As much as she hated to admit it, Sin-Ni was not in a dream. It had been four days, and she was still here. She really was, somehow, transported into this mysterious castle.

And the castle was indeed mysterious. The rooms were well-equipped with appliances, but nothing worked. The faucet did not have a tap that could be turned or pressed to let the water out; the toilet did not have anything that she could trigger to flush; there were light switches on the walls, but she could not get it to work.

Or rather, these things did not work for her. People had come over on occasions to give her food, just as the masked man had mentioned, and all the appliances had worked for them. She had tried to ask them why, but they had bared their fangs at her.

Yes, fangs. Perhaps the masked man had not been wrong about them being werewolves. Her visitors did appear to be hairier than most people she had seen in her life.

There was still no signal on her phone. She had to hold herself back from checking her phone obsessively because the battery levels were dropping day by day. The werewolves also did not like being asked if they had an iPhone charger.

Sin-Ni was lying on her air mattress, wearing the clothes she scavenged from the shelves when the masked man appeared again.

"You've been well."

Her body shot up like fireworks. Finally, after days of foreign werewolves, a human that she recognized. "You!"

"Yes, me," the masked man said as he pulled out a small dagger.

Sin-Ni backed away. "What are you doing?"

"Gazini wants to run some experiments," the man explained nonchalantly. "He's mainly working with your friend but I'm hoping to get your blood in the mix too."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Sin-Ni continued moving backward. He advanced until her back hit the shelf. She grabbed a wooden stick that was sticking out of a box and waved it at the man. "D- Don't come near me."

The masked man stopped in his tracks.

"Oh, you want to fight?" He tilted his head to the side and sheathed his dagger.

Sin-Ni did not know what to say to that. She watched warily as the tall man walked to the other end of the room and grabbed another stick, the same kind that she was holding onto.

"Let's try it then," he said with an amused tone. Was he grinning under his mask? "If you can knock this off my hand, I'll let you go."

"What?" Sin-Ni frowned.

The masked man threw his stick up like a baton, letting it spin a couple of times in the air before catching it expertly.

"You heard me. Let's start."

Whatever happened next was a blur. In a blink of an eye, the man had turned into the wind, gushing towards her and knocking her out. The stick flew out of her grip, and dancing stars flashed across her world.

She fell face down onto the concrete, coughing and wheezing.

"Wow. You didn't even last one second. Even your friend managed to last a minute or so."

He flipped her over with his foot. Taking his dagger out again, he lifted her shirt and sliced the blade into her abdomen.

Sin-Ni was too paralyzed with pain and shock to even protest. She only let out a soft moan of objection when she saw the masked man standing up with a vial of blood. Her blood.

"It's only a scratch, don't look at me like that." He snorted as he capped the vial. "There's a first aid kit somewhere on the shelf, so help yourself to that."

The smell of iron permeated her nose again, and she wanted to throw up. Damn it. She had spent days cleaning the place so they no longer stank of blood, and here she was, bleeding again, staining the floors again.

"Why are you doing this?" she called out, her voice muffled with her sobs.

The man was already walking out of the room. "I'll be coming by every week. You better work on that reaction time and your wrist strength." He raised his hand as a farewell gesture. "I hope you last at least ten seconds next week."

Sin-Ni lay on the floor, tears flowing down her face, blood flowing down her stomach.

Slowly, she took out her phone from her pocket. The battery was at forty percent. There was still no signal. It was 4:05 pm, supposedly. She clicked on the photos app and scrolled. More tears welled up in her eyes as she stared at the photos of her mother, her father, her brother, Imran, Claudia, the rest of the dance team...

She sobbed on the floor until those werewolves brought her dinner for the night.

✿∅✿∅✿

The masked man was back exactly one week later, just as he had promised.

And this time, Sin-Ni was ready for him.

She stood in the middle of the room, gripping the wooden stick so tightly her fingers turned red.

"Oh, look at you." The man chuckled. "So eager. I like that."

He kicked a stick to his hand, strolling forward and scanning her up and down. "Not bad. You have a pretty good intuition for stance. But keep your feet further apart, and don't stand flat-footed."

Sin-Ni adjusted according to his suggestions while keeping her eyes alert to his weapon.

"Better."

Without further warning, he began his attack. He was still as swift as a gust of wind, but Sin-Ni was more prepared this time. She managed to raise her stick to block one incoming attack. However, that was enough to weaken her grip so much that when the next strike came, her poor stick disappeared from her hands yet again.

She dodged the next attack before scurrying away and eyeing the masked man from a distance.

"You have quite a knack for footwork," he remarked. Lifting his hand to check his wristwatch, he whistled. "And you lasted longer than a minute. Good job."

His casualness irked Sin-Ni to no end, but her annoyance dissolved when he dashed towards her again. A loud thud later, Sin-Ni collapsed onto the floor, gasping and choking.

Like the last time, he flipped her over, cut her, and collected a vial of blood.

"You have more drive than the other guy. I like you. Keep it up."

Sin-Ni squirmed as she covered her abdomen. "Why are you doing this?"

The masked man decided to humor her question this time. "As I said, Gazini is interested in what the two of you can do. Lucky for you, he's mainly focusing on your friend. Unlucky for you, I'm taking an interest in you, so I'm here for fun. And also get some bonus ingredients on the way." He shook the vial of blood as if taunting her.

Sin-Ni blinked. "I don't understand a single word you said."

"You'll get there." He shrugged as he turned around to leave.

"What's your name?"

He stopped, but only for a bit. "Call me whatever you want, Sin-Ni."

And then she was left alone again.

Ninja. That guy was just like a ninja from the cartoons her brother would watch. How could she ever beat him? She tightened her hand over her new scar. When would she be able to defeat him?

When would she be able to go home again?

Sin-Ni stared blankly at the ceiling. She tried to cry, but unfortunately, all her tears had been used up.