After taking a few shots and videos of the gruesome scene before us, Ms Pink puts her arm back around me and leads me away from the clearing. Not a few steps away later, Ms Pink halts. I look at her, hairs on my neck and arms prickling in unease. This thick jungle is getting creepier by the second.

By some unbeknownst instinct that lies inside of me, I stay quiet. The hand on my shoulder squeezes and I inch closer to Ms Pink as she scans the darkness around us. Resisting the urge to ask Ms Pink what she’s looking for, my eyes rove around the old, gnarly trees standing crooked around us and check the shadows are having fun dancing around, creating illusions of movement behind trunks and branches. I don’t think the training I’ve been put through has heightened my senses to a supernatural standard but strangely, I’m able to pick up something in the darkness to our left. Like the captes, it disturbs my mind and the air around me. It makes me uneasy, as though I’m not supposed to even breathe.

A sudden cloud of tension drops, making me gasp as a misty figure appears in front of us. Who is it? What is it? The shroud that covers it is dirty and murky like it has been dipped in mud over and over again. Shadows hide the face of this strange being so I can’t tell if it’s human or not. But judging from circumstances, I’d wager a generous sum on it being a super.

“Who are you?” Ms Pink asks the figure.

“Who are we?” says the figure with a voice that deep freezes my spine. Low and hoarse, it reminds me of horror movies that I’ve watched and that’s not a pleasant thought. Then it strikes me. Did it just say ‘we’?

“That’s what I asked,” Ms Pink replies without displaying any sign of surprise at the use of a plural pronoun.

“You will find out,” the voice cackles. “In your afterlife.”

“Only if you can send me there.”

A hand pushes me behind Ms Pink as she pulls out her shocking pink gun and shoots. The figure, as crouched down as it is, moves faster than expected and dodges to its left. Another try ends up futile as well. Perhaps thinking the bullets won’t get it, Ms Pink puts her gun away and crouches as it speeds towards us. Ms Pink launches herself at it with a growl, pushing me further back as she leaps.

I stumble back and fall, ending up on my back in the grass. Pushing myself up, I watch as Ms Pink clashes with the figure that seems to pull darkness closer to itself. Their hands go for the throats and in the little dash of the setting sun’s rays, Ms Pink’s fangs glint as they dip down towards the being’s neck. It dodges fast, however, so Ms Pink’s fangs end up sinking into the flesh of what looks like a rough, uneven, hideous face.

A soul-piercing scream rips through the still air and I cringe, covering my ears and pulling my knees to my chest. From behind, a pair of hands grab me and before I can make any sound, something rudely pungent is stuffed into my mouth. A frisson of terror runs through my body before my mind is able to recover. But by then, I’m already trussed up and rendered helpless to save myself, let alone help Ms Pink. Unless . . .

Focusing on Ms Pink, I engage the fear that is rearing up inside. It intensifies when another shrouded figure jumps onto Ms Pink, pulling her arms away from the one lying beneath her. I cry out, muffled by the object stuffed in my mouth and the terror is about to turn into anger when my attention is diverted to the touch of a sharp point digging into my neck. I stiffen from head to toe but that does nothing to stop the point from breaking skin and entering the deeper layers of my neck. The searing pain sends me into shock and I retaliate with my mind, screaming into the darkness that is claiming my vision.

At once, the piercing point leaves my neck and the pair of beings fighting with Ms Pink are thrown off. Ms Pink is sent flying too, but she is back up on her feet a second earlier than the rest. That slight advantage is all she needs for her gun is back out and she shoots twice, each bullet finding its target with ease.

The strangled screeching that the beings emit upon being shot send shudders through my entire body. Still trussed up like a turkey bound for the oven, all I can do is watch as the haunting eyes of the two beings snap wide open. Much to my horror, instead of weakening and dying, they manage to get back on their feet, and join hands. Their mouths begin to move almost unperceptively but foreign, alien sounding words fill the ai