Nicole could hear the social worker’s impractically high heel shoes drawing near. Ms. Dobs was coming to take her to her new foster home. She’d only seen a picture of them. The woman was a tall, slim lady. She had green eyes and short blond hair. The man had brown hair. His face was slim and angular, and he had a slight build. They also had a daughter but they she was not in the picture. Mrs. Dobs said that her name was India. She was fourteen years old and homeschooled. Mrs. Dobs stated that Nicole would be homeschooled, too. Nicole steadied herself and reached to pick up her tattered suitcase. Ms. Dobs opened the door and held out her hand to take Nicole’s luggage. She led Nicole to the car trying to start small talk. It failed. The car ride was eerily silent. Nicole sat in the backseat, looking out the window and fidgeting with the necklace her mother had given her two days before her death.
…
The house wasn’t big but it wasn’t small either. Nicole thought the house looked empty. Just then, there was a silhouette in the third floor far left window. Ms. Dobs didn’t seem to notice the silhouette though. She was focused on her I-phone and moving her arms around trying to regain service. Both Nicole and Ms. Dobs put on their biggest, fake smiles and began to walk to the door. As they reached the last step, a young girl opened the door. She had two pigtails. Her hair was sandy brown and she had big blue eyes. Moments later, the man and woman that were in the picture, was standing behind her. They welcomed Nicole and Ms. Dobs into their home. Mrs. Hunter had to sign a few more papers for Ms. Dobs before she could become Nicole’s legal guardian. India took Nicole for a tour of the house. The house was old and it had a lot of artifacts on the walls. They had their own library and artillery room that held a lot of medieval weaponry. After another unsuccessful attempt at small talk, Ms. Dobs left ten minutes later. The house was weird but what was Nicole suppose to expect with it being her first day there. Her room was green. It had a night table next to the bed, a dresser next to the window, a closet behind the door, and a chest at the foot of the bed.
…
Ms. Hunter noticed that while Nicole ate she was constantly rubbing a charm on her necklace. “What type of charm is that?” Mrs. Hunter asked wiping her mouth with her napkin. Nicole hesitated, “It’s a cougar looking up at the stars.” “The cougar means speed and strength and the star means faith.” She hesitated before showing them the necklace. They stared at the necklace in silence before she put it back over her head. The rest of dinner was utterly silent except for the sound of utensils scraping china plates and cup hitting the oak wood.
…
Everyone is in bed. The house is quiet except for the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning. All the lights were off except for the lamp in Nicole’s room. She sat in the corner next to her lamp and wrote in her journal. When she was finished she lifted up a floor board under her bed and placed her journal inside. She sat on the edge of the bed and cuddled her teddy bear. Besides Nicole, the bear was the only other thing that made it out of the fire five years ago. Just as she was drifting off to sleep, she saw a shadow walking past her door. Quickly, she jumped out of her bed to follow. The shadow turned many corners, stopping at the library. Lightning flashed. Lighting flooded the room for a brief moment. Nicole could see that the shadow was not really a shadow. It was a girl wearing blue jeans, a black long sleeve shirt, and she had wavy black hair. 
She stood at the top of the spiral staircase looking down at Nicole. Instantly, her appearance changed. Her hair was slicked back, her clothing was torn and she was covered from head to toe with blood. She pointed at Nicole and all of the lights in the house began to flicker on and off. Terrified, Nicole ran to her room and slammed her door shut and climbed into her bed. She tried to go to sleep but every time she closed her eyes she pictured the girl standing at the top of the staircase, covered in blood and pointing at her. She got up a little earlier then everyone else. She walked down the hallway looking at all of the different pictures to see if any of them looked like the girl she saw in the library. Nothing or no one looked like that girl. Nicole felt a presence. She slowly turned her head to see the girl at the end of the hallway. She stood beckoning for Nicole to follow her. Nicole hesitated. Then she realized that the girl wasn’t trying to hurt her but trying to show her something in the house. She followed her down the stairs, through a long hallway, into the kitchen and down the basement stairs. It was dark, dusty, and crowded in the basement. The girl stopped in front of a painting of Queen Elizabeth, waiting for Nicole to catch up to her. Nicole finally catches up with her and stops before the painting. She looked from the painting to the girl until the girl motions for her to move the painting out of the way. Behind the painting was a keypad. She looked at the girl. Holding up her hands, she made a four, a seven, a six, and a nine. With each button that was pushed a slight beeping sound was made. The door opened and it led to a small, damp tunnel. This tunnel led to a small chamber. She led Nicole to a shelf that had a few pictures on it. Her long skinny pale finger pointed out one picture, specifically. The picture was of her and the Hunter family. On the frame, each of their names was listed. This girl’s name was Emily. Around the frame was a bracelet, her bracelet, the same one she wore in the picture. A trophy! Nicole looked at the rest of the pictures and sure enough each picture had a trophy next to it. She could hear footsteps above her. She began to back up slowly out of the chamber. Once she was out of the chamber, she quickly put the picture of Queen Elizabeth in the same spot it was in before, so no one would notice. She paced her walk up the steps and stopped at the last step and mentally rehearsed a few lines, forcing her face to become muted. She opened the door and walked out calmly like nothing happened. She smiled at Mr. Hunter who was eating his breakfast and watching a football game. He watched her leave the kitchen and go into the dining room. In the dining room, Mrs. Hunter and India were huddled over a camera, trying to get it to work. When the camera was ready, they called for Nicole and Mr. Hunter to come and take a picture. After that was over, Nicole ran upstairs to her room to take a shower and as she walked out of her bathroom, she saw Emily standing beside her bed. Nicole sat on her bed beside her and waited for her to talk. She didn’t. She didn’t speak at all. She signed. Emily told her how the Hunters are actually hunters. She told how they would slip some kind of drug into your drink or food causing you to become unconscious for an hour or so. She said that they give you a five minute head start into the woods, but for Nicole it would be different. Emily would warn her when not to eat the food or drink the beverages as long as she promised to kill them all brutally.
…Two weeks later…
Emily appeared at the dinner table warning her not to take a drink from her cup, but to pretend. Within a few minutes of drinking the beverage from her cup, Emily motioned for her to pretend to fall out unconscious. Just as Emily described, they carried Nicole’s body outside and waited for her to awake so the games could began. When she came to, the Hunter family surrounded her. They told her that if she makes it through the forest and to the other side of the fence her life would be safe and that if she didn’t they would kill her. They gave her five minutes and slowly each one entered the forest. By this time, Nicole had already escaped out the forest and set up traps for the Hunters. “No longer will they be the hunters; they’ll be the hunted,” she thought, looking at all three of them while she was perched in a tree. Nicole decided to go for the mother first. She seemed for the easiest target because she was slow and the weakest opponent. She jumped from tree to tree as graceful a cougar and climbed down them with utter grace. Slowly and steadily she crept up behind the woman, stabbing her in the back and making her release an agonizing scream. Then she slit her throat letting the knife linger to cause the woman more pain. Nicole thought to herself, “She’ll be dead within five minutes.” Next, she went for the husband. He was a bit swifter than his wife but Nicole cut each of his main arteries. When he fell, he fell with a thump. “Now, India”, she thought. Just then Nicole felt an agonizing pain in her left arm. India had shot her with her bow and arrow. She was covered in blood. “It must be her mothers’ blood”, Nicole thought. Her eyes were wild and her movement was calculated. She ran toward Nicole, knocking her down and causing her leg to break. Seeing that Nicole was down, India rounded back and stood over her. She aimed the arrow at Nicole’s heart. “Now you will die like my parents”, she said. Nicole pulled the rope from her trap, tied it around India’s leg causing her to shoot up ten feet into the air and be decapitated but not before India shot and killed Nicole.
