THE SHATTERED SKY by ERICK LANDON

The following story has copyright protection. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.

Copyright © Erick Landon 2015. All rights reserved.

"The mind is like the ocean; a whole world with vast quantities of life and death, a place where you can drown until its depths, or reach the surface once again. A grandiose marvel full of the unknown, and if you go deeper and deeper, you might find the darkest secrets ever. The mind is like the ocean; it could remain calm for days, weeks, months or years... until one single wave rises from the very bottom to destroy everything.”

CHAPTER 1

It was a beautiful evening, eerily beautiful for something had happened advertising the unknown. The streets were empty and so were the buildings surrounded by them as if no soul dared to wander around places such as this. Houses deserted, parks abandoned, stores left closed after a mourning silence of nothingness. And if a single leaf or piece of paper would ever tried to approach the highway or the fields near the lake to the south, a chemical and mysterious red barrier would bounce them away. And these objects weren't even animated; the animals seemed to have disappeared as well as every single human inhabiting the city of emptiness. However, lights were lid; the street headlights were on, some of the buildings still had several of these from above. Nevertheless, electricity was cut. Ironically, lights were still going on but no other devices could ever start working again, less be said about any abandoned car around the whole city. It literally made no sense, and still, the very first witness of this distinguished event, the moon, applauded the whole scenario with its rays of ghostly light and fog between the clouds. It was the very essence of the night, the master of all illusions torn apart.

The shattered sky.

Eight strangers appeared out of nowhere, in different locations of the enigmatic city. They all seemed to be normal people, unknown to each other.

First, there was Minato Saguchi, a young perverted man with no job, reselling stuff like books, games, computers and other things.

Then there was Jaqueline Sorrett, a middle age lady obsessed with her cell phone, a secretary of a telemarketing enterprise.

Gardon Orish, a muscle-head, expert in Tae-kwon do, teacher of it as well.

Nova Dürkel, a rookie police officer; beautiful woman, still in her mid-20s.

The fifth stranger was a little kid, a bully in elementary school. A fat jackass named Allen Reen.

Next there was an old man, very old indeed, retired newspaper seller, sick with diabetes, homeless. His name was Nuul Sabak.

Argento Ponsognio belonged to the mafia, sort of like a yakuza. Perhaps in his 30’s or maybe more, who knows?

Finally…the eighth stranger: Grace, no last name, just Grace.

The other seven, they didn’t know about each other but if they knew at least Grace, they would have to be very thankful she appeared very far from their positions. Very thankful…

Saguchi, a short black haired guy, dressed with just some black shoes, blue trousers and a white shirt, appeared at the center of the main street, sort of like a giant plaza surrounded by small buildings and stores. He looked around, confused, impressed, stupefied. Trying to reach his cellphone on his pocket, he realized it wasn’t there anymore. He probably had forgotten it at home, as usual, at this time of hour.

Gardon and Jaqueline appeared afterwards, not far from Saguchi’s position, but still separated enough to miss each other for a while. Jaqueline was a brown and curly haired woman wearing high black heels, transparent tights, short, gray office skirt, short, gray office jacket, white shirt. Always carrying her cellphone, trying to type messages to every single person she knew, just to gossip. Gardon was a very muscular guy, dressed in white clothes like an old movie karateka. He had very short and spikey black hair and a very serious stare, along with a very notorious frown.

Saguchi walked around for a bit, yelling greetings to anyone who could be around. Gardon was the first one to catch a glimpse of him, crossing his arms in tranquility. Jaqueline, however, was very excited and stressed, trying to hide her fascination for what seemed to be a very lucid dream.

Finally the three of them walked towards the center of the main circular street and found each other. A stupid dialogue followed, wondering how in heaven’s wrath they could have gotten there, and “who are you?”, and “where are we?”, etc… So many questions left unanswered, as usual in a preposterous mystery movie. Nevertheless, they still asked their names and introduced each other.

“So you’re a reseller? Like, the ones from eBay and such?” Jaqueline asked, trying to hide a little mockery behind her tone.

“Uh, yeah. What’s it to you?” Saguchi answered lazily.

“Oh, no! Nothing at all. I was just curious about why we were selected for this…crap.”

“I believe this could be a charade made by a very rich and powerful enterprise.” The Tae-kwon do teacher commented. “How else would they have gotten rid of every single citizen?”

He was right. Both Saguchi and Jaqueline looked around and foolishly realized they were the only people standing around.

“I was just transported here; I don’t know how or why, don’t ask me!” The perverted young man said, trying not to focus on Jaqueline’s notorious big breasts. He couldn’t help it, though, and she realized it quickly.

“We should look around and try to find other people. There might be others lurking nearby.” Gardon said, looking at the closed stores and buildings.

When they were transported here, it wasn’t even 8 o’clock, so why would there be absolutely no one else in the entire square?

Then they looked at the sky. At the infamous, horrible and bizarre sky; it was a masterpiece out of a madman’s mind, a horrendous drawing of distorted clouds, all looking broken, and the dark blue of satirical stars that were crumbling apart. The sky seemed cut, it was shattered.

“What the hell?!” Saguchi shouted, impressed once more.

“I have no idea…” Gardon replied, staring at the sky.

“This is stupid. But I have to tell everyone.” Jaqueline tried to take a picture of the sky, thinking about sending it to her acquaintances later, or perhaps she could post it on Facebook. However, her fascination ended when she checked the screen of the cellphone, showing only darkness.

No doubt about it; they were in some kind of nightmare out of a cynical lunatic’s mind. This could not be real, or so they thought. Then the device appeared; right in front of them, a perfectly rectangular green screen, as if coming from a science fiction movie, showed up. How could it stand on its own, floating 6 feet from the ground? There was little point in answering this; nothing made sense anyway. Caught by surprised, the three strangers looked directly at the screen. It only showed the following text in dark yellow letters:

If you want to go back, you must kill somebody.

If you want to survive, you must kill somebody.

If you don’t want to die, you must kill somebody.

Those who kill will be free.

The screen vanished afterwards, leaving the strangers in an unfathomable suspense.

“Bullshit.” Jaqueline said and laughed arrogantly.

“You don’t think this is serious?” Gardon asked.

“Of course not! I mean, hello! How could you believe this garbage? Someone is obviously trying to pull our legs. It’s a fucking joke!”

“Then how do you explain why we’re the only ones here?”

“I must kill you to get out?” Saguchi interrupted, staring at the palms of his hands. He looked irritated, nervous and terrified.

“You don’t believe this shit, do you, kid?” The woman challenged.

“I-I, I don’t know what to believe! Where is everybody else? Why are we here? This can’t be just a dream, right?!”

“We must keep calm.” Gardon reminded.

“Hey, man, you’re a black belt, aren’t you? Do something about this!” Saguchi was losing his mind.

“Again, I say we keep our cool and think about a plan to escape.”

“Whatever, I’m just going to walk out of here.” Jaqueline said, just about to leave them behind.

“Do you even know where to go?”

“No, not really. But there ought to be a station nearby or something.” She walked ahead and Saguchi, who normally would be staring at her ass like an idiot, took one step forward.

“You’re not going to kill us? Or try to kill us?”

“Are you stupid or something, kid?” Jaqueline stopped and turned around. “I should just kill you because that stupid screen said so?”

Jaqueline left. Both men followed her with their eyes until she got out of sight ahead in the darkness, between two small buildings.

“I’m gonna’ kill her.” Saguchi, to Gardon’s surprise, said. He was trembling.

“Wait a second, Minato. You must not be thinking straight. We need to think of a plan before taking any action.”

“But first I’m gonna’ rape her.” He wasn’t listening to the teacher at all. “I’m gonna’ grab that round ass and squeeze those tits… Then I’ll slit her throat with my knife.” A vicious smile showed up on his face.

“Have you lost your mind, boy?!”

Saguchi didn’t think it twice; he left the old man on his own and walked towards the direction where Jaqueline had gone. Gardon, impressed, broadened his eyes and uncrossed his arms. He couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. The boy had lost his mind? No, maybe he had already lost it a long time ago.

“I have to stop him.” He said and followed afterwards, running towards them.

As they left, someone was staring from the shadows at a dead end street. It seemed things had gone quite smoothly for the beginning, and the spy was enjoying the show with a sinister smile on his twisted face.

CHAPTER 2

The girl had wandered for hours, much before the strangers had appeared, as if  time was crushing her soul with a hammer of loneliness, drowning her in the utmost agony. But desperation wasn't her word; it was nothing but the mere silence of a mystery remaining unsolved. She came across the houses and the buildings, trying to discover the meaning of this event, a scenario filled with nothing at all. But she always felt ... she wasn't alone. 

With a beautiful, straight golden hair tied with a dark red ribbon, the combination of the colors in her clothes, matched everything. She had a closed neck tied with an identical ribbon, a small purple shawl, white shirt (uniform-type with long buttoned sleeves) underneath it, a short purple dress with a corset tied below her breasts, and black thigs made from thick velvet. This way she covered her entire body, showing as little skin as possible. But the most remarkable feature she had were those crystalline violet eyes; a very deep stare.
Once running through the empty streets, feeling chased by someone or something she had never met before, the blonde realized long ago that this was something beyond reality. Was she dreaming? Was this an illusion? She couldn't tell nor explain the situation whatsoever with logical replies. She was lost. And it happened right there, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the very desert of life where the only soul roaming around the place, was hers. 
She saw the lights being lit instantly as if someone was preparing the whole scene just for her. The buildings were pillars of fear and panic, the headlights were annoying sunrays of paranoia until she unsheathed her katana. She held the sheath between her lips, while the female, ghostly figures began to appear behind her. The girl was ready, her desire was no other than to survive, to solve the mystery and end the nightmare. And, as soon as she turned around to face the evil near her presence, the ghosts disappeared as well as the lights all around the place.
Unable to explain the circumstances of this awful charade, the serious and determined young lady looked around some more until putting down her sword, left alone upset. She finally kept the wine colored handle weapon sheathed in the brown case while walking across the street to the left, reaching one of the buildings and entering right away. Had the ghosts found someone else? That was the only logical explanation.

Grace appeared at the top of a small building. She could see a giant part of the city from there. She was wearing black mountain boots, black trousers and a green winter, hooded jacket (with white fur around the edge). On her wrists she had tons of bracelets and small belts, a silver broken watch on the left, and both hands with fingerless black gloves.

Long, beautiful blond hair, very light, almost white; brushed and combed forward, covering her forehead. Brown headband headphones atop of it. Her deep, green eyes seemed unreal because they had much, much color, as if they were pure jade jewels.

Beyond her knowledge, but close to her imagination and bizarre ideas, the abandoned city was somewhere she had never visited before. Maybe during her childhood but probably not, this was a different scene even from her obscure dreams chasing her every night. And despite all that, Grace was smiling. She looked fascinated as if she really desired to be there all along during her life, hence the reflection in her green eyes where loneliness could be seen as an explicit feature of her pain above that sullen smile. She didn't care before, for this could be one of her made-up stories while leaving college, but still, however, she found nothing that could explain how or why was she there. So, taking that long katana, her music seemed to stop for a few moments, the girl looked down at the whole city as far as she could see. After turning around, she saw a strange hologram sign right in front of her, on dark yellow letters, like a tridimensional bunch of lines forming the previously mentioned notice. “You must kill somebody”. Excellent.
And it disappeared as fast as she could even take one step forward to touch the green screen, or use the katana to slash whatever it was. She frowned, of course, even when this event seemed to put an end her miserable life, she felt excited and then, she jumped down the building (very agile, indeed) and began walking  as if she knew where to go next.

And there she was, laughing in silence when a small and gentle breeze appeared out of nowhere, almost reaching her spine. This was beyond her imagination, enjoying it as if she finally made her dreams come true. Some really fucked up emulator on her mind, like a lost thought, trying to control her inner fears, turning them into laughter. She saw that other blonde girl, who also had a katana, running into the nothingness of the abandoned buildings. She wanted to chase her. Blonde with a katana too, just like her? Stupid bitch. However, she looked like fun, so Grace thought she could have a little fun before returning to her pathetic and boring reality.

As the gentle breeze attempted to caress her beautiful golden hair, the woman seemed to vanish into it, moving so fast it wouldn't make sense in a humble human life form. She had skills, of course. But she lacked the power to control the hollowness of this city, easily resembling the black rose of her heart. 
A few seconds later, Grace could be seen right in the middle of the street while looking at her right hand covered by the dark glove. Then she stared at the sky that tried to startle her. And the clouds were shattered, the night seemed calm and the rest of the world was literally deserted. So was she randomly kidnapped by this strange force or being or whatever, brought into this place for mere entertainment? Such intrigue grabbed her emotions and got her excited for some eerily reason, swinging the katana from left to right and lifting it atop her shoulder while staring at the backstreet of an obviously abandoned alley, where the other woman had disappeared into after exiting the empty building.
“Kill somebody, huh?” And she smiled once again, ready to slash that somebody to pieces, ready to take their insides out, to cut off their head, or to violently pierce their heart. Yeah, that would be nice. She immediately ran away, vanishing into the very thin air.

CHAPTER 3

Nova Dürkel, the rookie police woman, found herself lost in the darkness. Shades of ghosts passed outside of the store, as if nothing, ignoring her, even though she was staring at them in front of the window. All of them looked female, naked, white transparent skin, black, long straight hair, sullen smiles. After their aimless march, Nova got out. She carefully looked from left to right, like any police officer would do, holding her .22 black pistol. Short red hair, straight, long blue eyes, and the classic blue outfit of a TV series policeman, Nova was a 25 year old woman.

Not too far from her position, she spotted three figures with a small distance between them, walking in a line, one chasing after the other, towards a parking lot. She had already seen the extraneous screen message imposing on her to kill someone in order to exit the mysterious city. She had already intuited that this was not a dream, but reality itself, with the culprit not messing around at all with their victims. Whoever did this to them, had to be someone very powerful in order to kidnap and toss them inside a gigantic prison in the form of an abandoned city. How many movies are like this? Animes, books, TV series… And some rich and powerful screw-head actually went to all the trouble to mimic them.

Nova had to find the culprit, and she was already running out of time. But first, she had to reach the others to provide assistance and her own theory of the matter at hand.

Carefully she ran, watching for the ghastly and terrifying creatures she had saw earlier. Then she ran some more.

Upon reaching the big man in the karate outfit, Nova stopped.

“Please, hang on!” She requested.

Gardon heard her and turned around immediately, abandoning his chase after the psycho. Saguchi ignored her and kept walking viciously towards Jaqueline, who had recently applied herself for a short break, standing between some deserted cars, texting on her cellphone.

“Someone else has arrived.” Gardon acknowledged and crossed his arms.

“I’m a police officer” she started saying, but the teacher interrupted her.

“I can see that.”

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing? Stop!” She ran after Saguchi, who was still holding the jackknife in his hand.

“I told him to stop but he would not listen.” Gardon chased after Nova chasing after Minato.

Once she reached him, she rounded him and blocked his path, standing now in front of him, pointing with the gun towards his forehead.

“I said stop!”

“It’s useless.” Saguchi said, terrified, smiling, trembling, but at last resorting for a small break. “We have to kill each other, don’t you see?”

“And just because a strange screen told you to, you’re going to kill me?”

“I never said anything about killing you.” He pointed with his eyes to the figure behind Nova. “All I want is to have some fun. Then I’ll get out of this place.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, you numb-nuts?” Jaqueline, finally getting ahold of herself and understanding that Saguchi was serious, walked forward.

“Wait.” Nova, without breaking her stance and position, not looking anywhere else but to Saguchi’s fearful stare, told her.

“Are you really going to kill me with a jackknife? Pathetic.” Jaqueline mocked.

“S-Shut, shut up, stupid bitch!” Saguchi replied. “I’m gonna’ kill you! And touch you and rrrrape you, you fucking whooooooore!”

“Be quiet and throw down your weapon!” Nova ordered.

“What for?! So you can kill me first, bitch?! No way!” He laughed.

“We have to stay calm and talk about this situation.” Gardon proposed but nobody listened to him.

“Put. Down. The. Knife. Now.” Nova insisted and gave him a fierce look.

“No.” Saguchi, naturally replied.

“I’m gonna’ have to shoot you, then.”

“Yes! Go ahead and put me out of my misery!”

“Shut up!”

“Shoot, damn it! Shoot  me!”

“Shut your mouth, now!”

“What are you waiting for?! Come one! Hahahahahaha! I wanna' put my dick between your tits, baby! I wanna' fuck your face, stupid whore! Hahaha!”

His head was suddenly cut off.

Silence.

A long pause.

Everyone stared, impressed, mouth-opened and speechless.

Saguchi’s head fell down from the back of his right shoulder, leaving a long trace of blood behind, stained on his shirt, and rolled down on the floor close to Gardon’s feet. His terrified expression still seemed to live even though the face was pale and blood was all around it. The body of Saguchi fell down to its knees first, then laid violently back, as some disgusting and repulsive odor began to spread from his insides, coming out of his butchered neck.

Argento Ponsognio had no time for idiocies. He remembered clearly how he had been sent to kill a young prostitute for deserting the Grand Master Alfonse, who had strong connections with almost every single procurer in town. He knew he was going in the right direction, as usual, right in the middle of an alley. And he also remembered there were tons of people wandering around, going from one place to another, every one of them stuck in their own matters. All of a sudden he opened his eyes, came out of the alley and found himself in a parking lot. Deserted. No other soul but his, standing around. How could he have gotten to an entirely different location from before? What was that screen spelling similar orders to Grand Master Alfonse? Argento had a job to do and he needed to go back, or his head would roll on the floor instead of that of his recent victim, a lunatic and perverted young man.

“Kodachi” is the name of the short (and very expensive) sword that he had used to cut Saguchi’s head off. He sheathed it in a small, but elegant black husk and turned around, looking at the mortified women staring at him. He just didn’t have any time for this bullshit. This ridiculous game forced its rules upon him and all he had to do was follow them. His gaze, fierce, determined, angered, intimidated the young rookie, still holding her gun towards the headless body of Saguchi. But before even one of them could say a word, could inquire for an explanation, or think about what had just happened, Argento vanished into thin air.

All of a sudden, he was gone. He escaped; he was free, as promised by the mysterious green screen, which appeared instead of him in front of the others.

Argento Ponsognio is free.

Want to be free like him?

KILL SOMEBODY.

The end. It disappeared.

CHAPTER 4

“So there’s no food anywhere, reducing our chances of survival unless we kill somebody.” Grace explained to herself right after closing the refrigerator's door, standing in a fancy supermarket with all emptied fridges. “I like that…” She smiled, with a twisted, seductive expression.

Now that she turned around, her face looked eerily calm and sweet as if there was something new that she had found out recently. Like a girl with a new doll, something to play with for at least a little while. 
Afterwards, Grace was seen at the entrance of the supermarket, looking at the street from right to left to see if the other lady was somewhere around. Then, staring at a brown wall with advertisings of a commercial center, including a lusty woman for a shoes store, the warrior turned upset. Approaching slowly while holding her katana in her right hand, she stood right in front of the picture of the red silk dressed woman with long and straight red hair. 
“Where did you go...? ~” She mumbled while lifting her sword to the top left and violently slashing the picture down to the right. She wanted to find the other swordswoman whom she had seen before, so she decided to walk away to her right and leave the shattered poster behind.

Soon, Grace found the others, all stupefied, dumbed, incredulous, nailing their gazes at Saguchi’s headless body. Behind a parked truck, not even bothering to hide herself very well, she grinned and analyzed them; none looked dangerous. A silly woman with a cellphone, a young police officer perhaps her age, maybe the Tae-kwon do teacher? The three of them scared to death. No. Definitely not worth her time. The other blonde with the katana looked more dangerous than all of these morons together. Her eyes showed no remorse but determination. Grace wanted to fight her and to kill her. Wasting her precious time with those idiots wouldn’t be any fun at all.

“W-Who are you…?” Nova managed to ask, looking towards Grace.

Gardon and Jaqueline looked that way too, but couldn’t find any words whatsoever to spit out of their mouths.

This was not a dream. Was this a nightmare?

This was real. Saguchi was dead. The yakuza guy, Argento, had been freed.

“You people are weak.” Grace replied.

“S-So you’re one of us… Please, stay. I want to talk to you.”

“You’re also boring, not worth my time.”

“Wait! I’m a police officer. Don’t go. We need to find every single person involved in this and I need your assistance.” Nova sheathed her gun and approached to her.

Gardon followed with his eyes only. Jaqueline was still extremely scared to move at all.

“Have you seen another blonde around here? She uses a katana, too.” Grace, turning her back on them, inquired.

“No, I haven’t. May I ask your name? I am officer Nova D…”

“I don’t give a shit. Bye.”

Grace jumped over the truck and landed on the other side. When Nova reached the point, she was nowhere to be seen. And before she tried to look for her, a child’s yell destroyed the possibility.

“Holy crap!” The kid said at Saguchi’s decapitated corpse.

Allen Reen, a fat, idiotic, disgusting bully from whatever elementary school. Brown tousled hair, green eyes, yellow t-shirt, gray shorts, white tennis shoes… At first sight, he looked like a normal kid. But that repulsive face of his, that ridiculous and annoying laughter, gay-ish contortions on his neck and round stomach, Allen was a very horrible child. And there he was, this imbecile, staring graciously at the corpse. Nova hurried back while Gardon tried to block the kid’s view.

As for Jaqueline… She had lost her mind, engulfed in a panic attack. She yelled, finally, horrified, and turned around, ready to explode in a quick run.

“Wait, hold on!” Nova shouted but Jaqueline’s horror screams distorted the sound as she left in a hurry.

“Let her go. We have to take care of him.” Gardon reprimanded.

Nova stopped.

“You’re right…” Still she worried, looking over at the distance beyond the parking lot, hoping to find Jaqueline soon.

“Let’s find a safer place and talk things out. We seem to be the only sane people in this place as of now.”

Gardon was right. Saguchi was nuts and he was dead. Argento was gone, Jaqueline was hysterical and that other blonde girl with the headphones, she seemed even more sinister and crazier than all others. Nova and Gardon were, as a matter of fact, the only ones who could protect the stupid rat child named Allen.

CHAPTER 5

Slowly walking towards the black point, feeling the waves of these ephemeral energies, such darkness... Her black non-heel boots didn't even sound, didn't even come close to the horrible noise being produced by some madness totally out of her understanding. And right there, in the middle of the street between the empty houses, where the windows seemed as the witnessing eyes of the terrifying act, was located the shadow and its purifying rage of solitude. A pain unable for the rest to comprehend. 
Frowning, maybe suspecting a little bit, Grace walked on low guard, approaching to the woman in the middle, the center of the darkest situation... the bizarre event she was watching right at this moment. Keeping her distance, she decided to look at what seemed to be something beyond eerie.

She had found the girl she was looking for.

At the center of this vague scenery remained the pieces of an unsolved puzzle above the mystery of nothingness. The unexplainable was the aura failed to be seen by whatever human eyes were to presence this, even among the shadowy clouds getting distorted everywhere around the city as if the shattering was filled with black fog instead of its natural destruction leading nowhere. Some noises could still be heard like demons dancing around the fallacies of a deceased leader, now reborn as a putrefied heart, and rotting blood beginning to spread across the minds of everyone. Such is the witness of the blond woman on both hands and knees against the pavement of that street. The invisible darkness was present, being able to be felt but impossible to be seen, while the girl, behaving strangely as the poisoned crows in horror tales, was convulsing. Her shoulders were trying to get out of place leaning up and down but staying still after the arms pushed harder to the very ground. Her eyes were covered by the sweating shadow of her hair and the nerves believed to be trying to pop out between her veins. She suddenly puked a wine color liquid, even standing in semi convulsive position as if she was about to collapse at any moment. She vomited again this that humans called blood, and trembled before the reflection of her sullen face on the shimmering red. Her katana was a few steps away, remaining as a virus she desired to reach, even when the fog came down little by little, right from the horrible nightmare better known as the sky. Raising her right arm to the distorted surrounding, a vicious vortex around the sword, she opened her hand and finally took the handle of it, pulling it back but not before the horrible sensation on her nerves, infuriating the stress she felt through her bloody veins. Even if the mouth of this beauty pale female begged to dry the bleeding revolting with saliva, and the lines of what was coming from inside out, she still had the force to turn around while distortedly crawling backwards to raise her head and reveal her luminous eyes filled with anger and disarray. This was the stare of her lunacy towards Grace, before some ghostly beings arose from the pavement and surrounded her.

“Interesting.” That was the only word Grace could find to describe the bizarre scene she had just witnessed.

In summary, the girl puked blood, her eyes were demonic, and she realized that Grace was there, then she went back to normal and ghosts appeared behind her.

“What’s your name?” Grace inquired, unsheathing her blade.

“Giselle…” Replied the mysterious girl, sighing, exhausted.

Her voice. Her angelic and sweet voice. God, what a beautiful and innocent tone! That of a whispering princess in agony, melancholy, divine messenger from the heavens! But alas, she could be a demoness, a netherworld warrior controlling the ghosts, or even the culprit behind it all. Nonetheless, the female figures seemed to be aggressive towards her.

Grace took exactly two steps backwards while carefully and scarcely witnessing the scene. All of the ghosts didn’t seem to care what was going on between the girls. Therefore, Grace put herself in combat pose, lifting her katana being held by both hands away from her chest as if she was trying to defend from the phantoms. She, surprised and scared from the inside, remained calm from the outside, analyzing the contact she had made with this strange warrior leading her clues to literally nowhere. And before Grace stood up against the ghastly creatures, the black vortex began swirling around them all, spreading outwards and forming a giant tornado which led her to withdraw and, turning around, began running away as fast as she could, knowing that the malicious beings were going to chase her sooner or later.

“Accursed witch!” Grace yelled, fueled with anger. “I wanted to fight you, and only you!” But she noticed that Giselle was running away from the creatures as well.

Both girls jumped on small buildings, houses, stores, roofs, trying to sneak away from the haunted beings and the giant tornado.

By the time Grace had reached the Central Plaza, she saw a giant circular fountain of a spiral with three floors, this made of gray cement, including the 2 meter wall around it. Water was still below there as intact as if people had vanished just yesterday. However, no water was coming from atop the fountain anymore. 
Grace found her way behind it, where the entrance to the commercial center was, two big crystal doors stuck in the middle with nothing but bloodstains for some reason. The parking lot was at both sides of this entrance, obviously divided in 2 sections with lots of abandoned cars left stationed perfectly. Lights were off in this part of the building so the whole parking lot was darkened. 
Still holding her sword and feeling obnoxiously idiot, the girl stopped before going into the building to find herself near the electric stairs, not working anymore. The creatures were already there. Stuck right before the stairs, thanks to the ghosts, Grace had to slash her way through, easily and rapidly cutting them, as if her movements were tenacious sparks and sounds of steel making flashlights per each cut she did to the ghosts spreading into more and more fog that the others absorbed without even moving at all. It was that moment when the rock metal music started sounding through her headphones again; “A Violent Reaction” from American Head Charge governed her ears, lifting her spirit and mysteriously raising her strength, leading the girl in guarding pose, to smile. 
“Heh...” Two ghosts came from both sides of her and one more decided to launch an attack to the front. Grace flexed both knees and jumped straight forward to the creature, taking her sword with both hands at her top left and slashing completely to the right, cutting the enemy in half. Immediately before falling to the floor, she turned around while the other two spectral souls approached, making a similar and circular movement with her slashing ability to cut them in half with diagonal attacks, finally touching the ground one more time, leaning for a bit. The fog dissipated to the roof for there wasn't any more ghosts to absorb it. 
“Weaklings...” Mocked the lady while turning around, facing the stairs again. She went up, running quickly, looking for Giselle.
“Where are you?” She whispered to herself, gazing from left to right and finally to the bottom line of the closed stores.

Giselle felt the heartbeat and its sound strangling her throat, this fierce abomination of her torment she could stand no more. As soon as the ghost army left to chase them down, as predators after their prey, the woman barely stood up still holding the sheathed katana whilst dizziness felt qualm enough to toss her down again. She had quit her escape because of this; again in the middle of a street. The multiple figures surrounding her, they turned around and smiled like never ending fans of her blood-staining stare. Then she fell down one more time, right to her knees at the pavement which served her well. Why, she put her sword as in horizontal in front of her, with her pale right hand. The ghosts stood grisly silent as a circle of lurid fantasy around the woman. But soon, the darkened sky began to spread its black fog around the evening, meanwhile the darkness, as a whole nightmare towards the girl, the invisible obscurity, vanished. The ghosts noticed this but could not erase their wicked smiles while the girl was slowly pulling the sword from the wooden case. Halfway through, a flashing light appeared for just a single second, pushing the phantasmagoric beings violently away from her. When they got up, making sullen noises and babbling about nonsense, the girl was just standing in the middle of that street, holding down her katana and separating her legs for a few centimeters. Her stare seemed back to normal and all traces of the blood were suspiciously gone. 
The creatures shrieked before rushing against the girl but she moved back and forth so fast, slashing and creating an energy cross at both sides that remained still for a fraction of a second, pausing the whole scene just to contemplate their faces. Then, the lights spread their energy within them and literally slaughtered all the present beings into a fog that disappeared into thin air. Her beauty now seemed as fragile as before, tender for her determination to protect her resolve, the lively mystery of her life. She gently caressed her hair with her left hand and turned around as in opposite direction of the plaza. She had no desire to fight Grace.

After a while, she looked down the street and felt alone, tearing apart from the inside while burning alive from the outside. And just as a shadowy spasm occurred afar from her, a glance from some wicked eyes began to follow. And so did her body, moving rapidly after a quick and high jump to the nearest house roof, valiantly seeing her target going near the end of the city, the end of fears, and the vast and frozen lake of tears.

“I have to stop this.” She said. “Once and for all.”