“The end of you, insolent pest!”

“You can’t touch me.”

The flames spewing from Ttrowtos seem to double in breadth and intensity. I can sense the beasts and vampires around me retreating from the heat, but it doesn’t bother me. In my mind, I cast a force field that shields me from any injury and stand my ground. Ttrowtos cannot touch me.

“I will kill you!”

The image of a charging bull of flames and black evil tentacles intimidates me for a moment and there is a lapse in my force field projection. A tentacle comes straight at me, wrapping around my neck. It is strangling me and for a moment, I don’t know what to do.

As my air supply is cut off, I struggle with the tentacle, trying to save myself. But another tentacles grabs me by my ankles and lifts me into the air upside down. Blood rushes to my head in an instant, compounding my trouble with breathing.

This is it. I’m going to die.

“Taeyeon!”

A new yet familiar voice pierces through the fog of oxygen deprivation. I wrench my eyes open. Down below, feet over head, is Secretary Seo. Her eyes are on fire, fangs out and claws drawn. She launches herself at Ttrowtos and I watch in silent horror as she knocks him flat but is grabbed by the neck in return. My view of the fight turns into a blur as the tentacles that hold my ankles loosen, dropping me onto the ground with a hard thump.

I groan. The ground does not welcome me kindly. But the reprieve comes at a heavy price. A shrill scream strikes me and I see Seo’s claws drawing blood from Ttrowtos’s neck even as he sinks his fangs into her arm.

“Seo!” I break into a run. A furious run. One that has me pulling my hamstrings as I race across the grassy land. “No!”

All of my rage accumulates with each step forward. It mounts higher and higher as my pulse grows stronger and stronger. Something swells from within. Like the rising of the tide. The gathering of the storm. The winding of the spring. Then something breaks.

“Ah!” I vent as energy pours out from the palm of my hand like water from the release of the dam. Torrents and torrents of it. I direct these torrents at the evil beast that is hurting my friend. Ms Pink’s loyal companion. Not Seo. I’m not letting him touch Seo. Every ounce. Every strain. At him.

Ttrowtos is tossed into the air upon impact. He was caught by surprise. I can see it in his eyes. His flames come at me again, scorching until I project an energy field to shield myself. Then his flames die. And on the ground he lies. Still as a dead tree trunk. Not that tree trunks move when they’re alive. But Ttrowtos looks dead.

And for the first time in my life, I wish for death on another being. Real death. Never-to-lift-a-finger-again kind of death. With all my heart and soul, I hope and pray for his death. Never mind that I would be the one responsible for it. I’m okay with that. Surprisingly okay with that. Being a murderer is expectedly okay.

Seo is pushing herself up. Her arm is turning an alarming shade of blue.

I rush to her side. “Seo, are you okay?”

Seo smiles at me. “I have never been better.”

“But your arm . . .”

“It’s nothing a little mimea can’t fix.”

“Oh, good, good.”

Seo walks over to where Ttrowtos lies on his back. His skin is darkening, the colour spreading like ripples from the centre of his chest. Seo and I stand side by side, staring as the darkness occupies his body. A charred ending. It is hard to believe that he is well and truly dead.

“What about Ms Pink?”

The words slip out of me, unbidden. Yet all of my awareness is shifted to her in an instant. Ms Pink. Where is she?

“She killed Ttrowtos! She killed our leader! Ttrowtos must be avenged!”

I whirl around to face the din. It is Tatua. I get the strangest feeling that something is wrong. It is a gut feeling. Intuition. Or pure déjà vu. There is something about him. Something off. Seo grabs me by the waist and tries to make a run for it but we are surrounded by mangy uglies before Seo can get away.

Tatua points at us. “You are not getting away with your sins today.”

I move in front of Seo to shield her, lest he should spring a surprise attack. “I killed Ttrowtos. I, alone, am responsible.”