Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Her phone vibrated.
Sage groaned upon hearing that unpleasant sound. She flopped over to the other side of the bed, away from her bedside table. She pulled her knees to her chest and grabbed her fleecy blanket closer to her.
She was never a morning person. And never will be. She honestly could never understand people who could wake up early in the morning, exercise, make breakfast and whatever else productive people do.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Sage groaned for the second time as she rolled back.
With her face still buried in her pillow, she blindly reached for her phone on her bedside table. Once she found her phone, she bought it closer to her face... Only to be greeted by a blinding bright light emitted from her smartphone. She flinched and shut her eyes.
She wished she could just close her eyes like that forever.
But, she can never. She has a lecture at 8:30 am.
Yes, a morning lecture. How horrid.
She squinted her eyes and stared at her screen once again. Darting her eyes around, she finally found the "stop" button. With a vengeance, she jammed her thumb right onto it. She looked at the time, and it was 7:31 am.
Sage dropped her phone onto her bed and buried her face into her pillow once again. She closed her eyes for a few more seconds before opening them.
Okay, time to get up.
She pulled her blanket over in one swift motion and sat upon the edge of her comfy bed. With her feet planted on the cold wooden ground, she laced her fingers together and pushed them upwards, stretching her stiff back.
Once she was satisfied, she stood up and trudged to the window by her bed. Groggily, she slid the window open with one hand and rubbed her eyes with another.
A gentle breeze blew over, grazing against her skin. She shivered involuntarily.
The morning air felt slightly different today. It was a little heavy.
She looked out her apartment window and saw that the sky was grey and foggy. Overall, it was just plain gloomy.
"Strange, the weather forecast said that it's sunny today." Sage thought to herself but eventually shrugged and dragged her feet into the bathroom, "Oh well, weather can be freaky sometimes."
She took a quick shower, brushed her teeth and put on some light make-up to cover the dark circles that were starting to form beneath her bottom eyelids. Once she was finished, she took a glance at herself in the mirror. Everything looked alright, but her hair.
She has awful bed hair today.
Sage has relatively long and wavy brown hair. On a good day, her curls would look like stunning beach waves, and she was proud of them. On a bad day, they would look like a jumbled up mess in all directions. Frankly, she would not be surprised if birds mistook her hair for their nest. She quirked a corner of her lips up a little before she bunned up her hair.
"There, better." She muttered. She tugged the loose strands of her hair behind her ears and looked up to her bathroom clock.
It was 8:00 am.
"Crap!" She yelled as she fumbled to keep all her make-up products in her make-up pouch. With the pouch in her hand, she rushed to the kitchen area to make herself a bottle of instant iced coffee.
She would usually ground her coffee beans, but CLEARLY, she did not have the time. She quickly poured her "freshly-made" coffee into her ice-filled hydro flask and twisted the lid on.
She grabbed the two items in her hands and made it back to her bedroom to cram everything she needed into her messager bag.
Laptop? Check. Notebook? Check. Pencil case? Check. Make-up pouch? Check. Coffee? Check. Phone? PHONE?
She lunged onto her bed and dug under her blanket to find her phone. Luckily, she found it pretty swiftly.
Noting that she got everything, she immediately changed into a beige turtleneck and put on a pair of black skinny jeans.
She slung her bag over her shoulder and hopped around as she attempted to put on her socks. Once she was at her doorstep, she rammed her feet into a pair of white sneakers and heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, she was done. She looked down at her phone, and it was 8:10 am.
She was slightly late, but she could 100% make it if she ran a little.
"Alright! Let's go."
———
[Silver Oak University - Friday, 8:27 am]
Sage barely made it on time. She huffed and took a glance across the lecture hall. As usual, the majority of the students were either resting their heads on the table, staring into blank space or dozing off while sitting up.
She shook her head at the depressing sight.
IT WAS JUST TOO DAMN EARLY FOR A GODDAMN LECTURE!
She looked up and saw her friend, Katelyn, waving her over.
A small smile crept onto Sage's lips as she walked over to her.
"Hey." Sage greeted as she dropped her bag next to her before plopping down onto the cold hard seat. She bent down and dug around her bag for her hydro flask.
"Morning!" Katelyn beamed back, "You know, I just saw the trailer in the morning. It was so good, and did you see the male lead..."
Katelyn was going on about a movie trailer that she had watched early in the morning while Sage took small sips of her coffee.
For a moment, Sage swore that she saw a bright light radiating off of Katelyn. She never understood how ould she be so chirpy in the morning. Without a doubt, her friend was definitely a morning person.
But, Sage did not hate it one bit.
Katelyn is overall a kind person. A good friend and an even better project mate - She is ridiculously smart, punctual and organised. Sage met her on their first day of university and stuck by her since then. However, Katelyn did not have a good reputation in school after getting caught in a cheating incident.
Because of how well she did, many students dislike her for taking all the glory and accused her of cheating. Now, obviously, Katelyn did not, and Sage could vouch for that. Eventually, she got let off because there was no evidence pointing that she had cheated. Nevertheless, this incident stirred up more rumours, and some of them were bad. Like real bad. One of the worst ones Sage heard was how Katelyn was sleeping with some male professors to get away with the cheating incident.
Again, it was absolutely false. And whoever spread that is a disgusting prick.
Contrary to Katelyn, Sage was popular among both girls and guys. According to many, despite her good looks and mannerism, she was approachable. Everyone just loved being around her, and they described her as an elegant princess. However, as much as they loved her, they also hated the fact she was friends with Katelyn.
Of course, that did not stop Sage from hanging out with Katelyn. She liked Katelyn as a friend and stood up for her repeatedly because she could not bear to leave her alone.
"So, shall we go watch it on Sunday?"
Katelyn's question pulled Sage out of her thoughts.
"Huh? Oh!" She answered, "Yeah, of course. Let's watch it on Sunday. We could take the afternoon slot and have dinner afterwards."
A sparkling smile formed on Katelyn's face, "Alright! I'll book the tickets."
"Thanks, Kate," Sage replied as she twisted the lid back onto her bottle. She placed it down on the table and pulled out her laptop to get ready for the lecture, "I'll transfer you the money later."
Katelyn clicked open the lecture slides and nodded to the sound of that.
———
[District Six - Friday, 4:24 pm]
Urgh, classes were longer than she thought. She was walking back from campus alone, and the air was still thick and chilly.
Something really felt off.
Just then, she recalled a piece of news she heard recently.
"...22-year-old, Harley Swift of District Six, disappeared without a trace last night, making her the fifth victim this month. Similar to the four other girls, she was last seen near the local park of District Six. According to the local police department, there has not been any new development in the disappearance of these young girls..."
Sage stared up to the grey sky and spotted the local park from the corner of her eyes.
How convenient.
The next thing she knew a set of footsteps came up behind her. It was quiet, but she could hear it. She took a steady breath and clenched the strap of her messager bag tighter. She sped up and turned sharply around a corner and into a back alley.
She met a dead end.
She looked around for any security cameras and realised there was none.
Perfect.
She went to the end of the back alley and plopped her bag down.
She tilted her head to the left and then to the right, making two distinctive crack sound. She rubbed the back of her neck soothingly and turned around to meet a grotesque monster.
A corrupt.
Its skin was the ugliest shade of dull grey, and black veins crawled all over its arms, legs, torso, but mainly around its temples up to its forehead. For some reason, the corrupt's brain was enormous - Probably five to six times the size of a human brain. However, its head was way too small for its brain. So, the excess portion bulged out of its head and hung at the back of its skull.
"Hehehehehehehehe..." It giggled, "YoU LoOk DeLICiouS."
The voice was distorted and high-pitched.
Sage hated its voice already. She massaged her ears gingerly and stared blankly at the corrupt.
"Don'T BE AfraID, YoUnG GIrl. It WilL bE AlL OVeR SoOn. I WiLL-"
"Hey. Are you done talking?" Sage asked nonchalantly as she kept her hands over her ears, "My ears are starting to hurt."
"OH HO! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE..." It giggled once again, but this time it was hysterical.
Without warning, the corrupt lunged towards her. It drew back its arm before launch a swift punch in Sage's direction. She manifested her dual daggers within a fraction of a second and countered the attack without breaking a sweat.
"OoOOO! GooDY!" The corrupt cheered, "YoU're ONe Of THosE ELiTEs, ArEn'T YOu?"
It jumped back to put some distance between itself and Sage. The monster tilted its head a little and grinned, "Oo! oO! If I KiLL You, I'll GeT StrongEr, RiGht? The SparkIng GuY ToLd M-"
Before it could finish, the corrupt started to make a gurgling sound.
It looked down and realised that Sage had sliced its throat open.
"Hmm... Too shallow," Sage mumbled to herself before leaping towards the corrupt, closing the distance between them. She took a moment to apologise, "Sorry, your voice is a little too high pitched. You see, I have highly sensitive ears. So, my ears really could not take it. "
The corrupt's eyes widened and stumbled backwards. It made another gurgling noise before Sage pushing both of her daggers into the heart of the corrupt.
"Don't worry. You're cleansed now."