Strange Being

The next morning, Mika decided that she'd practice using the portal. She told her mother she was going for a jog, and left. She carried with her, the small slip of paper with the phrase on it, and her mask. Her father had made a necklace out of it so she could wear it all the time.

When she reached the small shop with the dull brick wall, she chanted the phrase

~shape the world as how it is, carve the people to fit the world, certain people create circle Jaiind others grow fur~

The wall didn't open. She couldn't pronounce 'Jaiind' properly. She tried multiple times with different pronunciations. It was no use.

Suddenly she felt someone behind her. It was a man. "That's not how it's said," he told her, "It's pronounced, 'hai ilnd'."

He recited the words and it opened.

"Th- thank you." she told him.

She began to walk through the long alleyway.

Everyone else were wearing masks. Some were simple and some were really complex.

She couldn't help but notice that everyone was staring at her. She heard gossip between people walking past her.

'look at her, she's so young'

'I know, is she lost?'

'what kind of parent shows their young child such a dangerous place?'

Mika thought to herself, 'dangerous? Dad didn't mention and dangers' She began to feel extremely vulnerable and frightened. She didn't wish to cross any dangers.

As she walked through the passage, she looked into all of the branching off alleyways.

They were all so dark and empty. She couldn't decide which one to go through. Suddenly, she crossed a smaller branching off alleyway. Inside, to her horror, she saw a pair of legs just within vision on the ground. They were shaking.

She immediately thought of the stranger saying there was danger. She decided to go have a look. Although it was dangerous, she didn't want to watch someone die. As she peered into the small alley, she saw a man. No... The man! It was the man who had helped her learn how to say the phrase properly!

Behind him was a dark figure. Looking closer, she saw that it's moth was latched to his neck. The figure was wearing a rather horrific looking cat mask. The man was shaking and whimpering. The figure, to silence the man, stuck it's whole arm down his throat. This was too gory for poor Mika, who was only 12.

She took a step back to block the aweful vision. This particular step was taken in fright and she didn't notice how loud it was. Taking another peek into the darkness, she was horrified to find that the figure was staring directly at her.

It stood up, still holding the man, and glared.

Mika was so petrified that she couldn't move a muscle. She watched in fright. The figure was a little taller than her brother and had pink hair. It wore a leather coat, black top, and black torn jeans. She assumed it was male.

He dropped the man and began to walk towards her. Blood spilled from the man's mouth as he landed on the ground with a loud thud. He walked behind her and pushed her deeper into the dark alley.

Mika had tears streaming from her face. The strange being was holding a dagger to her neck. Mika, noticed that he too had tears coming down his face since his mask only covered up to his nose.

He looked at her. 'So young, what is she doing here?' he thought, 'It's too bad she saw me. What a short life.'

Mika stared back at him. He was at least two heads taller than her. 'This is my chance,' she thought to herself, 'I can punch him in the face and run before he kills me!'

She threw a punch aimed at his face, but because of her lack of fighting experience, she ended up hitting his neck. She soon came to notice. She didn't hit his neck, she hit a strange looking device inserted into his neck.

This seemed to do some damage because he fell to the ground, hacking up a lot of blood.

Mika ran for her life.