Part 1
A brown wolf was being observed through a rifle scope as he was hungrily grinding the flesh of its prey across the forest, oblivious that he was probably about to die.
The blue—eyed man angeled his rifle downwards, aiming at the clueless wolf from a high distance, most likely the top of a mountain, his grip tightening with each passing second. Through his apparent rapid chest heaves, he was boiling of grudge toward that animal.
"I finally found you, Kai!" The joyful voice of a girl echoed behind the man, whose name was Kai before he could shot that animal. "It was really difficult, but dad told me that I'd find you at the top of the nearest mountain to our house and he was right. It's really cold here." She crossed her arms around her shoulders, feeling chilly as it was too early in the morning.
Startled at her sudden appearance, Kai rapidly shifted the aim of his rifle at her, his mouth not uttering a single word to justify his sudden antagonistic action.
"Are you trying to scare me?" The girl giggled playfully before she sat on a nearby flat rock, her petite face hiding the orange hues of the sunrise. "That won't work. How can you shot an adorable face like mine?"
While keeping a straight expression, he pulled the trigger, his eyes not leaving her face. "Say goodbye to your life, stinky creature," he muttered under his breath, his words coming out so low that the girl couldn't hear.
"Kai... Stop, that's not funny." Seeing the pure seriousness in his gaze, her tone evolved worried. However, Kai didn't react and remained in his offensive position.
"Kai?"
"Kai?" She repeated.
"Kai!"
Her last scream instantly wiped out the menacing gaze he had on his well—figured teenage face. Pulling out the rifle in a quick motion, he broke out in a row of mocking laughter. "Pffft hahaha, I should have recorded your face!"
"I'm not talking to you anymore!" The innocent—looking girl sulked. She got up from her seat to walk away, her brown locks angrily thumping her back.
"Why did you follow me here anyway?" He asked while packing his hunting tools to follow her.
"I wanted to remind you that it's my birthday today, and I also wanted to go to school together," she said while keeping her face away from him to hide her blush.
"Didn't you say that you won't talk to me anymore ten seconds ago?" He shrugged, his feet rushing to catch up with her. "Happy birthday, anyway," he proceeded, nonchalantly, when he reached her.
She turned around to face him, her eyes expressing a mixture of sadness and irritation. "Why are you acting like that when I told you my feelings a month ago?"
He remained silent for a moment before replying. "Can you remind me why you like me again?"
"Seriously, you don't know? You're the only person aside from my parents who have ever been nice to me until now. My feelings for you are real, I can feel my heartbeat when I'm around you."
Kai sighed, hesitating to respond. "That's the problem, you don't like me the way you think. If anyone else is nice to you, you will hold the same feelings." He paused again, thinking about another answer. "Sorry, I can't see you more than my little sister since we've lived together for so long."
"Just forget it!" Betty squealed, her bitter pace speeding to evade him. On her way to her house, which was half a mile away, her palm touched her chest, feeling the paining pulses of her unrequited love.
She never asked him to be her boyfriend. She wouldn't dream of it, after all, his looks were too good for her. All she wanted was a kiss, she wanted her first kiss to be with her first love on her eighteenth birthday.
"You're our lovely girl and don't let anyone affect how you feel about yourself." Betty's mom, Ingrid, said in a reassuring voice before kissing her forehead lovingly.
"Take care, Betty." Her father, Alex, waved his hand at her. He then put his arm around Ingrid's shoulder, showing his affection as they saw Betty going into Kai's truck, leaving for school.
Not more than an average girl, Betty Walch lived in Mounticell, a calm town surrounded by green mountains. It was a satisfactory home for people who loved nature and looked for peace and relaxation. She was blessed with a loving family who cared for her, along with Kai who lived with them since his parents died when he was at a young age.
In contrary to her seemingly safe house, everyone, especially at her school, seemed to dislike Betty for a very silly reason, they were all vegetarians, and she was an exception. But that was what she thought as what she knew was only a drop of water in a huge ocean.
"Ugh, it smells like dog, don't you think?" A bunch of girls threw harsh words as soon as Betty stepped into the classroom.
"I should ask Mrs. Jennings that I want to change my class." They continued.
As the bullying began a long time ago, Betty was already used to this harsh life. Though it was painful to hear the trash that came out from their mouths, she consoled herself that at least she had an affectionate family, in addition to soon graduating and leave the town.
Betty was about to take out her math book when she heard someone cracking something over her head. The jelly texture of eggs fell until it stuck on her hair. Its raw smell reached her nostrils and nauseated her. "Since it's your birthday, ugly, we decided to prepare a cake for you." a girl, named Mia, said and turned around to her friend. "Bring some flour, Jessica."
Betty remained put on her stool, silently bearing the humiliation while the girl named Jessica poured two whole packs of flour on her head which made Betty sneeze, and their laughter turned louder.
"That won't do, we need to add some sugar. I bet you forgot to bring it, Logan!" Jessica looked sideways.
The black—haired boy named Logan was recording the scene with his phone, his grin filled with sadistic satisfaction. "Sorry, I didn't."
He then passed over his camera to someone else before shoving his hands inside his bag, pulling out a dark green bottle. "But I brought something more interesting, would fish sauce do?"
"Logan, you're a freaking genius!" Mia took the bottle from his hands, forcefully opened it while reaching Betty to spill it on her hair until the bottle emptied. The stinky liquid slicked from her hair all over her body and clothes and fall upon the ground beneath her feet.
"We don't like fish, but since we like you so much we brought it especially for you," Logan snickered while the others rushed their hands to cover their nose in reaction to the smelly odor.
"We don't want you here, Stinkface!"
"Ugh, go away!"
Betty pushed her stool back and quickly moved out of the classroom while the liquid was leaking on the ground in drops. She went to the gym's shower, removed all her clothes, and switched on some hot water on her body.
She rubbed, again and again, in a desperate attempt to reduce the stinky odor until she ran out of shampoo. She broke into tears when the fish smell was still heavily present and sat on the floor, her knees tucked to her chin, crossing her arms around herself, and taking in her suffering.
Part 2
When Betty crossed the door of the cafeteria in her terrible mood, the passersby were covering their noses at the smell. In quick steps, she took the only plate available that contained proteins and sat alone in the corner.
Nonetheless, Kai joined her table to make sure she was eating her non—vegetarian meal as it was difficult for her to do it in front of everyone who was looking at her in disgust. Some passersby were even wondering how Kai could handle the fish smell.
Betty kept staring at her steak, not moving an inch, her mind fussing over her morning humiliation.
"It's not your fault. We're the strange ones. A community only made with vegetarian people, that only exists in Mounticell." Kai tried to reassure her while digging into his plate full of vegetables.
His reassuring words weren't enough since Betty refused to move. However, Kai's presence wasn't unnecessary as she'd have long ago evolved into depression if he wasn't there when she needed it.
"If you don't eat, you will faint again like last time. The doctor said that you can't live without eating meat." Kai tried again in a worried tone.
"If I eat, will you..." Betty hesitated while playing with her fingers and looking at Kai with a shy, maiden in love, expression.
"Will what?" Kai narrowed his eyes.
An embarrassing blush crawled up her face and settled on her cheeks as she asked."Will you kiss me?"
Her sudden bold request made Kai cough the salad he was trying to wear down.
"Ugh seriously? Poor Kai." Mia, who was passing by, uttered in disgust with her mocking group.
"How are you even able to hold the smell?" Jessica scoffed.
Kai looked at them with a frown. "Mia, Jessica, and Logan, I'm going to talk about the fish sauce later so you better be prepared." That made them instantly go away.
Betty felt her heart fluttering at how protective Kai was toward ber. He turned his face back to her and with an intense stare, he replied, "Okay, I'll do it if you close your eyes."
Betty closed her eyes before her lips pulled forward, waiting for her dreamy kiss. She paused for some seconds before feeling something on her lips, it had the texture of meat, she smooched it gracefully, thinking it was Kai's lips. But the taste of it made her realize otherwise.
As soon as she opened her eyes, they met Kai. The fork he was holding carried the piece of meat she was kissing. When she was about to open her jaw to curse him, he shoved that piece of meat into her mouth.
Betty had no choice but to continue chewing on it as it was hell delicious.
"You're cruel!" She said before jumping to dig into the rest of the steak, mashing it hungrily while the people at the cafeteria were scorning at her animalistic behavior.
Betty always wondered why they hated her for such a silly reason. She wasn't the only non—vegetarian on earth. Did they dislike every single person who was like her? As clueless as she was, it, indeed, didn't make sense to her.
A lot of questions were kicking in her mind and particularly one. "Kai, I wonder why most people in this town hunt animals when they are vegetarian. I could never understand that."
Kai stopped eating when he heard her question. He put his hand under his chin in deep thoughts before replying, "It's our favorite hobby, in fact not all vegetarians in this world are what they are because they like animals, we just don't like meat. As for me, I hunt ducks to provide you something to eat at home."
The last phrase he said made Betty's heart flutter. "Really? Then..."
"No, that doesn't mean that I have feelings for you." He interrupted and then leaned forward to whisper in front of her face, "you're not supposed to know that, but we also hunt dangerous animals."
That made Betty's legs shiver. "You're not hunting werewolves and vampires, right?" She raised an eyebrow. Their existence was a secret to nobody, even though, she had never met one herself. However, the rumors on the internet said that the man who ruled the world was a hybrid, a cross between a vampire and a werewolf, whose identity was still unknown.
"Of course not," Kai shrugged off her assumptions with a reassuring smile that seemed suspicious.
Betty was worried because any person who was related to hunting those creatures would be labeled as rebellious and be condemned to death as per the law. As for her, she didn't hold any hatred towards them as long as they didn't threaten humanity.
Back at Betty's home, in a place, she had never settled her feet before, the basement. Her parents, Ingrid and Alex Walch were talking about a questionable subject that Betty had no idea about.
"She's turning eighteen today," Ingrid stated while tidying her rifle with a red towel.
"The seal we cast on her eighteen years ago won't last long. We have to act quicker," Alex said as he peeked at an unspecified object hidden under a white sheet.
Ingrid smirked mischievously as she held her rifle to aim at the portrait of a black—haired attractive man. His eyes had different colors, one of them was gold while the other was red like blood. "Yes, our bait will awaken soon."
