“SHIT! Deep shit!”

I sucked in a deep breath and my face became pale. I bet I was making a pretty funny face right but I didn't have time to think about this right now.

“Who is that?”

As I looked in front of me in this isolated lane, there stood a doll. It looked pretty cute. It was a boy doll with nearly combed hair on its head. The doll was about 12 inches tall and looked like it could talk. It was also slowly walking towards us with an evil glint in its eyes.

But this is not the thing that gave me a shock, and a sense of fear.

“Fuck! Theodore are you waiting for it to come over and eat us up?! Hurry up and run!”

“Why? What could a mere doll do to us?”

While I was talking with Theodore, the doll had already made its way up to both of us.

“Fuck! Don't look at it!”

I shouted at Theodore anxiously but it was too late.

The doll suddenly smiled widely and half of its face had been taken over by his evil smile.

“Hehehe~ thank you for letting me evolve so quickly!”

A light shown from its body. I was prepared for it and quickly covered my eyes with my hands.

My eyes stung from the bright light the doll was giving off even though I had covered them with my hands.

“AAAHHHH!”

“Theodore! Snap out of it it's only tricking you!”

This doll was actually a demon of a very rare species. It had almost zero attack power, but this was also what had made it so terrifying. A small demon doll, what could it do? Well it had destroyed prosperous nations throughout history. Killed some of the greatest heroes in history and had spread so much misery that the gods decided to take action against this particular species.

The dolls were named 'Pneuma Poneron’. They were immortals with the ability to show the greatest fear of any living person to that person and make him live in illusions. Every single living thing has one or the other bad memory with them. The Ponerons take advantage of this and manipulate the living.

With almost zero attack power they gave the gods a huge headache by dragging out the war between them. Eventually the gods defeated them but the goddess of Fate did not allow the last five dolls to be killed.

The goddess of Fate was the only 'normal’ goddess of all the main gods according to me. The world worked with certain rules and even Gods cannot change much of it or bend it to there wills. Unwillingly they left those five dolls alone.

The Ponerons also weren't almighty. They had a major problem, they couldn't reproduce. The only way a new Poneron would come to life is by the ‘Pneuma stone’. The Pneuma stone produces only one doll every thousand years.

The Gods were not willing to take even this small chance and destroyed the Pneuma stone. They took the immortal remains of the slayed Ponerons and threw them into the never extinguishing flames of hell, so they could never revive again.

Now out of the remaining five dolls, the strongest one was sealed away in a box. Another one helped the evil dragon recently in the war of God and the evil dragon. So, it ultimately faced the same fate as his ancestors did.

The third doll was with the witch and the whereabouts of the fourth and fifth dolls were unknown.

I guess I found one of them ?

“Theodore! Whatever you are experiencing is an illusion! You need to beat it!”

While I covered my eyes trying hard not to let the light enter I could hear Theodore’s howls and wails. I couldn't hold it up for long though. After about 20 seconds of sanity my mind finally entered the world of illusions as well.

A light flashes somewhere in the middle of a busy street. Three people suddenly appear on the street and look over all of the places.

“Hey Justin! Do you know how we should find the new brat?”

“Alex stop shouting and let me think of a plan.”

Said a woman with glasses while touching her forehead as if she were contemplating something.

Just a few seconds later she snapped her fingers and her face lit up as if she had gain enlightenment.

“I've got it you guys!--”

Before she could say anymore a sound interrupted her.

Beep~ Beep~

A man with deep green eyes looked towards the two others and smiled brightly.

“I don't think we need any plan, let's go!”

The girl looked pretty irritated as she had not got to say what she wanted but she quickly reacted and started running towards the direction where the search tool told them to go.

“Hey wait for me!” said the boy with red eyes and black hair who was the last one to react.

The three of them were very fast and if you didn't focus, you wouldn't be able to see them.

Annia-

I am an ordinary teenage girl that had an ordinary everyday life. Or at least I thought I was until my 17th birthday.

I was just like any other day, I came back home all exited hoping that my father would at least remember my birthday.

Unfortunately I was disappointed yet again by him. This had been going on for the past few years already. I had a stepmom that also had a daughter and he was always kind to her and remembered her birthdays but he always forgot mine.

I wanted to hear the words- “oh sweetie~ I'm so sorry! Happy birthday! I'll promise to remember it next time.”

But all I get is a reply that looked like as if it was very tough to say it. “Happy birthday…” in a tune like as if he was talking about the dead. As if it were a melancholic memory.

After all these years of neglect and isolation my true feeling finally came out. I finally couldn't take it. I asked him why he was always like that to me.

I wish I had never asked, I wish I had never opened my mouth because I finally realised the saying- 'you only recognise the value of an object after losing it, no matter how small it is.’

Just like i wanted he told me why he treated me like that and I ran away. I couldn't stay at that house anymore.

I walked on the beach till I met a strange person and a lot of thing happened after that. I finally got a job after many days if job hunting and my life continued peacefully but I didn't know what I would do from here on out.

“What should I do?” I asked myself? Would I live out my life like this? Just doing some worthless job for a meager pay to fill my stomach?

One day as I was walking back to the place where I usually slept after the part time I found a doll in front of me. It looked cute, so I went forward and picked it up but it suddenly smiled creepily.

“KYAAA!”

I shouted as I dropped the doll down.

Suddenly the doll looked up at me and it eyes looked almost real. My whole back became drenched with sweat and a deep sense of fear came from within me as if I was meeting an old nemesis. It was like an animals instinct that told me to run away as fast as I could. So, i ran.

I ran and ran and ran but every time I turned around the doll would be at same distance away from me. My body was feeling strange and suddenly I felt as if my body was on drugs. I felt a new found energy within me. I didn't know what it's was but I just thanked God and ran as fast as I could.

Suddenly two people appeared in front of me but I just dodged them and kept running. After running for some time again I finally lost energy and sat down beside a telephone booth. I leaned my back on the telephone booth for support and breathed heavily.

What was that? What is going on?

Bzz-!

As some buzzing noise came into my ears I got up with full of anxiety, 'had the doll followed me here as well?’ but I was proven wrong, it was three people who kept asking me questions as soon as I arrived. I couldn't hear what they said and I couldn't see properly. My body finally gave in and I fainted as everything became blank for me.

Alex, Beatrix and Justin were standing in front of a girl who had fainted. She looked like a beggar with all the dust and worn out torn clothes wrapped around her body.

“ Looks like she had her first awakening.”

“Yes this can be the only explanation.”

Justin and Beatrix had concluded that she had her first awakening which meant that she had unlocked a small amount of her godly blood’s power for the first time.

“ We found the demigod, so we don't have to help that Benza or whatever right?”

While Alex was thinking of new ways of insulting Benza.

“Our mission was to return with the demigod and so we will. Let's go back to the palace.” said Beatrix.

Beep~ Beep~

“I think the new location on the map is Theodore. You guys go ahead, I'll check up on how those two are doing and come back with them.” Said Justin.

“But I want to go too! It's always boring at the palace.”

“No you're not, and I need someone to carry this young lady right here and Justin you don't really need to help them.” Said Beatrix as she crushed Alex's hope.

"Hahaha it's fine, besides Theodore is also with them." Replied Justin.

Justin watched them go and he also went towards the points on the search map.

“Let's go! I still have to check up on them.” He said while not knowing what lied in wait for him.