C1 I ran into you somehow

"In the beginning, the world was ruled by three Gods, the god Seth also known as the god of men, created humans and placed them on the face of the earth. The goddess Alectrona is also known as Lady Luna who created the shape-shifting werewolves and placed them on the face of the earth, the god Sin who created bird-like shapeshifters who he called Avian..."

"Aren't Avian the same thing as angels?"

A classmate of mine interrupted our professor's lesson, causing the old man to walk closer to his seat, Professor Zhou pressed his glasses with a finger upward his face stopping the glass from falling off his nose then he spoke

"Avians, Mr. Edward is nothing like angels" he began "The Avians could not only shapeshift to birds but to manipulate their anatomy and sprouting out wings, large enough and strong enough to kill a human with one strike, they are the smartest out of the three beings created by the Gods"

"Smart or not they have all gone into extinction – seems to me humans are the smartest one," my classmate said causing the class of over a hundred students to burst into laughter, everyone but me

"Extinction?" Professor Zhou question, walking back to the blackboard "No, no" he picked up a chalk and drew a large circle on the board "This he points" in the world" then he draws a straight line dividing the circle in half "The being the god Sin and goddess Alectrona created started to haunt humans for sport, you see humans are ordinary, we weren't given strength like the werewolves or brains like the Avian. We weren't given to shapeshift or transform from our form to something different, something more powerful making us the weakest prey" Professor Zhou explained " The god Seth understood this and understood that if care wasn't taken the human race will go extinct so he, Alectrona and Sin decided to divide the world into two equal parts, giving Seth and humans one side while both werewolves and Aviran's shared one part sealing off the connection to both worlds"

I could feel the goosebumps go down my skin as my face tightens at the information

"Does this mean that there's another world where this creature resides?" another of my classmate asked

"Yes"

Professor Zhou is flooded with questions from all angles of the class while I sat with my stomach tied up in a knot. Unlike everyone I knew these creatures were real, I had the scar on my shoulder to prove it so the question I had in my mind wasn't the authenticity of their existence but how to find them

How to close whatever boundary or whatever door to find them

"Aayla" The professor calls my name and the class goes silent, I feel all eyes on me my chest tights, and pounds controllably "What is your question?"

"I-" I stutter

I had no idea I had raised my hands, calling for his attention, I quickly placed my hands down and cleared my throat, reciting the question over and over again in my hand. I had glossophobia - a fear of speaking in public, to be honest, I had a lot of phobias that it was difficult to stand up from my bed and leave my house every day, and sometimes I just want to hide and never come out but I couldn't do that

...Because of my dad

I needed to find the truth so I held my breath and answered the professor

"How- how can I get to the other side?"

I feel the stares on me intensify, causing my head to spin. The stares made me feel so uncomfortable I would do anything to not be here right now

"That's a new one," My professor said, smirking at me "Might I ask why you want to go to the other side?"

Why?

There's only one reason why I would want to go to the other side that was to seek my revenge

I too at first never believed these creatures to be real, I used to think they were not but scary stories told to me as a child but everything changed on my eleventh birthday and my mentality changed on the night of my birthday, my eyes were truly opened

I saw it

I saw it and I realized that we were truly not alone in this world

-Flashback-

My mother had been furious that no one showed up for my eleventh birthday, she had given out over thirty if not more invitation cards out to my elementary school mates and our neighbors and was honestly more excited than me about the celebration, this was the first time we had to stay in the same place for more than a year but I still couldn't make friends

I honestly didn't want to because all I thought about was that there was no point, my parent could decide all of a sudden that we needed to move as far as possible so what was the need to make friends when I could say goodbye to them at any time?

Even though it was my thought at that time, I was still shocked that not even one person came for my birthday, they must have all gone to Benjamin's party, he was a classmate and his mother and mine were enemies. I didn't know why, I still don't know together but I remember hearing mother yelling angry that Benjamin's mom was always trying to steal from us, she had said if she hosted a party, Benjamin's mother wanted to host that same kind of party at the same day

Maybe mother didn't think that the reason why no one came was because I was awkward and weird and no one liked an uncool person like me

I remember the doorbell ringing hours into the miserable birthday and how it not only brightens my mood but my parents too. It was Landon parker

I can never forget his name

I dare not

He was in the same class as me and was friends with Benjamin but although they were friends he would always come sit beside me at lunch and we would have small talks – now that I thought about it I remember him being the closest thing I had to a friend

"Happy birthday Aayla" He had said with a smile so big and a present even bigger, wrapped nicely

I walked him into my parent's place and I think my parents were pleased to have at least one guest to share the cakes, cookies, and everything they had prepared

"Don't make a wish yet" Father had said, stopping me from blowing the candles "I need to capture this moment on camera"

"Just used your phone" Mother rolled her eyes, teasing him

"I bought a new camera for this, Landon could you please come with me? I think I placed it in a room upstairs but I can't remember where exactly I kept it"

"Sure thing Sir"

"You're getting too old Peniel" My mother laughed at my father as we watched him and Landon go upstairs, if I knew that was the last time I would see them alive, maybe I would have told my father that I loved him. I never did, not even once and I never got to tell Landon that I was thankful to him, because of him school was a lot more tolerable for him

Mother had gone into the kitchen minutes later and I could hear that she was on a call while I remained seated in the living room for minutes, there was a strange sound coming from upstairs that got my attention so I went up to see what was the holdup and as I got to the room I saw a pool of blood slowly flowing through the tiles touching my feet

I couldn't understand why there was so much blood, my chest was beating so fast and I was unable to scream, frozen at the entrance

I heard a loud thud and my heart sunk

As I squeezed the doorknob opening the door I saw Landon's lifeless body on the floor, there was a large claw mark on his face and throat, and at that time I could explain what I was going through, I walked into the room stepping on the blood of Landon and saw my dad fighting a monster

The creature stood like a human but had furs all over its body, it had blue eyes, and looking at it felt like I was seeing hellfire, he had claws as sharp as a sword, fangs as long as knives and it launched himself towards my father who was already injured

I couldn't speak

I couldn't move

Maybe if I had screamed mother might have been able to help father, maybe she could have fought this monster but I couldn't do anything and watched as it slashed my father on the face and stuck its claws into his heart pulling it out

Father's body fell in front of me, his eyes were opened wide and a cause of my nightmares, and the only thing that came out of my mouth was a whimper, causing the creature to see me

With every step it took closer to me, the more I felt my chest tightens. At that moment I thought I would die

I saw what was going to kill me

The snarls of the creature were louder than anything I had ever heard, it look like a feral wolf as it stood in front of me looking straight into my heart, it was like it was looking for something in me and whatever it saw or didn't see caused it to slash my shoulder with its blade-like claws

The rest is a blur, mother had rushed in just as the creature cut me, I had managed to drag the necklace it had around his neck before losing consciousness

-Flashback ends-

Professor Zhou doesn't wait for my answer as he turns to the class taking the attention off me, "Five-page assignment on how different the Avian, werewolves and humans are" This causes the class to go up in a displeased murmur "I will be going for a sabbatical leave so this course will have a new professor submit it to him instead. Class is over"

I put my books back into my bag and head out of the lecture room as soon as Professor Zhou gave his permission. I head to the car pack, tossing my bag to the passenger seat of my beetle convertible.

I always rush out of class as soon as lecture is over because I don't feel comfortable being around people and the second reason was that there is a red hair guy I always catch watching during and after class maybe I'm paranoid and we just happened to be in the same place at the same time but I wasn't taking any chances

As much as I want to relate to people I find myself chicken out at the last minute, my therapist said I needed to go out more and suggested I get a part-time job at a place I at least would be able to have small talks with people so I got a part-time job last week as a waitress and I already feel like quitting

I am a broken twenty-year-old with panic disorder, anxiety, different phobias and I am still surprised how I have yet to lose my mind. Over the years the nightmare of that day haunts me as soon as I closed my eyes and no matter how many therapy sessions I had it just wouldn't stop. I was reliving the pain every night and I knew my mother felt miserable that she couldn't help me.

We moved two more times in ten years and mother decided to settle in the city of Western Ville, she started a new life and eventually got a boyfriend called Max, my mom is able to find some sort of closure while I was still an open wound wearing the necklace of the monster who killed my father around my neck while unable to wear sleeveless because the scar ran too far and deep on my skin.

The chaos inside of me only started to make sense after I stumbled on mythology, I studied hard to get into this university to study this course only because it helped me make sense of what had happened to me, to Landon, and to my father. Maybe – just maybe I would be able to find the monster who killed them and...

I run into someone, hitting the person's shoulder with my head causing a small pain on my forehead

"Could you please be mindful of where you're going"

I was too lost in thought and had no idea I had arrived at my apartment till I looked up and saw I was lobby "I was trying to avoid you but you just kept walking like a freaking zombie" the stranger said again and for the first time I looked up at him.

He was a tall man standing at least five feet ten-eleven inches, hovering over me who was barely five feet six inches. He had an Asiatic look to him, his black hair was in a perm and his eyes were buttered chocolate with darker rays fanning out around the bottomless pit of an iris, swirled with caramel crescent moons

Beautiful

His eyes were the most beautiful I've seen and it felt like I could get lost in them.

The stranger furrow his full eyebrow staring back at me probably questioning why I was staring at him and taking in his features

"I'm sorry" my voice low

I want to disappear

Can the ground do me a favor and open up to swallow me?

"I'm sorry I can't hear you, could you speak up?"

My chest is pounding and my stomach is in a knot, I could feel stares coming from everywhere even though there were barely people around me. This is was I decided to live in an apartment alone instead of a hostel or dormitory. I don't function well around people, especially strangers. You'd think a week of working as a waitress would help me be able to stand at least five minutes without giving in to the dizziness but it doesn't

I spot the elevator open up and as soon as people got off of it, I ran into the elevator leaving the stranger there too shocked to understand what I had just done and too stunned to speak

I pressed the tenth-floor button then the close button multiple times, the strangers around staring at me and I mouthed to him

"I'm sorry"