“Here.”

She gave me a towel and showed the way to the shower. No one was at home at Lydia’s house. It was also the first time I’d ever visited a girls home. To be honest, I didn’t understand why people made such a fuss about it, it wasn’t anything extraordinary. Or is that just an imagination I have from watching too many drama shows? Now you wonder how we actually managed to get out of that place last night. Or whatever, it wasn’t really last night, the clock on the toilet(?!) showed 5:30. After spending some time disposing of the body inside of one of the cardboard boxes, Lydia called some strange looking woman. She was in her 30s, and was possessing a chinese style AR 56. She looked scary, and it didn’t help that she was quiet almost the entire time. But our phones were out of charge, you said. Yes, but guess who’s phone was working. Yep, that mysterious man, who I still don’t know the name of yet. Imagine not having a passcode or a biometrical lock on your phone in this day and age, but that’s besides the point. Thankfully, no one was present at that time inside of the entertainment centre. Everything was done and dusted within an hour. Now the question was: Who the hell is Lydia?

I stepped out of the shower, the steam made the visibility severe. I had to be careful not to slip on the wet tiles or trip on the carpet. Seriously, did the ventilation here even work? Someone knocked on the door.

“I’m coming in.”

“W-wait, I’m…” Too late, Lydia had already pressed the handle down and could now see my naked body. I quickly grabbed the towel from one of the hooks and covered myself.

“Wow… I’m, sorry. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

She blushed.

“You have a little blood left on you, right there,” she said and pointed to the red area on my forehead. I managed to brush it off with ease.

“Now, I’m already assuming you wouldn’t tell anyone about this. Besides, who would actually believe you. ‘Yeah, I saw Lydia just throw a knife into another man’s head who then died.’ I mean, it would be cool if someone actually believed you though. Imagine all the attention I would get… Oh, I would be so embarrassed.”

Shut it, you’re already given too much attention.

“Sure, I see no reason to tell anyone. No one else than the police of course, tee-hee.”

She pulled out a knife from under her skirt, neatly placed in a holder strapped to her knickers.

“You wanna die?”

“It’s just a joke, jesus. But why the hell are you keeping your knife in that location of all?!”

“Ease of access.”

Lydia is a beautiful girl who puts her knife behind her skirt, and kills people. Correction: I’ve only seen her kill 1 person, saying ‘kills’ people would be a bit unfair. She wasn’t that psycho, right? For being through a lot that night, I wasn’t exactly nervous or shocked anymore. I didn’t know why, but for some reason this felt a tiny bit natural, no matter who weird and terrifying that sounds. Lydia’s house looked like any other’s. It was clean, the furniture looked modern and the walls were painted in mostly white. The staircase to the ground floor was located in one of the corners. Beside it was a railing which looked like it was painted recently. A photo hung on the wall in the staircase, on it I could spot Lydia, presumably her mother and father, as well as a boy who looked to be about 2 years younger than us. Maybe he went to the same school as Olivia?

“So, I guess you have a lot of questions. Fear not though! Don’t go thinking I won’t tell you. I actually want someone to tell; you see, no one knows about this except the people I work with.”

“So I’ll be the first?”

“You’re 100% right, Ethan.”

I didn’t expect her to be this open-minded, but I guess that was one of her personality traits. But why me? Why am I going to be the first person she’s going to tell? I guess she’d tried to hide her true identity, and since I was the first one seeing what she’d done. Basically, everything makes sense if you think about it.

“Here, change of clothes.” She held up a pair of black fabric trousers and a white t-shirt. “They’re my brothers.”

Without thinking about it, I grabbed them and went back into the bathroom to change.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“I guess I, too, should shower. Take a seat in the living room downstairs in the meantime.” She smiled, and I followed her proposal. Sitting on the sofa I couldn’t quite have my eyes open anymore, slowly they were closing on me. Less and less light was able to pass through until I fell asleep. Right when I’d sat down, my body got extremely sleepy. From being alive and kicking, to becoming helpless.

“Did you have fun with my sister last night?”

I’d woken up on the sofa, someone had put a blanket over me when I was asleep. Sunlight came flooding on through the windows; it was daytime. In front of me, in one of the chairs,

sat a young guy. He was the one who I’d seen in that photo before. So my suspicions were right, he was Lydia’s brother.

“I know you, you come to pick up Olivia from school sometimes.”

“You know Olivia?” I asked, confused.

“Hmm… We’re in the same class. Hasn’t she told you about me?”

It’s not like any of us shared information about our classmates, that would be weird and unethical. Besides, what had this guy done that deserved a telling. Then Lydia arrived from the kitchen, she had changed into a pair of more casual clothes. In her hand she held an aluminium spatula, she was probably making some type of food.

“He doesn’t know about us,” she said and chuckled.

“What ‘I don’t know?’ Did you two do pervy things last night? Tell me!”

She repeated herself: “He doesn’t know, so don’t tell him… Okay?” She went back into the kitchen with a smile on her face. I knew exactly what she meant, so I better keep it a secret. Who knows what would happen if I didn’t, would I end up like that guy yesterday? Scary thoughts.

“Relax, she’s just joking,” I said to try and calm him down.

“It’s not like I’m against it anyway…”

Gulp.

So she could cook… But I guess she already looked like someone who would become a perfect housewife in the future, except the killing part. She’d brought out a tray of apple juice, sunshine-fried eggs and a huge pile of bacon.

“Sorry for intruding the other day,” I said.

She smiled. “Seriously, it’s okay.”

I tasted the eggs; they were perfectly seasoned. They melted in my mouth like ice in a warm hand. We didn’t say much during our breakfast around the living room table. We both sat crossed-legged on the fluffy carpet since the table was so low to the floor. Her brother had already left for something. It was sunday after all, I guess people did fun stuff on weekends.

“There’s no one else around here that I should be aware of?”

“Sorry, I actually didn’t know James was at home… But no, there’s no one else here, I hope.”

“So, we can begin our chat?”

She nodded and walked out of the room. She went upstairs and came back a few minutes later. In her hand she held a folder, it was packed to the extent of breaking with different papers in A4 size.

“This,” she said and slammed the folder down on the table.

“This is the work me and my colleagues do. I work for a private organisation called Central Security Agency, CSA for short. You see, the man who attacked me last night is part of a syndicate.”

“A criminal one?”

“Do you believe in supernaturalism, Ethan?”

“If I said no, would you still try and convince me that it exists?”

She sighed and looked at me with a boring face.

“If there’s no motivation then there’s no reason to tell you anything.”

She looked annoyed, so I knew what I had to say.

“Fine, tell me.”

“He’s not a normal human, in fact, he’s not the slightest bit human. We don’t know much of them yet, but the one thing we know is terrible.”

“Huh?”

“They kill for a living, Ethan. We don’t know why, and we don’t know how. The only thing we know is that it’s our goal to stop them before they kill too many people. Simply put it: They need to be exterminated!”

Monsters, murderers, not humans, a syndicate, extermination? It all sounded unbelievable to me.

“Is this a prank?”

“‘A prank?!’ You fucking saw me kill another being last night, and you call it a prank?!”

I guess she isn’t lying then.

“So why do you tell me?”

“Huh? It’s simple. I wouldn't tell you if you didn’t see it. If I were not to tell you, you would be intrigued, or perhaps, worried? Maybe you’d gone to the police?”

“But the police must surely know about this, right?”

“Sadly no. The CSA is one of few private organisations that handles these things. Truth be told, if we were to tell the government or the police, chaos would break out. Don’t you think?”

I surely had a lot of questions for Lydia. But throwing them all over her would obviously be a pain for her. Now, I didn’t know if she disliked talking about this, but her facial expression definitely told something like that. Besides, why is a 17 year old in some private, secret, organisation? The questions piled up in my mind until I couldn’t remember the first ones I wanted to ask her.

“So if you don’t mind. Don’t, obviously, tell anyone about this. Also, please don’t think about it too much. I’m sure you’re intrigued, many that we save and then tell are. However, the most important thing is that you stay safe. And, if you ever feel unsafe, call me. You have my contact info.”

“OK,” I answered. I sure was interested in the matter she’d just brought up. But the questions had to wait. Maybe I could do some searching on the internet on the matter? There surely had to be some mad scientist talking about the stuff she just mentioned.

“Also, Ethan… Let’s become good friends at school.”