Night had fallen, and the city looked darker than usual. There weren't many people on the streets, and those who were walked quickly, their eyes sharp and alert, ready for anything. The news of monsters roaming the streets seemed to be affecting everyone.
Even innocent civilians felt in danger.
A strange noise could easily be the claw of a monster scraping against a wall.
The sound that seemed like a car engine might actually be the roar of a beast.
Renan walked along the sidewalk calmly, however, because he knew the truth. So he didn't need to worry. If a monster really existed, it was him, even if part of him still wished it was just a weird nightmare.
He was heading toward the building where his girlfriend's apartment was. Compared to his own, it was farther from the university, and taking a taxi would've been better than walking through the streets, but he couldn't afford to spend much money like that.
And honestly, walking through the calm of the night felt oddly comforting for some reason.
He entered the building and took the stairs, since the elevator had been broken for a long time and never got repaired. He had already told his girlfriend that she could move in with him, since his apartment was in a safer part of the city, and, honestly, he just wanted to spend more time with her.
With each step he took climbing the stairs, he felt a growing sense of anxiety.
Was he afraid? It couldn't be fear. It was something else.
It was a feeling like he was about to plunge into something terrible and couldn't stop it from happening.
As he kept taking one step after another the weird feeling just became stronger and harder to ignore, climbing the stairs until he reached the thirteenth floor, where Luna's apartment was.
He knocked on the door three times, just like he always did, and heard her voice from inside saying she was on her way.
As soon as the door opened, Renan jumped in surprise. His girlfriend was nearly fullynaked. Only magical runes covered her body. Those runes were glowing faintly with a kind of dark energy that he could actually feel.
The energy was as comforting as it was terrifying.
"Luna?" he said, staring at her with his mouth slightly open. He had seen her naked before — after all, they were lovers.
"You just gonna stand there staring?" she giggled, then grabbed his hand and pulled him inside.
He wanted to ask her if what he remembered from the previous night was all things that happened— but seeing her like this, and then the inside of the apartment, made the words stick in his throat.
The entire place was covered in runes. Dark symbols lined the walls and floor, pulsing faintly with energy. The only light came from candles floating mid-air, their flames flickering despite the lack of wind.
All the windows were covered by thick black curtains, blocking out any trace of the outside world.
"What… what is all this?" Renan stuttered.
"I was preparing the next step of our plan, darling," she said with a smile as she walked to the center of the magic circle drawn in what used to be the living room. Now it looked more like a demonic temple.
"Wait what?"
What the girl had said explained nothing to the boy, and as soon as he was placed in the center of the magic circle, Luna began to recite some kind of strange, dark incantation. The boy felt light, his vision grew blurry… and then everything vanished...