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Rise of the Spirit Maiden

Chapter 1: Prologue

"Shit, not now!" Tanya sighed as she reloaded the gun in her hand. It would've been so easy for her if she was alone right then. But things weren't so easy because she had someone beside her that she wanted to protect.

"Look, don't worry. I'm here to protect you." She said as she stroked the hair of the girl beside her. She then immediately regretted the choice of words that she used and how corny she sounded while saying that. However, she decided to let go of that train of thought and stood on guard. It was a pitch-black night and the danger was lurking beside them. She had no time to dwell on unnecessary things.

"Okay. Come on out now! I'm not a patient man, you see. The faster you come out, the easier you die. So, if you do want to continue this hide and seek, I'll make sure that you receive a painful death from my hands." A man came lurking out of the shadows as he spoke those words. He frantically searched all over the place looking for the two. Tanya decided to stay put. She sincerely hoped that he wouldn't find her.

And he did not. After a few seconds, he stopped his search and decided to rest beside his butler. "Ok fine! Come out now and I promise you—pretty promise you that I'll give you two a painless death. How about that?" The man felt really satisfied with his verdict and looked at his butler for approval. The butler gave a thumbs up.

"Not yet—not yet." Tanya thought to herself as she clenched her gun. She did believe that the time was not right to make a move. Meanwhile, the man was annoyed. He gritted his teeth with anticipation. His butler noticed his restlessness and decided to take action. However, he stopped him.

"Wardlow, wait. Maybe I'm not being lenient enough. Now, let's try this again. Come on out and maybe I'll let one of you live. That's a good deal, isn't it?" The man shouted out his proposition. Tanya couldn't decide—save one life now or wait for a bit and see where this goes. Finally, she decided on the latter and waited patiently.

Upon receiving no reply from the other side, the man decided to take action on his own. He walked up slowly to where Tanya and the girl were. "You know, I have this power which I'd like to call super-sensitive smell power or some shit like that—I literally made up that name just now, no kidding. However, the power is real. I can smell pretty well, like a dog—however, I feel like I'm undermining myself with that comparison. Meh, who cares! Dogs are awesome. So, back to my point—well, you might've already got my point, didn't you?" By the time he got to her, Tanya already knew what to do.

It happened in a split second. Tanya got up and swung her arm at him. He dodged the swing and got to the other side. But this time, Tanya aimed her gun at him and shot. However, Wardlow placed a crisp blow to her hand which messed up the trajectory and narrowly missed the guy. And what's more, she lost the possession of her firearm. The faithful butler threw the gun to his master.

"Whew, that was close. Thanks, Wardlow. However it wouldn't have been necessary—but, I appreciate the effort." He pointed the gun at the girl, all but ready to pull the trigger.

"Wait, don't kill her; kill me." Tanya was mentally prepared for taking the bullet for the girl. She was just too precious to her to lose.

"Eenie Meenie Minie mo, who's got to be the first to go? Hey, it really is you, congrats! Dang it! I really thought it would go the other way… Disappointing to say the least. But, whatever. I get to kill you at least. So, that's a plus point in my opinion. So, tell me. How do you feel about gaining this wonderful privilege of being the first one to die?" The guy held the gun towards her mouth as if it was a mic and he was an interviewer.

Tanya had nothing to say. She was completely outmatched. She felt frustrated. She lost. And not only did she place her own life in jeopardy, she couldn't save the one beside her. And this made her feel like an absolute piece of trash. No words came out of her mouth as she saw the man before her apparently having the time of his life. She didn't like it; but she had nothing to say about it. Hence, she chose to remain silent.

The man sighed as he shook his head in disappointment. "Hey that's no fun now, is it Wardlow?" He looked towards his butler, seemingly demanding an answer out of him, to which the butler shook his head. "See, even he disagrees. Come on, talk!" He provoked her.

Tanya's eyebrows flinched a bit. She was annoyed; extremely annoyed. Yet she decided to keep her calm. "Doesn't this guy know how to read the atmosphere?" She thought to herself as rage boiled inside her.

However, the man wasn't ready to give up. He wanted to get some sort of an answer from Tanya. Hence he resorted to a whole lot of methods. However, none of them seemed successful… initially, at least.

But, after a series of provocative words, she took a deep breath and finally opened her mouth. "Fuck you." She said while she felt quite satisfied with her response. The words befitting her final ones. It seemed pretty cool in her head.

"Thank you. Now, was that so difficult? So, let's get on to our next event, shall we?" He aimed the gun at her. Tanya knew that it was the end. She was at least able to do one good thing by saving a life—hopefully, if the man is true to his words—she could only hope as she braced herself for the gunshot.