[ 26 ] 2014

-

"He said it was the symbol that distinguished us from them."

-

Harley left Calum's house not long after they talked. Their conversation had been full of pauses, hesitance, and some silences in between. But at least Calum was talking to her again. Even so, she didn't like the fact that he was hurting that way, or even the fact that he had asked for some space because he needed to get used to seeing her with Ashton. Harley reluctantly agreed that she would give him all the time he needed, but it infuriated her that he would probably be spending that extra time with Michella Barnes, much to Harley's dismay.

She made her way across the street, but instead of heading inside her house, she went around back and found the entrance to the bomb shelter in the backyard of her next door neighbors. It was not too late in the afternoon and they normally weren't around until later on. Harley didn't see much of her other neighbors anyway, since she was out in school, and the rest of her free time was usually spent at a friend's house. But she knew her neighbors' schedule enough to know that the husband would arrive around six or seven, tired from a day at the office, or so she assumed. The wife would arrive just a half hour before him, with take out dinner in little white plastic bags. They were a young couple, and the wife didn't seem to like doing a lot of house work. As soon as they finished their dinner, the two would always leave again and wouldn't be back until some time during the night. That was beneficial for Harley because she could come and go from their backyard as she pleased. The bomb shelter was a place that contained many secrets after all. 

Harley opened the latch metal door and climbed down into the darkness of the shelter underground. Her feet carried her expertly through the dark to the place where she found a light switch. She flipped it on and walked the rest of the way to the closet where all the old belongings of the Irwin family had been stored so long ago. Harley found the tin box where the rusted Diamond Rose was hidden and she got it out again. Now that everything was said and done with Calum, and he was okay for the time being, she was going to seek some answers from Ashton.

She wanted to know the reason why he ever had a Diamond Rose.

She picked up the Aztec jaguar patterned necklace from the box next. As her blue eyes observed it, she felt in the back of her mind, that she had seen that symbol before. Harley wanted to remember where it was from, but she couldn't trigger the memory. She hadn't paid much attention to details like that, as when she had seen it before, she thought it was just another symbol that meant nothing.

"Ashton." She called his name softly. 

He was still able to hear her and appeared in the doorway of the small closet, right behind her. Harley turned to face him and he made way for her to pass, stepping to the side when she grabbed the box, placed the objects back inside, and tried to walk past him. She went to the couch in the living room area and sat down with the tin box on her lap. Without saying a word, Ashton followed behind her and sat down next to her on the old couch he remembered his parents buying for the shelter when he had been alive. Now it was all moth eaten, discolored, and covered in a thin layer of dust. He knew an explanation was due, and she wouldn't take any excuses now that Calum was more or less okay.

She turned to face him, her blue eyes caught a silver threaded symbol patch on the sleeve of his leather jacket. It had always been there, but she never paid any special attention to it until she realized it was a match. Harley looked from the patch to the necklace, and then back to the patch. "Its the same symbol." He confirmed for her with a nod of his head, though she had already figured it out herself. 

Suddenly, it was like a light bulb went off in her head and she noticed the other places where she had seen the very same symbol. The hunters. They all had it. When Michael had taken off his gloves to see into her future, she had spotted the symbol tattooed on his wrist. She had thought nothing of it when she saw it, but as she thought back, she realized they all had the same symbol somewhere on them, in some form. Paúl had it on a ring he was always wearing, Arthur had a ring just like it. Dempsey had a necklace like the one in the box. Perhaps, she thought, it was their symbol. It was their way of knowing who was on their side, who was different from the other shifters.

"Why do you have all these things?" She gestured to the gun, the money, and the necklace. They all indicated one thing, but she wanted to hear him say it. A confirmation from his own mouth would have made her believe it more.

He grabbed the necklace out of the blue tin box and observed it for a moment before speaking. "Bobby gave me this necklace when I joined the organization. He said it was the symbol that distinguished us from them." At least, Harley noticed, he didn't speak of shifters with disdain like Michael did. But Michael had been a victim of circumstance. He had a reason to hate them because it had been a shifter who had killed his mother. "We were supposed to wear it visibly at all times, like a uniform. So I made this patch," He looked to his left where the silver threaded patch was sewn onto his jacket. "I was never much into flashy things like jewelry." Ashton grabbed her hand and opened it, placing the silver necklace on her palm. "You should probably have it since it belonged to Bobby and he was your grandfather."

Harley closed her hand around it tightly. From the stories she had heard from Ashton, Bobby had been a good man who had fallen a victim of Claire just like Ashton. She was proud to be able to wear something that had belonged to him, something he had treasured.

"You know that the shifters originated in Canada, right?" He paused, glancing over at her, and continued when she nodded her head. "The hunters didn't. This was a whole different breed of super humans with similar abilities, often confused to be the same species. Bobby told me that the hunters originated in the territory that had once been The Aztec Empire, which is now modern southen Mexico. They were created to be physically better, stronger, and more intelligent than their prey." That explained why Michael and the others were so good at what they did, they had a natural instinct which allowed them to do things better. Shifters were physically better, stronger, and smarter than regular humans. But hunters were even better than that. It also explained why so many of them didn't get along. Hunters were that, hunters. Shifters were the hunted. The classic story of predator and prey. "They adopted the symbol of the jaguar, a native animal to the jungles of Mexico (a/n: los jaguares de la selva chiapaneca woooo!), because it was quick and intelligent, easily capturing its prey. They were the same. Quick. Lethal."

Harley was left stunned with all the new information about the hunters. As it turned out, though they were similar in abilities, they were not quite the same type of species. They had been created at different times, in different countries, for different reasons. Harley, having gotten the gene from Arthur, was evidently born a hunter. It explained so much, since she had initially disliked Calum. They were different. But she did not feel as though she were better and stronger than anyone. She felt more like that was Calum. He was much faster, smarter, and stronger than her. Perhaps it also had to do with practice. Perhaps a regular shifter could learn to be an equal match of strength for the hunters. Calum was certainly at a par with Michael, or Paúl, and certainly the petite young woman that was Dempsey.

Or maybe it was true, Harley thought as she recalled a few occasions in which she had been stronger than Calum. There hadn't been very many, but there were a few. The first had been at Cindy's homecoming dance after party. She had felt someone trying to sneak up on her and she had been able to easily pin him against the cinder block walls surrounding the Hemmings estate. There was also the time when she had been able to pull Ashton's spirit out of the mirror, and Calum was impressed because he had been practicing that for months. It had only taken her minutes to do it.

"You were born a hunter...like me." Harley finally concluded from the information she had.

"When I arrived in Sydney with my family, I was just like you." He continued telling the story after Harley stuffed the necklace into her school blazer pocket so as not to lose it. "I didn't know anything about this world, I was in the dark about the special abilities I possessed. I didn't know ghosts existed, much less did I imagine there could be people who could see them and had other special abilities."

"Were you lying about that whole story where you said Con was your best friend?" She wondered, her blue eyes searching in his hazel ones for an answer. "And how he killed you because he wanted Claire? Was that a lie, Ashton?"

He shook his head quickly. "Of course it wasn't a lie. Con made me believe we were friends because he  knew what I was and I trusted him. I always had his back and never told anyone that he was a shifter, that would have gotten him killed because Bobby and I were supposed to be hunting all the time. It was the last straw for him when he found out that I had married Claire by law because he wanted her, but he also had other motives to get me out of the way."

"This is all so overwhelming." Harley said after a moment, throwing her head back on the couch. Small dust particles started flying around them. "Why didn't you say anything about this sooner?" She asked after a few minutes. Her voice was slow and hesitant, her brain was still taking time to process everything she had been told.

"From the moment we met, that day you first moved in, I really liked you. And the fact that you could actually see me made it easier for me to fall for you because we could talk, and know each other." Ashton admitted to her with a sigh. "I didn't want you to know I was out there killing people when I was alive, even if it was kind of my job. That would have made me no better than Calum and his family in your eyes. I know I was selfish, and I feel terrible about it."

"I always pictured you as the type who would never even kill a fly." She let out a quiet laugh.

"Not everyone is as innocent as you, doll." He informed her, his hazel eyes were trained on the rusted Diamond Rose in its tin box as he continued. The problem was she thought he had been as innocent and trusting as she had been. "Some people use their powers to do bad things, and we were there to stop them. It was nothing personal. I'd have never killed them otherwise."

"Why didn't you kill Con then?" She asked him curiously. It was evident Con was a terrible person.

Ashton sighed. "Like I said, I trusted Con. And we had a code back then. We didn't have the technology they have now. We couldn't just kill someone off through the basis of suspicion. We needed proof, and it was hard to get it."

When he said we, she was sure he was talking about himself and Bobby. Harley smiled to herself. "Bobby was your real best friend, wasn't he?" She peeked at him from the corner of her eyes. 

Ashton nodded his head in agreement. "Back then I would have said Con because we went to the same school, and he had been among the first to be my friend when I arrived in Sydney. I met Bobby later, through Claire because he worked for her. But he ended up being a much better friend to me than Con ever was." Con had betrayed Ashton for selfish reasons, while Bobby had always been his friend. "One day, if I see him again, wherever the afterlife is, I will thank him for his friendship." He grabbed the box that was rested on her lap and set it on the other side of him, far from her. Scooting closer to her, he grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers together. She still had the warmth of Calum's hand on hers, but it was instantly replaced by the brisk and tingling touch of Ashton's hand. "I'm really sorry for keeping that part of my life out, doll. Like I said, I was just afraid that you would find me to be a terrible person for it. I've never been this selfish in my life, I promise. Will you forgive me?"

Harley looked down at their entangled fingers. No matter how bad Calum had been, at least he had never lied to her. On the other hand, it was normal for someone to have flaws and Ashton was a good person. 

"I forgive you, love." She told him, giving his hand a small squeeze.

Ashton let out a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding in, relieved that she had forgiven him for the leaving out the fact that he had once been a hunter. 

-

im getting into the habit of writing extra long chapters. i dont know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. so now we have an explanation as to why ashton owns a diamond rose, even though it was pretty obvious before. and then now we find out that there are two kinds of super humans; the hunters and the shifters, which was also pretty obvious before, but i hadnt come up with a backstory for the hunters. the backstory for the shifters can be found in my michael spin off for this series, called 'the hunter' so you can go check that out if you want to.

qotd: would you forgive ashton for keeping something like that from you? i mean, he did it for love. but then again, lying (or keeping the truth) is not cool. im not sure what i would do honestly. i have taken back a liar before. but this was a guy who lied about cheating on me. ashton's lie seems a bit harmless tbh.

so let me know in the comments what you think. and i hope you like the update. update fridays woo. thank you loads for reading. i love youuu.

-clary xx