Two police officers visited Ella that morning asking about Urara.

Of course, he lied.

He told them that they planned on meeting at the park, but that Urara never showed up. Ella just told them that he figured his friend fell asleep and forgot to contact him.

It’s not like he could tell them that his best friend turned into a monster. They would think he was crazy.

Or worse, they would believe him, and do what police officers do best: shoot to kill.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something was going on in the city, and it wasn’t something a high school student was supposed to be mixed up in. However, it was already beyond the point of no return.

He didn’t know who or what did this to Urara, but he was going to make them pay. Well, he would make K make them pay, to be more specific.

After being questioned, he and K set out to the same neighborhood to look for clues. He wasn’t sure what those clues would look like, but he couldn’t just sit around and wait for something to come to him again. He was tired of being chased. It was time for him to do the chasing.

Well, K would probably do most of the chasing too.

They got off the bus and started walking.

The neighborhood was quiet just like the previous night. Although it was early in the morning, the usual Portland weather kept it from getting too bright, which cast everything in a dreary grayness.

At first, he thought it might be to his disadvantage. After all, if there were people out, he might be able to find someone that saw Urara last night. However, when he remembered the police, he quickly changed his mind. The fewer people watching him snoop around, the better.

They walked down the sidewalks of the quiet neighborhood. Sure enough, it was too cold and too early for children to be out playing. With the clouds overhead, it was only a matter of time before it rained. The only people they saw were in the occasional cars that passed them by.

Soon, the park came into view. It was completely empty, and it wasn’t in the best shape. The roundabout was completely mangled.

“This looks even worse than I thought,” Ella circled the roundabout, looking it up and down. “I guess we were probably getting too old for it anyway.”

“It was fun,” K said.

“Yeah.”

He looked glanced over at her. She was wearing a pleated skirt and a long sleeve sweater, both his of course. In this outfit, she didn’t stand out nearly as much as she usually did.

Unfortunately, his schoolgirl outfit wasn’t exactly in the best of shape after the fight yesterday. When this was all over, he would make K buy him another one. Though knowing her, she probably didn’t even understand the concept of money.

He put his hand on the bars of the roundabout. It was all bent so badly, he couldn’t even get it to budge.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Ella let go and took a step back from it. “You hit him pretty hard.”

“I think he’s just fine,” K said. “I held back a lot, you know.”

Held back? It looked like someone had hit it with a car. If that was holding back, then he worried what K could do to Urara if she got serious.

“Hey, Ella,” K poked him from behind.

“What?”

“Let’s go back home, ‘kay?” her bangs fell over her eyes.

“What’s gotten into you? We haven’t even been looking that long,” he said. “Are you worried it’s going it rain?” he tried to turn back around, but K tugged on his shirt sleeve.

“I… think we should stop.”

“What are you talking about?” Ella wrinkled his eyebrows. “You saw Urara, didn’t you? There’s no way we can just leave him like that.”

“If you go looking for him,” she whispered. “It’s gonna be harder for me to protect you.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Ella pulled his arm away, separating them. “I don’t plan on trying to fight Urara, dark creatures, or girls shooting fireballs head on. I’ll run if I have t-.”

“That’s not what I mean,” K cut him off. “You need to be avoiding this kind of stuff.”

“Avoid it?” Ella sounded exasperated. “I would if I could, but I can’t. I’ve been attacked almost every night, K.”

“And I’ve always defended you, haven’t I?” K said. “I can’t do my mission if you’re…”

“I almost forgot,” Ella said. “That’s all this is to you.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” K stared at him, clenching his fists tightly at her sides.

“Yes you are,” he glared.

“Ella…”

“You want to hear something stupid? For a second, I think I actually forgot that you aren’t my cousin,” he let out a dry laugh. “You never really cared about me. Why did I expect you to care about Urara?”

“Stop acting like you know what I think,” K shouted.

“How the hell am I supposed to know what you’re thinking?” Ella shouted back. “You won’t tell me anything. I’m totally in the dark.”

“I told you, I can’t tell you,” K’s voice got even louder. “I don’t really have a choice… you big dummy!”

“You’re the dummy!” Ella rose his voice to match hers.

He suddenly became very aware of how loud they were. Their voices were echoing through the neighborhood. If he wanted to avoid excessive attention, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

Suddenly, K stood up straight and turned her head. Her hair ruffled and her tail slipped out from under her skirt. It was bushed up and twitching around.

“K?” Ella spoke quieter.

“Don’t follow me.”

Ella glanced around before looking back at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I have to go,” she said. “Just stay here until I come back.”

“What happened to protecting me?” Ella crossed his arms.

K grabbed her head with both hands and groaned. “Just stay here.”

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“I’m not staying anywhere.”

K broke into a sprint away from him. “Stay here,” she yelled behind her.

“No!” Ella took off as quickly as he could to keep up.

The gap between them was getting bigger and bigger every second, but it wouldn’t matter as long as he didn’t lose sight of her. Fortunately for him, she seemed more concerned with getting to wherever she was going than she was with losing him.

They went out of the park and past expensive looking houses spaced out far from each other. He was huffing, but she wasn’t making very many turns. She was still in his line of vision.

Of course, he had absolutely no idea where they were going. Maybe K being called up by the mothership or something. If so, he would make first contact. Hopefully there would be no probing involved.

K finally broke from the sidewalk and went up a grass hill. Ella’s legs were starting to burn. Somehow, running was a lot easier in his dreams. Running in real life felt terrible.

He made it up the hill in time to see her hop over the stone wall surrounding a house. With no other houses nearby, this had to be her destination.

He wouldn’t be able to make it over the wall like her. It was too tall and he was too tired. He went to the front gate. It was open.

He went inside and looked around. It took him a moment to notice through his ragged breathing, but it sounded like someone was yelling.

He used the last of his energy to run around the side of the house toward the sound. That’s when he spotted K. She was looking into one of the windows of the house.

The yelling turned into a scream of agony. Right after, K trust her arm forward.

There was an inhuman screech, followed by the sound of something bursting. Then there was another, and another.

A jolt went through his body as he realized what it was. He had heard it before. It sounded just like the dark figure. It was just like Urara.

“K, no!” he practically collapse as he came to her side.

K turned to him with wide eyes, quickly throwing her hand over his mouth. “It’s not Urara,” she said to him. “We have to go.”

Ella turned his head to the side just in time to see the horrible scene. There was a man in the arms of a woman. Blood on the ground. Two others were close by. Black sludge everywhere. The four of them were drenched in it.

Then he felt himself lift off the ground as K flung him over the wall. He stopped just before he did a face plant. K landed next to him a second later, and then he was dragged back up to his feet.

“Just run, alright?” K said.

“I… don’t know if I can,” Ella was still short of breath.

“I’ll do most of the work,” she took off again.

He followed after her, and was amazed to find that he could keep up this time. His body felt light, like he was riding on something.

After what felt like forever, they finally made it past the park. They didn’t stop running until they got out of the neighborhood altogether.

“What… the hell was all that?” Ella felt like he might throw up. Besides all the blood, he was in much worse shape than he thought he was. Just because he was skinny didn’t mean he was athletic.

K didn’t answer him, grabbing him by the hand. She led him down the street over to the bus stop. She sat down and pulled him down next to her.

“Who… were those people?” Ella whispered despite the fact that there was no one else around.

K stared straight forward, still ignoring him.

“You promise that wasn’t Urara, right?” Ella asked. “You have to promise me.”

“I promise,” K snapped. “They were similar, but they weren’t what Urara turned into last night.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just know, dummy,” she grumbled. “They weren’t as strong.”

Ella’s breath started to finally slow down. Did that really just happened? Actually, he wasn’t even sure if he knew what happened at all. It was too fast, too chaotic. His brain hadn’t even processed it yet.

They sat there for a few minutes, but it didn’t look like the bus was coming any time soon. Ella got up to check the schedule.

“Looks like it’s not coming for another fifteen minutes,” he said.

“I’m going to be in so much trouble,” K hung her head.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

“I knew it,” Ella stood above her. “You know those people, don’t you?”

“No I don’t,” she huffed.

“Why else would you have gone out of your way to help them?” he asked.

“Cuz I felt like it.”

Ella didn’t believe her for a second, but he knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of her she didn’t want to tell him. He probably wouldn’t be able to trick her into talking either. Her guard seemed too high.

He should have confronted them. He should have found out what they knew about what happened to Urara. It was too late now.

He sat back down on the bench.

“You know,” K said, still looking forward at the empty road. “That hurt my feelings.”

“What?”

“When you said I didn’t care about you or Urara,” she said. “That really bothered me.”

“I was mad,” he took a deep breath. “I guess I probably said some things I didn’t mean. Sorry.”

They were quiet for a few minutes. Ella felt his throat burn as he took in another break of cold morning air.

“Have you ever felt like you’re experiencing something for the first time?” K turned her head to look at him.

“Pretty sure everyone’s felt that way at some point.”

“That’s not what I mean,” she frowned. “Like something you’ve experienced, but it feels like the first time anyway. And besides… I’m asking about you.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Probably?”

“Just forget it,” K crossed her arms and turned jerked her head away. “Dummy.”

The bus came a little earlier than expected, and they got back home around 11.

After noon, the news blew up.

Not about what happened in that house, but about what happened at the mall. Another stop, and it was a big one. Apparently, it lasted for close to five minutes. Later that day, they were reporting another death. This time, an adult man.

He only hoped that Urara wasn’t involved.

He went to bed early. It was a long day and he had school in the morning. For the first time in weeks, he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit his pillow.

Images of Urara flashed in his dreams. The men in SWAT gear. The monster cutting through them like they were jelly.

Had Urara killed them?

The sound of a piano woke him up. He didn’t even need to look to know that he was in the dress.

He was in the house.

This time, he left the room without hesitation. It was like the sound of the piano was calling to him, beckoning him to come. He arrived in front of the door, and opened it without knocking.

The fireplace crackled as he entered the room. A man sat playing the piano. It was the same man from his last visit, and he wore the same black suit. He didn’t stop playing.

“And who might this be?” a soft voice said.

A woman in a frilly black dress sat on one of the sofas in front of the fire. Next to her sat a black cat curled up into a ball.

“Hello. I’m Ella,” he said, eyeing the cat. There was no doubt, it was the one he met out in the courtyard. The one that talked. The one that called him a liar. “I… don’t think we’ve met.”

“I’m Hannah,” the woman smiled, but her eyes seemed empty, like she was looking in his direction but not looking at him.

Finally, someone who knew who their own name around here.

“Please, sit down,” The woman motioned with her hand. “We don’t have many visitors. Other than you, of course.”

Ella sat down across from her. “Have we… met before?”

“Why of course we have,” she smiled. “I love your dress.”

“Oh, thank you,” he glanced down at himself. “Yours, uh, looks great too.”

She giggled.

“How long…” his eyes moved to the black cat. It moved slightly to get in a more comfortable position, but it continued to sleep. “How long have you been here?”

“Three years,” the woman replied almost immediately.

Three years. Could someone really live in the middle of nowhere like this for three whole years? What did they eat?

“What is this place?” he asked. “Is this… a dream?”

“This is the place North and I always wished for,” Hannah said. “A place away from everyone.”

North? Was that the name of the man? Ella turned to look at him, but he seemed too focused on playing the piano to be listening to their conversation. The woman’s answer didn’t really help him understand anything, but it was nice to get something other than an ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I can’t tell you’.

“Something happened to a friend of mine,” Ella said. “Someone turned him into something. A monster, I think.”

“Hollow,” Hannah went on, seemingly ignoring him.

“I’m sorry?”

“This was supposed to be a place for us to spend the rest of eternity together,” the woman turned to the fireplace. The soft light shone on her pale skin, almost giving it an orange tint. “But it was all pointless. We’re empty. There’s no ‘us’ anymore.”

Ella found himself unable to look away from her. “Did something happen between the two of you?”

“We’re just reflections now,” Hannah continued looking into the fire. “Just ideas. Just shells.”

Ella had no idea what she meant, and no idea how to respond.

“It’s embarrassing, but I’ve those days playing on a loop,” she smiled a smile filled with remorse. “I thought that maybe, if I could see how North saw me, I might be able to be at peace.”

“Are you… dead?”

“But all I see my own mistakes,” she looked back to him, her eyes dark like the bottom of a well. “An eternal reminder that what I wanted will never be.”

“What… happened?”

Hannah looked back into the fire. “I think you’ll be able to see for yourself.”

He left the room.

The sound of the piano became softer and softer as he walked down the hallway again. Finally, the somber melody faded away, leaving only his footsteps behind.

He reached the end of the hall and turned the corner. The black door stood in front of him.

He was relieved to see that the SWAT captain’s body was nowhere to be seen. He wanted to hope he might still be alive, but he knew better. People didn’t walk away from wounds like that.

He reached out and touched the labyrinth-like design on the face of the door. It felt cold like metal, sending a chill through his body. He traced the lines until his hand made it down to the doorknob.

“I think you’ll be able to see for yourself,” Hannah’s voice echoed in his mind.

He turned it.

A bright light escaped through the crack, and the door flung open.

He walked inside, and everything unraveled in front of him.