"Onii, I'm heading out!" a feminine voice echoed throughout the halls of a house of two.

"Have fun, Amaya!" a distant masculine voice called out in reply.

The woman named Amaya put on her leather jacket before walking out of her house. She was to be nineteen years old in four months. She had long brown hair cascading down to her lower back. She wore a white shirt underneath her jacket along with jeans and trainers. She strode to her motorcycle, put on her helmet, and rode all the way to a nearby park. She didn't come for the park, however. The woman walked passed all the other people visiting the same venue and continued all the way to a nearby forest. She spent nearly all of her alone time there. She didn't have many friends because she was homeschooled all her life so she had a lot of alone time.

She took in the scenery and breathed deeply. She walked across the landscape aimlessly, occasionally slowing down to look at various beautiful wildlife. She felt the warm summer breeze blow on her body. She put a hand in front of her face to block out the sunlight let through by the canopy. She usually did this whenever she was stressed to clear her head but this time, she came for no reason but to enjoy the weather.

After almost an hour of walking, Amaya sat down on a fell tree to let her feet rest. There was a small spring nearby and the sound of the flowing water helped her relax. She would've taken a dip too but she didn't bring any spare clothes this time. She closed her eyes and let the her body relax. She then heard something rustling nearby. She opened her eyes immediately. It was windy but the wind was too weak to make a the bushes rustle so much.

She heard the rustling again and turned her head to the source of the sound. Before she found it, the rustling stopped. She looked around again but with a narrower search field this time. Nobody usually went this deep into the forest and even if people were there, they certainly didn't hide among the plants. She then saw one of the bushes rustle before it stopped. She slowly stepped toward it, trying not to alert whoever or whatever was hiding. She gingerly took one step, two, three, four. At that moment, a rabbit jumped out of the bush. The woman sighed in relief that it wasn't anything threatening. Her phone then rang, scaring the rabbit away. She pulled it out and saw the name "Tetsuya-onii."

"Hello?" she greeted.

"Amaya, are you on your way home?" her brother asked.

Her brows furrowed in confusion. "Was just about to head on home. Why do you ask?"

"I need you to pick up some parts for me," Tetsuya replied.

Her brows knitted together even further. Her brother wasn't the type of person to get other people to do things for him, especially his sister. "Sure but why can't you do it? You always make time to do things like this."

"Not this time," the man on the other side of the phone started, "I feel like I'm close to a breakthrough and I can't afford to waste a single second."

Amaya's expression relaxed. A smile settled onto her face. Her brother was excited. He seldom got that way but it was always nice whenever he did. "You can definitely afford it. Not like anyone's paying you to do this."

"You know what I mean," Tetsuya sighed, "I'll send you the location. Bye."

"See you at home." The woman then promptly hanged up. She checked her messages and sure enough, the pick-up location was there. She started walking all the way back to the park. Despite always going deep into the forest, she never got lost.

Before she could take more than ten steps, something jumped out of the thicket. She turned around and immediately wished she had just ran away. The creature in front of her was definitely not human. Not like any animal she had ever seen either. The creature before her was a monster. It was covered in green scales. It had frills extending from the sides of its head to the bottom of its neck. It had sharp claws on its fingers and toes and a long tail swishing around. Its eyes were a deep shade of red and it had no nose, just two nostrils. Its mouth was open, exhibiting its sharp teeth and long tongue. The weirdest part was that it had two red parallel markings running from where eyebrows should've been, over its eyes, down to its chest, all the way to the bottom of its shin.

Amaya's body froze up, she couldn't will her body to move. Her knees were trembling and were getting weaker to the point that she could barely stand. She could feel her heart banging against her chest as if it was trying to break free. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead and tears threatened to fall.

The creature took one step forward and hissed after a few tense seconds. It was now time for fight or flight. Not being one to go down easily, the woman's brain chose to fight. She threw a punch at the creature's right eye but it caught her wrist before the attack vould connect. She threw another fist at its nostrils but was blocked just as easily. It tightened its grip on Amaya's wrists while she shouted in pain. She could feel her bones threatening to break. The creature dug its claws into her skin, making her pain all the more agonizing. It then pulled its head back and smashed it against the woman's own, sending her to the ground with a bleeding forehead.

She struggled to keep her eyes open. She was slipping in and out of consciousness. She saw glimpses of the green monster coming closer to her before straddling her body. Her eyes were wide open now. The creature's mouth opened just as widely as it out its clawed hands on her neck. Amaya put her hands on its shoulders to try and keep it away but it was all for naught. The monster's face kept coming closer. It licked her face. She almost vomited because of the foul smell. The creature hissed one final time before trying to eat the woman's face off. Before it could do so, a foot snapped it's head backwards and sent its whole body sprawling to the ground.

Amaya's vision began to darken. Her recent lack of air pushed her closer to unconsciousness. Before her world fully became black, she saw big red eyes looking back at her before their owner turned back towards the monster.

However, in her complete darkness, she kept hearing her name.

"Amaya… you worry… got you..." The voice was not something she recognized but somehow, it felt familiar.

"Amaya… hold…" The voice began to change, becoming even more familiar.

"Amaya… up…" Now she was sure about the owner of the voice.

"Amaya!"

Her eyes shot open. She snapped up to a sitting position, still wary of the monster that was so close to killing her. She looked at her surroundings and found no signs of said monster. She then saw her brother's worried face and immediately calmed down.

"Onii? Where am I? What happened?" the woman asked.

Tetsuya breathed a sigh of relief. He was twenty four years old, just five years older than Amaya but worried about his sister like a parent. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and replied, "You are in your room just in case you're too dazed to notice." He chuckled at the thought but his expression darkened not a second later. "As for that second question, you tell me. What happened? Someone knocked on the door and when I opened it, I saw you with near broken wrists and a cracked skull. Good thing we have contacts with the best doctors in town or I wouldn't know what to do."

The injured lady then remembered that she was saved by… she didn't really know who or what saved her. It could've been another monster judging from the eyes but then why would they save her instead of eating her like what that other creature intended to do? She tried to remember what her savior looked like but the only thing she could remember was their big red orbs.

She turned to her brother and inquired, "Did you catch a glimpse of who or what brought me back here?"

Tetsuya scratched the back of his head and looked out the window. "No. By the time I answered the door, only you were there. I'm not as worried about who it was as much as I'm worried about how they know you live here."

Amaya went back to her thoughts. She left her ID with the motorcycle because she didn't want anything on her person during her forest bathing session so they couldn't have found that. Maybe it was somebody they knew or at least somebody who knew them. But then again, she didn't know anybody with pure red eyes. Maybe they were just wearing a costume but who in their right mind would wear a costume in the middle of the forest?

"Onii, where's my motorcycle?"

Her brother's eyes went back to her. "Whoever brought you here didn't bring it back with them," he responded, "We can go get it later. For now, tell me what happened."

The lady took a deep sigh. "You're not gonna believe any of this."

"Try me."

"Okay, here goes."