Chapter 2: Stuck In A Hard Place

Before he could celebrate, he heard a series of footsteps from the hallway. He quickly moved to the side and stood as close to the wall.

A couple of figures passed through the hallway like they were chasing something or running away from something.

'I can't stay here! This place is too dangerous.'

Aiden quickly turned around and grabbed his backpack hanging from his bed, packed two sets of clothes and opened the side drawer. He took his old wristwatch but before he could finish wearing it, a wild shriek came from the door.

"I know, I know, you can see me alright. You don't have to be so loud about it."

After securing the wristwatch, he saw his old notebooks and and an interesting idea popped in his mind. Could he crumple the notebook pages and use it as throwables to train his throwing skill?

"Let's try it!"

Aiden grabbed all of his notebooks before turning to run towards the only window in the room.

Unfortunately, the door was breached before he could take a single step or stash the notebooks into his bag.

Two female soul eaters entered the room through the enlarged opening on the door. The leading soul sucker was a thinner compared to the other and had less symptoms meaning it already had a few victims before seeing him. It also had an easier time entering the room.

"Damn it!"

Aiden activated his newly learned Throwing skill and felt the energy inside him decrease.

A faint sense of sharpness showered him and he didn't waste any time as he started throwing notebooks at the leading soul eater one at a time.

Though he didn't see any damage dealt by throwing the notebooks, he made sure to throw them at target's eyes to delay or block its vision. The goal was to gain some time and back up towards the window.

The plan seemed to have no effects as the target charged straight towards him without caring about vision.

Aiden immediately stopped throwing notebooks and dived to the side. He bounced once and quickly rolled several times to dodge any follow up attacks.

After recovering, he assessed the situation of the room.

The leading soul eater who charged at him knocked on the window, shattering its glass. This action tells how powerful and reckless the charge was. The second soul eater was able to slow down and changed its attack direction, already moving to lunge at him.

Aiden quickly formulated a plan.

He dashed towards the bed and lured the second soul eater to follow him. He rolled on the bed and successfully reached the other side without getting caught. Once he stood up, he was holding a pillow on each hand.

The lunging soul eater tried to grab him but had insufficient reach. It bumped on the bed frame and fell on the bed due to momentum. Instead of standing up, it struggled to crawl and reach for him.

Aiden didn't waste any time and rushed towards the soul eater near the window.

He knew himself well. Based on the things he observed, a lot of things changed and the pale girl in front of him could potentially overpower him if he wasn't careful.

Instead of fighting with strength, he decided to use his head.

Aiden matched his pace with the soul eater and thrust the pillow to its face just in time to block its vision.

Naturally, his action wasn't to stop the soul eater from seeing him, but to prevent any attempt to bite or suck anything out of him. Though he wasn't sure if this will be effective, attempting something was better than doing nothing.

"Grahw! Guohg!"

The soul eater roared wildly like it was excited to meet him. It tried to grab his head but he leaned backwards and performed a sweeping kick on the target's legs before it chose to grab his arms.

Bam!

The soul eater fell and became momentarily stunned! Unfortunately, it grabbed his bag and pulled him down with it. He had to quickly take the bag off before rushing to stand up.

Aiden didn't wait to see what would happen next as he opened the broken window and activated Senior Acrobatics.

"Acrobatics (Senior): Consume 1 energy to enhance your control over your body for thirty minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour. Upgrade Requirement: Perform 1,000,000 successful acrobatic actions."

He easily climbed out the window and his fingers acted like vice grips as they gripped the edges of the window sill.

He was slowly getting used to the abrupt energy consumption and the temporary strengthening to his body.

When he was still a little kid, Aiden loved to climb trees and often challenges himself to climb taller trees. He loves the feeling of jumping from one place to another and moving unhindered as he reached a higher place.

Aiden knew he wasn't safe at the moment and hastily edged away from the window. His foot only had half of it planted on the ledge while the other half was hanging in the air and yet he could naturally balance his body as he inched further away from the window. It took a few seconds before he reached the external drainage pipe.

"That was close! I really thought I'm gonna die there."

Aiden tried to calm his wildly beating heart.

It was the first time he intentionally killed something.

The encounter raised the adrenaline inside him to a level he never reached before.

Unbeknownst to him, a smile appeared on his face despite everything that happened.

The adrenaline was a familiar experience that he forgot he yearned for when he was a child.

The thrill of life.

Risking life for a fleeting moment of feeling alive.

***

Aiden stared at the shrieking women on the window. One was bleeding on the forehead and the back of the head while the other mostly have missing chunks of flesh on its limbs. They kept trying to claw at him despite the distance between them.

"Hey, my dad said to stay away from city girls and I'm gonna follow his advice... starting today. He said that mingling with city people will cause more harm than good. I don't know where he got the idea, but he mostly reminded me that I need to graduate so I can join a good company and have a better future."

Aiden glanced at the chaotic surrounding and sighed softly. "I don't think that's gonna happen anymore."

Howls and screams continue to echo throughout the dormitory. No teachers or security can be seen or heard.

Aiden looked down at his phone that was still dialing a number. He was trying to reach his family but no one answered even after calling multiple times.

Toot, toot, toot.

The call ended once again and the results remained the same. Aiden composed himself and took a deep sigh as if cleansing all the heavy feeling inside him.

"Hoooh. Alright, let's stop moping around. I need to figure out what to do next. My goal is to contact someone at home and know if they're okay. I'm not sure if there's a problem with the network or if there's a reason why they couldn't answer their phones."

"If it's the former, I can do nothing about it but if it's the latter, then the call logs should provide them assurance that I'm alive. Just to be sure, I'll send them a message and hopefully they'll contact me once things settled down..."

But what if they're already...

What if the reason they couldn't answer was because...

Aiden shook his head and tried his best to keep the negative thoughts away.

He dialed a new number and surveyed the area.

More and more soul eaters noticed him and crowded below him. A few of them jumped up and tried to reach him even though the distance was too high.

He knew for sure that soul eaters were very eager to suck him dry if they ever catch him.

"No matter what, I need to get out of here first."

Aiden shook the drainage pipe to see if it can carry his weight if he tried to climb it. He heard a creaking sound coming from the screws.

"Nope, I think I'm gonna be stuck here for a long while."

The call ended again with no one answering from the other side.

"Last call buddy, answer the call and let me hear that annoying voice of yours."

He pressed the redial button and immediately heard a crisp voice on the other end.

"Aiden, is that you?!"

Aiden widened his eyes in surprise. "Daniel, you're alive!?"

"Why do you sound so surprised? Don't answer that. Save me! Right now! You need to help me, Aiden!"

Aiden smiled hearing the familiar voice of his best friend. Based on the tone of his voice, Daniel should be safe at the moment but doesn't feel secured. He knew his best friend well enough that a simple exchange can give him a lot of information.

"Okay, I'll go there and help you once I got myself out of trouble."

"What do you mean? Are you also in trouble?"

Aiden glanced at the excited crowd below and the growling pair on the window. "Yeah, you can say that. How about you?"

"Oh, I'm inside a cubicle in a public bathroom at the town park. I'm hiding from some thugs who got offended when I told them to go play somewhere else."

Aiden frowned and remained calm knowing there's something more to the story. "And why would you do that?"

"Ofcourse, I was building connections! Jomar from Year 4-A was confronted by thugs when he was trying to eat at a restaurant. I saw the opportunity, so I grabbed it! He's the top student of the university and the only son of a local skin whitening soap brand. Their company will need to expand their market and they'll need more people. If we can befriend him, we can have a higher chance of securing a job before we even graduate!"

Aiden was always impressed with the researching capability of his friend, his straightforwardness and his guts. And yet, he couldn't help but notice a few glaring issues on the story.

"How long have you been hiding in the bathroom?"

"...not for long? Why?"

"How did you escape from the thugs? Don't say anything rubbish, I'll know immediately."

"...alright, I'm not sure how to say this without sounding crazy, but here we go: I can stop time."

"..."

"I don't know how I did it but I stopped time. It only happened once and I couldn't do it again. I just shouted stop chasing me and everything stopped. I think one of them talked to me and started cursing me. When time returned to normal, I just kept running. When I looked back, the thugs were having an internal fight. I don't know why they're fighting and don't want to know, so I left without looking back."

Aiden couldn't help but smile wryly.

'This lucky bastard! I'm here surrounded on all sides, stuck on a ledge, but he's sitting comfortably in a safe place. Well, that's the best scenario for him I guess.'

Aiden ignored Daniel's claim about stopping time and gave him tips on how to survive. He also informed him about everything he learned when he was observing the soul eaters.

"I still think soul eaters sound lame. What do you think about soul devourers? They sound much better right? Devourers~ ooh, scary~"

Aiden shook his head. "Of all the things that I told you that's the one that interests you the most?"

"Well, if what you said is true then I'm pretty sure I'll be dead before you get here. Some random stranger might come here and eat me up, right? Might as well give them a cooler name. Daniel Reyes died valiantly while fighting off Devourers! Aiden Richards died getting sucked by soul eaters! Hahaha!"

"Your sense of humor is really... haaah... Just remember to lock the door and don't make any noise. I'll try to go there as soon as I can. I'll keep sending you messages, so don't use your phone to play games."

"Alright, I won't play any games."

"Try to call home and speak with you family, help me say hello to my family if you can contact yours okay."

"Alright, alright. Why do I feel like you don't want to end the call, huh?"

"That's just your imagination. I'm gonna end the call now."

Aiden pressed the end call button without waiting for a response. He felt relieved seeing some hope for the future.

Inside the cubicle, a slightly chubby man frowned at his phone. It was Daniel seated on the toilet seat.

"That jerk. Did he really do that to me?"

Despite the words he was saying, a joyous smile couldn't stop forming on his face.

"Don't worry pal, I'm too handsome to die inside a public bathroom. Besides, what can they do to me, I have a toilet roll here."

Daniel patted the roll on the side, then went back to tinkering with his phone. He swiped on the phone and tapped on the browser to check for news.

No connection.

"That's strange... I'm sure I still have some data plan."

Daniel tried to call his family but no one answered. He dialed Aiden's number but failed to connect.

"Weird but alright."

Daniel shrugged and opened a clicker game about capitalism to waste some time.

A couple of meters outside the bathroom, a staggering old woman jerked every few seconds while sniffing the air. Her body was filled with bite marks and dark blood trickled down the wounds. It kept searching for something but couldn't pinpoint the exact location of it's target.