Hunter and Anna Wara: A shared past from Earth

I was having another memory flashback, shortly after I had collapsed on the first floor of the cursed Kastle while trying to leave. This time, the memory was further back from my past, when I was just a kid—when everything first started.

"Would you like to become a real hero, Hunter? Would you like to save the world someday?"

Those were some of the first words she said to me—the woman who arrived at my orphanage and took me away. I was only six years old at the time. I didn't know then that she wasn't from our world.

Her name was Anna Wara, the little blond girl who saw the end of her world in her dreams when she was only eight years old.

Her people were fated to be hunted, slaughtered, and devoured by monsters, creatures, and demons from the deepest parts of hell. She was going to lose everything—everyone she had ever known, and everything she had ever loved.

So, using forbidden magic, she left home with all of the gold she could carry, and a single mission on her mind: come to Earth, recruit as many children as she could find, turn them into unstoppable war machines, and then send them on a one-way ticket to fight on the front lines of an apocalypse destined to happen.

***

I was playing around by myself in the yard when I first saw her. She had walked into the orphanage wearing a white coat that matched the color of her hair, white pants that matched the color of her coat, and white shoes that matched the color of her pants. It was uncanny, watching someone dressed so brightly. She was also escorted by men in suits, an entourage I would later find out were fully armed with automatic rifles, but currently hidden away as they marched toward the headmistress's office.

I didn't know what was going on at the time. I mean, I was only six. There were talks and murmurs amongst us kids in the lunchroom that she might be a celebrity looking to adopt one of us. Everybody was so excited. Even some of the grown-ups were already imagining what their lives would be like once they left the cramped orphanage for a much bigger mansion.

I was just trying to focus on my food. I needed to eat quickly before I got bullied into handing the rest over to some of the older kids. I had lived in the orphanage for as long as I could remember, and after watching so many loving couples and families come and go with children who were smiling and happy because they were finally chosen, I eventually gave up on the idea of ever being selected myself.

I was a weird kid, so I didn’t blame them for not choosing me. I was quiet, ignored when I tried playing with some of the other kids, and almost always dirty from how often I was pushed into the sand by some of the older teens. I wasn't liked by others, so I just decided to avoid people in general. The only times I was happy were when I was reading books and comics, hiding away underneath my bed as I did so.

Superheroes. They were my favorite genre. The idea of having incredible powers, using those powers to save people from burning buildings, floods, earthquakes, and even monsters—it was all incredible.

The ability to move faster than the speed of sound. The strength to pick up an entire bus full of passengers. These were the lives I desperately wished I had, instead of being stuck at an orphanage with no friends, no food, and no loving parents.

That particular afternoon, after lunch, I was busy reading a new issue of my favorite comic series when I heard the door suddenly open. I quickly covered up my books with a blanket, hoping the grown-ups wouldn’t find them and take them from me.

"Hunter? Hunter, are you here?"

I only poked my head out from underneath my bed when I realized the voice calling out to me belonged to Sister Serah, one of the headmistress's employees.

"Oh, there you are. Come with me. There's someone here to see you."

Clutching my comics close to my chest, I followed her outside. We walked past the other rooms, past the other children who all stared at me with anger and contempt. I didn't even do anything. Why were they looking at me like that?

We continued walking and did not stop until we reached the headmistress’s office. Some of the white woman’s bodyguards were standing outside, frozen to the spot as if they were simply statues wearing sunglasses. When we entered, there were more bodyguards inside—in the corners, by the exit, and even two of them standing behind the headmistress, who was seated at her desk. The elderly woman had an anxious expression on her face, gazing at me with a nervous smile while also sweating profusely.

It was obvious she was putting on an act, but at the time, I didn't know it was because she had a gun pressed to the back of her seat by one of the bodyguards. They were forcing her to keep quiet, to comply, and to play along with all of their demands.

Then I saw her. The White Woman. She was sitting across from the headmistress, and when she turned around, our eyes met.

“Hello there,” she said in a calming tone. “My name is Anna, Anna Wara. What’s your name?” she added, extending a hand in greeting.

I didn’t immediately respond. I was momentarily distracted by how she looked. Her striking blue eyes were so pronounced, I didn’t think I had ever seen anyone with eyes that blue.

“H-Hunter,” I finally responded, choking a little from nervousness as I accepted her handshake. The number of bodyguards standing around the room wasn’t really helping either. The whole office felt tense.

“Well, Hunter, I hear you like superheroes,” she asked, moving in a little closer. “Is that true? Do you really like them? Do you really like superheroes, Hunter?”

I couldn’t believe what she had asked me. Finally, I thought, a conversation I could get behind.

“Y-yeah, I do,” I replied, rapidly nodding my head in excitement. I was no longer nervous. And how could I have been? We were talking about my favorite subject after all.

“Do you like them too?” I asked her, opening a page from my comic book and holding it up for her to see. The panel I was showing her depicted a Monster Slayer, a very tall man who had the power to summon whatever weapon he wanted just by calling it out. The white woman, Anna Wara, seemed lost in thought as she studied the picture, before suddenly regaining her composure and turning her attention back to me as she replied.

“I don’t just like them,” she said, leaning back to wipe the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief she had pulled from her breast pocket. “One might say I am in grave need of them.”

“Huh?” I was confused. Superheroes weren’t real. Even I knew that. So, what was she talking about?

"Would you like to become a real hero, Hunter? Would you like to save the world someday?"

The question came out of nowhere. She had finished cleaning her eyes when she asked me. Maybe she suddenly saw the dumbstruck confusion on my face, and that’s what prompted her to keep explaining.

“This character,” she began, pointing at the Monster Slayer in the comic I was still holding. “Do you wish you were like him? Do you wish you had similar abilities like he does? And do you wish you were saving entire villages and towns from monsters too?”

***

Before I knew it, the woman held my hand in hers as she led me out of the orphanage. We were walking toward a black limo, her bodyguards following close behind. We entered the expensive-looking vehicle, which had a driver already seated inside. The rest of her escort entered separate black vehicles of their own, and a second later, we drove off.

I peered out the window at the orphanage—a place I had called my home for as long as I could remember. I didn’t know who my parents were, or why they had decided to abandon me at a place where I was never fully accepted by anyone, staff or children.

I returned my attention to the limo, glancing at the white woman from the corner of my vision. When she asked if I wanted to become just like the main character from my favorite comic, I was weirded out at first, since I didn’t know how she was possibly going to make that a reality. But she remained serious the entire time she asked me the question, not resembling someone who was joking in the slightest.

So, I said yes. I wanted to become strong. I wanted to become a superhero.

***

We eventually arrived at an airport, where we boarded her private jet and flew out to an island. Getting through security was easy—she just told them I was her adopted son, showing them the papers she had forced the headmistress to sign at gunpoint. When we arrived at the facility, I was surprised to find other children there. None of us looked older than ten, and it seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves, playing video games in the main room.

“Alright, children, may I have your attention.”

The entire place fell silent as soon as Anna Wara, the white woman, began talking. I was standing beside her, a little shy at the number of unfamiliar faces suddenly gazing back at me.

“This is Hunter,” she said. “He will be joining you in training. He is one of you now. So, I expect all of you to treat him as an equal. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Miss Anna,” all of the children responded in unison, and their synchronized formality freaked me out a little.

“Hello, Hunter.”

“Hi, Hunter.”

“What’s up, man?”

“Yeah, dude, how’s it hanging? Wanna join us?”

I was taken aback by how nice the children were being. They were smiling and waving as they greeted me, an expression of kindness I had never received back at the orphanage.

“Go on, say hello,” Anna said as she leaned in to whisper, waving her hand in a gesture for me to step forward toward the other kids.

I was nervous. My knees were shaking. What if I opened my mouth and one of them told me to shut up? What if they didn’t like the sound of my voice, or worse, what if they ended up simply not liking me at all? I swallowed a lump, sweating from embarrassment. But then, I took that first step and said hello. And as it turned out, I was paranoid for no reason.

***

After only a few weeks at the facility, I eventually got a good understanding of what each and every one of us kids was doing there. Anna Wara was putting us through physical, mental, and psychological training, but nothing far beyond our capacity as children to endure.

Some days we went on jogs around the facility and island. Other days we went to school to learn, just like any other classroom. What we learned was a little weird to me at first, though.

Different types of monsters, creatures, and life forms were displayed on wall projectors, and we were lectured on the types of entities they were, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Each of them was from a different world far from resembling our own, and we were asked to familiarize ourselves with their anatomy and bodily functions.

We also sometimes spent entire days within VR simulations with our headsets, performing assignments like practicing to move in sync with our chosen superhero character models, running, jumping, dodging, as well as learning techniques such as absorbing items into our inventory and controlling our special abilities and powers. This was one of the most enjoyable parts of the training, as we briefly all had the opportunity to embody the forms of heroes, even though it was only a simulation.

We started martial arts and survival training when we were all a little older, roughly thirteen, and five years later, our deployment began.

***

I was lying down alone on a hospital bed, still within the facility on the island. There were wires and cords sticking out of a device on my head, connected to a machine nearby—a computer displaying the words: Transfer protocol initiated. Transfer in T minus two minutes.

I felt a bit woozy, like I had taken a shot of anesthesia. I guess the doctors did give me some, as they needed to ensure I experienced no pain while they fixed a few of the wires directly to my brain. Finally, it was time.

I was being prepped to be transported to a whole other world, full of monsters, demons, and nightmarish creatures. I would appear as my chosen character model: a seven-foot-tall Monster Slayer from the comics I loved as a kid.

I was not the only one. The other kids I had come to see as my friends and family were also being prepped to be transported to worlds and realms of their own—places Anna Wara had selected for all of us after years of training. We were going to be heroes and saviors of these worlds, and even though I wasn’t the best-performing candidate at the facility, I was glad I had been given the opportunity to still be a part of this.

However, just as the countdown timer on the computer read sixty seconds until deployment, I heard a conversation I was probably never supposed to hear in the first place. A conversation that nearly broke my spirit.

“Sending him along for the mission is a liability, Anna. He is not as strong as the rest, or fast, or smart.”

It was the voice of a man who said this. It almost sounded like the voice of our drill sergeant. It seemed like he was in an argument with the woman somewhere close by, but I couldn’t tell in what direction.

“Hunter is not a liability,” she responded. “Yes, his scores and performance in training are below his peers, but it’s not all about numbers, Sergeant. Sometimes, it’s about the little fire in your heart that urges you to go the extra mile. And I know Hunter will go the extra mile when it matters.”

“So, is that why you’re wiping his memories and sending him on a separate mission from the rest?” the sergeant asked.

“Oh, you’re mistaken, Sergeant,” she said. “I’m doing this for all of them. I'm wiping their memories, at least temporarily anyway, then sending each and every one of them on separate missions. Think of it as the last part of their training.”

“But why?” the sergeant asked. “Wouldn’t that put them at a disadvantage and keep them operating at less than half capacity?”

Instead of answering the man immediately, Anna Wara came to sit by my bedside.

“I know the world will never forgive me for what I have done to you children,” the woman said, gazing at me while I slowly lost consciousness. The timer on the computer now read thirty seconds to transport, and I could barely keep my eyes open.

“But when you all get your memories back,” she continued, “I hope you can forgive me.”

Suddenly, there was a sensation as if my soul was leaving my body.

…

…

…

Transfer protocol initiated…

Transferring consciousness…

Transfer complete…

…

…

…

“Good luck, Hunter. Please don't die. Help keep my world safe.”