1 Chapter 1: The Beginning

Max's POV

I heard a knock on the door of my apartment. I checked the time on the clock on the table side of my bed, it read '5:00AM'.'Who the hell would wake me up 5AM in the morning on a Saturday,' I said in my mind. I lazily got out of bed and went to the door yawning and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I opened the door to see my disturber and it was...

"Blake." I said in a dull tone. There stood a tall blonde with blue eyes. He was slim and lean with light brown skin wearing a navy blue T-shirt and jeans with blue and white sneakers and a silver chain with a sword pendant on it.

"Hey Max you look like you fought a rabid cat this morning." Blake said.

"Well maybe if you didn't wake me up 5AM in the morning on a Saturday maybe I would've looked better." I told him.

Ignoring my comment he said "well I just came over to check on you, since you got sliced with a ghoul's Quinx last night."

I put my hand on my stomach where the ghoul sliced it was bandaged. "I'm fine, you could've just called, I have a phone remember."

"I tried but I just kept getting voicemail." He said.

I sighed. "The battery must've died."

You always forget to charge your phone, maybe it's because of the lack of Socializing with other people." He said I gave him a 'fuck off' look. "Anyways" he continued "remember to meet me at the usual place. 8AM sharp don't keep me waiting." He then walks away from the door.

"Yeah yeah." I mumbled and closed the door and went to the bathroom to start my day.

I'm Max Silver. I'm 20 years old, lost my dad when I was an infant and lost my mom when I was 10. I some how managed to get a job and buy food and clothing for me and the house my mother owned, but I had to sell the house and started living in an small apartment so that I could go to school. I like reading and coffee. I don't really socialize with people much. I have black hair and grey eyes. I only have one friend, his name is Michael Blake, he's 20 years old like me and he's really goofy sometimes but serious when he should be. He started talking to me when I was 11 for some reason. We both ended up with the same job. We work at a organization called World Ghoul Investigation and Research Assault Force or W.G.I.R.A.F for short. It is an organization that investigates and hunt down ghouls.

Ghouls are beings that feed off of human flesh to survive since their tongues are made different from humans so regular food tastes awful to them. They have a high sense of smell so they can smell scents from far distances, hearing since they hear things sharper than humans. Their skins are tougher than steal so knives and other regular blades can't hurt them. Their eyes change from regular human eyes to red coloured iris and the white part turns black. They have that are produced from their bodies called Quinxs. At the organization they produce Artificial Quinxs (A.Q) that are made from ghouls Quinxs, since it is the only weapon that can Peirce their skin. At the organization me and Blake are class A investigators we gather information, hunt and kill ghouls.

Later that day

"Where is he, doesn't he know that he's late." I said to my self checking the time its 8:20AM. I'm currently at the usual place which is a coffee shop called G's.

"Hey dude sorry I'm late" Blake said just coming from around the corner. He was wearing a yellow and black hoodie with yellow shorts and sneakers. "Sorry"

"Sorry ain't gonna cut it, you have to pay for both our coffee." I said folding my arms.

"Okay okay I'll pay can we go in now?" He asked.

"Like dude its 20 minutes past 8 you said to come here '8AM sharp'." I told him quoting with my fingers.

"I just lost track of time!" He shouted.

I smirked "is this Jane's doing." Jane is a friend of his a real close friend. She works as an analyst at W.G.I (World Ghoul Investigators A/N I'm gonna call it this because its much easier).

He blushed "What No!!" He shouted looking away so that I don't see him blushing.

"Alright no need to let the whole world know." I said and walked into the coffee shop with him following. The sent of coffee hit me as soon as I stepped through the door.

The place wasn't that big. There were a few people here. The place gave off a peaceful vibe I normally came here when I wanted to get something off my mind. We took a seat by the window, I signal for a waiter or waitress. Then pulled out one of my favorite books called 'Death Is Mercy' written by Michelle Carter and started to read.

"Hey Max" Blake said breaking the silence.

"Huh" I responded not removing my head from the book.

"You really need to start Socializing with other people, maybe get a girlfriend." He told me.

I frowned "not this again, you don't even have a girlfriend...maybe Jane."

He blushed again "dude how many times do I have to tell you, we are not together.

"Could've fooled me." I replied.

"You know what forget it." He said frustrated and slumped in his seat.

I sighed glad that the conversation was over. Then a waitress came to our table. She must be new because I've never seen her work here before. She has brown hair that went down to her shoulders and chocolate coloured eyes. Her face was beautiful with flawless skin. She wore a waitress uniform (I know pretty obvious) and short black heels.

"What would you like to have?" She asked me with a dazzling smile.

"Um black coffee please." I answered.

"And you?" She asked Blake.

"Same" he said. She wrote down the orders and went to the counter.

I caught myself starting at her and quickly looked away before Blake noticed. I started to continue reading.

"So" He started talking. "She seems nice. Why don't you ask her out."

I blushed but the book was used as a excellent way to cover my face. "I thought we dropped this topic."

"Well I'm bring it back up." He replied.

"Well I'm ignoring you."

He snorted. "You know you can't ignore me."

"Watch me." I said and continued reading.

"Max Max Max Max" he kept saying "Max Max Max Max Max Max Ma-"

"OK OK I can't ignore since your so annoying." I admitted.

"Knew it" he said and smirked the leaned back in his seat.

The waitress came back with our coffee. "Here's yours" she said putting down one of the coffees on my side of the table.

I looked up from the book and said thanks.

"And here's yours." She puts down the other coffee on Blake's side.

"Thanks uhhhh...." He said wanting to know here name.

"Felisha" she answered " and your welcome." She then went to attend to another customer.

"Now you know here name" he said. "It's a start."

I sighed getting tired of the topic. I took a sip of my coffee. It tasted sooo good its better than any other coffee I ever drank in my life, that's why this is my favourite coffee shop. We drank and chat for a while. Then Blake's phone alarm came off he checked it then realization crossed his face.

"Shit!" He yelled. "I got a meeting with Jane about the blood of a ghoul I told her to analyze."

"Oooooooo a date." I teased.

"You know what I give up." He said and ran out of the coffee shop and into busy streets.

Then realization crossed my face.... 'That son of a-' I stopped and thought better of myself. 'He didn't pay for the coffees.' I said in my mind. I left the money on the table, with a good tip for the waitress, and left. I then began to walk back home since I felt like to walk.

Max"s POV

It was night time I was almost home then I heard a scream. It sounded like a girl, it seemed to have came from an alley. I did the first thing that should get me killed, I ran towards the alley. While I was running I came close to an dead in end, I saw two people standing in the clearing so I hid behind a dumpster. I took a good look at the two people. One of them was a girl that looked like she was a teen. She had long chocolate brown hair that down to her back in curls and light brown eyes. She was wearing a blue jacket under it was a blue shirt that read 'I'm really cute' on it. She was also wearing blue pants with blue and white sneakers. The other person was a woman that looked like she was in her early 20's. She was beautiful with red hair that reached down her back and red scarlet eyes. She wore a white button shirt and a long black skirt that reached her ankles and black shoes. I looked to the ground a saw a woman she doesn't seem to be moving and I saw a pool of blood where her body was. 'Must have been her mother' I thought to my self.

"I'm feeling really hungry today, would you care to be my next meal." The redhead said to the teen.

"Help, somebody please help me!!!" The teen shouted.

The woman eyes turned red and black like a ghoul's. "No one will help you little girl." She said and slowly walked towards the girl.

I looked around desperately for something to use as a weapon since I foolishly left my A.Q it was my day off after all. Thankfully I found a metal pipe. 'Well this won't harm her but it can buy me some time.' I said in my mind. I took it up and got into a ready stance.

The woman suddenly stopped walking and sniffed the air. "You can come out human, I can smell you. So sweet your giving me quite the appetite." She then looked at my direction so did the girl.

'Shit' I said in my mind. 'I planned to do a surprise attack then run away with the girl but I forgot about ghoul's sense of smell.' I stepped into the open."I'm sorry miss but this girl has to come with me." I said calmly holding up the pipe.

"Oh" she started. "That means you don't mind if your my meal for today."

"Actually" I said "I do mind." I slowly walked closer to the girl.

"Well I don't." She responded.

I then grabbed the girl's hand out of the alley.

The woman laughed. "You can't run from me silly." Then her Quinx sprouted out of the back, it looked like 4 red tails.

'That must be her Quinx.' I said in my mind. She then ran after us.

We kept running until we were out of the alley. The street was empty because of how late it is and the fact that ghouls had become more active than they were before.

"Run that way!" I shouted at the girl. I was pointing to the other side of the street. "I'll distract her."

"Bu-" I interrupted her.

"There's no time for buts run, NOW!!!" I shouted at her again. She ran to the direction I pointed.

"Now now, there's no need for you to run." The woman said coming out of the alley.

"Actually, there is." I replied. I don't feel like dying today. I took off sprinting again, I looked behind me and saw that she was chasing me that.

'fuck, fuck, fuck this had to be the dumbest shit I ever did in my entire life, this might be the end for me' I looked up ahead and saw what seems to be a construction site. 'maybe I could find a bulldozer and run this crazy bitch over.'

I ran as fast as my body could let me, when I arrived I looked around and saw a bulldozer luckily. I made a beeline straight towards it while she was no in range to try to strike me with her quinx so I kept dodging and dodging and dodging until I made enough distance from her with the adrenaline pumping through my cain's right now. I made it to the bulldozer and so I was thankful that they left the keys in, I started it and I drove straight towards her and for some reason just stood there like she was confident enough to stop it; that never stopped me though and still drove forward, she extended her tendrils then caught the bulldozer, but she didn't manage to stop it so it kept pushing forward I was stepping on the gas pedal so hard that I was afraid it would break in out of some odd miracle she tripped on one of those construction pipes giving me enough time to gain more speed, I force straight towards the building under construction and hit one of the support beams. The bulldozer dented it but it didn't fall and so I hoped that it was enough to keep here there long enough to escape and call for back up.

I stepped out of the bulldozer and I sighed in relief that I somehow I survived this encounter without my weapon, but then I heard a creak and looked up and we'll, "fuck." Then everything went pitch black.