It was evident by the way the wind blew leaves across the sidewalk that a storm was blowing in. It would go unnoticed by many in the darkened colony, as would the sound of footfalls slamming against concrete. The wind carried with it heavy breathing as a young man in his twenties turned into a dark alley, his chest rising and falling quickly. He was stuck with nowhere to go as he stared at the wall of the U-shaped building before him. His palms pressed into the cool brick as his head hung. The beads of sweat that dripped from his forehead were accompanied by casual footsteps from behind.

 

This was it. There were only two options left. Either he would die alone, or they would die together. There was no alternative, but strangely enough, he wasn’t afraid like he’d been as a child. Even when the hands grabbed him from behind and shoved him to the ground, he didn’t fight back. Fingers griped his jaw tightly as he stared up into his captor’s steely gray eyes, raging with hunger and satisfaction at catching his prey.

 

 

 

There was no need for words between the two, nor was there any time. Teeth had sunken into his elongated neck, sending through him a pain so severe he wanted to scream, but he wouldn’t allow it. Instead, his eyes rolled to his arm, watching the second hand of the watch tick. All of his studying and research said it would take just around thirty seconds before his body would be drained of all the blood he had in him. Thirty seconds and his life would be over.

 

 

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.

 

With just seconds to go and the world around him lingering somewhere in the gray between light and darkness, he felt the hunter pull away choking. It took everything left within him to turn and look at the man who stumbled back into the ground, clutching at his own neck. The corner of the victim’s lips curved up and his pearly white teeth peeked out from just behind his lips.

 

It was true. Everything he’d learned the last few years was all true. There was still hope. Well, maybe not for him, but as he took his last breath, he pictured the world as a better place and allowed the darkness to consume him entirely.

 

---

 

The train rattled along on the tracks overhead small buildings and streets. What was the point in having two laned roads anymore? The population was 10,000 but there were maybe 100 cars and they only belonged to the officials and important people. The roads felt more dangerous because they were empty than they did when a car turned the corner.

 

“Zaz? Azazel! Are you even listening?”

 

“Hm? What?” The brunette pulled her head away from the cool glass window to look at her friend Soomi who stood beside her with her arms crossed.

 

“Don’t tell me you were thinking about the purpose of roads in the colony again!”

 

Soomi knew her all too well. They’d been friends since they were children. They’d attended school together, shared baths together, felt heartbreak together, moved in together. They may as well have been born conjoined all things considered.

 

“Can you blame me? And I hate the word colony! It’s like--”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Soomi cut her off. “It’s like we’re ants in an ant hill waiting to be stepped on. I get it.”

 

Azazel cast her friend a smile as her eyes turned out the window again, this time catching glimpses of the gray wall that circled around their city. Though it likely seemed like a joke to others, Azazel believed that’s what they really were. Sure, the city was decent sized, but it was too controlled and the wall around it seemed like a giant flashing sign that screamed step on me! They were definitely ants.

 

A heavy sigh distracted the young woman from her thoughts as she looked to her friend.

 

“I swear I can’t go anywhere with you anymore.”

 

Azazel was tugged out of the open door of the train and onto the landing beside the tracks. Only then did she realize this was her stop. The doors closed and her loose hair attacked her face as the cars picked up speed and raced by.

 

Soomi was already walking away, no longer caring what happened to her daydreaming friend. Hurried feet moved to catch up with the blonde and Azazel linked her arm through her friend’s.

 

“You really need to focus more the next few days, Azazel. With the eclipse coming, things could get dangerous and quickly if you’re lost in your own world.”

 

She knew it was true. The upcoming solar eclipse brought with it dangers they couldn’t comprehend. Their colony had never been in the path of totality before, but in the past they’d seen what happened in other places where it was. Destruction, chaos, death.

 

The thought alone put Azazel on edge as she glanced cautiously around them. It was silly to be afraid already. There was no way anything would happen the day before the event. It wasn’t as if the sun was shining duller. It was still in the sky, bright as ever, but that didn’t stop her fears.

 

“You’re right. I’m sorry I cause you so much trouble, Soomi.” She squeezed her friend’s arm gently in a form of a hug and leaned into the girl.

 

The two carried on walking toward their destinations in silence. When they reached the bakery front, Azazel stared up at the familiar sign, wondering if things would be different for it the next day. Would it still be there after everything?

 

Waving Soomi away, Azazel entered her workplace and hurried to the back to start working on baking. As she kneaded the bread, her mind wandered to the world they lived in.

 

Long before she or Soomi had been born, people had been coralled into the colonies. They were once large, metropolitan cities that had fallen into ruins and rebuilt for the purpose of “protecting the humans.” They’d built walls walls around the cities, raised up apartment buildings and did away with stand alone homes.

 

Some things from the past remained. They still had television and music, but it was very controlled by the government, and unfortunately for their colony, no one famous had ever come from these walls. Azazel would never meet anyone famous. She’d never get to travel to the main hub or see what the other colonies looked like. She was stuck here.

 

It wasn’t as if she was unhappy with her colony. Aside from the severe case of wanderlust she suffered from, she was content where they were. People went about their lives as if the wall didn’t exist and maintained jobs and families. It was normal, at least to her. She didn’t see anything strange about how everyone set off to work as the sun’s rays peeked over the horizon or how there was a curfew that began when the sky turned black. That was normal life for her.

 

Plus, the government had protected their colony well. There had never been any signs of the Other-Beings breaking in and hurting anyone in her colony. At least, not yet.

 

The Other-Beings were strange to the girl. She didn’t fully understand them, but that was because she only had what she was taught in school to go off of. It was severely one sided, she thought. The Other-Beings were blood ers, wanting nothing but to feast on human blood. They were made to look like monsters, and quite honestly, most of the time they did seem that way. She’d never heard of a good Other-Being, but in her mind they must exist somewhere. Just like there were good and bad humans, surely there were good and bad Other-Beings too.

 

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of the bell over the front door ringing. Wiping her flour covered hands on a towel at her waist, she realized it was already noon and the lunch crowd would begin dropping by.

 

The bakery was small, that much was true, but they had a good reputation for making a killer sandwich on the homemade croissants.

 

Azazel rounded the corner, a smile on her lips and open to spill an overused greeting but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him.

 

She raised a hand to her face, wondering if someone had a spotlight or if he was just making that heavenly glow come from his body by some sort of magic. She could see from behind her hand the smile that pushed his cheeks to his eyes when they saw one another.

 

Had her heart stopped beating? Was this was if felt like to die a slow and painful death?

 

“Azazeeeel,” his angelic voice called out.

 

She was lost in her own little dream world again, lost in his eye smile, in the dimple on his cheek.

 

“Azazel?”

 

Fingers snapped in front of her face before spreading out into a wave. The action was followed by the sound of a record scratching to a halt in the back of her mind as she came to and saw the look of concern etched all over his face.

 

“Are you alright? Should I call for a doctor?”

 

The reaction was instant. She could feel the heat at her cheeks in seconds. She hadn’t even had time to feel embarrassed yet.

 

“N-no! I’m alright, really! Thank you for your concern,” she managed to mumbled out, straightening herself up and attempting to get rid of the pink on her face.

 

“You want your usual? Roast beef and cheddar on a croissant bun?”

 

His smile returned and he nodded his head. She didn’t give him time to win her over with his dashing good looks before she hurried off to the kitchen to get his lunch ready.

 

Kihyun had moved in next door to Azazel and Soomi three months ago. He and his two friends had moved from a different complex after feeling like they were too squished in the set up. As luck would have it, his job was just a few doors down from the bakery and once he realized she worked here, he’d come by everyday for lunch.

 

He was dreamy. Okay, they all were. The three roommates that lived next door were all gorgeous in their own way, it almost felt impossible. Several times, Azazel had caught herself wondering if they’d actually moved from the Hub. She didn’t know for sure, but she’d heard that all the people there were insanely good looking and that’s why those who found fame ended up there. It couldn’t have been true though. Unless they were in some sort of danger or relocating for work purposes, there was no relocating between colonies. It was to prevent overcrowding apparently. As far as she knew, Changkyun was an assistant to the butcher, Minhyuk helped run the farmer’s market, and Kihyun was a keeper at the little aquarium. She didn’t think any of those positions warranted relocations.

 

Her thin fingers worked carefully to wrap the sandwich in the brown paper before it was slipped into the brown bag. She was about to roll up the top when she paused and reached over to the chocolate chip cookies. She wrapped up two and slipped them into the bag before rolling it closed. She grabbed a large, clear, plastic cup and filled it with half lemonade and half sweet tea before she hurried back to the front counter.

 

“You can keep the change,” he said almost too cooly. Didn’t he know he was killing her?

 

“Thanks! The boss will appreciate it!”

 

He took his lunch and the cold drink and with a few raised fingers and a sweet nod, he left the bakery.

 

All of a sudden, her legs were jelly beneath her and she crumpled to the floor behind the counter, her hand to her heart. As she sighed. He had to be an angel. That was the only answer to how he could make her feel that way.

 

---

The sound of screaming had Azazel’s body shooting up in bed. A dim light came in through the window, but the alarm clock on the nightstand said it was midday. The eclipse.

 

Bare feet slammed against the floor and she dragged her tired body from the bed. The screams were loud and it set her heart racing.

 

“Soomi?” she called out, noticing the bed beside hers was empty.

 

There was no answer and Azazel felt her heart sink.

 

“Oh god, oh god, oh god,” she called, tears already welling up in her eyes. “Soomi?” she screamed again, swinging open the front door without a second thought.

 

She flew down the apartment stairs and out into the open air below. It was dark out and Azazel took a second to shield her eyes from the rays as she glanced in the direction of the sun. It wasn’t fully covered, not yet. She dropped her arm and swallowed back a choke.

 

“SOOMI?!” she screamed into the air.

 

“Azazel!”

 

Her head snapped in the direction and she saw her blonde friend crouching on the ground with a body in her arms.

 

“Oh my god!” Azazel called out as she ran over to her friend. “What the hell happened?”

 

She too joined her friend and looked down at Minhyuk’s pained expression. There was blood seeping through his shirt and on Soomi’s hands.

 

“He saved me,” she whispered, the sound of a sob behind her words. “A guard thought I was an Other-Being because I was out here and he… he… he tried to shoot me,” she choked out before finally breaking down into sobs.

 

“Oh my god,” Azazel whispered again. Her dark eyes looked up at Minhyuk’s face almost apologetically before careful fingers moved to lift up the fabric of his shirt.

 

The sight that greeted he was strange and a little terrifying. Gunshot wounds weren’t something she saw everyday, or ever, but she didn’t think this was how it was supposed to look. Blood seeped out of the wound as it should, but what made it odd were the strange veins of purple that crackled along his skin from it. Azazel could see them forming and spreading like cracked glass as she looked.

 

A finger stuck out toward the building. “Go get them, Soomi! Hurry!” Her sobbing friend nodded in understanding and ran back to the building.

 

Dark eyes moved from the wound to Minhyuk’s face again as he writhed in pain, his breaths catching in his chest.

 

“What are you?” Azazel whispered.

 

“He’s an Other-Being,” came a quiet, firm voice from behind her.

 

Azazel tumbled to the ground in surprise and fear. She looked up to see four guys peering down at them and felt her heart sink.

 

“Wh-What did you say?”

 

It was evident she had become unimportant as they descended upon them. It struck her that they must be Other-Beings and they saw food sitting before them. Azazel tried to scurry back but her hand caught the hem of her nightgown and sent her falling back again. She closed her eyes, assuming she was about to die, but instead, a tight, firm hand grabbed her and pulled her up.

 

She opened her eyes to see Minhyuk’s body cradled in the arms of one of the guys while the one who had addressed her was pulling her toward the apartment building.

“H-Hey!” she called out, trying to sound tougher than she really was.

 

“You have to get inside before the full coverage happens. It’s too dangerous out here.”

As he spoke, his eyes looked around cautiously, as if he was looking for something, or someone.

 

They reached the building just as Kihyun and Changkyun came running out.

 

“Minhyuk!” Kihyun called his name full of worry.

 

Azazel watched as his friend was hurried past him toward the apartment and Kihyun took in the others. Their eyes met before his slid down to the hand that was tightly wrapped around her wrist. It was beginning to get painful, but she hadn’t been able to get a word in with this guy.

 

“Let her go, Shownu. You’ll hurt her.”

 

There was something almost dangerous looking in his eyes and she could tell the guy grasping her didn’t agree with the words.

 

“She’ll run,” he said angrily.

 

“She won’t,” Kihyun challenged.

 

They were quiet for a moment before the fingers around her disappeared and Shownu brushed past her to the apartment.

 

“You have to come with us, Azazel.”

 

Kihyun’s voice was much nicer than the Shownu’s had been and she knew he was right. She couldn’t make sense of any of her feelings yet, but she did know she stood a better chance with more people when the world went dark than she did with a distraught Soomi.

 

His hand was stretched out toward her, and he shook it in a way that begged her to take it. With a heavy sigh, she placed her fingers in his and he gently tugged her toward the apartment, but not before he glanced up at the sky and she saw his adam’s apple bob with a deep swallow of what she had to assume was worry.

 

---

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Hello! I'm back with a new fic! I've had this one in the works for some time now. This chapter has been started, then restarted again multiple times. I'm still not overly thrilled with how it turned out, but feel this is a great start to this story. I know there are probably many questions that this chapter left unanswered. Everything will be revealed in the coming chapters, as well as the history of the Other-Beings (probably in Chapter 3). 

 

I hope you'll stick around and enjoy this little fic and what's in store for it. As always, comments are welcome! I am open to suggestions and hopes as to where the story may go, but please make sure they're mostly kind words. I have a fragile little writer's heart. Haha. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and enjoy!