She Has To Be The Target

Her face was practically inches away from mine.

"Y'know, you're terrible at hiding," she said as I instinctually jumped up, shortly increasing the distance before hitting a wall behind me.

"Aren't you meant to be outside chasing some imaginary target," I shouted in a panic.

She held back laughter, "Why would I go do that when I have you right here."

I gritted my teeth while I searched for a way out.

"You look confused," she continued, slowly getting closer. "You have a sweet smell, something rare I've found among humans that make me want to eat you up."

Are you kidding me; my deodorant gave me away, I thought as I felt helpless to her approach.

"Why do you think I clung on to you so tightly," she stopped less than a foot away as I felt the words hit me.

"Hehe," I turned, avoiding eye contact. "I thought maybe you liked me."

"Like you, hahaha," she was taunting me at this point. "Yes, you can say that I do like you; after all, who wouldn't like their food."

"I'm not your food," I turned back to look down at her. "You keep going on using the word human; have you looked in the mirror?"

"What's a mirror?"

"You're the same as me, don't tell me you have some sort of fanta-"

Before I could finish, she'd grab my wrist and shirt, flipping me up and over only to plant me on my back.

"AHH," I shouted as I hit the hard floor.

I tried to get up after, only for her to stop me by sitting on me and pinning my arms again with ease.

How the hell is she so strong?

"Stop, I'm still injured," I began pointlessly struggling.

"Then use your power," she giggled, knowing that I couldn't do anything against her.

I suddenly stopped.

"When did I say you could stop," she continued in a sharp tone.

"Pervert," I ignored her, "I bet you enjoy pinning me down like this."

She pummeled my gut, causing me to jump while still being pinned.

"Shhh," she could see my eyes slowly begin shutting as she patted my hair. "I'll learn more about you later."

——————————————————————

"Oh, what cute bunnies," the women of the hiking pair said as she noticed them running in between the bushes.

"Woah, a hairless monkey," the fluffy white one said, which fell on deaf ears as all they heard was the sound of the rabbit squeaking.

"That's just adorable," she continued as she leaned in closer.

"Babe," her boyfriend called her, "C'mon, let's get to the top; it's got a nice view."

"Coming," she finished before waving the rabbits goodbye.

"Did you see that," one of the gray rabbits told the rest. "They were communicating and didn't attack us."

"You want to say they're intelligent?" The other gray rabbit spoke up.

"That should have been apparent with the way they interacted," the black rabbit chimed in. "Let's continue onwards; I'm sure we can expand the more we learn."

——————————————————————

"I'm surprised," Stella said.

"About what?" Ophelia replied as they looked out of the watchtower they were in, giving them an overview of the city and partial vision of the forested mountain.

"I haven't faced any sort of discrimination here," Stella continued as she put her binoculars down.

"I think the majority of people that come to Hawaii are tourists," she explained, "so they are comfortable with meeting new types of people."

"I guess that would go for the island people too; with the number of people coming through, it'd be natural for them to adapt."

"The people you're talking about tend to live outside the city; in fact, my parents are sort of like that," Ophelia nervously laughed.

"Is that why you never wanted me to visit them?"

"Yeaaahhh, they don't like the other races very much."

"Then how are you ok with me; didn't they teach you to be just like them?"

"you would think they would," Ophelia wrote down that nothing had happened in the past hour on a notepad. "They had this saying growing up: 'Every belief has its faults and by denying others and enforcing them on others will only allow them to continue.'

"Sound like it means something about being open."

"Yeah, I guess," she giggled.

——————————————————————

Jacob stood in front of the marble-blue stone that he had placed where the portal had appeared and disappeared the following night.

He got ready and knelt down with a paintbrush that he got at one of the stores but froze in place.

What should I put? He thought as the brush touched the upper left-hand corner.

And without another word, he began drawing the letters that he felt were most fitting.

——————————————————————

"Finally done," Requel sighed after putting up the last barrier that blocked off the ocean from the people.

"Yeah, you would think that people would be careful to not get close," Besute replied, putting a sticker that read, "no crossing."

"Have you ever seen the monster?" She looked down at him.

"Yeah, once in the northern mountains of California back in 2009," he explained as he turned to her.

"Oh right, I was traveling in the country when it came by the northwest coast."

"What for?"

"Something with my parents and visiting other family members."

——————————————————————

Over at the department store that still had an active portal.

"They're coming through," one of the employees shouted, alerting the other Slayers that were working nearby.

Out of the portal came the 4 A-rank reserves, then Davids's team that consisted of himself and 3 other girls.

There was Gisele, a Latin girl with long brown hair. Borislava, a Russian girl that lacked an accent, had pure blond hair and slightly rough skin. Finally was Aelia, who always had her black hair short, wore brown eye contacts to hide her blue eyes, and had a tan from her time in the sun.

The two groups were locking arms in arms, singing the same tone, "with our riches be blessed, drunken by the jewels we jest, and may our bodies never rest as our hearts begin to dance once again."

Their singing was accompanied by drunk swaying side to side with no semblance or coordination between any of them.

And just as the song suggested, they were covered head to toe with a different array of colors and sizes of gem that could allow them to live comfortably for a few years without needing to work.

"Hey, hey," the same Slayer that gave Max that card called out to them as he tried to stop their dancing.

After a moment, they stopped and laughed it all off.

"I'm sorry," Cristal cheerfully replied. "We were just having a blast clearing the end of the portal, especially with all this that we got."

She did a 360, showing off all the gems on her clothes while they reflected the light.

"That's nice and all," the Slayer continued, "but how did the gate turn out?"

"It was fine. Luckily we had no casualties with only minor injuries along the way."

While what he heard was great, his words felt stuck in his throat, especially with giving the news of the coincidental portal appearance.

"Look," he continued after a short pause. "You know Max, right?"

"Did something happen?" She nodded.

"He's trapped on the other side, with no way to get out."

"What??!! How?"

After he explained how he heard it went down, he went into detail on the church's perspective on the case, saying that they believe he was being punished for doing something sinful on the other side.

"No, I don't believe anything that could have made that happen," she continued saying, "but did it really go like that?"

"Yes, that's why it is important to say if you did anything and watch yourself as we don't know if it will happen again."

——————————————————————

"So," I said as I took a sip of cinnamon tea after I argued with Rose to make it. "How do you think we should beat this flat-chested excuse for a woman."

"So much for not hating her," Rose said as he looked intently down at the plate of cookies.

"She was toying with me; seriously, how crazy can one person be."

"You can start by not enjoying it," he looked up.

"What?"

"Your heart practically beats out of your chest every time she's touched you."

"Not true; it's more fear rather than anything else."

"Sure, whatever," he finished his thought. "I suppose you have no idea what you think the objective is."

"Well, I have two ideas," I explained, "it either has something with that village she mentioned or with her herself."

"Hopefully, it's the former."

"Yes, then it comes down on how to avoid her and get to the village."

Rose paused for a moment while it took another sip of the warm tea.

"When she told that boy that she didn't need 'em for now, what do you think she meant?"

"He brought some stuff with him that helped heal my shoulder faster than I expected, but from how he reacted to seeing my face, it seemed like he was grateful I was there."

"She must be terrorizing them," Rose concluded as he picked up a cookie and stuffed it in his mouth. "Which means one thing," he looked back up, "you must kill her to complete the objective and return to your world."