"RUBY, you have blood on your shirt!"

"What?" Rubena checked her shirt for blood, and there it was. It was clear as day. Emma had spotted it while eating a sandwich in the kitchen. Emma's face was utterly disoriented because she could also smell it. It was fresh?! Rubena covered her mouth in shock.

"I don't understand. How could this have happened?" Rubena asked.

"Don't know. Go to the bathroom and scrub that mess before your mom returns." Emma replied. Rubena frowned. "Right. Or maybe it could've been some fruit juice. Still weird, though..."

Rubena ran upstairs and went to her bathroom. She filled the bathtub with water, got bar soap, and scrubbed. It took her twenty-five minutes to get it all out. Luckily, this wasn't a white shirt. It was blue. She put the blue shirt in the dryer and changed into her Captain Marvel shirt.

She returned downstairs and continued watching a romance film with Emma while eating. Emma talked about how her boyfriend could relate to the film's protagonist, which made Rubena laugh.

When the movie ended, Rubena's mom, Penny, returned and asked them how they were doing. "Fine." Both said—even though what had happened an hour ago made them feel horrible.

2

A week later, on Sunday, Rubena and Emma decided to ride their bikes around their hometown of Crimson. It was still hard for Rubena to adapt to Emma's speed with cycles. She was just simply faster.

As they passed a gas station, Rubena felt something warm underneath her pink sweatshirt. They stopped their bikes on the sidewalk. Rubena removed her sweatshirt and checked her white T-shirt. It had blood on it.

"Emma, come. I have blood on my shirt again. Where did it even come from?! Do you smell it?" Rubena said as she got off her bike. Rubena placed the palm of her hand on the blood and put it near Emma's nose so she could smell it. Emma's face became disoriented once again as she reluctantly took a whiff.

"Out of all the shirts you could pick, why did you pick a white shirt?" Emma asked.

"I don't know. I just thought that it was a coincidence last time. Clearly, I was wrong." Rubena awkwardly put on her sweatshirt. Her frustration was not unnoticed.

"Well, yeah, something isn't right. I don't even remember smelling blood on your shirt when we hopped on our bikes."

"Exactly. I'm turning around and heading straight home to clean this up again."

"Sure, but isn't your mom home? Won't she smell it when you enter?"

"I know, but what other choice do I have but to clean this up? People will think I'm a killer if someone else walks by and smells this in public."

"I don't want you to take all the heat from this situation, so...."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to get mixed up with my mom's attitude. Okay? I'll text you when everything has settled."

"Gotcha."

They went their separate ways.

Rubena rode her bike back home, thinking about how her mother would react if she smelt blood on her shirt.

Forget it. There's no turning back now. I'll just have to hope it goes unnoticed.

When Rubena entered the house, she strolled into the living room—where her mom was finishing a novel that she had picked up from the Apple County Public Library. It was a romance novel called Immortal Fiancé. Since she didn't have to work on Sundays, besides monitoring her clients, she had a decent amount of free time—besides her regular tasks to keep the house clean.

Penny looked up from her book and took off her glasses. "Where's Emma? I thought she would come back and stay a little longer." Penny said. Rubena walked around the couch and took her textbook from the glass table.

"She said that she had changed her mind. That's all. I'm going to do the laundry a little early if that's fine with you." Rubena said.

"Just a small batch? You got something dirty already?"

"Nothing too big, just a small stain."

"Alright then. Carry on." Penny put on her glasses and continued reading the novel.

3

It was 3 PM, and Rubena had already done most of her chores before riding with Emma. She walked out of the kitchen and took small breaths. She strolled upstairs and made a left turn to the laundry room. She took off her bloody sweatshirt and put it in the washing machine. She went to her room, took all her dirty clothes, and put them in the machine. She started the washing machine; she felt a sense of relief.

Walking back to her room, she thought taking an early shower was a good idea.

If my mom asks, I'll just tell her that it was because I needed to be refreshed after sweating on that bike ride—that's all.

She felt something was wrong when she removed her clothes and jumped in the shower. What if the shower head pours out blood instead of water just out of the blue? After fifteen minutes, she stopped the shower head, took her towel, and got out.

Walking over to the sink, she stared at her forehead in the mirror. Even after she had just taken a quick shower, the presence of blood never seemed to leave her. Uncoincidentally, some slid down the middle of her forehead onto her nose. She turned on the faucet and wiped her face again. Finally, the blood was gone, and right when Rubena thought she could finish her day without causing her mother to think of anything suspicious—she had thought wrong.

4

It is 4 PM, and Rubena had just finished all her five assignments except her math homework. She thought about calling Emma to help with some math but tossed the thought away because she realized it would only cause Emma to bring up their paranormal situation.

      Of course, all factors considered, if any other supernatural event were to happen right now, she would be obligated to tell her mother the truth about what she believed was really going on—which was nothing. Her mother wouldn't be any more clueless than her if she told her about the "blood" incidents she kept secret for about a week. She sighed.

As she put her pencil down, she heard the noise the washing machine always made when it was done with its load. She sluggishly got out of bed and walked out of her room.

She went straight for the laundry room and noticed that the interior of the washing machine door was covered with blood. She froze. An unpleasant taste came into her mouth, followed by a need to use the restroom to flush down whatever sickness was triggered by looking at the washing machine.

Great god almighty—if mom...

But it was too late. Penny was already making her way up the stairs. Her footsteps were distinguished, like how a child could tell the difference between their mother walking upstairs or their best friend just by the sound and sequence of their footsteps...Rubena quickly turned around and headed for her bedroom—only to be stopped by her mother once she had reached the top of the stairs.

"Are you going to put your laundry in the dryer, or do I have to do it for you?" she said tiresomely.

"I actually have a couple of problems to finish for homework. I...I'll do it later."

"If you can't do it now, I understand. I'll just do it for you, and you can sort out the clothes once it's done in the dryer."

"NO...I mean, it's fine. I'll put clothes...I mean." Rubena stuttered. Penny strolled to the laundry room, and Rubena felt helpless in stopping her from doing so. Rubena bit her nails so vigorously that it would've put a woodchuck to shame. Penny bent over and looked at the interior of the washing machine door. She raised her eyebrows.

"...What's this?" Penny asked as she straightened up. Rubena shrugged.

"I don't know where that stuff came from. I just used Tide and Shout. That's all."

"Well, clearly, you did something wrong." Penny opened the washing machine door. Rubena could tell that she was agitated. Penny took out one of the red-stained shirts and smelt it. Within a split second, her whole face transformed into an expression of utter terror. She let go of the shirt and watched as it landed on the carpet, hoping that what she had just smelt wasn't blood.

"Ruby...what did I just smell?"

"Blood, I think," Rubena replied. Penny began to sweat all over her face.

When she wiped her forehead with the palm of her hand and looked deeper at the blood, she felt like gagging. The stench that it left behind was almost unbearable. Trying to remove her mind from the stench only led to her smelling it somewhere else: the ceiling. She looked up and saw bloody spots over their beautifully painted white ceiling. Taking two steps back, she bumped into Rubena and almost tripped.

"The hell is going on here? Ruby, I will ask you again, was this your doing? Was it Emma's? Is this a prank?" Penny asked.

Rubena shook her head. Penny could tell that she was telling the truth and that Rubena was just as confused. Penny sighed. "Go to your room and shut the door. I'm calling the police." She said as she walked to her bedroom to grab her purse.

If this wasn't Rubena or Emma's doing, then both potentially had a stranger in the house. Was the stranger hiding in the house now, or had they been here yesterday in the middle of the night—only to break in and vandalize their property after taking some stuff with them? It didn't make any sense.

Could it have been a spirit, demon, or ghost? Ironically enough, either one of those ideas seemed more logical than someone breaking into their house just to put some blood in their washing machine products and ceiling.

Perhaps...Something had sent Rubena in a spirit of shock. She tumbles down and trembles. Her saliva turns into foam, and her eyes roll back. When the trembling stops, she vomits blood, causing some of it to land on her shirt. Penny shoves her bedroom door open, using her phone to call 911, and gasps at the incomprehensible creature hovering over her.

The roles have been reversed, as only one dominant creature exists. A beast that had refused to bear any malice in the presence of weak prey.

"Ruby...no...no...RUBY!!!"

5

It is 4:30 PM. Jack and Ardyce are on their way to the woman's house.

Jack: "Hold on, ma'am—you're telling me that out of nowhere, you discovered blood on your ceiling? Now you're telling me that blood is appearing everywhere in your house? What about your daughter? Is she okay? Okay, okay, I get it. Stay right where you are. We're only four minutes away. Keep us on the line."

Jack put the woman on mute. He looked at Ardyce and watched as she rolled her eyes and did that thing with her tongue—that smacking sound. God, was that annoying.

"So, what did dat woman say?" Ardyce asked.

"Blood. There's blood appearing all over her house out of nowhere. Honestly, to me, it sounds like bullshit. I think she just murdered her daughter, and now she's planning for a setup to kill both of us when we arrive. Should we call in more forces?"

"You're overthinking it. If anything, she's traumatized by an intruder or something."

"Tell that to the case one of our pals had in Apple Town."

"I'll tell it however I want...wait, crap...." Ardyce had missed her turn. She drove a little more, checked to see if no vehicle was coming, and made a quick U-turn. Going fifty miles an hour on these crapy roads filled with potholes was a good idea if you wanted to blow all your tires out instantly.

When Ardyce made a right turn into the neighborhood where the woman and daughter lived, slowing down her speed (still above the average rate for driving in communities, though), she had glimpsed a dark and bald humanoid figure, eyes as white as dumplings, staring at her from one of the first-floor windows in the front of the house that they were supposed to go in.

"What was that?!" Ardyce yelled.

She stopped the car fifty feet from the house. Jack briefly put his hand on his Glock but gradually moved it out of the way once he realized that there was no immediate danger.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

Ardyce watched as the figure gradually disappeared out of sight, making the garnet curtains the only thing that was left to see through the windows of the house. She didn't realize it, but she had been shaking the entire time.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"You were right...we need to call for more reinforcements. If we go in that house, w-we'll die...."

"How...wait. Ma'am? Okay, okay, we're coming in right now, don't panic."

Jack made a hand gesture telling Ardyce to get out of the car with him so they could knock on the door.

Ardyce mouthed, "NO."

Jack sighed and opened the car door. As he got out of the car, he pulled out his Glock. He jogged to the porch.

"JACK! Get back in the car...." Ardyce said as she got out of the car and followed him.

Jack reached the front porch and saw blood stains everywhere. He frowned. He put his arm in front of Ardyce, causing her to stop. Out of instinct, Jack turned around and shot the monster sneaking up behind them.

"HOLY..." Ardyce began but was decapitated when the monster instantly recovered and struck back.

Jack cursed under his breath and kicked open the front door. It wasn't until he felt something pierce through his gut that he realized all his efforts were futile.

As he fell face first on the floor with all his senses beginning to fade except for his hearing, the last thing he heard was a smacking sound—the same sound that Ardyce always made when she was frustrated.

Next door, a seven-year-old boy and his parents watched from the second floor of their house as the monster dragged the bodies of the police officers into the house that the monster guarded and shut the front door. They can hear sounds of objects breaking in the house as the monster rips the bodies limb from limb. Twenty seconds later, they hear munching sounds.

Those neighbors weren't the only ones that saw the monster—everyone else in the neighborhood also saw it and called 911. But for the seven-year-old boy, what was seen can't be unseen, and ten years later, he will fall asleep and never wake up.