<< Mortal realm—Magadan city >>
"Oh, holy moly" Kira exclaimed in panic as she stared speechlessly at the expensive car her little delivery bike just bumped into.
She quickly pulled over, jumped off her bike and approached the car. Another panic gasp escaped her mouth when she saw the huge scratch she's caused.
"What should I do now? Should I run away, or wait for the owner and apologize?" she mentally asked herself. "But if I run away no one is going to know it was scratched by me" she thought.
Just as the thought of running away crossed her mind, a deep voice growled angrily from behind her, which startled her and almost made her lose her balance. She quickly turned around and saw a boy of about nineteen or twenty years of age scowling at her.
"What did you do to my car, wretched imp?" he lashed out.
Kira gulped. His murderous expression was scary to her, and she couldn't help the thought of having a supernatural power that would help her disappear from his presence.
"Why are you quiet? Are you dumb and deaf? Can't you see the damage you've done to my car?"
"I… I'm sorry" she managed to whisper.
"Sorry? Would your sorry able to repair this?"
Kira couldn't say any words, in fact, she has nothing to say at this moment. All she could do was stare at her feet, and prayed the boy would only insult her and leave without asking her to repair his car.
The boy glanced at Kira's bike, then gave her a nasty glare. "Your bike is as worthless as you, I can't get enough money to repair the damage you've caused even if I manage to sell it" he dissed her. "Get your wretched life away from my car!" he hissed.
"Thank you, sir" she muttered in great relief and quickly stepped away from the car as fast as she could.
With one more disgusted glare from the boy, he swung his door open, stepped in, roared the engine to life and drove off at great speed—purposely leaving dust behind for Kira to bathe in.
"Phew" she finally breathed out when he's gone out of sight. "At least, he didn't ask me to pay"
Just at that moment, her old phone rang loudly and panic swallowed her as she already knew who's calling. Without wasting time or bothering to check the caller's ID, she answered the call.
"Where the hell are you, unfortunate pig?" the angry voice of her boss boomed through the phone's speaker, which made her wince and quickly pulled the phone away from her ear. "I just received a call from the customer that he still hasn't received his parcel. You are playing with your life, you know that, right?"
"There was a problem, sir, my bike… " Kira began explaining but was rudely cut off by her boss.
"I don't care whatever problems you encounter because your existence alone is a huge problem for humanity… "
Kira closed her eyes, she bite her lower lip and swallowed hard as she tried her best not to let her boss's words get to her, after all, she's used to him and everyone else abusing her verbally and sometimes physically.
"... is the idiot even listening to me?" her boss boomed again.
"Yes, sir"
"Listen to me clearly, you better hurry, do everything and anything within your power to get that parcel to the customer in less than ten minutes, or trust me, you'll be so sorry for your wretched life!" he threatened.
Kira nodded her head desperately, but quickly remembered that he couldn't see her. "Yes, si... " she didn't get to finish her words as her boss hung up on her.
A tired and frustrated sigh left her mouth. She shoved her phone back in her apron, reached for her bike and started pushing it as fast as her legs could carry her.
'I wouldn't be doing any of this if Yulia wasn't so sick' she grumbled to herself.
Yulia is Kira's younger sister, and she's always been sick since their parents both passed away in a fatal car accident. Kira has been doing all kinds of odd jobs just to raise enough fund for Yulia's treatment, but her sickness still doesn't get any better.
'Let's just hope I don't lose this job' with that thought, she increased her pace as she tried to meet with the time frame her boss had given to her.
<< Ten minutes later—Bay groove forest >>
After pushing her bike for an unbearable long distance, Kira's phone beeped, indicating that she is almost arriving at her destination.
Her legs stopped moving forward as she stared at the signboard ahead of her, with some words boldly inscribed on it. The words read "SWAMPY FOREST, BEWARE OF WILD BEASTS".
Kira instantly checked her phone again to confirm if she's really at the right place, and unfortunately, she was. Fear gripped her, her heart wouldn't stop pounding against her chest as different thoughts flooded her mind.
"Why on earth would anyone come to a place as creepy as this, and venture in?" she thought out loud. "What would happen if I go back and tell Mr. McBroom that this customer is not to be trusted? Would he even believe me?"
After thinking for a while, she decided to go back, but then the thought of her sick sister crossed her mind, and she couldn't bear to leave without delivering the parcel since that would mean goodbye to her sister's only chance of surviving.
"Let's just hope I don't die in this forest" she prayed silently before venturing into the forest.
★★★
Goosebumps grow on Kira's skin as she walked through the silent forest, with a few hawks perching on dry trees, shrill chwirking and adding an eerie feeling to the already scary atmosphere.
Kira was shaking from fear, she was too scared to watch where she's going, which made her miss a step and stepped on a twig. She let out a short scream as she squatted on reflect, closed her eyes and held up her hands as though that would make her disappear.
"Hey" someone said, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Kira let out another scream, louder and longer than the first time, then sprang up and snapped her eyes open. Her screams stopped when she saw a teenage boy standing in front of her with an amused smile.
"Are you okay?" he asked, chuckling lightly at her expression.
What's up with me crossing paths with teenagers today? — she wondered, after briefly thinking back to her encounter with the rich boy whose car she scratched earlier.
"Ahem" the boy cleared his throat, pulling her back to reality. "Are you the delivery lady?" he asked.
"Yes, but…" Kira swallowed a lump she didn't know was hanging in her throat. "... what are you doing in this forest all alone?" she asked, cautiously observing the forest.
"Alone?" the boy laughed. "I'm not alone, my friends are over there" he pointed at a group of five boys sitting around a bonfire, and playing what looked like chess.
Kira frowned in disbelief as she stared at the boys.
"Why would you boys come to this forest just to play chess?" she couldn't help the question.
"What the fuck are you talking about? Chess is a game of concentrated mind, and should be played in a place of total silence" he paused and looked around. "This forest is the perfect place"
"No, it's not the perfect place" Kira disagreed. "Do you know something bad can happen to you and your friends in this forest, and no one would find your bodies?"
The boy raised his brows as he looked at Kira as though he's looking at some mentally unstable human.
"Lady, this place is quiet and soothing. Why am I even explaining myself to you?" he snatched the package from Kira's hand. "You've delivered the parcel, you can leave!"
He turned around and made to head back to his friends. Kira grabbed his arm and wanted to talk sense into him, but an extremely loud and earthshaking crash caught her attention.
She quickly snapped her head towards the direction of the crash. What she saw left her mouth hanging open, with no sound coming out. Her body stilled and her eyes widened.
At about a fifty feet away from Kira, a gigantic, black and red-eyed dragon was fiercely wrestling with a human - shaped creature.
The human shaped creature has four thick horns, red furs all over its body, two very sharp and long canines, and its eyes are very dark that Kira could hardly see them. It has seven arms, each arm has ten fingers with extremely long nails.
Both the dragon and the human shaped creature were mercilessly growling and biting at each other, it's almost as if they're having a "fight to death" duel.
Even though Kira was scared out of her wit, she still had that small voice in her that's urging her to run for her life. She turned back to the boy, and began dragging him with her.
"Come on, let's get your friends and get out of this forest this insta..." her words stuck in her throat when she realized something—the boy's not moving.
With a frown, she let go of his arm, gave him a push and frowned deeper when he didn't bulge.
"What's going on?" she wondered.
She waved her hand across his wide open eyes, but he didn't blink. Her eyes subconsciously shifted towards his friends, her mouth dropped open when she saw their hands froze midair.
"What's going on?" she mentally questioned herself again. "Why are they not moving?"
As if nature were against her today, her phone's ringtone blared loudly, and she quickly reached for it and muted it, but it was already too late. The dragon and the human shaped creature already discovered her.
Knowing she's been caught, there's nothing she could do to help herself already, Kira couldn't control her emotions anymore. Her breath became ragged as she started feeling herself running out of oxygen.