Strangely, a side door to the church was cracked open slightly, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I rushed forward and through that door as fast and quietly as I could, gently closing it with the ancient iron latch from the inside.

Relatively safe in the dark of the church interior, I allowed myself to breathe and think a little. How did I get out of here now? Did I wait it out and make a break for it once I thought it was safe? That seemed like the play, right?

Idly, I glanced at the dark interior of the church, trying to get my bearings. It was an old style cross shaped one, with pews up the main shaft of the cross and down the sides, altar at the top.

The whole place was old wood and bare stone, a typical protestant church built during the early settlement of the eastern united states. I was willing to bet that some of the massive beams of wood above me were hundreds of years old.

I could feel a sort of oppressive weight about the place, as though time itself was sagging here, tired and badly in need of rest. When my gauntlets seemed to gain weight, that’s when I knew something was wrong with this place on a magical level. I couldn’t stay here…

Wish I knew how to see magic or whatever, that would have been real helpful about then. Only the most powerful of magic wielders had the sight thought, and these days they were rarer than a trustworthy politician.

Moving as quietly as possible, I made for the opposite wing from the one I’d arrived in, but as I walked, my gauntlets felt heavier and heavier. Forced to stop and rest on the altar, I took a look down at the implements of magic on my arms and tried to understand what was happening. Why were they failing? Had I used them too much? Had I broken them?

Shit, and why was I suddenly so tired?

Almost as though my worst fears had been made manifest by god himself, the front doors of the church creaked open, and in walked the hunter.

“Of all the places to drag yourself,” he chuckled, stepping inside and closing the door with a jarring gentleness.

Even as I glared daggers at him at him, I had to ask, “What do you mean?”

“This church,” he said conversationally, gesturing around us at the ancient building. “It was built to guard a leyline, long sealed to prevent your kind from accessing its power. It seems fitting that you will die here. Homage to the days of glory, when victory over filth like you was not yet assured.”

The way he so casually addressed me as filth, it was like a blow to my psyche. “Why do you hate magic? Why do the hunters hate us? I was just… I was just doing the right thing.”

“I do not hate magic, although many of my brethren do,” he told me with a shake of his head. “The reason we hunt you is also simple, God created man to rule this earth, just as he created all men to be equal. There is some debate among our order as to how humanity gained the use of magic, but one thing is clear. It was not God who gave it to us, for how can all men be equal when some have power over the very fabric of our reality?”

I stared at him for a long moment, processing his words as he made his way towards the altar. There was no way I’d be able to get away now. My gauntlets were all but dead, probably sapped of their strength by the tainted leyline below me, and the tiredness I felt probably came from there too. I guess, if I was going to die, I wanted to understand why?

Like, dying wasn’t all that terrible, I wasn’t a big fan of my life, as much fun as tonight had been. He had a sort of point too, the power I’d felt throwing those dudes around had been potent, and I could see how some might be tempted to use it for evil.

Still, I’d used it for good, hadn’t I?

A thought occurred to me then, something that bothered me about his equality speech. “Wait… so why are you on the cop’s side if you’re all about equality? Racism does more damage than magic, especially these days. Why aren’t you in there protesting with them?”

“That is for someone else to deal with,” he shrugged, giving a dismissive wave of his gloved hand. “They are equal where it matters.”

“I mean, if they were, then they wouldn’t be getting arbitrarily executed in the fucking streets,” I frowned, a little pissed off now.

I was angry because I was almost certain I’d be dying to someone with hypocrisy at the core of his beliefs.

“Again, not my problem,” he snorted, stopping to loom over me. “You, however, are my problem. The operation to cover up what you did tonight will take months, possibly even years.”

“Why? Because if the public knows that you thugs are going around killing people merely for existing, they might get upset?” I sneered, trying to stand up, to raise my gauntlet for one last spell.

His boot connected with my chest, sending me sprawling back down across the steps of the altar. Shit, that hurt. The steps were made of stone, and my back wasn’t exactly made of the strongest stuff. Years without hormones would do that to you.

Still calm, he stood above me, almost as if observing a mouse he had stuck beneath a cup, a predator’s curiosity before he drowned me in the sink.

“I must ask, how did one as young as you gain such power?” he mused, not really speaking to me anymore. “Certainly, you are the strongest mage I have hunted in years. There must be more of you.”

“Really?” I scoffed, voice hoarse with pain as I struggled to even my breathing out. “You want me to like, betray all my allies at the brink of my death? Blab all the names of my vast and powerful coven? Get real.”

“I sincerely doubt you will tell me anything useful,” he explained casually, still completely unfazed by my anger. “Doesn’t really cost me anything to ask, though.”

“Well, sorry to disappoint your bloodlust, but it’s just me,” I said, feeling some small satisfaction that he wasn’t going to get any of that glory he’d mentioned earlier.

He waved me off. “I will conduct my own investigation to determine that.”

All I could do was snort. It was funny, in a morbid sort of way. Why was he bothering to talk to me if whatever I said would be lies to him?

I received a quizzical look for my amusement, and he said, “You do not seem to care that you will die here.”

“Not really,” I shrugged, feeling strangely truthful despite his predisposition not to believe me. “I hate my life, if I’m honest. It’s shit, it’s boring, and it just feels sort of… empty. Like, I’ll live it if I have it, but dying doesn’t really bother me.”

“Odd girl,” he muttered to himself, staring down at me.

Then, without any ceremony, he drew his gun from its holster and shot me three times in the chest.

For a few moments, my mind sort of stuttered, trying to understand what had happened. The pain hit next, as though boiling water had been poured across my chest.

Eyes no longer obeying me, I fell to the ground, losing sight of the hunter as he just… just turned and left. Darkness closed in at the edge of my vision, a haze of nothing swallowing my life along with my senses. Guess I was going out. Bye mum, bye dad… bye Eva...

** If you are not reading this on SH, it has been stolen. My author alias is QuietValerie. Come find me! **

I fell again, but this time, I left my body behind, blood pooling on the steps of that ancient altar to a God I didn’t even believe in. Sad, but hey… I was still thinking, so that was pretty interesting.

As I fell, I turned to face downwards, as if pulled by some unseen force. Around me, instead of a physical form, I had some sort of strange, white mist.

Below me, I could see a mass of glowing white energy, with fat conduits of the same stuff reaching out in six different directions. Something was wrong with it though, it was covered in a strange black goop, surrounded like some sort of cancerous alien life form straight out of science fiction.

Sudden understanding hit me. I was staring at the leyline… no, not just staring, I was falling into it. Oh crud, what would that mean for me, for my… my soul, or spirit, or whatever the hell I was now.

I really hoped it didn’t hurt, because that would su— 

Thump

I hit the ground, my breath exploding out of me in a rush. What in the ever living fuck was going on? I sniffed, then frowned, confused by what my nose was telling me. Damp soil? Rotting leaves? Why the hell was I in a forest?

My eyes fluttered open to reveal a wide clearing within a dense, unimaginably ancient looking forest. Not just ancient… it was huge. Every tree was five or six times the size you’d expect a tree to be, and even the grass and brush was massive. What the hell?

Mist swirled and danced between the tree trunks and through their twisted boughs, as though alive in a very real and sentient way. Lights danced beyond, distant and fleeting and unsettling.

Next, I noticed something directly in front of me, and I gave out a startled yelp, scrabbling backwards. Whatever it was, it followed me, remaining too close and blurry to make out properly.

A giggle caused me to freeze in place, and I swivelled my head to try and figure out who’d just laughed.

“Who’s there?” I asked anxiously, only to get confused again when my neck didn’t function the way I expected.

“She is frightened by her own snout!” a strange, high, genderless voice chortled from above me. “What a curious little creature.”

“She has the smell of Earth on her,” another voice intoned, deep and rumbling.

“And death,” the first voice purred, its owner stepping out from behind a tree. “Hello little fox, I am so intrigued to meet you.”

The person was huge, and my eyes widened as they approached. Tall and inhumanly thin, they looked as though they were made out of white, petrified wood. A bone white dryad or something.

“Do not startle the newcomer, Hathaesay, you are scaring her,” the rumbling voice chastised in a gentle tone, and to my surprise I realised it was the tree speaking, the one that the white dryad had stepped out from behind. The damned thing had eyes.

“Yes, yes…” the dryad grumbled, waving a willowy limb at the tree in irritation. “Tell me, little fox, how did you come to be here, stinking of Earth and death, hmmm?”

It was about then that I realised that no, she wasn’t really tall, and the forest wasn’t really big. I was small, and as she’d just said… I had a snout… and paws, and a tail. I was a fox.

“What. The. Fuck,” I yelped, voice high and panicked.