" Can you please give us some food?" A woman wearing ragged clothing spoke. She was beaten and bruised, and behind her was a three-year-old young girl who was hiding behind her mother.
Asher looked at them, and he found out that when an apple fell out of his load and this woman spotted him picking it up.
" Here, take it and eat it here. Don't tell anyone, I will share the food with you." He offered.
Currently, they were in a hiding spot where not many came because it was near the water system of the city. During the time of winter, it was not a suitable place to live.
" Thank you very much."
Asher separated the food that he was going to give to them, the woman was surprised to see that Asher was giving more than half of the food.
She quickly gave something to eat to her daughter who was too skinny, both of them were skinny and it made Asher feel sympathy towards them. He too had been facing the issue of not having something to eat.
He looked at the mother, once again and saw that her hands were badly wounded. Many street dwellers worked for construction companies, and they are not paid enough wages. There is no safety equipment provided to them and thus this results in injuries.
" Here take these as well." Asher offered them some of the blankets as well when he saw them shivering from the cold.
" Where did you get them?" The woman asked, " Did you do something dangerous? You are covered in bandages." She asked.
Asher, had himself wrapped in bandages all over his face and the rest of his body. At first glance, his wounds were not visible, he had carefully bandaged every part of his body after his first failure in applying the bandages.
" Yes, I did something dangerous."
" Please, take care of yourself. I am ashamed that I had to ask for food from you when you are just a kid facing the same circumstances as us." The woman spoke politely with a hint of gratitude.
Asher could tell that the woman must have tried very hard for her daughter but still ended up in such a situation.
" Don't worry about that, you should leave because it will get colder here."
" Shouldn't you also leave? You might freeze to…" She was about to say something but stopped herself.
" Please come with us, we have a warm place where you can stay." She offered.
" No, I like it here. You can take the food with you and even the blankets. I will not freeze to death."
*****
Even after many requests from the woman Asher didn't agree to her offer. He liked the cold environment near the lake rather than living among humans.
After the pair of mother and daughter left, Asher slept throughout the knight, and when he woke up he decided to stroll around.
"…They never found the head on the dead bodies."
He just heard this part of the conversation that two local people were having. Curious he went near them to hear what is it that they were talking about.
" I am sure, I have seen those two before."
" Who are you talking about?" Suddenly Asher interrupted them.
" Eek! what are you?" One of the men screamed in surprise, he was shocked to see a child wrapped under so many bandages.
" Are you hurt kid?" The other person asked, " How did this happen?"
" I was hit by a car," Asher replies and then adds another question, " What were you guys talking about?"
" Haven't you heard about the winter ghost?" They asked.
" No."
" Well, last night two people were killed by him. For the last three years, the monster has been roaming our lands. We had reported to the government that it might be an alien, no human could do that and disappear from the crime scene like that."
" An Alien?"
" Yes, you have to be careful. Only one person had seen it and at that time he saw him eating a child. I think he likes to eat young flesh and..."
" If he comes at me then he will be the one to die."
Asher said and left the two men confused, they didn't want to talk with Asher because he almost looked ghostly. As he walked he noticed the mother and daughter that he had helped the other day. They were bruised and beaten up and the little girl was even crying, seeing that he walked towards them.
" What happened?" Asher asked.
" Some thief stole whatever we had." The mother answered as she wiped her tears.
" Do you have any idea who it was?"
Asher asked, he felt angry seeing them cry, he didn't like anyone who would use these kinds of methods to take what belongs to others.
Asher was still young so this was the only thing he could think of, he was not even considering how dangerous it might be. He was confident that he can defeat that thief just like he did with the thugs.
" I don't know."
" It's fine, so if you need anything you can take it from my place."
" No… We have already…" The mother tried to decline but suddenly stopped.
" No, you can take It."
*****
During the night time, Asher was awake, he had given those two everything he had. He was sure that whoever stole from them will come back again so he hid and watched from the distance.
Suddenly he saw a human-like figure but not exactly a human, its hands were two times larger than a normal human and its claw was sharp as knives.
The being started to walk towards the pair of mother and daughter, and Asher ran towards the beast. Without a doubt, this was the winter ghost that others were talking about.
He has to save them at any cost, otherwise, they were going to die.
" Hey, You!" He shouted and attracted the attention of the beast by throwing a rock toward it.
In response, the beast ran toward him.
" Open the portal, Quick!" Asher sounded desperate because the beast was faster than he could imagine.
[ Opening the Portal to the underworld]
A crack appeared in the open space behind Asher and he was sucked inside because of the air pressure right after that the beast was also sucked inside that portal.