Bianca Dawson was the prettiest girl in school—and she would be surrounded by guys right now if only… she could act a little softer.
"You? Liking me? Have you ever looked in a mirror before?"—that's what she'd say whenever someone tried to confess to her.
"Not even in my worst nightmare."
"Wow. You really looked at me and thought, 'Yeah, I have a shot.'"
"Is this part of a punishment game? Because I feel like I'm the one being punished here."
"Ew…"
The guys hated and feared her. The girls mocked and feared her. In short? Bianca was the kind of figure that could easily symbolize both nightmare and despair for anyone daring to like her.
And now… she sent me a love letter?
[... my chest tightens every time I think of you—someone I can never have.]
"Pfft… okay, this is gonna be the big thing for the next few weeks if it spreads."
Unlike Theo who was already giggling, Fletcher patted my shoulder and shook his head with a grim face. "Cain, buddy, this is a test. You need to make the wisest decision possible. My advice? Don't go."
So, naturally, I go.
First, I could see the amount of effort Bianca—or whoever was behind this—put into that letter. And I thought I should at least give a proper reply as a form of respect.
Second, Fletcher's warning sounded so bizarre, so ridiculous, and so cringe that I had absolutely no intention of obeying it.
She asked me to meet her at the school gate. It was the exit that hadn't been opened—not even once—since the day I first got here.
I saw her in the distance—brown hair, back turned, fidgeting nervously. Her usual oversized pink sweatshirt, which most people found cute, now just looked awkward.
"Hey," I said. Softly, but loud enough to startle her.
Bianca blinked as if she couldn't believe she was looking at me. "Y-you really came?"
Okay, that was new. We were in the same class, and as class president, I'd interacted with her a few times. But in every one of those interactions, she'd always been blunt. The kind of girl who never stuttered.
"You were the one who called me, right?"
"Ah, y-yeah… right." She scratched the back of her neck. Then fell silent. For one second. Ten seconds. A whole minute.
I cleared my throat. "So… was there something you wanted to talk about?"
"Y-yeah. Umm." She looked shaky and glanced around nervously.
I… was starting to get scared. Was she possessed by a ghost or something?
Okay. Ghosts aren't real. And if anyone here fits the description of a demon… it's me.
"Actually, I—"
THUD!
Cold. That was the first thing I felt. As if snow had suddenly fallen and the season had changed. And then I heard them—short, dragging footsteps.
It sounded more like a fish flopping than actual footsteps. Wet, slightly vibrating, and… deliberate.
And Bianca's expression changed. From nervous, uncertain, and slightly blushing to… pale. Her eyes widened, and her mouth hung open.
Curious about what she was seeing, I turned around—
And was struck by a massive object.
It was heavy. Huge. Big enough to cover and crush me instantly. Something thick dripped down along with it. The smell was metallic.
Wait. Metallic? That smell—
This… this isn't an object.
This is…Theo's body!
I shoved Theo aside on instinct. His eyes were open, but he seemed unconscious. There was a hole in his chest no smaller than a clenched fist, with blood pouring out violently.
BUMP!
Bianca collapsed. She hadn't been attacked. No injuries. No blood. She was still conscious—but her face was pale, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
I turned toward where she was looking and—
I saw the monster.
Over two meters tall, maybe more. Its body scaled like a reptile, green, with a bald, human-like head coated in yellow membranes that oozed black, misty slime.
"Again!" it said. "Again! Give me death again! Give me pain again! Give me fear again!"
"Again! Again! Again! Again! Again! Again! Again! Again! Again! Again!"
Shit. What's happening? Did a Gate open somewhere? Doesn't the school have alarms that automatically ring when they appear?
And the monster's eyes locked onto Bianca. She realized it too—and let out a small hiccup. "Eungh." She couldn't speak. She didn't even have the courage to scream.
Especially not when the monster opened its mouth and licked the strange membranes on its head. "Again…" The monster stepped closer. Its footsteps throbbed with a disgusting, intrusive rhythm that clashed with my already crumbling mind.
Clenching my teeth and remembering what Mama Fiona taught me, I rose to charge at it.
Or at least, tried to.
The monster didn't budge—it blocked my full weight with one hand. Then, it threw me backward.
I rolled across asphalt, grass, and finally crashed into the base of an old, rusted iron gate.
Pain gripped my back and made my eyes shoot open, but an even stronger emotion overtook me when I heard those vibrating steps approaching again.
Fear.
Something yanked my hair, lifting my head roughly to face the monster's disgusting face. "Again?"
Its breath reeked of sulfur, glue, and urine. It made me dizzy. And gave me a strange hallucination—as if the monster was smiling. Laughing at how I curled up in fear.
And then it began slamming my head into the ground. Once. Twice. Three times.
Then, it hurled me against the iron beam. Now the pain was everywhere. I could only move my jaw. Am I really this weak?
"Again?" The monster crouched and bared its fangs. "A… gain?"
And for a brief, bizarre moment, I saw something behind it. A shadow. Something that looked like me—but twisted.
Its hair was half-gray, half-black. One of its eyes lacked a sclera and instead had a strange, glowing yellow iris with nothing but black around it—like a beast. And there was a wing. Just one. Broken. Darker than darkness itself.
It walked past the monster, approached me, crouched down, and whispered: "EMBRACE."
At that moment, something clicked in me.
My body felt weightless.
My mind was filled with brilliant ideas, revelations— about how to destroy this monster, how to destroy my enemies, how to destroy this damn world.
"DO IT."
And I struck back.
My fist hit the monster square in the chest—piercing it. Blasting a hole straight through.
"M-my Lie—" There was disbelief in its eyes. And even as I withdrew my now blood-soaked hand, the monster didn't attack again.
It was like all its energy, all its bloodlust—vanished. Like it had lost its will to kill. Like it had… lost its purpose.
The monster stared as I rose. As I stood tall. And in its wild, feral, malicious eyes—I saw an expression no monster should ever show a human being.
It bowed. Knelt before me. Lowered its head so deeply in front of me.
"My Liege!"
Before I could even begin to process what just happened— The monster crumbled into dust. Tiny fragments.
The monster… was dead.
II turned—and found Bianca, watching it all.
#
A few hours later, the police arrived—followed by an ambulance and several nearby strong Hunters.
Of course, among those Hunters… were my moms.
"Cain!"
While I was sitting inside one of the ambulances receiving first aid (which, honestly, I didn't even need), I heard a voice I knew all too well. A voice I desperately needed in a moment like this.
And before I could even turn fully around, someone had already wrapped me in a tight embrace. A soothing lavender scent wafted from her brown coat, and I felt dampness on my back.
"Thank goodness… thank goodness…" Mama Enna began sobbing softly as she clung to me.
Meanwhile, Mama Val just let out a sigh and smiled. Her eyes were glassy too, but she held back her tears more firmly.
"They said you were the one who beat it?" Mama Val asked with a teasing tone, though there was a faint tremble of sadness behind it.
I snorted and played along, not wanting to darken the mood. "With one punch."
"Impressive."
"That's not impressive!" Mama Enna suddenly pulled away from the hug, her eyes still puffy. She looked back and forth between me and Mama Val. "That's terrifying!"
Mama Val scratched her cheek and gave me a look that clearly begged for backup. "Well… I mean, it's not that bad, right? Cain isn't hurt—"
"Not this time. But what about next time? They don't even have a working security system." Mama Enna looked so serious that neither of us could cut her off.
So when she started patting my shoulder and speaking firmly, I realized we probably weren't going to win this one.
"You need to transfer schools."
"Transfer schools? Enna, that's a bit…"
"A bit?"
Mama Val scratched her cheek again. "I mean, isn't that a bit rushed?"
"Are we supposed to wait for the next attack?"
"Well… not to that extreme." Mama Val looked at me again, and seeing that I wasn't about to argue either, she let out another sigh. "Besides, where would we even transfer him to? I mean, this is the best high school in the city."
"Where?" Enna said, as if it were obvious. "To the place he should've gone from the beginning, of course."
"… to Hunter School. Darkenshire."