“Who the hell are you?”

 

“Screw that, what the hell are you?”

 

Startled by the voices the girl’s head quickly snapped to the direction of the voices, a gasp left her lips upon the sight of the beings before her. Beings made entirely of shadow. She observed her surroundings once again, the brightness almost blinding her eyes, it was much brighter than the gray her eyes were accustomed to.

 

“What’s up with this , can’t she talk?”

 

Hearing the condescending tone in the boys voice she promptly sent a glare his way. He just scoffed at her attempt of intimidation before carrying on.

 

“Well? Can you talk?”

 

“Of course I can talk!”

 

“Then answer the damn question! Who and what are you?”

 

She opened to respond before closing it, realizing that she didn’t have any way to answer. The boy scoffed once again, his companions watching the scene with bored eyes.

 

“Well?”

 

Who am I? What am I? I don’t know how to answer that! This boy is so rude though, I feel like I have to say something.

 

Scoffing childishly back at him she responded with the one thing that came to mind.

 

“Who are you?”

 

“Listen here you little freak, I don’t think you have any right to ask that question right now. You’re the one who just showed up out of nowhere. I mean really, you just materialized into the realm, scared the out of Tao because he’s a poltroon. I think it’s you who should be answering our questions, not the other way around.”

 

There was a minute of silence, the girl just staring unblinkingly at the rude boy before he spoke again.

 

“I’ll repeat the question once more, since you seem to be a little slow. Who and what are you? Now answer the question or I’ll beat the out of you.”

 

Who am I? How do I answer a question I don’t know the answer to? I can’t tell them that I don’t know who I am, something tells me they won’t like that answer. Suddenly I don’t mind being alone, I miss the solitude of the gray. I need to come up with something to answer them, but what?

 

Suddenly, one of the phrases from her first days in her realm came to her mind.

 

The eve of the end is approaching. You are the only one who can change the course of events. Best of luck to you.

 

Remembering this an idea came to her mind.

 

It’s better than nothing I guess. I just hope this actually works.

 

The impatience was clearly visible on the boys face so, not wanting to anger the boy any more, she tried to respond as quickly as possible.

 

“As far as who I am, you may refer to me as Eve. Regarding what I am, that is of no concern to you at the moment. Now that you know who I am, who are you?”

 

Happily, she realized that her voice came out much more confidently than she actually felt.

 

“Eve?”

 

The boy took a pause, Eve holding her breath in fear of what could happen. He narrowed his eyes at her briefly before rolling them and resuming his speech.

 

“Well Eve, if you must know, my name is Chen. I don’t give a about the others so you can figure that out on your own.”

 

Eve released the breath she had been holding before quickly holding her breath again as his glare resumed.

 

“Now, about what you are, at this point I don’t care whether you tell me or not as long as you stay the hell away from me.”

 

With this being said he turned away from her, having lost his interest in the gray being, and began walking away. The others also turned to leave, not caring enough to question anything further.

 

As she saw them leaving the relief washed through her body. However the farther away they got from her, the more panic filled her body instead.

 

I don’t even know where I am. What am I going to do? I can’t just wander aimlessly throughout this realm until I stumble upon somebody. Granted these people aren’t the nicest people ever, but who knows how bad the next group I run into will be.

 

She bit her lip, unsure of what to do at this point. Taking one last look at her surroundings, she made up her mind and quickly rose to her feet, going after the retreating figures of the boys.

 

“Wait! Please! Chen!”

 

She tried to catch up with them, but her body was still weak from the pain. The boys continued walking, not looking back. She tried once again to stop them.

 

“CHEN!”

 

Hearing the girl screaming his name Cen stopped midstride, turning to face the girl stumbling towards them with desperate eyes.

 

“Keep it down, would you? What the do you want anyways?”

 

Gulping down the fear that rose within her she resisted the urge to look away from the boys harsh gaze.

 

“I’m lost.”

 

Hearing how weak her voice sounded she internally cringed, hoping he didn’t notice her true feelings of fear and insecurity. However, at the sound of his scoff she realized that he did, in fact, notice her feelings. Opening his mouth to respond once again, his glare shifted to one of his companions as they cut him off.

 

 

“What exactly does that have to do with us?”

 

Cringing at the hostility present in his voice she tried to stand strong.

 

“I don’t know where I am. Can’t you help me out a bit?”

 

As soon as the words left she began silently reprimanding herself.

 

Idiot! Of course they aren’t going to help you! They have been nothing but rude since this whole thing started, why would they suddenly decide to start being helpful now? I can’t just let them leave though. No matter what I have to stick with them.

 

Moments passed in silence, the group of boys just staring at her, disdain clear on all of their faces. Becoming impatient Eve decided to continue the conversation regardless.

 

“Don’t be so supercilious! I mean really you are the most tenebrous people I have ever imagined! I did not spend all this time seeking other people just to be left with insolent brats such as yourselves!”

 

For a brief moment she regreted her harsh words, but thinking about it some more decided that if they were going to be rude, she could be rude as well.

 

“This —“

 

Before the enraged boy could finish what would most likely be a cruel insult another, much taller, boy stepped forward.

 

“Calm down Luhan, no need to get so worked up over something so insignificant.”

 

Turning towards Eve he continued.

 

“I’m going to say this only once, so make sure you listen well. It’s in your best interests to avoid angering us, after all it would be such a shame if you were to get hurt somehow.”

 

A smirk slowly spread across his face as he looked into her eyes, seeing right through her false bravery. Despite her fear she decided to continue taunting them, hoping to keep them occupied until her legs were able to regain their strength, allowing her to keep up with them when they resumed their retreat.

 

“What makes you think you can hurt me? I’ll have you know, I’m stronger than I seem. It would be a shame if you were to get hurt somehow.”

 

The boy who was cut off earlier started to speak again only to be interrupted once more, this time by a different male, one with dark eyes and a scowl on his face.

 

“Are you guys hearing this , I mean really—“

 

“Please, we can all see through your little act, so just stop it. It’s extremely irritating hearing the baseless threats.”

 

Before an argument could start between the two, and before the girl could respond once again, another boy, one much calmer than the others, stepped forward. The curiosity in his eyes unnerved the girl, and his question caused her to freeze on the spot, eyes blank and mouth sealed shut.

 

“What did you mean earlier?”

 

The others looked at him in puzzlement, wondering what it was he was so interested in.

 

“What are you talking about Lay?”

 

Ignoring them, his attention remained solely on the girl, elaborating further on his question.

 

“Earlier, you said something about ‘seeking other people,’ what did you mean by that?”

 

Everyone turned to the frozen girl, their curiosity rising as her silence dragged on.

 

Eventually a boy with slightly chubby cheeks broke the silence.

 

“Well? Answer the question.”

 

I cannot believe that guy picked up on that! How am I supposed to answer that question? “Oh, well you see I actually have no clue who or what I am nor where I came from. The only thing I really know is that I’ll probably be immobilized by pain pretty soon. Oh, and about the whole ‘seeking other people’ thing, well I was the only person present where I’m from and I had always hoped that one day I would be able to interact with another being of some sort. Nobody ever showed up though and now that I finally have the chance to talk to somebody it turns out you are all jerks and don’t even know the answers to my questions.” Yeah, that would not work out well at all. I need to figure something out!

 

Several more minutes passed in silence before the girl finally opened to respond.

 

“I don’t see how that concerns you. However, if you will tell me who you all are and where I am, I suppose I could try to answer your questions.”

 

“Are you ing crazy? There is no way in hell we will ever—“

 

“Okay, follow me.”

 

---

 

Finally, an actual chapter. The prologues weren't very well written so I'm hoping the actual chapters are a bit more interesting. You probably don't really care, but I have a bunch of exams coming up in like a week. Normally authors can't update much bacause of this, but I'll actually probably update more frequently until they are over. I tend to find things to do other than study because I think it's boring, so yeah. I'm not the best student but whatever, at least I pay attention during class (yeah, not really...).

Sorry again if the cursing offends you but, like I said, it fits with the story. Anyways, let me know what you think, I hope you enjoyed it!

Wishing I had more cotton candy,

~K