Chapter 4

...Nothing.

Kairo opened his eyes and saw himself standing in the same place. Still outside the witch's store.

"What was I expecting?" Kairo stated with discontent

Unsure of the instructions given, he turned back prepared to march back into the store while tugging at the scarf with his left hand. This time, the scarf unfolded itself from its lower end pulling itself out from under, rather than the end of the scarf laying on Kairo's back. The end of the scarf flapped across his face as a sudden sensation of a sharp pain pierced into his back.

It was the end of the scarf that was laid on his back that jabbed into his skin as it fused with his spine. The rest of the scarf underwent a transmutation, converting from its current thin wool material into black feathers. Changing instantaneously, from the end in Kairo's back all the way to the other flapping end, turning into a single wing. A wing that would be big enough to carry a person should it come in a pair. Then, all the feathers scattered into the air above Kairo and rain down upon him. As he looked up at the feathers, in that brief moment that he was distracted, he already appeared in another world.

As a gust of wind passed by, the sound of dry leaves rustling as they rub against one another could be heard all around him.

"Now, I'm in the.. Forest?" Kairo rhetorically questioned

Along with the change of scenery, Kairo also noticed that his scarf reverted back to its original form and was folded back around his neck. Taking a knee, he placed his backpack on the ground and unzipped it to look inside.

"I've been holding it for awhile now and still have no idea what dad put in here." Kairo casually states aloud

Looking into the mouth of his backpack; inside it was a thin plastic rectangular casing with eight silver coated bullets inside, a book, an M84 stun grenade, the left side of a winter glove and a small tethered cedar brown piece of cloth. The book held special significance with the title "The Rare Findings of Lucius Caster" written on the cover page.

"Caster? Whatever, let's see what's written in here. Zombies, ghouls, sirens, vampires..." Kairo proceeded to brush through the book, looking for what may interest him.

However, his attention was interrupted by the sound of leaves crackling at a distance. After tossing the book back into his backpack, he slung it across his left side and scanned his surroundings. Kairo then noticed a figure wearing a candy red robe standing still further up ahead. As he attempted to walk up to her to gather information, he spotted claw marks engraved along the trees.

As Kairo continued walking, he observed the frequency of the markings were increasing. Sensing the danger in the midst of this forest to be much worse than he thought, his cautious movements transitioned into sprinting towards the figure ahead.

"This is how predators mark territory, but these claw marks are huge!"

"Run!" Kairo cried out into the confined space of the forest trees

As he was still far from the figure, a hulking shadow jumped out from the darkness of the forest, grabbing the figure by the arm and lifted him up. It was a werewolf! With saliva seeping from the gaps between its teeth that were tightly clenched against each other, it stared right at its prey, ready to take a bite.

Kairo looked ahead at the death that was about to happen before his eyes as he continued running. Time began to slow down as his heartbeat was spiking up, adrenaline pumping in his veins and a flashback came to mind.

It was about a cartoon hero that he used to watch on television who would use any means necessary to get himself out of all the worst situations ever and always starts with the catchphrase, "I'm always at climax from start to finish!"

"Why does my mind choose to remember stupid things at a time like this!?" Kairo complained

Slinging his backpack off his shoulder, he tossed it at the werewolf's face and caused it to stutter. Which was all the time Kairo needed to throw a flying kick straight to the werewolf's wrist. Hurting it enough to release its grip on its victim and caused him to fall to the ground.

Then, Kairo grabbed his backpack, took the victim by the hand and ran off further into the woods. As they continued to tread deeper into the sun bathed trees of the forest with nowhere to hide, the purring of Kairo's backpack zipper could be heard following each step that he took.

"Wait! There's bound to be something I can use." Kairo urged as he paused in his tracks, ransacked his backpack as though he was hoping to pull a rabbit out of a hat