Language: Taglish
Status: Ongoing
Check trigger warnings.

Started: November 2021
Ended: ?

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Prologue

Humanity fucked up big time.

The sound of deep breaths mixing with the sounds of the waves was the only thing that could be heard as the scarlet night slowly faded into daylight.

"We need to get out of here," the man whispered as quietly as he could to his four friends.

They went through hell that night, and their only hope to be saved is for the dawn to come and put an end to the horrors of the night. Yet the night was still long. Before the sunlight could kiss the surface of the earth, the darkness will reign its plague of destruction, and the monsters that dwell in the darkness will emerge.

Not the monsters in bedtime stories to scare children. Actual monsters: flesh eating, horrifying, and real.

"How and where exactly is out in this situation? Dying?" The girl let out an exasperated gasp.

In these dark times, humans are left with no choice but to fear. The very same fear that led them to crave more from their own lands and knowledge until it all turned against them. The fear that led this group of friends in the situation they're in. Inside a shack, slowly freezing from the cold, with fear eating its way into their system just as a monster hungers to devour them.

Outside the shack was the calm ocean — calm amidst the chaos of the land around it. Outside, the moon was shining its radiant light, prolonging their torment.

A cold shiver ran through their spine. It was cold. They could feel the cold breeze and their trickling cold sweat. They couldn't but feel like the night was against them.

The silence was also against them, giving their head enough space to buzz their raging thoughts and helplessness.

The quietness was deceiving. It was almost as if it was just a normal night.

But no.

There hasn't been a single normal night for the last 20 years. This is their lives now, and they have themselves to blame.

They, all five of them, should've known better. They knew it could mean the end of their lives if they came out at night, and yet here they are. They should've known that this isn't their story. This isn't the humans' story anymore. Losing their lives would only be collateral damage for something bigger. It's not a surprise if their demise come soon.

Their fast pacing heartbeats were pounding harder and harder against their chest. When suddenly, a screeching sound echoed throughout the night. Their shaking hands flew to their mouths to suppress their cries.

"Kasalanan mo 'to! This was your idea. Mamatay tayo nang dahil sa'yo!" a girl wearing a pink dress blamed one of them, hyperventilating and pupils dilating. Her pink dress was splashed with blood. She was trembling and all the rationality has left her.

Both of the girls refused to step back and they started to argue with each other. It was quite a sight; fear-stricken friends cursing at each other while a monsters hunts them for it to feast on. Nothing could get any more human.

But their arguing was soon cut off by the weak voice of another girl.

"S-stop! Please, tama na," she begged, her voice trembled, faltering to get weaker. She buried her face into her palms and cried.

"Shit!" She was immediately aided. "Shh, it's okay, Angeline. Ligtas ka. Makaka-alis din tayo dito," the guy next to her assured and held her shoulder. She leaned on his chest as her shoulders shook.

They were obviously getting distracted. They were acting as if they weren't in a life and death situation. But that changed when a sudden scratching sound from the roof of the shack struck as if punishing them for their negligence of the situation.

Their eyes shut tightly and they had to cover their ears because of the ear-splitting sound. The scratching was long, simultaneous and sharp.

The hair on their body rose with the thin sharp sound the scratching was making. It resonated painfully in their ears, creeped inside of their flesh, and struck their stomach like lighting: all in an instant.

They had to bite their lips to stop their cries from escaping.

It lasted for a few minutes. But questionably, moments after the torment, the scratching stopped and a deafening silence once again filled the air.

But it only terrified them more. Their breaths were shallowing. They wanted to cry and get the hell out of there. But it felt endless. 

Then the stillness of the night was once again broken, but this time, with their screams and the metal roof of the shack that crashed to the ground.

Then along with the moonlight, a terrifying being managed to get in.

A creature with no flesh, with huge slits on each sides of its mouth, revealing its sharp teeth covered with the blood of its victims. Its threatening eyes were all white, bleeding as if they were tears. Its gut was open and empty, as if the organs were taken out. It was thrice the size of an average human.

Its appearance itself was enough to send fear into them. It had them stoned to where they stood.

When it started making sounds between an animal-like and human screams, their eyes threatened to blackout.

It started walking towards the girl in the pink dress, letting out a monstrous growl, asserting fear into them and taking all their strength away.

The girl gasped but she only choked on her cries. What could she do? What could anyone do?

The monster was hungry. It made it obvious by the way it was snarling. With its dinner freshly served in front of it, it longed to take a bite.

The girl believed that before she dies, she will have a recollection of her life's memories. But the only thing that her eyes could see was a blurry monster through the tears brimming on the side of her eyes.

She wanted better than this. She deserves to have a decent death, if not, she deserves to live! But fuck! With shaking knees she started taking backwards steps, almost stumbling in attempt to distance herself from the monster.

She looked at her friends to ask for help. But she only cried harder when she realized they didn't even bother to help her. They desperately tried to escape while the monster was distracted. She opened her trembling lips to call for them but no words escaped. Only her pathetic and breathless cries.

She felt a jolt when her back hit the cold wall and her eyes snapped back to the terrifying being. She realized she was already cornered. Hot fluid streamed down her legs as the monster was inching away from her.

It let out a loud growl and ran to her with its claws out. She helplessly shut her eyes. She knew she couldn't escape this anymore. Nobody wanted to save her. Not even her friends. Maybe she did deserve this.

Just one more step and the monster could slash her with its claws and she could see nothing but the darkness with her eyes closed. She thought darkness was the last thing she was going to see before she dies that night.

But her eyes fluttered slowly as her vision was blurry, trying to adjust to being abruptly opened when there was a some kind of... interruption.

Through her blurry vision she could see the unclear image of a girl's side profile. She was covering her right eye while – she thought she saw it wrong – smirking.

She involuntarily shivered.

The girl she's seeing let out a hysterical laugh and it echoed in the room. It was a soft and angelic voice, loud and cold, enough to put a stop to the monster. That laugh brought a cold into the knots of the humans' stomachs.

Now all eyes were on her just as she wanted. Finally.

They watched the girl laugh. It was as if they were being suffocated by the sound of it. Their earlier shallow breathing were now completely taken away from them. What was it that they were feeling?

The laugh. The voice of an angel, but it sounded like the devil itself.

"Angeline?" Luke choked out with a small voice. Confusion was evident in his tone as he stared at the small back of the petite girl. The girl he was comforting as she wept awhile ago. She was gone.

The girl slowly tilted her head back and twisted her neck to face him. Her widening bloodshot eyes darted at him and he saw the crazy smile painted on her lips.

Luke flinched back.

The girl looked so happy despite their situation. A monster that could eat them any moment was about to kill them but she was there, seemingly enjoying it all.

But whatever she was up to, the raging eyes of the monster was already directed at her. It let out a sharp angry growl and the ground trembled because of it. But instead of fear, Angeline faced it with a mocking grin.

The monster took a huge step towards her but before it could come any closer, it stopped and it happened in a blink. Thick red blood splashed on all of their faces.

Then there was silence. Long painful silence.

Everything was so fast, it all happened before their eyes could even register it. And before they knew it, blood sprayed on their faces.

The silence afterwards was so deadly that they could even hear a loud ringing in their ears, with widened unfocused eyes and splashes of blood on their faces.

They could only watch as blood squirted like a fountain out of the monster's beheaded neck, raining down on them. Its head fell on the ground and rolled to their feet. They flinched when the monster's beheaded body fell onto the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut off.

Its blood was all over the shack. But looking on the bright side, it's better than having their blood feasted on by it.

But although the monster was no longer in the picture, their fear intensified.

Now, a wonderful surprise, that before them spread a half of white and black wings piercing through the flesh of Angeline's back. Her clothes tore and her upper body was now in its full glory. She was drenched with the blood from the monster she just killed. Her silky white flesh were tainted by the bold color of red.

Her eyes glowed in blue and her halo was bright gold tinted with black roots. In her hand was a scythe, a fierce weapon that didn't match the innocent face of the girl.

That scythe, it was known to every breathing creature. And it was as if they never really knew the true meaning of fear until her.

She swung the scythe to her back before flying towards the girl in pink who was now staring into space, still not processing how she survived death.

She chuckled, amused by her expression.

The winged girl pressed her bare flesh against the girl in the pink dress and slowly licked the blood on her cheeks as if it was delectable that way. She didn't react, instead, her mouth gaped.

The silence was then disrupted by the winged girl's enticing and dangerously honeyed voice, "Angel of the Fallen Misfits, Ithuriel, has successfully eliminated the Outcast," she said, licking her lips.

"You're a monster," Luke was the first to react among them. His weak knees slowly slipping down the ground.

She once again let out a sweet laugh before fluttering her wings. Then she flew away. Leaving them with the memory of the night where death was a lot closer to them than they thought.

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Happy reading <33

Scarlettear_