1 What the heck is going on?! (Part 1)

"Congrats on getting your Engineering license Nick! Now I finally don't have to baby sit you on the job!", my Boss Ray cheered.

He was in a festive mood, "shots are on me!"

I thanked him and took a shoot. I had been working as a Structural engineer-in-training for two years after graduating from college and I had finally gotten my license and been promoted to a full fledged engineer. It was a time for celebration.

After having a good time with my colleagues from the office, I slowly walked to the nearest bus stop. I had still not completely sobered up, so I would have to wait 15 minutes for the bus to take me home.

Sitting at the bus stop, I started thinking about the next stage in my life. My promotion meant that I got a sizable raise in my salary. I now made enough money that I could settle down and start a family without a problem. I put my hand on my chin,

"should I start looking for a nice girl to settled down with?"

I had a handful of girlfriends during my high school and college days, but none of them worked out long term. Now that I have settled down in my career and have a stable income, I am excited to find a girl that I can share a happy life with.

As I thought about if there was any girl that I had my mind on, there were a couple of nice girls from work that popped into my head. However, I was reluctant to take the plunge. Office romances can cause a lot of drama if there is a messy break up! I would need to weight the pros and cons, right now I didn't like anyone so much that I would pursue them recklessly. As I was thinking about my future plans, a bright light started to shine under my feet.

I jumped backwards but a huge black circle appeared right under me. I tried to run away from it, but the circle was following me so that I was always directly at the center of it. After a few attempts to escape, I was forced to give up. As I had my hands on my knees panting, I looked closer at the black circle to see what it could be. It was filled with letters I have never seen before and it was brightly glowing black. It was slowly getting brighter and brighter. Soon it got so bright that it was blinding. I closed my eyes and tried to brace myself the best I could for anything that might come from the circle. I had read plenty of webnovels before and I had to assume that this was some kind of magic circle.

Instead of any impact, I heard a sucking sound almost like a vacuum. The next second, I felt like I was free falling. I was transported to a dimension of pitch darkness. I was screaming for a couple of minutes, but there was no indication of when this free falling would stop. I decided to just close my eyes and I bitterly exclaimed,

"Is this how I die?! I was just getting ready for the new chapter in my life!"

Suddenly, the feeling of falling stopped and I felt myself again on solid ground. I still had my eyes closed shut… in the background I could vaguely hear someone speaking.

"You …. now … the Bride"

'Bride?' I slowly opened my eyes still feeling very disoriented. The first thing I saw was a beautiful brown haired girl wearing a stunning wedding dress. This sudden display did not help my confusing at all. I could see her big hazel eyes look expectedly for a second before it turned into a glare devoid of emotions.

I slowly opened my mouth to ask where I was, but before I could even make a sound the brown haired girl slowly walked away. For some reason, I felt like I should stop her, but by the time I could process she was already out of sight.

'What the heck is going on?!'