Nalda was walking back from school. The streetlights were on and the sun had long disappeared from the horizon. It was only five in the afternoon but it still felt like she was walking in the middle of the night.
In fact she saw a few sketchy figures hanging around alleyway entrances but luckily there were still quite a few people out and about so she wouldn't suddenly get stabbed by some weirdo walking down the street at an inhuman speed.
Yes. She was completely safe, she just needed to walk faster and faster.
She was definitely walking fast because she felt safe and not at all because she could practically feel multiple eyes glaring into her soul.
'Faster. Faster. Faster!'
To be fair, those people glaring was a standard on the Big Thornstreet, especially in house number 26. That guy just glared intensely at every young person.
Nalda could half hear him cursing them for doing better than he was.
She took a deep breath and continued going at maximum walking speed. If she kept going at her current speed she should arrive home in approximately 5 and a half minutes.
She eventually took a turn at the end of the street and finally got out of the Big Thornstreet. The angry gazes that had been following her suddenly disappeared and she could finally breathe without feeling that her entire existence was a crime.
'Why is that old guy so weird? Does he seriously have nothing better to do other than stare people down? If he's so angry that we've got it better than he should start with getting a job! Maybe then his life could turn around for the better.'
Even though she thought that, she'd probably never dare to tell the guy that in the face. She wasn't sure if he'd just stab her and then throw her dead body in a river where chemical waste ended up and then dissolve or if he would just straight up ignore her.
Neither sounded like a desirable outcome so she decided to just cure him in her mind and not think too much of him. He just gave off a weird aura.
Now that she no longer was in the Big Thornstreet she no longer felt the need to walk at maximum speed so she slowed down until she was walking at a regular pace.
Even though she used this street a lot, she never remembered its name because there was nothing that stood out there. It was your average street with rows of houses on either side of the street.
It was a somewhat rich neighborhood. She had heard rumours that a certain celebrity was living in this street but nothing was ever confirmed. Thought said celebrity was recently caught in some sort of drug dealing scandal.
Not that Nalda had any opinions on it. It was none of her business and while she had heard a few songs from that celebrity, she was never a hardcore fan.
It was a bit saddening that that celebrity turned out to be a bad person. The songs that celebrities made were some of the greatest ones of all time. Nobody could deny that celebrity's talent.
It just makes you wonder why every celebrity somehow ends up getting exposed for something so crazy. It wasn't the first or second time something similar happened. It happened so often these days that Nalda has somehow become numb to it.
'Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk. I just need to get home and eat my big sister's delicious soup and homemade spaghetti.'
At the reminder that food was waiting for her at home, she sped up a little.
Or well she tried to but instead slipped because she had stepped on a round object.
"Ach!" Luckily, she managed to avoid her head from hitting the dirty ground by landing on her hands.
She found the culprit of her fall after looking around her for a moment. It was a tiny, round astronaut keychain. The astronaut held up a sign with 'I love space!' on it. Surprisingly it hadn't broken even though she had clearly stepped on it. However, the keychain and keys that were connected to it got dirty.
Nalda frowned when she saw the keys. Maybe she should do a good deed by bringing these keys to someone who lives in the street. They might know who's keys they are.
She began sitting up and reaching for the keys when she paused. She looked at the alleyway entrance and became as white as a sheet. She fell back on her butt her mouth trembling without a single noise coming out of it.
There she saw someone lying and a dark red liquid. They were completely motionless and not even a peep could be heard from them.
The reason why Nalda even looked in the alleyway was because the keys and keychain had a strange tint and smelled a bit too much like iron. That confirmed that the dark red liquid could be nothing else but blood.
The person's eyes were still wide open and their hair was a complete mess. Their hair was long but now it was soaked in blood.
However, that wasn't even the worst part.
What could possibly be worse than funding a body soaked in blood on your way back from school, is what many people would ask. Well the answer was very simple.
That's when the body and blood start to move and twist on their own without any outsider influence. It was such a disgusting sight that if Nalda hadn't been completely overcome with shock, she would have already puked out her lunch.
But then again just discovering the body in a pool of blood had already been enough to make her stomach swarm.
What didn't help were the noises that accompanied it. She could hear the bones pop as they shifted around. She heard the flesh crunch as the body began to change into something that no longer resembled a human being.
In those few seconds between discovering the body and watching it actively change into something else were enough to finally get her voice to work but at the same time the body also stopped shifting.
The shape it had created resembled letters.
While screaming at the top of her lungs she read simple words.
'Do you want to switch positions? You will die in a month if you say no.'