The Hunter

"The Notion that humans could not have achieved what they did all those years ago without Intervention from aliens is offensive" Asha proclaimed with a little more Gusto than she had intended. Her entire class had turned to stare at her as the guest speaker stood silently in the lecture hall with a befuddled look on his face, it was then she realised that she was standing completely naked in a hall filled with 100 students eying her with a mixture of bewilderment and sympathy. 


Asha woke from the dream drenched in sweat and tried to control her breathing, "That was weird" she said to herself as she climbed from her bed in search of a towel. This wasn't the first time she had the dream but she had never seen the face of the speaker before, his face had always been hidden like a Pixelated image, this time had been different. She remembered his jet black hair and jade green eyes as she turned the nozzle on the shower. The warm water washed over her alabaster skin leaving her feeling refreshed and energised, she stepped out of the shower wrapped herself in a towel and made her way downstairs for breakfast. 


Her mind was filled with thoughts of the stranger from her dream as she finished off a piece of buttered toast, no matter how hard she tried to think of other things she couldn't get the stranger from the dream out of her mind. His smooth features and beautiful eyes were all she could think about, She thought of his dark hair and floppy fringe as she picked an outfit to wear. Wearing black cargo pants and a white tank-top she made her way out of her apartment and headed for the local coffee shop "no classes today" she thought to herself with a sigh of relief, her plan for today was to study but she knew no matter how hard she tried to concentrate she was never going to have much success. 

With her plans to study abandoned and no classes to attend she decided to go to her favorite place in the city. To Asha New York still felt like a foreign city with the never ending parade of yellow cabs and the floods of pedestrians who moved through the streets with laser focus on where they were going, like a parade of worker ants. She found it strange that in a city of eight million souls she felt completely and utterly alone, she had made plenty of friends since she had arrived from London almost a year ago but none that she felt close to like her friends back home and none of them understood what it felt like being a stranger in a foreign land. 


She found herself at the steps of the Metropolitan museum, whenever she felt homesick or lonely this is were she came. She was about to make her way inside when she had a strange feeling that she was being watched, she scanned the faces around her and could not find anyone who seemed to have an interest in her and as she was about to head inside she caught a glimpse of jet black hair with a floppy fringe eying her from a distance, her breath caught in her chest as she realised why the figure seemed familiar. 

The stranger walked towards Asha his focus never shifting from her, She saw him coming and contemplated running but her curiosity was too intense she had to know why he was in her dreams. As he approached she felt her heart beat furiously " would you care to walk with me miss?" he said with a smile that both excited and terrified her 
"Absolutely" she replied without hesitation or forethought, she felt as if she had been compelled to agree almost like she had no real choice in the matter. "you can call me Ryan" the stranger said as he took her by the hand and led her towards the park "I'm Asha" she responded with a smile, Now that she was close to him she could see the intensity of the green of his eyes they seemed to sparkle with a luminous glow. 

They sat on the grass in central park basking in the glow of the warm spring sun " So...are you going to ask me about the dreams?" Ryan asked with a curious look 
"I..wasn't sure how to broach the subject without sounding insane" she replied feeling insecure 
" You mean sane people don't bump into Strangers from their dreams on a regular basis?" his cheeky grin set Asha at ease, he continued "What i am about to tell you is going to sound so far beyond insane that insane as an adjective just won't cut it but i swear every word is true" 


"Are you serious?" Asha asked with a look of utter confusion 
"Totally serious" Ryan replied in a soft tone like he was speaking to a tiny kitten he didn't want to frighten. 
"ok, let me go over this again, you and i have met many times before in many different lifetimes. so are we immortal?" Asha quizzed excitedly 
"No! we die just like everybody else, but when we die we are reborn again into new bodies, we live our lives as normal but eventually we are drawn to each other, or to be more accurate i am drawn to you and when i get close you sense my presence and inevitably we are reunited." 


"Why" Asha asked with a look of confusion 
"i have managed to piece together parts from what memories i have but they are deceptive, When i try to remember i can't distinguish between the past memories but i will try and tell you what i have pieced together. You and I are not entirely human, we first arrived here Thousands of years ago but we couldn't survive without a mortal vessel for our Immortal soul so we Inhabited the native population, we taught them agriculture and building techniques amongst other things and we were welcomed by them. Over time some of them came to worship our brothers and sisters as gods, eventually they turned on us murdering our brothers and sisters. Luckily you and I had left our siblings in The Nile Valley and crossed the seas seeding new cultures as we went but there was no escape from the murderous instincts of the natives, everywhere we went we were hunted until you were captured. I tried to rescue you but was captured in the attempt. Both of us were sacrificed by a native high priest who placed a curse on us that trapped our souls here for eternity." 

"That's wild" asha said feeling confused yet inside she knew Ryan spoke the truth "what happened to our brothers and sisters?" she asked as a wave of unbearable sadness washed over her. 
"When their Bodies died their souls returned home, You and i are the last of our kind here on earth" as Ryan spoke he felt the wave of sadness flow from Asha to himself like a river to the sea. 

The sun was edging closer to the horizon, Neither Asha or Ryan had spoken in some time. Ryan rose to his feet and offered his hand to Asha " let me take you home, it's been a long day." he said 
"No kidding" she took his hand and raised herself up on her feet, she stumbled as she rose and he caught her, his breath on her cheek, she could feel his heartbeat through his chest Before she could stop herself she raised herself on her toes and kissed him on the lips. A flash of blinding light erupted in their heads as five thousand years worth of memories came flooding back to them. "Wow" they both said simultaneously. 


"i remember everything" Asha spoke quickly with the excitement of a child 
"Do you remember your real name" Ryan asked 
"My Soul Name is Aurora and yours is Orion" Apt considering you have spent thousands of years hunting for me. 

She looked deep in his eyes and saw that she had known him forever