Chapter 1
There it was again, the feel of someone gazing down at her in the darkness as she sat in her bedroom windowsill, studying for her upcoming exams. In her line of work, she was used to being constantly observed by her enemies, watching and waiting for her to drop her guard so they could attack and avenge their fallen comrades.
This, of course, was no easy task. Her house was covered in demonic protection ruins, which kept out everything from demons to angels to reapers, unless she invited them in, of course, then the seals altered themselves so they could come and go as they pleased. Of course, there were a few who tended to exploit this courtesy, mainly that over-enthusiastic, stubborn, red-haired reaper.
Back to the matter at hand, she glanced up from her textbooks and stared out into the night. It wasn't hard to spot the glowing red eyes staring at her from the roof of the house across the street. The two stared each other down, neither breaking eye contact. This continued for a few minutes before she let out a sigh, closing her textbooks.
This wasn't the first time she had seen those eyes in the dark. Whoever it was had been watching her for the past years, and at this point, she had accepted it. She had first noticed them after a particularly bloody demon take down late September of last year. She had just finished the take down when she had seen them peering at her from the shadows in the alley.
Exhausted from the previously fought battle, she cast a weak protection spell around herself and fled home, forgetting until the next morning about cleaning up the remains of the battle. They had followed her in the shadows, finally coming to rest atop the house across the street, where they had stayed vigilant every night. She had stopped by the alley on her way to school the next morning, hoping to clean up whatever she could before the cops discovered the scene, but to her surprise, the alleyway was pristine, as if the previous night's events had never happened.
This continued to happen for months before she came to the conclusion that whoever was watching her, they weren't her enemy.
She glanced over at her clock, which read two in the morning. She had been studying for well over eight hours. She knew her sleep habits were atrocious, but she couldn't change them. She was fine, so long as she got at least an hour every night. She had been lucky tonight, a major exam the day after and not a single hunter alert all day. Aside from her shift at work, a decent cafe in the center of town, and her tutoring job, it had been a relatively peaceful day. She glanced at the window, again seeing the eyes which seemed to be staring even more intently.
"I get it," she mumbled, packing her books into her bag,"I'm going to bed, no need to glare at me." These little one-sided, late night conversation had become more and more common as time had passed. Sometimes she would vent to them about a difficult day or a difficult case, or even just try to strike up a conversation that would possibly draw the person behind the gaze closer. Those conversations never worked, much to her sadness.
She wouldn't classify herself as a lonely person, it was just that...she just lacked company. She prevented herself from making friends, except for one rare occasion, and was often worried that if she did, they may get hurt to get to her. As for her family, her parents and three of her four siblings had died when their house had burned down on her fifth birthday, leaving only herself and her brother. The two had been sent to live with their grandmother, who trained her to be the top notch hunter she was today. The training, while improving her skills, caused a large rift in the once invisible bond between her and her brother, the cause of which being that he didn't believe in the beings she was being trained to fight, eventually leading to a large fight that split them.
She had decided to live with her grandmother, who, after passing away on a mission, left her with her shockingly large fortune, which she only touched in emergencies, and the house which she currently resided in alone. Her brother had been hell bent on bringing his sister back to live with him, under the condition that she gave up hunting her imaginary monsters. She refused, though managing to fool her brother into believing that she no longer was a hunter, that she had seen the error of her ways. He struck a deal with her, that so long as she stayed out of trouble and kept an A average, she could live on her own. She agreed and the deal was set, and for the past five years, their deal had been perfect.
Reopening her curtains, having closed them to change, she opened her window for a brief moment. "Good night, whoever you are," she smiled, shutting the window before crawling into her bed, falling asleep in a matter of moments.
From the rooftop across from her house, a figure blinked, letting out an amused chuckled. "Good night, my dear," said a rather smooth male voice with a slight accent. Getting to his feet and stretching out, he continued gazing at her house, thinking to himself, 'Perhaps it's time I introduced myself.'
