“Hey… no…”

A hellhound demon growled menacingly as it inched closer and closer to its intended target.

“Good doggy… stay…”

The dog gave a quick bark then went into a full sprint. But before it could pounce, an arrow shot through its skull, effectively killing it.

“Oh! I had that one Nate!”

“Really, because you didn’t even pull your ax out to try and fight it off,” Nate responded, holding a bow in his hand.

The orange haired man raised a brow at his comrade who made an annoyed face, “I was going to pull it out at the last second. I wanted to see how quick I could do it.”

“Hunter,” someone else called, pulling out a sword from another hellhound, “Stop fucking around.”

“I just wanted to try something, why is that so bad?” Hunter asked, fixing his bangs out of his face.

“You don’t think, do you? What if a bigger group of hellhounds come and try to attack us, or worse,” the guy sheathed his sword, walking up to Hunter now and staring him down with his bright aquamarine eyes.

Hunter swallowed slightly, “I-I see your point now. Sorry, Luke.”

Luke gave Hunter one last stare, before turning his head. Nate looked at the both of them, having crossed his arms after he put his bow away.

“Let’s go, I don’t want something worse coming after us,” the blue-haired man said, walking down the empty freeway as they still had some traveling to do before they got back.

Kayla woke up feeling rather refreshed after the intensive training she went through with Christina and Leah. Thus far, it has been approximately a week since Kayla first awoke in the Gray World. Every day since, Lamb has been having her train both offensively and defensively. She has also been getting pointers here and there about how to handle her naginata better. Plus, it makes sense why there is a television set in the basement now. Chris would put on random kung-fu movies to help Kayla learn some techniques in hand-to-hand combat. It seemed ridiculous at first to try and copy what she was seeing on the screen, but the more she did it the better her fighting style became.

Of course, she definitely was not as good as Leah or even Chris. Christina was the best of the three of them. Then again, the girl with the aqua-colored hair was doing this for much longer than the other two. Nonetheless, Chris always made sure to take it easy on her since she was still getting used to being here. The Gray World was also a bit of a mystery to Kayla. She has only seen a piece of the world outside the house, and it was not much of a view. Apparently, the house they currently reside in was squished between two very large office buildings in the middle of the city. The house was also across the street from another couple of large office buildings, a tree, and a street that separated the block they were on.

Kayla was disappointed by the view, but Chris had told her that once they began their excursions against the demons she would see more of the world they reside in.

“Hey Kayla,” Leah said, knocking on the door prior to her calling her name.

Kayla was also happy to have finally remembered her name as well, “Yes?”

“We’re going to go down to the basement later so take your time getting up okay?” Leah told her.

The blonde was surprised that she was not being called to go down to the basement immediately for once but it felt like a nice change of pace. Kayla nodded her head while Leah’s coily purple hair bounced after she turned away. The green-eyed girl watched her friend walk towards the living room and not the stairs. She swung her legs out of the covers, looking into the drawer for the clothes that were given to her since she first arrived here. Kayla dressed into her shirt and pants, looking at her white tennis shoes and putting them next to her door for later.

Walking out of her room, she walked towards the living room where she didn’t see Leah. Kayla wondered where she could have gone before poking her head in the kitchen. Leah was sitting down writing into a wire-bound notebook at the dining table. She caught a glimpse of Kayla looking at her before looking up and smiling at the woman. The blonde was surprised that Leah caught her so quickly before smiling nervously. She didn’t mean to pry, but Leah didn’t seem to mind the staring.

Kayla walked back over to the couch, sitting down and feeling something in her pocket. She dug her hand into the opening before grabbing the flimsy headphones and small MP3 player. The blonde had almost forgotten that she had put this in her pocket after listening to it before going to sleep. She proceeded to put both headphones into her ears before sitting back on the couch and pressing the play button. Music began to play as she closed her eyes to listen.

It was relaxing, listening to the sound take over. At least, it was relaxing while it lasted. The first song was over and the second one was starting before she heard a slam just behind her.

“HONEY, I’M HOME!”

Kayla had jumped in her seat, almost falling off the couch as she turned around. The woman was unsettled to say the least when she looked to see what was going on behind her. There was a guy standing in front of the doorway with arms spread and eyes searching. His eyes met hers as she hid herself a bit further behind the couch. Before the loud one could walk over to her, someone had interrupted him.

“Why do you always have to be so fucking loud…” someone else said, walking around from behind the guy who had announced himself earlier.

“B-Bu-But–!”

“Shut it, I don’t wanna hear it,” the boy with the blueish hair snapped at the other one who was trying to point at something.

Hunter, the green-haired loudmouth who notified everyone of his being here earlier, was pointing at Kayla who was the new body that just joined their group.

“Uh, Luke,” another guy entered the house before closing the door and looking over to see what Hunter was pointing at.

Kayla was sitting up now after the green-haired guy had started pointing in her direction and the other orange-haired guy was also pointing out her presence less conspicuously. Luke finally turned to see what the other boys wanted before meeting her eyes. The blonde sat there in stunned silence, looking at this guy’s face as if he was familiar to her. From a distance, Luke sighed.

“Great, another one,” he remarked.

Leah walked out of the kitchen after hearing all of the commotion, “You’re really rolling out the welcome wagon for her.”

“I thought Lamb was done recruiting more people,” Luke retorted.

“I never said that,” Lamb interrupted, standing in the corridor with Christina right behind the little animal.

“Stop being such an asshole and introduce yourself,” Christina crossed her arms, obviously not happy about the way Luke was conducting himself.

Luke looked from Christina to Kayla. Kayla sat up, feeling anxious now. Clearly he was not happy with her being there but she was here now with nowhere else to go.

“I’m Luke, and stay out of my room,” he said, walking past Lamb and bumping shoulders with Christina on his way upstairs.

“Fucking prick,” Chris snapped, watching him go upstairs. Lamb followed him back upstairs, probably to talk to him.

Kayla grabbed the fabric around her chest tightly, seeing that perhaps not everyone was happy with her existence here. It was then she heard a chair move before looking over at the table behind the couch. Hunter was sitting there waiting for her attention to turn to him as he stretched his hand out for a shake.

“Hi, I’m Hunter. Ignore that asshat earlier, he’s just huffy. I, on the other hand, am so much nicer and way better-looking. Feel free to stare too, I’ll let you do it for free,” Hunter winked.

Kayla slowly put her hand in his for a shake. She just stared at him for a long moment before nodding her head. The woman was not used to such interactions, it was a strange concept to her. Hunter looked at Kayla and saw that his charm was not working on her whatsoever.

“Huh, that usually gets a giggle or something,” he said.

“About time someone is completely immune to your charm,” Leah muttered.

Her expressions turned from annoyed to startled when Hunter was suddenly up in her face, “Admit it, you fell for me since they first day we laid eyes on each other–”

Suddenly, there was a slam on the ground which made Kayla stare in disbelief. Hunter’s eyes were replaced with spinning swirls as he lay on the floor after Leah punched him.

“I told you to stop doing that!” Leah yelled at him.

She finished off her yelling by kicking him, feeling no remorse for her behavior.

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Christina and the third guy walked over to Kayla, “Don’t worry about them you’ll get used to it. Anyway, this is Nathaniel!”

Nathaniel pushed a few orange threads away from his face before sticking his hand out to shake Kayla’s. Kayla nodded her head softly, seeing how tall Nathaniel stood from both her and Chris.

“You can call me Nathan, or Nate,” Nathaniel said, smiling politely.

“It is nice to meet you,” Kayla finally responded.

“My love for you will never cease to exist, Leah dearest,” Hunter groaned before getting kicked again.

“Stop saying that! You’re going to give Kayla the wrong idea!” Leah said.

Chris and Nathan just stared stoically, they were obviously used to this while Kayla looked on anxiously.

“So yeah, this is Kayla. She came not too long after you guys left,” Christina continued the introductions ignoring the commotion near the kitchen.

“Is that so?” Nathaniel asked, looking over at Kayla.

From the three she just met, Kayla found Nathaniel to be the easiest to converse with. He explained that they weren’t here when she first came to the house because they sometimes join another group in exterminating the demons. While the city itself seemed manageable, it was the surrounding areas that tended to get overlooked. Which is why there is another group stationed out in the city limits to deal with the infestation there. But the area will get overwhelmed with demons from time to time and Lamb will send either the girls or guys out to the other base to help get rid of whatever demons were there. Eventually, Leah sat down at the table behind the couch to join them in this conversation. Chris was sitting on the couch next to Kayla, and Nathaniel was also sitting at the table. Hunter, on the other hand, was on the ground probably unconscious after the beating he just received.

“So how many of us are there at that other base?” Kayla asked, having many questions.

“Only three, it doesn’t get infested very often so there isn’t really a need to have a lot of people,” Nathan said.

“Oh,” Kayla said, wondering what the other three were like. Considering the three guys she just met, she hoped they weren’t anything like Luke or Hunter.

“We’ll go over there one of these days when Lamb thinks you’re ready,” Leah commented.

Speaking of the little white animal, “You are ready to begin more training now it seems.”

Lamb had come back from talking to Luke upstairs. The animal was stoic, not able to make any expressions with its face.

“But we just got back…” Hunter whined, lifting his head from the floor after being knocked out.

“And there is no more time to waste. You have been introduced to the rest of your comrades, it is time for Kayla to prepare herself against the demons,” Lamb stated.

“Lamb, the boys just got here. Can’t we just take this one day off and continue tomorrow?” Chris asked, trying to be reasonable.

The little creature stood there staring at them. Lamb didn’t answer and instead turned to leave.

With no other word, Chris shook her head and sighed, “That’s Lamb’s way of saying ‘fine’.”

Kayla looked at Chris. She seemed adamant about not forcing the blonde to train so much. Yet Lamb wanted the opposite. Clearly they were supposed to listen to the small white animal since it made demands and expected them to be followed. But even the others argued and made it known that they were not soldiers to be ordered around.

“So, no training today?” Kayla asked.

Chris looked at Kayla, “Nope. You can take a break today.”

Everyone else looked at Kayla with a soft expression. She was feeling more comfortable with her surroundings, knowing that there were people like this who cared despite just getting to know each other.

“What do you normally do on a day off?” Kayla asked.

Everyone looked at each other before looking back at the blonde. Leah answered first, “I usually spend my time writing.”

“I like to watch some of the movies on the tv,” Christina said.

“I’ll read or watch movies,” Nathaniel added.

“I just watch whatever the others are doing,” Hunter commented from the floor.

Leah glowered at Hunter while the man just stared at her lovingly. Kayla nodded her head slowly, listening to what everyone was saying.

Chris snapped her fingers, “That’s what I forgot!”

She got up from her seat and went over to the bookcase to grab a spiral-bound notebook like the one Leah was writing in earlier.

“Here you go,” Christina said, passing the notebook along to Kayla.

Kayla grabbed the notebook and looked at it. She opened the cover to reveal blank lined pages. The notebook definitely piqued her interests as she ran a hand through the paper. This felt familiar somehow but Kayla couldn’t quite understand why.

“I think you’re a writer,” Leah said.

Nathaniel and Chris both nodded their heads, seeing how enthralled Kayla was with the notebook.

“You think so?” Kayla responded.

“Definitely,” she smiled brightly.

From the side of the table, a head poked out, “Why can’t you smile like that for me?”

Leah’s smile turned to a frown as she glared at Hunter, “I will kick you again.”

“You know your punches and kicks are like love taps to me right?” Hunter said, being flirty once more.

Kayla watched as Leah began to strangle the man. She looked over at Chris and Nathan who gave their usual stoic expressions.

“Are they always like this?” Kayla asked.

“Yes,” they both answered at the same time.

Kayla tilted her head slightly before they looked at each other and gave a small chortle, “O-Okay.”

She found both Christina and Nathaniel to be rather comfortable with each other, and wondered if there was something else between them.

“It has been pretty much like this since Hunter arrived. Honestly he can be too much sometimes though,” Chris admitted.

Kayla seemed to understand. Everyone had their own distinct personalities, making the group very diverse.

“So, you want some privacy to write in your new notebook or would you want to watch a movie with us?” Christina asked her.

The blonde looked at her and wondered which she would rather do. It seemed they had the whole day to do stuff.

“I would like to watch a movie with everyone,” Kayla answered.

Watching a movie was definitely not a disappointment. Eventually Hunter calmed down with his antics and they were able to watch a kids movie in peace. However, he started up again when there was a big musical concert towards the end to which he started singing, and even dancing, to the song. He was definitely the loud and stand out type.

After the movie, everyone else stayed to watch another one while Kayla wanted to spend some time writing in her new notebook. Just as she was about to go into her room, she heard something upstairs. The blonde stared back over at the others before looking at the stairs. She slowly made her way up, hearing the sound become more clear. Kayla knew it was some sort of instrument; she just didn’t know which one. She looked at each of the rooms, some of the doors were wide open while others were closed. Only one was slightly open. Kayla walked over quietly, hearing the strings being strummed quite masterfully. Her eyes peeked into the room to see and finally witness what it was she was hearing. The guy from earlier who didn’t even want to introduce himself was playing the guitar in his room.

This sound… It was very familiar to Kayla. Like she had heard this song before but she couldn’t remember when. Kayla had walked closer to the door to hear better but a creak from the floor had revealed her. The strumming stopped and the blonde tried walking towards the stairs until the door opened wide. Kayla turned around to see Luke standing there annoyed, staring down at his new comrade.

“Do you normally peep into other people’s rooms?” Luke asked.

Kayla slowly shook her head, unable to speak.

“What are you doing here?” he asked her, crossing his arms while leaning against the doorframe.

Kayla was quiet for a moment, fiddling with her fingers nervously before she spoke, “I-I heard your guitar playing and wanted to hear more of it…”

Luke glared at Kayla making the woman more uncomfortable.

He turned his back, grabbing his door and getting ready to close it, “Stay away from my room.”

The door shut and Kayla jumped a bit at the sound before staring at the closed door. Luke was definitely the unfriendliest of the boys she met today. It also made her wonder why he was so cold. Kayla looked down before walking over to the stairs. She looked up when she saw Christina giving her a small smile.

“You okay?” she asked her.

Kayla shrugged, pursing her lips to the side unsure of how she was really feeling. She supposed she felt bad for being nosey and trying to peek into Luke’s room. On the other hand, Kayla didn’t understand why he was being so curt when he had just met her.

“Just don’t be around him too much, he’s an asshole. Always has been,” Chris said, motioning for her to come downstairs.

Kayla looked at Chris, forcing a smile before coming down the stairs. At the end of the day, Kayla realized that maybe not everyone would be friends with her. Chris reassured her, however, that that was just Luke’s personality and the rest of them did not act or feel the same way. Kayla nodded her head, going back to her room to listen to music and write in her notebook. The green-eyed girl wrote in great detail her dreams and everything she has seen up until now. Despite only seeing a piece of the Gray World, Kayla still wrote about it and much more. Even her impressions of her colleagues. She did this until Lamb called for everyone to go to sleep. After the blonde woman went to sleep, she dreamed of a memory from a time that didn’t seem too long ago.

----------------------------------------

“Kayla! Dinner time!”

Her mother called from the kitchen as Kayla promptly looked up to answer back, “Coming!”

She looked down at her notebook. Her handwriting was so-so, at the very least it was legible. The equation she was working on was something she had just learned in school and was inputting it into all of the problems provided from the textbook. She was halfway through her homework before closing her notebook and setting her pencil down on her desk. Her textbook was left open, but she stuffed another pencil in between the pages just in case.

Kayla got up from her seat, stretching out her arms and legs before seeing something shine. She looked over and knelt down, reaching into the console where her television sat before pulling out a shiny but thin plastic case. She stared at the cover…but it was blurry. Kayla grabbed her glasses that were on her face, wondering if they were blurry before looking through them again.

The rest of her room looked fine but only the cover of this album was blurry. Strange… She was sure there was a picture of a bird and the name of the band on the album… A bird.

“Kayla, are you going to eat or not?” her mother called once again.

Distracted by her mother’s voice, Kayla put the album back in its place before standing up again, “I’m coming, sorry!”

She opened the door and walked out of her room.