She ran through the thick black forest, continuously glancing behind her. It was pitch-black with eyes glimmering from the tree hollows. The intensifying rustling sound caused her to move faster and ignore the briers catching onto her overwhelmingly, ornate gown. The heavy, sharp thornes jolted into her flesh, shedding fresh blood. She could feel the blistering, humid air adhering to her skin. She kept running. Because of her flowly dress, her breaths were getting heavier as each second passed. Her inside lungs were burning.

Suddenly, she felt an instant pain as her feet was caught onto the trunk of the tree. She groaned as her leg twinged. Grasping on a tree, she painfully, but confidently, tried to stand up, while clenching her teeth. A shock went up her leg as she let out a silent cry. The pain was too unbearable as she tried to take a step forward when she almost fell, quickly holding onto the tree for her protection. 

A loud howl echoed through the woodland as she shivered in fear. Her heart began to throb, looking around. She shook her head. Reaching for her weapon, she could hear the howl slowly fading.

The howl stopped. Silence clashed onto the nightfall. The trees were stood utterly still like statues at a museum where no leaf dared to fall. She was clueless. No sound. No movement. The girl thought it was quiet—too quiet.

Ignoring her torned and dirty dress, she cautiously glanced around; the brown trees that had grains of stained poison that glistened under the creepy night, and how she could smell the musky, moldy smell from the damp leaves.

It seemed like hours since she's been standing at the same spot. She felt irritated as she can feel like the forest was taunting her. Gulping, she gently pulled up her brown gown, finding a red and swollen lump on her ankle. She sighed at the sight. The girl flinched when she accidentally touched it.

As each minute passed by, she felt anger rush through her veins. Not only the forest was mocking her, but he was also. The huntress can just picture him grinning ear-to-ear, smirking at her current state.

From faraway, she noticed a spiderweb that gleamed in the densed shadows. A butterfly had been caught into the web. The butterfly kept struggling to get lose as the spider slowly climbed toward its prey. The girl stood there and stared, mouth parted. The spider was about to leap for its food, ready to attack. 

Everything became in slow motion when she roughly turned around, hearing the trees loudly swishing. The huntress's eyes broadened when she saw what was attacking straight at her. His eyes glowed bright red. His white, sharp teeth snarling at her, ready to strike. His long, forceful, and keen black nails about to pounce her. He was huge. He was three times larger than her. She looked at his gaze. It looked like...

Hunger.

She felt like she couldn't breathe, and the only thing she did was let out a long, piercing scream that echoed through the darkness...

Seulgi jolted up, cold sweat trickling down her forehead, switching her head warily back and forth to find any sudden danger. Her breathing heaved in and out. The clamorous sound her heart made as it slammed against her chest, begging to be ripped out. Hair unkempt, sticking in all different directions as she tried to decipher what had happened. Images instantly flooded her brain all at once. Head pounded with confusion, she rubbed her eyes to see her vision clear up.

She groaned once the scintillating sunlight hit her from the open crack of the curtains, causing her to feel a headache rush through. Hands placed through her hair, trying to ease the pain, she took a glance at the clock near her. 

Using most of her strength, Seulgi hopped off her comfortable bed, slightly stumbling from the sudden adrenaline and staggered her way to the bathroom to prepare for the day.

Seulgi tried to prevent herself from yawning as she leaned back against her seat, one legged propped on the other, arms crossed.

The meeting she was currently at seemed to take its time to finish, while Seulgi hummed in boredom, not paying a single attention to those who were talking. She looked at her surroundings for the hundredth time, trying to distract herself from the talkative co-workers that were arguing amongst themselves about some topic she, also, didn’t listen to.

“Seulgi?”

She suddenly found herself in the center of the spotlight when all eyes in the room gazed deeply at her, waiting for a response. “Yes?”

“What do you think about all of this?”

Her eyes looked at everyone, observing their grim and heated expressions from the debate they just had. Their heads locked in a place like they were mannequins. She purses her lips and slants her head, pretending to think. “About?” She dragged on.

“The same case we’ve been working on,” her co-worker eyed her, intently.

“And I still say that we should go out, and let some other town do this,” another associate says.

“No!” A hand slammed down on the stiffed table. “We are not going to give someone else to do our dirty work—"

“We’re a small town for the love of sakes! What chance do we have against that monster?!” 

“Yeah! Are you trying to get us all killed?!”

“We might be a small town, but we can’t just willingly give up on this problem! Do you know how poorly we’ll be looked down on? Besides, there’s only him, so that gives us a chance!”

“Yes, it’s one guy, but one guy we’ve been trying to hunt down for the past three months! This is the longest time we’ve ever spent on an investigation!”

“And while we’re trying to hunt this thing down, it keeps us busy from doing the other cases. We’ve been on this for too long, and I think most of us can agree it’s about time to pass it on to another town, where it’s actually big and has more professional people.”

“See what I mean?! Why do we always have to rely on them? Just because we’re a small town, doesn’t mean we can’t solve our own issues, too! If you guys keep brushing away these cases out of our faces, then what’s even the point of having this organization?!”

“Are you forgetting the fact that we had lost many hunters and huntresses during the process?! In the past three months, eleven have been killed!” 

“This creature is not a thing to play around with; it’s serious business, and if we do nothing, sooner or later that monster will kill everyone in this town!”

“So, what? Most of you are just gonna throw away our prides like that, and run away like cowards?!”

“Well, it’s better not being ripped into shreds like ragged dolls,” a woman gritted her teeth.

Everyone, except Seulgi, began to bicker again. The room was intense and chaotic with the vigorous chattering, while each person talked on top of another, leading to a never-ending disagreement