An old, rusted car came to a halt in front of a house with a beautifully colorful garden. The contrast was clear, and one might think that the vehicle accidentally stopped here. But Ayden, the young man living in the house, knew that this was not the case.

In a rush, he finished tying his shoes and hurried out the door with his backpack slung over one of his shoulders. Just before leaving, he quickly grabbed the headphones hanging by the side of the door, pulling them over his head.

Ayden pulled them over his head and waved at the other man sitting in the car. And that other man, Noah, quickly waved back.

“You're late!” Ayden exclaimed as he pulled open the door and sat down in the clearly overheating car, “And turn the heater off!”

Noah looked back at his best friend with a wry smile, “Sorry, it's broken again... I tried to fix it before coming, that's why I'm late.”

“...Dude, just get a new car.”

“You know I can't afford that.” Noah sighed, “I would like to, though. This piece of shit is going to get us killed one of these days.”

With a nervous laugh as the car started up with a loud bang of the engine, Ayden pulled out his phone and turned on his front-facing camera. Nervously, he moved his hands through his hair.

Noah saw him do this in the corner of his eye, “Dude, you're already the most disgustingly handsome person I know. Stop taking care of your appearance a bit to give me a chance, alright?”

“I'm gay; I literally am no competition to you.”

“Doesn't change the fact that literally every girl tries to get with you. All they see is your face, hair, glowing brown skin, and they're over the hill for you!” Noah laughs while Ayden rolls his eyes and pushes his hand behind the passenger seat, where Noah kept a small cooler bag. Ayden pulled a soda can out of there and pulled the tab.

“Shut up. Stop acting like you're ugly or anything. You know that you're not.” Ayden said bluntly, and Noah scratched the back of his head with a light smile, “Well, that's also true.”

Noah turned his head toward his friend as he stopped at a red light and saw Ayden stare out the window with a light squint. It's not the first time he did this, and Noah immediately knew what was going on.

“You see something out there?” The young man asked, looking over Ayden's shoulder. He saw a few flowers, a teddy bear, and some candles set up there. On the wall behind those things was a young girl's mural with a halo above her head and wings on her back.

“...You see her?” Noah asked. Ayden slowly nodded his head. As he stared out the window, while other people were walking past the spot without even taking notice of it, there she stood.

Right next to her own mural, the spirit of a little girl in a white dress, crying her eyes out.

“We'll be late. If you're cool with that, so am I.” Noah said bluntly, patting his friend on the back. With a slow nod, Ayden opened the door and stepped outside. Noah just waited at the red light until it turned green and then drove off to find a place to park the car nearby.

Ayden squatted down in front of the little girl, acting as if he was trying to pray for her at the mural. The place where this little girl died. He could see that the sidewalk was a bit damaged, so this was probably a car crash. Well, not a 'crash.' More like the girl was hit. Ayden saw something about this on the backside of his father's newspaper a few days ago.

When he made sure that nobody was around him, Ayden looked straight at the little girl, “Why are you still here? Shouldn't you try to leave?”

The little girl shook her head, “I don't want to leave yet...” She cried out, keeping her hands in front of her face, and Ayden felt a lump build up in his throat, “Is there something you still need to do?”

The girl stayed silent, so it didn't seem like it was that. So instead, Ayden asked, “Are you scared?”

Slowly, the little girl started to nod her head as if waiting for Ayden to keep speaking. And so, he did. He tried his best to comfort this little girl's spirit to discover the reason behind her fear.

Meanwhile, Noah parked his car and stepped out the door. He had to push it open with all his strength because some parts were rusted or bent. At least it was hard for people to break in as well. Not that anyone would want to break into this moving trashcan.

Noah walked over to where Ayden was waiting for him, “You manage to help them out yet?”

Ayden stood up properly and looked at his best friend with a dedicated stare, “This wasn't an accident, apparently. She was hit by a car driven by her mom's ex-boyfriend. Seems like he used to beat her as well...” Ayden said with a pained expression, “But she became too scared to speak a bit ago... Can you...”

“Obviously. Just give me a moment.” Noah replied and ran his hands through his hair to move them out of his face. For just a moment, it seemed like his emerald-green eyes flashed up, although, to others, this would just seem like they reflected the sunlight.

Noah looked at Ayden. This was an excellent way to make sure everything worked properly. Ayden's eyes now had cracks around them with glowing white light shining out from underneath them that ran up to his ears. As Ayden spoke, similar fractures could be seen on his tongue, and even his hands were covered in them.

Otherwise, Ayden looked the same as he usually did. Now that Noah confirmed that his ability worked, he looked around. The mural of the girl on the wall changed from what it was before as well. Instead of being a still image of a smiling, healthy girl, it was animated and sobbing. Her hands up to her eyes, and numerous wounds covering her body. The items placed in front of the wall for her were all rotten or rusted.

“Of course...” Noah muttered, “Nobody actually cared when they put these here...”

The young man looked around at the people walking along the sidewalk. Most of them were normal, having either nothing or something minor changed on them. A salaryman with a confident stride now walked hunched over with his arms and feet tied together. He felt trapped in his life.

A teenage girl hanging out with her friends at a café had a small crown on her head. She felt like a queen in her life, as if she ruled over everything around her.

And then, there was the middle-aged man that was currently walking by Noah and Ayden. He looked like a boring, average man at first, but Noah could see his personality’s true form with his ability.

The man had a broad grin on his face. A smile that was so vile that it could only come from a cartoon. His head was spinning around like an owl’s so that the man could keep looking at the mural, and he was silently chuckling with his whole body.

“Ahh... So it’s him, huh?” Noah asked, and Ayden turned his head toward the little girl’s spirit for a moment, “Seems so.”

“Then excuse me for a second or two.” The young man said bluntly before walking up behind the man in question. Without a moment’s hesitation, Noah kicked him into the back of his knee and made him fall down.

At the same time, Noah hit the man’s face and knocked him onto his back, “Rot in hell, you piece of trash. Apologize for what you did to her.” He said in a growling voice, as the man just cowered on the ground. The man had tears in his eyes and started to sob like a child after being hit like that. It was something that would get rid of any fear that someone may feel for him.

“See? He’s just a person, like anyone else. The monster can’t hurt you anymore.” Ayden whispered to the little girl. The figure that only he could see looked at the man that killed her with surprise. She looked at her own mural, at the place she died. And slowly but surely, the girl stepped into the wall and disappeared forever. Now that she was no longer scared of the man, nothing kept her here anymore.

Ayden let out a deep, relieved sigh, “Noah, she’s gone. Thanks for the help.” He thanked his friend.

Noah let go of the middle-aged man’s collar, making him drop to the ground again, “Huh? That so? Good, good.” He said with a broad smile on his face before turning his head and glaring at the man, “Scram before you regret ever-“

“Noah...” Ayden grabbed his friend’s shoulder, and the young man snapped out of his current anger-filled state.

“Sorry... I just get so angry when I-“ Slowly, Noah turned around to look at Ayden again. But when he did, he didn’t see just his friend. There was something else there. Something sinister, something that made Noah want to run away in fear.

His body froze up. Noah’s heart felt like it wanted to jump out of his chest, “What’s going on? Are you having an attack?” Ayden asked nervously.

However, Noah didn’t listen to his friend. Instead, he heard the voice of that vile creature towering behind him.

“SO yoU aRE The spEcIal oNes... QuITe fiTtIng caNdiDateS...” The creature waved its hand to the side after it finished speaking that screeching voice that hurt Noah’s ears.

An arc of black electricity flashed up between the creature and something behind Noah. And while Noah was stunned, Ayden pushed him out of the way to the side.

Noah had no idea what was going on. He was still stunned. And then, he turned his head to the side, seeing a pool of blood form on the ground next to him. And inside of that pool of blood knelt Ayden with a dull, rusty knife stuck in his throat.

But before Noah could jump up to help his friend, the man that stabbed Ayden kicked into Noah’s face. Black lightning was flashing around that middle-aged piece of trash’s head. That was the last thing that Noah saw before his head was smashed into the concrete again and again and again.

The world around both friends became black. They felt cold and scared, slowly dying on a dirty sidewalk in the smalltown they were going to leave behind after summer vacation.

However, then, it felt like they were falling. Within this empty space, falling down to somewhere that was ultimately out of sight.

Then, the darkness split open. A single hole opened up underneath the two friends, with a bright light shining out of it that illuminated their bodies. The hole grew in size, or Noah and Ayden fell closer toward it. To them, there was no difference right now.

And then, once the light blinded their eyes so that they were unable to see any longer, the sensation of falling simply disappeared.

At least Noah felt soft, wet grass underneath his body. Carefully, he pushed himself away from the ground, immediately turning around to look for Ayden. After all, his last memory that he could grasp was seeing Ayden die on the sidewalk next to him.

But there he was, laying on the ground, unconscious. Noah’s body felt sore all over, so he couldn’t move as quickly as he wanted to, but he made sure to check on Ayden without hesitation. However, Ayden’s throat was completely healed. There was not even a drop of blood on his clothes.

Even Noah’s face felt like it usually did, even though it had been kicked in by that man.

And, of course, the fact that they were no longer in the town they grew up in but in some random forest in the middle of the night didn’t help Noah’s nervosity.