Crimson spark

If you asked me what memories I had of that night, I would probably start by telling you that I saw reality bend itself. It was as if something unmasked itself before me, the veil of illusion falling down to reveal what we were deluding ourselves to believe all along. My head boiled. For a moment I could see all colors in perfect clarity, even the ones that were not supposed to be there at the time, but soon I found myself seeing red. Information. My mind seemed to be overloaded with information nigh incomprehensible to the average person. Any attempts at decoding it were futile. It was the other side of the world. Incoherent whispers penetrating the depths of my brain. Any sense of time is lost momentarily to further focus on decoding the otherworldly data being pumped into your skull. There lied something in space, in the fabric of reality. It was no longer bent; it was clearer than ever, but the additions were too much for my senses.

Silence. It felt like I was no longer there. Soon, the desperation was replaced by warmth. I was floating in a womb. Everything made sense. It hurt, but there was comfort in that. I wanted to stay within that warmth. I didn't want to wake up and face the world again, though that was just wishful thinking. It was fate's womb, unbreakable and incorruptible. It would catch up eventually, and the sooner I got out there, the better.

My eyes shot open. It was an unpleasant awakening. Face down on a hard, wooden floor. My muscles creaked like they were strained to their very limit. I gasped for breath. I felt like an unborn child, my heart racing and my lungs aching as they seemed to gasp for breath for the first time. Any attempts at recalling the moments before that were meaningless. Search, search, search. Not found. To hell with it. I didn't feel like staying on that dusty floor, dripped in sweat like I had just run a marathon.

Fighting an intense migraine, groaning incoherently, I moved by arms to try and help myself up. I shook my head and put one foot on the floor, kneeling on one knee, and waited until my fuzzy vision was cleared. My instincts immediately began scanning the surroundings. The room seemed brightly lit. There was a cheap wooden table, a few chairs, paintings. Simple décor. Before long, my sights were set on the other girl lying against the wall, breathing hard, dripping in sweat just like me and still in her school uniform.

"Wolfie." I tried calling out to her while raising my body. I tumbled over to her and nudged her shoulder. "You ok?"

"Nnnnnnnnnn," she groaned. "…Sami? Ffffuck my head hurts." She shook her head, trying to wipe some of the sweat off her brow. Her ponytail seemed to stick to the back of her neck. She then rubbed her eyes and looked up at me.

"What the hell happened over here?" She was still breathing hard, but also getting a grasp of her surroundings. Strong girl.

"No idea. But it looks like we passed out; and it wasn't the 'drunk' or 'junkie' kind of passing out." I rubbed my temple while trying to answer her question.

"N-nah, no way… I mean, would I even want to drink or do drugs or any of that sick shit at this time of the day?" Said Wolfie before pointing to a clock on the wall.

"8:51 PM? Yeah, you'd wait another hour," I said with a weak, wry smile.

"I'm a punctual girl. But, more importantly…" Wolfie extended her arm to me and I helped her up. "…what the hell's going on around here?" The million-dollar question.

"Yeah, that should be our number one priority."

"You think we were kidnapped?"

"In this town? Please, this bunghole's pretty different from bigger cities."

"Tsk, tsk. I didn't think you'd be so naïve. You never know what kinds of creeps could be lurking around."

"And I didn't take you to be so cynical." Our usual banter meant we were just about in top shape again. It was time to move out. As we spoke, we looked around the room for a bit longer, but it didn't seem to have anything else of note. The ceiling was low and slanted, and there was a staircase leading down to the floor below.

"I call that being realistic. But more importantly…" She began looking around the room, her eyebrows tilted. "…What is this place? How did we even get here anyway?"

"Huh?" The fact that the last few hours had become a blank suddenly made itself painfully clear. Desperate searches from my memories revealed no answers.

"…No clue," I answered bluntly. I hadn't yet realized the severity of the situation.

"I don't think we hit our heads or anything… And I don't think I pumped anything into my bloodstream," Wolfie spoke nonchalantly as she rubbed her arms, seemingly looking for any prickled spots.

"Yeah, like I said, you'd wait a little longer for that," I rebutted rather dismissively. I was still focusing too intently on the missing pages of that day. The place appeared to be some sort of mansion. It had electricity, but whether people lived there was something we had yet to discover.

"Sooo….. kidnapping?" Wolfie started again.

"Like I said," I sighed, "we wouldn't get kidnapped in this town. I sincerely doubt that."

"And I'm telling you, you never know! Two pretty high school girls waking up in a dusty room… And I don't mean to brag, but I am kidnapping material. And so are you." she clicked her tongue, winked, and made a gun motion with her fingers.

"That's very flattering of you. You must've forgotten what happened last time some drunk tried groping my tits at Nine-ball."

"Ahh, that… Yeah, poor guy. Got a sample of that thing you used to do… y'know… How you left sorry folk with a few broken bones? But my point stands we're both above average." Wolfie put her hands on her hips and grinned at me. I couldn't help but let out a little laugh at that. This kind of banter really did put me at ease, even if it reminded me of what I wish I'd put behind.

"C'mon," said Wolfie, "enough chit-chat. We gotta get outta here. We'll figure things out as we go." She waved her hand dismissively and began making her way to the stairs, when she flinched. Her face suddenly went pale and her eyes darkened. My friend was frozen in place.

"…Wolfie?" I tried calling out to her, but got no response. "Hey, what's wrong?" I approached her and was about to shake her shoulder when I followed her gaze down the stairs. There was a crimson splotch at the end, like something had been splattered there. I suddenly noticed the strong, nauseating stench of iron. A bead of sweat dripped down from my red bangs and face and my feet refused to move. My fingers were numb.

"…Stay back," I said quietly. She nodded and stepped out of the way. I took a deep breath, trying not to stammer, and forced my feet to step down the staircase. Wolfie followed suit. With every step, the stench only grew thicker, enough to make me gag. The crimson splotch became clearer despite the dimmer light of the room below. The wooden steps of the staircase creaked. When we reached our destination, it took us a few moments to process the scene.

My feet stopped. All my senses were focused on that one instance. That single moment. My stomach turned in on itself. My head hurt simply from looking at it. There was the source of the stench, the crimson splotches now spread everywhere in this new room: the floor, walls, desk, curtains. My eyes scanned the scene. It was all so clear it made my head hurt. Soon, my sight began trailing on the figure slumped against the bedside. Or perhaps, it would be best to just call it a lump. A bloody, human-shaped lump. It stained the bed with its crimson liquid.

"Ah…" Wolfie gasped. She had finally registered the state of the poor bastard we just found. She staggered over to the wall and puked her guts out. All I could do was stand in place. I had the urge to vomit too, but I held back as much as I could. Somebody there had to, at least, pretend to have a modicum of strength.

I left my friend to her own needs and began approaching the body, ignoring any gag reflexes I may have from the smell and sight. A man, covered head to toe in blood, his body mangled to the point it was impossible to tell what he was wearing. Several holes were punctured around his torso. His arm was torn off his body and his head seemed to have been half blown off.

"Why…?" For a moment, that was the only word that seemed to escape my lips. Why the fuck was that happening? Who was that guy and why was his body mangled? Why is he dead? No, why did he even have to be killed like this? No human being could take a life and leave behind this kind of corpse. That's what I kept telling myself. My head spun. I had to calm down. Focus. Breathe.

"Forget 'why'!" said Wolfie. "Listen, Sami. I don't know about you, but I think we gotta get the fuck outta here. I don't care about what the fuck happened. Not now. All I care about is getting out of here, because if we don't…" She clutched my shoulder tightly, her eyes gazing intently into mine in such a way I had never seen before. "…We're gonna fucking die! That… that much I can tell…"

I swallowed dry, looked at Wolfie, and then back at the corpse. She was right. We're gonna die. Whatever monster did this, there was a good chance it was still around. There was no reason to believe it wasn't going to come back and finish the job.

We're gonna die. If we stay here, we're dead. Dead. That thing's gonna kill us. We're gonna die. Calm down. Breathe. We're dead. Breathe. Deep in. We're dead. Breathe. Gotta get out.

I mustered my remaining strength into getting my body to move again. My limbs were numb, but I had to force them to move. Or we're dead.

"Yeah…" I nodded at her. "You're right. We can figure this shit out later."

Something in the back of my mind wanted to stay. Figure everything out, try and look for the pieces of the puzzle. The chaos was unbearable. It wasn't right. It just wasn't right. This wasn't how things were meant to be, so why were they like that? I wanted to try and carry that burden, find all the answers drowning in that sea of madness. Turns out my survival instincts spoke louder.

"Then what the fuck are you waiting for?" The uniform-clad tomboy yelled at me and shook my body. "Let's go!" She bolted to the door leading out the room. I took one last glance at the scene before me and followed her. Outside was a corridor with several other doors. The lights were off, paint scrapped off the walls and the carpet on the floor already looking worn, stains dotting it here and there.

Wolfie didn't bother looking around and simply made her way further down until she found another staircase. Her body moved like it wanted to run, but the imminent fear of death forced her to move cautiously, every step carrying immense weight. The feeling was mutual. We wanted to get out as fast as we could, but who knows what the hell awaited us?

"There," she said, pointing to a door in a large hall down another set of stairs. "There's our ticket home." She sounded almost ecstatic. Waking up from a nightmare. What better relief than to find your way out.

Wolfie began stepping down the stairs. No time to wait. I was about to follow her when something clicked. Something clicked in my mind. No, it felt like something sneaked into my head and spread throughout my body. Something none of my senses could feel, but my mind realized it was there. It wasn't in the shadows. It wasn't in the air. It was just there. The moonlight shining through the windows gave no indication of its existence, but it was there. At that point, time slowed down. I heard a thump. I instinctively reached my hand to Wolfie grabbed her wrist.

"Wait."

It began moving. Materializing. None of my normal senses could detect it, but it was there. The formless presence began taking shape. Somewhere, it was sneering at us. My brain was overclocked. It scanned every piece of information it could gather. I didn't care why I was feeling that. In fact, what frightened me the most was the fact that the process occurring inside me didn't seem unusual in any way. All that bothered me was the thing.

"Hold on, Wolfie. Don't move." I didn't have to tell her. Just one look and I could tell the feeling was mutual. She noticed the exact same thing as I did. My buddy slowly turned her head to me, then her eyes began carefully looking around the room. It was getting closer. It had completed its transformation and was ready to take action.

Time slowed down again. It had all happened in an instant. When my sensations reached their absolute peak, my body moved faster than I could process. I put strength on my feet and took a dive, clutching Wolfie's body with my arms and throwing ourselves down the stairs. Something grazed my head and shot past me with the speed of a bullet.

Clank.

A metal sound echoed throughout the room. I didn't have time to register what it was as we had both collided with the floor. I felt a dull pain on my shoulder from the landing, but my desire to live brushed it off. Survival. Perception. Those two things made me act beyond my mind. It made my head hurt.

"Argh… Now what?!" Wolfie groaned in pain and quickly began looking around. "…Oh, shit… Sami…." Her eyes shot wide; they focused on the glowing object sticking out the wall. Long, metallic, silvery. There was something ephemeral about it. Sharp. So sharp the blade gleaned. I swallowed. The meaning behind that weapon was clear.

"…It's back." I quickly rose to my feet with Wolfie and traced the object back to its origin. There it was. The beast, the shadow, there to claim its prize. The figure seemed to float, like it wasn't really there, an aura swirling around it and twisting the air. Its cold, blank gaze pierced us with murderous intent.

"…It's back!"

Its gaze was unrelenting. It remained on us, waiting for the moment to strike, analyzing us like a true predator. It took brief, empty steps, closing the distance and imposing its increasing might.

"Sami… Sami, we gotta run!" Wolfie grabbed my wrist and made for the exit. "What the fuck are you just standing there for?!" Desperation echoed in her voice. I was about to follow her when I felt another surge.

"…No!" I quickly pulled her with my hand and jumped out of the way. Another action moved by sheer survival instinct as another lance shot past us.

"Argh… w-what the fuck are you do—" Woflie started before I interrupted her.

"Do you think it's gonna let us get away that easily?!" I kept my balance and held onto her so she wouldn't fall from my sudden jump. "It came back for us. It mangled that guy beyond recognition. You think it'll just let us get away?!"

Wolfie looked at me silently. I felt that thing coming closer. Maybe it felt like we were cornered. Realizing long range attacks would only be a waste of time, it was going to go for a quick close-quarters kill. Wishful thinking on my part.

"…So… So what do we do?" My friend stammered, but something in her voice told me she knew my answer was gonna be. I made sure our eyes met before giving her my one and only solution.

"…We'll have to fight."

All she did was stare at me. The thing got closer. I felt another surge, but this time, no shot came afterwards. I glanced at it and saw the bright, glowing, frigid blade clutched in its hands.

"…Heh," she scoffed, "y'know… that's better than running like a pair of chickens, I agree." A smirk appeared on her face. Just looking at her sparked new life into my confidence.

"Damn right. Not sure we can kill this thing, but we can sure as hell put a dent on it."

"Yeah. Not like a pair of high school girls can do much against this… whatever the hell this i—" Before Wolfie could finish, it charged. The air vibrated with the swing of its blade. She and I each jumped to one side and managed to avoid it.

"Hey!" Wolfie glared back at it, trying to shake off her fear just as much as I did. "That's rude, asshole. Don't you know the number one rule of all confrontations? Always let your opponent finish its bant—Oh, fuck!" The thing interrupted her taunt with another charge and swing. She dove out of the way and quickly rose back to her feet. Somehow, seeing Wolfie being her usual self helped me focus.

"Motherfucker. Not very talkative, huh? Fine by me." She continued. We exchanged glances and nodded at each other. That was my window of opportunity. Wolfie began running around the hall as it gave chase. I looked frantically for something, a weapon, anything. When I set my eyes on the staircase, I rushed towards the wooden handrail and reached for one of the support beams. I clutched it with my hands and tugged at it.

"…Perfect." Good thing the place was old as dirt. Feeling it was about to come unstuck, I yanked off the beam. A good, if not shitty, makeshift club. I turned my attention back at the dance with the thing. Its attacks continued and Wolfie kept dodging them, albeit clumsily. No worries there, so long as she stayed alive.

"Haah… We could keep this going all day!" It started another mighty swing, raising its blade high behind its head and then quickly swinging it vertically. Wolfie jumped back and the blade hit the ground with enough force to make the whole place shake. It was now cornering her as her back found itself against the wall.

"…Well, shit." The girl glanced nervously at me and moved her lips soundlessly. Hurry up, she wanted to say. I wasn't in the mood for waiting any longer. I clutched the club in my hand and firmly applied my strength into it. I scanned the thing with my eyes and made sure it was still focused on its target. It felt too easy, but it's not as if we were sure it was intelligent.

It positioned itself for another attack. The creature was sure it was going to be its final blow. Its right hand clutched the bright lance and rose it to its back once again. A diagonal slice from the right. That was all I needed to know. I jumped out of the staircase and dashed to its left flank. Time slowed down again. My whole body was tense, yet nimble, trying to ignore my fatigue.

"…You're done!" I yelled to steel my resolve and held the club with both hands. Time moved once again and when the creature was close enough, I mustered every ounce of remaining strength and struck the back of its head. A loud thump roared in the hall and the very air vibrated. The impact resonated into my body and I firmly planted my feet to stay up. My hands were tingling, numb. With a crack, the club broke in half, wood splinter and dust erupting in a cloud as the other half shot down to the floor. The creature's head shook from the force of the impact. Wolfie and I glared intently into it.

It didn't swing. It didn't bother attacking. Rather, it was as if it was processing what was happening. A delayed reaction. Maybe it wasn't taking this into account. It didn't think its prey was going to strike back.

"…Oh… fuck…" whispered Wolfie once the results of my attack were clear. I had come to the same conclusion. It shouldn't be too surprising, but now we were fully aware of its power.

It slowly turned its head. Those frigid, bright eyes pierced me. Cold sweat dripped down my forehead. It was pissed.

Paralyzed and still recovering my energy, I watched as it pulled back its leg and then thrust its feet into my gut. Dull pain. My stomach turned, acids building up and wanting to escape. I gasped, my body rolling back on the floor until my back struck the wall. My energy refused to return as all my mind could focus on was the pain and the desire to vomit. I squint my eyes and tried making out the creature's shape through my fuzzy sight. It was that surge again. It was applying even more energy on its weapon. The menacing, smoky aura twisted its silhouette. Dark, imposing.

Seconds felt like minutes. Step by step, it got closer. My mind tried to recompose itself fruitlessly. The pain seemed to override any desire I had to fight back. Get up. Get the fuck up, dammit, I muttered to myself and tightened my fist, trying to build up strength. None. I tried getting back up, but my knees wouldn't comply. My heart beat thundered in my skull. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get upGet upGet upgetupgetupgetupgetupgetup. My judgment had been clouded. Coherent thoughts made no sense. In a few seconds, I was going to be left like that corpse.

"…Did you forget about me, asshole?!" Wolfie shouted at the beast, roaring as she leaped towards it and tried to swing her leg at its right flank. Her blow didn't even have time to connect, the shadowy figure's reactions too fast for her movements. It struck Wolfie's chest with its elbow and sent her flying back. She yelled, groaned as she landed on her back with a thud, squirming and trying to get back up.

That was it. It was finally starting to dawn on me. It was so close to me I could feel its murderous intent. My entire vision was twisted. It was close. So damn close. I waited for the finishing blow. I waited. And waited. And waited. I waited an eternity, and nothing happened.

Nothing happened. Time had seemingly stopped again. The air stood still, yet my mind seemed to rush. It spoke to me. It refused. It refused to accept this situation. This wasn't the solution we wanted. We were going to get out of there and live. We were going to get out of there and get back to our usual lives. We would forget about the corpse, let the vigilantes take care of it. We could manage. Now here we were, waiting for something from God knows where to leave us as companions to the poor fucker who bit the dust.

But did it have to be that way? Was I just going to accept that? When I felt that question pop up in my mind, I felt yet another surge almost simultaneously. This time, however, it wasn't coming from the thing. No, it was coming from the last place I would ever think it would. It was coming from inside me.

The surge made me feel like my insides were flowing. It didn't ease the pain or the fatigue, but it was communicating with me, relaying a message. It was something else living inside me. It wormed itself into my system and assimilated into me. It felt at home. I had no intention of fighting it. I knew it had to be there, even if I didn't know why. It coursed through my veins and up into my brain. None of my human senses felt it, but it was still there. Finally, there was only one message it could relay at that moment:

Fight.

That was all it could say. That was all it had to say. Everything else was superfluous. There was nothing else for it to say. There was nothing else for me to do. The very core of my soul flared with this epiphany. Death had no meaning if one simply gave up. The surge only expanded. It was almost bigger than me, although not as powerful as the creature's surge. But it was there. It was the only weapon I needed.

Time began moving again. My sight was clear, penetrating the twisted air and targeting the mad thing. I could still hear Wolfie gasping for breath, squirming and moving her legs in failed attempts to get up. I could only hope her will was patient enough to wait for me. I returned the gaze to the beast. It rose its cold blade. Finally, it would bring this to an end. So would I.

The surge began moving on its own. Its power spread throughout my body. I could finally feel it burning inside me as I welcomed its invasion. Wielding this power was no different than trying to lift weights far beyond my capabilities, but my will could take that. It was going to damn well take that because I fucking wanted it to. My will wrestled control of the surge and focused it on my limbs.

Time slowed down again and I saw the thing bring its blade down. I grit my teeth and glared at it. It didn't react, but I didn't want to give it any time. Bending my knees, I pushed myself up with my feet and bent my body to prepare for my charge.

One blow. That was all I could do, all I needed. Any more than that and my body would crumble. I ignored the alarms and pushed my fist back. It would be over in a second. I gasped and roared. The air vibrated as my fist began cutting through at a speed my sight and tact would barely keep up with. My fist was the key, no other part of my body mattered. I let the surge act on its own.

Another roar. A thunderous impact that almost broke all of my bones. My fist collided with the thing's gut, leaving a hole where its swirling aura once was. It was tough. Its steel flesh made my knuckles bleed, but it was still flesh. It gave me an animalistic, predatory moan in return. It staggered. There was no beast in this world capable of eluding every attack; that was what I had just proven.

Its head wobbled, but recovering was impossible. My still connected fist glowed a reddish hue, searing like hellfire. The hue began appearing on its gut, spreading until blades of a crimson light formed a circle. I could feel it, ensnaring the dark being as if those were my fingers strangling it, as if it was a part of me.

I roared at it once more. The blades began to retract back to the source of the hue, now a fully-formed flash. I understood its clear signals. The surge spoke to me again. Do it. I concentrated my strength into my fist once more, and gave the surge the final push it needed, letting it burst. A loud boom sounded, the flash bursting away and leaving pinkish smoke behind as the creature was blasted across the room, its body rising in an arch before crashing down on the ground and cracking the wooden floor.

I remained still. My arm was still extended, my body shivering from the otherworldly impact. I processed the last few seconds, but the only answers I had were sensations. My fist smoked, the muscles in my hands throbbing, thumping with urgency. My eyes remained on my enemy, pink smoke emanating from its gut. It convulsed, trying to grasp its weapon as it dissipated into the air.

When I finally realized the situation, I fell on my knees. I breathed, and breathed, desperately refilling the air in my lungs. My chest heaved and pain dominated every inch of me. I groaned and coughed, droplets of blood flying out onto the ground. That was all. I told myself I could rest. My legs refused to budge as the shuddered at any attempt at movement. Relaxing was painful, but I wanted it more than anything else. I placed my hands on the ground and breathed, then glanced up and saw Wolfie rushing towards me with her hand on her side.

"Sami!" She called out to me. "I… I don't know what that was, but way to fucking go! I mean… you do that out there and I think you'll be a brawling champ! No wait, you already are. But still!" She patted me on the back. Hard. It hurt. Dammit.

"Haah…haaah… hehe…. Yeah, well…. You can't really corner a bitch and get away with it. I bite." Cracking a joke would help distract myself from my cracked body.

"Hell yeah. Can you walk?" She offered me her hand and helped me up, then let me wrap an arm around her shoulders. I could feel tiny drops of sweat dripping from the tips of her ponytail. It made me shudder, made me feel alive. Small things. My own short hair swayed with the gentle breeze of one of the cracked glass windows. The air seemed fresh, new. My skin burned, but I welcomed the sensations. My uniform's skirt was ripped, but to hell with it. We were alive and were ready to leave.

"Carry me on your arms, prince. Heh. C'mon, let's get out of here."

"That's my Sami." We began making it for the door. It seemed so far, but at that point, we didn't care. "I knew it. I knew it from the moment I looked at your eyes, we were gonna get out of this one."

"It was a fluke, though. I just sort of moved on my own. Hurt like hell, but it was all or nothing."

"Uh-huh… Actually, what was that." The inflection in Wolfie's voice was enough to tell me what she wanted to know.

"That," I tried replying, "is something I have no fucking clue about. It just… happened. Like there was something inside me, another part of me that wanted to just… get out. Like looking at weights and knowing you have to lift them, even if they will break your bones."

"Like a surge?"

"Yeah, like a—Wait, what did you just say?" That word remained on my mind throughout the whole ordeal. It was my clue. Wolfie was the same.

"A surge. Like, something building up in the air, maybe even inside you a little. Except, you can't see it, touch it, or anything. It's just there. I felt it coming from that thing." She kept on as we continued to make it to the door. Getting close.

"…Yeah. Yeah, I felt that, too. But for fuck's sake, can we not think about this right now? My brain's about to split open."

"Ah, yep. No point in wondering about it now. You know what I want right now? A bowl of udon. Or maybe good ol' stewed beans and rice. With some pistachio ice cream for dessert. That'd hit the spo—"

Wolfie couldn't finish it. She stopped. We stopped. It was creeping up my spine. A surge. It only grew stronger by the second. Slowly, we turned our heads. Dark air twisting itself. Imposing, broad. At that point, it had become all too familiar.

It had recovered. Its glowing eyes were fiercer than ever. Its aura flared like a storm. Its muscles seem to bulge with every bit of power it had. It was pissed. We could feel just how absolutely pissed off it was. It didn't expect its prey to unleash an attack, not like that.

"…Move it. We gotta move it!" Wolfie tried to urge me and we both began moving our legs as fast as we could. She could move fine, but my knees and thighs still had to recover. I looked back. It was still there. Maybe it knew we couldn't get away. The door was still too far. My stomach sunk back into me. Butterflies. No more. No fighting was going to hold it back anymore. Pulverizing us was all it wanted to do. It didn't need to speak to communicate that.

As it turns out, however, fate had decided we would have a little guardian angel that night.

A bang shot out from one of the windows. Fragments. Fragments of glass. Sounds of glass breaking. The fragments shot like bullets and lodged themselves into the creature's left temple. It stood still, processing what was happening. Its head slowly creaked to the source of the attack, but before it could do anything else, the assailant began their next move.

Glowing wires rose from the wooden floor, almost as if they were always there. They waved around the creature and lunged at it, restraining its body. It attempted to break free, but all of its movements were utterly restricted by this new offensive. It groaned and moaned again, like a caged animal. For the first time that night, it was completely helpless. Under its feet was a circle of light, flashing bright and searing, making it yell in pain.

"I hope I wasn't too late," said a male voice from the direction of the glass shots. Wolfie and I turned our attention to the source, and we soon found a blonde-haired young man jumping into the hall. His eyes watched the monster, examining it, ensuring it would go nowhere else. "It's a shame we can't track you down. You know how to hide your presence, but you will inevitably leave traces wherever you go. We must simply look carefully."

We watched with our mouths hung agape. Another element neither of us understood. Wolfie glanced back at me. All I could do was shrug. The boy continued.

"…You've also neglected to give it the ability to speak. No doubt a countermeasure in case you lost control of it." He approached the thing. The aura around it was growing thinner. Its black body was covered solely by the light underneath. It squirmed and struggled, but the wires were far too resistant for its efforts.

"Don't bother. We will catch you eventually. For now—" The boy extended his hand and opened his palm towards the creature. "—Disappear. This will hurt, but not as much as the victim you claimed."

He closed his hand into a fist and, at the same time, the wires tightened. The beast yelled louder, roaring, until it was replaced by a dark burst, a mist surrounding the area as any trace of the strange apparitions that contained it were gone. The lights, the wires. Only the light evening breeze reverbed in the grand hall of the derelict mansion. The blonde sighed, then looked back at us.

"…Are you two hurt?" He said, his lips curving slightly and his eyes relaxing. "It must've been a nasty ordeal. But don't worry, I'm here to take you back safely."

"Uh," said Wolfie and I.

"…Do we know you?" She started.

"Ah, no, probably not. We've crossed each other a few times, but you probably don't remember."

It was then that I finally noticed the clothes he was wearing. The same kind of male uniform from our school.

"…Yeah, we probably did," I replied.

"Mhm, but let's settle for introductions later. For now, we have to leave." He nodded and offered his hand to help. I waved my own.

"It's alright, we can—" Having thought I could move again, I took my arm from Wolfie's shoulder and felt a spark in my head the moment I tried to move my feet. My vision flashed. My fingers felt numb. My toes, arms, legs, hips, torso, head. All sound was muffled. I was falling. Falling. Thud. Everything blurred. The world swirled and faded. Wolfie's and the guy's muffled voices called out to me. All I could do was close my eyes. I didn't want it, but I needed some rest.

Hello. This is the author, Metaler. Thank you for taking your time to read this story. I don't to bother you too much with this afterword, but I think a few words wouldn't hurt. I wonder if I managed to set up the mood well. I had come up with this first chapter many, many months ago, but due to my own insecurities, I had pretty much left it in the backburner. But stories aren't meant to be kept hidden. They are meant to be read by others, to be enjoyed even if they aren't very good or interesting. I really don't think my story is all that great. In fact, I'd say it's pretty mediocre, even as far as first chapters go. But, for a first attempt, it's not that bad. I hope it isn't, at least. I feel somewhat foolish writing something like this, but I've always wanted to create a story featuring a beautiful young tomboy who can use magic. Something that seems somewhat mysterious, set in a world that's not too different from our own, but also not the same. I guess I'm writing this to satisfy my own urges for a story of this kind. When I started coming up with it, I imagined it as a visual novel, and even went so far as to imagine what my characters would look like if they were designed by my favorite artists. Of course, it would be pretentious of me to consider those thoughts to be realistic in any way, but I still consider it a form of inspiration for me. Who knows? Maybe one day I will make this into a visual novel. Or maybe I won't. Regardless, nothing would happen if I simply kept this story in my mind forever. Even if I am not quite satisfied with my results, even if I think it's a childish, edgy story, I wanted to put it somewhere for the world to see. I think that this is the only way my characters and this world will come to life. In any case, thank you again for reading this, and if you found this chapter interesting enough, please keep an eye out for more. I intend to see this to the end no matter how many years it takes. See you next time!