"How could it get stronger?" Addy asked while locking the staff door behind us. "I'm not sure, but it's something we need to tell the others about." Gram said, I sat down at a table. "What do I do?" I asked. Gram looked at me with a serious look in her eyes. "You're going to train to become stronger." Addy looked over at me. "Has he shown any signs of powers?" Gram shook her head. "No, but I can tell he is very powerful." I looked at both of them confused. "What does that mean?" Addy shrugged. "Same thing I heard, your grandmother seemed right with me." Gram nodded her head at Addy. "Purity is very strong!" I raised my hands in front of me. "Wait, you have the bright light power too?" Addy nodded. "It's called purity, it's one of the stronger ones." I scratched the back of my neck. "There's levels?" Gram shook her hands in the air in front of her. "Questions will be answered by the others. Right now I wanted all of us to talk and calm down a little." I gave gram a questioning look. "Hold on, by the others? Are there more here?" I asked. Gram shook her head. "Your parents and I are taking you to home base." It felt like my brain was going to blow a fuse. "Home base? You mean like a city of hunters?" Addy and gram both nodded. I leaned back in my chair. How many hunters is that? "Wait, if there's tons of hunters, how many of those things are out there?" Gram and Addy looked at each other, as if communicating through there eyes. "That's something you'll learn at home base." A sudden knock on the door made all of us jump. "Add! Where the hell are you?! There's customers waiting!" I heard Addy cuss under her breath. "Hide." She whispered so only gram and I could hear her. Addy basically shoved us into a corner, the vending machine covered us from the doorway. I heard Addy unlock the door and open it. "Sorry, I just needed a moment." I could hear heavy boot steps enter the room, I pushed my body against the wall. "I heard you talking to someone." The man sounded older, and his voice was raspy. I assumed he must've been a smoker. "I was on a call with someone, family business." Addy said, I could hear her voice waver. She must be getting anxious. "No, I heard other voices in here. I heard a guy." I looked over at gram, she held her finger up to her lips. I nodded. "It was my dad on the phone, can you please let me call him back." I heard the boot steps walk towards the door, towards Addy. "Call him." My jaw clenched. "What?" Addy asked, the fear in her voice was obvious now. "Call your father, I wanna hear it." I heard Addy scoff. "That's a private conversation! Why do you think I had the door locked?" Suddenly there was the sound of someone being shoved. I peaked my head out, Addy was being held against the wall. The man was twice her size. "You listen well, next time you break a rule I'll make sure to give you a good reason to quit." I had heard enough. I jumped out from my hiding spot and walked up behind the man. "Hey!" I shouted, he turned around to look at me. I swung my arm at him, my fist landing right on his nose. He stumbled to the side and slipped. His head hit the ground hard. "Are you okay?" I asked Addy. She stared at the man on the ground with her mouth hanging open slightly. "Ya, ya I'm fine." She finally said, gram walked up to us. "What was that Jacob?!" Gram hit my arm. "He was attacking Addy!" I said in defense. I looked down at the man, I could see he was breathing and no blood was coming from his head. "He seems fine, but I don't think you'll have a position here anymore." I told Addy. She shrugged. "Fine by me, you two wait outside. I'm gonna change real quick." Gram and I exited the staff's room, a couple of people waited by the cash register with clothes on their arms. Gram, Addy and I snuck out of the store and exited the mall. "You can hide out with us for a little while." Gram said as we got into the car. "If you don't mind, Id like to visit home base myself." Addy said. "Of course!" Gram turned around to face Addy who was sitting in the back seat. "Have you gone to home base?" Gram asked. "Once, when I needed to know my class." I could see gram nodding in the corner of my eye. "Maybe you could help Jacob, you two are the same age." I looked in the rear view mirror, Addy was looking right back. "Sure, I wouldn't mind." Addy said. I felt gram lightly tap my arm, meaning I had to say something. "Sure, when my head stops spinning and I get some actual answers. You'd be a great mentor." I said. I could tell gram was smiling. "Wonderful." Gram said. I parked the car in the driveway. We all got out and entered the house. "So it really is still up there?" Addy asked while looking up the stairs, gram nodded. "The room at the end of the hall. I figured no one would enter." She looked back at me. "Sorry, I just felt like a child. Being scared of some silly looking door isn't exactly manly." I said in defense. Addy looked back at me with a confused expression. "Manly?" I shrugged. "My dad has always told me to not be scared. If I am, face the issue head on. So I did just that." I heard gram scoff and looked over at her. "That stupid boy, doesn't know what he's talking about. I'll tell you a real man knows when he should back off!" She stomped into the kitchen while mumbling on about my father. "Her and your dad don't get along, do they?" I chuckled. "Nope. Never have, and by the sounds of it, never will." Addy giggled. "Well hopefully they'll get along enough to help you." I nodded my head. "Hopefully." Gram came stomping back with two mugs of tea. "Here." She handed both Addy and I a mug. I got the dog one, Addy got a cat one. "I need to cool down, he just gets on my nerves so much!" Gram turned around and walked right back into the kitchen. I turned to Addy and motioned to the couch. "Wanna sit?" She nodded her head. We sat in silence for a little while, taking sips from our tea here and there. "Have you fought one before?" I asked. Addy looked at me confused. "The Melting Shadows, I mean." She nodded her head. "Yes actually, there aren't too many around here but there's the few rare ones." I ran my finger along the edge of my mug. "Is it scary?" Addy seemed to think for a moment. "The first time you see one, it's horrifying. Though, once you fight a few you aren't as scared. There's always gonna be fear, but that's normal. It's just your senses reminding you that what your looking at is dangerous." I nodded my head. "First encounter was definitely something I'll remember for a long time." I said. Addy giggled. "Did you freeze?" I looked back at her. Slowly I nodded my head. "Me too." I gave her a confused look. "Their eyes, reminds you of the night sky doesn't it?" Again I nodded my head, Addy smiled. "That's how they lure you in. Their eyes have this ability to draw people in. Of course we see it so much we almost become immune to it, but a regular human just stands their. Doesn't run doesn't scream, just freezes." I leaned back, now it made sense why I didn't run away at first. "Wait, you said you froze too. Did you break out of that trance yourself?" Addy shook her head no. "No. Your grandmother saved me, she had to push me out of the way in order to wake me up." I scratched my chin. "Hold on, gram safer you?" Addy began messing with a strand of her hair. "The story of me being homeless and your grandmother helping me, that was a lie. What really happened was I had just been told I had the power of purity. I wanted to try and fight, so I hunted one down. The exact on that's in the room up their. It was the first one I'd ever seen face to face. I'd seen drawings and photos before, but looking at it move and seeing its body melting was a completely different feeling. I froze, next thing I know I'm tackled to the ground and these only tentacles have destroyed the spot I was just standing at. Your grandmother and I fought that thing until it had gotten weak. We were gonna kill it but then we heard some guy yelling to use asking if we were okay. If we killed it, it's body couldn't melt fast enough and the risk of people finding it were high. So we used the rest of our energy to bring it back here. She used a spell I hadn't learned and locked it in that room. It's been there ever sense." My eyes were wide and my mouth hung open. Everything I was hearing sounded like a superhero movie. "Why don't you kill it now?" I asked. "We both wanted to, but there's more people moving here and there's less and less places to hid it's body until it's gone. Plus, now we know it's gotten stronger even without any way of eating." I placed my mug on the coffee table and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. "How is it still alive?" I asked. "Those things don't really need to eat or drink. From what we understand so far, they kill humans for their own enjoyment." I gasped a little. "The thrill of the hunt." I said under my breath. Addy nodded. "You said gram tackled you, is that the only way someone can be taken out of the trance?" Addy thought for a moment then nodded her head. "As far as I know, that's the only way yes." I began messing with my hair. "That doesn't make sense." I said out loud. Addy looked at me with confusion. "What doesn't make sense?" I tapped my finger on my leg. "I had been in a trance, but gran didn't get to me. I just snapped out of it on my own." I looked over to Addy, she had a mixture of confusion and concentration in her eyes. "I don't understand that, you should talk to the main head man. Maybe he knows something." I nodded my head. I was getting new information, but every answer lead to even more questions. "Don't stress over it too much, I'm sure luck was just on your side." Addy said reassuringly. I nodded my head. I couldn't help but stress over everything right now. My whole life has just been shown to be a lie, and now I'm being told I have to fight melting creatures. I stated off at nothing, it felt like everything was circling around my head. I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach, maybe people at this "home base" could help me. Then what? Is the rest of my life dedicated to hunting down these things? Can I at least try to be normal again? Will I even make it to college? All these questions began popping up. A sudden knock at the front door shook me from my thoughts. "Gram! Are you expecting someone?" Gram came out of the kitchen confused. "Not yet." Addy and I stood up. Gram approached the front door, she slowly unlocked it and opened the door. My eyes went wide. "Mom? Dad?"