Chapter 2

Angie just stood there, horrified to her core. Her parents had just transformed into these hideous monsters. It felt like a nightmare. This was surely a dream. Any moment, she was going to wake up and see her parents all well and happy. She closed her eyes, expecting herself to wake up any moment.

"Angie, we have to go."

The older guy had whispered in her ear. Her reaction was immediate. She wanted to run away from him but, then something caught around her feet and she fell on the floor, face first. She tried to scramble away but, couldn't move. Something was gripping her foot tightly and it didn't feel like a hand at all.

During her scrambling, her eyes locked with her parents. She stared at them and although they had no eyes or even faces, she could feel the disgust in them. It was clearly emitting from their bodies. They got up and walked out of the kitchen. Even though they looked nothing like her parents, Angie felt heartbroken. However, the final blow was delivered by her mom.

"I never wanna see this abomination ever again."

"Mo-"

Angie couldn't even get the words out of her mouth. She just stared helplessly as her parents (in monster form) walked away.

"I didn't think you could provide more entertainment but, apparently I was wrong."

Angie felt heartbroken and didn't even bother to feel anything as she felt herself being dragged back. However, she was greatly surprised when she found herself hanging upside down. This brought her in view with the older man. Where his hand would have been, there was a branch from which small leaves were growing out. It was curled around her ankle.

"You can never escape us. Never." The older guy said, bouncing her up and down, laughing in her face.

Nothing was making any sense. Her whole life had turned upside-down in the last hour.

"Together, we are going to have so much fun." The older guy said.

Tears were flowing down Angie's face. She was feeling helpless.

Something flashed and she dropped on the floor. When she got up, she found the older guy nowhere in place. Instead the younger guy was standing, with great anger on his face. He was also holding a wooden sword in his hand. The sword was filled with cracks and it looked so weak that it was a wonder it hadn't asunder.

"Edward, what are you doing."

Angie turned and saw that the older guy was on the other side of the room. Apparently he had hit the wall so hard that it had cracked behind him.

"I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE. I WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE THIS!" Edward shouted, pointing his sword in a threatening way.

"Again with this nonsense Edward." The older guy was looking disappointed.

Angie was feeling disheartened. Although she probably had a savior now, it didn't look as if it was going to go well. The older guy seemed unfazed even after being hit so hard. Meanwhile, Edward was fighting with a wooden sword. Although she could feel the strength and power from him. She still doubted him.

However, she pushed all these thoughts aside. She wanted Edward to win because, right now he was her only hope.

"I should have done this ages ago. However, it was due to my own hesitation that I didn't. I had enough of this. Angie, isn't going with you. We are going to go to another place." Edward said.

"That isn't the wise decision. Trust me Angie. Edward had always had a reckless attitude. That's why he's still a one star agent. Believe me, for people like you, me and him, we have nowhere else to go." The older guy said, putting on a warm smile.

However, to Angie it just felt creepy and she didn't want to go anywhere the older guy was taking her.

"Angie, I wouldn't lie to you. It would be tough but, you will be free." Edward said.

"I am going with you Edward." Angie said.

"You are making a big mistake, young man." The older guy said, as his body started to transform more and more into branches.

"I am glad to make this mistake." Edward said, stepping in front of Angie, his sword at his side.

The older guy had completely transformed into a tree. There were so many thorny branches extending from his body that he looked like a weird octopus tree. He also had a face. It was thin with two green eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

The branches flew towards Edward. For a second, Angie felt that Edward was going to be filled with holes. However, the next second he parried away the branches. She was shocked. The wooden which she had thought would break at the slightest pressure was easily clashing against the branches and fending them off.

Even though the branches were coming towards Edward at a very high speed, he was easily able to keep up with it. In fact, no branch ever touched Angie. He was so good that while parrying one of the branches, he would hit it so hard that it would clash with the other branches. Hence, with one strike, he was able to take care of three or four branches.

All this time, Angie was simply looking at Edward's back. Looking at it made her feel safe and reassured. She knew that as long as she kept looking at that back, nothing would hurt her.

The older guy was shocked. Clearly he hadn't expected Edward to be this strong. With another parry, Edward now started to charge towards the older guy. It seemed that he had figured out the older guy's attack pattern and could easily move forward.

"This is not possible." The older guy said, looking extremely shocked as none of his branches were able to hurt Edward. "I am a three star agent."

"I never cared about the ratings." Edward said, bashing away the branches with minimal effort.

The older guy screamed in frustration however, it was the last scream because, at that moment, Edward's sword cleaved through the older guy. His body was cut and fell into two pieces. Edward stabbed the top part of his face and his eyes went from green to black.

Angie was shocked. She was sure that Edward had just killed the guy.

"We need to leave, now. He's not dead yet, it takes a lot more to kill a Lexian than that." Edward explained.

Despite the panic and danger of the situation, Angie still had probably about a thousand of questions.

"Look, I can explain to you everything but, for now we need to leave." Edward said, extending his hand towards Angie who grabbed it.

"Also, make sure to just keep running, no matter what happens."

Angie didn't understand first. However, when she stepped outside, she understood what Edward meant.