Young Writers Society

There was no point in hiding it now.

"Quinn's full name is Quinn Holt," Gabriel said. Quinn nodded. The name gave enough information on its own. The one thing it didn't explain was Gabriel, seeing that Quinn Holt didn't have a biological brother. Not that Gabriel didn't see her like a little sister at this point—he was fond of the girl he had impulsively taken under his metaphorical wings months ago.

"And I'm a demon," Gabriel said. "That's what made Ky run."

Pratik huffed a short sigh, rubbing his face. Great. A supernatural. That explained a lot. And it also complicated a lot. Especially now that they had told Ky for some inexplicable reason. “Gods…” he glanced at Quinn. Now that they said it, he could see it. He kicked himself mentally for not figuring it out himself before now. He should have picked up on it. But that wasn’t the critical part of this moment. “… don’t tell people like Ky things like that, for future reference. Skiddish people have a tendency to—“ he gestured vaguely in the direction he assumed Ky had gone. Bolt. They had a tendency to bolt.

He glanced back at Gabriel warily, quickly assessing him and the situation, given this new information. “What’s your angle?” He hesitated, realizing that was a vague question. Best to ask what he was actually asking. “How much of a threat do you intend to pose to Ky and/or me?”

Quinn wanted to protest that Gabriel wasn't a threat to Ky or Pratik, but she knew Gabriel would want to do it himself. But Quinn still hated when someone thought Gabriel was bad just because he was a demon, so she let herself protest that, "Not all demons are dangerous. They're like people."

Gabriel shot her a grateful look. "Thanks, Q."

Quinn gave him a smile back.

"I'm not the kind of demon who causes trouble without a reason," Gabriel said. "I'm not here to hurt Ky or you. I'm just trying to do my job. Quinn's helping."

“All demons — like people — have the capacity to be dangerous,” Pratik countered, glancing at Quinn. The girl was clearly naive. But loyal. He hoped that wasn’t going to end badly for her. He glanced back at Gabriel. “But glad to hear you don’t intend on causing problems.” Hopefully. He glanced down the path after Ky, trying to decide how to proceed. “What job would that be that you’re trying to accomplish?”

Quinn wanted to disagree and argue that she liked to believe that all people were more likely to have the capacity to be good, but Pratik had already turned back to Gabriel.

"My hunting job," Gabriel said. He sounded a little irritated, probably because Pratik was jumping to the worst conclusions about him. It frustrated Quinn. Gabriel didn't deserve that. "I'm not here for any deals. When Quinn and I said we were here for earlier was true. This place is known to be haunted, so we wanted to check it out."

“Good.” Pratik glanced back at Gabriel. There was no way to ensure that what he said was true. But, then, there was no way to ensure Gabriel wasn’t going to make himself a problem before the truth was revealed, either. So honestly very little had changed. Except for Ky’s disappearance. “…so what are we going to do about Ky?”

"...I could try talking to her again?" Quinn suggested.

Gabriel crossed his arms. "I'm not sure that's going to help, Q. She already ran off when she was talking to you earlier."

"But you can't go talk to her," she said, "because you're the one she's scared of."

Gabriel looked over at Pratik. "How do you feel about talking to her?"

Pratik nodded slowly. They both had a point; he probably was the best choice, at this point. “Can do… do you know whether she’s running or if she holed up yet?” Hard to tell whether Gabriel had any sort of helpful super-human senses or not that would help him either hear or smell or something to know. Pratik would be able to track her down regardless without help, but it’d be nice to know how soon he needed to track rather than chase.

Gabriel scanned the forest around them. He couldn't make out the sound of her running, but his senses weren't exceptional. Demons didn't possess that kind of ability. He hadn't possessed it before becoming one, either.

"I can't tell," Gabriel said. He looked around again. "I could try looking for her soul, but I wouldn't be able to track it unless we had a contract. Even then, my abilities to track it are limited."

“That’s okay,” Pratik said with a shrug. “I can go old school.” He stepped down the path. “I’ll hopefully be back soon.”

Gabriel nodded.

"Good luck," Quinn offered. She scooted a little closer to Gabriel as Pratik started down the path. She hoped he would be able to convince Ky to come back.

Ky had kept running until their voices had faded entirely, then kept running a bit further. She’d slowed after that, though, afraid to keep going forward for all the spooky noises that closed in around her in all directions now that she was completely and totally on her own. She ditched the backpack and ran a bit further then climbed a tree and scuttled through the treetops to be sure her footprints would be lost.

Then she pressed herself flat on a big branch, virtually impossible in the darkness, and silently started to sob. She was so unhappy. Exhausted and terrified and cold and wet and hungry. And so very, very alone.

"...I hope he's able to find her," Quinn said, softly.

"If he's not able to find her in the next five minutes, we'll follow him," Gabriel reassured her. He wasn't sure how much the offer helped, but he knew Quinn liked having plans set in place whenever possible.

Pratik found Ky’s backpack and did a quick scan of the inside, taking a mental inventory of what she had to work with. No wonder she was embarrassed. And no wonder she’d ditched it; this wasn’t helpful in the least.

He walked in silence until he got to where she’d climbed the tree, then stopped and looked around to see if she’d come back down. She heard him and clenched her teeth, forcing herself to be completely and utterly silent and still. He’d found her faster than she expected.

“Ky?” Pratik called softly.

She didn’t answer.

“Ky?” He neared a bit, though he still didn’t see her. Though he was looking as hard as he could. “Can we talk for a minute? I promise you’re safe.”

The most Quinn and Gabriel could do was wait, so they did exactly that. If Gabriel strained his ears, he could just barely make out the sound of Pratik's voice. He hoped he had found Ky, and that Ky wasn't going to run the moment Pratik tried to convince her to come back.