Ryujin stretched her tight body in her bed. She sat up and grabbed her phone, finding no messages or calls.

Oh my god, will this ever stop?!

Ryujin pulled her hair as the thought grinded inside her head. 

“Woozi?!” Ryujin called out.

”What?!”

”Shut up!”

”Were you reading my mind?!” 

“Not on purpose!”

Woozi came in the room. Ryujin nodded her head at him. “Are you okay? I thought you were getting a hang of the mind reading.”

“I thought I was too. Guess I was wrong.” Ryujin said. She ran a hand through her hair then shook it. “So what’s wrong with you?”

Woozi sighed “It’s not really important.”

”But it’s literally scraping the edges of my head. Like nails on a chalkboard.” Ryujin gripped her head, the sensation finally starting to cease.

”Well I’ll be out of here soon, Seongchul asked me-“

”Your boyfriend?” Ryujin teased.

”No. He is just my boss.”

”Yeah, okay.” Ryujin finally got out of bed. 

“As I was saying, Seongchul asked me to go with him to a meeting.”

Ryujin checked her appearance in the mirror, “where?”

”Japan.” Woozi quickly said.

Ryujin turned to him, “what?!”

Woozi held up his hands in defense “it’s only for two days. I’ll be back by Wednesday.”

Ryujin placed her hands on her hips “and what if someone attacks us?”

”Ryujin-“

”You can’t go.”

Woozi rubbed his arm, looking down “but he asked-“

”I don’t care. We can’t afford any of us leaving the city, not now.” Ryujin sighed “I can’t believe you’d even consider it.”

Yoongi walked in before Ryujin could continue her rant. “What’s up?”

Ryujin rolled her eyes and pushed past him. Yoongi looked back where she left, then looked at Woozi. The boy finally looked up, his eyes red and watery.

”What’s wrong?” Yoongi asked, reaching out to his friend. Woozi ignored his gesture and walked out of the room. 

“Good talk, guys!” Yoongi called out. He left Ryujin’s room and returned to his.

Ryujin walked down the hall, head hot from the interaction with Woozi. She went into the kitchen, poured herself some milk then returned to her room.

Woozi sat on his bed, staring at the text he just sent. Suddenly, Seongchul was calling. Woozi groaned. 

Ryujin took another sip of her milk. She stared at her outfit of the day.

Please don’t hate me, Seongchul. I’m sorry.

Ryujin sighed and gripped her head when the grinding sensation returned. 

Ryujin shook her head and decided to head to the grocery store.

Outside, Ryujin looked between her car and the sidewalk. The weather was warming up, and it seemed to be clear skies. Ryujin decided to walk to the grocery store, it being only a few blocks away. 

Ryujin held her phone while walking. She kept checking it every so often to see if someone texted her. When she reached the store, she walked in and grabbed a small cart. 

Ryujin ran a hand through her hair as she perused through the aisles. She didn’t need many items, which was why walking was even an option.

Flesh.

Ryujin stopped in her tracks, the word causing the grinding sensation again. She looked around but saw no one in the aisle she was in.

Silky flesh.

Ryujin pushed her cart to the end of the aisle and entered another one. A woman was examining different flavors of dressing. Farther down the aisle, a pale skinned women was staring intensely at the woman, her tongue her lips. Her eyes were black in color, with white dotted pupils. 

Ryujin’s staring attracted her attention, which caused the woman to smile wide at her; fangs protruding out through . Ryujin immediately turned her cart around and walked away.

Awwwww don’t run from me, sweet flesh. *giggle* I like chasing though.

Ryujin shuddered at the thought, it echoing in her mind. She took out her phone and called Woozi, but there was no answer. She tried Yoongi next, he answered almost immediately.

”What’s up?”

”Get to the Regal grocery store now. Emergency. Magical emergency.” Ryujin said, looking for the pale woman.

”Yeah, are you okay?”

”I’m fine. Just get here; and find Woozi because he isn’t answering my calls.”

”Ok. Be safe.”

”I’ll try. Hurry.” 

Ryujin ended the call. She entered into one of the cashier aisle and began to unload her items. 

I seeeeeee youuuuuu.

Ryujin stiffened. 

And you can hear me? Can’t wait to feast on your fresh, and devour that special power of yours. *giggles*

Ryujin turned and found the girl leaning on the aisle beside her, looking her up and down. 

Hi~~

Ryujin turned around and handed the cashier her credit card. She hoped whatever this woman was, demonic or just pure crazy, she wouldn’t dare attack in a public place.

Ryujin spotted a bench just across from her, she decided it would be safest to wait. The woman followed her, sitting right beside her. Her eyes fixed on the mind reader.

”I can’t wait to eat you. Maybe I’ll share with my girls.

”Or you could just leave.” Ryujin responded, pretending to read her receipt.

The woman cocked her head “But that wouldn’t be fun,” she chuckled and inches closer.

Ryujin rose from the bench and leaned on her bagged up cart. The woman still sat, eyes glued to her.

The few minutes felt like hours for Ryujin, but Yoongi and Woozi appeared. The pale woman eyed the two and smiled. Ryujin tried to secretly motion her hands similar to how Woozi would channel his power. Woozi didn’t catch on.

“Hey.” Yoongi greeted.

Ryujin smiled and started off towards the entrance of the building. Yoongi and Woozi followed, the pale woman followed behind them.

Yoongi turned to Ryujin, “What is this girls deal?” He asked in a hushed tone.

”Hell if I know.” 

“Any idea, Woozi?”

Woozi craned his head, finding the pale woman walking just behind them. Then he looked back at his friends, “no idea.”

”She kept talking about flesh.”

”Any flesh eating demons?”

”There are a lot of flesh eating demons.”

”What do we do?” Yoongi asked.

”We lead her to the back of the building, then we kill her.” Ryujin turned to look at the woman, who waved with a teethy smile in response.

”How will we tackle that?”

”Freeze then burn.” 

The woman’s ears started to wiggle. She smiled and skipped past the three, throwing her head back to stare at them with her black eyes.

”Why does no one find this girl creepy? Does no one see the black eyes and fangs?” Yoongi said, motioning at her.

The woman exited the store, then immediately turned to go around the back of the store. The three followed after her after returning the cart to where Ryujin found it.

The back of the store wasn’t that big. It was a small alleyway, with a dumpster bin against the building to the right and a fence to the left. There was a single door straight ahead, which would lead to an apartment. 

Ryujin, Woozi and Yoongi looked around for the woman but found no one.

”Okay, where did she go?” Woozi asked, turning around 360 degrees, just to make sure. 

“Do you hear anything, Ryu?” Yoongi asked, getting out his lighter.

Ryujin closed her eyes and tried to focus. 

Boo.

Before Ryujin could react the woman pounced from above, diving down from the top of the grocery store. She slashed at the three, separating them. Woozi and Ryujin closer to the apartment door, and Yoongi in the entrance of the alleyway. 

“What the hell?!”

The woman’s body has morphed. It was unknown how, but her pale skin was replaced with scaled blue skin. Her nails grown out to be razor sharp, yellow in color. Her hair stayed the same. Her eyes were now yellow in the color with white diamonded-shaped pupils. Her teeth were now peeking out from her lips. Her hands and feet were replaced with furry paws. 

The woman suddenly got on all fours, exposing her yellow bushy round tail. Her sights set on Yoongi.

“Does this narrow it down for you, Woozi?!” Yoongi called.

Woozi didn’t answer. He tried to freeze the woman, but nothing was happening. “She isn’t freezing.”

”Are you serious?” Ryujin replied.

Yoongi created a flame from the lighter and molded it into a small fireball. The woman cocked her head.

”Witches?” She asked.

Yoongi sent the ball of fire hurtling at the woman. She easily dodged it.

The woman giggled before lounging at Yoongi. Her speed too fast for Yoongi to react to. Her claw slashed against his torso, cutting through his shirt and into his skin. He let out a cry of pain, blood spurting out from the wound. 

The woman steadied herself after the attack, then ered her bloodied claw. Her tongue had become forked. Ryujin and Woozi ran to their injured friend.

”I had so much fun! Come back to play tomorrow!” The woman said before leaping over the fence and galloping away. 

Ryujin pushes Woozi away from Yoongi. “Don’t just stand there, idiot!” Ryujin snapped, holding Yoongi in her arms. “Call for an ambulance!” 

Woozi rose and held back the sudden rush of anger. He took out his phone.

An hour later, Ryujin and Woozi were sitting in the waiting room. A doctor walked through the doors and to the two worried friends. Ryujin rose, while Woozi stayed seated.

”We stitched his wounds. It’s very dangerous for him to move too much, we are going to keep him here for a couple days.” The doctor turned to Woozi, “it’s similar to your wound, but it’s deeper and it just barely missed a vital artery. Your friend is very lucky.”

”Thank you, doctor Yugyeom.” Ryujin said. “Can we see him?” 

Yugyeom nodded “of course, right this way.” He led the two to a room at the end of one of the hospital wings.

Inside Yoongi was laying on the hospital bed, focused on the TV. The doctor said his goodbye and left the two to talk with their friend. 

“Hey,” Ryujin called out. Yoongi looked away from the TV and at Ryujin. He smiled and waved them in, suddenly grimacing from the motion. “Yeah that hurt.”

”Don’t move, .” Ryujin said as she went to the side of the bed. Woozi went on the opposite side.

”Down to business,” Yoongi said. Woozi closed the door to the room, then returned to the bedside. “Any idea what that woman was?”

Ryujin and Yoongi turned to Woozi. Ryujin eyed Woozi more intensely, looking both annoyed and irritated. Woozi didn’t make eye contact with her, looking down at Yoongi. Yoongi noticed the tension, and cleared his throat.

”From what I saw, and what I read, it might be Nekomata, or maybe Empusa, or a Senri. It’s a creature that definitely likes to eat flesh. All of them can shapeshift, which is what also-“

”We get it.” 

Woozi nodded and turned around, taking a deep breath.

Yoongi eyed Ryujin, who was currently thinking, then turned to Woozi. “Did I miss something here?” He asked.

”What?” 

“You can’t be in the same room with Woozi without being a total to him.”

Ryujin raised her hand in defense “this is not the time for this. We need to kill this thing before it hurts someone. Woozi is too weak to freeze it, and you are too injured to leave.” Ryujin sighed then continued. “We will have to trap her.”

”Neither of you can harm the girl. She’s way too fast for Woozi to freeze-“

”Wait, that’s it. Maybe if we can get her to stop moving, or slow her down, Woozi can try to freeze her then we stab her or something.”

”That sounds like a long shot. Maybe we can lure her-“

”It’s the only plan we have.” Ryujin interrupted. She turned and started to the door, “let’s go.” Woozi and Yoongi shared a look. Ryujin turned to stare at Woozi “Now would be good, Woozi.”

Woozi reluctantly followed her. Yoongi shot him a look of concern before turning back to watch TV.