“Come on! Come on!” Aliya squealed with excitement. She grabbed my shoulders and shook me so hard I could barely insert the key into the door.

With a twist of my wrist, the lock opened and Aliya flung the door open. I stepped to the side so she could rush past me into the front room of the condo that we now owned. She spread her arms wide and did a circle on the off white carpet.

“Oh my god!” she squealed. “It’s so big! We can actually fit a couch and a coffee table in here. And a TV stand. Maybe even a rocking chair.” She danced in place. Then she stopped and drew in a deep breath. “And the air! It doesn’t have an old, musty odor.”

“I hope not,” I said and stepped onto the small time patch in front of the door. I kicked off my shoes so I didn’t leave tracks on the newly cleaned carpet.

Aliya winced and hurriedly pulled her shoes off, wobbling dangerously in the process. I took a couple steps closer and steadied her before she really did fall.

She yelped and looked over at me, holding one shoe in her hand and her sock halfway off. She blinked from me to the door and back. “How did you get over here so fast?”

I laughed and patted her head, like a little puppy. “Hunter, remember? Nevermind. Let’s take a look around. You haven’t seen it yet, right?”

Her face lit up. “Yes!” She ripped her other shoe off and tossed them on top of the tile at the entry. She turned around and pointed to where the honey wood laminate started. “This is where the dining table goes, right?” She trotted in that direction. “It’s so big. We could totally buy a bigger table than that wobbly thing we have now.”

I nodded and trailed behind her. I was already planning on dumping another couple thousand dollars, buying things they’d need for the house as soon as they moved in. Like a living room and dining set. But Aliya didn’t need to know about that right now. She’d tell my aunt and uncle, and they’d ixnay the idea. “Over here.” I pointed to the left wall. “That door is a coat closet. It’s pretty big, has good storage. Oh, and actually, this unit comes with a small storage shed down by the parking.”

“An actual storage shed included,” Aliya muttered like it was the most novel idea ever.

To the left of the dining room was a G-shaped kitchen. The honey oak cabinets were about the same color as the flooring and the appliances showed definite wear, but it was big enough to fit two people comfortably and it was clean.

I bumped Aliya with my elbow and grinned. “Uncle Mark has a lot more room to hide his candy stash now.”

She laughed. “As if that’s ever worked.” She went through, opening every cabinet and drawer, experimenting with opening and closing them to find the right way without slamming it too loudly. I leaned on the small bar and watched her, absentmindedly thinking that one of the first things I needed to buy were bar stools.

When she was satisfied, Aliya grabbed my arm and dragged me down the short hall between the kitchen and the coat closet. She opened the first door on the right. “This is the master, right?”

I nodded. “Right, they have their own bathroom in here.” I pointed to a door in the corner of the room. “The bathroom at the end of the hall is yours. Well, yours and guests’, so keep it clean.”

Aliya leaned into the bathroom just big enough to fit a shower, toilet, and vanity. It was like the kitchen — not much to look at and a little dated, but clean and functional. She came back out, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I get my own bathroom. It’s like a dream come true.” She sighed then perked up. “Let’s go check it out.”

I watched her rush out the room and shook my head. I didn't even have my own bathroom. I was still sharing it with all the other women in E Hostel. But I just had to deal with the cold showers for another six months. By that time, I should have enough to put a down payment on a condo in C District when Aliya graduated. It would be the same quality as this condo, but that was all we needed. Maybe it wasn’t fair for me to take advantage of the free housing at E Hostel when I wasn’t an E anymore, but I didn’t feel bad for milking the Hunters’ Association’s system until I could give my sister a comfortable life. Not with how much I went through just because I didn’t fit in their mold of what a Hunter should be.

Aliya chattered non-stop about everything she was going to do with her bathroom. When she ran out of words, she rushed into her room and started another wave of excited explanations.

I leaned against the door jamb and watched her with a smile. After the last couple extra-hard days in the Gate, this was the perfect thing to relax me.

She paused mid-sentence and turned to me. The exhilaration in her eyes dimmed a little. “I wish we could have gotten this place before you went to Eden. It would have been awesome living here with you.” She shifted. “I feel a little bad about being so excited about taking advantage of all the hard work you’ve done.”

I walked over to her and hugged her. “I work hard for you. That’s the only reason why I work hard. It’s the reason why I’m breathing and living today. To see the smile on our family’s faces.” I leaned back. “Besides, you won’t be here for that much longer. You’re going to graduate and join me in Eden, right? Then you can help me pay for this place.”

Energy surged in Aliya’s eyes again. “Right!” She raised her left fist into the air, making the red Fanged Snapper bracelet on her wrist shimmer and rattle soothingly.

I laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Come on. You’ll get to spend all the time in the world in this house in a couple weeks. For now, let’s go down and work on your balance and footwork.”

“What?” Aliya gaped at me as we walked to the front door.

I leaned my head over and bonked her head with mine. “You couldn’t even balance while taking off your shoe a minute ago. Don’t tell me you expect to pass the Hunter’s Course in school like that?” I let her go and put on my shoes.

She pursed her lips in a scowl. “Jeez, you sound like my teacher. She said the same thing. Is balance really all that important?”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Balance and footwork is vital. Nearly every technique requires both. I mean, how are you going to kill a monster if you trip over your own feet and fall flat on your face?”

She stood up and tapped her toe on the tile twice to settle her shoe. “You know, I like the ‘bash them to death’ strategy. Or maybe I’ll just be a Mage and zap them black from a distance.” She thrust out her hand and moved it around like she was pretending to shoo magic. “No footwork involved,” she reasoned happily.

“Or you’ll just rely on your sister and become a useless bum who can’t do jack,” I muttered.

“Ah, that’s cold!” Aliya opened the door and stepped out.

I followed her, then shut the door tight and locked it. “Then work on it,” I said.

A lazy Hunter is a dead Hunter … Blake Hans excluded. And technically Bethany, but I’d since learned that what she didn’t do in the Gate, she made up for in the media front. But Aliya wouldn't have the same backing as they do, so she had to be strong enough to live. Even without me.

If Kesstel was right, then there wasn’t much time left before Earth collapsed. That could be tomorrow, or a year from now. By that time, he and I could have found the Portal that led to the parasitic planet and hopefully, the monsters wouldn't be a threat anymore. But then Earth would be back to where it was twenty years ago, learning how to rebuild their society again now that energy crystals stopped working. Or maybe Kesstel and I would find the Portal and never come back, and the monsters would be just as strong until the world failed. Either way, anything could happen in the future and I wanted Aliya to be able to handle whatever happened.

“I love this view,” Aliya sighed and leaned against the railing. Three floors down was a parking lot, but on the other side was a large park, all grass and flowerbeds. Granted, the beds had been cleared for the winter already, but it was a lot better than having another dingy complex staring at your face on the other side of the lot.

“Let’s go down there.” I pointed to the park.

She nodded and followed me down the stairs and across the lot.

There weren’t a lot of people in the park, so we easily found a secluded place under a tall, aged tree.

Aliya clapped and grinned at me with excitement. “Okay, Teach. What am I learning today?”

“Yoga.” I smirked.

Her expression fell. “What?” She groaned. “I hate yoga.”

“But it does exactly what it’s supposed to. Teaches balance and control over your body,” I lectured like I didn’t hate it too. “Start with just a few poses and once you get them, I can teach you something else that will help.”

“A more advanced yoga posture?” Aliya guessed, completely nonplussed.

“Nope.” I shook my head, a smug smile on my face. “Not yoga.” They were actually a couple moves the System put in my Guide when I became a Warrior of Mist. The difference was, I had a year of living as a Hunter under my belt so I had the foundations down. Aliya did not. “It’s cool, but I can’t teach it to you until you master the poses I’m going to teach you first.”

Aliya huffed but reached down to take off her shoes. “If it’s not cool, I’m gonna guilt trip you for the rest of your life,” she promised.

I opened my mouth with a comeback ready, but paused. All of my senses from the top of my head to my toes screamed in warning. The next second, the ground started to shake as ripple after ripple writhed under our feet.

Aliya screamed and reached for me. I hugged her protectively and looked around. Branches creaked and broke as the trees swayed back and forth, smacking into each other. I cast a thin vapor of mist and created a barrier over us. The bark and twigs hit the barrier and slid down to the ground.

More screams came from the building around us. The taller and older the building, the more it shifted with the earthquake. The building to the right of us, a five-floor apartment complex, shook for only a couple seconds before a loud cracking sounded out and a split tore up the building's north wall. More screams echoed, but the building didn’t collapse.

The tree to the left of us groaned loudly and fell toward us. I stepped back a couple feet, dragging Aliya with me. The tree hit the ground with a thundering crack, exploding splintered wood like darts in every direction. They hit the barrier around us with solid pop, pop, pop sounds and dropped to the ground.

Aliya gripped my shirt and peaked over my shoulder, shivering in fear. “What’s happening?” she yelled in my ear, over the loud bangs of moving earth and the destruction.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

The alarming feeling that I got right before the quake hadn’t come from the Gate in Eden. No, it came from somewhere Southwest, outside of Garden City.

*****