CHAPTER 2

A week has passed since then.

Everything passed by like a blur as their newly wed friends went to their planned vacation while they promised their friends that they will be throwing a party once they come back and probably take them to another vacation where the four of them would be going - a late wedding gift as Zai and Hwayatt said.

The days went normal as what they used to call normal days (except they tend to always look around, always wary as if something's gonna jump on them any minute - a habit they developed lately). They go to work and pretend that nothing happened. Always watching the news to see the progress of the crime they just committed - where the police is still clueless of who would be the killer and after a week of investigation, they closed it, saying that there's no evidence found and just wrote it off as a wild animal attack that no one believes, because surely an animal won't bury their prey and the only missing part is the heart and the rest of the body remains unscathed.

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For Zai, the nightmares became her every night struggle. Always afraid to fall asleep and go back to that place where she's surrounded with only darkness and a hot organ in her hand where she always recalls how that heart slowly falls unbeating and turns into dust (she always grips her blanket or pillow whenever the feeling of the heart goes missing). A gasp would always be the first thing she'll hear before she wakes up and followed by a sob until her nightmares comes to visit her in a realistic way wherein she will be transported back into that night where they were attacked until everything goes dark and the only thing that will work will be her hearing where the screams of the monster is the last thing she'll hear before seeing the dead body under her feet. She always wake up fully once she's done recalling the memory. And by then, it's the only time where she realizes that she's been dreaming again, and that terrifies her. The dreams has been becoming more and more realistic each night, making her afraid of the possibility of not being able to wake up and scared that the shadows that's always there, watching her grip the heart will one day come and get her in her sleep.

As for Hwayatt, the voices are louder than ever. Always telling her to find that place, a place she knows nothing of and has no idea of its existence. She tried describing the place in the internet, hoping it could somehow help her but to no avail, the only thing she found is a fictional world where she later on laughs at because all those panic must have done something in her brain and she might be going insane. The thought that someone would come knocking in their door arresting them is also her everyday concern, she wants to go to the police, she really do, the only thing that's stopping her is the fact that no one would believe her story, it might be an act of defense but they still killed the man, and she can't do that, at least for Zai. It was Zai who killed that man, she will be written off as an accomplice but the bigger punishment will fall onto Zai, she can't remember what she did that night and Hwayatt's testimony would be considered as an effect of drugs, they never did drugs, but it will still make it to their records that they did.

She wants to confess but there's this another voice in her head that tells her that they did nothing wrong, they only protected themselves, this is only the beginning of something bigger.

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The tension around the friends were there but was never addressed due to the fear that one would break but everything has come to an end, one way or another.

The bubble was burst one night when a siren was heard outside. A loud commotion and a bloody scream was heard throughout the neighborhood, breaking the silence of the night.

The scream was loud, so loud that it made everyone stop what they were doing to look outside their windows and the police was called when a body was found in the alley just a few blocks away from Zai and Hwayatt's place. The people started to talk, from the people who witnessed it, they said that the man has his heart ripped out from his chest. They talk so loud that Hwayatt heard it from where she's peering next to the open window. She freezes as she listens to every person that passes their place. Zai notices her frozen position so she went to touch her but she jerks away and closes the window with a bang.

Zai looks at her with a frown when starts pacing the room while biting her nails. "What's wrong?" Zai asks, and it's only then that she realized that this is the first time that they will be talking after dropping off Ayana and Rage at the airport.

"Someone died a few blocks away from here." Hwayatt says, still pacing. "Oh." Zai answers as she stares at the window and notices the red and blue from the ambulance. She haven't noticed what happened, too deep in her own thoughts when the screaming happened.

"That's the only thing you're gonna say? Oh?" Hwayatt looks at her angrily. "What do you want me to say then?" Zai asks as she rubs her arm unconsciously, a habit she developed as of late when she gets nervous (why is she nervous?). There's this something that's tugging her heart, telling her that something bad will happen but she didn't paid attention to it, always refusing what those little feelings are trying to warn her from.

"Someone died, Zai! And if you haven't heard it, he's also missing a heart!" Hwayatt bursts out. It's Zai's turn to freeze at this. Her heart starts to beat faster, her breathing starting to get heavy but she tries to hide it from Hwayatt. "There's a man dead not far away from us and I don't know what to think! What if the police finds out that it was us from the woods? What if they'll come knocking in our doorstep later? Accuse us that it was us who did the murder this time." Hwayatt says, frustration visible in her voice.

"What are you trying to point out? That it was me who committed the murder? That I killed a man? Again?" Zai asks. "No!" Hwayatt shouted.

"It's what you're trying to imply! Just because someone died while missing a heart already means it was me!" Zai shouted back as she started to clench her hands so hard that she's sure she's about to draw blood if she won't unclench them. "Are you scared of me?" She finally asks before Hwayatt can say something and something broke inside of her when her friend falls silent.

Her lips trembled at her friend's reaction, hurt that she could think of something like that. She understands that Hwayatt might still be scared of the probability of someone knocking on their door and arrest them of their crime or worse, another creature like that monster coming for them but seeing her friend, one of the few people that she trusted to never hurt her think of something such as considering that she can kill a man so willingly, hurts. She didn't say anything when she started to walk towards her room, Hwayatt cried out her name but she didn't stop and closes her door as silent as she could.

She went to sit at the floor while her back was on the bed, she leans back and stares at her ceiling. She feels so weak at the moment but she really can't blame her friend, can she? She saw her ripping someone's heart, a deed that a normal person can't do but its something she did without breaking a sweat in an unexplainable way. She sometimes stare at her hands, wondering where she got a claw (impossible features of a person but she somehow got it), it sometimes scares her, that those claws might appear anytime and the same fog would cloud her mind and she'd hurt an innocent bystander or her friends. She knows the impossibility of it happening but her fears have increased ever since she found a burn marks in her pillowcase each time her nightmares got worse. And maybe, Hwayatt is right, that she's suddenly becoming a monster, the same as the one that attacked them, without her realizing, maybe she did killed that man while she was unconscious, and she got no ways to know if she really did it.

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Hwayatt drops to the floor when the door closes. She covers her mouth with her hands to muffle her cries. She didn't mean it, she didn't mean to accuse her friend but she's gone hysterical, what with all of the voices in her head that sometimes keeps her awake at night and she's been exhausted lately, scared of almost everyone finding out what just happened in that woods. So when she heard those people talk about the murder, she couldn't help it but to say things to Zai. She knows she fucked up, she shouldn't have said those things because her friend is one of the most laid back people she has ever met and the kindest too. She might act like this cold and uncaring person at times but they know that she's that tsundere type of a person. Zai might look like someone who would punch you in the gut if she's pissed at you (she can, but she knows how to hold back her fists) but she would never hurt anyone without a reason.

She scolds herself for hurting her friend, she didn't mean to say those things, she really did.

It was then that she heard another voice inside her head, telling her that it's okay and everything will be fine, she just needs to go in that place. She needs to be there before its too late, take Zai but she can't promise her her friend's safety but they needed to leave now. Hwayatt didn't listen.

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The next morning was awkward, a heavy feeling surrounds the apartment and it feels like there's a black cloud all over the ceiling but that might be their eyes conjuring up some things.

The two of them did their morning routine as if the other one isn't in the same room as them. Zai eats her breakfast in a fast pace as she makes sure that everything she needs is inside her bag before leaving without saying anything.

Hwayatt watches quietly, making sure that she's doing it subtly but Zai always notices things, she eats her breakfast as slow as she can and let Zai leave the apartment before finally breaking down.

She wanted to apologize but the two of them need some time, a space to think before speaking again or they'll end up saying things they didn't mean again, or her for that matter.

The silent treatment continued for a week before something happened and turned their world into something they never imagined to be real.

It came when the full moon was up and bright. It came with a loud shattering of glasses, the two was alerted at the sound making them run to their living room and there it stood a wolf, bigger than the actual wolves they've seen at the zoo where they once went.

The wolf looked at them with its red glowing eyes and bares its fangs as it growls at them menacingly, drools dripping at the floor. It barked at them before crouching, ready to attack and it moved so fast that the two never expected it to attack them in a fast pace that they almost didn't see it moving before it reached where they are.

A heart beat was stopped, then it started to beat slowly before something clicked inside her head. If it wasn't for the wind that passed through Hwayatt then she might have her insides ripped out of her, the wolf flew a few feet away from her, knocking on some furniture before standing up and shaking its head that hit the ground in a hard way. Zai went up to her and shakes her, calling out to her to come out of the shock. She looks at her friend and it's only then that she felt her heart beat in a normal way again.

"Get up. We need to leave now." Zai says as she pulls her to stand up (When did she fell to the ground? She never noticed it.)

The wolf started to jump on them again and if it wasn't for their fast reflex then it might have bitten one of them. Zai hits the wolf with the lamp that has fallen near them and it whines as some of the glasses pierced its skin. The wolf reaches its claws at Zai, ripping the skin of the left side of her stomach, she screams in pain and there's so much blood, coloring the floor red, and it hurts, it hurts.

It made Hwayatt sick, her eyes grew big when she notices the wolf crouching down again, looking at Zai before opening its mouth. "No!" She screams and she went to pull Zai closer to her before the wolf can reach her again, its claws almost touches her arms that's holding Zai but a light was formed in between the claw and her skin and just like the monster from before, the wolf went still.

The two of them are shocked at the way the wolf is suspended mid-air. They didn't move for a while, sudden realization went through their mind as the memory of what happened at the woods replayed in their mind.

"It wasn't an imagination. Everything was real." Hwayatt voices out as she continues staring at the light and the wolf. "The monster was real." she continues as a shiver runs up her spine at the first attack where they almost died.

She was looking at the light when the wolf's eyes moved and let out a quiet howl because of the fact that its still paralyzed, Zai saw it and she grips her friends arms. Hwayatt looks at her before her eyes grows big and panics when she remembers that Zai is still bleeding but before she can move and get the first aid kit, "We need to go." Zai says.

"What? No! We need to stitch you up first." Hwayatt says, panicking.

"No! We can worry about that later. We need to go now before its too late!" Zai urges. "I don't know how but I feel like there's more of them coming, I can somehow see some silhouettes a few miles away from here and if we don't go now then we'll die." Zai says fastly as she tries to walk towards the door while dragging Hwayatt in a way that she tries to ignore the throbbing pain in her stomach.

Hwayatt saw the urgency in her voice so she helps her in her shoes before they go out of the apartment, making sure that she's not touching Zai's wounds as she holds her in the waist to help her walk and puts her friend's arm around her shoulder.

When they're a few blocks away from their apartment, Zai gasps, alerting Hwayatt and she looks at her friend worriedly, "Should I carry you? Gosh, Zai please don't die on me, we should go to the hospital now." She cried out, growing frustrated that they chose to live in a place where the main road is far and she scolds herself for not even thinking of grabbing their phone nor the car keys. Zai chuckles at her as she puts pressure on her wounds.

"I don't know how this thing in my head works but you should take us to that place." Zai says before wincing. Hwayatt looks at her with a frown, "What place?" she asks.

"That place that you've been trying to find for weeks now." Zai said and her eyes grows big in realization. "THAT place! But I don't know how." she says.

"Just follow where your instinct leads you. But we need to move fast now or they'll get us before we can reach whatever that place is." Zai says. "Okay, okay. We need to before you die due to hemorrhage." says in a joking manner but still worried about the possibility of it.

"And hey, I'm sorry for accusing you. I'm sorry for saying something dumb." she continues. Zai didn't say anything but she notices the smile her friend has and she knows by then that they'll be okay.