Pain suddenly emerged altogether from my digestion system, shocking me out of my bed. Holding tight to my belly with both arms, a shrill groan escaped from my mouth. I hurriedly ran to the water closet to dump my excrement. To my surprise, it was reddish in colour, almost imitating those shades of blood.

I felt relieved once my stomach had been cleared. The pain was no more, replaced by the sense of light throughout my body.

“Maybe the food was expired,” I murmured to myself, “but it's crazy seeing how red it was. I thought it might have been corroding my innards.”

Letting myself out to the main room, I stood still with arms akimbo, staring blankly towards wherever my head directed to. With a slight change of sight, I was pensive, still with a dazed gaze, wondering what to do now. I went into the bedroom and sat on the bed, noticing the clock attached to the wall.

‘It's time to go,’ I mumbled. Packing my stuff, I felt like something was missing.

‘Radon, you there?’ I checked.

No answer. I tried to close my eyes to find a hint of him, but I just couldn't feel it.

Feeling anxious, I grabbed my belonging faster. I took no concern about my appearance right now. It was exactly the same as last night, except now that I was going outside, I put on a new pair of shoes. When I was ready to leave, I rechecked if I had everything that I needed, which was not many by any means. Aside from clothing, I brought along a knife weapon with its sheath covering it beside my left hips, attached to the belt, which I always kept in the hut for self-defence.

Gripping the pendant draped around my neck, that's when I noticed a crack on the once-obsidian-black orb. I took a glimpse only to see the orb had turned pale into somewhat coal black. I looked back across the room in search of any sign of trespasser, but there was none. Knowing nothing about the pendant, I tried not to think too much, and hid it back under my jacket.

With a determined emotion, I stepped outside the hut, ready to leave it all behind.

As it was planned, I was going to go to my house first. But a couple steps outwards the hut, I sensed a glare directed towards me, as if someone was watching over.

Over time, I realized it was not someone, but something. I gripped the knife to my left hip using my shaky right hand in case something was about to happen. Suddenly, my vision turned red.

In one smooth motion, I unsheathed the knife from its cover, then swung it in 360 degrees rotation with a pivot on my right foot, and facing back as a final stance. Or should I say, my body did it.

‘Can you not wake me to a life-threatening situation like this?!’ Radon yelled inside my mind.

As I was looking back, my vision turned back normal and I saw a gull divided by two with its blood fountained escaping the carcass. I took a look at my knife if it was actually me that performed it. Bloodstain could be traced along the blade, getting rid of my assumption of imagination and taking me back to reality.

“You.. did that?” I said hollowly to Radon with my stare fixed towards the corpse.

‘Of course. Who else could,’ he confirmed.

Something was odd with the dead body. In addition to the blood fountain, a red smoke emerged from it, as if some of the blood was evaporating.

Catching me being puzzled, Radon pointed out, ‘Now that, is aether.’

“How on earth does aether coming out of that mad bird?!” I shouted with no less puzzle.

‘You better get out of here. Quick. A horde of it might be coming this way.’

No way. This one bird had managed to drift in crazy swift movement targeting my head as its main objective. Lucky I had a vampire possessing me that could take over my body when needed. But aside from that, a horde of it would still be too much to ask.

Like I got a warning sign sent by my own body, I shifted my head to the right. Another bird whooshed by right next to me where my head previously was. With that kind of speed in a straight trajectory, I expected the bird to sink directly to the ground. Instead, it maneuvered mid-air with a single flap of its wing, and with another flutter, it drifted towards my face. My eyes widened in surprise before I squatted and covered my head with my both arms instinctively.

Waiting for nothing, I ran mindlessly towards the nearest road to find any commotion. As I started moving, everything else seemed to move in slow motion. Without I was realizing, my step extended exceedingly longer. With the sudden turn of event, I tripped and rolled over a couple of times. Surprisingly, the pain as the aftermath was so insignificant, I could start to run again with no problem.

While getting closer to the main road, I reduced my pace, turning my head left and right in the hope to find any group of people. However, the effort came to no avail. It was unrealistically vacant, even no footprint could be traced.

When my optimism was about to wear off, I heard a siren gradually getting louder. Standing on its course, I saw a police car approaching from afar. I hesitated for a moment, afraid that the police would recognize me, before I waved my hand overhead, ignoring any other possibilities as I knew I would be dealing with humans, rather than a flock of monster birds trying to snap my head.

The car slowed down and stopped right in front of me. An officer got out of the driver seat.

“Hey, kid, what are you doing at a vacated area?” a policeman with a familiar face asked with a curious tone.

I didn't know how I could remember, but it was the exact same police who participated in the pursuit. Seeing how small the town I was living in, I should've had expected if the person in charge would be the few same people rotating shift every day.

I trembled, but Radon's voice came in, soothing me, ‘Looking at his reaction, he probably doesn't know who you are. Stay calm.’

He's right. It was not the time to be uncertain. I had to appear convincing and everything would be alright.

“I─”

Before I was even able to start my sentence, the officer's partner came out of the front passenger seat, holding a rifle on his hands. As we turned our heads towards him, he started shooting upwards to the sky. I saw the birds' flock began screeching and flying back and forth.

“Hurry, kid! Get in the car!” the man that was talking to me shouted as he ran to the driver seat.

‘What's with everyone calling me kid,’ I babbled silently while entering the rear seat then closed the door in hurry.

The police who was operating the car stepped on the gas pedal fiercely, making the car accelerated abruptly, and all of us jerked back from the inertia. A series of thump noises could be heard, leaving dents on the car roof. The incident lasted quite some time before no more noise was audible as we drove farther further.

“My name is Officer Bradley and I was patrolling around here. What is your name and what was happening?” the driver introduced himself with a peek through the rear-view mirror.

“Uhh... I'm Fred,” I paused for a moment to think what to say next, “I was picking up things that I just remembered I left behind in my hut, and the time I came back my ride was gone,” I answered, giving them only one syllable of my last name and making things up.

“Fair enough. Next time you better be careful if you want to visit any vacated area. Ask for an accompany from a sorcerer, or at least an officer would also be sufficient. It was abandoned for a reason, you know,” he advised, causing relief in me as they believed my made-up story.

But a hint of confusion started bubbling inside my mind, ‘Sorcerer? What reason?’ as for asking these questions aloud would make things more complicated and solely getting myself trouble for being suspicious, I stayed silent and thanked him only.

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet. They asked me where I lived so they can escort me there. Without giving them details, I just told them the area in general and not my house number specifically.