"Thanks for the good work!"

"No problem! See you tomorrow!"

With his farewell to the manager, Ezreal's evening-to-midnight shift at the corner shop came to a close. With the ring of a bell, the doors slid open, and Ezreal stepped out into the empty nighttime streets, bags in each hand carrying tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch, and headed home. Despite being a good half an hour away from his apartment, his exhausted mind already had his night planned out: microwave his frozen dinner, consider cleaning his room, sleep, and maybe try to start studying for that math test tomorrow.

Yeah, right. As if I need to study for math, of all things.

Reinvigorated with an air of cockiness and self-assurance, both of which were for good reason, Ezreal began his walk back home, noting that there wasn't a single soul in sight, no matter which direction he looked. This wasn't very surprising, for living in the northern district of Valoran City meant being in the proximity of the prestigious Valoran Academy. As such, most residents in the area were students of the school and their families, neither of whom have much reason to go out and about at midnight. The only real "attraction" in the area for visitors was the gorgeous and expansive Valoran City Park, but even that place was deserted after the sun sets. The liveliest place in the district by day, with the flip of a switch, would become completely devoid of people by night.

The urban legends of the park being dangerous at night may have also played a role in its nightly vacancy.

The complete absence of company didn't exactly bother Ezreal. On the contrary, he welcomed his nightly promenades as time alone – time to collect his thoughts by himself. With a daily school life that he can only describe as "hectic," followed by a rather lengthy shift at his corner store job, this walk home was really the only time each day when he can let his mind inconsequentially wander. Wander to topics like himself, his lifestyle, his aspirations, and…

...and my dream to see the world...

Before his reveries could progress any further, Ezreal noticed something strange for the first time. Ahead in the distance, on his usual route home, he spotted flashing blue and red lights. A bit more walking later, and he made out the lights to be the lights of police cruisers and ambulances. He saw the scattered ends of yellow tape on orange cones, and he knew that a giant mess was sitting between him and home.

Ezreal grimaced. He was pretty confident that had this occurred any other night, his piqued curiosity would have gotten the better of him, imploring him to walk onto the scene and see everything for himself, until he got kicked out. Today, however, was exceptionally long, and Ezreal just wanted to get home with as little hassle as possible. A cursory glance told him it was a crime scene, so there was no doubt he would be detained as a witness should an officer spot him.

Turning heel, he decided to take a small detour… and walk right through the city park.

Bad idea, the back of Ezreal's mind told him, but he honestly didn't really care. Urban legends were just legends, and he wasn't such a wimp that he'd be afraid to take a walk in the dark alone. He just wanted to get home, eat some food, and go to sleep, all as soon as possible.

Five minutes later, a good distance into the park, Ezreal began to register that something felt very, very wrong. The air was cold. It has only been a month into the school year, so he should be experiencing the fair-weather temperatures of mid-spring. But right now, he could barely control his arms from shivering and his teeth from chattering. Whenever he exhaled, a foggy mist would escape, indicative of December climate, and not early May. Knitting his brows and feeling thoroughly disturbed, Ezreal quickened his pace, determined to get through this bizarre place as fast as he could.

"Kkkkgggrrrraaaoooggghhhhh…"

And then he heard it. It was an otherworldly noise, a gargle that sounded of an emanation from hell. It was equal parts a growl, laugh, roar, moan, and snarl, and hearing it just once chilled Ezreal to the bone. Hairs standing on end, he turned his attention to the source. It came from beyond a bush and treeline. Ezreal slowly and soundlessly walking over to take a look, his damned curiosity somehow inescapably grasping him at the worst of times, hunching over to remain hidden as long as possible. With every step, the demonic sounds got louder, clearer, and more frequent. A wet slurping sound also became apparent as he approached the bushes.

After what seemed like an eternity, Ezreal finally reached the bush line, and peeking over, he saw an image beyond a sane man's comprehension.

Before even processing what he saw, all his other senses went into overdrive. The stench of burnt and rotting flesh bombarded his nose, his tongue tingled from the metallic taste of blood in the air, and the pores all over his body were pervaded by an immediate, intangible, and concentrated miasma of fear, evil, and death. Finally, his mind catching up to his eyes, he saw two monsters hunched over the broken corpse of a child, likely no older than eight years old, and they were feeding. One was a massive worm with four limbs, its gaping maw tearing through the corpse's left leg, with caustic fluids spilling out with every swing of its telescoping tongue. The second was a giant mantis, with forelimbs ending in wicked, elongated blades, wings occasionally flapping on its back.

Recoiling in fear at the traumatizing and gruesome sight, Ezreal fell back, landed on the gravel path, and let out a short scream of terror. Hearing the noise, the mantis turned to him, and then leaped forward and vanished.

Oh, fu-!

Ezreal knew that if he stayed sitting there, he was going to die. That vanishing bug had no doubt had its crosshairs trained on him, and it was going to kill him. He immediately dropped his bags of food, turned, and ran through the towards the crime scene from earlier harder than he ever ran in his entire life. Some part of him was hoping beyond hope that the authorities will somehow manage to deal with an invisible, flying, alien, as absurd as it seemed. The trees and his fear must have massively disoriented his normally flawless spatial awareness and sense of direction, for when he emerged back on the asphalt roads of the residential area streets, there was not a single officer in sight. All that greeted him was an apartment complex, whose residents were likely all asleep with locked doors at this time of night. Ezreal began to despair, if only for a moment.

"No…! Not yet…!" he cried, still unwilling to surrender to his fate.

Without thinking, he ran into the alleyways between buildings, and towards the dumpsters. He realized that he was likely cornering himself, but there really was no other escape path, and he was grasping at the vain hope that he might be able to hide amongst the garbage in the alley.

And then a white-hot, burning sensation exploded along his entire back.

"Aaaaggggghhhhh!" Ezreal cried out in pain, as his entire backslide got cleaved nearly in two by the extended blade-arm of the monster. His knees buckled as he tumbled forward, face unceremoniously hitting the pavement beneath him. All of his energy, due to the injury, got sapped from his body as he laid prone and motionless on the ground like a stringless marionette, terminating any chance of him escaping. And surviving.

Lifting his head just enough to see in front of him, Ezreal saw the long, clawed, green legs of the monster that slashed him in the back re-emerge from some hole in space. The rapid blood loss had already made him far too delirious to question the surreal abilities of his predator, and whatever thought he had left were interrupted by the wracking pain in his body every time he choked up blood with each attempt to breath.

Man, this sucks.

Sensing the monster stalk up to him, Ezreal turned his head to the side and closed his eyes, adrenaline the only thing keeping him conscious. And with a long exhale befitting of an old man in his twilight years, he resigned himself to death.

Ah, I feel cold...

Fully knowing he was going to die, and in a world of simultaneous and conflicting pain and numbness, Ezreal's lips turned up into a melancholy smile as he felt strangely peaceful for the first time in a long time. His life, he decided, was a good one. If he had one single regret, it would be that he never…

I never did get to…

For Ezreal, what was supposed to be his final train of thought also went interrupted, for he heard a loud blast emanate from the alleyway entrance. Then he felt a searing ball of heat fly over him, a temporary reprieve from his dropping body temperature and the freezing air, and smash into the monster. Ezreal used the last ounce of his strength to will his eyes open and once again lift his head, trying to figure out what exactly happened in the past second, and what was supposed to be the last second of his life. If he had any capacity for reaction left, he would've been shocked to see the charred, burning remains of what was going to be his killer, laying haphazardly by the dumpsters in front of him. With the threat of his killer removed, all the adrenaline seemed to have subsided at once, and he instantly began to black out.

In his last waking moment, Ezreal heard a set of footsteps and the floating pieces of conversation carried by the familiar yet unplaceable voices of four females.

"…hri… go… surroundings... more..."

"...Sor… heal…"

"What… do… him? …strange…"

"I …take care … him. …watch …closely…"

"Yes, indeed. The First Star has spoken."

And Ezreal's consciousness finally gave way.