A midnight trip

The clock struck midnight. When Kyren exited the house with his backpack, wearing a sweater and jeans, and saw Nora already waiting, leaning against the wall. Her figure was hidden under a baggy tracksuit and a jacket.

"You've got everything yet?" She asked, to which Kyren replied with a nod, "Yeah, let's go."

With one bike and a long distance to cover, they decided to take turns pedaling while the other settled on the rear seat. Nora had her own bicycle, but because the trip was arranged without her parents' permission, it was not possible to sneak out too bulky.

As they moved along the empty roads under the yellow street lamps, a thrilling and liberating sensation surfaced as familiar sites were seen devoid of human activities. It was a sight to behold for the two students, especially Nora, who did not have many chances to leave home late into the night.

At a normally busy intersection where noises of engines and shrill horns never ceased, now they could only hear the constant chirps of crickets and the occasional cries of an owl. Pedestrians and food stalls on the sidewalks were replaced by rustling leaves that danced to the lightest of wind. The smell of nighttime cooled their nostrils and chilled their lungs, unlike the suffocating dust and motorcycle emissions. The roads seemed more spacious than usual, the dark sky emphasized the size of the street lights, which resembled towering giants guiding their path. With no other vehicles in sight, traffic laws were completely ignored.

"Nora, hey! Stop!" Kyren yelled out in fright as the bike swerved from lanes to lanes from Nora turning the handlebar like a drunkard. She laughed and shouted in joy, while Kyren, who was sitting behind, had all blood drained from his face.

"Hey, Kyre, look, no hands!" The girl announced as she raised both of hands in the air.

"Stop! Stop!" Kyren cried and held tightly to the saddle bar as the bike repeatedly lost and regained balance in the last moment. After half an hour, when Nora finally complied to ride the bike properly, Kyren had already lost half of his soul. Halfway, they switched, and it was Kyren's turn to ride with Nora sitting on the rear saddle.

The road was supposed to take two hours by bike, but when the two of them arrived, it was nearly three in the morning. The scenery had entirely changed compared to the city that was filled with concrete houses. In all directions except for the path they came from, there was only a boundless field of grass in sight, each blade as tall as one meter. Despite the obvious domination of plant life in the area, not a single tree could be seen, and no insects could be heard.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Nora asked as she looked at the end of the road, which was blocked by a "deadend" sign. There was nothing beyond the sign.

Kyren took out the map from his backpack, then nodded, "Yeah, this is the place. We have to walk the rest."

Making their way through the field was harder than expected because the grass kept pricking through the layer of clothes and from time to time, their feet would get stuck in mud puddles. Fortunately, there were no vermin or snakes to be cautious of.

Soon, the pair saw a rundown construction poking its head above the tall grass. Once they got closer, it revealed itself as an ancient temple. Apart from the clay tiles on the roof, everything else was made of wood. One of the doors had collapsed inwards and was half decomposed, while the other could barely hold onto its hinge. A large part of the roof had disappeared as the tiles were either blown away or broken, exposing the inside to rains and storms. Termites and extreme weather had left holes on all the walls, one of which was big enough for an adult to walk through. Mold and dirt created dark patches all over the temple. Kyren tried to yank a piece of wood, which came out easily and crumbled into dust in his palm.

Seeing the impaired state that the temple was in, Nora raised her concern, "It looks like it can fall on your head anytime."

Nevertheless, Kyren still insisted on going in, "You wait outside Nora. Yell if you need me to come out, I'll run out right away."

Without waiting for her answer, the boy took the flashlight and headed towards the half collapsed doorway. The moment one foot stepped inside, a horrid, intense smell assaulted his nose. Kyren almost threw up on the spot as he saw the floor covered in mud, feces and rotting animal corpses, most of which were bats and rats.

"I should have bought a pair of boots," he thought in regret.

It was disgusting feeling the soft and sticky goo under his shoes with every step, knowing that it contained all kinds of waste that could be found in a sewer.

Inside the temple was quite cramped, with nothing but a table at the center. Most temples, even the most simple ones, usually had a cabinet to accommodate incense sticks, paper money, and other ceremony items. The subjects of worship were often represented by statues or framed pictures, which were arranged on top of the cabinet along with candles, fruit plates, and other glamorous decorations. In contrast to the conventional altars, on the table only had a simple urn made of clay. The urn had the colour of dirt, the surface was rough and the shape was disproportionate. It was different from how Kyren had imagined. It would be a lie to say that he was not disappointed.

The boy took out the items from his backpack and started to arrange a simple ceremony. The urn was positioned at the center with lit candles on either side. In front of it was an empty bowl and a cup filled with rice. Kyren lit the three sticks of incense and plunged them into the rice cup. The razor knife cut a line on his wrist and droplets of thick blood slowly filled up the bowl.

After bandaging the wound, Kyren put his hands together in front of his nose, closed his eyes and prayed. A few seconds passed by in silence. Then, he headed outside to wait for the incense sticks to burn out.

"Done?" Nora asked the moment she saw Kyren walk out. Despite noticing the bandage on his wrist, she did not voice out.

"Yeah, but let's wait until the sticks burn out, " the boy said as he came to stand next to Nora and gazed at the full moon.

"So what's in there?" Nora was curious, since she was never told about the details of the place, nor the reason he wanted to come here.

"There's an urn," he answered frankly. Nora waited, but heard nothing more, and realized that Kyren was messing with her.

However, instead of interrogating him, she merely shrugged, "Well, it's fine if you don't want to tell me."

Kyren was surprised, "Really? After I made you ride a bike for two hours to a desolate field at three o'clock?"

Nora laughed, "Yeah, really. If you have your reason, I'd respect it. And it's not like it's a total loss for me. It's my first time going out this late at night. I had fun."

The boy momentarily did not know how to respond and coughed awkwardly. The moon was brighter tonight, which revealed traces of sleepiness on Nora's face. Her eyes dropped low, the long eyelashes caught the drops of silver moonlight like the fingers of the fairies.

Kyren turned to look at the sky. With almost no light pollution from the city, he could see for the first time the constellations in the night sky.

He spoke with melancholy, "There's an old legend I heard that the temple was the place that sealed an ancient demon. Whoever can release the seal would be granted one wish from the demon."

Nora asked in a drowsy voice, "So what did you wish for?"

The boy shook his head, "Even if it's real, I don't think I can deal with the seal, I mean it holds a demon for years. But if I could, I would wish to see my grandmother one more time. At the very least...I want to say goodbye and apologize."

Kyren did not hear a reply this time, instead, there were sounds of steady breaths by his ears. Nora leaned on him as her eyes closed. The girl had soundly fallen asleep. Afraid to wake her up, Kyren sat still, thinking that they still had plenty of time to go home.

He could not remember the last time he could experience such a peaceful moment. From his earliest memory, Kyren was already an orphan. He was then adopted by an old lady, who he called grandmother. Two years ago, his grandmother also passed away, leaving the boy alone in the world. Ever since then, it was studying, working, and planning for the future. There was hardly a minute that he was free from all worries.

At the moment, the only thought inside his head was the coldness of the wind on the skin and the warmth on his shoulder. There was the low rustling of the grass and the rhythmic breaths tickling his ears.

Suddenly, Kyren heard a different sound. It came from something moving in the field. As the noise was getting louder, he realized that thing was getting closer to them.

"Nora, Nora, wake up." He hurriedly slapped Nora awake and dragged her to lay on the ground, hiding behind the grass.

"What's going on? Why are we hiding?" said the girl in a groggy voice.

Kyren put his finger on his lips and whispered, "There's something in the field, it's coming our way."

There was a confused look on her face, "So why do we have to hide?"

Kyren explained without taking his eyes off the direction of the suspicious sound, "We didn't see any large animals on our way here, so it's probably a person. The kind of person that comes to a place like this at this hour isn't the kind that you want to meet and greet."

Nora frowned as she came to a realization, "Yeah, now that you put it that way, we are pretty suspicious too."

The boy pretended not to hear the last part and focused on watching for movements in the grassfield. Soon, a figure came into sight, both Kyren and Nora doubted their eyes.

It was over two meters tall with arms so long that they touched the ground. The skin was full of stretch marks and tears, with not a piece of cloth to cover up. All four limbs were as skinny as tree branches, the belly was unusually bloated. From the navel, four large black tentacles protruded, constantly waving in the air like starved snakes. On the chest area, there was dark charred flesh caused by burns and formed a number "12".

Its face was the most horrendous sight they had ever seen. Kyren could see the faces of an old man frowning, a young child with an expression frozen in horror, an enraged man shouting but did not make any sounds, a middle-aged woman who could not stop laughing. All those faces were disorderly squeezed onto the pale head of the creature and constantly moving around, as if they were fighting over the main position.

One of the tentacles was carrying baggage. Soon, as the figure came closer, Kyren recognized the baggage to be a person. In fact, it was a dead body with a missing head.