In the dark streets of Bayam, a woman walked wearily after a hard day's work. This woman's name was Beti, and she worked as an editor for the Sonia Morning Post, Bayam's most popular newspaper. Naturally, her workload was very heavy, but in recent days it had become almost unbearable, all because of the commotion caused by the Shadow Specter. Her boss asked her to stay late to edit all kinds of articles so they would be ready as soon as possible.
"Stupid idiot boss, stupid Shadow Specter."
If it weren't for that Shadow Specter, she wouldn't have to stay late at the office editing articles until her fingers hurt. The worst part was that she wasn't even paid for her overtime.
Feeling frustrated, tired, and sore, all Beti wanted to do was get home, lie down with her cat, and fall asleep. But as she was walking distractedly near an alley, a hand suddenly reached out, dragging her into the darkness. Taken by surprise, Beti tried to scream, but a hand clamped tightly over her mouth, muffling her cries. Panicked, she tried to struggle, but the man holding her was much stronger than she was, leaving her helpless.
"Stop moving, bitch!"
The man shouted as he raised one of his hands to hit her. Beti, seeing this, closed her eyes tightly as she screamed from the depths of her heart.
'Help!'
A loud noise rang out in the dark alley, but strangely, Beti felt no pain. Puzzled and confused, she slowly opened her eyes, and as she looked around, her eyes widened in surprise. The man who had tried to hit her was now at the other end of the alley; the silhouette of a fist was deeply engraved on his face, and blood was gushing from his nose and mouth; most of his teeth had been knocked out and were scattered on the ground.
But what caught Beti's attention was not the man on the ground but the silhouette that had suddenly appeared in front of her. It had a demonic face, strange armor, and long white hair. It stared at her for a few seconds as if checking that she was not injured; finally, it nodded slightly before turning around and melting into the shadows, disappearing completely.
Throughout the whole process, Beti maintained the same expression of surprise and disbelief before snapping out of her stupor and running as fast as she could to her house. The next day, she put her heart into seriously editing every article that had to do with the Shadow Specter, making sure they were more eye-catching than any of the other news stories, and she didn't go home until each one was edited. Her boss, impressed by her enthusiasm, decided to give her a $200 bonus.
***
On a dark night in Bayam, in an abandoned warehouse, a group of criminals gathered to complete the sale of a new batch of drugs. These people were part of a criminal gang that had been terrorizing ordinary citizens, engaging in all kinds of illegal activities, such as extortion for protection money or charging exorbitant interest rates to anyone who dared to ask them for a loan.
"Hey! Be careful with those boxes; if any of the product gets damaged, I'll cut your fucking head off!"
The leader of this operation, a bald, muscular man with a horrible scar on his head, yelled at a boy who looked no older than 14, who was thin to the bone and visibly tired. His group was also known for kidnapping poor children and putting them to work; after all, there weren't many people who cared about these children, something they took advantage of.
The boy who had been concentrating on carrying the boxes was startled by the sudden shout; this caused him to lose his balance and drop the box, breaking it and scattering its contents all over the floor. The warehouse fell into a deathly silence; the boy's face turned even paler than it already was, and his body began to shake. His companions, who were also young people of various ages, looked at him with pity and concern; after all, sharing the same difficult situation, they had developed a deep sense of empathy for one another.
"What do you think you're doing, you fucking idiot!?"
The bald man began to walk toward him with veins throbbing in his head and an expression of deep fury distorting his face. The boy, who was still on the floor, looked up at him with deep fear as his body trembled; tears began to stream from his eyes as he stammered, trying to explain himself.
"I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."
However, his words stuck in his throat when he saw the man pointing a revolver at him, just inches from his face. The other children watched this as fear began to take hold of their expressions, fear for the fate of their companion. Some of them wanted to try to stop what was about to happen, but they were held back by the older members of the group, who knew that if they tried to do anything, the only thing they would achieve would be to be killed.
The bald man watched all this with a cruel look before turning his attention back to the boy he was pointing his revolver at, who was shaking violently with tears running down his face.
"Let this be a lesson to you, little shits."
But before he could pull the trigger, the lights in the store suddenly went out, plunging everything into darkness. Immediately after that, screams began to be heard.
"What the hell?"
The bald man began to look around frantically; sometimes shots rang out, followed by tragic screams, followed by silence. The bald man began to panic as he pointed his revolver into the darkness and shouted desperately.
"Who the hell is there?! Show yourself!"
At that moment, the bald man realized that the noises had completely stopped; the warehouse was completely quiet. From the shadows, slowly approaching, he could see a demonic figure carrying a long, curved, single-edged sword stained with blood.
"Don't come any closer... I said don't come any closer!"
The bald man fired, and the bullet struck the demon in the head, causing it to sway violently backward. The bald man felt relieved; nothing could survive a shot to the head—that was common sense, that was how things worked.
But unfortunately for him, this time he was dealing with something that defied common sense.
The demon slowly turned its head to look at the man; there was no sign that the shot had done it any harm. The demon began walking toward the man again, maintaining the same slow, deliberate pace as before. Seeing this, the bald man began to tremble, and sweat covered his body; with a desperate scream, he began to shoot wildly, as if he still held out hope that normal bullets could stop this demon. But no matter where they hit, the demon continued to walk toward him without stopping until finally the man entered the range of its sword.
With a movement too quick for him to see, the demon swung his arm, and in the next instant blood began spurting from the man's neck. He fell to his knees on the ground as he desperately tried to stop the bleeding, but it didn't take long for him to finally die, with an expression of utter terror and despair etched on his eyes.
The next day, the citizens of Bayam were greeted with the news that the criminal group that had been terrorizing the locals in recent days had been completely annihilated in a single night and that hundreds of children who had been used for forced labor had been rescued. When these children were asked if they had seen what happened, they all gave the same answer.
"A demon killed them all."
During that night and the following nights, several cases were reported.
A child who had gotten lost at night managed to find his way back to his parents. A woman who had been kidnapped appeared in front of the police station, and next to her were the unconscious bodies of the criminals who had abducted her. People who had been saved from robbery or other accidents by strange circumstances began to appear more frequently, and all these cases had something in common.
They were all related to a demonic-looking entity.
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A/N: Yay~ 10K (God, I'm done.)