There exists a place where demons roam free and not much else lives there. It sits parallel to another world and has no color except black, white, and gray. Everything is dull, lifeless, and even the trees don’t move because there is no air here. No breeze to listen to. Nothing but the sound of an occasional growl or cackle. But lately, it has become home to something other than demons. Staring up into the white clouds and light gray sky, their eyes peered as the brightest orbs of light descending from the sky. They were no small orbs and in a certain light you could see something inside. These eyes continued to watch as the egg-like spheres landed slowly onto the gravel below them. It was quiet when they landed, and it was still quiet as they sat there.
Finally, a growl pierced through the silence. Barking and snarling filled the air as hellhounds began to approach the scene. Initially, the demon hounds were met with the eyes that had stared at the orbs. A lamb, with a coat white as snow and eyes black as night, was joined by an owl whose feathers fluttered at the sight of the dogs. The owl, colored in a coat of brown and cream feathers, examined the hellhounds before the hellhounds turned their heads away from them.
One small snarl, and a bark later, there was no room for soundlessness any longer. Blood-curdling screams and shouts could be heard as both the Lamb and Owl watched on expressionless.
“HELP ME! OH MY GOD HELP ME PLEASE!” someone had pleaded.
One of the hellhounds was barking at another hellhound over possession of a torso while the rest of the pack were silencing the leftover souls being torn apart. The screams were hardly quelled while the hounds did their work.
“SOMEBODY! PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!” someone else cried.
It took the dogs some time, but eventually they put a stop to their screams and their bloodthirsty hunger was quenched. Blood the color of indigo-blue was stained all over the ground and even some splatters had made it to the sidewalk. In the end, the demonic hounds took their meaty prizes and only left one out of the seven eggs that had landed from the sky.
“My, what a mess,” Owl responded finally.
Lamb didn’t say a word. This was no different from any other time they had to do this and therefore did not heed a comment. Owl looked at Lamb with a soft stare before walking side by side to the last remaining orb. Almost as soon as they were in front of it, the sphere burst with a soft hiss of air and melted into the floor below it. A young, corpse-like woman emerged from her bubble, arm stretched out and body following with it. Her head was rocking side to side, as if trying to wake up. Lamb and Owl stood in front of the woman, waiting for her to fully regain consciousness. The look of her skinny, pale complexion along with the tainted blue of her mouth and fingernails signified that she was indeed dead.
“Young one isn’t she,” Owl told Lamb.
“Not young enough,” Lamb said, finally something.
The dead woman stared at both Owl and Lamb in confusion, before trying to get a look at her surroundings.
“Young lady, over here,” Owl said, getting her attention.
The woman stared back at them and gave a look of astonishment. She moved back, digging her fingers into the ground, getting her boney legs to move as her hair was covering the majority of her face except for one eye, her nose, and part of her mouth.
“Y-You…” her voice was hoarse and scratchy.
“Yes, pay attention now,” the Owl said, clearing her throat, “You must choose between myself or my friend here–”
“We are not friends,” Lamb stated plainly.
Owl peered at Lamb before looking at the young woman, “Anyway, you must choose between I, the Owl, or the Lamb. Choose wisely now.”
She opened her mouth to say something, “Ch-Ch-Choose…?”
“Yes, you must choose,” Lamb told her.
She looked between both animals now. Her eyes stared at the Owl for a long time, seeing something shine in its eye. The woman gave a bit of a startled look before looking at the Lamb. Nothing happened when she saw the Lamb’s eyes, nothing at all.
“I… I choose…”
Kayla woke up, sitting upright on the bed as she panted and held the fabric of her garment near her chest. Her arms were visibly shaking and her legs were parallel to the bed underneath the blanket. It took her a moment before she turned to see where she was. Kayla’s green eyes took in the room before her. White painted all over, the bed up against the wall with the window, and a chair and dresser next to each other across from the bed. She looked out the window, narrowing her eyes slightly but seeing nothing outside. Kayla did not know what to expect, but she didn’t expect to see nothing on the other side either. She heard the door creaking open before turning her head and jumping up at the sight of a lamb.
Lamb’s beady black eyes stared into Kayla’s green ones with a moment’s silence, “Come.”
The animal gave the woman a second to understand what she had just said before turning to leave. Kayla began to try and pull the blanket off, all while staring down at her legs and braving the standing position. To her disbelief, she stood straight with no weakness. Kayla shook her head softly before taking her first few steps out of her room and into the hallway. Even the hallways were as plain white as the room she was just in, with matching white baseboards and crown moldings. Not a single speck of color. Kayla felt the carpet below her bare feet and stared before noticing Lamb was waiting for her at the end of the hallway. She finally followed after the small animal, the nightgown she was wearing flowed with each step she took before entering a large common room.
Kayla stopped to stare. It looked to be a sort of living room, with a couch sitting right in the middle of it. The couch was, to her surprise, not white but a dark gray. Behind it was a wooden table that was white, with matching white chairs. In front of the couch stood a large television. It was especially bulky-looking. The TV sat on a wide stand that also worked as a small storage for books and what seemed like video cassettes. Next to the television set, was a large bookcase filled with all sorts of books. On the other side of the living room there was another window. Kayla could not help but walk towards it. Just beneath the window, she put her hands on a decorative table to lean in closer. Yet there was nothing but white also behind that window. Nothing to tell her just where she was.
The woman heard someone clear their throat. She turned slightly, trying to see if the window could show anything else, before finally turning all the way. Kayla’s lips parted in surprise when she saw two other ladies standing behind the couch. One of them walked up to Kayla as she glanced down at her, not sure what to think.
“Hi,” she greeted after getting close enough, “Trying to get a look out the window huh?”
Kayla looked at her before nodding, “T-There’s nothing outside.”
“I know. Lamb controls the house, and she decided it was best we don’t always see what’s outside,” the girl told her.
Kayla stared at the little white creature who was staring at her before looking back at the other woman in front of her, “W-Who are you?”
A smile appeared on her face, “I’m Christina. I’m your roommate-slash-teammate.”
Kayla finally had a name for the aqua-haired girl who stood before her, “C-Christina…”
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“You can call me Chris for short,” she said before looking back at the other woman who was standing next to her earlier.
She began to walk over and Kayla couldn’t help but notice how tall she was. Kayla stared up at her and swallowed.
“Hello, my name is Leah,” she introduced herself.
“H-Hello,” Kayla said, trying to regain her composure.
“What’s your name?” Leah asked politely.
Kayla stood there for a moment before blinking and looking down towards the ground. She knew her name, but for some reason it did not want to be pronounced.
“It’s okay if you don’t remember,” Christina told her, “It will come to you eventually.”
Kayla looked at Chris before slowly nodding her head, “W-Where are we?”
Christina gave Kayla a soft look before responding, “This is Lamb’s house and outside is a place called the Gray World.”
“The Gray World?” Kayla asked.
Chris nodded her head, “We’re here because we died, and I guess Lamb kind of took us in and put us to work.”
A flashback of Kayla first meeting Lamb and Owl rushed through her head as she squinted slightly before collecting herself once more.
“Work?” Kayla asked.
“We’ll get to that right now,” Lamb interrupted, walking up to the three women and staring up at all of them, “First, get her changed then meet me downstairs.”
Lamb gave one last stare before leaving. Everyone watched the little animal leave before Kayla looked at Chris and Leah.
“Like I said, her house, her rules. Come on, let’s see what clothes Lamb left for you,” Christina said.
Leah smiled at Kayla and she finally felt a wave of reassurance in their presence. Despite how cold Lamb acted, the other two girls made this feel just a bit more normal. Kayla followed Christina back into the room she had just emerged out of earlier. The three went into the dresser that Kayla had seen earlier and began to pick out a shirt, pants and some other necessities for her to wear. Between the clothes that Kayla received and what the other two were wearing, there were many differences. For starters, Christina wore jean overalls and a t-shirt underneath while Leah wore a flannel over a black sleeveless undershirt and jeans.
Once Kayla looked at the clothes for a moment, she proceeded to get changed while the other ladies walked out the door and waited outside for her to finish. Looking down at the clothes she was wearing, Kayla found herself wondering if this outfit suited her. A collared short sleeve with gray capri pants, and some white tennis shoes. She shrugged before opening the door and seeing the other two glancing at her up and down in curiosity.
“The red shirt matches your blonde hair nicely,” Christina grinned.
Kayla gave her a strange look before grabbing a piece of her hair. She supposed her hair was a blonde-ish yellow, although she couldn’t remember if that was really what her hair was supposed to look like.
“It does look really nice on you,” Leah complimented.
“T-Thank you…” Kayla replied sheepishly.
The two girls couldn’t help but look at each other before motioning to follow them, “Before we take you to the basement let’s show you around the house.”
Christina did most of the talking while Leah only spoke here and there. Her inviting and also charismatic behavior made it easier for Kayla to feel comfortable, but Leah was soft-spoken and liked to make sure Kayla was keeping up. All in all, the new member of their little group didn’t feel like a stranger for too long.
“So even though we don’t really do a lot of the things we probably would have done when we were alive, Lamb still included a kitchen and bathroom to make the house more cozy. Most of the time we are either in our rooms, the basement, or here in the living room. There’s a lot of books to read, some movies to watch, and if you want to listen to music we share the MP3 player according to a schedule in the kitchen. But we make it a tradition to lend the musical device to the newest person in the house,” Christina said, pulling out a small little contraption with flimsy headphones attached to it.
Kayla placed her hands flat together in front of her as Chris placed the small device on her hands. She stared at it quite oddly, wondering how it worked.
“Just keep it in your pocket for now because we still have to show you the rooms,” Chris told her.
Kayla’s green eyes looked at Christina before nodding her head. She put it in one of her pockets as instructed while Leah gestured for Kayla to follow them upstairs.
“All of our rooms have the same furniture in it. We just arranged the room and put names on the doors so none of us get confused. To help you get around though we gave you the only room downstairs, everyone else’s rooms are upstairs,” Chris explained.
They made it into another hallway, a window being the first thing you saw coming up the side of the stairs along with a familiar looking decorative table beneath it. Looking down the hallway were a series of 5 doors and a plant at the end of the corridor. Kayla got to peek into everyone’s room. Christina had opened each door just enough for her to see inside. Some beds were aligned to the wall while there was one room where the bed was angled towards the corner. Another room had two chairs inside and the other rooms had windows. The names on each of the doors were clearly written, but 3 out of the 5 rooms had a name crossed out above them.
“What does this m-mean?” Kayla asked.
She pointed to the crossed out names. Christina looked at the one name in particular she pointed out. She was quiet for a moment, as if lost in thought, before Leah finally answered.
“Some of our rooms used to belong to other people. That room used to be Samantha’s room, but now it’s Nathaniel’s room. My room also used to be someone else’s too,” Leah responded.
Kayla made an ‘oh’ face. But she wondered why the talkative of the bunch didn’t reply to her first. Christina shook her head softly and smiled.
“Let’s go to the basement now, yeah?” Chris said.
Going back down the stairs, there was a door just by the stairs that Kayla had seen before on her tour throughout the house but didn’t quite question its existence until now. Christina had opened the door which led to another staircase into what was presumably the basement. It was a giant area covered in cement with a few cracks here and there. Once they were downstairs, Lamb was waiting for them on the other side by another bulky television. The threesome walked over before Lamb looked up at Kayla.
“Reach into my fur,” Lamb told her.
Kayla glanced at Lamb before staring at Chris and Leah. They both nodded their head in assurance so the blonde leaned down and began to dig her fingers into Lamb’s backside. To the woman’s surprise, her entire hand was engulfed in the fur but Lamb remained motionless until something touched her fingertips. Kayla gripped whatever had reached her hand and pulled it out. She stared at the item in her hand as it unfurled and revealed itself to be a simple blue ribbon.
“I-It’s… a ribbon?” Kayla asked.
“It’s a pretty ribbon,” Christina accentuated as Kayla looked at her confused.
“What do I do with it?” she asked.
“You are going to use it to activate your battle armor,” Lamb told her.
“B-Battle armor?” Kayla asked.
“I’ll show you,” Christina told her.
Leah motioned for Kayla to step back a little as they watched Christina unclasp a small heart-shaped hair clip she had tucked in the side of her hair. She held it in front of her to show Kayla what it looked like.
“Activate,” Christina said.
The little hair clip began to glow as Kayla stared in disbelief. Chris placed the item on her chest and as she removed her hand, it had turned into a gold-trimmed purple jewel sparkling to life. Christina closed her eyes as the jewel began to replace the clothes she was already wearing. The heart-shaped little lights covering her entire body, eventually turning into a sort of uniform. Her skirt twisting around her hips, her shirt lining with pleated sleeves and stripes. A pair of stockings going up to her thighs and ankle boots to match. But what surprised her the most, was the tail that popped out along with matching little round ears. They were spotted with yellow fur, much like a leopard of some sort. Her little heart-shaped clip went back on her hair as Christina opened her eyes to smile at Kayla.
Lamb said to Kayla, “In this uniform, fighting against the demons should protect you.”
Kayla stared down at Lamb, “D-D-Demons?”
Lamb gazed at her, “Yes. You are here to fight demons.”