I was now a freshman at the Catholic University of Zimbabwe, and I was pursuing my dream degree, English literature. I knew no one from high school, so I had no ties to the past, which meant that it couldn't repeat itself.My heart rate was abnormal. But that wasn't because of the heat. It was because of the girl seated to my left, Bethany. Every time I saw her, the butterflies in my stomach would take aggressive flight. Nothing else in the world mattered. In short, I loved her, and today was the day that she would know that.As soon as the lecturer left the room, I rose from my seat. My knees nearly gave out on me, but I soldiered on. The chatter that filled the room became indistinct. It's at that time that I noticed that you could hear yourself breathing if you're scared enough.“Be-Beth.”She was so absorbed by a funny video of a dog trying to cross a bridge with a log in its mouth. But I was standing right next to her. Is she ignoring me? Is this a sign from God to abort the mis

"Wait, can he see us right now?" asked the short man.The woman outstretched her hand. Black- orange smoke bubbled out from her palm. A long obsidian staff materialized within her grasp. She poked my side.“Oh wow, I think he can.” said Amero.“You know what that means. Stray alert!” proclaimed blue eyes.“What's your name kid?” asked Amero.“My, my name?”“Uh yeah, your name, what? don't you have one?”“I do.”“Well then, what is it?”“David, David Pakati.”“Hey, if he's a stray maybe he saw the Renchi.” Said green eyes.“Nah I doubt it. If he saw a Renchi he'd crying in a pool of his own piss right now.” Said the woman.“Well kid? You see anything...unusual around here?” asked Amero.“I Uhm…”I looked behind me, the woman was nowhere in sight, neither was her car.“What are you looking at? Did you see something?”“I think so, but uhm, who are you?”“Don't worry about it, kid.” said blue eyes.“I'm sorry, but I can't keep talking to a weird stranger who refuses to tell me their name

Director Frost and Amero looked at each other,“Did you fill him in?” asked the Director.“Yeap.”The Director returned his focus on me.“This must be very hard to digest.”I laughed, but I didn’t feel joy.“This isn’t real. It’s finally happened. The pain and the loneliness has finally pushed me to the edge. Haha, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later…”The Director walked over to me and placed his large hands on my shoulder.“Do you feel that? I’m real. Deputy Amero is real. All this is real. You haven’t lost your mind.”Amero sighed as he tossed a cigarette into his mouth.“Strays man.”“I know this is hard David. What I just told you is probably making you question everything you believe. It’s probably making you question reality itself. But I need you to trust me, okay?”“Why do you keep on calling me a Stray?”“That’s a term we use here for individuals with the Blessing but who don’t know it.”“Blessing?”“The fact that you could see Amero and his team means that you can

That night I had another dream. This time I'm in a forest. The early morning sunlight pierces the trees in shafts and casts amorphous shapes on the wild earth. The steady chirps and tweets of birds fills the otherwise silent area. The air is steady, crisp, and warm on my skin. I take a careful step and crouch behind a tree. My eyes are glued to a young buck grazing on an oasis of green grass. Its lack of urgency shows that it's oblivious to my presence. My breathing is steady, but my palms are sweaty. I'm annoyed by the crunch of dried leaves as I shift my weight to get a better look at the target. I reach for the bow on my back. As I reach for the arrow hanging from a string on my waist, I catch something in my peripheral vision. At first, I think it's a King cobra, judging by the length of its body and the shape of the serpent's head. But the colours on its body are...mysterious. Predominantly glossy black with intricate white swirls and zig-zags along its top and sides. I

Wallace went on the offense with a battle cry and an aggressive horizontal swing. Jennifer timed the attack perfectly. Before the chains could touch her, Jennifer cartwheeled to the right and landed in a crouching position. She sent a horizontal attack of her own. However, unlike Wallace, she was aiming for his legs. The chain in her right-hand grazed Wallace's ankle. But before a full collision, he leapt into the air, letting her chains slice past. Jennifer, however, displayed amazing control of her weapons by pulling on the chain in her left hand, forcing it to snap back. This time Wallace was too slow, the chain wrapped around his left calf and locked onto itself. Before she could knock him off his legs, Wallace coiled his chains around his fists and attacked the chain around his leg. Jennifer's chain was separated into two pieces, one long and one short. The piece that was around Wallace's leg exploded into a cloud of black-orange smoke. Jennifer was knocked off balance, stumbli