The teacher entered the classroom, along with two new students.

“Good morning students,” greeted the teacher, “Today we have two new students, please introduce yourselves,”

A young man with short, white hair introduced himself first, “My name is Darius Taylor, it is nice to meet everyone,” he said with a smile.

Darius then nudged the second student,

A young girl with long, white hair introduces herself next, “Um… I-I’m Cheil… Cheil Taylor,”

After introducing herself, Cheil hid behind Darius, her hand trembling on his shoulders.

The teacher smiled at them and turned to the class “These two are twins, make sure to get along with them,”

After assigning them to their seats, the teacher informed the class that the test would be rescheduled and take place next week, The teacher then proceeded with the lesson. Sometime later the teacher left the room, and the students proceeded with their recess, most of the students flocked to the two new transfers, asking questions.

Vin stood up and sat next to Elaine, the both of them watching the students, as they ate their food

“You’re not gonna join them?” asked Vin

Elaine shook her head, “Nah, It’s fine, I’m not as curious as them… what about you?”

“Nope, I could care less anyway,” replied Vin

Elaine rummaged through her bag and gave Vin his book back, with a slightly irritated expression.

“What’s wrong?” asked Vin as he took his book from her hand.

“I’m kinda irritated that I wasted seven minutes of my time to study, and it turns out that the test was canceled,” answered Elaine,

Vin’s eyebrows furrowed and tilted his head in confusion, “What do you mean? The test was rescheduled, you’ll have more time to study,”

Elaine shrugs and replies, “Yeah… but then I won’t be as motivated as I was before… I don’t know, I just can’t help but be motivated at the last minute,”

Vin sighs and shakes his head, “It’s called procrastination, and you should stop it,”

“Wow! That’s rich, coming from someone who tried to do an entire month’s work in two days,” replied Elaine with a slight chuckle, “And let me emphasize the word ‘Tried’ cause you weren’t even able to finish it all,”

“Fine, whatever, you got me,” replied Vin.

As the lunch break continued, Vin and Elaine continued their conversation, their classmates, on the other hand, continued to flock to the new transfers. At the end of their break, class resumed, and sometime later, the class ended, the students packed their belongings and went home.

Vin and Elaine walked together like usual, the two of them conversing and making jokes to each other, as they continued, Elaine noticed the keychain on Vin’s zipper.

“Oh, is this new?” asked Elaine as she pointed at the keychain.

“Yeah, just got it yesterday,” replied Vin.

“Nice, lemme take a look at it,” said Elaine.

Vin nods, they stop by the side of the street as Vin takes off the keychain and hands it to Elaine.

“Whoah! It’s an actual booklet, with words in it!” said Elaine, astonished by the keychain.

“I know right? I got that along with a game cartridge,” said Vin,

“Oh really? How much? And where?” asked Elaine,

“Ten dollars, there’s a guy selling stuff on a street near my house,” replied Vin

Elaine’s expression switched from astonishment to disbelief, she looked at Vin her hand clenching the keychain,

“Was the vendor wearing a mask?” asked Elaine,

“Yep, one that’s used for those fancy parties, y’know, the one that only covers the upper part of your face,” Vin replied,

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Elaine’s fists tightened even more, her knuckles turned white and her hand felt numb, her nails, digging into her palm.

“This vendor, how old were they?” asked Elaine

“I can’t tell, but if I had to guess then somewhere around… in the mid–to–late thirties based on his hair and mouth,” answered Vin, “Now that you mentioned his age, he said something about having a grandson, but he seemed too young to have a grandson,”

Elaine’s face turned pale as she continued to listen to Vin, her fists dripping blood from the inside.

“Elaine, are you alright? Your hands are bleeding, not to mention my keychain…” asked Vin as he rubbed her back

Elaine’s expression shifted, releasing her hands dripping blood, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she looked at VIn with a smile and returned the keychain.

“Sorry about that, I-I was lost in thought, but I’m fine” answered Elaine.

Vin shakes his head, “Sorry I’m not buying that… did the vendor scam you or something?” asked Vin.

Elaine looked away scratching her cheek, “Yeah… I guess you can say that, but it’s fine, I’m fine also, so don’t worry too much,” replied Elaine.

Vin sighs, shakes his head, and replies “Fine, I won’t force you, you can just tell me if you feel like discussing it… or not, it’s mainly on you,”

Elaine nods and smiles brightly, almost as if nothing had happened. Vin then bandaged her hands and continued their walk, and after a while, it was time for them to go their opposite ways, they waved to each other goodbye and walked separately. Elaine stops in her tracks, she looks back at Vin who continues, her fist then clenched up again despite feeling the burn from the wounds, she looks at Vin with a mix of sadness and anger, she hesitantly turns around and continues to her usual path.

Sometime later, Vin walks by the same street where he bought the cartridge, he looks around trying to find the vendor, but he is unsuccessful, he shrugs and continues his walk home. Upon reaching the front of his house, he noticed that the door was open, and the knob was broken off from the door, it was nowhere to be found, he hurried inside his house and looked around checking all of his belongings. After a while, he was relieved that nothing got stolen, he went back to the entrance of his home and pondered what happened to his door. Vin looked closer and noticed that the gap where the knob was supposed to be wasn’t broken like it normally would, there were no cracks, jagged edges, or any signs of forceful breakage. The edges of the gap had a distinct pattern similar to a stair, the entirety of it was like an incomplete puzzle, only missing a singular piece.

After some time thinking, Vin fixes the door with a gate hook and a screw, he looks at what he’s done with a feeling of satisfaction, despite it looking messy, he then goes to his room to change clothes, and his eyes widen in surprise, he looked at the top of the door frame of his room and sees another gap, it was similar to the one on his door, he sighed and ignored it, he then enters his bedroom, VIn’s expression changed from being surprised to irritate, as he saw a third one in the middle of his bed, the gap went through the bed making it a hole, he sighs again and changes his clothes. Vin took a closer look at the hole, it was different in shape but the other factors were the same.

“What the heck is happening?” Vin mumbled,

He exited his room and roamed around the house looking for something similar, he then found one in his bathroom and another one in the living room, which he missed, overall there were five of them, all varying in sizes and shapes, other than that, all of the characteristics match the one on the door. Vin returned to his room, he sat on the floor trying to think what could cause the holes.

After some time, Vin found himself sleeping, still sitting on the floor, he shook himself awake, he looked at the time, it was in the middle of the night and Vin felt his stomach rumble, he didn’t feel like cooking so he stood up grabbed his wallet and went to a nearby convenience store, he grabbed some ready-to-eat foods and exited the store. As he walked back, he looked around admiring the ambiance of the night, enjoying the cold breeze as well as the stars in the sky. However, it all came to a stop when he felt a sharp cold steel pressing against his neck, he looked down and saw a crescent-shaped blade, its handle extending from behind him.

A hooded person standing behind Vin wearing full black clothing covering all of their skin, “Don’t move,” said the person in a subtle yet demanding tone.

“Um, if you’re trying to rob me, then at least use a believable weapon… don’t get me wrong it’s a cool-looking scythe, but I doubt anyone will believe it’s real,” replied Vin with a sarcastic tone but not moving an inch.

The person sighed, they pulled the scythe closer to Vin’s neck giving him a small cut and causing a drop of blood to fall.

Vin flinched, “A-alright! I-it’s real, it’s real, what do you want?” he asked, his voice trembling

“Give me your artifact,” answered the person

“Artifact? I don’t have anything like that,” answered Vin.

“Oh really, Didn’t you buy something from a masked vendor?” asked the person with a slight tone of enthrallment.

Vin hesitated for a moment, “... I-I did,” answered Vin

“What did you buy?” asked the person.

“It was a –”

“Don’t!”

A familiar voice interrupted Vin, he heard a loud clank, and the scythe flew afar, he looked behind him and saw Elaine running towards him, At that moment Elaine grabbed his wrist and ran.

“I know you have a lot of questions, I’ll explain everything later, but now we need to run,” said Elaine as she held on to Vin’s wrist and continued running

Vin said nothing and followed her, as he was running he looked back and saw the person standing up, they reached out their hand in the air and produced another scythe out of thin air. Vin was amazed and scared at the same time. In a single pounce, they were able to catch up with the two of them. As they were about to strike, Elaine blocked the blade with her bare hands. Elaine and the person came to a stop, she grabbed the back of Vin’s shirt stopping him also.

“Stop running for now, I can’t protect you when you’re far away,” said Elaine to Vin

The three of them came to a standstill.

“It has been a while hasn’t it? Guardian,” said the person to Elaine with a slight chuckle

“Yeah, it has been, Lucid,” replied Elaine with a hostile undertone

Lucid hung the scythe over their shoulder, “So what do you say? Whoever wins gets to keep the newbie.”

Elaine shook her head, rolled back her sleeve, and popped her knuckles with a slight smirk on her face, “Sorry, but I don’t use the lives of my friends when making bets,” she replied,

Lucid took off their hood, revealing their sharp teeth, long black hair, and red eyes, “Oh that’s fine, I’ll just take him after killing you,”

The conversation stops, and the place is silent but filled with tension, Lucid dashes toward Elaine, her scythe approaching Elaine’s neck, Elaine steps back dodging the scythe, and charges toward Lucid, she grabs her head with her two hands and bashed it against her head, Lucid lost her balance due to the blow, Elaine follows up with a strong blow to her stomach, causing her to fall on her knees, Lucid then jumps back gaining a significant distance between the two of them, Lucid spun her scythe and threw it at Elaine, the scythe missed Elaine.

“Missed me, dumbass,” said Elaine with a smirk on her face.

Lucid chuckles, she reaches out two fingers in the air and points them at Elaine. The scythe turned around aiming toward Elaine’s back, Elaine dodged the second attack as well, however, the scythe continued to follow her, quickly speeding up, Elaine tried to dash towards Lucid but the scythe prevented her. Lucid laughs at Elain’s struggle, as she watches her dodging the scythe. Elaine took a deep breath and stopped dodging, she covered her face between her arms. The scythe continued to attack her, one by one, lacerations began to appear on her skin every moment the scythe passed by, the wounds were deep covering her body in blood, in a split second Elaine reached out her hand and grabbed the scythe, she had a smirk of victory on her face. As she was about to attack Lucid she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, she looked down and saw Lucid with her hand inside her stomach, covered in blood. Elaine gritted her bloodied teeth and sliced Lucid’s head off with her opponent's weapon

Vin ran towards Elaine, his body, trembling from fear, his breaths shallow and unstable, and each intake came with an audible gasp, he kneeled right next to her body, took off his shirt, and with his trembling hands he placed it on the wound and applied pressure to it, however, the wound won’t stop bleeding. Kneeling in the pool of blood of his friend, his heart pounded, and his thoughts clouded with desperation, as he continued to apply pressure he noticed that the cloth kept changing abruptly, it changed colors, texture, and material, and the cloth kept shaking as it changes, it was almost as if the cloth was glitching. Vin was surprised but he held down the cloth, his ears perked up as he heard a static noise, the cloth was gone as well as the wound on Elaine’s body, Vin could feel her stomach inflating and deflating he breathed a sigh of relief before collapsing.