Leo’s Pov

 Today couldn’t get any tiring, but I didn’t actually care, I really liked chemistry and doing this afternoon course of it at school was more than perfect. And my friends even ask me why I get such good marks in this subject even though they know I study while they get fun around. Pfff they will never understand.

I took my backpack from the ground and exit the laboratory and then I exit the school.

The sun already went down and the sky was painted in it’s usual evening dark blue, giving the start of the end of that october’s day.

Or better…halloween’s day.

I’ve never liked halloween, or carnival, or whichever holiday where people hide themselves behind masks.

I find it even more scaring then the huge, dark castel at the end of the 13^th alley where people say there live strange creatures, covering themselves under human faces and bodies.

No one has ever found the courage to knock on that big door made of dark wood, and everyone seems to get scared just by only thinking about it.

And actually…I don’t know how I really feel about it and them.

This kind of thoughts were going round and round in my head as I checked my phone. I raised my eyes from the screen and noticed that the street I was actually walking wasn’t the street I was used to walk. And I felt kinda perplexed. I was sure to be walking on the right road.

I turned round and started to walk on the opposite direction, still confused on how the hell I got there. I kept my head down but then I decided to raise it for look better and don’t end up on another wrong road.

Until then, I thought the street was totally abandoned because there was no one walking it, and it kinda worried me,making me speed up…

But in a matter of seconds there was another person walking, and he was walking right in front of me, heading to the opposite direction.

In first seconds he looked like a mirage, was faraway and confused to my sight, but before I could even notice it,he arrived by my side fastily and a storm rid itself in my body, while an icing cold thrill runned down my back, making my legs helplessly stop.

A strange feeling…that scared me in the inside got heavier when my inconscious mind found a glimpse of courage for looking at him, but he was already staring at the motionless me, with an expression that looked like he knew exactly what was happening

His stare was intense and his frame was way taller than mine, making me upset. My shoulder was gently touching his arm and his hand was brushing against mine slightly.

The time seems like stopped. His heart is not beating. The silence seems noisy. What the hell was happening?

His skin felt like silk under my touch but that feeling of powerlessness was still alive.

Suddenly, he chained slowly his hand with mine and held it strongly before walking past me, continuing in his way.

That touch, that feeling, that warmth, that stare…these things were not human. At all. I can bet my own life on it.

What was it? What was him?

I opened the hand he held for just three seconds, hoping to find something that makes me understand it but as I thought, nothing…just skin. But my skin got touched by someone who’s heart was stopped.

I turned my head towards the direction he walked and a dangerous idea came to my mind.

-What if I follow him?-

I looked at my phone’s clock and noticed was not that late.  I took a deep a breath and without thinking twice, I started to walk in his same direction, I was unaware, curious, and maybe even attracted by him.

My steps got faster and faster, until I found myself running on that empty road. The heaviness of the backpack made my back hurt so I dropped it, without care that much, because it was kinda empty.

The street looked endless, and the more I ran, the more the air got cold. Even more strange was the fact that he totally dissapeared.

Was I getting in danger because of my curiosity?

I brushed this thought off as fast as it came in my mind. The high trees standing at both sides of the streets were dark and the wind that was passing through them made a scary sound, it looked like a breath of death. And this breath made me run faster. My blood was iced but what surprised me the most was the fact that even though I was surrounded by the cold wind, there was a left glimpse of warmth in the hand touched by him.

And I got more curious.

My steps slowed down when I finally noticed the end of the road, which was a gate totally embraced by those tall trees. What was right past the gate was kinda invisible, because the trees were placed one after another, really closely, creating a thick barrier of leaves, that no even light could pierce through and then, an un-human peace started to develope in that place.

My breath was irregular because of the long run and I found really difficult to regulate it. My emotions got in diserray and I felt like I was about to have an outburst of efforted feels.

But…that peace I was starting to feel dissapeared in the right moment I noticed him, appeared from a nowhere,right in front of me.

That thrill on my back returned.

That feeling of powerlessness returned.

That curiosity returned.

He returned.

There was no sound anymore, the wind stopped as his eyes were boring into mine. What the hell was happening? Who the hell is he?

His eyes had an indefinite color, swaying in between brown and pitchy black and his lips were shaped into a i-know-it-all smirk even thought his gaze seemed to say otherwise.

I found something familiar held in his right hand, and that little noticing made me shiver again.

My  backpack…I dropped it at the beginning of the run…how did he?

-This is yours right?-  he said without losing his smirk.

His voice is so low, husky. Kinda manly. His voice was as warm as his touch. The wind returned to blow, and displaced his hair from his face.

I nodded simply and let him hand the backpack to me silently.

-Thank you- was the only thing I managed to say in front of him.

-You are brave…for following me, my name’s Jiho, don’t forget it-  he smirked again.

If I were to tell my feelings, I felt warmth around me even though all around was frozen and stopped. At that point, I was really convinced that he had powers, and that he is from that 13^th alley group. Or how’s called.

-Mine is Leo…nice to meet you Jiho-