"Uhm- Akira," Fitz changes the subject, and he shot up from his laying position next to her, 'Yes, love."

"For the last time, stop calling me love," rolling her eyes and adds, "Why were you naked-"

"Half- naked," he corrects her.

"Alright, Half- naked on my banister outside," and Colchester chimes in "I was put on quite the show," Jiro snickers beside him, snacking on strawberry covered pretzel sticks.

"Oh come on, you enjoyed it!" he exclaims and shoots back, "Why were you in the woods again after you were specifically told you only needed to do it once?"

"Patrolling, obviously," Eliza retorts, seated in-between Colchester and Mandisa.

"Aww, defending him now. Come on babe, show them what you got," Akira pokes Fitz, and she sneers, "Babe?"

"Got a whole list, don't yeh?" Colchester counters, "What, you feeling left out, Coley- boy?" and tosses a spicy chip from the bag in his hand.

"Anyone wants Pocky?" Jiro exclaims, in-between the two, and lifts the pink box in the air.

"I saw this weird looking bird outside my window when I was showering," Akira finally explains and Kacey freezes in her seat.

"Wah-" she starts off afraid of even speaking the words out loud and Mandisa places a reassuring hand on her arm.

"Was is a swan?" Kacey manages to ask and Akira shakes his head.

"Nah, I don't know what kinda bird that was but it had these weird glowing red eyes," He trails off and changes the subject, while doing so Kacey left with her own thoughts.

'It couldn't be the same bird I saw, could it?' she thought and Mandisa almost reading her mind assured he lr that it was probably just a coincidence.

"So like, what do you do if you being chased by like a monster throwing objects?" Akira blurst out, filling the awkward silence from before.

"Is it stagnant or running after us?" Colchester replied in his monotonous tone. He eyes the new resident's hands of fresh deep scars and Mandisa pulls her sleeves over, covering them.

"Let's make it fun then, it's chasing after us" Fitz calls out and passes a packet of sweets backs and forth in the middle of Akira and Kacey.

"Okay, so it's chasing us, hurling objects, and we need to figure out how to escape or defeat?" Eliza queries and motions Mandisa for the bag of popcorn in front of her.

"Why not make the main objective escape and bonus points if we defeat it?" Kacey suggests despite herself and stuffs her face with a combo of chocolate balls and popcorn.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Yeh, that could work too," Akira settles on it.

"Goose!" Jiro yells and erupts bursts of laughter from everyone.

"What?" Fitz in-between fits of giggles.

"You know, like the game" Jiro defends and puffs his cheeks.

"We know what you mean, but I think that's the wrong word" Mandisa calmly states and successfully soothes his anger.

"Ah! Then what's the right word?" Jiro tilted his head, curious. The room falls silent and the residents yell in unison.

...

"DUCK!"

Jiro's voice rings throughout their room at Akira, he faces behind and quickly does as command. They watch an immense black figure fly across the room above them like a passing storm cloud.

"Guy's we're going to need some help," Kacey informs the two alongside Fitz and Mandisa standing in the middle of the fresh hole in their wall.

[In Macy Fitzgerald's room before the incident]

A figure of Mr. Fitzgerald reaches her room, makes his way inside and still holding Macy sobbing in his arms.

He walks over to her bed and attempts to tuck her in.

"No," she whispers.

"I'm not going anywhere, honey," he softly assures her.

"No," she repeats, this time adamant and gripping at his back.

"Be a good girl, you know it's not easy on the ol' back" he chuckles in a friendly tone.

"No," she deadpans.

She slowly pulls away to face, the man who called himself her father.

Fitz stared back at him, holding a furious gaze. She asked him, "Who are you?"

He was slowly patting down on her hair, caressing the sides of her head and in a modulated tone, "Macy, Macy honey you need me, so, stop being-" His voice took on a crisp tone, "DIFFICULT."

She stared back wide-eyed at the face returning from a contorted mesh of faces to her father's. Her mind raced with thoughts of escape, rushing past him if she could. Or fighting back with a lamp shade.

Fitz settled on both ideas. She gripped the lamp with one hand as the thing occupied its self with her hair.

'CRASH'

It froze and stared at her for what felt like forever.

"How- how's that possible-" fear stricken, she attempts to formulate her thoughts. Unaware that she's spoken them out loud, the hand of a figure who claimed to be her father placed a warm hand over her mouth.

"You remind me of her," it's voice a hoarse and almost like a wet cough.

It removes a hand from her mouth and lightly touches her cheek with fingers. It's fingers now took on sharp claws laced in midnight black shades.

"What was her name?" Fitz, stiffened and attempts to strike a conversation, but it jolted backs. Pricking her cheek with its claw.

He gasps, looking at the mark with beady eyes that grew large and unnaturally bloated.

He touches over it and answers her in a man's voice she doesn't recognize, "Willow."

"Willow, that's a beautiful name" gaining courage. Fitz feels the pain of the scratch disappear, and he softly nods in response.

"What happened to her?" He stiffens by her question. Afraid she may have asked the wrong question. Her eyes dart back and forth in search of a weapon across the room.

"She was beautiful, my wife and I had been trying for years," The figure shifts from her father's form as he spoke. "After so long we were gifted with Willow," his voice changed tone to an old man's sweet though stern.

"She grew up to be a strong young lady, married with two boys. My grandchildren, I- I never saw her again. She moved out of town and stopped visiting us."

An old man, wearing a blue uniform, rested down on his knees in front of her. Human, he seemed.

"My wife became so angry, I knew she wasn't ever mad at me, but somehow she always found ways to direct her pain at me" he went on.

"One-time I got a creepy call down at the station and- and- and" His hand pulled over to his face gripping at her throat, black clawed fingers returned.

"You know, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DISRESPECT YOUR ELDERS!" a shrilling cry sets off like an alarm.

The shadow jerks back and forth, grunting and shifting from forms of men, women, girls, and boys of various ages and heights. Fitz stunned makes no attempt to run away, but softly picks at the shard of the lamp and careful not to draw any attention to her.

It abruptly froze, in a distinct Shadow figure, and gradually came closer to her. She lunges at it with the shard and bolts towards the door. It moans in agony as she successfully pierced what could have been its eye.

"No!" She yelled at the door handle, fiddling with it to open.

"Fungurai Slag Machis Tengagh, Fungurai Slag Machis Druugas Dike, Mudrei Slag Machis Silia"

[Translation: Open the battlefield to the in-between, Open the battlefield to the Otherside, Create a battlefield, seal us in.]

"Skeb I Shafaan Coros Silia Tahahi Shillishga Enasi" a throaty sound echoes into the room from above and Kacey, Mandisa and a tall third person enters through the wall like phantoms.

[Translation: Create a space for us to become One.]

The room falls silent and an equal of ten symbols glowing on each side of the room shone, on particularly above the Shadow. The bright light seemed to burn it, as smoke emitted from it as it groaned and cried in pain.

It grew larger, floated up to the seal where the symbol was and faces of numerous people screeched above them. In an attempt to escape, it sends itself lurching through the wall and breaks free. The room shifts at Jiro's cry and the residents face each other, through a huge hole in the wall, confused.