Ch2 - The Hart Wants What It Wants

The hunter diaries chapter 2 - The Hart Wants What It Wants -Seth Hart and Harley Hart chapter-

“Ma’am, we’re going to need you to calm down. No, ma’am. Take a deep breath and tell us what you saw. Yes, we know. We know it’s crazy, but try to describe everything you remember, as detailed as you can. Mhm. Yes. Yes, ma’am. You saw our ad in the newspapers, crazy is what we deal with. Yes, me and my team are going to meet you there, I just need an address. Yes, ma’am. Noted. Hang tight, we’re getting there as soon as possible. Just make sure you get the items I told you and stay inside your house. Be careful.”

 

 

~Soundtrack: Zayde Wolf - King~

 

 

Seth hung up the phone and rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t slept in 2 days. He had just returned from a hunt and was sent from the frying pan into the fire once again. He simply wanted to just drop face first into a bed and forget ghosts and hauntings and possessions even existed. But he was the responsible one in this team, and hunting meant spending three or four days a month on every new moon saving as many lives as they could. They received phone calls in those days, from people who’d seen them in the newspapers, who were desperate and scared enough to ask for help from a group of ‘psycho freaks’, as the skeptics called them. In those three days, there was no rest for the wicked. Which meant there was no rest for the psycho freaks either.

 

“It’s a good thing we didn’t unpack, right?” Harley spoke from behind him, the widest smile spread on her face. She was enjoying this, Seth thought. She had been right, another hunt had showed up, and she was just happy to throw herself into the fray again, as long as it meant that she would get to put that restlessness of her to use.

 

“Stop beaming like that.” Seth grumbled, upset as he usually was when he was proven wrong.

 

“Why so serious, bro? Upset that you didn’t get to drink your tea and play some Scrabble, like the old lady that you are?”

 

“Did you wake everyone up?”

 

Harley smiled to herself, knowing that since her brother didn’t have a better comeback, he would rather change the subject. “I left Abby and Ryder to wake up the beast.”

 

And indeed, on the second floor, Abby and Ryder were standing in the hall, outside Logan’s room, wondering whether they should poke Logan with a stick or just throw a book at him and run.

 

“We can’t poke him with a stick, Ryder,” Abby tried to lecture the other hunter, even though she was barely struggling to keep a straight face at the image already forming in her head. It would be funny, she thought, and Logan would be so furious. But then again, if they did that, they would never hear the end of it.

 

“We can’t throw a book at him, either,” Ryder protested. “He doesn’t even like books.”

 

“How is that relevant?”

 

“Look,” Ryder put both of his hands on Abby’s shoulders and lowered his voice even more. “I’m not gonna do it.”

 

“What?” Abby whisper-shouted. “Why not?”

 

“Because I don’t wanna die.”

 

“But it’s okay for me to risk getting Logan angry?”

 

He shrugged. “Well, you’re a girl.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Not to be sexist, but yeah. It’s not like he’s gonna hit you. But poor ol’ me �"“ Ryder trailed off meaningfully. “A ghost flew an extinguisher at my head tonight. Didn’t I suffer enough?”

 

Abby stayed silent for a few seconds, though she was already aware that Ryder knew he could easily influence her with that. “I don’t want to do it,” she tried one more time, even if she knew she was going to be the one to do it.

 

“You know I love you, right?”

 

If she had been anything like Harley, Abby would have rolled her eyes at his passive-aggressive blackmailing tactics and demand that he did it instead. But she was no Harley Hart. She was her own anxious and awkward self.

 

“Fine,” Abby sighed, tucking a curl of her black hair behind her ear. “I’ll do it.”

 

And just when Ryder was about to thank her and Abby was getting ready to enter the room,  the door cracked open before she could even lay a finger on the doorknob and Logan came out of his room, fully dressed. 

 

He passed a gaping Abby and a staring Ryder without even throwing them a second glance.

 

“You…you were awake?” Abby asked carefully, now embarrassed that he might have heard everything she and Ryder talked about. Oh God, she’d suggested hitting him with a book.

 

“Been for the past ten minutes,” Logan grumbled under his breath as he stopped at the top of the stairs to roll up the sleeves to his green, plaid shirt.

 

Abby let out a soft ‘oh’. Was he pissed? She couldn’t tell.

 

“And Ryder, if you ever want to poke me with a stick,” Logan lifted his eyes from his shirt and looked at Ryder with his same old serious face. “I’ll beat you to death with it.”

 

He didn’t give Ryder the chance to protest to that before he went downstairs and into the kitchen. Not that Ryder would have. Or at least now with Logan still there.

 

“You suggested hitting him with a book and I’m the one being threatened?”

 

Abby, too preoccupied with wondering how upset Logan was at them, didn’t think before she blurted out the first words that popped into her head. “I’m a girl, remember?”

 

 Ryder scoffed. “That’s sexist.”

 

“Let’s just go change.” Abby rolled her eyes at the hunter, but smiled nonetheless.

 

“Yeah, let’s hurry before Mr. Stick-Up-His-A*s Hart comes dragging us down himself.”

 

Abby bit her lip in an attempt to keep herself from talking. She wanted to defend Seth, to stop everyone from seeing him as an exigent, overbearing leader. She knew he could be a little too serious sometimes, but he had to keep everyone focused on their tasks, keep things in motion, since no one else cared enough to do it. He didn’t like being this way either, but without Seth, they would’ve been a much bigger mess than they already were.

 

“Go change, Abby,” Ryder spoke so softly, that she looked up from the floor and into his light green eyes, and found him looking at her as if he’d just heard the thoughts running through her head.

 

Abby simply nodded, going back to avoiding Ryder’s gaze as she turned around and headed towards her room.

 

Sometimes, she wondered how many people really knew about her ridiculous crush on Seth Hart.

 

 

 ~Soundtrack: The Forest Rangers �" All Along the Watchtower~ 

 

 

Ten minutes later, everyone was downstairs, gathered around the kitchen table and waiting for Seth to give them all the details about the hunt. Logan was sitting with his arms crossed, wanting to be done with this hunt before it had even begun. He was short on sleep and food, and that only added to his already boiling temper.

 

“What goes bump in the night now, big chief?” Ryder was the first one to ask, and four pair of eyes turned to look at Seth.

 

Their leader sighed once and short and leaned with both of his hands on the table, ready to summarize for his team the talk with the woman.

 

“The usual,” he said, and it was more than obvious from his tone that he was just as tired as each and every one of them, except maybe Harley, but that he at least tried to contain it and do what he had to do. “A scared maid from a hotel in New York City says that she just got hired there, and she keeps seeing strange things at night, like shadows lingering and fading, weird noises and smells.”

 

“Could be nothing,” Ryder said, barely stiffening a yawn, to which Harley rolled her eyes.

 

“It’s not nothing.”

 

“I’m not saying any of you is right,” Seth went on before Harley and Ryder could get into another one of their arguments. “But we’ve hunted for less. So it might be worth checking out.”

 

“New York City though?” Harley spoke again. “That’s gonna take us at least 12 hours with your car.”

 

“11 hours with my motorcycle.” Ryder smirked proudly from nearby, his light green eyes already lightening up at the thought of riding his Yamaha motorcycle for eleven hours straight. He’d had that bike with him from the beginning, and all of them suspected he was not likely to ever drive with them in Seth’s car.   

 

“Twelve hours in a car.” Harley groaned.

 

“Not so eager to go on a hunt now, huh?” it was Seth’s turn to mock her, and in response, his sister simply stuck out her tongue at him. “Mature,” Seth commented, before grabbing the bag he’d thrown on the table when they arrived not even 3 hours ago, and heading towards the door. “Let’s go, everyone.”

 

The four other hunters followed their leader quickly, one of them smiling from ear to ear at the thought of the adrenaline this hunt was going to offer, one whistling the tune to some old disco song, one commenting sarcastically under his breath how he ‘couldn’t wait’ to spend 12 hours stuck in a car with the rest of them, while the last one stayed silent, as always.

 

It was always like that when they went hunting, whether it was four in the morning or four in the afternoon. Harley was always eager to blow off some steam with those hunts, Ryder constantly optimistic no matter what, Logan forever grumpy and tired, Abby silent as usual, and Seth giving the same old orders that they were either too eager to follow or too eager to disobey.

 

One thing all of them had in common though: no matter what, they were going to get the job done.

 

So, the Benefactor’s team locked down 606 Rush Street once again, and got ready for a twelve-hour drive.

 

“Logan,” Seth called as soon as they stepped from the front porch and reached the car the Benefactor had given them two months ago, a black ‘70 Plymouth, the car that Seth had been given the keys to and possibly the only thing Logan had ever or would ever love in his life.

 

The black-haired hunter shot Seth a long and bored look, to which Seth tried to offer a warm smile.

 

“Wanna drive?”

 

This was usually his peace offering. Seth knew how much Logan loved this car, ever since Jessica had brought it in on the first couple of days. He’d seen the way Logan had run his hands over the smooth and black hood of the car, had noticed the way he always addressed it by ‘she’ or how he was always the one to change the tires or fix something under the hood. And Seth had known that the Benefactor had been wrong to hand him the keys and not to Logan.

 

After all, Seth had never cared for cars or sports anyway, not when the kids in middle school had mocked him for reading during classes or breaks instead of going out to play football with them, or when his parents had offered to buy him a car on his 18^th birthday, and he’d turned that down in exchange for an entire series of books about Greek mythology.

 

Okay, he was a nerd. So what?  Sue him.

 

Logan let out a harsh ‘no’ before climbing in the backseat next to Abby and slamming the door behind him.

 

So much for peace offerings, Seth thought, while going to check the weapons in their trunk along with Harley, as they usually did before any hunt. His sister was already loading the guns and placed one in her waistband, while he just checked for the rest of what they needed. They had the shovels, the holy water, the guns, the blood stones and the 5 electric capacitors they needed. It looked like everything was in its place.

 

“All Seth?” Harley said from next to him, and when Seth turned to look at her with the most done expression on his face, she was barely containing her laughter. “Get it? All Seth like in all set �"“

 

“Explaining the pun doesn’t make it any funnier, Harley,” he grumbled under his breath, closing the trunk, and heard Ryder laughing from nearby. “But yes, we’re all set.”

 

And so, Ryder started his motorcycle, Seth climbed into the driver’s seat and Harley in the passenger’s, and they all hit the road again.

 

 

***

 

 

~Soundtrack: Zayde Wolf �" Save this city~

 

 

Harley and Seth took turns driving.

 

Seth drove for the first eight hours, until eventually, his eyes admitted defeat and he had to let his little sister take his seat. And Harley took it more than willingly, since she felt as awake as ever. So now, she drove while Seth was snoring next to her, and in the backseat, Abby was sleeping as well, with her head resting on Logan’s shoulder. And from the looks of it, Logan quite liked it. And when she said liked, she meant he didn’t have the same old furrow between his brows.

 

“Enjoying it, are we?” Harley whispered loud enough for Logan to hear and looked at him in the rearview mirror.

 

Instantly, the furrow took its rightful place back between Logan’s brows, while he crossed his arms against his chest and became the same grumpy Logan everyone knew and hated.

 

“Bite me.” he said clear enough for her to understand, without grumbling under his breath this time, and Harley couldn’t help but give a small laugh at that.

 

She liked his style. She really did. And it didn’t matter that everyone else didn’t understand or didn’t like Logan, she liked to think that she got him. He was of a force to be feared in hunts, agile and fierce and brutal, and he fed on the adrenaline that every fight offered. So yes, she could relate to him on some level. Maybe his crankiness was a bit exaggerated at times, but considering all the things she’d heard he had gone through, perhaps this anti-social part of him was understandable.

 

So, they drove like that in silence for more hours that were to come, and eventually, Logan fell asleep too, resting his head on Abby’s as well and leaving Harley the only awake one in the car. But it didn’t matter. Sleep was not taking her yet. In fact, all these street-lights, the empty roads, the sound of Ryder’s motorcycle roaring up ahead, only made the anticipation grow in her veins.

 

It was like no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t put out the fire inside her. With every hunt, with every ghost they sent back, her restlessness only grew. She had always been like this, ever since she was a kid, and back then, she’d practiced all the sports that she could, her favorite one being swimming. It had helped, back at the time, especially when she had won so many prizes. But then, with the death of her parents, she’d stumbled right into the hunting life, only to find that there were no prizes to be found there. She might have saved some people here and there, but she and Seth would have been lucky if they’d ever gotten a thank you. Of course, she wasn’t doing this for the praise, she was doing it for the chase. But knowing now that she had to work under the Benefactor’s rules, along with 3 other hunters that were stealing  the only thing that had brought her some sort of peace, the spotlight of a hunt, Harley couldn’t help but always crave more. The chase of a hunt wasn’t enough if she had to share it.

 

And it was only for three or four days a month. For the rest of the month, she had to sit in that stupid house they all shared. Maybe she was a little grateful for how easy life was now, with a place she could return to, food she didn’t have to pay for, the money the Benefactor offered them that she could use to complete her collection of knives, a room just for her that she could do whatever she wanted with, and so on. Maybe that was the half-full size of the glass.

 

But all of those came at the price of living with three people she still didn’t fully trust, then she couldn’t be quite sure if it was worth it.

 

And so, Harley’s thoughts wandered on and on, until, eventually, after two more hours of driving, she honked once and woke up everyone in the car.

 

She heard Seth groan next to her and Logan swear from the back, and saw Abby rub sleepily at her eyes.

 

“Rise and shine, my b*****s,” Harley said in a sweet voice, smirking. “It’s time to rock this city.”

 

And surely, when the three heavy-eyed hunters looked out the windows of the car, they saw the banner that welcomed them to New York City.