I’m lying on my bed in a cami and Nike shorts, leisurely scrolling through my Tumblr dash. I finished my essay for English an hour ago, so I decided to give myself a well-deserved break by ordering a pizza and totally relaxing.

Grabbing a glass of water, I chug it all in one go. I feel so much better now-

And that’s when my entire body begins to tingle unpleasantly.

I shoot up. Something’s not right.

My right wrist is throbbing like crazy.

When I look at it, the purple Hado mark that was branded on my wrist is now a baleful black. 

Shrieking, I fall off the bed and collapse in a heap on the floor, holding my hand as far away from myself as I can.

What’s going on? Why is my mark all black? What’s that horrible, horrible feeling-

I bury my head in my hands. Okay, calm down and think rationally, Hana. I take a deep breath and exhale. Why did you get a mark in the first place? Think.

My mind travels back in time to the day Kris took me to Headquarters, when I swore into the Hado and Captain Sterling branded me with the mark.

This is your avastama, he had informed me. It will alert your senses to levels of chi.

Oh crap.

There’s a Kado on the loose.

If I had Kris’ number, I would call him, but I don't have the spectacular honor of carrying his 10 digits. Besides, he’s busy at his football game right now. Calling him would be useless.

So should I just wait for him here?

But what if the monster hurts someone?

After a few moments of contemplation, I clench my fists with determination.

I have no choice. I must protect these people.

I must kill the Kado monster- without Kris’ help.

My feet make a crunching sound as I walk through the dead leaves on my street, brandishing a flashlight. When I walk south of my house, towards the school, the throbbing of my wrist decreasing. But when I make a full 180 degrees turn and head the other way, my wrist starts aching more.

Which means it’s probably north.

At least it’s not near the school. It would be really bad if it came close to mutilating all those people at the football game. And speaking of football game, how is Kris doing? Does he feel the ominous chi in the area as well?

I sigh and uneasily forge on.

After 5 minutes of walking I come to a large, two-storied library, with a small building that reads "Java and Juice" right next to it. Although it’s probably an active and bustling place in the daytime (well, as active and bustling as a library can be), it is dark and desolated at this time of the night.

As I approach the library I faintly hear something that sounds like... a windup toy, or the clicking of gears.

It’s unnerving.

The noise seems to be coming from the back side of the library. Turning off my flashlight, I tiptoe past the right side of the large library, and then crouch down right at the edge of the wall.

The darkness is stifling. It causes the fear in my heart to grow greater and greater.

My wrist is practically glowing by this point.

On the count of 3, jump up, turn on your flashlight, and see what it is, I command myself, my stomach churning. You-you can do this. One, two-

Suddenly something slams down on the ground right next to me, causing me to fall flat on my face. Desperately scrambling back, I turn on my flashlight and point it up right above me. My breath catches in my throat.

The monster standing above me looks like a disgustingly greenish-orange colored cicada, except a thousand times bigger than its normal size. Its large red eyes blankly take me in as its milky white wings- which are each roughly the length of a baseball bat- lazily flap back and forth.

I resist the urge to vomit. Back in our old apartment, my sisters and I had cicadas in there all the time. Thankfully, they don’t have mandibles, so they can’t bite.

They’re still disgusting though; especially when blown up to gigantic proportions.

“Okay,” I mutter to myself, crouching down into a fight stance. “Time to take this thing out.” Although I still have nearly no control over my chi, this cicada should be easy enough to fight. Its only weapon is its revolting appearance.

Taking a deep breath in, I relax my mind like Kris told me to do, and concentrate my energy into the palms of my hand.

Nothing’s happening.

Predictable.

I’m about to start yelling curse words into the night when the cicada lifts one of its legs and tries to bring it down on my face. I yelp and jump away just in time, but its foot slashes against my thigh instead. I cry out in agony. Jeez, I didn’t expect it to have such sharp feet! If its foot goes through my chest…

I'm dead. 

This just turned really dangerous really fast.