The sky was getting darker, the wind that kept blowing on and making noises to the leaves silenced. Jooyoung took a glimpse of her wrist watch before she looked up again to the narrow and unpaved pathway. Beads of perspiration formed on her forehead as she brought her legs to run as fast as possible to the house that was quite far from the house she stayed with her grandmother.

“The ritual will start soon, are you sure you can go back before they start it?” her grandmother’s words rang through her head. She remembered how eager she nodded her head while boasting about her legs strength and her high school gold medals.

She was confident that she could come back in time. She had promised.

Wiping the sweats away, she silently prayed that she could run even faster and not falling. The path she was using was rocky enough to bleed her knee and she didn’t want to get ugly scar on any of it.

The cricket sounds that had been accompanying her throughout the journey suddenly hushed, earning her attention instantly.

“If all of sudden you don’t hear any crickets sound, something is probably coming…” a voice heard in her head.

She shook her head as to throw the thoughts away. What was it that would come when the crickets stopped producing sound? It couldn’t be the crickets act that way probably because of something was coming. The villagers were eccentric; they believed everything without checking the logical sides.

Perhaps, there were more reasonable explanations behind it.

They just need to open up and learn to accept new things.

Most of their beliefs and superstitions were ridiculous that she always palmed her face in frustration every time someone was mentioning any of them. If she didn’t decide to take a year off from college, she wouldn’t end up staying at her grandmother’s place. And it was just about a month she moved in and everyone around her tried to scare her and warn her about unnecessary things.

She wanted them to seriously stop what they were doing to her but she didn’t want to bring that urban girl stereotype. It was enough that she was labelled as the daughter of the disloyal mother. Her mother left the rural area since her college times, never to return again. Even if her parents do, it was only at some important events such as celebration or funeral.

However they always have reasons to avoid from coming back.

As a result, her relationship with her relatives in the village was not sturdy enough. Her cousins alienated her at most of the times but she understood their attitude towards her. They didn’t have the intention to isolate her but they were afraid of their parents.

Their parents must have say something scary so that they wouldn’t go anywhere close to her.

Her grandmother was the only kindest person she met in the village and her grandmother didn’t scare her like what everyone was trying to do.

The bag of clothes in her hand dropped and she halted instantly. She bent down and placed both her hands on each her knees, panting. Checking the time, she thought it was okay for her to take a rest for a moment.

Stepping back to where she left the bag, all of sudden she noticed a large tree not far away from her standing, shook. The branches and leaves moved as if the tree was waving to her, her eyes darted to the top of the tree and to the surrounding. There was no wind blowing at that time and the trees beside it didn’t even shake even for a small movement.

Hairs on her skin stood immediately as the sight sent shivers down her spine. The horror stories that she had been hearing these past few days came rushing in her head, reminding her about the danger. She let her eyes scanned the tree, to see if there was any animal that caused the nuisance but nothing came into her sight.

That heightened her curiosity.

Being the girl that believes the opposite ways, she made a small and brave move towards the tree but before she could even attempted to make a step; her toes hit the bag on the ground.

Looking down, her eyes widened as she remembered the promise she made with her grandmother. Checking her wrist watch again, she didn’t think she could arrive at the place in time.

Quickly, she grabbed on the bag and turned to the direction of the place her grandmother was waiting. Holding the bag tight, the day grew darker and she rely on the dim light from the house she was going to lead her way.

A curve of smile appeared on her face as soon as her eyes saw the lights from the house were getting closer before her bag decided to jump out from her hand again.

She hissed in annoyance and bent down to get it. She then stood up and before she could even look up…

“Ack!” she screamed as she crashed down the rocky ground, making her bottom and her elbows receiving the impact.

Someone or something,

It had just bump into her violently and suddenly. It felt as if she just hit by a car but there was no way for a car to enter and use the small and narrow pathway.

She began to feel the skin on her elbows burning and she thought she could possibly have injured her hips. Fortunately, from what she learned in her taekwondo class, she managed to save her head from hitting the rocky ground.

Whimpering, she tried to get up and look up to see the one who had just knock her down. There, in front of her, stood a tall and mysterious frame against her, staring at her in horror.

“Can’t you see where you’re running into?” she yelled in irritation. She admitted it, that it was dark and the man in front of her probably didn’t see her as she noticed that he didn’t bring any light with him as well.

But to run into someone with such force was unbelievable, he could have changed his direction and the collision didn’t happen.

Even though the pain on her elbows and her hips were painfully hurt, she pushed herself up and her eyes caught the man’s legs moved in a restless way. It was as if he needed to run away faster from something. As if someone was chasing after him. He also looked at the back of him at times.

“Are you okay?” she asked in concern. Seeing the way he acted, he looked like as if he was in deep trouble and he needed to run away fast before someone caught him.

Hearing the question, the man turned his head back to her and both of their eyes met. She stared at his uncovered eyes and he looked terrified all of sudden.

Grabbing on her wrist, he then instantly pulled her away from the middle of the path to somewhere distant and remote. Surprised, she tried to resist his pulling but ended up getting more hurt on her wrist.

“Let go of me! Where are you going?! Stop!” she yelled at him but getting no response.

Instead, he tightened his grip and he dragged her recklessly leaving her less energy to retaliate until they found a hiding place under the trees. He then bent down to sit earning an irritated look from her.

“Excuse me mister, you’ve been holding my hand. Now, let me go.”

He remained restless as he peeked out the pathway at times. She could only sigh in frustration. The hand on her hand still didn’t know how to let go.

Secretly, she attempted to pull her hand from his grip but his strength was not something she could joke with. Wait a minute… What was his intention to drag her far to this creepy hideout?

It couldn’t be…

“Help!” she immediately shouted as the negative thoughts flew in.

The man who had been ignoring her then suddenly stood up and covered with his other hand. Her shout was muffled and she made an effort to hit him with her injured elbow and practice as what she had learned from her taekwondo class but this man didn’t take any impact from what she was doing.

He just stood still with his hand on , shutting her.

“Stop yelling… They might hear us…” his deep and low voice sent chill down her spine.

“You don’t want us to get caught, do you?” he asked. He was standing behind her and she could only shut her eyes in fear. Tears began to well up and she prayed that someone actually realised her missing.

After how many minutes standing there, unmoved, he began to loosen up his grip and released her. She breathe in the cold air and walked away from him quickly before she turned back to have the clear look of the man who just kidnap her.

As her eyes fell upon the face of the stranger, the stranger gave her a look and the moon light fell at the right time. She held her breath to the beauty that the stranger had.

Her jaw dropped to see how pale and good looking the man was and she couldn’t believe that she thought she was kidnapped by an older male. The man in front of her looked like around her age.

“Who are you?” she questioned as the man looked away. The way he looked, intrigued her to know him better despite what happened. The burning sensation on her elbows suddenly felt as if the pain had disappeared along to the darkness.

His eye averted to hers with an irritated look. “What are you doing, standing on the middle of the way earlier on? Can’t you hear the banging sound they started? They were driving us out!”

“What sound?” she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “I didn’t hear anything.”

He snickered. “You really want to get caught, do you?”

“It was loud enough to scare us, how can you not hear it? What? Are you dying from bursting out your ears?” he added.

She shook her head, trying to process the whole things he poured out from his mouth but failed. She didn’t understand what he was talking about. What sound he was referring to? She swore she didn’t hear anything.

“Well, you don’t have to be very angry to me for not hearing the sound you claim you heard because I think you’re also the fault here. Hey, don’t you remember? You’re the one that cause us to bump each other. The first thing you should do here is to say sorry not barking at me.”

An irritated sigh escaped as she glared at him. What was wrong with this guy? Coming from out of nowhere and fuming out of blue. She couldn’t even shake her head to his unpleasant attitude.

He continued snickering as he gave that bothering glare.

“I haven’t seen you before, did you flee from your village?” he asked.

She shook her head, hesitated at first whether to answer him but from the way he dress, he actually look like someone from the village.

“I just moved in a month ago to stay with my grandmother.”

His gaze changed, “You stay with your grandmother? How? Doesn’t your grandmother put something around her house to prevent you from coming in?”

“What are you talking about? Can you actually talk properly?” she retorted. She seriously couldn’t tolerate talking with someone that blabbering instead of conversing.

A confuse look then appeared on his face, “Wait, what do you mean you move in?”

She then slapped her arm before scratching the itchy part, “Ahh! I got mosquito bites.”

“Mosquito bite?” his eyes widened.

She glanced at him before slapping her other arm and groan in pain as her hand touched the cut on her elbow. “God. These will leave ugly scars…” she sighed in frustration.

“Scars…?” he backed away. “What are you?” he asked, earning her attention.

“What am I?” she chuckled. “Are you going to be the same villagers that I’ve met? Come on.”

His eye then darted to her temple and he gasped incredulously. Shaking his head while he stepped away from her, he couldn’t believe on what he just saw. “Where is it? Why I can’t see it?” he questioned, very distracted to the fact that he just found.

“Where are you going? You can’t leave me alone here, remember? You just hurt me. I need to treat this quickly,” she spoke and moved forward to follow him.

Seeing that, he lifted his hand in front of him.

“Stop! Stop at where you’re standing.”

She stopped and looked at him with a confused look and knitted eyebrows. “Why?”

Her eyes noticed how his frightening glare had turned to a terrified look, as if he just saw a ghost.

“Why do you look at me like that?” she asked. “Is there something at behind my back?” she whispered.

“Tell me what you are, tell me frankly. Don’t try to be funny,” he spoke.

She let out a breathy chuckle hearing the word ‘funny’. “Okay, let’s not try to be funny and get me out of here.”

“What are you?” he questioned sternly, but this time with a glowing green eye.

A gasp blurted out and she stepped back immediately, “Your eye…”

He turned back his eye to normal, staring at her questionably. She was taken aback at what she just saw. What was it that she just watched? This guy in front of her could emit green light through his eye? Then, why didn’t he make use of it so that the collision didn’t happen.

Slowly, he made small steps toward her and brought his hand to her face making her turned her head the opposite way of his hand instantly. “Don’t tell me you’re a human…” he muttered.

A doubtful look formed on her face.

She turned her head back to look at the only eye he showed. His eye scanned her face as he tried to locate that one mark he desperately looking for. “Where do you hide your mark?”

Her eyebrows furrowed, “Wh-What mark?”

He was dangerously standing closer to her and his hand found its place on her jaw, moving her head lightly to the left and to the right, examining and studying her features.

“You can’t be human if you can see me and feel me…” he spat non-sense again.

“I don’t understand–” she tried to figure things out but every time he parted his lips and let out all the words, it was getting complicated and disappointing.

He exhaled audibly and turned to her neck, she stood still as he examined and scanned her neck but the mark was nowhere to be seen.

“What mark are you looking for…?” she asked softly.

He paused from what he was doing and met her eyes, he didn’t answer her but instead he let her face go gently. No more violence.

Taking his time, he then slowly brought his hand up to his right bang that had been covering his right eyes. Her eyes followed his hand as he paused and his left eye stared at her. His fingers then pushed the bang away from his eye and both his eyes met her.

Her heart raced to see that face in front of him before she realised the unusual tattoo on his right temple, and some on his eyelid.

“This mark…” he spoke. “Why can’t I see yours?”