Chapter Thirteen

It was 5 A.M. in the morning. The sun had yet to rise, and under the dark sky, there was a lonely figure walking on the dirty sand road.

The air was extremely chilly. Tiffany felt like giving herself a big hug but she couldn’t, due to the injury on her left arm. The injury wasn’t as severe as how she thought it would be initially, but it was unexpectedly deep. She had to wait for more than half an hour before the wound finally stopped bleeding. She could not afford to have it tore open again and let her blood flowed like nobody’s business.

Tiffany huffed out a puff of air. The cold vapor could be clearly seen despite the lack of lightings from the surroundings.

Now, it really made Tiffany wondered how low the temperature was.

Tiffany constantly rubbed her hands together while pacing down the road. The village was located in the rural area. Roads were badly constructed, and most of which were just mud and sands. There wasn’t any smooth route at all, and Tiffany had to walk through this rocky path all by herself, with no light sources from anywhere else except the moon above her to guide her through.

She stopped in her track, lifting up her head a little and gazed at the moon.

When was the last time she was all by herself? Having no one around her, no one to communicate with and no one to play with whenever she was bored.

Tiffany let out an inaudible sigh and allowed her mind to wander further into her memories.

Many, many years ago, when she was still a young child, whose height was no taller than an average table, and her parents were still alive, they lived in the middle of a jungle where they isolated themselves from the outside world. Despite that, life wasn’t as bad as how it seemed to be.

It was, in fact, one of Tiffany’s happiest moments in life.

Tiffany had no friends at all. She only had her parents who were always there for her, guiding her, playing with her for the majority of her childhood life. She thought these happy days would last forever until one day, she witnessed her father died under the hands of her mother.

It was an accident which no one intended for it to happen. They thought they could escape their fate if they hid away from the people, eliminated ties with the society and only have one another in their life.

But no, that thing ran in their blood. No matter how far they went or how deep they hid, whatever must happen would happen eventually… with or without a third party’s push.

It was their destiny which no one could change.

Tiffany withdrew her gaze and continued with her journey. It did warmed her sometimes when she recalled those happy memories she shared with her parents, but whenever her father’s death and the scene where her mother committed suicide because of guilty and love appeared in her mind, all the warmness was gone, only lonesome and coldness remained.

She was supposed to blame her mother for turning her world upside down, but she couldn’t, not when she knew the real reason behind the accident.

Tiffany lowered her head, staring at part where her sleeves were stained by her blood.

If only miracle happens and cleanses her blood one day.

Tiffany had no idea how long she had been walking for, but the orangish color surfacing at the end of the sky implied it was almost dawn. She walked towards one of the trees standing along the roadside intending to take a rest, but a faint stinky smell entered her nose just in time and stopped her.

She did not react to it immediately however. If a mutant was able to move around freely under the daylight, it showed how capable this mutant was. Tiffany decided to wait and see what this mutant was up to and why was it here – in the middle of nowhere?

Tiffany could wait, but the mutant couldn’t. Mutants were sensitive when it comes to hunters. They jolly well knew who were the ones they could taunt, and who were the ones they had to escape from.

The mutant leaped away hastily when it saw Tiffany was only a few steps away from the trees outside. It ran deep into the forest behind. There was no way it could defeat Tiffany, but it knew someone, who hid behind the forest, could save it from the hunter’s claws.

Tiffany calmly pulled out one of her blades and followed the odor emitted from the mutant.

Being a professional hunter as she is, Tiffany does not hunt with her eyes. Instead, she uses her nose. Mutants are sly creatures who enjoy lurking in the dark, unseen corners where no one can see. They do not usually appear in front of people and when someone comes close to them, they are able to sense it right away, either going into hiding or attack them. If the hunters only use their visions to hunt for mutants, they may miss them if they hide in places like undergrounds or sewers.

The pursued of the mutant was a long one, considering how deep the forest was. Tiffany followed a long way into the forest and realized she could not see the path outside anymore. She was not bothered by that factor however, having lived in a jungle for almost the whole of her childhood life, this forest was really nothing as compared to what she had been through.

Tiffany simply allowed herself to wander deeper into the forest comfortably and continued to pursue that mutant––

She stopped walking suddenly.

The odor… it was gone instantly, in a flash, as though the mutant had vanished into thin air.

Something is amiss.

Tiffany finally panicked. She got on her feet and started to run. With the blade still in her hand, she charged towards the direction where the mutant last was before it disappeared. She kept on running, oblivious as to how much further she had to go. There was nothing she could do anyway since she had lost the mutant’s trace.

Just then, a path of light appeared in front of her. Tiffany realized she had reached the other end of the forest. She made her way out of the forest cautiously and was immediately mesmerized by the beautiful scenery in front of her.

There, in front of her, was a small lake surrounded by a cliff behind it. In the middle of the cliff, there was a small waterfall. Streams of water were falling into the small and peaceful lake, sketching out wonderful scenery of this natural world.

But what catches her attention the most is that little floating house in the middle of the lake.

The two-storey house was basically made up of glass. It was not a green house, but a normal house with its glass windows stretched from the top to bottom. However despite that, Tiffany was having difficulty in seeing what was within the house. All she knew was that most of the things inside were white in color.

Tiffany slid her blade back into the scabbard as she stepped onto the concrete pavement that led to the floating house. The mutant had gone obviously and since there was no trace of it, it wouldn’t hurt her to inspect this beautiful yet mysterious house.

She pulled open the sliding door and entered. Her sensitive nose immediately captured the aroma that filled the house. A clink-clank sound was heard on her left. She turned towards it and much to her surprise, it was the kiddy looking girl whom she met in the city.

“Taeyeon?”

Taeyeon was so immersed with her breakfast that she failed to notice Tiffany’s appearance until the latter called her. She was originally biting onto a raw ham until she saw Tiffany, the ham immediately fell to the ground as she exclaimed with surprise.

“Tiffany?! What are you doing here?” She quickly switched off the stove and wiped off the greases on her hands onto the apron she was wearing and ran to Tiffany.

Tiffany was amused by her clumsiness and chuckled lightly. This girl sure never stop amazed her.

Taeyeon knew what that laughter meant. She shyly scratched her head and smiled at her sheepishly. She asked, “I’m making breakfast. You want some?”

“Sure, why not?”

Taeyeon led Tiffany to the dining table before running back to the stove and continued with her cooking. Tiffany sat still on the chair and observed Taeyeon from her back.

Once again, Taeyeon was dressed in her usual white outfit. Both the shirt and pants are made of cotton… suitable for sleeping huh? A faint smile crept onto her face unknowingly. And that messy hair of hers, Tiffany was guessing Taeyeon just got up from her bed and had not changed out from her pajamas.

“You like white?” Tiffany asked when she saw Taeyeon carrying their breakfasts to the table.

Taeyeon positioned the plates in front of Tiffany and her, before grabbing a seat on the opposite side from Tiffany. “You can say so? But I only like it because it looks pure and clean to me. What about you? You like black?” Taeyeon pointed at the black outfit Tiffany is wearing.

Tiffany lowered her head and looked at herself. She was never interested in black or any other dark colors, but her occupation doesn’t allow her to wear anything bright, unless she wanted to attract attention with the blood spattered all over her.

She returned Taeyeon a smile and shook her head, “Nah, but black makes me look skinny.”

“You don’t look fat to me.”

“Well, that’s the point.” She threw a wink at Taeyeon mischievously, causing the latter’s heart to flutter uncontrollably.

“You know…” Taeyeon’s voice became deep out of the sudden. She rested her elbows on the table and leaned forward, shortening the gap between the both of them. “Your winks are deadly. They always ignite my secret desire.” Her gaze naturally landed on Tiffany’s rosy lips.

Tiffany grinned and her lips purposely, “May I know what kind of secret desire you’re referring to?” The pair of moving muscles became unusually seductive in Taeyeon’s eyes.

Taeyeon gulped and leaned even closer. Her eyes stared straight into Tiffany’s crescent-shaped eyes when she felt the latter’s breath under her nose. She closed her eyes then, wanting to seal Tiffany’s lips away with her own ones when she suddenly felt a cold metallic object pressing against them.