Chapter 54: Chapter 54

WINTERS NIGHT

Winter's Night

Kitee, North Karelia, Finland

Tarja looked but she couldn't see anything but darkness. She couldn't even make out Kendra anymore. This was not a good idea! Why did she trust Kendra? Suddenly, a white light appeared in front of her. Tarja stared at it. Was she supposed to go closer or was she just supposed to stay here? Sighing, she put one foot in front of the other. Anything, she supposed, was better than staying here in the darkness.

She did noticed that the closer she got to the white, the colder it became. Wasn't going into the light supposed to make you feel warmer? She looked back, but there was nothing more than a pit of darkness. She had to keep moving.

She put her hand up over her eyes. The wind was causing her eyes to feel as if they were on fire. She blinked as she pressed on. Where had the wind come from? Maybe she did want to return to the darkness. It sure did seem a lot safer than this.

"Tarja," a voice taunted. "Tarja, you want to come see us. We want you to."

Tarja's dark head jerked up. "Who are you and what do you want?" The voice laughed. "That's not very nice, Tarja. We just want you to come and play with us. We're not asking a lot. We're bored because we've alone for far too long." Tarja didn't answer. She was not about to start talking to things she couldn't see. She stared at the white, it seemed closer than ever now.

Tarja looked around at the world of white, unsure of even where to start. The sky above was filled with both sun and moon. She could faintly make out the faint stardust, but no one known stars where in sight. It was just a wasteland where time didn't seem to exist.

Kendra appeared out of the corner of her eye, not looking one bit surprised about their current location.

Tarja looked at Kendra. "What exactly are we supposed to be looking for?"

"Anything that doesn't belong here," Kendra answered.

Tarja stared out into the white world. "I don't see much of anything. It's just so white and cold." She pulled her coat closer to her. The wind was starting to pick up causing the snow to lift up off the land. If they didn't move soon, they would be lost in this world.

Kendra nodded toward a mound of rocks. "Over there!" Tarja ran beside the other Hunter. She could feel the snow licking her heels. The wind was spending icy blasts down her head. She didn't dare look back for fear of being surrounded by an wintery death.

Tarja ducked down in the rocks behind Kendra. Even though the snow's howls filled the hollows of the rock, none reached the inside.

"Well, that went well," Kendra muttered, as she landed hard on the ground.

Tarja put her hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath. She stared out at the tunnel of rocks. "We could just walk in here. It couldn't hurt seeing as we really don't know where we are." Kendra pulled herself to her feet. "Anything is better than going back out there. I don' think this place likes us too much." Tarja followed the group down a dark tunnel. "It was sealed off for a reason." "I'm starting to think that this is going to be a lot more difficult than I first thought," Kendra said. "Careful, it's wet up here and there's a step right in front of you, Tarja." As Tarja stepped down a level, she could hear the faint sounds of running water. She looked too her right and could faintly see the white of rapid moving waves. "Look."

Kendra peered down. "Water," she whispered. "How can there be running water?"

"It is a magical land, there," Tarja said sarcastically.

Kendra just gave her a look. "Funny." Tarja was still frowning down at the water. "If there's water, there must still be life or at least there was a one time." "We just follow it, I guess," Kendra said. "The problem is which way does it run. We really shouldn't spilt up. Who knows that this land will do to us?" "I didn't noticed it until we got here," Tarja replied. "I think we should keep going to the way we are. It seems to me that whatever doesn't belong here would be at the end of the water." "Life at the mouth," Kendra echoed.

Radi woke up…It was dark and cold. Now, he knew his house was never cold, unless the power went out. Yeah, that explained the stillness and why he was in snow. The power must have went out in the middle of the night, without him knowing, and it must have gotten so cold that some of the snow managed to find its way into his bedroom.

He sat up and looked around, frowning. He was pretty sure that there were no trees in his bedroom and he was also very sure that there were no birds either. Blinking he looked around; somehow he had managed to make it out into the forest without even realizing where he was going.

Plus, there was something really sticky on his arms.

Okay, the last thing he could remember was getting tattoos with Lari and going out to get a sandwich. Radi and Lari had been talking about how much better Radi seemed. Lari had been asking about what they changed and Radi offered to show him.

Radi narrowed his eyes as he sniffed the substance on his arms. It had a sweet, salty smell to it. He was pretty sure he had smelled something like it before, but couldn't quiet pick a finger on it. It seemed to have some kind of connection to the hospital.

Whatever it was, he wasn't going to get any answers until he could see it.

He felt around for his mobile, but couldn't find it. After several failed attempts, he gave up. It looked like he wasn't going to get any answers until he made it back to the house, which was what direction again.

Radi looked around. He really had no idea where he was.

He got to his feet, stumbling over something. He could make out a faint lump. Kneeling down next to it, he could see that it was a human and he wasn't breathing.

"Hello," Radi called, his voice shaking. He pressed a couple of fingers on the side of the person's neck. There was nothing. He surely couldn't be dead. "Hello?" That coat sure looked familiar, as did the hair. "Lari?"

Radi looked closer at Lari before jumping back in horror.

The entire right side of Lari's face was gone.

Radi looked down at his arms, which he now knew were covered with blood. Screaming, he scrambled backwards. It was not going to change Lari's fate.

"I'm a murderer, I'm a murderer," Radi kept repeating to himself as he kept going to backwards, until a tree stopped him. He stared at Lari's unmoving form. How could he have killed someone without even realizing it? How was he ever going to face Lari's family?

Radi listened for sirens. Someone was bound to be coming, but silence only greeted him. That was a good thing, right?

!

Tarja and Kendra both looked at each other as they told the others what had just happened. Vuokko seemed to be the only one who actually believed what they were saying. Tarja had a strange feeling that the others just wanted to lock them in the nuthouse.

She could not help but noticing that Kaidan and Anneke did seem to be spending more time away from the others. Every time they would caught one of the others looking, they would become quiet. Tarja really hoped they didn't do a runner.

She loaded the final bags into the SUV, feeling like this was going to be the last battle. She really did hope that after this, they could all go back to a somewhat normal life.

Raakel carried out another bag. "This one stays with me."

Tarja just nodded. She had kind of gotten used to Raakel's strange ways. "Is there anything else?"

Raakel looked up from her rummaging around in her bag. "I don't think so." She looked into the SUV's boot. "Besides, I really don't think there's room for anything else."

"Me either." Tarja looked at the mess. Well, she guessed it really wasn't a mess. They didn't know what they were going into and had just brought a little bit of everything. Plus, she had a feeling that there wasn't going to be a lot of places to stop for supplies along the way-that was, if they even made it completely there.

Just based on the warning alone, Tarja was sure that Ajatar was going to throw whatever she had at them with full force. She had been around for so long and did not seem like the type to give up easily.

The wind blew between them, sending a little bit of snow flying up into the air. Raakel watched it, with a disinterested look.

"Are they coming?" Tarja asked as the wind stopped with a flick of Raakel's hand.

Raakel looked at her with haunted eyes; the same haunted look that she had had since Flynn's death. "They should be. I think they were just double checking everything."

Tarja nodded. "Well, there's no reason why we can't go ahead and claim our seats." She really wanted to say something to Raakel, but couldn't find the words. What did you say to someone who really didn't let anyone in?

Raakel climbed into the backseat, keeping her bag close. "Maybe if we actually get in, they will come out."

Tarja slammed the boot shut. "It might work or it might not."

Raakel pulled her bag even closer. "The only way to find out for sure is to try."

"I guess."

About ten minutes later, the others did manage to find their way out. They were fighting over who got to sit where and who got to drive when and for how long. Tarja sighed as she listened to it. If they had this much fight in them now, what was it going to be like once they actually entered the real battle?

They slowly made their way north. The further north they went, the colder it got. The landscape became more barren, probably the emptiest that Tarja had ever seen. The roads became less taken care of, more path like than road like. It just seemed to be a never ending wave of loneliness.

The emptiness did have one thing going for it. It would make it a lot less easier to kill Ajatar without having to worry about killing any innocents. Plus, it would give them more options to use whatever resources they had brought along. The downside was if any of them were injured, there would not be a lot of chances to get help nor would they be any chance of getting more fighers.

Tarja rested her head on the backseat of the SUV, closing her eyes. None of that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the wait, the not knowing of what was going to happen.

She looked around at the others. None had said a word for hours, not since Vuokko had volunteered to take the wheel.

"End of the line," Vuokko whispered as the SUV came to a stop.

Tarja jerked her eyes open, only to be greeted by a neverending white landscape. "What do you mean?"

"It wouldn't go any further." Vuokko pressed on the petal, but all it did was cause spinning and sliding. The more she pushed, the more the SUV fought.

Aleksander eyed Vuokko. "Will you please stop before we all die?"

Vuokko gave him a dark look. "Will you shut up before we toss you out in the snowdrift?"

Raakel hugged her bag closer to herself. She had not let go of it since they left Kitee. "We need to start walking instead of fighting. It's only a matter time before the supernatural forces realize we are here and try to kill us."

"You are such an uplifting person," Aleksander muttered. He frowned. "What makes you think this is the place?"

"The fact that SUV has went this far without any trouble and now we can't seem to go seems like a good sign. Plus, there is a power pull." Raakel eyed him. "Don't tell me you can't feel it?"

"Trust me, I can, but I thought we were looking for an island. This doesn't look like an island to me."

Tarja did have to admit that Aleksander was right. It sure was a far cry from an island. As far she could tell, there was no water in sight and she was pretty sure that they weren't on any ice.

"The supernatural don't play by the rules," Raakel snapped. "You must realize that by now or are you as thick as you look?"

Aleksander seemed to want to fire something back at her, but at the very last minute thought better of it. "Fine, let's go and get ready to die."

Tajra and Kendra exchanged looks as they climbed out behind Kaidan and Anneke.

The land around them was nothing more than an endless white wave. Tarja pulled her coat tighter around her, staring. She had a feeling that she had been here before. It wasn't the warning, but she just knew. She couldn't quiet place it, but she just couldn't get rid of that feeling.

Kendra suddenly raised her gun. "We aren't alone."

Tarja looked out in the distance. Sure enough, a group of people were actually moving toward them. "No way," she breathed.

It was the Kitee Pack.