Dear diary, names are hard.

Today was like any other boring school day until it wasn’t. Mother and father probably had to work late again today. Yes, that is it. They totally did not forget to pick me up from school. Again. Well, it is not all bad. This at least gives me the time to look around the city.

I walk to the street when there is a resounding clap of thunder. I jump up in surprise, almost dropping the candy I bought at Madam Rongen’s shop. I look around and up into the sky but it was still clear that is strange.

Suddenly, two cloaked figures exit a nearby alleyway and look around. I take a few steps back. Father always warned me to stay away from strangers. One of the figures points their figure at me, revealing a… blue? Hand? I think it is a hand there figures look weird.

“You there stop,” the person… creature says in a deep female voice.

I don’t do any of that; instead, I turn around and bolt away. The things, whatever they are, follow close behind me. I look behind to see that the things are catching up quickly. I pump my legs faster, but I still have not gotten my growth spurt, so my legs are still really short.

I take another glance behind me. They’re, almost on me now. So, instead of outruning them, I switch tactics. I jump underneath the wooden fence of an old construction site. It was supposed to be some kind of hotel, but their funding ran out, and that meant they had just stopped building the place, so it had been abandoned for several years.

I craw into a concrete pipe to come out close to the half-constructed building. I crawl further inside past all the rubble. It is dark here, but the sun is still up, so some of the light shines through the cracks. I slowly crawl further into the building, making as little noise as possible to not alert the things to my presence.

I find a stairway and head up. The next floor is more open, some of the walls not being built yet. I slowly creep further until I hear some voices.

“Where did the thing go?” I hear a gruff voice say.

“I don’t know, but it does not matter. They weren’t the target,” the female voice from before says. 

“So what? We are just supposed to let it get away?” the man asks

“Yes, we are here to retrieve the artefact for the emperor, not to hunt primitive locals,” the woman says.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Fine.”

I wait a while longer for their footsteps to disappear before I start to move again. I did not really know what to do next. I wanted to get home; I wanted my mother and father. I try my best not to start crying. I am a big girl; I am already 12. I can do this.

Suddenly, I hear a groan, and I jump, looking all around me for escape routes. Then I see it: a man is hunched over in a corner, clutching at his sides. Ooh, no, that is a lot of blood. Mother, father, I no longer want to be a big girl anymore.

The man looks up, catching my gaze. “Please help me.” He says in a weak voice.

I swallow and then slowly approach him. “What is wrong? Do you need me to call an ambulance?”

He chuckles. “No, I have been stung by a Teranoid void sting. I am a dead man. It will only take a while for me to die.”

It feels like a bucket of ice water has been dumped over me. Dead, how I can’t watch this? I am supposed to be home pretending to do my homework.

I am about to run away, but the man is speaking again. “Wait, please, I beg of you.” He pleads, sounding desperate.

I turn back to him. With his free hand, he goes around his neck, removing a necklace with a palm-sized rectangle plate attached to it.

“Please take this, that creature” he looks to the side out of a hole in the wall. “They can never get their hands on it. Please protect it,” he said, reaching out his hand to me.

I take a few steps closer, snapping the necklace away and examining it. It is a small plate not thicker than my figure. On one side, there is some weird diagram drawn around seven colourful gems. On the back, the letter n is embossed, but the last stroke is drawn out to the bottom for a lot longer.

I look back up at the man to see that he is smiling. “If you ever in danger, press the green, then the purple, then blue, and then the green again. You will be safe, but it does need some time to charge afterwards.”

“Okay, but why do they want it?” I ask, still confused

The man does not answer, and as I look closer, I realise that he has passed away. Now my tears start to flow. This is not what I wanted. I just wanted some candy on my way home, not this. I put the necklace on, tucking the plate in my shirt as I need to get away from here.

I run all the way back home and start ringing the doorbell while at the same time trying to get my key into the lock. I managed to open the door just in time for my mother to reach there as well. I wrap my arms around her and start to sob.

It takes my parents a while to calm me down once with the help of some hot cocoa. I sat down with them and told them everything that happened, how there were people chasing me, how I had escaped and hid in the building site. I don’t tell them about the dying man. That somehow felt off, like it was some kind of secret that I could not tell anyone. Even when I tried, my mouth just would not listen.

My parents reassure me that I am safe here and that they will bring and pick me up from school from now on. We eat a light meal, and I barely taste the food, just feeling like a gloopy mush. I take a quick shower before I head to bed.

I take out the necklace again and look at it, inspecting it again. The crystals or buttons glow softly in the dark.

“What are you?”