Everything in front of me looked like a whitewashed wasteland.  The snow covered every inch of the ground, and it made my target almost invisible.

“Sungjae… you see anything?” I whispered.

“Nothing,” he replied as his eyes scanned the field in front of us.  I gripped my knife as tightly as I could, waiting for any sign that the target was present.  I smiled when I heard a rattling sound behind me.  I turned around quickly and stabbed the tall, pale, sickly looking creature in the chest.  Its long ears twitched and its enormous red eyes filled with hatred.   Sungjae fired a quick shot to its head, painting the snow with blood.

“Nice job,” I said.

“Not so bad yourself,”

I looked down at the dead goblin and shivered a little.  I hated those things more than any other monster… except vampires. 

My stomach rumbled intensely.

“Damn,” I said, holding my stomach.

“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” Sungjae asked, the concern was clear in his eyes.

“Yeah… I’m just really, really hungry,” I said with a smile.  He playfully punched my shoulder as we trudged through the snow and headed off toward my car. 

“Where should we eat?”

“No clue… someplace that has macaroni and cheese.  You know I have a weakness for that,” I replied.  We drove off down the road and passed a large sign.

“Ridgeview? You ever heard of this place?” I asked.

“Yeah! My ex-girlfriend lives here, we could pay her a visit to see if she knows any of the good restaurants in town,”

“Sounds like a plan to me,”

I followed Sungjae’s directions until we came to an antique shop.  The warmth inside was extremely refreshing compared to the frigid temperature outside.

“Hi there, my name’s Sulli.  Welcome to… Sungjae!? My goodness, what a surprise!” said the young girl as she jumped over the counter and hugged Sungjae.

“Good to see you too Sulli.  This is my best friend, Minhyuk.  We were wondering if you could recommend any restaurants,”

“There is an AMAZING sushi place right down the road.  It’s so good! They even gave me a broken shark tooth!” Sulli excitedly replied.

“Why would you want a broken shark tooth?” I wondered.

“Oh… I collect strange teeth,” she whispered, almost like it was a secret.

“Oh… that’s cool… I guess,”

No wonder Sungjae broke up with this chick.  She was clearly insane.

“Thanks for the tip Sulli. Would you like to join us?” Sungjae asked

Please say no, please say no, please say no...

“No thanks, I’ve gotta stay here and watch the shop,” she said before skipping off into the back room.

“She was… a little off,” I said as Sungjae and I got back in the car.

“Yeah. You’d think she’d be more mature by now… considering she’s well over one hundred years old,” he replied, shaking his head.

“What!?”

“She’s a mystical elder.  She’s been using a Lazarus spell to keep herself young since the 1800’s,”

“…. Well that’s perfectly normal,” I said sarcastically.

“Is any part of what we do normal?”

“Touché,” I replied as we pulled off.  When I looked in the rearview mirror, I could’ve sworn I saw some kid with long black hair in the back seat, but when I blinked… he was gone.

“You saw that too, right?” Sungjae asked.

“Yeah…. Ghost?”

“Don’t think so.  Neither of us are clairvoyant,”

“Weird…”

“Very…”

“Let’s just sprinkle the car with holy water when we get out, and if we see him again, we’ll take proper action,”

“Deal,”