Player: Felicia

  Location: World 1, Felicia’s room

  “Get up, you’re going to be late!” Lisa yelled.

  “Your clock needs therapy—it’s always so wound up, but no one ever listens to it.”

  I rolled over, burying my face in the sheets that still carried the faint scent of blood, hoping it would calm my overworked brain. Not that it had helped much last night. The first morning of the new school year had arrived, and I was already dreading it. I’d spent most of last year faking sick, but that excuse had finally worn thin. I could try again, but I had a feeling the trick wouldn’t work twice.

  Besides, one of the two things that made school even remotely bearable—Victor, the one hot guy in class—had left a day before I did. The other was Deepika, my friend. But I could see her after school.

  “But no soul-suckers showed up today!” I whined, pulling the blanket over my head. I didn’t want to face the world, and I definitely didn’t want to face Lisa, who would inevitably drag me out of this bed and back to school. Worst of all, I’d have to see the thing I dreaded the most: that haircut. If I could just avoid that horror show for five more minutes, it would be a miracle.

  Lisa marched over and yanked the blanket off my head. Rude. She stood there with her hands on her hips, a pose I hated more than almost anything… okay, maybe not more than that haircut.

  Lisa is such a hypocrite. She once spent an entire day in bed without a second thought. But now, just because I wanted a couple more hours of sleep—like I had yesterday—it was suddenly a crime? Make no mistake, just because Lisa’s my sister doesn’t make me a hypocrite.

  “I can sleep in,” I declared. “A monster chaser doesn’t need to be on time. A monster chaser just needs to catch monsters.

  Okay, maybe it wasn’t the haircut that made school unbearable. Maybe it was who had the haircut. And no, I don’t mean me (I mean of course not, my hair even smells of dying rats. Of course I’d keep it looking nice too.) The hair cut like an animal belonged to Bob.

  “And you think it’s okay to be late just because no one died today?” Lisa asked, tying her hair into a messy bun while she spoke. She’d been heading to work early a lot lately, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she had to leave soon.

  “Yes. If someone dies, I’ll get up.” I grabbed the blanket again and cocooned myself.

  Bob was the real reason I didn’t want to go back to that boring building. Well, him and math. Mostly Bob. He used to be my friend, until I told him I was a monster chaser.

  “I kill monsters too,” Lisa said, shrugging. “But I still go places.”

  “Yeah, with your boyfriend.”

  “Boyfriend?! Yuki is not my boyfriend!”

  “I didn’t even say the name Yuki. That’s your inner self talking. The truthful one. The one that says I can be late.”

  I peeked out, eager to see her reaction. I needed to be sure I was right—Lisa always got flustered whenever Yuki was mentioned. Yuki, another monster chaser who worked with Lisa, really annoyed me. He was just like every other monster chaser: thinking all monsters were evil.

  Lisa smirked. Uh-oh. That smirk meant trouble. She was holding a change of clothes now.

  “Well, speaking of boyfriends… I heard Victor’s going to be there today,” she said, waving her hand nonchalantly. “But if you don’t want to go, I’m sure Victor will be all alone…” She turned toward the bathroom, as if she hadn’t just dropped a bombshell.

  “Wait, really?” My head shot up from the pillow. “Suddenly, school doesn’t sound so bad.”

  I jumped out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom, cutting her off before she could close the door.

  “Hey! I need to change!” she yelled, pounding on the door.

  I quickly threw on a white shirt and a blue skirt. Cute, but too bad my bloodstained tutu wasn’t allowed. School rules were the worst.

  “Yeah, but I’ve got to take my clock to therapy too,” I called through the door, mostly to annoy her. “And anyway, Victor isn’t my boyfriend. I’m dating Easton.”

  I burst out of the bathroom, grabbed my notebook (the kind you can draw absolutely anything on the cover—got detention for that once), and stuffed it into my bag. Got to keep it hidden from nosy teachers.

  Lisa rushed in behind me, eyes wide.

  “That guy from the romance novel you read? Please don’t tell me you’re serious.”

  I tucked my copy of For(ward)bidden Love into my bag—the one with Easton on the cover. I dashed toward the front door, my bag smacking against my legs. Victor wasn’t sick anymore—probably faked it, just like I did. Still, warm regards. Maybe I could even kill a monster or two on the way.

  “Wait!” Lisa called from the bathroom. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  I checked my bag. “Nope!”

  “Your textbooks.”

  “I’ve got my phone. I can text and read books on it. So in essence, A textbook.”

  Lisa grabbed a stack of books from the corner of my room and placed a small device on top. It looked like a remote control, but without buttons—just a big switch.

  “What’s that?” I asked, eyeing the switch but not bothering to take the books.

  “Flip it down, and it wards off most monsters. Flip it up, and it attracts them. Just… don’t attract them in class. If you want it to do nothing, take the batteries out.”

  “Um, thanks?” I zipped my bag shut and headed for the door. My room was a disaster, but the living room was spotless—Lisa had control of the living room, so naturally it was clean.

  “Why aren’t you taking it?” she called, holding the books with that same smug smile. She knew she was winning.

  “Because I don’t want to take the textbooks.”

  With a dramatic sigh, she dropped them on the floor. “I’ve got to get to work.” And with that, she walked out the door.

  I stared at the pile of books.

  Sigh. “I guess I’ll take the pile.”

  I took the unicorn bus to get there—don’t tell Lisa. The unicorn bus is specially designed to pick up unicorns and drop them off at designated spots. Humans can’t see them because the buses are invisible. Not the unicorns—just the buses. Humans tend to mistake unicorns for horses wearing tiny hats. Odd bunch, humans.

  I stepped off the bus and almost tripped. Lisa would kill me if she found out I rode in a vehicle full of monsters. Monster chasers like her usually kill anything they catch. She believes all monsters are bad. I don’t share that view—I only go after the ones that act out. You know, the ones who kill humans.

  A teenager bumped into me on the sidewalk. Pretty sure he did it on purpose. Humans. What a weird species. Monster chasers aren’t considered human, not really. We’re more powerful. Good thing I don’t exterminate misbehaving humans, or my entire high school would be wiped out. Well, except Deepika. She’s cool. Maybe if I did kill humans, people would finally start being nice to me…

  “How’s my favorite monster chaser doing?” Deepika practically tackled me from behind, clearly expecting a piggyback ride.

  I didn’t mind giving her one—except she was heavier than she looked. Being made of flesh and all, the weight pressed into my back. How did a walking “P” like her make gravity feel so personal?

  Deepika wore huge, sparkling pink glitter boots that could be seen from the next continent. Somehow, she’d stepped on some toilet paper, which now trailed behind her like a ghostly tail.

  “Better if you got off my back,” I muttered, struggling to stay upright.

  She dug her very human fingernails into my shoulders, refusing to let go.

  “Aww, come on,” she whined.

  Eventually, she slipped off, flailing as her hands grasped at my clothes and missed. She landed on her feet, perfectly fine. Her legs work just fine—she just prefers being carried.

  “Okay, maybe standing is more fun,” she said with a shrug. Deepika has the attention span of a toddler in a candy store—stubborn until she gets bored. If something’s fun, she sticks with it. If it feels wrong, she drops it instantly. Maybe “annoying” is a better word than “stubborn.”

  Deepika: my best and only friend. She’s weird, but so am I, so it works. We met just a month ago, but our bond grew fast. She knows I’m a monster chaser and doesn’t care. Most humans don’t even know monsters exist—chances are, you didn’t know monster chasers were real until you started reading this.

  “I’ve got a snack box, if you’re interested,” Deepika said, rummaging through her bag. “It’s full of stuff I don’t like: pretzels, fruit, veggies, day-old burgers…”

  “Nah, I ate on the bus,” I replied.

  “That was an hour ago! How are you not always starving like I am?” She pulled a pickle from her coat pocket. It gleamed in the sunlight, somehow looking… majestic. Students nearby gave her a weird look.

  She didn’t care. She stared at the pickle like it was sacred. “The only green plant I’m willing to eat,” she said dramatically. “A pickle—my one true love.”

  And then, just like that, she ate her true love.

  “Did you bring another pickle?” I asked. “So you can cheat on the one you just ate?”

  “It’s not cheating if it’s no longer here,” she explained.

  “Ah. So, once it’s digested, you completely forget about it.”

  “No, I’ll always carry it in my memory.”

  “What did you eat a week ago?”

  “…I don’t remember.”

  “Exactly. That pickle’s gone forever from your mind.”

  “Okay, maybe I lied about the vows. What, am I a criminal now?”

  As if summoned by the chaos, a fairy suddenly burst out of Deepika’s pocket. Sparkling dust trailed behind her like jetstream art in the sky. She wore a green dress, had golden hair, and a mischievous grin that she wore with utmost pride.

  “Hey!” Deepika yelled. “Don’t take my pickles!”

  The fairy ignored her, eyes fixed on the apple she was holding.

  “An apple? You can have that,” Deepika seemed unbothered, “It’s not a pickle. Just… replace it with something else. I might get hungry later.”

  “Hehehe,” the fairy giggled, her voice dripping with malice. “I’ll poison this apple and make a human eat it. Then they’ll fall to their death!”

  Yep. Some monsters live just to kill humans. They’re the ones I hunt. The others—the peaceful ones—I admire. They were my childhood heroes. Unfortunately, most monster chasers think all monsters are like this fairy.

  I pulled out my stake—solid wood, reliable, and very stabby. I swung. The air split as it sliced forward.

  But, of course, the fairy dodged. They always dodge. Don’t monsters know they’re supposed to stand still when I try to stab them?

  “Oh, my sisters are going to love this,” the fairy said with a sly grin. “A human fought back.”

  She thought I was just a human. Heh.

  Monster chasers look human. But they aren’t. Most of them are completely nuts—bloodthirsty and unpredictable. They were bred from monsters, but also shaped to blend in. I don’t really know the full history. Lisa doesn’t like talking about the world monsters come from… the world I come from. Lisa seems less crazy than most monster chasers, though. A little.

  Deepika casually pulled a textbook from my bag, acting like it was hers. The fairy blinked in confusion but didn’t say anything. Deepika ignored her completely, flipping through the pages until she found what she was looking for. She began to read aloud, too softly for me to hear, walking slowly toward the fairy, her eyes locked on the book.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “Deepika, I didn’t know you could read,” I was astounded.

  I mean, I knew she read manga and sometimes those ultra-violent novels, but a school book? That was new. She looked strangely into it, completely ignoring the fairy.

  The fairy, on the other hand, looked annoyed, then pleased, like she’d just come up with a plan. She rubbed her hands together like a cartoon villain—well, not a super villain, just your regular kind. Maybe not A villain at all. She is a bad guy. I wondered if she liked A tough guy.

  “Well, clearly she is reading elegantly,” the fairy sneered, turning back to me. “Focus on that and eat this apple.”

  She tried to hand it to me. Like I was stupid enough to forget she literally said that it was poisoned earlier.

  She thought I was distracted. But she was the one not paying attention.

  Deepika had gotten close. Close enough to swing the textbook—

  SPLAT.

  The fairy was now just goo stuck to the book. Bits of her—arms? Legs?—splattered on the ground. Her body stayed glued to the cover.

  “Deepika! Thank you! You just saved someone’s life!” I said, still wide-eyed.

  “Yeah, a vegetarian could’ve been dead.”

  “Or someone who eats meat and apples.”

  “Do those even exist?”

  I mean, yeah. Me.

  We were only a few feet from the school now. The long path leading from the road always felt like a training ground. Lisa only wants me to fight monsters here, on school grounds, but maybe one day I’ll branch out. Be as strong as her.

  I pulled out the switch Lisa gave me. It was turned off. Huh. Not very useful for “warding off monsters.” Maybe it only works for attracting them.

  “Hey!” Deepika suddenly shouted, forgetting she just killed A fairy “Are you still reading that romance you’re obsessed with—For(ward)bidden Love?”

  “Yep, you bet!” I said. “Actually, I’m rereading it for the fourth time.”

  We were at the school’s front steps now, walking up toward the doors.

  “Woooow. I guess you had a lot of time while you were faking sick!”

  Her coat swayed behind her. She wore a white shirt, a blue jacket, and pants with bulging pockets full of food.

  People say she’s really cute, even super attractive. I don’t really see it—but I’m not going to tell her that.

  “You know that book gives off total Call It What You Want vibes,” Deepika said, pulling out her headphones.

  She knows quite A bit of pop culture. Except, randomly, she won’t know something everyone else does. Like—she’s never heard of The Wizard of Oz.

  (If you’re reading this a hundred years from now and don’t know what that is—man, I feel sorry for you.)

  She put the headphones on my head.

  “Yeah, I love it,” I said, turning my attention to the book “The MC will do anything to get her hands on that magic crown that could destroy the world. Even kill. But the person who has it is Easton—and they fall in love! It proves love really does conquer all.”

  Deepika started dancing to the beat. She couldn’t even hear the music. That’s how strong her imagination is.

  “Sounds boring. I only read the back,” she shrugged.

  Deepika’s obsessed with action and gore. I guess I am too—but I can like that and romance.

  “You should read it,” I said. “There’s non-stop violence. Everyone wants the crown, but they end up getting killed by the main character or Easton. But it’s not just about killing. They’re soulmates. The love story is meant to be.”

  Sigh. I wish I could fall in love like that.

  We walked through the school doors.

  Then I froze. My legs wouldn’t move.

  I didn’t want to see anyone from high school. Realizing that now, I’d probably made a mistake.

  A hot guy walked past. My legs started working again.

  Hope? Maybe. He was… something.

  Not quite Victor level hot, but still attractive. Maybe he could be my boyfriend. Besides, Victor was off the table.

  “Hey, you!” I called out. “Are you new here?”

  He turned toward me. Red hair, short but styled like it was meant to blow dramatically in the wind. If he were a girl, I’d call it short hair. But since he was a guy, maybe it was medium-length. His face was somewhere between cute and hot—like a manga character whose artist couldn’t decide which way to go.

  “I’m Milan,” he said, walking up to me. “Are you new too?”

  He ran a hand through his hair, and the strands shifted as if he’d practiced it in front of a mirror. Was he showing off? Or just naturally that good-looking?

  “No, but I’ve been pretending to be sick for the last few days, so it feels like I’ve been gone for a century,” I said, glancing around to make sure no teachers were listening. If they knew I’d faked being sick, I’d be toast.

  “How so? Do a few days feel like forever to you? Were you bored?”

  He looked genuinely curious.

  I wished he’d ask about the book I was holding. I clutched it to my chest, title out, hint, hint.

  “It wasn’t the best, but still better than being here.”

  I tapped the book. He didn’t notice. I tapped harder. Both hands. Felt like I was drumming.

  Deepika started dancing to my rhythm.

  “But you came back? And why’d you leave in the first place?”

  Ugh. He really couldn’t take a hint. I could’ve said something like, “I’m looking for someone just like Easton, and maybe that could be you.”

  But clearly, it wasn’t.

  This was torture—no, worse than torture.

  “You ask too many questions. This is why I like Victor better,” I muttered, stuffing the book back into my bag. Frustration was practically written all over my face.

  He just shrugged. The nerve.

  It could’ve been a happily ever after. Now it was just “happy” after I convince the school staff I’m sick. Again.

  Milan smiled. And, ugh, his smile was beautiful.

  “Victor? Oh yeah, I met him. He transferred here like a week ago. Weird how many transfers we’ve had lately—Sumit and Engel came the same week, too. Guess I’m late to the party. Heh. My girlfriend might find this all amusing.”

  “Girlfriend? Well, there goes my interest.” I rolled my eyes and handed the headphones back to Deepika. I was done here. Maybe my Easton wasn’t at this school after all. I sighed.

  “Victor doesn’t have a girlfriend,” he said.

  “He doesn’t?” I asked, Happiness bloomed like stakes through a ghost’s heart—if ghosts even have hearts.

  Victor was beautiful. I wondered if he liked monster chasers. Probably not. Most people don’t even know we exist. But Deepika thought I was cool for it. It was only the rest of the school that hated me.

  “I think Glinda made up those rumors about him,” he added. “Maybe that’s what you heard.”

  He tilted his head as students shuffled past. I overheard a boy and a girl gushing about how good-looking he was.

  Glinda.

  If she got hit by Truck-kun, she wouldn’t be blessed with a second life as a hero.

  She’s hated me since day one. No clue why. People say she sees me as competition for popularity, but that makes no sense. The whole school’s scared of me.

  “Glinda? She probably started those rumors because she saw you happy. She knew you’d never go after someone taken. Not unless they were fictional.”

  “Hey,” he said, his eyes narrowing toward something in the distance. “I heard rumors about people in sunglasses and black suits going around killing people.”

  “We don’t care about that,” I waved my hand. “Lisa handles stuff like that.”

  I stood firm, resisting his attempt to distract me. Feet planted, unshaken.

  “Oh—I gotta get to class. See you later!”

  He vanished into the crowd, weaving through the sea of students, eager to reach his destination on time.

  A journey. A fearless journey through waves of students.

  “But science class isn’t for another ten minutes,” Deepika said, slipping her headphones into her bag. “Isn’t that his first class, too?”

  “Well, I guess going in early means less chance of bumping into—oh. Never mind. Look who it is.”

  A girl sneered. “Ugh. It’s Ugly and Uglier.”

  “It’s Deepika and Felicia,” Deepika snapped.

  “That’s not my point, idiot,” the girl hissed.

  Her.

  I didn’t like her.

  And by "her," I mean Glinda—not all girls. I actually like quite a few.

  She wore pink, her favorite color. I liked pink too—when it shimmered in blood.

  Otherwise, it just reminded me of Glinda.

  And Glinda reminded me of pain.

  But maybe… just maybe… there’s a glimmer of hope.

  Thinking about her always leads me to think about the pain I deal to monsters.

  Then I open my eyes and see pink again. Cycle reset.

  “So you were the one spreading rumors,” I said, breaking the silence.

  Glinda looked offended, as though I’d just told her she had the plague. The ugly kind.

  “I was not!” she snapped, defensive.

  “But you were,” I said, meeting her eyes evenly.

  “Prove it.”

  Glinda had always been this annoying—even when you try to be nice and say she looks like she has the plague. If she did, then she could take A sick day.

  “I’m looking for someone who makes me feel like Easton did,” I said. “I thought Victor might be the one. But I thought he was taken.”

  “Victor?” she scoffed, incredulous. “Have you even talked to Victor? Let alone asked him out?”

  “We talked once. He’s not my boyfriend… yet. But if he’s truly my soulmate, he’ll say yes. And if not… well, I’ll find someone else. Maybe someone who cosplays as Easton!”

  “You actually think you’ll find someone?” she sneered, voice dripping with disdain. “You’re not likable. Even trash feels better about itself when it sees you. Seriously—who’d want to be you?”

  It’s honestly a good thing I don’t kill humans.

  Deepika, on the other hand, doesn't have those same moral restraints.

  She lunged at Glinda like she’d lunged at me once— carrying the same toilet paper still stuck to her boots. The paper wrapped around Glinda’s legs like a strange, sticky trap. Deepika tried to poke her eyes out, though it was clear she wasn’t sure where the eyes actually were.

  I really hoped Deepika wouldn’t end up in juvie.

  “You could at least give me a piggyback ride!” Deepika screamed.

  Glinda screamed. A few other students screamed.

  And then, Deepika finally found one of Glinda’s eyes—and poked it.

  Glinda shrieked, flinging Deepika off her back like she was A bull. Deepika hit the ground with a thud. Glinda whipped out a small bottle and sprayed something straight into Deepika’s face.

  “You’ll end up in jail someday,” Glinda hissed, her voice dripping with venom. Then she turned to me. “Both of you.”

  With that, Glinda stomped off, leaving a trail of outrage in her wake. I rushed to Deepika’s side.

  “She pepper-sprayed you!” I gasped, horrified.

  “Aaaaah! I’ve been poisoned! Poison!” Deepika wailed, flailing around like she was trying to claw Glinda out of the air. Honestly, it’s probably for the best no one ever gave her superpowers. She’d make a better supervillain than a hero.

  “In my book, the main character got poisoned too,” I offered, trying to distract her from the pain.

  “That’s great to hear,” Deepika groaned, still writhing.

  “Easton went into the dangerous woods to find the only flower that could save her,” I continued, determined to follow through. “But the forest was full of creatures even he couldn’t fight—”

  “My eyes are on fire! Please tell me this is going somewhere!” she interrupted, her voice desperate.

  “My point is, not even true love could cure the poison. So yeah… you’re probably doomed.”

  Deepika banged her fists against the wall in frustration.

  In the book, the last time the two lovers saw each other, it was raining. She had been attacked by a tree, and he had been attacked by man-eating toast. They stood apart, staring through the downpour.

  I pressed a hand to my chest, moved by the memory.

  It brought tears to my eyes—thinking about being attacked by a tree. Not that I’d be scared. I’d kill a tree in two seconds. Still, the story was sad. Because it wasn’t about me.

  Deepika pulled a peach from her pocket and slapped it over one of her eyes. The scent was so strong it almost made me forget about the red-stained horror of her face. She winced.

  “This doesn’t help,” she muttered. “I’ve got, like, five peaches in my pockets and I don’t even like them.”

  “Then why do you have them?” I asked.

  “Because I stole them. They were just so easy to steal.”

  Yeah… Deepika definitely doesn’t have a moral compass.

  “Do you need to go to the hospital? There’s one nearby.”

  She shrugged. “Nah, I’ll survive.”

  She stood, still squinting like a sun-blinded warrior.

  “My mom says I heal fast. Built for battle.”

  It wasn’t the first time Deepika had bounced back freakishly quick. Once, she took a sword slash to the elbow—deep—and by the next day, there wasn’t even a scar.

  If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was a demon.

  “Oh, thank Azaroth you’re okay,” I said, letting out a sigh of relief. “I was afraid you’d call in sick. And then I’d catch it, and then I’d have to call in sick too.”

  “You wanted me to go to the doctor!” she accused, her voice rising with mock outrage. “Hey! Stop being negative! Focus on Vincent—his kiss is supposed to turn you to gold!”

  “Victor.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  I glanced at the hallway clock.

  We still had half an hour until science class, plenty of time to continue this ridiculous conversation, but something in the air felt wrong. It was as though the world had hit pause, just for a moment. I shrugged it off.

  Then, everything went dark.

  One second, I was talking to Deepika—laughing, probably, about some joke I’d made—and the next, it felt as though the universe had flipped its switch and swallowed the light.

  I froze, disoriented. The kind of disorientation you get when you suddenly lose all sense of reality.

  My breathing hitched.

  I turned around, but there was nothing behind me. Nothing except pure, endless black. It wasn’t like when you close your eyes, it was like the world had evaporated. No walls. No ceiling. Just… nothing.

  Then, a deep growl echoed through the nothingness, vibrating through my bones. I spun around, and there it was.

  A monster.

  Huge, towering over me. Its fur was a sickening shade of blue, like the color of a bruise that had been left too long. Its eyes? Empty. Dead. And the teeth—oh, the teeth—they gleamed, stained red with something that definitely wasn’t ketchup.

  It grinned.

  “You’ll die soon,” it growled, its voice a deep rumble that felt like it came from the depths of the earth itself.

  I reached for my stake, instinctively, my hand brushing the side of my jacket. But—

  Gone.

  Panic flared in my chest. My heartbeat slammed against my ribs as I checked my pockets—nothing. My fingers were trembling, sweat beading on my forehead. Where was it?

  The monster’s bloodstained mouth split into a wider grin, and it growled again.

  “You’ll die soon.”

  The words were like cold water splashed in my face. Repetition only made it worse, more chilling, more final.

  I tried to calm my breathing, trying to think through the fog of panic that was rapidly clouding my brain. What did I do? What was going on?

  With a deep breath, I charged at it, fists raised. I was ready to fight—punch it, kick it, whatever it took.

  But when my fist slammed forward, it passed right through the monster’s chest.

  It wasn’t there.

  I stumbled back, my mind racing. What kind of monster was this? Why couldn’t I touch it?

  “You’ll—”

  “Yeah, yeah. ‘Die soon.’ I got it,” I muttered, cutting it off before the words could settle in my mind again.

  The creature stopped, as if it had heard me. Then, in a blink, it vanished.

  One moment, there was a looming presence, and the next? Nothing. Just the oppressive darkness again, wrapping itself around me.

  My pulse raced. I was back in the same spot where I started, but I felt… wrong. It was like the air had shifted, like I wasn’t just standing in the hall anymore.

  I swallowed hard, shaking my head as if trying to clear it.

  The darkness snapped away like someone flipping a light switch. One moment, I was standing in a void, suffocating under the weight of that eerie blackness, and the next? I was back in the hallway, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights.

  “…And that’s why I don’t eat badgers,” Deepika said, casually, like we hadn’t just been surrounded by nothingness a second ago.

  “What?” I stared at her, still trying to shake off the strange sensation that I’d just been yanked out of reality.

  She looked at me, eyebrow arched in that annoying way she does when she thinks I’m the one being weird.

  “I said, ‘That’s why I don’t eat badgers.’ Were you even listening?” she repeated, her voice tinged with impatience.

  I blinked again, trying to make sense of things. Did I just get transported somewhere? What the had just happened? My thoughts raced, but the only thing that stood out was the weird growl of the monster’s voice—'You’ll die soon.'

  “What—why would you eat badgers in the first place?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady, though my pulse was still hammering in my neck.

  Deepika sighed, like I was the one being ridiculous. “Okay, clearly you missed half my story. I’ll tell you my heroic tale later. Right now, we need to get to science class.”

  Science class?

  I glanced at the clock. Half an hour had passed. In what felt like mere seconds.

  My stomach dropped. I didn’t know what was more unsettling—the fact that I’d just lost thirty minutes of my life, or that Deepika was still casually talking like nothing had happened. My mind couldn’t stop racing. I’d just been confronted by a monster, but now? Now, everything seemed so... normal again.

  “Half an hour?” I said, my voice thick with disbelief. “How did—What even happened? I swear, one second we were talking, and the next—” I waved my hands vaguely in the air, as though trying to grasp some tangible explanation out of thin air.

  Deepika gave me a knowing look, the kind she gives when she thinks she knows everything and I’m just the clueless sidekick.

  “Time's a funny thing,” she said with a grin, clearly unfazed by the bizarre shift in reality. “Sometimes, it speeds up. Sometimes, it’s like… a badger’s dinner time. You know, unpredictable.”

  “Uh, yeah,” I muttered, not really sure how to respond.

  “It’s not that I haven’t been late before, but that would cause attention, and if have any chance of doing something illegal…”

  I really hoped Deepika didn’t end up in jail. Of course acoording to the monster I might not live long enough to see it. I forced a smile, trying to pull myself together. “Right. Science class.”

  Deepika was already walking ahead, not even bothering to look back to see if I was following. Of course, she wasn’t fazed. She wasn’t the one who just got death prophecies from A monster.

  I shook my head, trying to clear it. Focus. I needed to focus. I had to get to class. I could deal with the weirdness later, right?

  Right.

  But that monster, those words, the way I couldn’t even touch it—something wasn’t adding up. Something big was happening, and I had no idea what.