Albert’s focus slip completely, but his entire body was frozen so he didn’t fall. Above him, a man balanced on the top of the spire was looking down at him. He wore a blue cape that covered ¾ of his body, military boots and had long dark hair. His expression seemed hostile, but when their eyes met he seemed to calm down. What a strange color... thought Albert, his eyes had an intense blue glow to them.

With a smirk the man took a long box from his front pocket and dropped it on the rooftop below.

But his smile disappeared when a flash of light came flying in his direction. The man crouched to dodge it, and it flew past his head vanishing into thin air.

Then, he put his foot forward into the air... and took a step.

And then another one. And another one. At each step the air below his foot would flash sharply. Then with a fifth step he jumped.

“What the fuck?” said Albert instinctively.

The man suddenly accelerated upwards and flew into the night.

Albert could no longer see him but his eyes kept scanning the horizon, looking for his blue cape.

What the fuuuuuuuuuuck? That sentence kept repeating on his brain. But in the middle of his astonishment he remembered something.

5 meters below Linus watched Albert stone faced. Phone ready, camera pointed towards the spire. Hands… shaking profusely.

Albert made his way down as quickly as possible and ran up to him, but his friend was petrified.

“Linus. Linus are you okay?” said Albert shaking his shoulders.

“Did… did you see something up there?” asked Linus, trying to gain back his composure.

“What are you talking about? You saw it too, right!?” screamed Albert confused.

His friend fell down to his knees.

“Thank god, I’m not crazy” said Linus in relief.

“Wait, were you recording?”

“Yeah.” answered Linus. “But I don’t know what I just recorded”

The two watched the recording over and over, but couldn’t explain it. But when re-watching the footage the dropped box caught the boys’ attention.

They searched the rooftop until they found it.

“Here” screamed Linus.

It was a long black box around the size of a water bottle laced with a red ribbon. Linus looked at his friend with uncertainty. Did they really want to mess with whatever that was?

“What now?” asked Linus “Do we open it?”

Albert seemed eager to do it, but before he did he stared Linus dead in the eyes.

“Did you forget what we promised when we were kids?” said Albert with a confident smile “We don’t run away from adventure.” He ripped the ribbon pulling the box open and…

Nothing.

“Dammit. What’s this? Where’s the huge flash of light, or alien floating object?” said Albert disappointed.

Linus laughed

“You are reading too much manga, man.” Although he also sounded a bit let down “But what’s this?”

“It looks like a scroll” said Albert. And a scroll it was, indeed. He took it out nonchalantly and flung it open.

The moment he did, his eyes widened and all the text started flashing in blue. His eyes started running through the lines uncontrollably in a terrifying speed. “Shit” screamed Linus as he witnessed his friend’s desperate face, his eyes jolting from word to word.

“Help me man!” cried Albert. No matter how much he tried to jerk his face away his body would not respond, his gaze was stuck to the unintelligible writings on the scroll. But before Linus could do anything, it was over. The glow stopped, Albert dropped the scroll to his feet and fell to his knees. He kept his eyes shut, fearful of opening them again.

“Linus, close it!”

Linus snapped into action, picking up the scroll rod and rolling it back up. He did not dare to look at the text.

“It’s done. What the hell happened!?”

Albert slowly opened his eyes.

“I don’t know. I don’t feel any different.”

They both stood silently, not knowing what to do.

“Alright, let’s get down from here. I’ll sleep at your house today. We need to keep an eye on you”.

That evening none of the boys slept much. They made it back to the Roth family house around midnight and practically ran past Albert’s parents. His dad, Patrick was lying on the couch watching tv. And his mother, Sandra, was painting something in the living room.

“Where were you guys? Out so late...” screamed the father as the boys dashed up the stairs.

“At the park dad, we just got caught up training” answered Albert.

Patrick just grunted a sarcastic acknowledgment, he didn’t really believe them, but he knew he wouldn’t find out if he insisted. Besides it wasn’t that suspicious. They were always training, Linus was always around their house, they would always return at night. Sandra would even sometimes say that Linus was her “other child”.

Upstairs in Albert’s room the boys tossed their bags to the side and set the box down at the table. They looked at each other, unsure of what to do. And without much to go on they turned to the internet.

That didn’t help much.

At the end of the night they concluded that Albert could have brain damage, cancer or be hallucinating on shrooms. But they knew that wasn’t the case. Both of them saw the light, both of them saw the man. Whatever that was, it couldn’t be explained by normal means.

At last, Albert decided to post the video they recorded of the mysterious man online, and wait for the responses.

But as most answers do, this one came in unexpected ways.

The next day in school the boys left the classroom during recess. They had taken the scroll with them, and they sat on a bench in the open courtyard. Last night Albert tried reading it, but it did nothing. That gave Linus the courage to try it as well and whatever had happened, didn’t happen again.

The boys passed it around inattentively chatting. That’s why they didn’t see the girl approaching until she was right in front of them. It was a red-haired girl with fair skin and brown eyes. Pretty, by most standards. Not that hot, by others.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked with an imperial tone. It was Valentina, the girl that was with Anyesse while she hit on Linus.

The boys had a surprised look on their faces. Valentina was a quiet girl, they had never heard her speak so loudly.

“Excuse me?” said Albert.

“What the hell are you guys doing waltzing around with a Relic out in the open? Are you out of your mind?” continued Valentina. Albert’s confused look only seemed to trigger her more. “Who even gave you permission to keep that? Give it to me.”

Valentina tried to grab the scroll but Albert moved his hand out of her reach and stood up.

“Wait a minute, you know what this is?” he asked eagerly.

She seemed dumbfounded for a moment, then her eyes went from angry to condescending.

“Oh, so you don’t even know what it is. I see. You must have got it by accident, I’ll take it from here.” she said trying to grab the Relic again. Albert dodged it but this time she grabbed onto his wrist.

Her grip felt like iron shackles immobilizing his hand.

How can a girl so tiny be this strong? he thought to himself. He tried to pull his hand out but he barely moved it.

Valentina’s eyes were now locked onto his and her menacing stare sent a chill down his spine. Her usually brownish eyes were a bright glowing yellow.

“Now, please” she said, with a patient tone complete opposite of her terrifying expression. Albert’s instincts were telling him to run, but he could not break out of her grip. In a desperate attempt he yanked his body backwards.

Valentina suddenly let go of him. Or better yet, she had to. Unless she wanted to fly.

The moment he stepped back the air below his feet flashed blue and his body was sent flying towards the woods behind the school.

Albert watched as the tall trees’ trunk approached ready to squash him like a fly. But before the impact he pushed his legs down and he stepped on the air again, managing to change directions and grab onto a branch.

“Oof” he grunted as he felt the impact on his chest and stomach. Ok. I made it, I’m alive... but before he could even finish that thought his sight flashed red and he felt a stinging pain on his stomach. His body went flying against the trunk of the tree he was hanging in and fell from above.

The last thing he saw before blacking out was Valentina looming over him, with the scroll on her hands.