I couldn't sleep, every creak, every squeak. Every sound made me jump. I tried closing my eyes, but my mind would wonder. I'd imagine something crawling onto the bed to attack me. My eyes would fly open, but nothing was there. I could hear the faint sound of gram talking to someone on the phone. I had assumed it was my parents. I kept tossing and turning, every thought I had trailed back to that damn door. At first I just felt fear, fear of that door. Now it was almost an anger. I felt angry that a stupid door had scared me like I was a child. I was angry that instead of being a grownup I was shaking under my covers like a kid. I balled my hands into fists, a piece of wood wasn't going to scare me. I tore the sheets off of me, I opened the bedroom door and walked straight to the door. I reached for the doorknob, then I froze. My whole body went frozen, my hand shook violently above the doorknob. I could feel the fear raising in me. Then there was a click. I looked down, the doorknob was turning. Right, left, right, left, again and again. It was almost like it was hypnotizing me. My hand stopped shaking, I felt like I was looking down at myself. My common sense screamed at me to walk away, but I couldn't. I could faintly hear the sound of someone walking up the stairs. "Jacob?" Gram was at the top of the stairs, but she sounded so far away. I placed my hand on the golden doorknob. "Jacob stop!" I couldn't hear her anymore, my mind was blurry. My eyesight was hazy, all I wanted to do was open the door. I turned the doorknob. The door clicked open, I pushed the door in. I could faintly hear gram sprinting towards me, screaming at me. The door opened. My eyes went wide. Sitting in the center of the room was a creature I'd never seen before. It's skin was a charcoal black and looked like it was melting, it had patches of fur. It's claw like hands wore rusty chains. It's face resembled a dog, it's mouth holding rows of razor sharp teeth. A pitch black ooze dripped from its mouth, horns grew at the top of its head next to its ears. Then I saw it's eyes, it was looking right at me. It's eyes reminded me of the galaxy, pitch black and with little twinkles. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to run, to just take off and run all the way home. I couldn't, my feet were glued to the ground. Suddenly I noticed dark tentacles emerging from the back of this creature. "Jacob!" My grandmothers voice shook me from my trance, I spun around and began running. Something wrapped around my leg and dragged me back towards the creature. I screamed and clawed at the ground, reaching for anything to grab onto. "Jacob!" I looked up at my grandmother, she was running to me. Suddenly I saw three tentacles fly out of the room and aim straight for her. "Grandma run!" I yelled. Suddenly a bright light appeared out of nowhere, I had to close my eyes from the brightness. I could tell it went over my head, I heard a bone chilling, ear bleeding, most terrifying mixtures of screams explode from the creature. Whatever was on my leg let me go. I scrambled up blindly, gram pulled me out of the room and shut the door quickly. I fell down onto the ground and looked at the door with fear. Gram drew something on the door with her finger, suddenly the golden doorknob began to glow brightly. Then it dimmed. Gram took a deep breath, I couldn't stop panting. "I told you Jacob, don't go in there!" She turned to me with an angry expression, then she saw my pale face. Her expression softened and she sighed. "Jacob, let me explain." She inches closer to me. I jumped up and backed away from her. "What the hell was that?!" The shock was wearing off, now all these emotions were flooding me. Fear, anger, confusion. Everything. "Jacob, calm down please. Let me explain." I began hyperventilating, my heart felt like it was beating a mile a minute. Gram lead me down stairs, we sat down at the dinner table. It was close to midnight, the dark night was the last thing I wanted to see after looking into the eyes of that thing. "What do you want to know first?" Gram asked me. Her voice was soft and quiet. My whole body shook violently. "What was that thing?" My voice was shaky and uneven. Gram took a deep breath. "We call them Melting Shadows." I shook my head. "I'm sorry, we?!" She looked down at her hands. "Who is we? Also, do mom and dad know about that thing?" I could see gram tightening her jaw. "Your parents are fully aware of what's in that room. They're not leaving you here for business, they're leaving you here so they can look for more of those." My eyes went wide. "There's more of those things?!" I screamed. Gram shushed me, I waved my hands in front of me. "Hold on, mom and dad go hunting for those things? How are they still alive?" Gram went quiet. I waited for her to say something, but she wouldn't. "Please gram, I need to know this stuff. You guys are my family." I grabbed her hand and held it between my own. She looked into my eyes, I could see the tears ready to fall. "My family has had the duty to hunt these creatures for as long as our history goes back. These creatures are the prime predators to humans, that's all they hunt. When your mother married your father, he had to take on that responsibility just like my mother had to." I just stared at gram. "Wait, how do you fight those things. That one in the room was huge." Gram grabbed my hands suddenly. "Listen to me, and listen well. Our bloodline isn't normal, the reason we can fight these creatures is because a piece of them is in us." I furrowed my brow. "Wait, are you saying you and I aren't human, but instead closer to being that melting dog in the room?" I asked. Gram shook her head. "We aren't of the same species. Think about it like this, every predator hunts it's prey. In this case the prey is mankind, and the predator are the Melting Shadows. Predators sometimes have their hunters, the ones who make sure the predator doesn't take to much prey. We're the hunters. We hunt the predators to protect the prey." I leaned back in my chair, everything was going through my head all at once. "Is our bloodline the only ones that can protect people?" Gram shook her head, she opened her mouth to say something, then thought against it. "What? Who else has this responsibility?" I asked. Gram began picking at her fingers. "It's not my place to tell you that." I leaned against the table. "Why are you allowed to tell me some things but others you can't?" Gram looked down at her lap, a tear ran down her cheek. "You were supposed to live a normal life, you were never supposed to know about any of this." I could only watch as gram began to bawl. Every tear felt like my heart was breaking. "I'm sorry, I should've listened to you. I should've never opened that door." I bowed my head, I felt so much guilt it felt like I was going to be crushed. "No, I should've gotten rid of that thing a long time ago. It just felt safer having in locked up instead of running around where it could hurt someone." I nodded my head. "You wanted to protect everyone." She nodded her head. "How are mom and dad going to react?" Gram looked at me, her eyes were red and puffy. "I don't know, but what happens next is going to be fast and confusing." I gave gram a confused look. "What's going to happen next?" She grabbed my hands. "You'll fond out what kind of abilities you have." I furrowed my brow. "Abilities?" I repeated the word out loud. "Yes, every hunter has a certain ability. Like mine, I have purity." I gave her a questioning look, she smiled and held up a finger. She held out her other hand. Suddenly a ball of bright white light manifested in her palm, I had to squint my eyes to see. "Wow, that's so cool." I stared at the ball. "Watch this." Gram began playing with the ball, bouncing it in her hand. Then it began floating, it swirled around her hand and danced around the air. Suddenly it zoomed by my head, I tried my best to follow it but it was too fast. It circled my head a couple times then returned to the palm of her hand. She extinguished the light by closing her hand, and it was gone. "Once you learn your ability, you could do similar things." I couldn't help but smile. "Really? I can do that?" I immediately held my hand out and flexed my arm. Nothing happened, I flexed again. I heard gram chuckle. "That's not how it works, but I'll give you an A for effort." I smiled, but eventually my smile vanished. "Will my life ever go back to normal?" Gram frowned. "You won't see the world the same, whether you choose to fight against that or accept that is your choice." I started picking at my fingers. Gram and I stayed seated at the dinning table for the rest of the night, neither one of us could sleep. We drank many cups of coffee and tea. Eventually the sun came up. "Jacob, there is someone else that can help you get used to using your powers and fitting in with other people." I looked up at gram. "Who?" I was curious of who could possibly help me get used to my new life that lay ahead of me. "Do you remember that nice girl Addy?" I nodded my head. "Her parents are hunters?" I assumed, gram shook her head. "Yes, but no. Addy is also a hunter." My eyes went wide. "Wait, SHES a hunter?" Gram nodded her head. "She also works at that store?" Gram nodded her head again. I ran my fingers through my hair. "Wow, she fights terrifying creatures, and works at a clothes store. That's pretty impressive." Gram sat down and smiled at me. "You two will be near each other a lot, might get closer by time." I gave gram a emotionless look. "I just saw a melting shadow thing, found out I'm not fully human, and that I have powers. What you wanna mention now, is that I could possibly start dating Addy because she's going to be helping me learn how to cope with my new life?" Gram smiled at me. "Yup!" I massaged the bridge of my nose. "You can't stay away from my dating life can you gram?" I heard her stand up. "Nope, my grandson deserves the best and Addy is pretty close to that." I groaned. "Why do you like Addy so much? Is it because she's a hunter?" I asked, gram shook her head. "No, that's just a plus. She's really a sweet young girl, give her a chance." I chuckled. I found it surprising, my whole life has just turned upside and instead of running around panicking. I'm sitting at the dinning room table hearing my grandmother tell me a girl I had just met would be my dream girl. I could tell my life was going to be different, but it didn't seem like everything was going to be terrible. "Actually, there was something in that shop that I liked. Plus I think we need to pay her a quick visit." Gram nodded her head. "If that's what you with to do, that's what we'll do." I quickly walked up the stairs and entered my room. I changed quickly and brushed my teeth to get rid of my coffee breath. I walked back down the stairs and headed towards the front door following right behind gram. I grabbed the keys and jumped into the drivers seat. I sped towards the mall, I checked the clock on the radio. It read 10:46, the store might just be open. I quickly parked the car and jumped out. Gram and I quickly walked into the mall and made a dash for the store. Luckily it seemed open. I opened the door at let gram inside. "Welcome." It was Addy. "Addy." Gram said her name, Addy appeared in a second. She had a huge smile on her face, then she saw our serious looks. "What's wrong?" She asked. I lead both of them towards the back of the store, right next to the red jacket. "Addy, Jacob knows." Addy gave gram a confused look. "Knows what?" She asked. "Melting Shadows." Was all I said. Addy turned to me, her eyes wide, the color in her face drained. "Wait, but I thought he wasn't supposed to find out?" Addy asked gram. "He wasn't, but he broke my number one rule." I scratched the back of my neck. "That's what that kind does, it's one that lures it's prey in, but I thought he could handle it." Gram shrugged. "It has gotten stronger somehow, nearly threw him across the hall and left two bruises on his chest." Addy looked at me with concern. "Are you okay?" I nodded my head. "I'm doing alright right now, still a little stunned that a chunk of my life was a lie, but doing alright." Gram pulled up the photo on her phone of my bruises, Addy winced from the image. "Have they been able to to that before?" Gram shook her head. "No, this ones gotten stronger, even though it hasn't had food or water for a long time." I looked between them, now I was just a bystander to their conversation. "Come to the staff area, we'll be safe there." Addy lead us to a staff only door, she opened it and motioned is inside. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for whatever new things I was about to hear.