Flight

A young man about twenty-five years old sat in a diner with his head tilted back and his mouth hanging wide open. His eyes were closed and a snore was released from his lips. His unkempt black hair made his white skin seem oddly pale as it stuck up from several different places, as if he had just woken up and had forgotten to glance in the mirror before leaving.
On the table in front of him was a set of hotel keys, a pair of glasses, a black folder with a red letter “I” on it and a newspaper headlining:

“POLICE STILL INVESTIGATING UNEXPLAINED STRING OF MISSING VICTIMS, PAGE 12.”

All around him, people were either reading the article or chatting with their companions about meaningless things to distract their minds from all the happenings. Some younger ones were staring out the rainy windows thoughtfully.

Outside in the storm several police cars rolled by, the drivers’ eyes twitching left and right, scanning for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary.

Another man, slightly older, strolled into the restaurant and looked around. His choppy, sandy blonde hair was wet from the rain and some tufts were plastered to the sides of his face. His search came to an end when his emerald green eyes fell on a patch of unruly black hair. He smiled and chuckled lightly to himself as his walked over to the table in the far corner. He sat himself in the chair across from the slumbering man.

“Hey!” the pursuer called, loud enough to startle the other.

He jumped awake, his muscles rigid from shock and his eyes rolling when he saw his brother. “…Geez…what?” He asked with a clear tone of irritation, while rubbing his tired eyes.

“Where were you, Dylan? You told me to find you in the library.” The elder laughed, watching his brother wake up.

“Well, I finished my research early…came here to grab something to eat but…” Dylan started to explain.

“You fell asleep…again.”

“It’s not my fault you’ve been so uptight and strict about our shifts. Last night was the latest we’ve gone so far, Zack!” Dylan complained, slipping on his glasses which slightly magnified the dark circles sagging under his own green eyes. He yawned loudly and reached for the ceiling.

Zack reclaimed the hotel keys lying on top of the folder and leaned back in his chair as his younger brother wilted over the table and thumped his forehead on the cool marble. “Why are we here on the other side of the Atlantic ocean…? There are still others stationed in Italy, Greece and Spain from the Academy who can help. Even Paris has some Hunters. Why did the Institute suddenly decide to ship us here?” Dylan whined, trying desperately to prove his point.

“You already know the answer to that,” Zack started, leaning forward and propping his elbows up on the table “There are a couple of Hunters that are enlisted as police and it’s been three months with ten civilians missing. If they’re having trouble, we should give them a hand.
The Academy knows that they have some of the best Trackers and Hunters internationally. They’re bigger and more widespread than the Institute could ever be. Now they need our help. Aero wouldn’t have sent us, if he didn’t think we’d figure it out.” Zack turned his attention to the storm outside just as a small rumble of thunder gently shook the ground.

Dylan understood what his brother was explaining; he was used to this vocabulary since he learned all of this when he was just discovering the secret to tying his shoes. The Academy was where everyone went to study the Hollows, only if you knew that they existed. Hollows are immortal, vampiric creatures that were said to have existed much longer than the vampires.

Tracking was one of the two skills that one could learn while attending the Academy. Discovering evidence of a Hollow in the vicinity and using that as a way to track where they were headed, what their taste was, and more importantly their location.

Hunting is the second skill, the actual exterminating of a Hollow.

Hunters and Trackers are usually put together on a single case to work with each other to successfully locate and kill they’re target. The tougher the case, the bigger the group of Trackers and Hunters.
After you graduate from the Academy, you’re given a choice to either stay in the Academy, working cases under their administration or travel to America to work cases under the Institute, a smaller organization designed to just distribute cases and research Hollow characteristics and anatomy.

It’s not as easy as it seems, the Hollows were getting better and better at leaving fewer corpses and less evidence for the Trackers to find them and their overall nature was starting to become more ruthless and vicious toward all humans.

Aero was Zack’s personal mentor and one of the thirteen founders of the Institute. Ironically, all thirteen of them were Hollows themselves. The legend is that thirteen Hollows, captured by Hunters working for the Academy, loathed what they had become and begged for mercy. The Academy had plans to expand further and granted them the power to rule over the new organization they called the Institute. Aero was the only one of the founders to actually roam freely. No one has ever seen the other twelve but their names are well known.

“What did you find out about the last missing victim?” Zack asked, bringing Dylan’s wandering mind back to earth. He took the folder and opened it, forcing his exhausted eyes to read the words on the page.

“Young female, age 19, blond hair, blue eyes…” he read aloud, muttering the rest until he got to the new information he discovered. “ Last known destination was Kensington Gardens, west of here. Missing person report was filed this morning…no body, no evidence…she just vanished.”

Zack rose to his feet. “Alright, let’s get out of here…the more we keeping moving, the more we’ll get closer to it.” His eyes blazed with determination and worry for all the people in the city. The younger brother nodded, gathered his things and stuffed them in his brown leather saddle bag next to his feet. He heaved the bag over his shoulder and followed Zack out the door, pulling up his hood from his jacket to shield him from the rain.

Together, the brothers walked on the sidewalk toward their hotel. "We have to be more careful this time, Dylan..." Zack muttered over his shoulder. "The Institute can't always cover our tracks."

Dylan knew, the last couple cases they were close to being arrested by the police. Even though they were saving lives, civilians never believed that they were in danger of something dangerous and supernatural that they thought never existed. Hollows still had the appearance of a Human, except for their unusually pale skin and smallest sign of a fangs. They're teeth were never as dramatic as Dracula, or in the movies. Dylan snorted. "Yeah, I know."

After several minutes of walking in silence, Zack and Dylan reached their destination and opened the doors to the hotel. Inside the lobby were all kinds of people. Normal people, some traveling for business others just for touring. Zack's eyes sweeped the room, until they locked with another pair of warm honey gold orbs.

"You find anything?" a female voice echoed in his head. It belonged to those gold eyes.

Zack shook his head, and thought "Not really a couple details but nothing crucial, meet us in the room. We'll figure out where to go from there." He couldn't read her thoughts, but she could read his. This he knew, because she was a Hollow and that was one of their quirks. He turned to his brother, "Estella's already here...we'll meet her up in our room." he muttered. Dylan nodded, silent as they both climbed up the stairs that led to room 215, yellow eyes watching intently.

Zack took out the keys from his pocket and unlocked the door, checking over his shoulder to see if anyone had followed him just for precaution. Once he was convinced that it was safe, he swung the door open and stepped inside, Dylan behind him, flipping on the light. The room was small and had the basics of what anyone needed. Two beds, a lamp, a desk, a small TV with rabbit ears, and a separate room for the bathroom.

A woman about their age, stood with her back facing them as she stared out the window and down at the rainy city below. She turned around, with her arms crossed.

Her features were soft but fierce, wavy long brown hair past her shoulders and striking gold eyes. She was small in size but the aura around her said that that didn't matter at all. She was pale, and as she smiled...fangs. "So what's the news? Something good, I hope." she said, her voice was had a light British accent.

Dylan dropped his bag next to his bed and sat on the edge of it. "We didn't find much, Estella, just some descriptions about the victim and where she was last seen.

Zack took off his leather jacket and threw it on the unoccupied bed, that he claimed as his from day one. He leaned against the desk and crossed his arms as well. "What about you? Anything strange on your part?" he asked.

"I've got nothing. I got a faint scent...but it's too old to follow, they might've moved by now. Whoever they are, they're good...and obviously are trying very hard at not wanting to be found." Estella replied, turning back to look out the window.

Estella was one of the few Hollows that were born into the Academy and raised to fight their own kind. It was useful when human instincts couldn't go any further. She was hesitant at first, not sure if this was a really good idea to turn on your own race but she agreed when she found out how bloodthirsty and vile the Hollows were. She was put on Zack and Dylan's team after meeting both of them in a combat course and taking a liking to them.

Zackary heaved a long sigh, as he ran his fingers through his disheveled blond hair. “We've got to try harder, people are dropping like flies and getting more and more worried by the second.”

“You don't think we know that, Zackary? We're just as frustrated as you are, and we're doing our best and it's not just us, the Academy has got Hunters and Trackers posted all over London. We just have to be patient and do our part.” Estella explained, a steely edge in her tone.

“That's not good enough, Stell! Our code is to save lives, and we're not doing such a buck up job on that!” Zack yelled, glaring at the woman.

“Calm down, both of you!” Dylan interjected, feeling the uneasiness in his stomach from the tension in the air. “We'll figure this out, but arguing over it isn't going to buy us time!”

Thick silence came between the trio, until a screams broke it. Dylan jumped his feet, and Zack whipped out a silver gun both bolting for the door. Estella was already throwing it open and stepping into the hallway. Several doors down, was a hunched figure over a limp body. It's raised it's head, blood dripping from the corners of it's mouth. Estella held her breath, as her eyes stared directly into it's cold ice blue ones.

Zack was the first to take action, he raised his gun and fired. It screamed in pain, and took off running towards him, leaving the bloody body behind. He kept firing, but the Hollow didn't stop, it just kept it's deadly gaze at the Hunter. Zack took several steps back, but it's speed was incredible as is knocked him aside and into the wall. All the oxygen in Zack's lungs went out with a whoosh as he sank to the floor, immobile for a couple seconds.

“Zack!” called Dylan as he rushed to his brother's side.

Zack took in a sharp breath and managed to say, “Go!”
Estella had already begun the chase, vaulting over the stair railing and taking off out the door, the sound of shocked screams not even having time to reach their ears from moving so fast.

Dylan helped Zack up to his feet, still worried that he was injured. “Can you stand?”

“Yeah, I'm okay, thanks. C'mon, Stell's on his heels.” Zack said, still a little winded as he started off as a quick jog with his younger brother behind him. Soon the picked up the pace to hard sprint, knowing that they were going to have to work hard to try to keep up with a Hollow.

Estella's breathing hadn't even quickened as she tore down the streets after him. He turned a tight corner and started to climb his way up pipes and ledges to the rooftops. She was right behind him. His scent was strong, blood, alcohol and another she couldn't identify. It was different from the scent she found this morning. “Zack, hurry it up! He's too fast!” She thought. Then she felt his thoughts as she read them, buzzing in her own mind.

“Keep on him! We'll cut him off!”

She nodded, more to herself than anyone else. She pushed on harder, closing the gap between them. He slid to the edge and dropped between the two buildings, still running away from her. Estella jumped and landed gracefully on her feet in a puddle, causing rainwater to splash in different directions. She took off in a sprint to regain her speed. He turned another sharp corner, she followed.

The brothers ran as hard as their human legs could. Dylan was by Zack's side the whole time, he knew he could push faster but he didn't want to put any more stress on Zack's lungs, from being winded. Their breathing was uneven and heavy as the turned the first corner, then several miles later, the second.

Something hard and stiff suddenly struck the side of Dylan's head, sending his glasses flying and landing on the wet ground, cracked. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious as black boot crushed his glasses.

“Dylan!” cried Zackary, he tried to move toward his brother but a strong hand caught his throat and pinned him up against the wall, 3 feet off the ground. Zack cried out in pain, when his head impacted with the concrete, stars popping up in his vision. He fought to stay awake. He looked down a thick muscled arm and saw a huge Hollow, accompanied with 4 others. Estella was in the same state as Dylan, sprawled out on the floor.

“Zackary Frost...we've been waiting for you.” said one of the Hollow, a small female wearing a long white coat with the letter “A” on the breast pocket.

Zack struggled, but the massive arm retreated and slammed him against the wall. Darkness over took him.