Dry leaves rustled and drifted across the newly paved road as if to clear away the path she was taking, keeping it nice and clean. She felt it unnecessary for the world to be treating her like some royal princess walking down the aisle for her coronation after what just happened. Ten minutes ago, she'd come out of the dorm triumphantly, filled with pride and satisfaction only to be hit by a truckload of what was called regret. Apparently, her rusty brain hadn't given her a clue on where exactly she was supposed to go after getting kicked out. Next time, we think before we act, Zen, she scolded herself.

Irritatedly slinging her backpack over her shoulder and dragging a blue trolley behind her, Zen ventured aimlessly, waiting for a sign or for some really kind stranger to take pity on her miserable condition and, hopefully, offer to adopt her. She laughed scornfully, amused her gunk-loaded mind could come up with such ridiculous theories when all she should be doing right now was hunt down a place to stay for the night, which didn't seem to be happening.

It was starting to feel like all the bad luck in the world had a gathering and decided to rent her body until their whole trip was over. And, as if being kicked out and having no place to stay wasn't enough, her phone battery just had to die at the worst possible timing. It would've taken her no more than a millisecond to answer her worried roommates' calls who'd promised earlier to send help but because she'd forgotten, once again, to charge her phone, nothing was going the way she planned. Not only was her day ruined, she also had the life sucked out of her body, plus her pea-sized brain didn't seem to be functioning at the moment. It felt as though her entire existence no longer served any purpose, just like a car without an engine, impractical and utterly useless.

This isn't the end of the world, Zen. Keep going. Think. Think. There must be at least someone out there who could give you a hand. And that was when it clicked. She had someone. There was Kate - her schoolmate, her friend, her paisan, her cousin. Why didn't she think of her? Pulling out her phone, Zen immediately went on to dial Kate's number, but her senseless brain forgot to remind her yet again that her phone was dead. Just great. Zen groaned in agony. The sun was dipping below the horizon, and sooner or later the sky would be soaked in black ink and there was no way in hell she was sharing the night on the streets with the stray hounds. She shuddered at the thought.

Zen squinted her eyes to check the time on her wristwatch. It was just a quarter past five, which meant she had plenty of time to sort out her situation. It didn't matter to inform her cousin she was coming. If she recalled it correctly, her cousin's apartment happened to be just a ten-minute walk from her university.

So, there was hope, after all. Someone up there really did answer her prayers. Thank you, God. With her hope restored and mood suddenly lifted, Zen decided to walk to Kate's apartment. She had just taken a few steps, however, when she spotted something that looked like a four-legged creature with a tail approaching her from the front, and was that a torn leash dangling from its neck? Shit! A dog?! If there was one thing in the world that didn't appeal to Zen, it was dogs. She hated dogs. She had awful memories from childhood, memories she wanted to forget. Every single time she encountered a dog, it didn't fare well for her.

Wheeling her head right and left, Zen searched for a way to escape from the dog that happened to be intently watching her every move. In such circumstances, she would've faced the horrid animal bravely had the dog been a small harmless one like a Pomeranian, for example, but definitely not that devilish looking bull that was staring at her with all the smugness in the world as if to tell her it was going to devour her soul in the next second. The situation wasn't looking good, and she knew things were about to take a turn for the worst.

Zen took three slow steps backwards, observing, testing, and calculating the movements of the vile, disgusting creature. She could hear the sound of a slot machine within her head, presenting her with two choices: Fight or Flight, and ding-dong, it was ridiculously obvious which option she chose.

Zen had never run a marathon in her life but the circumstances were proving otherwise. The seemingly provoked animal was hot on her tail, and there was no one nearby to save her. Trees, trees and more trees greeted her on the road but not a single human soul. It wasn't her fault her university was one of the biggest in the nation and had like a hundred distinct roads that led to a thousand different destinations.

To save herself from all the shame and pity after being kicked out of the dorm, she'd taken an abandoned road where hardly anybody visited, where hardly anybody would see her only to encounter a mad beast from the land of doom. She wouldn't be surprised if she found a straw doll resembling her with a strand of her hair embedded inside it, convinced that some sick psychopath out there had nothing better to do and was wasting his time casting voodoo spells on her.

The barking intensified and Zen felt her heart would stop beating any second. She was out of breath; her legs were beginning to feel numb from all the running and the only thing she could do now was curse every living entity on the planet, specifically that rich dog owner who could spend money on expensive treats to raise the dog till it became the size of a mountain but couldn't even buy a strong enough leash to hold it in place.

For a moment, Zen thought of throwing her luggage full of clothes and the heavy backpack on her shoulders so she could run faster but remembered she was dirt poor and couldn't afford to become a beggar on the streets if her belongings were stolen or worse, lost in the wild chase. But not all hope was lost for she saw an abandoned building up ahead. Lo and behold, a shelter to protect thy spirit from all evil. Just a little more and she'd be saved.

The door slammed shut with a bang. Zen collapsed to the floor, exhaling a sigh of relief. She could hear barking outside, but she didn't care anymore. She was safe, and that was all that mattered. Breathing heavily, she flicked her head to the side, looking out the cloudy glass pane fitted beside the door. She saw the brown furred creature sniffing around the area before finally settling itself down near the abandoned building's front entrance. Looks like I won't be getting out of here anytime soon. Then so be it. It was a test for who had the most patience now. And she was not leaving the place until that dog disappeared from her sight.

Pulling her legs to her chest, Zen rested her head on her knees, tired and exhausted.

-~-

"We're leaving now. Thanks for the drinks, Raine."

"Ah."

The voices startled her wide awake. Had she fallen asleep? Way to go, Zen, she scolded herself with sheer disappointment. For how many hours was she asleep anyway? She wasn't the type to fall asleep anywhere and at any time; she was more responsible than this. How could she let this happen to her?

It was eerily dark when she got up and took a roundabout look at her surroundings. I can't see anything. Of course, you can't, it's night-time, genius, her brain yelled back. But seems like the dog is gone.

"Get up both of you. Let's go... These two are totally wasted. Damn it."

Her hair stood on end when she heard the voices. She wasn't alone in the abandoned building. Though she couldn't see anything in detail, she could spot a staircase adjacent to where she was standing. There were people on the first floor. But what were they doing there inside an abandoned building? And why on earth did her university have so many deserted buildings on campus anyway?

"Hey, Raine?" Zen closely listened to the voice.

"Yeah."

"I need to get these two to my apartment. They can't go back to the dorm like this. Will you be fine on your own?"

There appeared to be four of them up there. Were they students from her university? Zen was dying to know what they were talking about yet, at the same time, was scared to go upstairs and investigate. What if they turned out to be bad people and attacked her? Or worse, what if they were rapists? She immediately covered her mouth with the palm of her hands. She wasn't afraid of ghosts, in fact, it had always been her dream to have an encounter with a real ghost someday, but when it came to rapists, it was an entirely different story. She was terrified of them.

"Yeah. Just go."

"What about you? It's nearly 11 pm."

What the fu-, Zen stopped herself from cursing out loud. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. 11 pm? She had been out for that long? I'm sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but I'm so desperate here, she said to herself as if another part of her would answer back to ease all her worries.

"I can go back home. My parents are away on a business trip."

"Is it nearby?"

"Mm."

"Will you be alright? You seem pretty drunk."

"Kai. I'm fine. Just go."

"Okay... I guess this time we'll take the stairs instead of jumping through the window like how we came up," the person muttered.

The sound of tottering footsteps echoed in the old building. Zen immediately gathered her belongings off the dusty floor and dashed under the stairwell to conceal herself. A wave of relief washed over her when she saw three figures leave through the door.

Five minutes later, she gathered her stuff to leave but came to a halt when she heard a noise coming from above. The sound of ruffling clothes, clinking of glasses, and an irritated groan reached her ears. She'd assumed everyone had left but someone seemed to be up there still, and whoever he was making all those noises didn't seem to be doing well on his own.

As much as Zen dreaded running up the stairs to access the situation, her legs told her otherwise. In the blink of an eye, she found herself standing on the first floor right in front of a young man who had his feet sprawled wide apart on the dirty ground with his head sunk low. The moonlight was the only source of light in the area. Four empty bottles of alcohol lay undisturbed beside him. The man was as drunk as a skunk.

If there was any humanity left in her, she wouldn't abandon this poor guy. "Hey, are you okay?" Zen called out and immediately regretted her decisions. She had this unhealthy habit of poking her nose into other people's affairs -now a drunkard of all people - when it didn't require her to. And as a result, would often get herself tangled up in their messy affairs and in the end, incarcerate herself. She thought she'd left this habit in high school but nope, it had been sitting in silence all for this moment.

"Who are you? Are you one of Kai's friends?" the man asked.

"No. Who's Kai?"

"Strange. I don't recall you drinking with us," he continued, trying to get up once again and failing miserably.

Like the kind angel she was, she hurried in to help the poor man who looked to be the same age as her in getting to his feet. "I'm just a nobody. Let me help you," Zen said. It had taken all her strength to lift his body off the ground without losing her balance in the process. She took a step back to support his weight but, unfortunately - blame it on her poor luck or some malign force that was at play - stumbled over an empty bottle that just had to be lying around at the exact same spot where she tripped, as if it knew she was heading in that direction and was secretly scheming to punish her for reasons unknown.

"Ah!" Zen screamed, reeling back together with the man until her waist hit the railing behind. Just as she exhaled a breath of relief, she turned her head back from the side but was not prepared for what she saw next. Her eyes were unconsciously drawn to his lips that were mere centimetres from her own.

Whoever he was, he had the most alluring lips she had ever seen in a man.

Streaks of moonlight filtered through the glass window above, and like a skilled painter painted his face with a gentle stroke of its brush, leaving her awestruck with the soul-gripping masterpiece. Midnight black hair in a ragged undercut style streamed down his head with front bangs obscuring half of his face.

The guy was an embodiment of a summer storm, with a tinge of spice thrown in for good measure.

"Fuck," the man cursed, snapping her back to reality.

Zen rapidly blinked her eyes, her mind unable to come up with an explanation to wrap up the feelings she felt for the strange and majestic individual.

"I'm feeling dizzy," he said, his body swaying and leaning backwards.

Zen clung to the man's sleeves in a desperate attempt to keep him from falling, but for a man who had an athletic body and a height that could pass for a model, his weight was too much for a petite girl like her to handle. She eventually fell on top of him, her lips dangerously crashing into his unexpectedly soft ones.

For a moment, time froze until she realized the position they were in. Her left hand lay flat on the ground while her body was sprawled on top of him like a lizard looking for prey and her other hand seemed to have unconsciously wandered farther down an intriguing part of the man's body and had invaded a very private property that should've otherwise been closed off to strangers.

"Get off of me," the man shouted, shoving her away from his body.

Shocked, frightened and guilt-stricken, Zen abruptly stood up and apologised repeatedly. "I'm really sorry. I was just trying to help."

"Stop with your excuses. You think I don't know what you're trying to do," he yelled at her angrily.

"What?"

"This is why I hate gays like you."

Wait, what? Hold up. Rewind.

"Gay? Me?" Zen pointed a finger to herself, taken aback by the accusation.

"Yes. You. Just so you know, I'm not gay. You think you can take advantage of me when I'm drunk?" He wobbled to his feet and then glared at her with full intensity.

"Excuse me," Zen tried to appease him. "You got me all wrong. I'm not-"

"Shut up!"

The words instantly struck a nerve. Zen's once calm and collected face was replaced by a murderous scowl. "How dare you raise your voice at me? I don't even know you!"

"I don't know you either. Stop bothering me."

"I tried to help-"

"You tried to take advantage of me, you worthless gay."

I can't, with this guy and his obnoxious attitude. Zen darted her eyes towards the ceiling, hands gripping her waist in fury. The thought of hitting the guy in the face and breaking his entire front set of teeth felt very tempting, but she had so many problems piling up at the moment and didn't want to stack more on top of what was already there.

"Listen here, you homophobic asshole." What's the use of being handsome if he's worth only this much? Zen pointed a finger at him. "I'm not gay. I was just-"

"You're gay. Don't you look at yourself in the mirror?"

"Stop cutting me off!"

"You're just ooomfhhghh-"

"Don't tell me you're about to throw up right now?" Horror was written all over Zen's face at the possible upcoming disaster. "Don't get close to me," she yelled, but her words fell on deaf ears.

The man stumbled in her direction, almost as if he was intentionally aiming for her. Trapped and frozen on the spot, Zen watched wide-eyed as the man seized her shoulders, and without giving her any time to prepare, he puked his intestines out all over her tiny body, showing no remorse for his sickening misconduct. Zen could only close her eyes and wince in disgust, and would continue to do so until that supposedly warm welcome gesture from the homophobic stranger was over. She should never have come here in the first place. Curse that dog, curse that warden, curse that bottle, curse everything!

"That's enough!" Zen shouted, pushing the man who later fell on his butt. And without a word, she spun on her heel and skipped down the stairs, quickly grabbed her things and dashed out of the building.

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The first part of the story is complete, guys. Please let me know what you think of the story, the characters.

Do you guys like Zenjee? What do you think about Raine? I'd love to know.

If this story was interesting for you, please do leave some feedback. I don't care if they're criticisms. Hope this was a fun read for everyone.