Chapter 6: Path Chosen

"If you got cold feet now then let's stop this non sense" The girl said and was about to leave when I stopped her.

I know I heard her completely right and I was surprised to what she just said but getting a cold feet right now is not an option. I need to have a contract with her no matter what.

"You really wanted to do it that badly?" The girl sighed.

"I already warned you but..." before she could even complete what she was going to say, I stopped her by making her provoked by my words.

"I thought shadows are evil and if you are one of them, why are you trying to reject an offer to a human if they are a potential prey for you"

She raised her right eye brow and looked at me with a furious look.

"Look, here" she was trying to reason out. "I'm not like some dumb sh*t you can find in the street. I am a shadow if you want a proof I can even kill you right now. Provoking me is not a best option for you." She got mad from what I said earlier.

"Then have a contract with me" she got enough to all of my chattering and finally gave up.

"Fine" she grabbed my head and looked at me with an intense look.

"And so you know, shadows like to eat human when they are still alive not when they're dead" she said and her eyes changed to red.

I slowly loss conscious and didn't know what happens next.

When I opened my eyes, I saw myself in an unfamiliar place.

The place is filled with dark fogs and it seems like I'm in a place where no humans are allowed to.

As I stood up and tried to investigate this place, I heard a weeping noise from behind.

I turned around and looked at the kid who is crying.

The little boy is covering his face so I don't know if he's just making that noise to make me go to his ways or not.

I didn't sympathize with the kid and started to get going. I don't want anyone to bother so I left him behind.

It's already an hour since I was searching for an exit to this place but I can't see any signs of it. It's like I'm only walking to an endless loop of paths. And I also can't figure out what kind of place is this.

I stopped to take some rest because my feet are so tired from walking.

I tried to figure out why I'm in this kind of deserted place.

I also tried remembering everything before this happened but I can't remember any single thing.

As I was resting, I didn't notice that the place in front of me is started to fill with people.

I stood up and went towards them.

I noticed when I walked to them, there's no eyes that can be seen in them. Their mouths are opened and there body is so thin that I think there's no flesh inside of it.

"Creepy" I mumbled to myself and just walked across them because I think they are not the right people to ask any way to find the exit.

When I successfully crossed the horde of the thousands of people, I saw a black nine tailed fox sleeping inside the cage. I noticed that the fox is crying in its sleep.

My body acted on its own not knowing why I was trying to open the cage.

It's hard to open the cage because I can't even bulge it to move.

After successfully opening the cage, the black nine tailed fox woke up and when it saw me, he went outside the cage and suddenly becoming a large beast.

I was just there, staring at the horrifying beast in front of me and don't know why my body is not reacting to it.

It started to howl loudly and my eardrums started to hurt but no matter how I tried to move my arms, I can't cover my ears to protect it from the noise.

"Urgghh.. stop"

When the beast in front of me heard my cries, it stopped from howling.

Its terrifying face move closely to mine and heard it sniffed its nose smelling my scent.

The fox's mouth opened and readied itself to eat me.

I was afraid of what was going next but the moment its mouth is already in my head, I snapped and realized what I have done earlier and fight back with words.

"Hey, I'm the one who let you out from the cage so why do you want to eat your own saviour" I was ranting things that I don't even know if the fox understands me.

The fox that is was supposed to eat me stopped and came back to its original form.

This original form of the fox is cute but the color is not matching to it.

The fox cuddled itself. I calmed him down by throwing words I don't know that it would be so effective.

I heard the weeping noise again from the kid I saw earlier.

I turned around to look and the kid is still covering his face.

"Why did you abandon me" he said while still crying.

He put his hands down and then I saw my little brother.

"Leone?" I was confused to see my brother in this place.

"Why are you here?" I asked him but the only answer I get was.

"You abandoned me and then you dared to question me!" my borther shouted at me.

"Wait... I didn't knew you are...." I didn't complete my sentence when the fox earlier chomped the head of my brother.

"No!" I was dumbfounded and don't know what is going on.

My head is not processing the way it should have.

My tears started to fall as I ran towards my brother's headless corpse.

"Why did you do this!" I shouted to do fox in front of me but it was just licking one of his tails.

"You..." I didn't finish my sentence when I saw a large mouth coming out from the headless corpse of my brother readied to eat his meal.

It happened so fast.

I was ready to die at that moment. I didn't expect for myself to be deceived by someone who is not even my real brother. I was controlled by my emotions and I don't know how to react anymore.

The fox quickly ran towards me and pushed me away to that monster to save me.

The fox changed its form and did not hesitate to eat the monster in front of it.

I heard the crunch noise as he chomped the monster.

I was sitting behind of it, not doing anything, just watching him eating the monster.

I saw a black smoke flowing out from the fox's body and slowly deflated into a small creature.

After the smoke was gone, a girl appeared and no fox can be seen anymore. She has a long frilly hair. She is also naked and covered with blood.

She turned around and looked at me without any expression seen from her face.

She went towards me and leaned towards my face, examining me.

I gulped because her face is so near and one little mistake and our lips will definitely met.

After examining, she whispered words that made me came up to realization.

"Shadows are scary, right?" after whispering those words, I came back from reality and woke up from my bed, seeing the girl in that dream beside me.

"You're already back?" she said and I was just looking at her trying to supress my headache.

"You can see me right?" she asked but all I answered to her is "Who are you?" still trying to make myself ease the pain from my head.

I heard her laugh but I didn't react because I'm focusing to my headache.

"You shouldn't forget the shadow you have contracted with" she said grinning at you.

"I'm Charlotte and for now on, I'll be your shadow for the rest of your life"

The dream I had is not really a dream. It was a nightmare that most of the shadows imagined for the humans. It shows how you should decide the path you are going to, It's either life or death.

Further in the path I chose, I discovered the real meaning why that simulation was chosen for me. 

----- End of Chapter 6

Updated: November 6, 2018

(Not edited)