The shadow of a woman, emerged from the living room, a harbinger of chaos.
Sarah, shocked, cautiously peeked into the living room, struggling to believe what unfolded before her eyes.
In the twilight, her figure was etched in a black-red suit, with a long ponytail, wielding a pair of Sai.
A creeper was crawling on the walls to accompany her. Startled, Sarah hastily hid behind the wall she was peeking from.
"We dont have all day, find her and lets get this over with, freako" the woman in black, Kibito said.
"If you want a kill without traces, let me work, Kibito", wall crawler replied in his deep-shrieky voice.
"Who cares about the traces, I'm dying to spill some blood and pop the eyes out in the end, THATS... my favourite part"
This chilled Sarah's spine. She tried to calm down and hide in the bed room upstairs.
"We don't want other factions to know WE did it. It might spark a dispute again," creeper explained.
Sarah quietly put her coffee mug down and tiptoed her way upstairs.
She knew that there are two telephone in the house, one in living room and another in their bedroom.
Since the infiltrators were in living room, only choice for her was to use the one in bedroom and call someone for help.
Halfway up the stairs, the entrance gate opened.
"I'm home, sweetheart. I know you're mad at me? But you wont be anymore!" Matthew's voice echoed in the hallway.
He knew that Sarah stopped spending her time in living room and stays either in bedroom or the terrace.
"Are you up there? Look what I've brought for you and the baby, Matcha gummies!!... rare collection!"
Her mouth was covered by her own hands, struggling to hold back tears, she knew it's not time to stay mad at him. She have to warn him about infiltrators.
"MATTHEW SOME PEOPLE BROKE INTO OUR HO-", Sarah was stunned on the way coming back downstairs for him.
She saw his body lying outside the living room, Blood started coming out of Matthew's head and Kibito and creeper standing on the spilled blood pool.
"NO... NO-NO-NO-NO-NO",she was starting to lose her mind and ran towards bedroom to call for the help.
In her haste, she slipped, banging her head on the floor.
She looked back, and saw that her floor was all wet, including her pajama.
Her water has been broken...
Due to high on adrenaline, she didn't feel it at first. She tried to stand on her knees to crawl towards the telephone.
A Sai (pointed swords) pierced thighs and sarah screamed loudly. But the Creeper had set up the 'curse of inaudiblility' around the house so that no one outside can hear anything.
"Now now", Kibito says in a sassy way.
"I'm ordered to get this job done 'without a trace' apparently, but you see, thats not my style", Kibito bragged when creeper started staring at her, urging to stick to the plan.
Kibito glanced at the creeper and sighs, "ALRIGHT, fiiiine I'll kill her right now, you're not fun, you know, stupid creeper...".
She pulls out the Sai from her thigh and she was ready to kill her.
"Lets get this over with... huh?...", Kibito's right hand stuck in mid air the second before she was going to stab Sarah to death.
"Whats going on?" She applied all of her strength and freed her hand.
The shadow, that was encountered by the couple for a long time revealed itself, wielding a lance, blocking Kibito's Sai.
Shadow started attacking Kibito aggressively, she ordered creeper to kill Sarah for her but the shadow managed to choke both with its telekinesis technique.
Meanwhile, Sarah continue to drag herself towards the telephone besides the bed.
"So you....are...th-that infamous... rouge Ingrid, (coughs) I should have recognised you earlier", Kibito head started turning blue due to choking.
"You know I'm a Hind, you're just wasting you mana, Fuckin' OUTCASTE"
She casted a spell, crossing her fingers,
"Kage no kusari!!"
(Chains of imprisonment)
Dark chains started coming out of walls, ceilings and floor to stop the shadow figure.
The figure was struggling to break free when her voice interrupted.
"Its no use, Ingrid race are ineffective as well as vulnerable against us Hinds."
"I'm assuming you've forgotten all this because, god knows how long you've been hiding in those mountains."
The shadow remained silent, accepting its fate.
"Now then"
"Kamigami no shinseina hikari"
(divine aura of gods)
"Help your kins ..."
Kibito slid two fingers on her Sai, a radiant glow enveloping it.
"Its been a while since I've hunted an Ingrid,"
She thrust the purified Sai into the shadow's throat.
"Not a single word? You're resilient", shadow remained mute the whole time.
The shadow struggled a bit but then it fainted and vanished into thin air.
"Um... Is it..dead?" Kibito question while pointing her Sai at the emptiness.
"It cannot die, it has the 'Curse of Oshinokōji' upon it, and you're not strong enough to overcome it", creeper cleared it out.
Sarah, on other hand, had been reached to the telephone, her mind fogged with panic.
Fumbling through contacts, frustration grew as she couldn't remember the Japanese emergency contacts. She started trying all the contacts but none worked.
"Its no use, brat, sorry to break it to you but we've cut the lines already." Kibito sneered, grabbing her hair.
Sarah was going to give up when she remembered about the emergency telephone Matthew told him about in the same drawer below.
She immediately opened that drawer and picked up the handset of that telephone.
Kobito enraged, kicked the back of Sarah's head. Her head banged with the wooden drawer and the blood started coming out of her forehead.
"You have no idea how much I'm paid for this mission, idiot."
"I really thought there must have been a monster or a high level curse that I have to deal with, but it turned you to be... You"
"Stupid, Fragile... HUMAN", she laughed. However, Call immediately connected to the rapid rescue team.
Matthew programmed it in the way that if a handset was picked, it will instantly connect the rapid rescue squad, having a different line than the other two telephone in the house.
"# Rapid rescue, what's your emergency?#", but sarah was already unconscious by that time.
"Now it's your tur-", Kibito raised her Sai towards Sarah only to realise that the same hand... was missing.
"Wha- w-huh-h", she screamed loudly when she found her hand lying on the ground holding Sai, amputated.
Listening to the scream on the call, Rapid Rescue departured a team instantly, but no scream went outside the house.
Kibito looked back and saw creeper's decapitated and lifeless body. She couldn't understand who it is.
'I have made sure that shadow is gone, I was so sure of it, then who could it BE?'
Lost in confusion, she was attacked by a man in mechanical armour, head to toe. He had claws coming out of his nuckles, part of his armour.
She calms herself down and said,
"Welcome to the party, big boy"
"What are you? Futuristic Wolverine?", Kibito mocked him, trying to hide the immense pain behind his sassy talks.
The man kept quiet and went directly for Kibito's head.
She tried dodging his attacks but gets injured everytime. She struggled, realizing she was outmatched at this point.
"I dont think that you are with that shadow we just disposed, because you're not an Ingird or a Hind... Just a mere human", she asked but recieved no reply in return.
"Whats with the boys, being so rude nowadays, first that shadow, now you?"
"A beautiful woman is asking you nicely, sweetheart"
With an amputated arm and multiple injuries while dodging, she knew he has lost a lot of blood already.
'I can't stand longer than a few minutes now, I should complete what I came for...'
She rushed towards Sarah, attempting to end her and especially the life inside.
Suddenly, claws emerged from her heart. She was stabbed from the back.
The man in the mechanical armor stabbed her again and ripped her spine out.
Blood splattered everywhere and just like that, The Crimson Tempest, Kibito was dead at this point.
Then the man looked at unconscious Sarah and started moving towards her slowly. He heard a loud siren, and red-blue lights filled the room. It was the Rapid Rescue Team.
As they entered the house, some of them vomited after seeing the bloodshed. They found Sarah alive, her water broken.
They immediately shifted her to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Sarah gained consciousness after a few hours and was eager to know if Matthew was alright.
The staff explained to her that he was safe and unconscious due to excessive blood loss in the head.
They found him unconscious on the roadside when the ambulance was on the way to their home.
Further, they justified his actions by concluding that he was running in the direction of hospital as all the telephone lines were found not working.
Police officers were standing outside Matthew's ward. Since the conclusions were just a theory, they wanted to investigate him regarding the accident took in his house as soon as he gains consciousness.
When Matthew opened his eyes, he touched his head heavily covered with bandages, realising the gravity of situation and decided to check on Sarah.
However, Officer Yamato, a stern-faced figure, pressed Matthew for answers.
"Mr. Matthews, we need your cooperation. This is a serious matter, and we have questions about the incident at your house. You can't just walk away."
Matthew, eyes darting anxiously down the corridor, replied, "I understand, but I need to see my wife. She's in the LDR(labour delivery room), and I don't know what's happening."
Officer Asahi, arms crossed, sternly insisted, "You'll have to answer our questions first. It's a protocol."
As the tension mounted, a nurse, her eyes wide with urgency, barged into the scene.
"Officers, please, he needs a moment. His wife is in a critical condition, transferred to the LDR under Dr. Nakamura's care."
Officer Yamato, unyielding, demanded, "We need to talk to him. This is an ongoing investigation."
The nurse, a voice trembling with empathy, responded, "I understand, but can it wait? His wife needs him now, and he's not going anywhere."
Matthew, pleading, interjected, "Please, just a few minutes. I need to know if Sarah and the baby are okay."
The officers, casting a quick glance at the nurse, said, "Fine, but make it quick. We'll be right here."
As Matthew and nurse started walking away fastly, the officers exchanged tense glances. Officer Asahi muttered, "We can't let him off the hook."
While Matthew hurried down the sterile hospital corridor, anxiety gnawed at him.
"How is Sarah doi-", before Matthew could finish his sentence, the nurse dropped something unexpected towards him.
Every father's worst nightmare...
"Mr. Matthew, we have a situation, we're time bound and there's only one that we can save..."