"She needs more time," Lincoln mutters to himself aggressively as he greets his teeth together while lying on his bed. Even though it seemed like he was angry at his sister. He wasn't as he knew that she was right. The thing that made him angry was the fact that he felt like there was nothing he could truly do to make the pain of losing him lessen. He did feel like he was being a little bit pathetic and dumb, for thinking like this and acting the way he did. But he believed that there had to be something more that he could do. Something other than wait, but he didn't know what. After three hours of lying down, the thought of him not being able to help was still on his mind. No matter how hard he tried to distract himself, the thought didn't leave his mind. To him, the thought itself was like a bug he couldn't kill no matter how many times he burned it to ashes or squashed it.

  Maybe I should go for my te-night jog. He thought to himself as he got up, threw on his bck hoodie, headed downstairs, and into the front room to say to Henna that he was going to go out. Once he gets to the entrance of the front room he pauses and just stares at her while she ys on the sofa with her eyes closed, with some action film in the background and a bag of strawberry spoofs on the floor. I wonder if she's sleeping. Or is she just pretending to be asleep as she's annoyed at me and doesn't want to say anything? He thinks to himself.

  "What's wrong?" She asks still with her eyes closed.

  "Huh, Nothing. Just." Lincoln pauses as he doesn't know if he should apologize to her now or when he gets back. Henna opens her right eye and says.

  "Uh-huh." To break the awkward silence.

  "N-nothing. Just that I'm heading out and I was wondering if you wanted something?" Lincoln asks.

  "Nah I'm good," she responds.

  "A-Ah okay." He pauses. "See ya ter then," Lincoln says awkwardly before he walks away. As he leaves the house, he stretches outside before he opens the gate, and starts running with his headphones on. Maybe I should take my afternoon route. Or should I just stick with the night route? Come on Lincoln, stop being so decisive. He thinks to himself before he says. "I'll just take my night route." His night jogging route was to head to Plymdes Lane then Brorich Road, then jog across the bridge of Moonrise Highway. Pass Ponto farmhouse onto Tillsea Street and into Petatonas Forest. Compared to his morning or afternoon route, he didn't like his nighttime route as much. His morning allowed him to run for longer and focus more on his run without having to worry about seeing many people. His afternoon route wasn't too bad as most people would be in school or having lunch. But his night routes were the shortest in comparison to his other routes. The benefit to this route though was that, by this point of the night it was filled with people with crazy stories to tell, cool events, and really good food. The only thing was that when he came to Petatonas Forest he would have to be on full guard as Petatonas Forest was infested with daga bears.

  After an hour or so of running, he had made it to the final part of his run, which was going through Petatonas Forest. This is where he had to be more on guard as he knew if he wasn't then he would be in serious trouble. Please don't let me bump into any daga bears. He thinks to himself as he starts to run through the forest. The daga bear is more dangerous than the grizzly bear as it's eight times stronger, faster, and smarter. They are so dangerous that they have been thirty-one percent of the reason why people have died in Denko. With such a high percent death rate, teachers are informed to give the kids reminders in spring to stay away from Petatonas Forest as that is when they are more active.

  Lincoln was surprised though because he was one-fifth through the forest, and by now he would have heard one letting off a sharp roar or would have seen one, but it was quiet. If he didn't know any better he would have thought he was in an ordinary forest. "This is strange." He thinks out loud. Not long after he had that thought, he saw a dy close to the steel rail guard that blocked the road and the vegetation of the forest from touching. She had light purple hair and from what he could see, she was wearing a beige cardigan and baby blue jeans. He then notices that she is about to cross the guard rail "STOOOOOP!" he yells while he runs over to her which makes her jump in fright. "Are you." He pauses to catch his breath in front of her. "Crazy? Haven't you seen the signs that daga bears are infested in this forest? Lincoln asks as he takes a proper look at the girl. She was slightly shorter than him and pale in complexion. Her light purple bangs which looked like they had been cut with a sharp knife, covered most of her forehead. Only a small fraction of her forehead was shown, and the rest of her light purple hair went straight down to her shoulders and complemented her purple eyes. He then looked at her body and even though she was slim, he could tell that she worked out quite often. Not to the same extent as him but enough that if she did get into a fight with someone that was same built as her, she would have a fifty-fifty chance of winning. The beige cardigan she was wearing had Caramel buttons on it, while her baby blue jeans had three slight cuts on both legs, exposing her thighs slightly.

  "Ah well. The thing is. I'm blind." Now feeling slightly bad for shouting at her and calling her crazy, Lincoln says.

  "Oh... shit. My bad I-I-"

  "It's fine, you didn't know." She smiles softly. "I appreciate that you warned me though, so thank you. Most people would have let me wander into the forest and went on with their business. I'm guessing this is Petatonas Forest then?' She asks.

  "Yeah." Once Lincoln responded to her question she let out a deep sigh and said.

  "Great," in a worrying tone.

  "Is something the matter?"

  "Yeah, I dropped my walking cane after some kids bumped into me and took off. I've been trying to find it for some time but I can't feel it anywhere," She says. He then takes a couple of seconds to pull out his phone, tap the fshlight function on his phone, and look around. After a couple of seconds of searching, he saw something on the other side of the road that looked like what she was looking for.

  "Is it silver and has four thin gold rings going around the bottom of it?" He asks.

  "Yeah, that's it," She says happily.

  "I'll go and get it." He walks over to the other side of the road, bends down, and grabs the handle. Suddenly while he was standing back up he sensed that he was about to attack from behind. Without any second thought, he drops the woman's walking cane and spins around while pulling out his flick bde. Ready to strike his attacker, but before he plunged his bde into what he believed was a baby daga bear's neck he stops, as the only thing that was there was the blind woman. "Don't move," Lincoln says in a serious tone.

  "Why what-"

  "Just be quiet for a moment," he says, cutting her off from finishing her question as he continues to hold the bde inches from her neck. He was a little confused as he knew what he sensed was killing intent, but as soon as turned around, it disappeared. To him, this only meant two things. Either she was about to attack from behind. Or because he didn't see or hear any daga bears he was more on guard than normal, and his mind was just pying tricks on him. Either way, he monitored her just to be sure. He monitored her facial expression, her hand movements, her body posture, and the way she was breathing in the cold air. These were the few things he was looking at. Any signs of her wanting to attack him and he would kill her, but he didn't see any sign of aggression at all. All he saw was a puzzled expression on her face.

  "Um." She pauses. "Can I move now?" The woman asks.

  "Yeah sorry." He retracts the bde and puts it in his pocket quietly. "Sorry, there was a spider on you, and didn't want you to freak out and make it harder to kill," Lincoln says in his natural tone trying to sound convincing. As soon as he said that though, the woman violently shook her whole body from side to side. I guess she really doesn't like spiders. He thought after seeing the way she acted when he told her the lie that there was a spider on her.

  "There aren't any spiders on me now, are there?" She asks, still in a panic.

  "Let me see. Turn around." She does a whole three-sixty-degree turn. "Nah there's nothing else on you." He picks up the walking stick "Here you go," he says.

  "Thanks." She takes her walking stick from him. "Can. Can." She pauses. "I know I have been a little bit of a hassle but can I ask you for another favor from you?" She asks.

  "Sure what is it."

  "Well. I was wondering if you would help guide me back to the hotel I was staying at."

  "Sure. I have no problem doing that." Just after Lincoln says that he hears someone call out his name.

  "Thanks. I appreciate it," she says with a smile before she holds her hand out to shake his but her hand was completely off to where Lincoln was standing. "I forgot to ask what's your name?" She asks.

  "It's Lincoln" -he quickly but quietly repositioned himself to shake her hand- "and yours?"

  "Darleena." She responds. As soon as Darleena had said her name, Lincoln heard the sound of someone calling out to him again and again but it was very faint so he had no clue where the voice was coming from. He looked around to see if he could see anyone at all but there was no one around other than the two of them.

  "I must be hearing things." He thought out loud before shaking his head from side to side to refocus.

  "Is something the matter?" Darleena asks in a curious tone.

  "No, it's nothing. let's go." Once Lincoln says that he starts to walk in the direction of the hotel with Darleena by his side. Without both of them noticing a bush starts to move side to side weakly. A couple of seconds ter a little boy covered in mud and blood crawls his way out of the bush with a massive ssh on his back but that wasn't his only problem. His tibia was sticking out from his leg and now scarping across the ground and his tears, blood, mucus, and dirt were all over his face. With all the strength he could muster he tries to yell out again. Even though his throat felt like it was on fire from all the screaming he had done while running away, he knew that if he didn't get Lincoln's attention then he would be dead.

  "Lin-" He coughs up blood. "Coln," he says while reaching out his arm but after a few seconds his arm just plops down. Like a stuffed toy's arm would do if the owner of a stuffed toy held onto the arm and then released it. Because he hadn't moved for some time now, he was now starting to form a small pool of blood. I don't want to die, I don't want to die. I don't want to... I. As he is thinking that, he hears the sound of his attacker emerging from the bushes. Please, I beg of you. The boy thought to himself, too weak to voice his words before he slowly closed his eyes. He then hears his attacker approaching him, they then turn him over and then stop. He guessed they did this to see how petrified he was. *Thamp* Was the sound of his attacker pressing their foot against the boy's chest with enough force to crack his sternum slightly, making the boy's eyes shoot open and for him to spew out some more blood. He then looks at his attacker who had somehow taken the form of his now dead friend. The st thing the boy saw was his attacker having a creepy smile pstered on their face as they said something that he couldn't understand and a second ter their eyes glowed magenta. They then remove their foot from his chest, dig straight into his chest with their right hand, and pull out his heart with ease. With his heart being pulled out of his chest, the remaining dim light that was in his eyes was now gone. No blood from his beating heart dripped onto his corpse or on the road, but his heart did now have weird magenta-colored symbols imprinted into it while it beat every second or so in a rexed manner.

  "Still immature like the other ones," his attacker says as they stand there, close their eyes, and feel the heartbeat in their hands. To them, the heartbeat was very mild and simple like if someone was tapping their finger slowly on a table as they were bored. "Even though your heart is pin, Core will accept you so don't worry." They sigh with disappointment. "Oh well I had fun chasing you." was the st thing the boy's attacker said before they pocketed his heart into their pocket and walked back into the undergrowth while dragging the boy's lifeless corpse by his ankle.