I've dreamed of the haunted cabin twice a week since I turned sixteen. For years, each nightmare copied the first one, with ghosts floating by me and hands reaching through the door to me. Red mist seeped through.

Every time I awoke, Caleb texted me an invitation to his family cabin. He attached a photo. The exact photo that had been etched in my memory.

The log cabin his grandfather's friends died in, but since the hunt every year, I now have to come and deal with the ghosts. There were worse things than the memories of the dead.

Screams and laser fire echoed through Aunt Jin's black-and-white security TV. She turned the sound down.

Caleb bolted the cabin door and marched around, making sure there was enough canned food for the thirty of us. Five families huddled in the four-room hunting cabin.

Only three people stood in the main room: Aunt Jin, Caleb, and me. The others stayed in their rooms or the kitchen.

Heavy blankets on the windows kept the light in and the sound out.

"The third annual hunt," as King Zar-Elle called it.

The living room felt even more cramped, and I tripped over two plastic chairs. I shoved them against the log wall.

I spoke. "Uncle Ralph should have been here. He shouldn't have been killed in last year's hunt." I lifted my arm and stared at my branded skin. The image of a dove glowed, a warning to hunters. We were one of them, protected. "King Zar-Elle branded him too. It didn't do my uncle any good." I tried not to scream.

The paint glowed when the host was still alive, with each branding slightly different.

Caleb and I were the only branded hunters in the cabin.

Though I suspected Aunt Jin had hers removed, ashamed of what it represented. She was formed from goodness and light. I kept mine because I am a coward.

Caleb's brand was that of an army raven like Ralph's. They could be washed off with thick solvent, but no one was willing to give up their protection or be left with scars.

I turned on the radio. Ghosts flew past me—whisps, whisps really, but they didn't bother me anymore.

"This is DJ Bone Bride, and I will be back on the air when it's safer—." Static interrupted the broadcast.

Caleb's grandfather walked in and turned off the radio.

He bent down to talk to me. "Laura, do you know how to shoot a laser rifle?" He showed me his long silver weapon.

I touched the gold lightning bolts painted on its side. "Nice shooter." I shook my head, 'no.' "While I took army tech training in college with your grandson, they wouldn't let us touch anything but a stunner." I pointed at my pink gun strapped to my waist. "But the class branded me as protected."

The old man left the room.

"Thank you, Caleb." Aunt Jin wrapped her arms around his lean waist and gave him a quick hug. She had a crush on this hero after my uncle Ralph's death. She hadn't been on a date in six months.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I missed my uncle. He raised me.

"I don't hunt people." Caleb's accent was a slow and proper capital accent.

More people entered the living room, but the others didn't speak. They read in their rooms with crank lamps or slept in chairs or bunk beds.

There was nowhere to be by myself. I found a closet and sat down to read. My arm glowed again, and I used its light to read an old book Ralph had given me before he died. I thumbed over the title, Beware of the Red Mist. For an army private first-class, he was into prophecy and history.

I opened the page, but the glow revealed a hidden passage.

The kingdom's elites will hunt victims. 2. The red claw will fall. 3. One bride will speak. 4. The mist will form. 5. The dead will rise. 6. The hunted will become the hunters.

Laura, you are in danger. This is a prophecy.

Love,

Uncle Ralph

I hid my book and went out. It had to be a joke, but everything seemed to be coming true. I walked into the main room.

Ten others had gathered.

"Do you want to go to the kitchen and get a soda? Maybe a mushroom sandwich." Aunt Jin asked Caleb. She placed her arm over his.

"No, I've eaten." He yanked himself away.

"Poor Jin," I said to myself.

I hated being here. I hated seeing Aunt Jin suffer.

We needed to stay safe. We didn't want the hunters to locate us.

"No more unemployment," King Zar-Elle claimed. "No more worthless people. Anyone not branded was worthless. Only the strongest would survive."

Branded soldiers, medical professionals, or licensed hunters could kill or maim any person they wanted without the protected branding during hunting season. Even then, my uncle's death would have still been called murder.

"Laura, turn on the radio," Caleb said.

Static filled the air for hours. I fell asleep on a pile of blankets next to it. All the bunk beds and cots were taken, but I hated bunk beds, anyway. The floor was better.

I barely slept and ate, but three days later, the music came back on, and then a voice broke through. Her voice.

The bride's voice.

"The government's idea for a massive hunt failed," DJ Bone Bride yelled over the radio. "There are billions in damages. We lost more than we gained. Zombies, or maybe they're ghouls, but they took the king, claiming he killed them, and they want justice..." the bone bride paused. "One of the zombies is the king's father. A reporter is at the scene."

Nothing but King Zar-Elle's screams could be heard.

"Okay, it's worse than I thought," the bone bride said. She played classical music.

Before the first hunt, the DJ was just a campy but fun Elvira clone who would play old ghost stories and music. DJ Bone Bride used to watch the old tapes from Earth with me before her divorce from Ralph. Of all his wives, she and Aunt Jin were my favorites. Though the Bone Bride raised me.

DJ Bone Bride spoke again. "The art museum was broken into by hunters looking for prey. They broke the dragon display, and the red claw fell, and the mist was coming."

I didn't want to understand what she meant.

The whole crime was legal, and no one would find out. It was a lie.

The door opened.

Outside the cabin, red clouds formed. Thick and the color of blood. Through the security TV. I saw people moving behind the trees. Dead people walked and danced in the forest.

The mist broke through the door. Hands reached through.

I recognized Ralph's tattoo and the branding. He pointed at my aunt. "You murdered me! You had an affair."

"I didn't." Caleb trembled.

My uncle entered. "Poor young man. You're her next victim, so she and your stepfather could live off the insurance."

"The hunt caused the curse," I blurted.

My aunt screamed and ran into the wall. Her blank eyes fixated on her husband. Alive, but a branding formed on her face that revealed her crimes.

I hugged my uncle and wept for my aunt's soul. For she was formed from lies, even I believed.

"Pumpkin, I missed you too," Ralph whispered. "Unlike the others, I might stay for a while."

The ghosts in the cabin formed around me. They became flesh and left to seek their murderers.

Epilogue:

Once a year, when the hunt is scheduled to take place, a red mist covers the kingdom.

There is no hiding crime—nothing can stop the victims from seeking their murderers.