The woman halted. She lifted her head to look at Maya. Her eyes were big and threatening, more so that her sockets were sallow. Maya was unsettled, needless to say, but she kept her face straight and her intentions obvious.

“Do?” said the woman bitingly. “What you can do?” She was slowly rising up from her chair, her sickly arms supporting herself on the table. “There is nothing to do! It’s all been done! The only thing left is for you to go back in time!” She gripped her face with her hands, eyeing everyone equally—Maya, Rei, and even Folke. “Now go! All of you! Go! Better yet, go and kill those soldiers! Bring their heads to me! Now!”

Maya could not move. She was, in all honesty, scared. She was glad that there was nothing more in the house than the few furniture, lest the woman pick anything up and throw it at them.

“Ma’am, please!” Folke said as he stood up and held her shoulders. “Calm down! There is nothing you can achieve like this!” He gently led her to sit down, although her rage still led her to fight Folke off.

“Go!” she screamed again, but this time, she didn’t seem to want the group to go back in time. All she did was point at the door, maniacally gesturing for them to leave the house.

Maya was the first to move her feet, bewildered by the scene. She passed by Rei, who looked at her with concern, but she followed thereafter.

The setting sky outside did not calm Maya at all—her heart beat harshly with the shouting she received. The weirdest part was that she did not feel bad for herself at all. Her sadness was not towards herself but towards the woman. She could not even imagine what she had gone through to achieve such insanity.

Rei walked with Maya as they approached their horses. Folke was left back at the house—he still seemed determined to get answers.

“So that is what the Military does to its people?” said Rei as they walked away, glazed eyes apparent. “How horrible.”

Maya nodded as she kicked a pebble on the ground and passed by the house where she had seen blood before. “I… never knew things like this was happening.” She was starting to miss the peaceful days on the Kingfisher. “I’m not used to it.”

Rei’s sullen expressions turned softer when she met Maya’s eyes. “I do not know you that well,” she said, “but I would just like to share. When something like this happens, and I feel infested with something unpleasant, I do this.”

Maya watched. Nothing different happened. She waited, but Rei kept her hands down and did not move an inch. Maya glanced to her side awkwardly. “What did you do?” she asked.

Rei looked a little bit shocked from Maya’s question, but she remained supportive. She touched her the edge of her lips with one finger and tapped at it, probably in an attempt to give a hint. When Maya didn’t say anything, she put her hand down again. “I make a straight face,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Maya had to stop herself from staring at her for too long in her dumbstruck state. She smiled, although she could not stop her eyebrows from meeting. “A… straight face.”

A part of her wanted to thank her for the weird demonstration, but the other part wanted to… do otherwise. She decided on the latter, knowing that she could be frank with this girl. “You do realize that your face is always straight?”

Rei’s eyes grew wider than the last time. “It is?” A big question mark was written on her face as she tried to recall back on it. “Perhaps too many things that are unpleasant happen to me. My face must have grown used it.”

She did not mean to do it, but Maya could not help but burst out into laughter. She doubted that it was Rei’s face had grown accustomed to the straight expression—she probably was just born with, but she never realized. The thought of it made Maya laugh longer, her hands crossed over her stomach. It was hard to stop, but she managed to control herself.

“You’re actually human,” said Maya. “And pretty funny.”

Rei showed a small smile, and her cheeks may have even grew pinker. “I am glad you feel better,” she said.

Maya smiled back.

Something had caught her attention.

As her eyes were supposed to drift to the woman’s house, it got stuck at the deeper part of the village where the grove of trees were at.

“What is that?” she said, squinting her eyes.

Something big, monstrous, and pouncing was running closer and closer with shaking footsteps… and Zachary was running in front of it.

“Ruuun!” shouted Zachary, waving his hands in the air as a signal.

Maya could not. Her eyes were glued to the beast that was chasing after him, and probably soon after them. It was a dog—a cat? Whatever it was, it was the size of a house and as terrifying as a nightmare. It did not bark nor purr like it should have—it cracked.

Cracking noises escaped the flat snout of the beast, just like wood snapping or skulls crushing on tile. The putrid look of its dark brown leathery skin unsettled Maya and caused her to look at the eyes instead—cat-like but bigger and shakier. Its paws, big enough to cover and stomp on a person, flew around, trying to get hold of the dodging Zachary.

Rei sucked in a breath. She took hold of her long thin sword and unsheathed it as she held her ground, putting her body in front of Maya. “Maya, find Sir Folke!”

The sight of the beast had locked Maya on the ground for a while. She watched as the beast ran closer and closer to them, until it was only a few meters away. Her eyes blinked with realization of Rei’s words, and she started for the house. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, and once she was at her own landmark—the house with spilt blood—she turned her head to look at the beast.

Her whole vision went dark as the last thing she saw was the giant paw coming in to her face.

“Maya!” she heard someone scream.

Everything turned dark for her, but the familiar smell of rotting flesh and the sense of falling debris pounding her body knocked her out of her shut eyes. She was immediately overcome with numbing pain everywhere.

Her eyes looked sluggishly all around to see blood on the wood floor she was laying on. It wasn’t hers. She trailed the red stain to see where it originated from, and she finally figured out where the rotting smell was coming from.

She screamed, despite her ribs hurting a little bit, as she looked at the body of a dead man right in front of her. It was bloody, decomposing, and just overall so dreadful that Maya had forgotten about the smell. She then realized that it was so clearly seen because of the roof has been destroyed off, letting light leak in.

Just when she thought that was the last of the nightmare, the beast, big enough to be seen from Maya’s angle, ran past the house, cracking and snarling. It stopped though, and turned its head towards Maya.

She froze on the spot. She could have ran, but the entrance was blocked by the vastness of the beast anyway, so instead she crawled back further into the house. Her eyes stayed locked on the beast’s, and she forced herself not to mind that she was getting closer to the corpse.

Her hands crawled slowly on wooden floor, rubbing against dried blood. It irked her, but better safe from a giant beast than being clean. A soft clatter was heard when her hands hit something. Maya looked, and like a holy grail appearing, she grabbed the bow. It could have been the corpse’s, but she could not care anymore. There were loose arrows sprawled on the floor, and she grabbed one to draw on the bow, her unfamiliar hands shaking and tense.

Her bow was aimed at the beast who was little by little sinking its head into the house. It sniffed blindly, thick and disgusting foam forming at its snout.

Maya would have released the arrow, but the beast jerked its head back, letting out a pained crack.

“Maya! Get out of there!” shouted Rei.

When the beast raised itself up in howling pain, it revealed Rei hanging onto her sword. The sword was shallowly stuck into the neck of the beast.

Maya found strength in her legs, and without letting go of the bow and arrows, she ran out into the open.

The beast was surrounded by Zachary, Folke, and the houses all around. Rei was still hanging on, trying to pull her sword out as the beast shook its body vigorously. Zachary was trying for slices on the beast, while Folke, who was missing a sword, tried to communicate with it as if that was such a good idea.

We’re in trouble! thought Maya, her legs almost buckling underneath her. In the midst of stopping her legs, her eyes caught sight of the bow in her left hand and the three arrows on her right. A brave sensation overcame her as she realized that she did not need to get close to the beast to use the arrow.

Although her hands were the shakiest they have ever been, she lifted the bow and drew a single arrow. It was surprisingly hard work and it needed most of her strength, but she was able to stretch her left arm all the way back. She didn’t know how to aim, plus her hands were still not calming down, but the beast was a big target that she placed her luck on it.

She shot the arrow.

It missed by a big margin, and worse, it caught the beast’s attention. It stopped shaking and stared at Maya.

“Stay, beast!” said Folke as he waved his hands around. Zachary successfully sliced at the beast’s legs.

It let out another one if its horrifying cracks, more enraged than ever. It ran towards Maya. Rei had to let go of her sword as she rolled to the ground.

Through panicked breaths, Maya drew another arrow. This time, she took more time to adjust her arrow before releasing it.

The arrow flew straight into one of the beast’s eyes.

Maya couldn’t help yelping as the beast charged faster towards her. It did not care anymore that there were two people attacking it at its hind—there was no stopping it now.

Maya had only one arrow left, and she was too unsure of herself to shoot it perfectly right at the moment. Instead, she ran.

The beast let out a crack behind her, and Maya huffed in return. She weaved in between houses and trees, hoping that it would confuse and slow the beast down. Unfortunately, it just crashed through them.

“Gods, please help!” she shouted. She was surprised at her stamina, but it didn’t look like she would last any longer. Her legs burned as she ran at top speed and even jumped over obstacles.

It seemed like she didn’t have to run anymore, though. The beast caught onto her and slammed its giant paw to her back.

She hit a concrete wall fully. Unconsciousness was slipped in for a split second, but she was awaken again by another pound of the beast’s paw. She heard another crack, and this time, it wasn’t from the beast.

A sharp pain went through Maya’s chest when she tried to move. “Oh no…” she muttered incomprehensibly when she realized that she would be trapped in a ditch full of debris. Probably die in it, too. Things weren’t looking well especially with the beast looking down on her with one angry good eye.

Maya couldn’t even bring herself to mock it, just as a last goodbye. It would even have been the perfect moment to shoot the other arrow, but she lost it in all the debris.

For the first time, the beast roared, and it did so extravagantly. It shook its head so much, as if it was in celebration. Maya then realized that it did so in pain because Rei had appeared to slice it on its legs.

That little action gave Maya time to locate a sharp rock next to her. She wondered if she would be able to throw it strong enough to kill the beast.

No, that would be stupid, she thought.

Zachary and Folke appeared, yet it still didn’t look like they were going to win the fight anytime soon. The beast was too irrational to have its movements predicted.

Maya wanted to help, but the pain all over her body was too much, and it seemed like she hit her head. She knew she was about to lose it. “Maybe throwing the rock is fine…” she gasped. Even talking was uncomfortable, especially when blood trickled into it.

The last thing she heard were screams from everyone, even the beast.

She felt like she sank deeper into the debris, but she didn’t care. The shaking ground was relaxing.

She found herself in a better state as she blacked out.