4 Problems. Problems. Problems. Someone save me.

The best word to describe her situation was a coincidence. Pure coincidence. That's the thought than ran through her mind the entire time, as she stood rooted on the spot. There was no way the man could know the melody was stuck in her head, …unless the dream she had was a warning?

Such a thought was one possibility, but it was only a fleeting moment of reflection.

It was as if the man knew he was being watched. His head started to swivel towards the door where Snow was behind. Without a second thought, she bolted. The idea of meeting the eyes of a murder was a bit too much for her. It was such an oxymoron that she was scared of a murderer at this moment when she met a lot of creature hunters back at her job. Maybe it was the dark emotional feeling that she was getting from the person that terrified her.

Snow zipped down the stairs, half flying half falling as she made her way to the first floor as she bolted out the door. The only thought she had was to flee. Flee from the haunting song that the man had hummed that brought goosebumps to every corner of her body.

Run. That was the thought Snow had.

Don't look back was the second for the fear that the haunting melody would follow right behind her. She felt like the song chased her, ringing in her head like a broken music box, repeating endlessly. Everything went past her like a blur. Running far away from the crime scene, which brought fear in her heart.

Without realizing until the last moment, her body tumbled forward, as someone slammed into his back. Both rolled on the ground. Luckily, the person that slammed into her softened her fall, but on the other hand, a loud cry of pain was heard from the person who she rammed into.

They tossed and turned like tumbleweeds until finally, they both stopped on the downward hill. Snow face had dirt and grass that she unexpected ate a bit in her fall that she spat out in disgust. Her hands and knees felt a sharp pain that trickled up to her shoulder. Even though the person cushioned the fall, she rammed into; it still wasn't completely safe. She always got injured to the point where she felt her shoulder muscle twisted painfully. It would take a few days to heal, but that didn't bother her at all.

When she pushed herself up on her stomach and eventually onto her butt, she noticed that the person she slammed into coincidentally was Dairen himself. He groaned in pain, causing her to snap out of her stupor from the flight mode that she was in. The guilt of slamming into Dairen caused her to wince, she hurried over to check the man on the ground and noticed his glasses were half bent and broken on one side. Any moment now, she felt like his glasses would probably fall off his face.

"Are…you alright?" Snow's voice called out softly, unsure of what to do.

Dairen groaned in sharp pain as he couldn't move his arm, and Snow instantly knew that she broke his arm. He was utterly knocked out unconscious. She felt embarrassed that she knocked out a grown man like a bull on a rampage.

Without a second thought, she came over. Her right hand flared with white golden light. It hovered over the broken arm and softly glowed as it mended Dairen's broken arm. The small pops and crackles could be heard as the bone reset itself into place. All of it happened under one minute; the ragged breathing from Dairen started to soften as his chest settled down. The groan of pain dissipated as his eyes began to flicker awake.

Snow shuffled backward, letting out a relieved sigh. She was glad that she meet someone, even though he was the person that she was chasing down the first time.

With a soft whimper, Dairen woke up. He pushed himself up onto his hand, looking even more disheveled than before. Cuts and bruises were littered all over his hands, face, and body. The pain caused him to cry out in protest. Eventually, he noticed Snow's presence as he looked up towards her and frown.

"What in the world?!" Pissed at the sudden slam, he turned towards the person who rammed him, his anger dissipated. "Um…." Snow stiffen.

"Are you okay?" Her voice came out as a squeak, making her feel awkward.

Dairen checked himself, slowly shaking his head up and down. "Kind of…."

"I'm sorry." Snow quickly replied. "I…..was not expecting to bulldoze you…" Her fingers twiddled with a plucked grass. She should be rejoicing, but that wasn't what she was feeling.

She straightened her back, got up, and held up her hands towards him. He stared at her outstretched hand, unsure of her intention. Hesitantly, he took her hands without much trouble and hoisted himself up. Snow winced at the sharp pain in her arms, realizing she gave him a wrong side to take. Either way, she gritted her teeth and ignored the pain.

"You're not going to kill me ...are you?" Dairen asked with a dry chuckle that had a hint of fear laced in it.

"Not." Snow snorted at his question. She wasn't the type to be killing Sleepers humans left or right. It wasn't in her job description, nor was she ever going to do something so stupid without a legit reason. "Do you see me as a killer?"

Dairen opened his mouth and quickly closed it. His cheeks become rosy red, while he was shaking his head.

"No…."

"Good," she replied. One mishap of Dairen running away was enough, then running from her life from a killer was another. Now suddenly thrown together as if it was fate, she and Dairen was standing side-by-side, not running away.

Finally, coming to her senses, Snow took her time to examine her surroundings. She realized that both Dairen weren't too far away from the rustling bustling streets. She didn't remember how she made it back on the road as the adrenaline blocked out all her sense of direction, until now.

On the right, she saw a First Tiger Bank looming on the side with its white pearly columns. Not too far away was more business buildings with black glass tint that made the whole building look like a solid black. On her left was a gas station open with cars coming and going. There were fast-food restaurants open down the same side. Snow wasn't quite sure where she was but assumed she was far from her destination.

Checking her pockets, she searched for her wallet and phone and realized she left it back at her job. With a groan, she sighed in defeat. It wasn't looking too great for her at this moment. She needed some way to get back to her job and go home right after she dealt with the problem.

Dairen spoke, bringing her attention back to him. "I'm guessing you don't have your phone or wallet?"

"Yes."

"Well…..if you need help…"

Once again, Snow was taken aback by the kindness that this Sleeper showed her. It wasn't often that the pursuer would suddenly extend out his hand towards her when they were chasing him down. For a moment, she thought he lost a few screws loose, but realized that he was genuine about helping her out. There wasn't a hint of fear or suspicion, which was completely unexpected.

"It would be helpful if you had a phone."

Dairen shook his head. "I don't have one. I was in the process of getting one."

"I see." Snow felt disappointed, but that didn't stop her. She took a step forward to finish her job, so she didn't have to worry about a Sleepers human running around with their memory intact.

Dairen froze like a deer, unsure why she was coming so close to him.

This time without anything holding her back, Snow reached over to grab his chin with her left hand. "Hold still," She replied. "Let me check if your hurt anywhere else." She covered up her lie in the hopes of fooling him.

Dairen shook his head in understanding and felt her soft hand touch his chin.

Snow gently examined his cheeks, nose, and her gaze eventually rested on his enchanting eyes. If one could say that people's eyes were the window of one's soul, Snow instantly knew that meaning. What stared back at her was a hint of mysterious aura, she couldn't put her finger on. It was a feeling that she felt there was something different about him but didn't know what.

Letting his chin go, her hand reached up over his cheek and touched the middle of his forehead. Her hand glowed softly white, causing Dairen to go into shock, but instantly his eyes dulled out as if he was in a trance. He closed his eyes, almost as if he was sleeping standing up.

Snow willed her power to erase Dairen's memory. Her memory erasing was one of her unique skills, including healing. There were many more, but these two magics were what she was fairly good at using. She mixed the two, healing and erasing his memory at the same time, causing parts of his cuts on his body to disappear. Her advanced form of healing and deleting, doing two things at once wasn't simple, mainly stimulating the person's mind to do both was difficult in itself.

Satisfied, she pulled back her hand and waited for him to come back to his senses. When Dairen opened his eyes, she gave him a gentle smile that told him everything was okay.

"Are you alright?" Snow replied, trying to move this conversation along so she could finally move on with today's incident.

"You are?" Dairen asked, tilting his head to the side, causing his broken glass to droop. He reached up and pushed it back up, so it wouldn't fall.

"Snow."

"Like the white crystal formation that falls from the sky during the winter?"

"Yes." She chuckled. She was glad that everything was going as planned. Now she just needed to leave and go on her merry way.

"Finally, I was wondering what your name was the entire time since the store." A grin erupted on his face, pleased with the name he was given.

Snow's mouth dropped. "Impossible." She croaked, unsure what was going on. She saw all his cuts and scars were healed, which told her that she was able to use magic on him, but for his memory to not be erased was entirely out of the ordinary.

"Excuse me?" Dairen was unsure why she was acting out.

"Impossible." She repeated. "How?"

Dairen took a step back, a bit worried at the sudden change of Snow's tone.

"Are you awakened?" She reached over, grabbing his hand. "There is no way for any Sleepers individual to counter my magic. You're an awakened human, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry?" Dairen looked completely confused, "I don't know what you are talking about."

Snow wasn't listening much to Dairen's words, and her mind was racing for more solutions. She raised her hand to attempt to erase his memories again but was stopped suddenly by his side.

"Are you going to try that weird white glowing thing with your hand?" Dairen asked, scanning her expression, trying to figure her out. "It had a warm feeling to it, but I'm not sure what you're trying to pull exactly. I never seen someone ever be able to create something like that before…what are you?"

Snow pulled back. Too many things were happening that her brain was on overload. Nothing was going right today, and she needed some form of sleep to rest her tired mind.

"Not possible." She repeated over again, scrunching up her eyebrows lost. Without much thinking, she grabbed onto his hand and pulled him towards the nearest building: Breakfast Egg and Sausage house.

Like it or not, she needed to eat. She knew this was an excuse. Even if she needed to borrow money from Dairen temporarily and force him to follow her back to the Dragon Express, that's what she would do to bring him to the experts that could solve her problem.

"Wait?! Where are we going?" Dairen exclaimed from the sudden pull by Snow.

"Food." Her words cut through his outburst, stopping him from asking more questions as understanding dawned on him. "I'm hungry."

Dairen didn't pull back and instead followed behind her like a lost puppy. He didn't resist, which Snow was relieved that he didn't.

They entered into the restaurant; people stopped momentarily to take a glance at them as they took a seat near the back. Snow made had her back against the wall, looking towards the door. It was a habit and something her father taught her to be wary of one's surroundings; she needed to know who was going to enter so she could respond promptly. Becoming a habit that she couldn't quite get rid of, even now, it has become an annoyance.

Darien sat down on the other end, a bit puzzled but was quietly waiting for Snow to respond. He took a few glances at her but quickly looked away. Their eyes locked momentarily.

"How much do you understand?" Snow bluntly asked. She had made sure that they were a reasonable distance away from the other customers before she started to talk. Her main goal was to understand him a little bit more so she could get a feel of where his mental stability was at. For her, she wanted just to sleep the day away and let this day passed by, but she couldn't.

"About?"

"Everything." Her hand moved up to grab the menu. With a quick scan, she found what she wanted.

"Well, I know you're hungry…and I am too. You don't have your wallet or your phone because you bolted out the store and was…chasing me." Dairen voice started to trail off.

"Don't worry about the food payment. I'll pay you back tonight once we get back to the store. I have some cash in my wallet, so that's not a problem." Snow calmly stated. She didn't want to owe this man money, and she was the type to get it over with as quickly as possible. "Why did you run away?"

Silenced followed after, Dairen was restless at Snow's answer. Eventually, he finally answered. "Well, all of you guys started to chase me, and I thought you were going to kidnap me."

Snow cheeks twitched at his answer but still stays silent and lets him continued.

"So, when you guys all came at me… I got scared, and I ran away. But, meeting you now, it doesn't seem like that at all." He replied with reassurance.

Snow wasn't sure if Darien was naive or innocent, but she assumed he was both. How was this possible in such a day and age, she wasn't sure.

"Why do you think that?" Snow asked slowly, wondering what was really on his mind. She wished she could read people's thoughts like some rare few people she knew, but then again, they had trouble turning it off, bringing with them a slew of problems.

"Because you did some kind of weird thing with your hands and healed me." Dairen's eyes sparkled with interest in her ability. "Can you do it again? You know," he waved his hand in front of him.

"Yes," she was hesitant, "but how do you know this?"

"What do you mean? Isn't that what you did when I was hurt?"

"Well, yes…."

"Plus, I felt all my pain go away. So, I assumed you were like those fantastical healers from games or stories." He responded excitedly. "Can you do anything else?"

Snow didn't answer. Instead, she switched the subject back towards him. Letting an unknown person know all about her abilities was dangerous, and it was best to keep such a secret close to her.

"Do you remember anything else that happened tonight? And how were you able to see the Chupacabra? it isn't possible for someone like you." Her words quickly fell out of her mouth, hoping that he could answer everything in one go.

"Is that what it was?" Dairen mind finally clicked, understanding what she was saying. "I just thought it was a monster."

"Technical, yes." Said Snow. "All those myths and legends are real."

"That's…amazing." Dairen was excited. Snow wasn't sure how to react to Dairen's behavior. From most normal Sleepers people, they would cry out in fear and call her a devil. It was a rare occasion where people would be able to accept such answers without thinking that they are simply crazy or something similar. "Are you guys some kind of bounty hunters or something? Or maybe some kind of peacekeeper?"

"Close."

An elderly lady came over with a pad and a pen in her hand. A wide grin plastered her face as her disheveled hair seemed to frizzle outwards into curls. Even her dimples were prominent as she glanced from Snow to Dairen in a knowing glance.

Snow, for some reason, had a thought that the serving lady was misinterpreting their relationship.

"We are not dating." Snow replied to the lady, who was surprised by Snow's answer.

"I'm sorry?" The sweet ladies voice replied, her smile twitched on the end of her lips while her eyes became wide. Even her body seemed to tense up a bit from the unexpected answer.

"Never mind." Snow replied, realizing that she made a bit of mistake in responding out loud before the person was going to say something. "I would like sweet tea with no ice. A bacon cheeseburger and a hashbrown, please."

The waitress took a quick glance at her but shook off what Snow had said and wrote down her order.

"And you darling?" She asked Dairen with a sweet smile as she winked at him.

"Water. Just a cheeseburger as well and hashbrown."

"Okay, is that all?"

"Yes." Both of them answered simultaneously.

"I'll be out with your orders soon." The waitress turned around and left, mumbling under her breath about what Snow had said. Snow didn't pay her much attention and focused back on Dairen.

"Dragon express is a hunting guild." Snow started to speak. She knew that his memory was going to get wiped one way or another, so she didn't mind talking about it. The whole secrecy thing wasn't something she wanted to continue forever. Instead, it was pleasing to see someone's expression about the Dragon Express.

"The guild has been open for hundreds of years. Hunting creatures people call monsters from fairy tales. We buy those monster parts and create items, weapons, and medicine from their pelts, bones, blood, and muscles."

Snow continued to watch Dairen expression, but nothing had changed. He was just about as much interested in what she had to say.

The last statement hit home as Dairen eyes seem to sparkle. "We pay our hunters well."

"I never knew that something like that could even exist these days. That's just wild." Dairen was baffled by what he had learned. "So, that Chupacabra was the creature on the wanted list in the body bag…right?"

"Yes."

"Are there more of you guys out there in this world?"

Snow smiled at him and did not reply to his answer. All it took was that smile for Dairen to understand her. He flopped back onto the bench, completely stunned and awed at what he had learned.

Snow leaned forward, folding her hands. This time she wanted to know how he came in through the door. There was an illusion cast on the door, which deter the Sleepers people.

"Tell me, did you see Dragon Express and came through the door looking for Chinese food?"

Darien was embarrassed; his hand rubbed his chin repeatedly. "Kind of…I thought it was a Chinese food restaurant. I just wasn't sure what to expect, especially because it felt like there was something different about the store. I got curious, that's all."

She thought over what he had said, which his reasoning made more sense than before of wanting Chinese food. Something lured him towards Dragon Express, and the hint she got from their conversation was possibly magic. He could somehow see it without being fully awakened.

"Though, I can't help but ask…..is this world Earth?"

Snow was confused, wondering what he meant. "Earth? Is that some kind of candy?"

"No, it's a planet," Dairen spoke highly confused. "Wait, wait, wait. What do you call this planet anyway?"

Snow, for a moment, thought Dairen had lost his mind. "The planet is called Heartizen."

Dairen hiccupped and frowned, staring at her with dismay.

Breathing out a long sigh, the answer she was looking for was not quickly present, giving her a headache. She pushed back onto her seat and stared upwards onto the ceiling. She knew that tonight was going to be a long night, and she wished that she was home in her bed, wrapped in her cozy fluffy blanket.