Chapter Text
"He knows…"
"He…He knows we were in there!"
"I can't…I can't go back!"
*SLAM*
"HUNTER!!!"
Hunter burst out the Owl House's front door and ran for his life. Where he was going he did not know or care, but he knew he had to get as far away from here as humanly possible. Flapjack flew behind him, racing to catch up with the sprinting blonde. Hunter did not know how long he ran for. He ran, and ran, and ran as the adrenaline pumped through his veins. It was all he could think about. 'Run, run, run, run, run, RUN!' But his sprint came to a halt when his foot caught the root of a tree, causing him to trip and faceplant on the rough terrain below him. Upon landing, Hunter tore open the skin on his left cheek, and blood began to flow out. However, his adrenaline rush was so high that he didn't even feel the injury happen. He was still in flight mode, so he tried to push himself back to his feet. He had to keep running. He had to get away. He had to get out of here, but his muscles gave out from under him. The wild sprint had zapped all his energy from him, and his faint remaining strength had failed him. He was stuck here.
Upon realizing he was too weak to get back up, a sudden rush of emotion overcame him. Tears poured out his eyes, and Hunter slammed his fist on the ground. "DAMN IT!" he screamed. "DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT! AUGH! TITAN-DAMN-IT!!!"
Flapjack finally caught up to Hunter, quickly landing on his back. Flapjack had never seen Hunter so upset in his life. In fact, he had never even seen him cry before. Flapjack began to tweet soothing and comforting things to him, rubbing his head against Hunter's back. 'It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay. I'm here for you. We'll figure something out.' were some of the things the cardinal tweeted to the hysterical boy, but Hunter was literally inconsolable, and Flapjack's coos and chirps were drowned out by Hunter's screams of agony.
"MY LIFE IS A LIE!" Hunter screamed through pained sobs, "EVERYTHING I'VE EVER KNOWN IS A LIE! MY UNCLE ISN'T EVEN MY UNCLE! HE NEVER EVEN LOVED ME! HE-HE'S GONNA KILL ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Hunter could not stop screaming through the sobs. Normally he would never cry. He couldn't. Not back at the castle. Any sign of weakness could and would be used against him, and on the off-chance he couldn't hold it in, he would only cry in extreme secretivity. But even then, he would never let himself cry that hard.
But this?
This was a whole other story. Hunter cried like he had never cried before. He could barely breathe through his hics and pants. He didn't even bother to wipe the snot pouring out his nose. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe that this was the cold, hard truth. This was the truth the whole time; he had been blinded and fooled his whole life. He thought he had been doing good. He thought he was helping save the world from the darkness of wild magic, but instead was helping an evil man commit genocide this whole time. A man who he thought had loved him.
Everything he had built for.
Everything he had ever done.
Everything he had believed in…
It was meaningless .
All meaningless.
A fib.
A lie.
A story told by the Emperor to get him to do his bidding.
"THE TITAN NEVER HAD PLANS FOR ME! I WAS NEVER SPECIAL!" Hunter cried. "WHAT AM I EVEN WORTH? WHO AM I? WHAT AM I? WHAT THE HECK IS A GRIMWALKER?! WHO IS 'HE'?! WHY DO I LOOK LIKE HIM?!" Hunter then slammed his fists and feet on the ground repeatedly, as if throwing a tantrum like a toddler. Flapjack had no idea what to do, but he kept rubbing his cheek against Hunter's back, hoping that, eventually, Hunter would calm down. Hunter cried for ages, and he didn't know how long he cried for, but the continued sobbing only made him grow weaker and weaker, zapping what little remained of his waning energy until eventually, he had cried himself to sleep.
However, even in his slumber, Hunter's agony did not end. He found himself trapped in the sea of Belos' subconscious deep under a gross, thick muck. Inside it, he couldn't breathe. He kept swimming to the surface to try and get air. Air that he needed to survive, but it seemed that he could never reach it. Every time he felt like he was about to make it to the surface, it was just out of reach. He was out of air, and he needed to get more. He swam, and swam, and swam, and eventually, his efforts paid off as he finally managed to make it to the surface, but before he could even take in a single whiff of air, a large wave crashed over him, plunging him under and bringing him right back where he had started. Hunter was quickly drowning and rushed to swim back to the surface, but by the second time he had gotten there, the muck had hardened into a thick film, and now he was trapped under the mud. He began desperately punching and kicking the film, doing anything he could to break a hole in it as he didn't have much time left before he would drown. Unfrontenely, nothing he did broke the hardened shell of muck. Hunter felt himself losing consciousness. This was it. He had run out of time, but just before he would've died-
"GAH!!!" Hunter shouted, shooting awake. Hunter hyperventilated. It was just a dream? Thank titan. That must've been the most horrifying nightmare he had ever had, and that was saying something. The first thing Hunter noticed after waking up was that his left cheek hurt. Really badly, and he couldn't remember how he had hurt himself. He saw dried blood on the ground and hesitantly felt his cheek, noticing a large scab had formed there. He then got a good look at his surroundings, not knowing where he was or how he had gotten here. Flapjack flew to the front of him, swallowing a bunch of fresh rattleworms he had caught while Hunter was asleep. He then rubbed against Hunter's non-wounded cheek, chirping to greet him. "Oh, Flapjack," Hunter moaned in a tired, pained voice, "Wuh- What happened, Flapjack?"
Flapjack let out a series of twitters and chirps, explaining everything that had happened. Hunter's eyes widened as the memory of it all came surging back to him. Hunter dragged himself to his feet, dusting the excess dirt off him. He noticed he had a lot of dirt in the end of his hair forelock, and nothing he did got all of it out. Hunter then realized he was still in his Golden Guard tunic, causing him to cringe. He grabbed the ends of the uniform and nearly ripped it off himself before stopping himself. As nice as it would feel to get out of this thing, he knew he couldn't exactly just go running around without clothes on, either. Hunter shuddered. He had to get out of this thing. If anyone found him in this, they'd instantly know his identity, plus, he felt disgusted wearing this, "I can't stay dressed like this…" Hunter muttered, "But I have no idea where I could find new clothes… and I can't go back home." After saying that last bit, a sudden realization dawned over him, "W-Wait… I have nowhere to live! I'm homeless!" Hunter started to pant, grabbing his hair with his fists, "What am I g-gonna do?! W-Where am I gonna go? What do I do?!"
Flapjack flew in front of his face, tweeting at him to go back to the Owl House.
"What?! Are you crazy?!" Hunter hissed. "There's no way in the titan's name I can stay there! I can't trust The Owl Lady! She's the most wanted criminal on the isles! And after what just happened, there's no way that they won't be looking for her! I could easily get myself caught!" Hunter growled in frustration, clutching his head. "Ugh! I need a place to stay, yet I can't think of anything!" Hunter angrily began hitting his head with his fists, "Come on, stupid brain! Envisage something! Think! Think! THINK!"
Flapjack proceeded to nuzzle in Hunter's hair, tweeting that he might find a place if he started exploring the area.
Hunter slightly calmed down after hearing that, realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere by yelling at himself, "Okay, this is fine. Everything's fine. I am fine." He lied to himself, "Let's get moving."
Hunter began to walk around, trying to figure out where on the isles he was. At the moment, he was in a dense, dank forest, so there weren't many markers to tell where he could be. Not to mention it was the middle of the night, so he couldn't see that much in the first place. Hunter sighed in frustration as It was nearly impossible to see anything. "If only I had some extra light…" After saying that, suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head, "Wait, Luz's glyphs!" Hunter stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a few glyphs he had stored from Luz's jacket while in Belos' subconscious. He tapped a light glyph, and a ball of beaming light formed. "Whoa…" Hunter muttered, admiring it. "It's… prettier than I thought." Hunter then violently shook his head, "No, no, no. I don't have time to admire such trivial things. I need to keep moving."
Hunter had been wandering for what seemed to be an eternity, but he made no progress. He was still in some sort of forest, and it seemed like there was no escape. Some birds began chirping, signifying the sun would rise soon. Hunter was starting to get antsy, frustrated, and nervous. All this roaming, and he still hadn't found any touch of civilization, let alone anywhere where he could stay. "This is hopeless," Hunter muttered, his eyes growing heavy in sadness as he eyed the ground, "Where am I gonna stay…? I just want somewhere to go before I die in a week…" Things were bad enough as it was, but Hunter then heard some rumbling in the distance, causing him to freeze in terror. At first, he thought it was a wild animal, so Flapjack turned into his staff form, and Hunter began preparing for a possible fight, but then he heard the rumbling a second time, and his stomach sank through the floor once he realized what it was. "Oh. Dear . Titan." Hunter muttered. "That's no animal. That's thunder-" An adrenaline rush pumped through Hunter again, and he began to run for his life a second time. "Shoot, shoot, SHOOT, SHOOT!!! I don't have anywhere to hide! I'm gonna get burnt to death!" Hunter ran as fast as his legs could take him, not stopping for anything. He was so focused on running and finding the slightest bit of shelter that he didn't even notice that the woods he was in were becoming less condensed. He had no idea he was actually beginning to escape the woods, and he only realized it when he had left it and found a large building towering in this distance. He slammed on the breaks, ending his sprint and panting heavily, "Is that… Hexside? " Hunter huffed, but he had no time to decipher it as the thunder crashed a third time, louder than ever before. Hunter took off running yet again, racing for Hexside. After a minute or so, he got to the front door, attempting to yank it open, but unlucky for him, it was locked. Hunter then tried to use his staff to shoot a magic blast in an attempt to break the door open. No dice. The door wasn't budging. Desperation quickly settled in, and Hunter banged his fists on the door, "Titan-damn-it! Let me in!! LET ME IN!!!"
Then, Hunter felt a burning drop on his arm, and then another. His time had run out. The boiling rains were here. As Hunter realized that there was no chance he was getting in through the front door, he rushed around the building to try and find another way in. The rain began coming down harder, and he and Flapjack were starting to get burnt up, causing Hunter to wince as the burns stung. On the side of the building, the desperate blonde found a window close to the ground, giving him an idea. He jabbed into the window with his trusty staff, shattering it upon impact. Then, he promptly jumped inside. Finally escaping the insufferably hot, burning, and stinging boiling rains.
Hunter sighed in relief, falling to his knees to catch his breath as the adrenaline faded. His crazy sprint had heavily weakened him, and his lungs hurt from his rapid breathing, so he began coughing violently. Hunter's tired muscles could hardly support his own weight as he laid sprawled out on the floor on his stomach, loudly panting. Flapjack turned back into his animalistic form, flying ahead to inspect the school for signs of inhabitants. After about ten minutes, Flapjack returned to Hunter, telling him nobody was here and it was safe. During that time, the exhausted boy had nearly fallen asleep, but he knew he had to get moving, so Hunter shakily reached his arm up, "Jack-Jack, help me up…" he moaned. Flapjack promptly turned back into his staff form, and Hunter pulled himself up with him.
Hunter gazed at his new surroundings. He was in a large room, the ceiling hundreds of feet high, with shelves full of books. "This must be the library…" Hunter said to himself. He loved books, and he loved reading. Perhaps, he could stay here. "Well, if I'm going to crash here until I die… I might as well kill the time." Hunter proceeded to look for a crystal ball to check the catalog, but once he found one, he realized it was inactive due to no one being here. He growled, "Welp. Looks like I'm gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way…" He then began searching the shelves. He spefically wanted books about Grimwalkers. He checked all over the library for anything he could find, and he could only find two before giving up. A book titled The Legend of Grimwalkers, and another titled Grimwalker Extinction. As he searched around for the exit, he found the library's lounge. He noticed a green sleeping bag on the floor, which piqued his interest. Figuring he could use it to camp out here until the dreaded Day of Unity came. He decided to lie down inside it and was about to open one of the books when Flapjack suddenly began yanking on his hair strand. "OW! Owie, owie, ow!" Hunter cried. The moment the cardinal let go, Hunter gave Flapjack his best evil eye, furious, "HEY! You little rat! What the heck was that for?!"
Flapjack chirped at him, saying that he couldn't stay here.
"What?! What do you mean I can't stay here?!" Hunter bellowed, only becoming angrier.
Flapjack simply gave him a look that meant, 'Are you serious?’.
Hunter suddenly realized what Flapjack meant. "...Oh, right. Other people…" He placed his books inside the sleeping bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I'll just find another place to hide."
Hunter left the library and searched around the dark, abandoned school. He activated another one of his light glyphs to see. While searching for a place to camp out, he stumbled upon the boy's locker room. He would've ignored it, but he realized that this could be an opportunity, "Maybe I can find some new clothes in here…" He made his way inside the locker room and searched around a bit before finding a large bin listed as 'Leftover Clothes' "Okay, this is exactly what I'm looking for." Hunter proceeded to dig inside the bin, but what he didn't know was that, just like the lockers, the bin was alive. The bin hissed at him, causing Hunter to flinch. "Uhh, nice bin…" Hunter murmured, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible, "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just need some clothes." The bin growled at him again, causing Hunter to hold back a pout. Hunter desperately wanted new clothes and would do anything to get out of this darn uniform. And this bin was the only thing between him and reaching that goal. As it appeared he had no other options, he decided to play the victim, "Come on, you wouldn't mind giving a poor, homeless young boy some new clothes, right?" He then gave a puppy dog face to the bin, gently tickling it below its mouth. This caused the bin to finally let him inside. ' Holy smokes. I can't believe that worked…' Hunter thought. After that, he dug inside the bin, finding his old flyer derby jersey, a dirty cloak, and a yellow pocketbook. Hunter cringed as they were all filthy. "It's not perfect… but it'll have to do. Anything is better than this darn uniform." He grumbled. As he pulled all three out, the bin closed its mouth and hissed at him again, but this time, now that Hunter had got what he needed, he simply walked away.
Hunter quickly threw off his Golden Guard tunic and changed into the old, dirty clothes he had found, putting the hood of the blue cloak over his head. He then stared at his old uniform lying on the ground, cringing at the sight of it. He quickly took out a fire glyph from his new pocketbook and used it to burn the uniform. As it lit aflame, he watched with a blank expression. Although part of himself felt saddened and regretful doing this, as he was leaving a massive part of his life behind, the other part of himself felt satisfied, as the symbol of his 'uncle's' cruelty turned to ash before his eyes.
After the Golden Guard tunic had been burnt, he then left the locker room, knowing that students would eventually flood this area during the school day. He lit another light glyph to see his surroundings. Dawn was approaching, and he knew he was running out of time to find a place to hide before the first students and staff arrived. As he searched, he managed to find the Paranoratorium. Better yet, it was closed for repairs. Nobody would be going in there. He was sure of it. Hunter hopped on Flapjack to get through the taped-up door, landing inside the large room. He searched around a little more before finding an isolated corner behind the curtains. It was the perfect spot. "No one's going to find me here." Hunter said to himself, "No one will even think of looking for me here. This should be safe." Hunter then slabbed the heavy sleeping bag on the floor behind the curtain, sitting down on top of it, and then let out a deep, long, frustrated sigh, "It's going to be a long week…"