Hunted

The woman sat alone at the bar in a small pub.

She immediately stood out. Even if her dirty, ragged clothing and foreign mannerisms hadn't stood out, the regulars would have known she didn't belong. The small village of Brzeźce rarely saw visitors.

The bartender tentatively walked over. "Co byś chciał?"

She looked up at him. "Beer? A beer?" She mimed drinking from a pint glass.

He nodded and began filling a glass.

The woman watched him, brooding. She was hoping that the local populace would be a little more helpful in her hunt, but so far communication had been an issue.

The bartender placed a glass in front of her and stood in front of her nervously.

"Kosztuje 6 złotych..." he said, unsure.

She looked at him blankly. "I don't speak Polish," she said, seriously regretting taking the assignment.

"He said six zloty. They don't take euros around here," a man called from a few seats away.

"I'm not that ignorant," she replied, pulling out a few crumpled bills from her pocket. "Tell him to keep the change."

The man spoke briefly to the bartender as she handed him the money.

"How would you like to make some money?" she asked the man, sliding over to sit next to him.

"Who, me?" he asked, confused.

"Yes, you. You speak English fairly well, yes? You can translate?"

He nodded. "I can. You would have more luck hiring a professional, though."

"I don't need a professional. I need a local and a guide. Besides, I need someone that doesn't need payment up front."

He smiled thinly. "Now the truth comes out."

She gave him an irritated look. "I can pay. I just need to finish this job, and then I'll have plenty of money."

"Job? What job?" he asked, suspicious. "Nothing illegal, I imagine?"

"No, not really," she said slowly. "Put your phone away. It's a government job."

"A government job?"

"Well, contract. Kind of. If I do the job, they pay me."

"Ah," he said, nodding. "A bounty."

She furrowed her brow. "I prefer the term contract. It sounds cleaner."

"So what are they paying you to kill? A strzyga? A wodnik? A dragon?" he said mockingly.

"Dragons don't exist," she said without a hint of irony.

"You really buy into this magic nonsense?" he scoffed.

"It doesn't matter if I do or don't," she said defensively. "The boun- contract is a woman, a witch, reported to be living in the countryside near here."

"Oh, certainly. Baba Yaga."

"You know of her?" the woman said, turning to face him.

He snorted. "Every small town in Poland has a story about their own Baba Yaga. They are, inevitably, old widows minding their own business as they live out their miserable final days away from people. We are no exception."

"You disapprove of the legends."

The man shrugged and took a long drink from the beer in front of him. "I don't care much for the Catholics and their incessant hunting of anything vaguely magical. The last few years have been chaos for Poland."

"Including here?" she asked, curious.

"Here, we have carefully ignored this magic nonsense and lived our own lives. No witches, no wizards, no mystical creatures, and certainly none of your American 'Magic University'."

The woman was unimpressed. "You can ignore it if you'd like, but changes are happening. I, for one, like to stay ahead of the curve."

He shrugged again. "If you can get us paid to bring some poor woman to the Polish government, I will not complain. Inevitably, they will release her when they can't prove anything. How much are they paying you, anyway."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Let's say I don't tell you and I'll double your fee."

"What was my fee before?"

The woman smiled enigmatically. "You help me find this woman, translate for me, all that, and you'll walk out of this deal with ten thousand euros."

The man opened and closed his mouth a few times, stunned. "I... I think that will do," he managed to say.

She pulled a few folded sheets of paper from her pocket. "I have no name, just a picture, general location, and list of crimes."

He took the papers and looked at them. "Ah. Amelia." He handed them back.

"Seriously? That easy?" she asked.

"Seriously. I told you, every small town has a story about Baba Yaga."

"You said that was about old widows." The picture was clearly of a middle aged woman.

"Okay, so maybe we're a minor exception."

"Can you take me to her?" she asked.

"Certainly, miss...?"

The woman hesitated. "Call me Hush."

He snorted. "Really? That's awfully edgy of you."

"Shut up," she said, blushing. "At least I have a name."

"You can call me... Jakub. Because it's my name."

"So, the witch?"

"Follow me," he said before draining his beer and dropping some coins on the bar.

True to his word, Jakub guided her straight to his beat up car and drove out of the village. It only took a few minutes for them to arrive at a small run down house in a forest.

"Creepy," he remarked.

"Haven't you been here before?"

"Never at night. The stories always say to stay away at night," he said, parking the car and climbing out.

She followed him as they trudged through the thick layer of dead leaves on the ground towards the house. "So this is the perfect time to convince you magic exists."

"Unlikely," he said, turning back to her. "The mind plays some awful tricks on itself when it can't get sufficient information."

"So you're saying that's a figment of your imagination?" Hush asked as she pointed towards the house.

The roof above the doorway was crowded with large black birds staring ominously at them.

"It's just some birds," Jakub said nervously.

"Their eyes are glowing red."

"A trick of the light," he insisted. "They're just reflecting some other light."

Hush turned around. "What light?"

He didn't answer, but paused fifteen feet away from the door. Hush walked up next to him.

"What's your plan?" he asked.

She studied the birds intently. "They're illusions," she realized. "I'm not aware of any magic that controls animals or create life. They're harmless."

"You can go first, then."

Hush took a tentative step forward. Immediately, the birds starting cawing cacophonously, and then took off and flew straight at her. She shrieked and dove to the ground, covering her head, but the birds simply disappeared when they were about to strike her.

She looked up from where she was huddled on the ground. "See? Harmless."

"You look so confident about this," he said shakily.

"What's the matter? Still don't believe in magic?" she asked, standing up and brushing a few errant leaves off her pants.

"It's a trick... trick of the mind."

They approached the door.

"Amelia?" Hush called out. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Do you really think she'll fall for that?" Jakub whispered. She glanced at him, but said nothing.

Hush pushed softly on the door and it opened with a squeal. It was dark inside.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Nobody's home," Jakub said softly.

They carefully searched the house, but it was small and had very few places to hide.

"See? Nothing. Nobody's home," Jakub repeated with a bit more confidence.

"Mhm." Hush sounded unconvinced, and stared intently out the window into the front yard.

"What?" he asked.

"Where's the car?" she asked.

Jakub looked out the door. "It's still there. I can see the moonlight reflecting off the windows."

"I don't see it. Come point it out."

He walked over to the window. "Look, right next to... next to the... huh." The car was gone.

"Exactly."

Hush suddenly reached out for the window and grabbed straight through it, eliciting a scream from the wall.

"What the ****?" Jakub yelled, jumping.

Hush pulled and Amelia came stumbling through the fake wall. She looked slightly older and dirtier than the picture showed, but it was certainly her.

She started yelling at them.

"What's she saying?" Hush asked, not relinquishing her grasp.

"She says... to let her go, and that she will work terrible magics on you," Jakub said, still stunned by what he was seeing.

"Tell her to calm down, and that I can bring her to safety." He translated the words, and her struggles slowed.

"I can't believe that worked... Wait, she's saying she can't leave. There's a... a kid?"

A child, a young girl slowly walked through the fake wall. Hush let go of Amelia and knelt down to look at the girl.

"She's also magic?" she asked.

After Jakub translated, Amelia nodded slowly.

Without looking away from the girl, Hush waved her hand in the direction of the door. A slab of stone appeared, blocking the exit.

"What are you doing?" Jakub asked, panicked. He ran to the door and tried to push his hand through it, but the stone was no illusion. He turned to Hush and slowly started to back away.

"You're... you're not hunting witches. You're saving them."

Hush stood and looked at him. "You said you didn't care about the Catholics and their inquisitions, right? You don't care about anything magical?"

He backed up into the wall.

"I can leave you here," she warned him. "Choose your answer carefully. You don't have to starve to death in this hut."

"I... I'm not getting paid, am I?" he asked weakly.

Hush shrugged. "I think not wasting away is worth at least a few thousand."

"Not much of a choice, is it? What do you need?"

"What's the range on that piece of junk car of yours?" she asked.

"It'll get us where we need to go. Where are we going?"

"We're leaving Poland."

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