The Hunter's Blood

Chapter 2

(Kylie)

A few days after my graduation party, we planned a trip to go down to Corvus and find a place to live. While we all got paid a boat load for graduation, we still needed to invest money into a nice sized vehicle, so that we weren’t down there with no source of transportation. Taryn’s father let her use the van for this trip as long as we kept it in tip top shape and didn’t completely trash it beyond repair. She had been trying to get him to hand over the keys for that one, but he said that we would need something bigger if we planned to move all of our stuff down there at the same time. He wasn’t wrong there, though I was worried about Ryuu’s cage, but my parents told me that they could bring that down separately
So when Wednesday rolled around, we all jumped into the van and made the trip down to Corvus with our pets. I was busy in the back taking pictures of the scenery, that I totally didn’t realize that we had entered the town until the weirdest thing happened.

Kylie, we are here.

I looked up at Taryn and Chase, who were busy singing along to the radio.
“Did you guys say something?” I asked, pulling them out of their own little worlds and they glanced back at me.
“No dude, we were singing though, but we entered the town not long ago.” Taryn said, parking in front of a Little Caesars , “figured we should probably eat before we take off to go house hunting, possibly car hunting.” We all decided on what we wanted to eat and made our way to a small park that was just behind the pizza place.
“Guys look what I found!” Chase made her way over to us, newspaper in hand and an excited look on her face. She sat down and pointed to an article that she had circled with a blue sharpie.

Roommates Wanted!!!
We are looking for someone to take the rooms on the first
floor of our three story Victorian home. We will have an on
site interview with the people interested in this once in a life
time offer. The floor up for rent also comes with the basement
that we just ask that you keep clean, it has three bedrooms, a
laundry room, a decent size bathroom, and the Wi-Fi and phone
are paid for by us. We are asking for $500 in rent from anyone who
is interested in this. Pets are allowed and we share the second floor
which is the living room and kitchen. Please contact us at these numbers
or emails in order for us to set up a time that we all would be available for tours and interviews.
Thanks again,
Dante Angello,
Beau Clayworth
And
Roman Clancy.

“Damn…Kylie, call the number listed!” Taryn exclaimed with excitement.
“What?” I asked, having zoned out and looking up as they both shoved their phones in my face. “Guys, I have my own phone, but why do I have to call?” I whined, looking from them to the article.
“Because you like people and find it so much easier to talk to strangers.” Chase pointed out and I sighed, snatching the article out of her hand and dialing the number. “I hate you!” I mouthed to them while they snickered at me.
“Jello?” A calm, smooth voice answered after 4 rings. It was almost musical.
“Hello? Yes, my name is Kylie and I was calling for your ad. I understand you are searching for roommates?” I cleared my throat, slightly nervous because he sounded attractive.
“Oh yes! That we are. Would you be interested by chance?” His excitement sky rocketed and it made me smile.
“Yes sir! And to whom am I speaking? Dante, Beau, or Roman?” I asked because I was dying to know his name.
“My name is Beau Sweetheart. Would you like to set up a time for a tour of the house and possibly an interview? Could you afford $500 a month?” He asked two questions at once and it took me by surprise.
“Oh um, actually that would be great. But it’s not just me interested in the deal, my two friends are also. Would you be willing to house 3 plus an additional 3 rather large pets?” I asked, feeling skeptical and afraid the answer would be no. But I sucked it up because there was no use in setting our hearts on a place that wouldn’t accept our exotic pets.
I love you too, human. An echoing voice spoke and I jumped, almost dropping my phone in the process. I spun around to face the direction it came from. But all that was there was Ryuu slithering towards my feet through the grass of the park. I was drawn back to the phone conversation when Beau laughed slightly.
“Three is perfect! There’s a room for each of you. How big are we talking?” He questioned, sounding amused.
“Fairly large. We can discuss the details during the interview and maybe bring the pets along so you can see them for yourselves?” I bit my lip, hoping to save the detailed questions for later since apparently I was going insane.
Hi human. The voice spoke again right as Ryuu slip half way up my leg, flicking his reptilian tongue past my kneecap.
“Ahh!” I shouted and jerked my leg back before realizing it was just Ryuu on my leg. Poor snake.
“Are you alright Miss?” Came Beau’s voice on the other end of the line.
“Yeah sorry. My snake startled me a little. So about that interview?” I replied, getting anxious to end the call due to the weird things I was hearing.
“You have a snake?” He asked, curiosity laced in his voice.
“That I do. So the interview?” I asked again.
“Right, uhh, can you do today at 4:30pm? I know its short notice and kind of a stretch but..” he was practically begging.
“That sounds great! We have all day free. Follow the address on the article?” I asked for confirmation.
“Absolutely. See you at 4:30?” He said with hope and a smile in the tone of his voice.
“See you at 4:30.” I confirmed and flipped my phone shut.
“Well ladies, we have a tour and roommate interview today at 4:30. So we’d better go find the place beforehand so we don’t get lost and end up late.” I announced the good news to Chase and Taryn. Their eyes lit up in excitement as I placed my phone in my pocket, getting nudged in the ear by Ryuu.
Why are you ignoring me? I heard that voice in my ear and my eyes widened and I looked at Ryuu, who just nodded to my unspoken question. My snake was talking to me…I could hear him in my head…what the fuck was in that pizza?!
“I need to get my GPS from the van…” I stood up extra quickly and almost running to the van, carrying Ryuu with me, ignoring his yelling about how this was a bumpy ride. I opened the door and sat down, bringing him down to look at me. “How are you talking?”
It’s this town, there is something that is causing you to be able to hear me when I’m talking…it’s quite intriguing if you really think about it. Now we can have real conversations and you can talk to me when I need to…
“I have to be losing it; there is no way that this is happening.” I whispered, holding the side of my head and looking at my snake.
No believe me, you are not losing it…you and I have a special connection and you saved me from a harsh reality, that or being killed by those kids.
Apart of me understood what my long term friend was telling me, but the logical part of me was questioning my sanity and how much I had been smoking. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen and if they did then, why is now the only time that I am finding out about it? I forced myself to calm down and I looked at Ryuu.
“So, what is going to happen next? Are you going to tell me that I can morph into a snake?” I asked, trying not to come across as snarky, but it was coming through anyways.
No, but that would be pretty interesting now wouldn’t it? I could almost hear a smirk in his voice, but I really didn’t want to question why. I didn’t want to know what sick and twisted thoughts could go through my pets head, it disturbed me completely.
“Hey Kylie, who ya talking to?” Chase asked, sneaking up on me and I let out a scream, causing Ryuu to shed out of his skin. Jaci was following on her heels and the Direwolf seemed to have a conversation with Ryuu, who greeted him by slithering up his back.
“I was talking to myself, as well as Ryuu.” I stated, grabbing my GPS and imputing the address. “Damn the house is only five minutes from here.”
“Shit we could walk that!” Taryn exclaimed walking up and I changed it over to the walking, which added ten more minutes onto the trip.
“Do you want to walk fifteen minutes?” I pointed out and their eyes changed from excited to shaking their head no. “Thought so.” I started laughing and we jumped into the van. I didn’t mind sitting with the animals, just because they were warm and fluffy and good for sleeping against on long trips. I listened to the GPS give directions and slowly started passing out against Kira, who had placed herself on the seat next to me.
“Kylie…wakeee up Kylie!” Taryn said shaking me awake and I had drool on my face and probably on Kira.
“Sorry Kira” I said, biting my lip and she licked my face, causing me to laugh. We got out of the car and our mouths dropped open at the site. It was a gorgeous three story Victorian style house that was a beautiful shade of maroon and had an exterior detailed texture that resembled dragon scales. There was a staircase that led to a circle archway and an epic looking front porch that almost reminded me of a very large steam punk birdcage. I followed my gaze to the far left and the shape turned abstract against the rectangular build of the house. There stood around tower that connected the adjacent walls in the corner. I also noticed a decent sized gated area atop of the roof of the round tower. A series of large rectangular window panes lined the tower on all 3 levels, which only singled out the one medium sized round window in the front of the house on the second level. To the right of the porch connected a pentagon shaped side porch that also led to another back section of the house, it matched the same design as the front of the house with the maroon dragon scaled walls and black roof that mirrored the lining details of the masterpiece. It was too beautiful to even begin to describe any further, but I was shocked that this was the place.
“Holy fuck…” Chase said in disbelief.
“Fucking a…” Taryn replied in response.
“Fuck me Freddy.” I stated, quoting Stephen King’s “Dreamcatcher” and they both looked at me confused.
“Who’s Freddy and why are you fucking him?” Taryn asked, causing us all to crack up laughing and we made our way up the stairs, our animals on our heels and stood in front of the door. “Go on…knock!” Taryn pushed Chase up to the door and she timidly grabbed the claw like knocker and gave it three knocks against the door.
And then we waited for what was to happen next.