6 Shadow behind the painting

The ride didn't take too long, which she was glad. The thought of staying in the car for long periods of time, when she wasn't the one driving made her sleepy. It was a natural reaction for her to automatically fall asleep in the car, when she wasn't the one driving. Mostly because this was how her father would put her to sleep. Driving her in the car, when she was five years old, hoping that she would quickly fall asleep. Even watching the passing buildings made her eyes watery and tired.

It didn't take long for Dairen to gently shake her shoulder, waking her up. With a yawn, Snow stretched. She nodded her head towards Dairen, thanking him. One foot after another, she hoisted herself out of the taxi. Before she completely went out, she asked the taxi driver to wait. He nodded.

She got out from the side and headed towards her apartment. It was a seven story building with blue, white, and dark red painted around the windows, accentuating it. She walked to the side, where the entrance towards the first floor reception office were. There she opened the door, and upon entrance: a modernistic hallway with stairs leading upstairs to the sky bridge and downstairs to the front office. In between the stairs was a table like stand that had a large monitor on it. Pictures of the layout of different apartment studios were shown and even the layout of the building itself.

Snow walked up the stairs, through the glass door on the left. She kept walking past the 2nd floor area, where a large scrabble board mounted onto the wall with sofa chairs in front of it. Hand size letters were posted on the board as the words crisscross and raid was spelled out vertically and horizontally.

Passing the board, where she could even overlook the side of the bridge down into the lobby like guest area. Large numbers of chairs, computers, pool tables, and even a small kitchen was present for the resident to congregate and have refreshments.

"Wow, this place has quite the features." Dairen spoke, enthralled at the place that she was living at.

"It's quite nice," she replied, agreeing with him. Even though the rent was a tad bit high, it was still considered quite luxurious place. "We have a good workout room and even a pool. The best part of this place is that they already have a washing machine and dryer included in each apartment.This was the number one reason why I moved here. Also, having an inside garage. I don't like my car staying outside and getting dirty."

Snow took a left, stopping in front of the elevator. She pressed the button, waiting for it to come down.

"It's quite fancy here." Dairen replied, the elevator door opened up as both of them step in one behind the other.

"I guess." Snow pressed number three button.

"Most of the apartment I seen don't have such nice amenities."

"Are you sure? There is quite a number of areas like TigerLane and Jameon that has such good amenities to their residences."

"True." The elevator closed the door, taking them upstairs. "I'm just saying, I wouldn't mind living in such a place."

"It's not bad."

Snow exited out the elevator, and walked down the hallway to 355.

Both of them stood in front of the door, and she then turned towards Dairen. "Could you turn around please?"

"Huh?"

Snow motioned her hand in a circular motion, waiting for him to hurry it up without giving him an explanation. He turned his back to her.

"Don't turn around." Snow directed, accentuating her words.

Dairen didn't reply, but he stood still like a statue, waiting for her okay to turn around.

She then glanced around her, reached down towards the crevice of the door, but stopped. With a quick look over her shoulder, just to make sure Dairen wasn't looking. Satisfied, she reached over towards the corner, pulling out a loose part of the door frame the size of her thumb. In doing so, a hidden key was fished out.

It took her a full three hours to create this hidden compartment from view in the middle of the night, so people wouldn't be able to see what she was doing. Luckily, she wasn't caught and finished without a problem. Throughout the whole process, there were many times she thought she would get caught for vandalizing the door.

Standing up, she unlocked the door, and pushed it open.

"You can turn around now." Snow replied, she walked through, glad that she was finally home.

What welcome her was a simple apartment that didn't have much things inside it. Upon walking in, on the left side was an open kitchen with an island in the middle with four stools around it.

Everything was clean and well lit. Across the kitchen island was an open space, where she had mounted a large T.V on the wall with her L shaped wooden desk on the other end, hooked up to a tower. There were three screen monitored, nicely placed in an L shape on top of the table, and a large, comfortable rolling chair pushed against the desk.

Above the desk was a poster with the sign, Yami Hikari, and surrounding it was all her artwork that she had created. Across from the TV was a large white and black sofa, and a fluffy white rug underneath it.

Snow took off her shoes, placing it temporarily on the shoe rack to her side, she then stepped towards the right where her bathroom was. She opened the door, and entered, leaving Dairen out in the kitchen/living room. He followed after Snow and took off his shoe and sat on a stool, waiting for her.

She was in a rush, pushing the bathroom door closed behind her, she started to stripe off her clothes. It was one thing to continue wearing the hoodie that Dairen gave, but she wanted her own. Even though it was a small trivial feeling, the only temporarily control that she had right this moment was herself, and she needed that small semblance of normality right this minute. Plus, she wasn't wearing any underwear, making this all the more uncomfortable.

Halfway in between stripping out of her clothes, and opening her closet door that was connected to the other end, she was already planning out her next outfit in her head. Her mind raced with trivial thoughts of different combinations, until she finally arrived with a satisfied answer in under thirty seconds.

Her choice was simple: a black jeans, green tank top, and an olive colored half jacket that came down to her breast. It didn't take long for her to change, and feel a bit more in control of her sanity.

She then reached up towards the shelf, pulling out a hidden box, where she fished out a stack of twenty dollars bills. Counting out at least two hundred dollars, she kept $60 out to give to Dairen.

Satisfied, she walked back through the bathroom. Took a quick brush of her hair, luckily she didn't need to straighten, and walked out to the living room. There she saw Dairen, standing in front of her painting near her desk. Shoulder slightly bent, the warm sunlight beaming through the blinds, giving him a soft expression. He had stared at her painting in interest.

"What are you doing?" Snow asked, she walked over and froze. Just looking at the painting made her hold her breath temporarily. At first her feelings was complete disbelief that someone would come a scribble on her painting, but thinking about it there was just no one who was able to come through her door without tripping off her alarms that she had meticulously installed with magic.

Even normal humans, would have tripped off the magical sigil that would announce the burglary alarm and even probably stopped them from coming through the front door or the windows. Heather had personally came to her home and set up a defense for her home, knowing full well that she didn't know how too. Even though Heather would be considered a brute, she was still good at setting up offensive traps. The downside about it was that her traps worked too well, and so far she didn't see anyone breaking and entering or even leave behind a magical imprint.

Drawn on her painting, that she worked meticulously for three days, was a human shadow that sat off in the distance, on top of a cliff, watching the angels sing. It was a haunting scene that gave her chill. Almost as if the watcher was present themselves watching her right now. Her expression turned grim, she even took a quick glance towards her window thinking that the shadow was outside staring at her right this moment, but she felt nothing. Her attention was brought back to the painting by an alluring lure.

"Hey Snow?" Dairen knew that Snow was behind him. "Did you draw this?"

Silence followed after, she couldn't say anything but stare at the transparent shadow that seemed to glow dangerously with life. It's red eyes was hauntingly, watching, waiting. She knew that she didn't draw the shadow being in the back, especially because in her dreams such a creature wasn't there. How it gotten drawn on her painting was unknown, but she couldn't help but speculate maybe it was Dairen.

Her eyes darted from left to right, hoping to dear god that it was Dairen pulling a prank on her. But, she didn't find a single brush in his hand or the paints being used. Not even on her palette that was next to the painting was a single black paint dabbed on it. With a sharp breath, she felt her stomach flip wildly.

"Snow?" Dairen turned around. He wondered why Snow wouldn't answer. When he saw Snow's expression, he couldn't help but wonder what he had said wrong or possible done. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Snow's voice quivered. It was difficult to get it under control. Eventually, she was able to force her trembling voice down to her normal tone.

"You alright?" He asked, concerned.

"Yes." With a sharp intake of breath, she steadied her beating heart. It was one thing to have a rampaging emotionally outburst, it was another to control it and she was very good at bringing her emotions back down to zero.

"Did you….by any chance ...draw that shadow being?" Snow couldn't help but ask. She needed to know right there and then if he was the culprit to ruining her picture.

"Me?" Dairen was lost in why she was asking such a question. "Draw?" He then chuckled at her question, bringing his right hand up to his lips.

"What?" said Snow, completely taken aback by his chuckle that she was starting to get mad at him.

"I can't draw." Dairen bluntly replied. "The only thing I can draw is the stick figures. It's like looking at kindergarten drawing s. Even then, I still believe that the five year old will draw even better than me. That's how bad I draw. Why?"

Snow gut felt heavy, her heart rapidly beating in fear. She tried her best to not show Dairen that she wasn't scared. Scared of the painting that she drew and the murder that she witness. This painting was becoming more and more of a blatant reminder that last night wasn't a coincidence, but a predetermined vision that she had foreseen. How this would affect her, she didn't know.

Divining wasn't her gift. Such gift was actually quite fickle and difficult to incorporate, especially because she heard about the many Diviners that gave half-baked answers that seemed to be roundabout answers that could be explained for everything or anything. If a novice like her had such a dream, it only gave her a silver of the timeline that is to come. Still, being able to glimpse a momentary moment didn't mean that her whole world was going to fall apart. She knew she needed to bring back the control she had on herself, even if she couldn't foretell the future like a master.

Shaking herself, she straightened up her chest and back. Took a good hard look at her picture, turned around, and went to grab a sheet from her closet. Without even regretting it at all, she covered the picture with a brown sheet. She then picked it up from her table and stuffed it on the side of her desk, where it was hidden from view.

"Snow?" Dairen was a bit taken aback at Snow's sudden rash behavior. He wanted to compliment on how well drawn the artwork was, but to see her mood sour as if she ate a bad apple made him hold back his comment.

"Yes?"

"You alright?"

"Yes." Snow wiped her hand as if she had something sticky and disgusting on her hands. She knew that this was a temporary solution, but it was all she could think about. The opinion of an expert was needed, though her priorities lie more into Dairen and his memory today. It just felt like every strange encounter seemed to have him involved in some way like a bad luck. At the rate that things were happening, she wouldn't be too surprised that more strange things appeared. She was sure that if Dairen memories were erased, all these strange events would be over and she would go back to her regular life. This was what she hoped for, no, wanted back even more this past twenty four hours.

With a stiff turn, she turned towards him, rummaged through her jean pocket and dropped the $60 into his hand. "My portion. Let's go." Her debt was paid, a small relief of stress could be felt, making her mood lighter than before.

Before Dairen could react and stop her from giving her portion, she had already left her apartment, waiting for him to come on out. His mind was blank, he followed out the door before he could say anything else. His mouth opened and closed like a goldfish fresh out of the water.

"I'll meet you downstairs." Snow ordered.. "I need to lock up."

Dairen shook his head, he was still a bit dazed. Everything was happening a bit too fast for him to keep up that he wasn't sure what to do. Still, he nodded his head in agreement with her and headed back down towards the taxi that was waiting for them.

When she saw him leave, she noticed that her hand was shaking. Her right hand had to reach over and stopped it from shaking.

"Come on, Snow." She replied a bit angrily at herself. "Stop being a wuss. Everything is going to be alright."

The mantra helped calm her tensed feeling, making her feel a bit more at ease. Collecting her emotions, she pulled back her scattered mind and fear. There was no way that she would let fear take control of her life. Instead, she was going to use this turbulent emotions to grow and get stronger that was what she continually repeated in her head. There was no way her fear would control her.

Satisfied with her pep talk, she locked the door and stashed away her key back into her hidey hole. It was a perfectly hidden away. With a satisfied smile, she turned around and headed downstairs. It didn't take long for her to arrive towards the taxi cab that was still waiting for them.

Opening the car door, she slipped in and spoke, "To Dragon Express, please."

"Your boyfriend had already gave me the address." The driver replied, he glanced at the rearview mirror at them.

Snow gave a confused glance at the driver and then back at Dairen, who was sitting in the back with her. He gave her a look that told her to play along. She was going to deny such information to the driver, but realized that they weren't even friends if he asked. So, she shrugged it aside and played along. It wasn't like she was going to meet the taxi driver again in the future.

"Ah, cool," said Snow.

Snow slipped in next to Dairen, who was a bit embarrassed at the lie that he had fabricated. She didn't say anything about it and sat quietly in the back, once again falling asleep throughout the ride.

They finally arrived at the Dragon Express store, stopping in front of the store. Snow was gently shaken awake, where she smacked her lips and yawned. Taking a step out, she straightened up and headed straight towards the door.

With a long bell like sound, their entrance was known. But, when she entered the store, she noticed that the store was unusually quiet. Not a single person was present, making Snow confused on what was going on.

The entrance bell into store went off behind her as Dairen followed behind. He stepped around her and stopped, confused on why Snow had suddenly halted.

"Is something the matter?" Dairen asked. Everything was left as it was, except for the body bag that was taken away and stored possibly by Lily.

"It's too quiet." Snow spoke in a low tone.

"What do you mean?" Dairen wasn't sure how busy the morning shifts usually got and assumed this was normal.

"We get busy during the morning shifts. Handing our new bounty list and most of the times hunted creatures that had been killed at night." Snow took a deliberate slow step towards the back, examining the area. She had wondered where everyone had suddenly went and disappeared off to. Everything was left as it was, nothing seemed out of place. she even saw a hot coffee still war with heat rising out of the cups on Heathers table.

From her guess, she assumed that something must have happened in the past thirty minutes if the coffee was still hot or maybe earlier, but there was just nothing. What was even more strange was that there were no customers entering and leaving. It was almost as if the whole place was enchanted or curse to keep people away.

"Anyone here?" Snow called out in the hopes to grab someone's attention. "Heather? Lily? Mr. Jay?"

What answered her was silence. It was truly unusual for the store to be open and this quiet. It just didn't make any sense.

Snow walked over towards her desk. She saw on her table a yellow sticky note, written in neat cursive: Cantasoa. Look for Mr. Roger in three days. When you find the human, Keep him near you at all times. Don't lose him!

"Cantasoa?" Snow wasn't quite sure where this was, instead of her brain was wrecking with ideas and places in the hopes to jog her memory. What was more annoying was that she had to babysit Dairen for three whole days. Having him with her with half a day was a pain in her rear as it is, but three made her want to throttle Heather for bringing up such a suggestion.

"Did you find something?" Dairen asked, he was next to her trying to read the message she had in her hands.

Snow quickly crumbled it up and stuffed it in her pocket. "Kind of, but it doesn't answer where everyone went."

"Maybe they went out to eat lunch?" He brought up his wrist and pulled back his sleeves. On his wrist was a simple digital watch that he fiddled with. "It's already 1:25 A.M."

She didn't realize how late it was since they woke up. Now that she thought about it, they haven't had breakfast since they woke up. Her stomach grumbled in riot, telling her to get a move on it and fill it up. Even Dairen stomach rumbled a bit loudly, informing both of them of hunger.

"We can go grab something to eat." Snow informed. She rummaged through her desk, and took out her phone and keys. Her cards were all digitally inputted into the card and the cash she had was also in the small pocket of her phone cover. Having a bag was inconvenient to her most of the time, and she liked to carry less things with her. The keys and her phone was already plenty enough.

"Yea," Dairen chuckled. "I know that the sandwich shop across the store has some good meals." He suggested.

Snow instantly knew what store Dairen was talking about. Honeysuckle boar sandwich shop, one of her favorite place to go to grab lunch. Especially the ham sandwich that they had that she enjoyed immensely. Plus, it allowed them to see across the street so she could watch for the others in the hopes they would come back.

"Honeysuckle Boar Sandwich shop?" She asked to confirm.

"Yes." He nodded. "With a full stomach maybe we could figure something out?"

She nodded, agreeing with his reason. She then turned around, and headed toward the door. Before she took a step out, she glanced over her shoulder just to make sure she wasn't missing anything.

So far nothing. The moment both Dairen and Snow walked out the door, a loud click of the lock could be heard behind them, causing both of them to freeze in alarm.