Raindrops slammed against her window, the wind howling from the strong gusts. She sat on her bed in tears, unable to move and it's been this way for her for two weeks. Her best friend died in front of her trying to save her from a thug and it's been difficult to cope.
"Paulina."
A mysterious voice started echoing inside of her head.
"Would you like to save your friend? Would you like to bring her back to life?"
The voice asked her.
"If you come with me to the world we've created, I can bring back your friend. As a matter of fact your friend may be in this world."
The voice continued to sway her to choose this new world.
"Who are you?" Paulina asked the voice.
"I am Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. I would like you to come to our world to become a huntress, in exchange I will bring your friend back." Artemis informed her.
Paulina sat curled in a ball on her bed. She was thinking about all of the good times her and Emily had. Bringing Emily back feels like it was the clear choice, but she couldn't leave her fiancé, she wouldn't even know what to tell him.
"You're wondering about your lover?"
"Yes, I want to save Emily but I don't want to lose him as a result."
Artemis began laughing. "I asked you out of courtesy, but you actually have no choice in the matter."
"What? What do you mean?
A beaming flash of white hit Paulina in her eyes. She closed them shielding herself from how painfully bright it was. As it finally seemed like the light had died down off of her eyelids she opened them. She now stood on the corner of a street in downtown Lotte City, but clearly not the same world she was from. It was clear to her this world was far in the future compared to her own.
Cars were flying, people walking around with cybernetic clothing, and not just that people were flying around on their own. Some were flying, some were leaping, and some just running extremely fast. Paulina wondered how she was even able to see the ones running because they were blindingly fast.
"You are experiencing the Hunter's sense, an ability unique to my lead hunter. You will also be given a tiny servant known as Cypress. You can name him what you will but he is a tiny tree that will grant you the ability to slow time around you for about ten seconds with a one minute period where he won't be able to use it."
"Still in my head huh? So no matter what my choice was, you already made up your mind to bring me here. What even makes you think I'll obey you?" Paulina angrily asked.
Artemis sighed. "You have to obey me, besides that your friend is here."
Paulina was struck with emotion. "What do you mean?"
"Your friend was dying in your world, giving the reapers the opportunity to transmigrate her here. I guess you would know this as reincarnation. She's here, serving the reapers, serving the daughter of Hades."
Paulina smiled knowing her best friend was alive in this world. She wiped the tears away, "What do you need me to do?"
"In a recent fight my lead hunter was killed by a vampire queen. Actually in that fight they both died, and according to my Hunters still alive after the fight, there's already a new Queen. So I needed a new leader and that is you. I need you to find and kill the Queen."
"Kill? You chose the wrong person to be killing for you." Paulina said out loud, people began to look at her weirdly.
"Don't speak out loud! Also the Hunter's instincts will kick in soon and you'll have the desire to kill things that you would've known before as supernatural or fantasy-like." Artemis chuckled.
Paulina began shaking in fear. "So you're telling me I'll be killing even against my own will?"
"Yes, now go to the Hunter's headquarters in the northern district."
A little tree appeared next to her by her foot. There it was, the little cypress that Artemis had told her she would give her. "I'll call you Trent, like the living trees from fantasy stuff."
The tree had little arms and with those arms it pointed as if to tell her to go that way. Paulina started to follow Trent's directions and began walking. She looked around the city and noticed the massive buildings made of black metal, the giant Diamond Tower which towered every other building and the neon lights and tv style billboards all over the buildings. She wasn't far outside of the northern district to begin with, but she saw a smaller building about one tenth the size of the majority of the buildings.
Paulina continued walking along the sidewalk. As she walked she heard catcallers yelling out to her, harassing her. Construction workers watching robots fix things were whistling and yelling inappropriate things at her. One reached and grabbed her hand and she swung the opposite hand launching the man backwards into the side of a building. Paulina ran away, continuing to the headquarters and trying to avoid any confrontation with anyone else.
Trent pointed at the smaller building a head just beyond the sign welcoming people to the northern district. "That's the Hunter's headquarters huh?" Paulina asked. Trent nodded his little tree top head.
Paulina walked up to the headquarters entrance which had a fingerprint scanner allowing people inside. She figured it was worth a shot and laid her thumb on the scanner. It flashed green and then a robotic arm extended from the door with an eyeball like sphere on the front. It began to scan her iris and then retracted. The doors opened and a voice spoke over a speaker like an AI system.
"Welcome Headmaster." The Intelligent robotic voice spoke over the speakers and then appeared as a hologram in the center of the lobby.