It was a busy day at the Gilbert-Torres School of Management. Twenty-year-old freshman Skylar Reinigen was already at the entrance of the building when Jason Einhardt, one of her classmates in social studies, approached her from behind and put his arm around her shoulders.
“Hey, hottie, you coming to the party later?”
“No, I have other plans,” she replied while shoving him off of her.
“So, you’re one of those rich and snobby types, huh? You’ll fold soon enough,” he exclaimed.
There were tons of students walking on the university grounds. The frat houses were stacked with food, beverages, and maybe even some brownies here and there as the annual Firecracker Night is set to begin in less than a few hours. Firecracker Night is a yearly tradition of the university fraternities to entice the new students to join their houses.
As the students clamored over the joy and excitement of their first college party; waiting to lose themselves throughout the night, Skylar proceeded on her way back to her apartment; picking up her pace through this bustling atmosphere.
She reached the campus parking lot and entered her car. She checks her mirrors and adjusts the rear-view mirror towards herself. As she sees her reflection; her long black hair, pointed nose, thin red lips, and gray eyes, she slowly starts to caress her face as her head starts to fill with different thoughts. When she suddenly realizes what she was doing, she shakes her head, starts the car, and drives off.
As she reached her apartment door, she felt a sense of relief as the long and tiring day is already behind her. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see a clean apartment.
“I guess they sent cleaners today,” she said to herself as she enters her home.
She looks around, everything is in their place unlike the way she left it this morning. Her dirty clothes were laid out and hung neatly in the dresser, her books were back on the shelves; everything was back in place.
She looks toward the kitchen counter and sees her favorite beef stew along with several side dishes with a note on the side.
“We haven’t said goodbye before you left so we made sure to get you some special cleaners. Don't worry, they aren't actually new cleaners, we sent Rachel and Julie,” the note stated.
Rachel and Julie are both her childhood friends from back home. They are the daughters of their maid and are very dear to Skylar before she left home. They used to share stories with each other and hangout in Skylar’s bedroom late at night when everyone was asleep. Skylar looks to the distance and takes a deep breath.
“Are they all right, back there? Hopefully they find other jobs and leave that house as well. This is probably their way of checking up on me without them having to ask me themselves,” she said to herself out loud.
After she eats the stew and finishes it clean, she leaves the plate and utensils on the kitchen sink and makes her way to the bathroom. She was taking off her clothes when she saw the scar in the middle of her chest and traced it slowly with her fingers. When she gets out of the shower, she immediately collapsed on her bed without even changing out of her bathrobe and she starts to slumber.
A few minutes had already passed when a strong gust of wind suddenly blew through her hair. When she opens her eyes, she sees a vast terrain of sand and a blue, cloudless sky.
Suddenly, the ground starts to shake as the sand starts forming a cyclone.
“A sandstorm?” Skylar said to herself.
The sand continued to swirl in the air as it slowly formed a shape. She looks up and sees an old man formed from the sand. He had a long beard and hair that reached his bum, and he wore a long robe that covered his feet. The man was about 20 feet tall; its eyes didn’t have pupils which made it even more menacing as it casts a shadow over Skylar.
Skylar was frozen in place, her eyes wide open. As the gigantic man’s hand slowly start to reach for her, she screams in terror and starts to run away. The hand connects with the sand behind Skyler. The impact hurls her a few feet and knocks her out. As she comes to, she hears a voice faintly speaking.
“I might have overdone it. But she was chosen so I thought she’d be a bit more courageous and defend herself,” the voice said.
Skylar opens her eyes and sees that the large figure had turned into a regular-sized man. She shakes her head and looks towards the sand-shaped man. Beside the man was a little ball of sand which could fit in a person's palm. It has small eyes and small wings. It's legs flapped around like small fish-fins, and it had a short little tail.
“So that was all for kicks, huh?” she said to him as she dusted herself off; picking herself up from the ground.
“Oh, good, you’re awake. I apologize for giving you a fright earlier, I just thought that I’d test you from the start, to see where your abilities are so we can improve on them,” he said to her as he shrugs.
“Who on earth wouldn’t be freaked out by a gigantic sand-man trying to eat you?” She exclaimed.
“I wasn’t trying to eat you or anything, I was trying to test how you’ll handle yourself in a battle,”
“I have never fought in my life, why would I know such a thing?” She replied.
“Well, you were chosen by the Scythe, the Scythe is never wrong.”
“Scythe? What Scythe?” She asked.
The skies suddenly turn dark as the thunder’s roar echoes across the desert. Then a lightning bolt struck in front of Skylar creating a cloud of dust. As the dust cleared, a black-bodied scythe with a gold accent appeared.
“Your Scythe, of course.”
Skylar was taken aback by the mysterious scythe in front of her. She inspects it thoroughly and slowly starts to realize that it was the scythe from her dream yesterday. As thoughts slowly envelope her mind, she looks on to the power that she wielded in yesterday’s dream.
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