“Insecurities prompt paranoia. Paranoia prompts fear. Fear prompts resistance. Resistance prompts thought. Thought prompts love. Love prompts life. But life, life prompts death.”

Jessica created fine sets of footprints on the frosts, walking about back and forth aimlessly, hoping to clear her head. It was noon, yet the sun was barely shining. A forming layer of snow made habitat on the pavement, however not thick enough for college to be cancelled. It was a sad day for students indeed.

The squall of snow came close to Yume, but never made its way in… yet.

That was not what was stirring the town up. That huge apparition of a storm was edging closer and closer from the horizon to where the town stood. It looked like a disaster coming inevitably. People were all nervous about it, fearing the aftermath such a devastating looking hurricane could do to the town.

Jessica, however, had her mind filled on other things.

She tried avoiding the busy, bustling streets of the day. Despite the storm cloud on its approach, the tempo of the town was sky-rocketing. She could hear the voices and chatters of the daily merchants on the streets opposite her, loud and clear. People were so busy running up and down, carrying this and that, heading far and wide. There wasn’t a square inch of the pavement where it wasn’t being so busily stepped on by the boots of the daily workers. The Yume Settlement was a totally different realm when the sun was high up in the sky. The dead streets livened up a thousand times, and the number of cars patrolling the streets multiplied by a tenfold. It was the apex of a successful city, not a town.

Speaking about college, it should be over by now. She made her way to the big, blue-and-white striped building in the epicentre of the settlement. She had spent years of her days sitting in one of their mundane classrooms, more to come, listening to lacklustre lectures, over and over again till she got so sick of the generic rota. Sciences could get boring, she knew about that, but would it kill the teachers to at least try to make them interesting? She guessed it would, sadly. She stood outside the entrance, gazing at the waves upon waves of students storming out of the building to freedom since today was the last day before the commencement of the semester break, but someone was missing.

“Richard!”

“Jessica? Hey! Are you okay? I heard about last night.”

“News travels fast, don’t they?”

“Yeah, like a plague.”

“Anyway, I’m fine, thanks for asking. Listen, did you see Taeyeon? She had Biology today, same class as us?”

“Taeyeon? Who’s Taeyeon?”

“The new girl?”

“Huh?”

“The new girl, Richard,” Jessica repeated, “The one with a fashion that’s really standing out?”

“Whoever it is, I don’t remember her coming to class today.”

“She’s absent?”

“Yeah, I guess so, Jessica. What’s this about?”

“I see,” Jessica nodded, her eyes looking at the window of their classroom.

“Jess?”

“Oh, never mind. Thanks anyway, Richard.”

###

Jessica looked at her mirror. She sat and stared straight into the eyes of her reflection, taking the same pose as she was. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Maybe peeling, bleeding walls or a ghost in the corner of her sight, but there was nothing. It was so quiet and still, so much so that a certain sleepiness started taking over her.

After a few minutes of staring at herself, she felt really stupid and got to her feet. She headed over to her room’s window and overlooked the snow-covered town. It looked like Christmas, except there were no carols or fancy lights livening up the place. Anything outdoors was all covered with snow. Cars, houses, streetlamps, playgrounds. It was a realm of white.

She put her hand out and let the soft, cold pellets to drop and melt on her palm. It did not form any shape whatsoever, just random flakes rested on her opened hand. She shivered. Even with her thick jacket wrapping her body, the chills were starting to get to her. The tempest was gone, but the gusts it made in its wake continued their relentless assault of bone-chilling breeze.

She hugged herself to make herself feel warmer and turned back to her bedroom. It was still in a mess. She had not conjured up the right mood to stack everything in place again. After that night, she felt a sudden sickness of this place. She suddenly felt the tug to get out, badly.

“Yuri? Tiffany?” Jessica called out but no one responded.

She went over to knock on their rooms but their doors were wide open and the rooms were vacant. Yuri’s sheets were lying all over the floor. Her dorm was always in such a huge mess that it looked barely looked any different after the break-in. Tiffany’s room, on the hand, was back to its normal neat impression. There was a certain sweet strawberry scent roaming in that room.

They were both empty.

The girls must have gone out.

Jessica shrugged and looked at her watch. Seven thirty. The sky was slowly drawing to a dark close. She never liked to go out at night, mainly because of what she had been suffering, but she decided to make tonight an exception. She just had this urge to run out of the house. It felt like she was suddenly getting insane or something.

She opened her wardrobe and she was greeted by her big lump of clothes which she had thrown in a few days before. She did not have the time to iron every single one since they were ransacked and thus, they lay in a messy heap. She fumbled through and grabbed a thicker, white-coloured fur jacket. She left it hanging around her left arm and went downstairs to the kitchen for a glass of water. She put it on before closing the front door behind her and took a stroll around the lighted evening streets.

The ambience outside was beautiful. The deep, dark blue setting sky matched harmoniously with the white superficial around her, coupled with the flares of the ominous streetlamps lining up with the road. It was breath taking, but it was lonely. There was nobody around admiring the white slush falling graciously from the skies. There weren’t any photographers trying to capture the last few flares of the Sun for the day before it took its well-deserved break from the spectacle of the town. There were no children around playing snowball fights, or chasing each other clumsily in the snow. There weren’t any families working together to make a snowman in their lawn either. No happy laughs or playful screams.

None.

Silent as a lamb.

Almost dead, even.

At times, Jessica felt as if she was the only inhabitant of this town. She did not know why; she just had that vibe, or that sixth sense, as some would call it. Tonight was one of those times. There were absolutely no signs of any life on the streets. Everyone was probably at home by the campfire, drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows and sharing warm tales, leaving Jessica all alone on the outside, walking quietly on the long street.

Jessica stopped in front of Taeyeon’s house right next door, looking at the porch. She had not seen the new girl for a couple of days. She would not say that she actually missed her; they were not at such a stage as yet. However, it was nice to have a new friend nevertheless, or at least an acquaintance, so to speak, which certainly beheld a certain shroud of mystery around her.

Furthermore, even though it made no sense to her, Taeyeon could be the one causing her to experience the blackouts. Just thinking about it already sounded ridiculous, but could it really be just a mere coincidence? The answer was yet to be found.

The main hall of Taeyeon’s house was lighted, but it was silent and unobtrusive. Not a single sound was emitted from that household. No clanging of pots or any audio coming from the television at all. Sometimes Jessica wondered what was really going on in that house. At certain times, she would hear strange noises; hums or weird whispers would sometimes wake her up in the middle of the night, but not tonight.

Tonight, it was quiet as the grave.

Perhaps her whole family had gone out for dinner.

She decided to take the walk alone. She felt that she was not in the mood for socializing. She zipped up her jacket and tucked her hands into her warm, insulated pockets to make herself more comfortable. With every pace she made, her breaths began turning to mist. Every step she took gave away a crusty crunch of stepping snow.

She walked towards the thunderous clouds levitating pretty far away, but nearer than it ever was yesterday. See, that was another strange thing that Taeyeon noticed first. What was that that she said… something about a plan? Jessica just shuddered and shrugged. Her mind hurt just trying to think about it and she didn’t want that. She couldn’t risk a blackout here.

She strolled past one street lamp to another, slowly counting them like she did with the sheep when she was trying to fall asleep. She wasn’t worried about wandering too far off. The road she took was a gigantic circle. Walk long enough and she would arrive right at her own doorstep, where she had started. So, she would just let herself go and paced all she wanted. She looked at her shoes, which were slowly being roofed with snow. She kicked the snow around her, making her mark. It helped to get her mind off things.

Then, she heard her name being called.

“Jessica… Jessica…”

That voice… it had called out to her before…

She ignored it at first, citing it as her imagination gone wild.

Then, however, she heard it again, louder and nearer than before.

She turned towards the direction of the sound and her gaze met directly into a dark alleyway.

“H- hello?”

Goose bumps grew on her body.

“Hello? Do- do I know you?”

“Oh yes. Yes, you do, Jessica. Yes, you do…”

“Who are you?”

Silence.

“Look, I’m sorry I don’t think I know who you are. Leave me alone!”

“Why do you try to cling on?” the deep, coarse voice continued, ignoring her question.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what you did. You brought me hereeeee. You are my parent…”

“Okay,” Jessica said, getting really creeped out, “I’m only twenty and I would remember if I had given birth. You’ve mistaken. Look, I’m going to go.”

“You’re leaving? So soon? But you haven’t seen me yet. Don’t you want to see how I look like? Don’t you want to see what you brought to lifeeeeee?” the voice hissed.

“What the hell are you talking about? I already told you!”

“You may not want to, but you must. You must see the magnitude of the situation you’re in. You must see what you have spawned. You must see how lost you have truly becomeeeeeeee...”

“Then come out,” Jessica challenged, taking a deep breath, “Come out so I can see you.”

“Oh hohoho, my pleasureeeee.”

Jessica saw a silhouette of a person slowly emerging from the shadows, but struggled not to scream and run for her life when the