, but I got an emergency babysitting job and then immediately went to my nephew's first birthday party (which was super cute, btw). The second I got home, I ran to my new laptop to post!

Feedback is ALWAYS welcome and NEVER annoying! Unless it's hate, because in that case you will be blocked and reported.