My lips shook with fear, I had no idea what she was talking about and why she was making such an expression. Kimberly pointed to my hand, more specifically, the ring on its index finger. It was Zeph’s ring.

I was certain that I had left the ring at home. I was in deep thought, shifting my gaze between Kimberly and the ring, trying to think of a plausible excuse.

Before I could say anything, Kimberly’s expression relaxed and she pulled out her necklace. It was a simple silver necklace without anything special about it. Hanging on the end was a simple bronze ring, with a single red jewel adorning it. It was glowing faintly in a bright reddish hue.

This ring felt familiar, I knew I had seen it somewhere before. At that moment, I realized what Kimberly was talking about. It was the dream! It all made sense in that moment. Kimberly looked at me weirdly, probably because of the expression of enlightenment I had on that she wasn’t used to. Or maybe because she couldn’t determine if I was an enemy or not.

“This is one hopeless idiot.”

The voice I wanted to hear the least came out of my ring. A strong wind whipped up around me and Zeph formed from it in moments. She looked disappointed and shook her head. Kimberly instantly backed away from Zeph, her ring appearing on her middle finger, causing flames to light at the tips of her fingers.

“Don’t bother, I can just suck up the air and your flame dies.” Zeph smugly said as she waved her index finger, making the flames quickly die out. “We’re not a threat.”

“Th-that’s right. We-” I was interrupted when Kimberly quickly came between me and Zeph.

“I can’t trust her. This isn’t some dream.” Kimberly spoke in such an aggressive manner that made me have cold sweats.

It felt like the Kimberly from my dream had become real. Not only that, if my hunch was correct then I also had an idea of where Zeph came from. Only one question remained. Was this a dream or did the dream become real?

“Kimberly, don’t worry. I don’t like her either.” I stated, lightly pushing Kimberly aside and walking toward Zeph. “But I need her and she needs me.”

PING!

The elevator had reached our floor and Zeph once again faded without warning. The camera gave off faint sparks and looked to have begun functioning again.

Kimberly and I walked out of the elevator, there was an almost tangible killing intent emanating from her. I kept my mouth shut and walked to my desk, with Kimberly close behind. I sat down and began working, although it wasn’t all that easy because I had no idea if I would die at any moment. Eventually Kimberly gave up and went to her own desk but she kept her gaze on me.

Hours passed and the day was rather uneventful, I kept my distance from the one threat in the office while trying to pretend like everything was okay.

KWA BOOM!

An explosion was heard just outside the office, everyone ran to the window to see what had happened, me included. What we saw was horrifying. Corpses were laid on the street, some were completely frozen with missing body parts, others were charred black to the point they could scatter with a light breeze.

How could this have happened? My thoughts were in disarray, my breathing was getting heavy. It was too sudden and the way the bodies were displayed indicated that there were more than one cause of death and that it couldn’t have happened so quickly.

Just as I was about to scream from panic, a hand touched my shoulder. I turned around and saw Kimberly. She had the serious expression she had back in the elevator, her eyes cold and calculating, like she had expected this to occur and was already thinking of some kind of solution.

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“Get away from the windows everyone! It’s not safe!” she proclaimed, raising her voice to make sure everyone could hear her. “Don’t panic! I’ve already called the police, they should be on their way!”

Those that were on the verge of losing their minds calmed down, believing her words without hesitation. Everyone moved back to their desks, some doing calls, others gathering together and talking to each other. Kimberly and I stayed by the window and a silence permeated between us. I had many questions for Kimberly but the opportunity clearly wasn’t the most apt.

“Hey, idiot. We can’t be here.”

Zeph broke the silence with her usual insult. We left the building through the back door. No one dared to stop us, as they were too preoccupied with themselves. We found ourselves in a disgusting alleyway with trash spilled everywhere. Bodies were strewn about in a chaotic manner, some were still whole but most either had limbs missing, organs completely exposed, and ripped to bits. The stench was so unbearable it made one want to vomit. Something must have passed through here and killed everyone that ran away from the main road. It must have been horrible for these people.

Zeph appeared in front of us, a menacing expression on her face and visibly on guard. I took a few steps away from her, not knowing what was going on in her head, and squeezed my lips in thought wondering if I should say anything to her. Seeing her like that made me feel uncomfortable.

“You can feel it too?” Kimberly asked me, while surveying the area around us.

“Sure can. Get ready, the show is about to start.” Zeph replied. “Let’s hope we can live through today. I’ve got a certain idiot to kill myself.”

I flinched at those words but then I felt Zeph’s wind enveloping me. Knowledge was flooding my mind as I begun to understand what she was doing and what was happening. However, unlike in the dream, I didn’t collapse or wake up. Instead I felt something awaken in me.

We left the alleyway in the opposite direction of the main chaos and the scenery changed drastically. The cityscape was completely ruined, in some areas nature had completely overtaken the man-made structures while others looked more like an earthquake had caused the collapse of buildings. Chaos and destruction was dominating the city as people were running everywhere. There were otherworldly creatures chasing after a group of wounded people. That is, until they noticed us. Causing the creatures to shift their focus and making us their new target.

The creatures were like large black wolves with dozen of eyes all over their head, the edges of their mouth had purple fur that curved upward, making them look like they were grinning. Large thick tentacles where the ears would normally be and purple scaled legs with razor sharp claws. Their tail, instead of being covered in fur, was covered in spiraled spikes that became thinner the closer to the tip they got.

“Get out of the way!” Kimberly shouted as she stepped in front of us, flames covering her hands.

One of the wolf-like creatures sprinted toward us at full speed and as it leapt in the air to pounce on us, Kimberly threw her hands forward and a giant twister of flames emerged from them, hitting the belly of the creature, causing it to burn and char.

I was awestruck by the sight, I had never seen Kimberly in such a way, her fierce gaze and powerful stance. She was really amazing. However it wasn’t enough.

Another creature of the group dashed toward us, seizing the fact that Kimberly was occupied and tried to pounce on me and Zeph. But before it could, distortion covered my eyes and my body began moving on its own. When I regained my vision, the creature was on the floor with blood coming from its mouth and Zeph was gawking, like she had seen some kind of horror.

“Sam, how were you able to use my powers?” Zeph asked, completely forgetting the last of the creatures still studying us from afar.

“Your powers? I went blind and then the monster was on the floor. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I replied, amazed by the fact that I was the one to harm the creature.

“Hm. Whatever you did, start learning to do it consciously.” she said, disappearing back into the ring. “I’ll help you whenever I can.”

Looking at Kimberly, she was finally able to kill the creature she was burning but she was sweating and panting already. Luckily for us, the last creature fled after seeing that it wouldn’t be able to survive. The people that survived the chase stopped running to observe us. One of them walked up to us, he was an older man with a large physique and long hair, he had tired and distant eyes that had seen too many terrible things. He was probably the leader of the group. We kept exchanging glances and Kimberly reached out to the supposed leader.

“Thank you for helping us.” the man spoke in a soft tone. “These Hounds are ruthless. We’ve lost too many people to them.”

Lost too many people? More questions piled onto the ones I already had. What happened for the world to have changed so suddenly, or was just our city that suffered this fate, and how much time passed for these people.

“Excuse me.” I said, walking to the man with a puzzled look. “But what year is it?”

“Year? I have no idea, we’ve stopped counting things like that. I can tell you though that it feels like this hell has existed for a long time.” the man replied, confused by my question.

“...”

Kimberly pushed me back and glared at the man. She was upset and before she could say a word, we heard what seemed like a radio being turned on in the sky.

“Hello hello? Can everyone hear me? Great!” exclaimed the voice excitedly. “As you might know, we have new players! Let’s all give a nice round of applause to them!”

The voice was high pitched and smooth, like a young noble maiden, despite the manner of speaking was nothing alike. If the situation wasn’t anywhere as dangerous as it was then any person would have been entranced.

Clapping could be heard from where the voice originated from but as I looked to the group of people and the man, they looked terrified. Some were even on their knees praying or crying. It became obvious that the voice couldn’t be trusted one bit and that it had brought great misery to these people. I clenched my fists as I came to that realization, internally cursing the circumstances.

“No? No one? You’re no fun.” the voices tone changed into a more grim one. “Good thing many of you will die soon.”