Ruby red, button like orbs bore into her brown eyes as the being continued to stare at her expectantly, as if waiting for her.
The girl breathed in deeply and then exhaled, once, twice, thrice, before letting her still tense shoulders drop as she stared back at the creature in fron of her with no small amount of doubt and hesitation as she took in its appearance skeptically.
It was, as already stated, a deep pitch black in colour with the sole exception being the eyes that seemed to glow in the dark and the white bones jutting out from the smooth skin, jagged like spikes, gleaming in the scarce light as if waiting for a poor victim to come and drench them in scarlet blood and pink flesh.
The spikes traveled along the spine and the tail that resembled a deadly whip as it grew to be around two meters long and as slender as a girls wrist, they elongated, growing larger as they went along the neck and spine before shrinking back and ending completely with the tail as the last slender spike grew together with the blade like tip, resembling a deadly whip.
A few spikes also grew out from within its joints, although they didn't seem to hinder its movement whatsoever, the claws were as black as the night, they didn't gleam in the light and were matt and unassuming, directing attention to the white spikes and bones instead.
She eyed the claws dubiously, she highly doubted the spikes were half as lethal as the claws.
Deep in thought while nibbling on her lips, tapping her thighs nervously, she inhaled again before deciding to make her move, lest the thing lost its patience first.
"Come here." She called to the thing, whose eyes, much to her surprise, lit up and it gave a short, far too low bark.
The large and round ruby red eyes, sparkling with intelligence, focused solely on her, as if nothing else held any importance.
"... Good...girl...boy?...thing?" She praised awkwardly and she could clearly picture that its tail would snap off and fly into the distance with how fast it wagged its tail after the words had left her mouth.
She blinked, hoping to imagine the mouth filled with teeth, similar to a sharks, as in- it had many, many very sharp teeth lining its mouth, and more than one set as well.
One could clearly picture this thing coming right out of a high budget Sci-fi movie.
"Alright then." She breathed and reached out to pet it atop its head, she felt smooth, soft, short fur underneath her hand as it leaned into the touch like a touch starved puppy.
"How do I explain this to Sydney and Olivia?" She wondered aloud, receiving an odd look from the giant dog like creature now sitting at her feet.
She heard a large crack and startled, quickly looking around to find the source of the noise or danger around them.
What happened next was far out of her expectation and right out of a nightmare.
The ground was shattering, breaking apart like a puzzle that hit the ground, the pieces flying down and in every direction, she lunged for her lantern as a large crack appeared next to it and grabbed it before it fell into the white abyss.
She looked around, hoping to find a spot unaffected by the sudden phenomenon.
She let out a shriek as the ground shattered apart underneath her, the pieces fell into white nothingness as she was once again presented by an impossible situation.
The girl was floating midair, the thing now clinging to her lap to avoid falling before deciding that that wouldn't work out and disappeared into her shadow like a snake slithering along a tree branch, she only felt a cool sensation as it slithered over her exposed skin.
"You can do that, good to know." She shook her head as she stated this, voice dry as a desert.
She knew that she should be afraid, but the night, or however long it might have been had sapped her from her strength and her adrenalin had begun to fade, leaving her exhausted and heaving for air, she hadn't even been aware that she was that tired, it was as if a wall that had kept the feelings of bodily exhaustion at bay had finally broken and shattered, leaving everything it held back to crash into her all at once.
She was just too tired to give her situation much of a second thought, really.
She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and she nearly facepalmed, she'd forgotten all about the damn thing.
She'd tried using it when she was wandering around aimlessly in the darkness, but the thing was stuck on recording, nothing she did change the screen, so she had forgotten all about it.
Now though, a quick message was displayed atop the screen, she clicked on it, the recording function crashed and she was flung back into her homescreen.
She felt far too satisfied by seeing the recording function crash.
The faces of her and her three friends grinned back at her as she dismissed the error message.
Olivia was hugging a book to her chest as she smiled shyly into the phone camera, Sydney had her arm thrown around the former girls shoulder as she grinned from ear to ear, her eyes a pair of crescent moons that were glittering brightly, Laurely stood of to the side, grinning slyly as she ate her ice cream while the other was placed on her waist, she herself stood in the middle, next to Sydney as the girls arm was extended away to get the picture of the four of them together at the amusement park.
She smiled at the fond memory before refocusing at the task at hand, there, in a corner on the left side of her screen was an app icon she hadn't seen before and blinked before shrugging it off, a new app on her phone randomly appearing was not the weirdest thing she had seen, not now, nor ever.
The app didn't have a name, the app icon was of a dark red moon rising behind a canopy of large pine trees dyed with the red light coming from the sky.
It had a red dot in the upper right corner, indicating a message, she clicked on it, too tired to care and saw it open up, a black screen with a grey moon slowly rising and changing into a scarlet red, it hung high in the pixelated sky before a few options popped up.
"Missions"
"Inventory"
"Library"
"Guide"
They were lined up on the left side going down, both the Mission icon and the Guide Icon had red sparkles around them, calling attention to them.
She decided to click on Missions first, a feeling in her gut telling her that it was important for her and her situation.
"Congratulations "....", you have successfully completed the tutorial of ".....", you are now qualified to register an account and partake in further missions."
"Congratulations, you have completed the Mission "Tutorial", you have acquired the following Items-"
Soul lamp (High Spectre) *1
Wandering Soul blessing (Soul) *1
Lost soul blessing (Soul) *3
Specter blessing (Spectre) *1
Resentment Hound (Soul) *3
Resentment Hound (Spectre) *1
Do you accept the rewards?
[Yes] [No]
"You have completed the appointed mission with a grade of "S", further bonus items awarded for Perfect completion are-"
Skill- Nightvision (Mortal)
Skill- Eye of the dead (Soul)
Do you accept your rewards?
[Yes] [No]
The last part was followed by options popping on to the screen, she blinked and looked around, she had thought that the black before was bad, but the white all around stung in her eyes and made them water.
She clicked "Yes" two times while squinting her eyes and watched as the screen changed.
"You have completed the Mission [Tutorial], you will now wake up."
"Please Note that the totorial is a special mission and you can not be physically harmed. Normal missions will be completed with your physical body and you can be harmed and killed."
With that last interesting tidbit of information everything began to blur and distort.
________________
Hayleen groaned, distinctively feeling the slight throb of a hangover and the well known feeling of sore muscles in her abdomen from her gut screaming at her all night.
She hissed in displeasure and opened her eyes to the bright ceiling light that burned her eyes, she protested wordlessly and threw her arm over her eyes, feeling a bit of resistance and a slight pinch, she sat up, the covers falling off of her as she looked at her right arm that was hooked up to an Iv of some kind.
She huffed, throwing a sweeping glance around the otherwise empty hospital room and through the large windows to her right, it was daytime now and a few clouds hung in the sky, a green park could be seen through the window and a few streets over, the trees and flowers in full bloom as the summer sun shone down, a few figures, blurry from the distance as they moved, were playing or walking around idly.
The sun hung low in the sky, it was likely already afternoon, she thought as she looked at the parking lot that was visible from her vantage point, the parking lot was full, maybe even overfilled as cars were squeezed next to each other with little to no regard for the space needed to get in and or out of the cars.
She yawned, her jaw cracking slightly before she let it snap shut, then she began to slowly move her limbs to get their bloodflow back to normal, as they were stiff from lying still for a long time.
A glance to her side and she saw the half empty Iv bag and needle now lodged in her arm, and while she wanted nothing more than to rip it out, she refrained due to her-
A. not knowing what was in the Iv-
B. not wanting to hurt herself and-
C. not wanting the nurse or doctor to tear her a new one once someone came in and saw that she had taken the needle out by herself.
She looked at the bedside table, her phone sitting there innocently as it charged, she plucked it off of the table and clicked it on.
6:34 Pm, Sunday the 05.07.3021.
She would officially graduate tomorrow at 11:30 am, she thought wistfully.
Shaking her head she punched her code in, 887309, a random string of numbers, and flicked through her phone and to Netco, a viral messenger app Sydney had bugged her for weeks to download after its initial launch.
"Text me when you're awake." The message from her friend stated, she shrugged, eyeing the text suspiciously due to the text not sounding like Sydney and it being oddly empty of emojis or gifs and texted back.
"I'm up, where are you?" She clicked send before leaving the app, having no other messages to go through.
After a short, silent debate with herself, she clicked onto her newspage and scrolled through, wondering if she could get an explanation for what had transpired that night, she honestly expected a news article of how an asshole teen had spiked their drinks and food, but that little hope was quickly dashed as she saw what she was looking for and clicked on it.
Her news page showed her an interesting article, the headlines stating "Mysterious mass fainting at Hiller West Side Mansion." In bold black letters followed by a picture of Leyla`s house, she clicked on it and browsed through as she waited for someone to come in and either get an explanation or ask for one.
"On Saturday the 04 .07.3021 at midnight, a graduation party held at the Hiller West Side Mansion by the graduating Leyla Eylos, daughter of Sina Eylos and Clark Eylos, resulted in over 250 party guests fainting under unexplainable circumstances, the guests sustained no injuries and doctors are puzzled by the odd occurrence."
"Hmm." She hummed, planning on clicking on another link before the door opened and two men in suits stepped in.
Hayleen frowned, put her phone down, sitting up straight while doing so, and waited for them to speak as she covertly pushed her phone back on to the bedside table.
"Miss Simmers, we are sorry for the intrusion but we need to talk with you about what happened yesterday." The man on the right spoke up, a scar running across his face along with a deep frown.
Hayleen nodded, the sore muscles in her abdomen pulling and squirming as her gut acted up, telling her to watch what she was doing.
"What's the matter?" She inquired, eyeing both of them up and down, they looked unarmed, although there was an odd bulge underneath the right mans shirt, just above a black belt, a gun then? Or was she too paranoid?
"Whatever you saw at the Manor, we are hereby asking you to tell no one about it and keep you-", The man on the left was unceremoniously silenced by a glare originating from the man on his left, followed by a nudge, the man coughed and began again, a bit more polite in tone, "we suggest you keep your silence and that you accept our kind reminder." The man on the left finished, the threat barely hidden in his voice followed by a crooked smile that he tried to pass of as sincere ruining his otherwise handsome looks.
His pair of narrow, grey eyes narrowed further with ill intentions sparkling in them, his partner on the other hand just looked exasperated and heaved an annoyed sigh in response.
"...Saw what?" She asked, trying to play up the confusion she felt, "Did someone get murdered or raped? What was I supposed to have seen, how can I help?" She asked them, shying back and further into the covers.
She tried to play the confused bystander and concerned citizen, it seemed to work, surprisingly, but then again, she was confused, who were these men, why were they here to, oh so kindly, remind her to keep silent about what had happened last night?
Who was the man from the night before, or what had he done to evoke this response from whatever and whomever this pair of men belonged to?
The two looked at each other before one of them, the right one, nodded to the left one and opened his mouth again, "You don't need to worry Ma'am, everything is under control, we just ask you to be silent so that the investigation goes smoothly for everyone involved." He spoke to her, his voice kind and somewhat fatherly, as if trying to assure a small child that everything was going to be alright, Hayleen wanted to hurl.
His tone and voice sent shivers down her spine and made her curl up, hands pressed to her stomach and gut.
Hayleen blinked, also a bit taken aback at their quick change in tone, and nodded dumbly as her head was spinning with thoughts, and not all of them kind, or legal.
"A-alright?" She faked a small stutter and watched one grin to the other, likely expecting her to miss his small gesture of lips curling up ever so slightly, the man with the scar rolled his eyes and hid this by running a scarred hand across his hair as his lips curled up in a wry, unimpressed smile.
"Ma'am, are you sure you saw nothing and no one suspicious?" The scarred man asked, and she tilted her head, "But didn't you just tell me not to talk about it? Even if I did see something?" She let her confusion slip into her voice, although the topic of conversation wasn't why she was confused in the slightest.
"We are the investigators, of course we need to know if you saw something." The slimy guy said, hitting the other in the gut with his elbow under the guise of him standing in his way as he came closer.
This time she didn't even try to hide her discomfort and let it show on her face.
"I... no? I saw no one suspicious, I was by the pavilion the whole time." She lied smoothly and looked at them.
While the statement above was a lie, no matter how she looked at it, she was pretty sure that the cluster*k of a situation the night before would sound unbelievable no matter how she told the story, so she made up a lie on the spot instead.
"Are you sure." Slimy guy insisted and she shook her head,.
"I drank too much too early and was trying to stave off the headache, I really saw nothing, what is even going on?" She asked, hissing a bit as the guy leaned in closer to her and she shot him a wary look.
They seemed to lose all interest in her as they nodded towards each other, seemingly believing her, and the scarred one handed her a card.
"Give us a call if you remember anything." He said before they both left, the slimy guy throwing a leery glance back before his partner clicked his tongue and pulled him out by the back of his shirt.
She wondered who they were and what they were doing, she always thought government officials would be more collected and had their actions more thought out, this just seemed so disorganized.
Or maybe they weren't from the government after all and from another shady group, but her statement stood, they were pretty unorganized from what she could see, that and unprofessional, at least the slimy guy.
_______________
She looked at her phone, speculating that it wasn't even her friend who wrote her, but someone else, their timing was just a bit too good for her not to be wary.
A nurse came in after they'd left and called a doctor in a bit of a frenzy after seeing her awake, a doctor came back not even a minute after the nurse had left in a hurry, huffing a bit.
He seemed to be in his twenties, had round eyes and a pair of grey glasses along with black hair that was pulled up in a bun, all in all he seemed to be quite young for a fully fledged doctor, but who was she to judge?
"How are you feeling Miss?" He asked as he started to poke and prod at her, "I'm fine, is something the matter?" She asked him, the feeling in her gut loosening after the two men had left.
"You are the first to wake up Miss, do you know what could have caused you to faint? Is there anything special you ate or drank that the others might not have?"
Well, she thought, that confirmed her suspicion of her friends phone not being in her hands, she wondered why she still had hers before she shook her head and returned her attention to the doctor, "I'm fine, only thing I took that was out of the ordinary were a few painkillers that my friend carries around."
She didn't lie, she had no reason to, a normal blood test would reveal that she took heavy pain medications, the doctor nodded and asked her, "Do you know what kind?"
She tilted her head and asked for her bag, which was handed to her from a closet to the right by a nurse, she opened it and took out her purse, pulling out a prescription note and an expired pill bottle and gave a quick explanation.
"I sometimes have stomach cramps, bad ones, and need painkillers to make it through my day, I took my friends because mine were expired, it's fentanyl pills."
The doctor looked at her oddly but that soon faded into sympathy after hearing the painkillers mentioned and looking at the old prescription she carried on her, lest she get charged for carrying around drugs.
She only gave a wry smile, to be prescribed fentanyl, you had to be in unbearable pain and while she didn't need them most of the time, her poor friend Olivia needed them quite regularly because of her headaches and migraines.
The pills had expired because she had no need to replace them as she hardly needed them, her friend on the other hand went through them at an alarming rate.
"Alright, I understand, thank you for your honesty." The doctor said after asking her a few more questions, he finished up what he was doing and left her room after informing her that they wanted her to stay overnight for observation.
She nodded, asked about her friends and was told rooms 204, 206 and 208 held Olivia, Sydey and Laurely respectively, she was also told that visiting hours were until 8 pm.
She gave her thanks to both the blond, male nurse and the dark haired doctor.