“Thanks again,” Ellura said. “Enjoy your weekend.” 

Ellura left Arian’s apartment and went downstairs. Reaching the landlord’s office door, she looked around to ensure the hall was empty. A low, golden glow enveloped her head as her short white hair grew down her back and darked to black—the same length and color as Arian’s. Turning to slightly obscure her face, she pounded on the door frantically.

“Tena, it’s an emergency!” Ellura yelled. “My toilet is flooding the second floor!”

Almost immediately, her ears welcomed the sound of the door unlocking.

As soon as the door began to peek open, Ellura smiled and executed a powerful push kick. The door was flung inward, and the old woman who had been opening it toppled to the ground. As Ellura walked into the doorway, her hair morphed back to her short white bob. She approached the old woman lying on the ground with casual movements, but her eyes were filled with hatred.

“Hey, sis,” she said sweetly, “it’s so nice to see you again.”

As she spoke, she raised her leg, and then brought it down hard on the old woman’s prone body.

After Ellura left her apartment, Arian changed clothes to head to the dojo. Her primary purpose was to see Ray, but she might as well do some training while she was there. She had a dojo locker with her training uniforms, so she dressed lightly for the walk over. 

Simple black, high-waisted exercise shorts, her favorite black sports bra, and a thin grey cropped jacket. She pulled her long black hair into a ponytail and then put a baseball cap on. After sliding on simple black shoes, she transferred her essentials into a fanny pack. Peak underwhelming utilitarian sports fashion. 

As she walked down the stairs, Arian heard a loud crash. She froze mid-step. Had the sound come from upstairs or downstairs? More aggressive yelling began, and the dangerous tone made Arian’s nervous system activate. Her breathing quickened and her palms felt clammy. She registered the sounds as coming from the first floor. Her pace quickened the rest of the way down, and as she got closer the screams became coherent.

“SEND ME BACK!” a voice screamed, fringe insanity registering in its tone.

Wham! Crack!

“Going back only makes you more of a psychopath!”

The unhinged voice screamed in frustration, and the sound was followed by more crashing. Arian was shocked to see the landlord’s office door completely ajar, this violence coming from a room that was rarely open. 

Though she was a tenant of the apartment complex, Arian had only been in that room for a grand total of five minutes, just to get the keys to the building and her apartment. Miss Tena did everything digitally and was an absolute hermit the rest of the time. Arian ran to the door and saw the most unexpected thing.

Her boss was assaulting her geriatric landlord.

The shock of the situation made her pause, her brain unable to compute what was happening. Arian was an experienced fighter and delays in reaction time meant a loss in the ring, and worse outside of it, but her brain registered something here as unnatural. 

She had watched hundreds of fights, but normal cause-and-effect was not working. None of the attacks were resulting in the consequences that Arian’s brain knew should be happening.

What on earth was happening? 

Ellura and her ancient landlord were catfighting, attacking and deflecting at a rapid pace. Tena blocked a clawed hand scratching at her face and returned with a counter punch that broke Ellura’s nose. Arian was astonished at the vigor of the old woman, and a bit stunned that her form was so fantastic. 

Blood streamed from Ellura’s nose, and it was badly misshapen. Her face started to glow as the twisted cartilage and bone on her face began to … rewind? The nose seemed to reverse itself back into position. There was still blood on her face, but her nose had stopped bleeding when it returned to its pristine condition.

Rage reaching another level, Ellura threw Tena across the room into the wall. When her withered body hit with a thud, a strange golden rectangle manifested across the surface. Ellura rushed to her prey, grabbing Tena by the throat, and repeatedly slammed the back of her head against the wall. With every aggressive hit, the golden lines around the door solidified and spidered into an ornate pattern.

Worried that her boss was going to murder an elderly woman in front of her eyes, her frozen state lifted. Arian ran in the room and grabbed Ellura from behind. Bringing her arms down hard on Ellura’s elbows to pin them to her body, Arian pulled her away from the old woman. Tena was alive but slid to the floor like a sack of potatoes, her eyes distant as if coming back from a brief state of unconsciousness.

A furious scream pierced Arian’s ears as she pulled Ellura away from the old woman. She was writhing and twisting to get free. Eventually Ellura got her leg up high enough to push off the wall, sending Arian off balance enough to escape the hold. Arian thought she would run at the old woman again, but Ellura turned to face her. Her normally brown eyes were furious, and they shimmered at the edges with a vivid gold. 

Ellura punched, but Arian took a small step moving out of range. Pressing forward, Ellura tried to drive Arian backwards as she punched again. This time Arian caught her wrist and held it with an iron grip. Ellura tried punching with her other arm, and Arian caught it as well. 

With both arms caught, Ellura had brought her leg up preparing to do a push kick. This would send Arian out of the doorway, potentially locking her out of the encounter. Arian realized the punches had been bait, so she did one of her favorite things.

She swept the leg.

With Ellura’s standing leg no longer connected to the ground, she began to fall. To Arian’s surprise, Ellura countered. She grabbed Arian’s arms and turned the fall into a backwards roll. She pulled Arian with her, and Ellura’s foot that was pulled high for the interrupted kick found Arian’s stomach. 

In the middle of the backwards somersault, Ellura extended her leg and launched Arian off her. Arian prepared to hit the wall as she was sailing through the air, but the flight took oddly long. Her thoughts began to wander.

Does this mean I’m going to get fired?

I hope I don’t land on Miss Tena.

Is she going to kick me out for letting Dr. Sunabe into the building?

I am so glad no one from the dojo saw that.

I need to take this fight more seriously than I expected.

Why haven’t I hit the wall yet?

Arian was looking at the room upside down as she flew, but realized that the room was getting smaller, as if moving away from her. Black began to fill the edges of her vision as the landlord’s office continued to shrink away, until she was staring at a tiny glowing door. 

Rotating through space as she fell, the small golden pinprick of light rolled out of sight, and Arian was enveloped by an all-encompassing dark abyss.