— lincoln high school portland, oregon, september 2022

  Isaac Layer was someone who walked slowly – almost leisurely. He had always done so and wouldn't change it now, unless he had a reason to.

  Safe to say, meeting the infamous bully, Hayden Chase, was no such reason.

  He sighed, seeing that now slightly familiar head crowned by dreadlocks and knew he had only himself to blame for this. But if everything worked out the way it should, he would be free after just one day of labor.

  "You really came," Hayden said, making himself sound important in even that little sentence. Arrogance was visible on his face even from miles away.

  In fact, Isaac felt like he had felt the vanity emitted by the other student before he even stepped on the roof. He could barely keep himself from rolling his eyes.

  "Glad you could make it as well," the scrawny boy replied, "so do you wish to know where he resides?"

  Chase kept looking at him with a curious expression. "Why are you talking like that?"

  "Like what?"

  Shaking his head, Hayden Chase waved his hand and brushed the matter aside. "No, never mind. Just tell me."

  Isaac drew a deep breath, contemplating if it was the right thing to do, but came to the conclusion that it was far too late to ponder over the moral implications behind all of this now.

  "Sure. He's at PDX."

  "What?"

  "He's at the international Airport right now."

  "You mean he just arrived? He wasn't supposed to be here before tomorrow though."

  "That's what's widely known, yes. He's already here since the day before yesterday and is waiting at a hotel at PDX. It's an embassy suit, to be exact."

  "Staying" was, of course, to put it simply. More complex would be to say that they were carefully hiding him and his tracks. Maybe he was on vacation for two days?

  Isaac didn't know if it was for his protection from news reporters and crazy fans, or if there was more to their meticulousness, but that was how it was. He did pick up on an appointment this very evening though.

  "So how did you find out, if he never left the airport area?"

  "That is of no concern to you." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, let's get this over with. How do you wanna do it?"

  Again, the change in his wording seemed unnatural to Hayden, but he decided to overlook the matter, as it wasn't too important.

  "As soon as you can make it happen."

  Somehow, he knew that guy would say that. So he had already devised a plan that may or may not have a chance of working out or landing them in quite a bit of trouble.

  Humans often said "No risk, no fun", and it must have been one of those moments. 'But I'm no risk taker?' he thought in regards to this.

  Either way, he wasn't going to risk anything at all. If it got troublesome, he would be out of there right away. After a quick glance at his watch, Isaac checked the view of the school's front yard.

  "There's barely anyone left. Let's go."

  "Where to?" the troublemaking brat asked.

  "You're going to see for yourself."

  That's what he said, but it took them a while to see anything at all. Traveling through a city closely after school was out on a Friday didn't make their life any easier.

  "We should probably be careful. Shouldn't we wear black stuff to break into a building? Or pretend to be workers?"

  'Who would believe we are workers at our age?' Isaac thought, "You are watching too many movies."

  Hayden Chase wasn't exactly naive either, he simply thought that crawling into a building in broad daylight was already extremely brazen. Shouldn't they try to be less obvious?

  Nevertheless, Isaac didn't even think twice about his suggestion. 'Wouldn't that look far more suspicious? Why would we even want to break in, if we can go through the door?'

  Of course, Isaac had not divulged any of his plans, so there was no way for Hayden to understand what they were even attempting to do.

  "Seriously, where are we going? That's not the way to the airport."

  "Hm? We aren't heading for the airport."

  Perplexed, the dark skinned youth stopped in his tracks. "But you said he was at the airport."

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "He is. But we won't be catching him there – too closely guarded," the brown-haired answered nonchalantly, "so we meet up with him when he sneaks out on his own."

  Hayden didn't even know what to say. It started with the younger guy knowing exactly where a world renowned Hunter was, as top-class celebrity and hero, and now he even knew about secret outings?

  They arrived at a part of the city that was a bit run down, as they entered onto a parking lot, they saw many dilapidated buildings. Some were under construction as well, so it was easy to get through without being seen by anyone on the way to their target destination.

  Frankly, they didn't have to be that secretive to begin with. But Isaac wasn't too sure about this secret meeting he would be going to and he didn't want to get involved with anything either.

  "Why are we so careful then?"

  "I don't want to be caught here, since I don't know what's going to happen."

  Outside, if you were careful enough to avoid getting caught by CCTV, it wasn't actually as secure. That's how children constantly go missing in places like this.

  Of course it's not that easy either, when there's a construction site nearby, with cameras all over the place. He closed his eyes, letting the stinging sensation from before grab hold of him, churning his insides ever so slightly, as they slipped in between the buildings and ended up next to a brittle wall in a back alley. Hayden became impatient, but mentally older one didn't let his countenance be affected by a nervously fidgeting kid.

  "There's camera there."

  "I can see that," Isaac said between gritted teeth and finally held out his phone with a saved website open. "We are here for this, if you need to know that badly."

  Obviously they were going to meet his idol, so the fake-teenager really couldn't understand what the problem was.

  Thankfully, the pain wasn't as bad this time, since he didn't have to use his powers as he did before. He only nudged one of his friends into the direction of the camera that would most definitely catch them, if they dared to move around the corner and toward the entrance of one of the buildings marked for reconstruction.

  Suddenly, a dull, metallic clash could be heard. Isaac reopened his eyes and put a finger on his lips, to signal silence to Hayden. They ran, as if on cue, seeing a disoriented black bird trying to shake off some dizziness on the ground under the camera, before getting back up to fly away.

  "Crazy. That crow broke the fixture. Lucky break or what?" For Hayden Chase, being lucky in and of itself wasn't anything special.

  As a matter of fact: He considered himself a very lucky child. He could have almost everything he wanted and even awakened to a sponsor of significant value. It was nice being him, minus the fact that he couldn't actually work as a Hunter, simply because he wasn't old enough yet.

  The mere fact enraged him, as that meant they didn't let him decide on what to do with his own body. He knew he was good enough, yet they deprived him of showing what he was capable of and it made him mad.

  Meanwhile, without knowing what was going on within the other boy's mind, Isaac motioned for him to be quiet. He grabbed onto the hem of the other's shirt, pulling him with him and the aforementioned entrance.

  "Hey, do you really believe he will show up at a… 'Lecture in all types of dark arts'?"

  Hayden stressed behind him, gradually losing faith in this operation. No, he hadn't actually believed the other could hold up his end of the bet in the first place.

  "Don't question me, just move. You wanted this."

  "Who wanted this? It was your idea to bet on it."

  Hayden had a point. It was Isaac who blurted out he wanted to make a bet – and he was also the one to determine the specifics of said bet.

  As he had already understood, he was indeed the one to blame for this. But his pride wouldn't let him admit to this out loud, especially since he felt he had no real choice but to put a determined end to the behavior of a "certain someone".

  The lead stopped in his tracks for a moment, just to glance over his shoulder to look at the boy grumbling behind him. It was still light out, but not very bright and inside of this building, it got quite dark.

  His dark skin made him almost seem a little gray in this bad lighting. As far as he could tell, from the specks of light coming in through a window so dirty, it was good it had a few cracks in it, his face was a perfect picture of annoyance and plight – it made Isaac sigh heavily.

  "Now you are sighing?"

  "As you hear."

  After all, they weren't doing much and it was the brown haired boy who had to do something when he could be comfortably lounging on his bed at home or go on that trip that his father had suggested. Everything better than to walk through a dilapidated building, in a rundown area of Portland, in order to listen to a lecture about evil creatures.

  The sheer endless looking hallways of what was obviously a school, once upon a time, was full of dust and spider webbing. It took them a few more steps and a turn to the left to hear muffled voices carried through from the upper floor.

  Strained, it was now Hayden's turn to sigh. "Look, I just want to know how you got the idea to slither in here. Why would someone like Choi come to a place this crappy?"

  "I," he started, yet stopped to contemplate his next words, "bribed someone that works there."

  "How would you have the money for that?"

  They turned another corner to walk up a flight of stairs. The website spoke of an old biology room.

  "Well, my birthday was just yesterday, you know?" Isaac was a little proud of himself, as the best lies always housed a bit of truth.

  "Seriously?" Even his tone showed signs of surprise.

  "Yes. Why would I lie?" He truly did get money for his birthday. Well, he received money every year, as he was a hard case when it came to presents.

  Though that money went straight into his bank account, as he rarely used it anyway and with his savings, he could ensure a safe and smooth transition into a life in a quiet home later on. After eating cake together, his parents had pulled him aside to give him some additional allowance in 'secret', telling him not to tell on them to the other. They both said the same thing – something about having a good time with his new friend. It was kind of hilarious to him.

  Isaac was acutely aware of why birthdays were so important to his parents. It wasn't like he made them feel bad about it, he was simply a child with few needs.

  At the beginning, his parents did feel strange about the missing investment in his big day. It took years for them to fully get used to how he seemed like he didn't care at all – not about the attention, nor the prospect of gifts at least. That was because he genuinely didn't care about any of it.

  "Elijah" always wondered what they would say if he told them he wasn't actually their child; that the soul meant to be their child was returned to the waiting line for him to claim the name of Isaac Layer. Would they still want to celebrate his birth? He didn't think it would be so.

  "Ah," he heard from behind and blinked.

  There it was: The anticipated small group of people, one of which wearing a painfully obvious disguise. Then again, this was the type of meeting not many would be proud of attending, so he was not the only one with a mask and sunglasses in the hallway.

  He had mindlessly followed the path they went into before while lost in thought, but it truly was the way he was supposed to go. This was the classroom next to the janitor's storage. Suddenly, the door opened and a strict looking woman in a tweet jacket stood before them.

  "Everyone who isn't here to learn can leave," she said while adjusting her already neatly tied up hair, though the tone of her voice gave her audience an eerie feeling, "make up your mind quick, lest you want to be outside when the sun is already down."