PREDICAMENT

You say, you have seen hell?

I say, you only saw part of it.

While, I live in it.

-Ken Kaneki-

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"Didn't your mother die seven years ago?" The man spoke in a light tone while eating his noodles, yet Apple could hear him clearly.

"What?" Apple was stupefied in her spot and stared at the man intensely as if he had grown another head. "What do you mean?"

Apple tried to swallow hard.

It didn't matter if she was being exposed to her own lie, but the thing was; the context of it. How did he know about her family? Did she meet this man somewhere before? Or did they know each other?

No matter how many times Apple wrecked her brain, she couldn't find it in her memories that she had met this man before tonight.

"I mean what I say, you don't hear me wrong," the man grinned at her and took a big gulp of his soda. "Or do you want to go back to your aunt's house?"

Apple blinked a couple of times. She didn't know how to react to this, but then she decided it was time to go. Whoever this man was, Apple sensed trouble if she stayed any longer there and let him blabbered more about her life.

It was already creepy enough to meet someone for the first time, who knew your past.

"I have to go," Apple mumbled and took her backpack hastily, yet the man grabbed her bag to hold her.

"Why in a rush?" he asked. His tone of voice didn't change, but the way he looked at her was obviously not the same as before.

"Let go," Apple said sternly. She clenched her jaw and gave him a deathly stare as if she could do something if he didn't do like what she said, while in fact, she could do nothing if this man insisted on holding her bag.

What happened with today? Why has her life sucked so much recently?

"Let her go." A man came to Apple's side and snatched the bag from the other man, as he stuffed it to Apple, who caught it out of reflection. "Go now." He looked at Apple coldly and scared her to do what he said.

"Dorian…" the other man drawled when he saw Dorian in front of him and watched Apple make her escape from this convenience store. He moved his hand lightly and the door was closed, preventing Apple from walking out of this place.

"James," Dorian said the name of the creature before him. But then his gaze shifted, as he felt someone tugging at his shirt.

And when Dorian turned his head, it was Apple, who was asking him in a low and slightly scared voice.

"Sorry, I don't know who you are, but that door can't be opened…" Apple pointed at the only door in the convenience store. "Maybe you can open it so I can go? Sorry for interrupting."

James laughed out loud when he heard that and this made Apple slightly hide behind Dorian. What happened to this guy?

"You are so funny," he said between his laughs.

"Come here." Dorian took Apple's wrist and got her back to the main door, as he pulled out a gun from his hips and this made Apple shocked and froze for a moment.

"Do you want to shoot the glass door?" Apple asked in a screeching voice. "You can't do that, you will be arrested if you do so! Are you a cop?" She looked around her and tried to see if someone was watching this.

Even if he was a cop, he couldn't break the glass without a strong reason, right?

"Look carefully, they didn't even realize this," Dorian said as he pulled the trigger and shot the glass door.

Apple closed her ears by pressing her palms against each side of her head, screamed when the bullet hit the glass.

However, there was something wrong with it…

After a while, Apple realized that there was no sound of the breaking glass. Therefore, she opened her eyes cautiously and found the door was fine, though she could see very clearly that the man named Dorian had shot it.

"What happened?" Apple asked hastily, as she looked around her.

Maybe she didn't realize it before because her focus was on Dorian and James, but now she was able to understand why Dorian asked her to take a second look at her surroundings.

A loud gasp escaped Apple's lips and she covered her mouth in surprise. Nobody moved! Nothing was moved around her!

Through the glasses that surrounded this convenience store, she could see that time seemingly stopped at that moment. Even a plastic bag freezes mid-air. The cashier was staring at her wristwatch, but she had been in that position for a few minutes.

"James, you don't want to do this…" Dorian spoke in a calm, but dangerous voice, as he faced the other man, who had just done with his noodles.

"No, I want to do this. You are the one who doesn't want to do this," James said in a heavy tone, but when his eyes caught sight of Apple, a big smile tugged on his lips. "Come here, I will not hurt you, I just want to check something."

James waved his hand at Apple, but of course, she was not stupid enough to come over. At this point, she already realized that both of them were not human.

Dorian stepped forward to stand in front of Apple and then aimed the gun in his hand toward James.

"Do you really think you can beat me with that?" James frowned at Dorian's attempt, as three bullets came his way, but those bullets stopped before could even scratch his skin and then fell helplessly to the floor. "Pathetic."

Meanwhile, Dorian glanced at Apple and spoke in a low tone to her. "Find another exit and get out from here."

After saying that, Dorian threw his guns and created a sword out of thin air, as he charged forward.