“Are you sleeping?” Paval asked, slithering onto Mei’s bed, fully aware of the fact that she was not.

She sighed and sat up, glancing at the snake. “No. My brain won’t shut up… and I can’t wrap my head around everything that happened today.”  

Mei slid off the bed and wandered over to the window. The rain had cleared, leaving the sky full of stars. She traced them with her finger, trying to see if she could find any constellations. Her gaze was swiftly averted by a car down the road, it was stopped in the middle of the road, lights on. Mei stared at it for a while, seeing if it would move… The car did not move, and it kept lighting up the dark corner of the street.

“That’s strange,” she muttered to herself. 

“What is strange?” Paval slithered up her leg. 

“The car down there… It’s been there for a long time now, in the middle of the road, not moving. If it was waiting for someone at least it would have parked at the side of the road… Right?” Mei said with a worried tone. 

Paval narrowed his eyes. “Want me to go have a look?” He suggested. 

Mei nodded, though she had an uneasy feeling. Something was not right, and it was almost as if the trees themselves whispered it to her. She opened the window for the snake, letting him out onto the ledge. 

“Can you hear them? The trees? Indeed something strange has happened. Perhaps it is better if you came along, young witch… I am but a sssmall sssnake after all,” Paval said with his tongue sticking out. 

Mei let out a sigh, as if the day had not been strange enough. “Fine. Come back in, we’ll go out the front door. I don’t know why I’m doing this… My grandfather would scold me if he saw me going outside at this hour. Ugh. I’m a grown woman, right?”

Paval slithered back inside, up Mei’s arm. He didn’t mention the blood he had smelt in the air, nor the hint of something not human nor animal which he had caught a whiff of. 

Mei opened her room door in the most gentle way possible, carefully walking down the stairs without making a sound. The house was quiet at night, only the sound of crickets from outside could be heard. She held her breath as she very slowly unlocked the outer door and then the security gate, holding the rest of the keys tightly in her hand so they didn’t jingle and rattle. 

Paval was coiled around her upper arm as they walked out of the house, she found her too small slippers and took a deep breath. She had to open the gate as quietly as she could before she could get to the street. 

“Still yourself. Your heartbeat betrays you. Take a few deep breaths and become one with the night,” Paval whispered in her ear. 

Mei stopped and breathed deep, feeling the ground beneath her, the trees swaying in the wind, and the crickets in the grass. To her surprise everything was open to her, it was as if nature itself leaned into her. 

Another deep breath. 

“Op-EN yo-UR E-ye-S. S-Ee m-E.” It spoke to her. A rumble from the deep. Words nearly incoherent. Why did it feel like it was inside of her, coiling around her soul? 

“I can’t do this.” Mei stumbled back, breathing fast, clutching her chest. 

Paval narrowed his eyes. “You’re doing fine. It is the serpent trying to break free from its prison. Don’t listen to it, don’t let it in.” 

Mei shook her head and opened the gate slowly, her hands trembling as she did. Why was she listening to the snake? Why was she still going along with this? Her feet carried her quietly toward the car. 

“Hello?” She said softly, suddenly noticing that the car window was broken on the driver side. 

Mei peeked inside the car, no one was there, only shattered glass. Her eyes shifted around the street until she noticed a man lying face down by the drain at the side of the road. Her heart beat faster as she walked closer. 

“Hello?” She said again, nervously this time, thinking she should have never come out here. 

“I smell something,” Paval remarked and slithered down to the ground. 

“What do you smell?” Mei took a step backward, glancing desperately from side to side. 

She froze. A hand suddenly grabbed a hold of her neck from the back, tightly squeezing. 

“What is this? Another little prey?” The Prince grinned, speaking in a tongue Mei did not understand. 

“Don’t you dare do anything,” Paval hissed at The Prince. 

He chuckled. “Aren’t you an adorable little creature. Perhaps you can tell me where I am?” 

Mei jammed her elbow into his stomach, swiftly turning around and freeing herself from his grip. She felt quite happy about those self-defence classes her grandfather had made her take now. 

“Get lost. You’ve already hurt one person, haven’t you?” Mei tried to sound tough, glancing around for a stick to use as a weapon if she needed to. 

The Prince stared at her, showing his fangs as he did, he did not understand a word of her language. “Seems like I am indeed in a different place…” 

“You are not in your world anymore. This is Earth, and you better think twice before doing anything to her. You are both a part of the same,” Paval raised his voice, speaking in the prince’s language. 

“Earth? Never heard of it. What do you mean we are both a part of the same? What nonsense is this?” The Prince furrowed his eyebrows, annoyed at the small snake. 

Mei swallowed hard and stared at Paval. “What language is he speaking? Is he some psycho serial killer tourist? I really don’t wanna end up dead here.”

Paval slithered up her leg again. “No. He is from another world altogether. There are other worlds, all connected through veins that pulse with the energy of Lys and Myrk. The serpent is as much a threat to their worlds as ours, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I can see it clearly, this being has come here for a reason.” Paval paused and glanced at The Prince, telling him in his language. “You might be dark, stranger, but you are part of a whole which contains both the light and the dark and everything in between.”

“Is this snake making any sense to you? What is this constant nonsense about light and dark? I don’t care about these things… I am merely searching for my wife,” The Prince grunted and locked eyes with Mei, who did not understand a word he was saying. 

But Mei could feel his hostility melting away. “Uh- Is there any way I can understand what he’s saying?” She asked Paval, pushing her long dark hair behind her ears, feeling slightly relieved that he didn’t seem to want to attack her anymore.

“You could try to connect to him, as you would the trees and the earth…” Paval suggested.

Mei took a shallow breath and tried to feel the strange man’s energy, the life essence that flowed through him. It was not as easy as the plants or even the crickets around them, yet after a while she could feel something within him; the low beating of his heart, the pulse of his soul like a night sky full of faint stars. 

The Prince yawned and stretched his arms up, looking up at the stars. “Well, well. What a predicament. What is this whole we are a part of, little snake?” He glanced at Paval, partly intrigued, partly annoyed. 

To Mei’s surprise she could understand his words, whatever language it was that he spoke. Not because she understood the language, but because she now understood him deeply. 

“The Midnight Hand. You are five in total, and you were the ones to put the serpent away the first time, though you were different people then. It is bound to you, and you are bound to it. So it will be up to you five to put it back to sleep once again,” Paval explained calmly to the Prince, before repeating the same words to Mei. 

The Prince and Mei fell silent, feeling a certain truth in what the snake had just told. 

“Did you kill that man?” Mei asked the Prince, confident that he could understand her now too, through the connection she had made. 

He narrowed his eyes and stared at her. “How curious, I can comprehend your words… Magic, huh? Well, well. I suppose you’re not some ordinary human being,” the Prince remarked with a grin. “Fine, I did kill the man. I was hungry and he hit me with this horrid metal beast he was inside.” 

Mei sighed, glancing at Paval. “That’s a big problem. You can’t just kill people like this… The police will come, it will be a whole thing. I can’t deal with this. Talking to you might just make me an accomplice, right?” She felt herself spiraling at the thought, and the poor man on the side of the road, what about his family? It was not like it was her problem, was it? 

“This is all irrelevant in the grand scheme of things,” Paval remarked, slithering down to the ground again, examining the body. 

The Prince straightened himself, scowling at Mei. “I don’t understand most of the things you said, my dear, but either way it is fine. Now where are your lodgings? I wish to refresh myself.” 

“You can’t come inside. I can’t just bring some strange man into the house, my grandfather will throw a fit,” Mei exclaimed and threw her hands up in the air. 

Paval ignored them both, still investigating the body. There was no helping it, they couldn't leave it at the side of the road right next to the drain like this. Swiftly the snake unhinged his jaw, slowly swallowing the body bit by bit, or rather transporting the body into another space. 

Mei stared at Paval in disbelief, wondering how such a tiny snake could fit such a big body. “What are you doing?” 

The snake didn’t reply, he was too busy getting rid of the body. Which made Mei feel even more uneasy, what had she gotten herself into? She bit her lip, suddenly becoming aware of the fact that she was wearing a mouse shirt and shorts, and no make-up. Her eyes drifted to the strange man, what was he? Who was he really? Her fingers tugged at her shorts, wishing they were longer and more presentable. 

Paval’s jaw went back into place once he had finished with the body and he slithered back to Mei. “I thought it best if it disappeared. You both are needed. Don’t worry, I did not actually consume it, I sent it to another realm.” The snake slithered up her leg and onto her arm again. 

“Curious creature…” The Prince muttered, taking a closer look at the snake. 

“Oh, he said he sent the body to another realm. Whatever that means. I’m very new to all this and it makes no sense to me whatsoever,” Mei told the Prince, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. 

“It is making more and more sense to me. Strangely I think I can comprehend the situation quite well.” He stopped and turned away from both of them. “But if I am to be a part of this Midnight Hand, I don’t do anything for free, little snake…” 

Paval’s tongue tasted the air. “I have nothing to offer, neither does she. But before we speak further, Mei, you must move the car from the road, don’t touch anything with your bare hands and park it somewhere quiet.” 

Mei nodded reluctantly, swallowing hard as she eyed the car. “Can I borrow your… cape?” She asked the Prince. “I need to cover my hands when I move the car, and umm, I don’t have anything…” 

“It’s tattered anyway, take it.” The Prince handed it to her with a grin. He wondered why it mattered so much to cover your hands, but didn’t ask any further. Different world, different rules. For a moment he felt a sense of excitement to be in a place completely unknown to him. 

Mei quietly moved the car, leaving Paval with the Prince. She had covered herself in the fabric, making sure to leave no fingerprints behind if anyone came searching. The night was quiet, no other cars on their small street at this hour, which made everything easier. 

“Have you met anyone else of the five?” The Prince asked Paval. 

The snake shook his little head. “Not yet. I arrived here just yesterday anyway. We haven’t had time for much yet. Your familiar did not find you?” 

The Prince raised an eyebrow. “I did not see any familiar.” 

Mei came running back toward both of them. “It’s done, and I'm dead tired. I need to sleep, and no, you’re not coming inside the house, at least not until the morning,” she told the Prince sternly. 

“So, I’m supposed to wait out here?” He questioned with great annoyance. 

Mei nodded. “Hide somewhere until I come get you after my grandfather goes out in the morning, alright? What’s your name anyway? I’m Mei.” She half-smiled at him. 

“Pleasure to meet you, Mei. I am Naro, Prince of Hinth, which is not of this world. I shall wait. What else can I do? My hunger has been sated so I shall be good and hide myself under those trees over there until morning comes,” he said elegantly as he took her hand and kissed the back of it. 

Mei took a step back before jolting back to the house with Paval around her arm. Her heart kept pounding, half terrified, half excited.