The Hunter Without

Hunter’s head really hurt. Now, technically speaking, that shouldn’t be happening. He was pretty sure he had bled out and allowed his… magic Grimwalker blood stuff to resurrect Luz. Yet here he was, in some kind of black abyss, with a pain in his head.

His head throbbed as the memories of Belos stabbing him were called to the forefront. After a minute the splitting headache slipped away and the reality of his circumstance settled in.

Getting his opinions out as he stared off into the dark abyss that surrounded him, Hunter couldn’t help but be disappointed. “If this is my afterlife I’m genuinely going to be upset.” He mumbled to himself.

“Hello!” He called out, sitting up from the surface that he just now realized is liquid in nature. “What is this place?”

The sound of the liquid moving next to him drew Hunter’s attention, seeing the oncoming form of a cloaked figure. He was slightly taller than Hunter and wearing a more elaborate tunic with a frilly collar piece. The figure wore a golden mask, nearly identical to the one he wore as the Golden Guard.

“Hello!” He tried again. “Who are you?”

The figure stopped before him. “My name is Alpha. In a sense I’m the first you.”

“You’re the first grimwalker Belos made!” Hunter gasped. This was certainly a development.

“Yes,” Alpha confirmed “And it appears that you’re the last.” Alpha extended his hand, which Hunter great fully accepted and pulled up off the ground and onto his feet.

“So Alpha, where exactly are we?” Hunter asked “Because the last thing I remember clearly was my death.”

Alpha sighed, brown eyes noticeable through his mask softening with what appeared to be pity. “Don’t worry about that kid. Just know you’re in a place with friends, in fact, I’d say the best friends a grimwalker could ask for.” Alpha then pulled out his staff, shifting it into flight mode and hopping on. He gestured for Hunter to do the same. “Come one, let’s get out of here and to where the rest of us are.”

Tentatively Hunter followed suit, grabbing hold of Alpha’s staff and taking a comfortable seat on the back of it. Once they were both secure, the thing shot off into the distance, flying with the glow of red energy causing the speed to increase exponentially.

Then they came to a stop, resting at a shadowy overpass, a statue of Emperor Belos on one side, a statue of Luz Noceda on the other. In the center there sat a perfect recreation of the cabin from the woods in Gravesfield.

Alpha led Hunter through the overpass to the cabin, holding the door open for him and gesturing inside. “Everyone is inside.”

“Everyone?” Hunter asked.

“Well yeah, everyone is here.” Alpha explained “They’re all pretty excited to meet you.”

“Okay…” Hunter replied slowly, still very confused at what the other Grimwalker meant. Indefinitely, Hunter took a step forward. Then another. Then another, all the way until he crossed the threshold of the cabin.

As he stepped through the door, he felt a warm light radiate across his body… form? He was dead, he didn’t exactly know what the proper terminology was. If popular human culture was to be believed, the term was astral form. However, that felt wrong.

The light faded, and Hunter found himself inside of an ornate clubhouse room. It was decked out with all the stops, a series of ping pong tables, pool tables, coolers, and lounge chairs, and every area was in use by several familiar-looking people. All blond-haired people of various configurations of being; some of them were wearing white cloaks with different golden masks, some were wearing patchwork clothing, some faces looked more like Hunter while others were nearly entirely different. Every single person in the clubhouse had the same defining trait—blond hair, with a notable front strand that hung in a curl in front of their face.

As Hunter walked in, everyone turned to him, a terse silence hanging in the air as they all paused what they were doing. “H-hello.” He said, giving a little wave. Sweat poured down the back of his neck as he felt all the eyes on him.

From behind, Hunter felt Alpha clamp an arm around his shoulders, kneeling so they were on the same level. “Come on, little bro, introduce yourself.”

Hunter took a deep breath, trying to channel any form of social confidence that might remain within his form. “My name is Hunter.”

For another second, there was a continued silence. Hunter sweated some more. The anticipation was killing him. Thankfully he was put out of his misery as suddenly a cheer erupted from the crowd and cries of “Hunter!” “Hey little dude!” “Welcome!” and many others lost in the sea of voices rocketed out of the Grimwalkers.

With their cheers, the Grimwalkers went back to what they were doing prior; playing games, sharing a drink, chatting it up. Hunter wasn’t going to lie; he was extremely out of his depth with this. As he watched his… siblings… going at merriment without any qualms or self doubts, it struck an odd chord with him. It felt surreal, a place where Grimwalkers were happy and enjoying themselves felt like a far cry from any reality that he could perceive.

“Alpha!” called the voice of a Grimwalker emerging from the crowd, making a beeline for Hunter and Alpha. The voice belonging to this one was totally different, sounding very similar to a 1930s detective movie femme fatale. “You were supposed to wait for me before you went out!”

Alpha sighed. “Look, Neith, the window of opportunity was closing. What did you want me to do?”

“Respect the buddy system!” Neith snapped, punching Alpha lightly in the arm. “What if you had gotten lost out there?”

“Come on,” Alpha replied “I don’t get lost.”

Neith glared at Alpha another moment before relenting, taking off her mask to reveal an interesting sight. Hunter had always heard tell of Evelyn but never could really put a face to the image. However, he had seen what Caleb was supposed to look like, only slightly different than his own face. When Hunter looked at Neith, he saw traits certainly inherited from Caleb Wittebane and those that were conspicuously not.

“Come on, Little bro,” She said, gesturing to Hunter. “Caleb wants to meet you.”
_

The two walked further into the clubhouse, leaving Alpha to go off and party with the rest of the Grimwalkers. Throughout the walk, Hunter couldn’t help but glance at the young woman a couple of times. Something about her didn’t add up: the Grimwalker with the eyes, jawline, and hairstreak of Caleb while also possessing a different overall facial structure, gender, and hair color. Of the depictions of Evelyn that Hunter had seen, both from the mind of Belos and the local legends of Gravesfield, Neith possessed the trademark red hair and blemish of Evelyn.

“I’d rather just have you ask your highly personal questions instead of just looking at me pensively every five seconds and trying to hide it.” Neith’s voice caused Hunter to jump, causing him to look guiltily at her.

“Sorry.” He murmured. “This stuff is all so new to me.”

Neith laughed for a moment too long and too hard, spreading uneasiness in Hunter’s mind. Clearly his expression must have shown it despite his damndest to avoid it, because as she caught sight of him, she stopped. “Look dude, I’ve been there before. Honestly you’ve got it cool, you know what’s going on about your existence, you aren’t disgraced with strange physical deformities… or mutations.”

She said that last part quieter than the rest of it.

“Mutations?” Hunter asked, not entirely sure if he really wanted the answer.

“Grimwalkers that came out wrong.” She explained. “You haven’t met many of us yet. But a few examples are Three-Eyes, Four-Arms, Wrecker, Crosshair, Tech.”

“Did you just name Star Wars characters for those last three?”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Hunter furrowed his brow. “So what is your deal?”

Neith chuckled “Dude, come on. You can’t just ask for my dramatic backstory in the first two minutes of us knowing each other. You haven’t even talked to Caleb yet.”

“You said I should ask my questions instead of keeping them in.” Hunter shot back.

“Yeah, never said I had to answer them.”

Hunter eyed the other Grimwalker flatly, wanting to make sure that Neith knew of his dissatisfaction wholeheartedly. “I can tell you’re gonna be one of the most infuriating people I’ve ever met.”

“Took you long enough!” Neith laughed.
_

Neith dropped Hunter off at the door to Caleb’s room, telling him to head on in when he was ready.

Without much hesitation he knocked on the door, waiting until he heard a firm “Come in,” before following the instructions and entering the room.

Stepping inside, Hunter was met with a peculiar sight. It was an ornate study, complete with bookshelf, fireplace, and portrait above it. The portrait depicted Caleb and a red haired witch together, interestingly, Flapjack was perched on the woman’s shoulder. If Hunter had to guess, he’d say she was the Evelyn he’d heard so much about.

“Ah, Hunter!” An elated voice came from the fireplace. Sat in a cozy chair was none other than the round-eared, brown-eyed, and very much grown adult Caleb Wittebane. Caleb stood and walked to Hunter, extending a hand. “Let me tell you. It’s nice to meet you kid.”

Hunter took Caleb’s hand, meaning to shake it. Instead, Caleb tugged Hunter into a hug. “Welcome to the Afterlife bud… I think you’ll make the perfect addition to our little crew.”
_

Caleb led Hunter outside the Cabin while rambling on nonsense about soul bindings, Grimwalker creation, death, the afterlife, and ghostly trolling. Hunter was still in shock. He understood about every third word but nothing more than that to make any sense of it. It was like a conversation was dipping in and out of english and some other language.

“And so that’s the basic gist of what the guards and I get up to most of the time.” Caleb finished, eyeing Hunter. “You didn’t get any of that, did you?”

“No,” Hunter replied, his face burning with embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it, kid.” Caleb said, “If I were in your shoes, I think I’d still be freaking out. So already you’re doing better.”

He didn’t exactly know how to give that response. Sure he’d been given patience for his lack of understanding recently, but it still didn’t really make the whole thing easier. His entire life he had lived being told that he had to be in front of the curve or suffer the recompense, it was a hard thing to shake.

“Here, let me try this a different way.” Caleb said, a knowing smile on his face. “Lemme ask. What is it that you see out here?”

“Uh…” Hunter looked out at the area, pointing out the two massive statues. “I see the statues. One of Luz and one of Belos.”

Caleb’s brow furrowed, confusion evident on his face. Instantly, Hunter felt his heart spike. Did he do something wrong? Had he upset Caleb?

Before he could open his mouth to release a flurry of apologies, Caleb spoke up. “That’s odd. I can’t see that.”

Now it was Hunter’s turn to be confused. “What?”

Caleb pointed to the statue of Belos. “I mean, I can see the statue of Philip. We do a lot with that thing. But the other one,” he pointed in the general area of the Luz statue… pointedly, not directly at it. “I can’t see it.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t know.” Caleb said. He sounded genuinely stumped. “The statue of Philip is a totem of our connection to Philip. He killed all of us. It intrinsically links our souls to him after death. It’s how we haunt him. I can only assume that your other statue is similar.”

“But Luz didn’t kill me. She was the first person to show me genuine kindness,” Hunter said. “And I wouldn’t want to haunt her anyways.”

The human looked deep in thought. “I genuinely don’t know, then. The bond between Philip and us was born from our deaths. I’m unsure if there’s any other way to link our souls to another person.”

Hunter raised an eyebrow. “So you guys haunt Belos.” He chuckled, “That’s honestly a pretty good consolation prize.”

“Indeed it is.” Caleb smiled, however haunted a smile it was. “When we approach the statue a gateway opens and we get to enter his field of view for a short time.”

A gateway when they approach? Hunter had an idea, a kind of morbid idea that stuck into his brain and begged him to go and see.

As if stuck in a trance, Hunter walked over to the statue of Luz, eyes locked on the face.

In his head words began to echo. “You and me Hunter, one last fight.”

“Hey, Hunter…” Caleb shouted “What are you doing?”

Hunter made it to the statue’s feet, a jagged portal rippling open. “Figuring it out as I go.” He called back, before crossing the threshold.

As he stepped through the gateway, Hunter felt a rush of magical energy saturate him, like he was walking under the surface of a pool. The world around him melted away and reformed into what appeared to be a forest in the Boiling Isles. It was autumn. He’d nearly forgotten how beautiful the Demon Realm was after his extended stay in the Human one.

For a second he stood there alone, drinking it all in. He could see the sky and all the land together again. He could almost feel the way the ground shook below, with slight tremors caused by the sea’s constant eating away at the Titan’s body.

However, this peace was interrupted by voices. Well, one specific voice that Hunter knew all too well.

“Hey red grass! I missed you.” He heard Willow exclaim as she rounded the bend, dropping down to a patch of dirt with the trademark red grass of the Isles fostered.

Hunter felt his nonexistent heart skip a beat as she dropped down and started talking to the plants of her home turf. He had never really been able to put a name to what he felt for her when he was alive. Still, seeing her happy made him happy; he was glad she made it home.

Soon after came all the others. Amity was essentially babysitting Camila, making sure she wasn’t freaking out too badly. Gus ran over to Willow, drawing up illusions and starting to play around with her and the red grass.

Then there was Luz. Hunter would be lying if he said she looked rough, rough wasn’t a strong enough word. She was isolated from the group, her hair now golden and three new scratch mark scars adorning her face. Flapjack followed her like a sad puppy, keeping a tentative distance from her.

Seeing his little sister in that state felt terrible, no doubt because she was internally blaming herself for everything again.He wanted to reach out, he wanted to wrap her up into his arms and tell her that everything was going to be alright. However as he did so he found himself unable to move, barely able to muster out a single word.

“Luz…” his voice trailed off but it was enough.

Red eyes met red eyes, tears formed in the pair that was still capable of it.

Then Flapjack landed on Luz’s shoulder, and Hunter felt the surface tension break and he was dragged backwards. As he was pulled out, he could have sworn the bird looked right at him with an expression of surprise.