Chapter 2: What are they?

Rymora stood to the side, without saying a word. Her gaze darted between her co-workers who were arguing in front of her and out the window.

Watching as each of the men wearing black clothes with matching black jackets made their way closer to the building.

'They won't enter the building will they?' Rye wondered, turning to look back at Maddy who was still arguing with Josiah, wondering what they would decide to do.

"You think disappearing isn't as bad as dying!" Maddy responded by raising her voice at him, only for Josiah to respond in kind.

"Yes, I think getting my head lopped off is much worse!" Josiah yelled back, opening his mouth to say more when Rye heard Patricia speak.

The last person she expected to hear anything from.

"If-if you can't agree. I think we should split up. I-I can't wait here any longer," Patricia stuttered on the verge of tears, as her entire body trembled in fear.

"I-I agree," Julia, another intern, muttered from beside her. Soon, everyone had an opinion.

"I-I can't stay here!"

"We need to head to the upper floors,"

"I'm sure the police are already on their way. All we need to do is stay here!" Another staff member said one that Rye wasn't familiar with.

She continued to do her best to dial her family's number but no matter how many times she dialed it, the signal was still out.

Just when Rye was wondering what part to take, the situation unexpectedly got much worse than before.

The screams suddenly got louder, loud enough to be too close for comfort.

Maddy was the first person to dash towards the elevator with Josiah behind her. Almost on instinct, Rye followed running as fast as she could.

'I can't die here!' Was the only thought going through her mind as she made it into the elevator and squeezed inside?

Luckily for her and everyone who did, the doors were slowly closing when they watched a large group of people run towards them from the second-floor staircase.

"Maddy!" Called a staff member on the second floor who Rye knew by face.

"Josiah! Please—" another called, only to be cut off before she could finish as the doors of the elevator slammed shut.

Rye placed her hands on her chest, feeling her heart race in her chest as she stood at the very back of the crowd.

"AHHHHH! Help Me!"

The screams were muffled but the intensity of it all shook everyone there to the bone right until they got to the fourth floor.

To go any higher they would need to swipe in their authorized cards, something most of them didn't have.

The people on the fourth floor weren't any different as they hid in different sections staring at the new arrival of the group like they were a plague to be avoided.

Maddy ran straight to the elevator with her card in her hands, with about six people running after her with a desperate look in their eyes.

Rye didn't bother and neither did Tina who simply turned and ran to the left looking for a good place to hide.

'Without a card for every single person the elevator won't move,'

With nothing but her phone in her hands, Rye ran towards an office at the far end of the floor, right beside the one Tina chose to enter.

But even before they closed the doors behind them, screams echoed through the entire floor.

"HELP—"

"PLEASE —"

"DON'T KILL—"

Rye couldn't hear the rest not because of how far away she was but because the screamers had been cut off before they could finish.

The screams outside were chaotic, as Rye ran deeper into the room, climbing into a cupboard before she finally felt safe.

'If I stay quiet! If I don't make a sound they won't find me!' Rye thought, doing her best not to make a sound.

Even the sound of her breathing was non-existent, as she desperately counted down the minutes, wondering how long it would take before the intruders left.

'All I have to do is stay here and I'll be—"

"HELP ME!"

It took only a couple of seconds for Rye to realize that it was Josiah shouting, as heavy footsteps moved closer to her door.

"The-they're going to kill me!" He continued to scream.

Rye was terrified and for a second considered going outside to see what was going on only to stop herself as she heard even louder sounds of someone falling to the ground.

"Somebody help! Please!" The screams getting closer and closer until Rye could no longer continue to hide.

"I'm just going to peek outside and pull him in, if I can" Rye muttered to herself, the thought of allowing Josiah to die outside, pinching every bit of conscience she had left as she quietly made her way to the door.

Her hands trembled as she again considered going back into hiding only to hear another scream, one belonging to another of the male staff that worked in finance.

"HELP M—" he began to scream only for his voice to be cut off before he could finish. Rye could feel the sweat dripping down her neck through her spine as she held on to the door without making any attempts to pull it open.

"HE—" The sound of a man choking was discernible even if Rye had no possible idea what he could be choking on.

Unable to resist, Rye slowly slid the door open by an inch, peering through it and stunned at the sight in front of her.

Blood was splattered on the walls, Josiah was dead in the most gruesome way and Philip was on his way there. Instantly, Rye moved to shut the door right back as quietly as she opened it only to feel herself freeze on the spot.

Right in front of her were beautiful men with red eyes right out of a fantasy book. They were dressed immaculately in black jackets and shirts that looked expensive and hand-sewn.

They hadn't spotted Rye and they seemed to be leaving. Glad that she was too far from any of them to bother with her, she gently closed the door and waited for them to leave.

Little did she know that it would have been preferable for her to leave the door open.

The door had barely closed when one of them twitched, his face jerking to the side, his focus on the room Rye was.

"There's someone there," Kalit commented but none of the others seemed interested as they sheathed their swords around their waists.

"Our quota is over. There's almost no witnesses. Moreover, we can't come back for another century or so…" Lufa responded, pissed to see Kalit already walking off into the distance.

"One last kill won't hurt!" Kalit responded with a nasty sneer on his face as he pulled out his bloodied sword and got closer to Rye's room.

But Kalit was just about to put his hands on the door handle when Tina curious to see what was going on pulled open the door, only to come face to face with him.

The bloodied sword wasn't a pretty sight for her to see.

"AHHHHHH!" she yelled screaming at the top of her lungs, only for her screams to end as unexpectedly as it began.

Rye was stunned, as she felt her heart thump heavily in her chest.

'They came back for Tina? Why? I was sure they were on their way out!' Rye wondered scrambling on her feet as quickly as she could, to make her way back to the cupboard.

'If I can hide, I'll be—'

Unluckily for her, she only got one chance to take one step back before the door of the room was thrown wide open.

"I KNEW THERE WAS ONE MORE!"

Those were the last words Rye heard before her world crumbled into darkness.