Love My Existence
The Hunter Becomes The Hunted

Story by annajade

Killian Hunter has had it rough. With her father walking out on his family to leave them in destitution, her mother bed-ridden, and her little brother starting to become a teenager, the only thing Killian has ever had are responsibilities. Working day and night to support her poor family, Killian doesn't have time for romance, but she couldn't help dreading that her poverty-stricken existence is all she'll ever come to know. However an eldritch clash caused Killian to meet the mysteriously masculine man on the day she worked at Lahay Fruit Farms & Winery, Killian knew that her time of just existing would come to an end. She couldn't help but notice that his archaic manners hid his devastating loneliness that called out to her own, especially when he started to make her feel emotions. Killian secretly wanted to know Duncan McKay; especially when he already holds her battered heart in his large hands.

Prologue: Loneliness

It was oppressing, this abandonment that I had brought upon myself. The dark was oppressing, the air was oppressing, pushing against my lungs; my eyes; until they felt ready to bleed. Everything was oppressing. I have never felt like this before. I have done this to myself.

There was no light to get me through this like there was before.

This loneliness…it was vile, a twisting creature swirling inside me as I sat there on my knees, bruising it with the cold concrete of the alleyway of where I lived. Or rather existed, taking space that wasn't even worth me being there.

Have I ever felt this way? No, never. Because I had promised myself never, never, to get involved with a man when my father betrayed his family, for it only brought tears and misery and more trouble that already thrashed in my life, I didn't need another reason for believing myself that I was not worth being. But this man…

This man. I would have never thought myself so easy to be succumbed to fall prey to beauty, to perfection and sweet words.

My cheeks trembled as tears fell towards them, unknown strangers that graced the softness of their swelling. My eyes stung from the unsolicited beings that made humans vulnerable.

I wasn't supposed to be vulnerable. I wasn't supposed to be weak, or frail. I wasn't supposed to be pathetic!

I, Killian Hunter, was supposed to be resilient and fierce. Unrelenting to any human emotion that brought mortals to their knees and cried of betrayal and pain. I wasn't supposed to feel love! Or be loved! It made fools of us all; I hated it, hated it with a passion that burned like a living, distorted snake inside of me!

But why me? He could have anybody in the world, any woman, any beautiful woman! It was proven many times over that he surrounded himself with the willing and eager, stunning women that flocked him. Was this some kind of cruel joke that he decided to bestow upon me? Sure, let's make this already-miserable woman more miserable. By all that is holy! I have forgotten how much it hurts to feel! To be desired by a man!

A deep sob escaped my shaking lips as I gathered my arms around myself, bending over until only the low of my back rested against the dew-covered brick wall. It seemed that that sob broke a dam inside of me as I started crying out at the amount of pain that erupted within me, hoping and wishing that he was here now, folding me into his hearty embrace, to feel his gentle kisses on my hair, feel his hands stroking me and driving away any demon that leapt its claws at me.

To save me from myself.

Tears, that I hadn't shed in almost nine years, came pouring down like a torrent from my eyes, my cheeks, from my chin and to, finally, the cold, drenched ground. Every hurt and trauma I had endured broke under the strain and pressure of this. A tiny emotion that had bred inside of the desolate shell I had wrapped myself in. My lungs hurt from the screams and cries that had expelled from them, that only the tight hold on them could alleviate the burden. The hurt.

"Duncan," I moaned in anguish, the only consolation that I had was to say his name. Remembering his eyes, his face, his everything; trying to make him appear before my flooded lids. "Duncan, I need you. God, how much I need you."

Instead of warmth that always sprouted inside of me whenever I said his name or thought of him, I felt coldness. A bone-deep chill that had me numb in a matter of seconds. For my sub-consciousness, my instinct, already knew that he wouldn't come; that when I opened my eyes, he wouldn't be there, kissing away my tears. Telling me that he would gladly carry the amount of responsibilities from my shoulders. I wanted him here. I wanted him gone.

But I could never ask him to stay.

So, instead, I sat there on my bruised knees against the freezing cement, my back to a wet wall, moaning my heart out; wishing I had not sent him away. Friendless, loveless. Lonely.

This loneliness…was the only thing I had ever known. But when he pushed himself into my what life I had, he disrupted everything. Unraveled the fragile tendrils of existence I had secured myself in, taking away what I had known and comforted myself in, and turned it upside down. Showed me what it was like to live. Showed me what it was like to love. Taught me what it is to be loved.

Come back.

author's note:
"Love is begot by fancy, bred
By ignorance, by expectation fed,
Destroyed by knowledge, and, at best,
Lost in the moment 'tis possessed."
Love -- George Granville (1667-1735)

(Edited Chapter)
Well, here it is, the prologue to Love My Existence; the next story to the Highlander Series. Duncan's story. Now who's jealous of Killian?
Hoped you all liked it and will stay with this one.
Let me know what you think of it. Also, what do guys think this story will produce?
How will it end? Opinions?
Now...I'm hungry. Gotta eat.

P.S. I will love some reviews. And if I have at least twenty reviews, I will be extra nice and post the next chapter quickly. Like in less than two days. Yes? :)