Chapter 5 - Home

"Behold." 

With the scenery of carnage appearing within my vision, my lower lip trembled in horror and fright as I froze in place. Puddles of blood scattered around me, a dozen piles of corpses formed in front of me, and a forest of flames engulfed every building that surrounded me. 

Even the sky itself cried upon these scenes. The rain had ceased some of the raging fires, but still, it took something like a downpour to completely take out all of the blaze. 

"Why…" 

A hoarse voice came out of my mouth, while my mind trapped in the sea of emotions. Although the myriad of feelings had struck me simultaneously, only a few of them stand out and stronger than the rest of them. 

Rage, regret, and sorrow. 

Seemed to be detached by the scene before him, the man in darkness curled up the corner of his lips. Stating his opinion of the situation with a nonchalant tone. 

"What a wretched night." 

            -Page 23, Chapter 5. Journey to the myth by George J. Northtooth. 

……

'Something feels off.' 

Back then, if her impression of the atmosphere was weird, now her heart felt heavy and filled with discomfort out of the blue. Not to mention, her physique subconsciously seeks for warmth as the unexpected cold has assaulted her body. 

'Why does it suddenly feel so cold?' 

Before, the temperature decreased fine for her. There was nothing wrong or unusual about it. Yet, now she felt the hair on her skin rising up from the deep quietness of her surroundings, while the flickering light of the street lamp was enhancing her thoughts to be wilder. 

'Don't tell me…' 

A little frightened at what she had imagined, Elizabeth quickly increased her pace as her desire to get away from this place couldn't be more stronger right now. After her hurried walk was right at the ninth steps, the flickering street lamp came off completely. Letting the surrounding darkness engulfed the part where the lamp couldn't illuminate it anymore. 

Trying to ignore the pitch black darkness behind her, which gave her a sense of oppression from it, Elizabeth focused her attention to the road and quickly scurried away as fast as she could. Meanwhile, she said to herself repeatedly inside her head that there was nothing in here, nothing around her at all. 

Ten meters away from the broken street lamp, Elizabeth finally regained her composure as she found that nothing had happened. Then, she wanted to go back and check out the lamp again, so she turned her head towards her back and saw the street lamp was activated and lighting brightly once more. 

'Huh?' 

Now that the situation had turned out to be uneventful, Elizabeth couldn't help but feel silly to herself. Perhaps, the street lamp just had its cable in a bad condition or something. That was why it was acting weirdly so suddenly. 

'Am a kid or what? Getting afraid just because of a flickering lamp…' 

Shaking her head slightly to herself as she thought of how cowardly she was, Elizabeth let out a small sigh and continued back on her journey. Thankfully, nothing out of ordinary had happened on the rest of her way. 

Soon enough, she had arrived at the end of the neighborhood area and spotted the main street. Striding upon the road, her heartbeat had come back to normal, while the chilling sensation from before had disappeared without a trace. 

Not wanting to dwell on her little wild imagination, her finger deleted the number on her smartphone display. Then, she walked calmly, as if nothing had happened amidst the familiar crowded streets and the stream of transportation vehicles on the road. 

Twenty minutes later, she managed to catch up on the schedule of the subway which had the station near her house as the destination. After she paid for the ticket, she went inside of the train while glancing around her surroundings. Seemingly, the crowds were a little bit more decreased than usual, but it was still a boisterous place full of people nonetheless. 

Taking an unoccupied seat, she sat down and sighed softly. Pulling out her smartphone in hope to kill some time, she looked up to the news article that her best friend had mentioned this morning in pure curiosity. 

"Why would they post something like this? Isn't this completely unscientific?" Mumbled Elizabeth to no one in particular as she read the article with a doubtful gaze. To her, in this modern time and age, such a ridiculous notion of being killed by a ghoul was no different than someone telling her a tale of fantasy! Such as the knight of old who’d once rode upon a dragon, to fight his foe while holding a holy sword in hand and saving the damsel in distress. 

After waiting for a while and checking out her social media apps, the train's speaker informed the passengers that the next stop would be the station of Elizabeth's destination. Seeing that she was about to arrive at the neighborhood area of her house, Elizabeth put down her smartphone back to her bag as she waited patiently for the train to stop. 

Five minutes later, the train stopped and Elizabeth quickly got out of the train, following a few groups of people who happened to stop at the same station as well. Walking on the street, Elizabeth noticed that the atmosphere seemed to be more busier than usual around the neighborhood. 

Two hundred meters later, she spotted a certain house at the corner of the street. From the outside, this house looks cozy. Small, rectangular windows brighten up the house and have been added to the house in a very asymmetric way. 

The building is shaped like a short U. The two extensions extend into a patio to each side. The roof is high, triangular, but one side is longer than the other and is covered with dark red roof tiles. A single chimney sits at the side of the house. 

Unlocking the lock at the small gate in front of the house, Elizabeth glanced towards the mailbox right beside the small gate. Stretching out her hand at it, Elizabeth opened the mailbox and saw that it was still empty. 

'Nothing huh.' Mused Elizabeth to herself as she pulled back the lid of the mailbox and closed it. Then, she went inside the gate, locking it back, and strode upon the main door of her house. 

Taking out the spare key of the door, Elizabeth opened it and let her feet step inside as she said to no one in particular. 

"I'm home."