Have you ever felt lost in life? Like, you didn't know which direction the correct one for you was? As if you were supposed to make this grandiose decision—something meaningful, and stick with it through thick and thin to meet a goal of achievement, but you couldn't? Yeah. Me too...or rather, I still do. I have never stuck with one ideal goal for myself in life, something to commit to.
That indecisiveness caused me to wander about my days after high school. All because I couldn't make a basic decision of working for money or for my own enjoyment. I was stuck, and now all I have left for it is constant hours at a rundown gym, some cigarettes, and the feeling that I'm headed nowhere in life.
Time: 1:30 AM
Location: New York, Central Park
Elise exhaled slowly with smoke curling from her lips as she walked down the dimly lit path through the park. Her right hand rested in her pocket, while her left held a cigarette. She was wearing her long brown hair tied up with a worn-out jacket, a crop top, baggy sweats, and beat-up sneakers. Nothing special, just cheap clothing to get by.
Her phone began to buzz. She sighed while pulling it out of her right pocket. She unlocked it. The dim screen read 1:30 AM as she scanned her constant notifications. Bills. Failed transactions. Overdraft warnings. Her thumb dragged across her phone screen as she looked through her bank account apps to check the funds she had. Nothing. They were all dry.
"Well, shit," She said to herself in a slight mumble, shoving her phone into her jacket pocket. From the looks of it, the jacket had been through thick and thin along with her. 'Maybe I should stop buying so many cigarettes.' She thought, pausing, but shaking her head at the idea. 'Yeah. Not happening.' Placing the cigarette into her mouth for another puff.
Finally reaching the sidewalk on the other side of the park, she sat down on a bench across the street from her apartment building. The building itself was rundown and pretty cheap for what it was; however, given the way things were headed with her current funds, Elise didn't know whether she would be able to pay the rent.
She gazed up at the stars with a dazed look, thinking about all the opportunities that she could have gone for. With recently deceased parents and no family to truly care for her after graduation, she really felt alone. Elise had this feeling in her chest, right where her heart was, that felt empty...black. Reminiscing as she was, she began tearing up with the bud of the cigarette crumbling slowly. Her hazel-colored eyes were now blocked by tears streaming down her cheeks. "Why am I crying? I knew this would be where I landed, and I did nothing to change it; I need to grow up...but why does it have to be so hard?!"
Elise covered her eyes with her right forearm, stretched across her eyes, and leaned her head back. Her cigarette laced crossed between the fingers of her left hand. She continued looking at the sky with the bit of her left eye; she could see under her forearm. Elise took a deep breath and wiped her tears; now ready to head inside to sleep and prepare for tomorrow. However, as she was about to stand, she noticed a strange black figure glide across the top of the roof. She sat stunned, wiping her eyes. "Parkourist? At this hour? Anything for a like, I suppose."
She shook her head before hearing something moving behind her, and turned her head. Not seeing anything, she felt her heart drop; she had a gut feeling that something was wrong. Elise stood up to rush across the street, only to be stopped by an oncoming car, which was speeding past. The car honked as it drove past, its lights speeding off in the distance. 'What the hell wasthat?' She thought, having not previously seen the car anywhere on the road.
Elise then prepared to step across once more, only to be left with this breathing sensation down her neck. It was constant, cold, and, for some reason, felt...dangerous. She turned around with wide eyes-
SCHLLLKKK
For a moment, she felt nothing—then... pain. She felt a pang in her chest. 'Huh?' A stream of warm blood made its way down the right side of her lip. 'W-What is this...' She coughed. Blood rushed from her chest in rough streams. Her eyes dropped down slowly—to an arm, through her chest. The place where her heart once was was now empty. An arm driven through, covered in her blood.
'A..am I gonna die?' Her vision blurred. The figure stared down at her with its red eyes and its heavy breathing. She looked across the contours of the being's face, noticing sharp fangs with its massive but disgusting smile. Her mind was trying to piece it together, but was beginning to fail quickly.
The creature pulled its hand from inside her chest, clasping her heart. Her body fell to the ground, limp and dying. Her gaze was fixed as she noticed the figure that had killed her was drinking a stream of blood directly from her heart into its mouth. A maniacal laughter echoed soon after as it then threw her heart to the ground, looking down at her. She felt as if it were about to consume the rest of her whole.
Suddenly, with her blurred vision, she saw the creature look up, only to be sliced with a blade as two shadowy figures pushed the being away, clashing in the midst of the park in the night. A third figure then landed near Elise's dying body; her gaze wandered to the figure. Unable to make their face out. "It seems we were too late." A sorrowful yet angelic voice rang out through Elise's ears. "No human was meant to be caught in the midst of this battle," The girl said as she began to reach for Elise's eyes to close them.
However, Elise attempted to stop the girl, grabbing her hand. She had no strength—that was obvious, but she was fighting to live. She didn't want to die yet; it wasn't fair. She hadn't truly yet experienced happiness, so how dare the world take her life so easily? The girl looked at Elise's struggle and noticed she was alive. "I see...do you wish to live?" The girl asked the dying Elise. A tear began to roll down Elise's face once again before a faint and final "Yes..." pushed its way past her dying voice. Elise's eyes finally began to darken and become faint with a slow hitch, and her grip loosened.
____+____
In the next moment, however, the girl strung a sharp nail across her palm; blood flowed directly into Elise's mouth. She began to chant in a constant rhythm—a glowing red sigil formed under Elise's body, enwrapping her in blood and engraved with symbols. Finally, she placed her palm above Elise's body, finishing the blood cocoon around Elise with what seemed to be a black pattern on the chest. She stood up, breathing heavily, looking at the cocoon, a faint smile spreading across her face.
The two people who had attacked the murderer before came back, landing across from the angelic girl. "Mistress, we wounded him, but he managed to escape...we are terribly sorry." A calm and cold voice spoke to the girl apologetically after failing to capture or kill the rogue.
"It's alright, Reika, Cassian, you two did your best. We will track it down again. For now, carry this one. We will be having a new guest amongst the household," the girl said, pointing to the blood cocoon. Reika and Cassian looked utterly shocked, looking down before looking back up. "Mistress, excuse my tongue, but why would you do this... especially for some human?" She said, angry at the decision her lady had made, frustration evident in her tone.
"I felt something in her eyes, her soul...longing to live, to succeed. I felt I could only help her... that's what I felt, and so that's what I /did/. It was our fault as well for letting that thing escape in the first place." She said, her voice going from its once warm, angelic feeling to a cold one. While, however rash it was, the girl felt it was a good decision and didn't like being questioned about it. Reika had gone quiet before clenching her fist with obvious anger, turning her head without retort.
Cassian looked between the two, sighing. "We shouldn't discuss this here; it would be best if we leave, yes?" He had his sword on his waist, ready to leave, but not before that. He held his hand down to the cocoon, and with a sigil forming at the base of his palm, a light spread across the cocoon, and it began floating.
"Well then, let's be off." The young girl said, returning to her warm, angelic voice from before. Cassian followed soon after with the cocoon floating, his palm resting on the nose of his hilt. Reika scoffed, evidently angry, before jumping a great bound, following the other two. This one plea from Elise was about to change the lives of many, including her own.