MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

[2 Days after the harrowing events of Pacific Park]

Knock~ Knock~

"Sae... Will you please open the door?"

Sitting alone in her room, at the house of her parents, Sae trembled intermittently when she heard the subtle knocking on the door of her room.

She was only able to calm herself down somewhat after hearing the voice of her mother, but even then, it was impossible to hide the goosebumps that went over her skin from just the simple event of hearing the knock on the door.

"I... I am alright. Please just leave me alone. Please..."

Sae sat with her back against the bedrest as she covered herself from head to toe with a blanket. The ambiance of the room was entirely plunged in stygian darkness with only the light of her computer lighting the room as the news about the events that happened in the Park kept replaying on the PC screen.

"Sae... You know you can talk to us about anything, right?"

'I can't...'

"I know I can, mom. There's just... nothing to talk about..."

Her thoughts and her words were completely contradictory but there was nothing else she could do or say about it.

"I am really alright, you know, haha... Just a little bit tired, that's all..."

One could hear the steps of someone shuffling in front of the door slightly followed by the sounds of receding footsteps, indicating that her mom was leaving. She could hear the voice of her parents arguing in the distance, which caused her to feel extremely guilty and anxious.

After all, her parents had never argued so loudly for as long as she could remember. She wanted to come down and tell them that she was feeling great, tell them that there was nothing wrong with her. Show them a wide smile to bring relief to them.

But...

"Hic~"

A sob leaked out from her lips and she covered herself with the blanket even more tightly. She was scared. She was lost. She did not know what was happening anymore.

'This...'

On that day. When she left Adam to go change, she felt her body growing hotter and hotter until she basically fainted at one point.

When she finally woke up, she realized that she had become a prisoner in her own body. A womanly voice that called herself Lilith told her that she was not a human but, in essence, a succubus.

This explained all the abnormally repressed sexual urges she had to deal with throughout her life.

Sae had felt like she was dreaming from that moment on. But it would be more accurate to call it a nightmare rather than a mere dream. A nightmare that was slowly proving to be her new reality.

"Ah...Please stop."

Those grotesque waves of laughter, the expressions of madness and absolute vile and evil that they all showed... All of those rotten and painful memories were engraved in her mind still.

She blocked her ears with her hands but she could still hear them loud and clear in her head. She closed her eyes but she could still see them in front of her. The scent of sulfur still entered her nose and the sticky feeling of blood covering her body would not leave no matter what she did.

"Hah~ Hah~ Hah~"

Her breath became ragged and hurried. She tried to gasp to relieve the feeling of stuffiness but she felt like her chest was still constricted by something heavy and burdensome. Her surroundings became faint and blurry. It was as if the walls were closing in on her, as if the room was becoming smaller with each passing second and was now about to crush her.

Nausea climbed through her throat and nose as her stomach churned violently. She would have already barfed if she hadn't already done it so many times there was literally nothing left for her stomach to give out.

Her consciousness was growing faint and she would have most likely fainted if her phone did not start ringing in front of her.

Suddenly, the room in the space seemed wider once again and breathing was once again possible.

She looked down at the phone, more specifically the caller that had saved her from fainting.

[Natasha]

Taking the phone in her trembling hands, she could see more than twenty missed calls and messages from Steven alone, and double that coming from Natasha.

Natasha. Her dear friend. Someone with whom she liked to bicker with for the slightest of things. They would mock and insult each other but she knew deep down that Natasha was her closest friend and there were few things she had never hesitated in sharing with her.

Sae thought that she knew nearly everything there was to know about Natasha.

Now though...

'Natasha is a werewolf...'

Just putting that reality in her thoughts made her feel like she was about to go crazy from a plethora of feelings that seemed to block her breathing.

A werewolf. A fucking werewolf.

She was some kind of demon hybrid. Natasha was a Werewolf and Adam...

Thinking of Adam, her heart settled down as a complicated expression filled her face. She had seen it... What he did. How he killed those people without any hesitation, an indifferent expression donning his face throughout.

She had also seen it. Behind his indifferent mask, the anguish and the pain that seemed to leak out of his eyes. The resolve and the anger that seemed to be filling the very depth of his soul.

Sae was confused.

Killing was bad. Murderers were sinners in the eyes of the law and religion as well as morals.

She should have felt revulsed of Adam. Scared even. She had been raised by cops and her best friend was from a family of lawyers. She herself was studying to become a lawyer in the future.

But-- was what Adam did wrong?

Did he even kill humans in the first place? From what she understood, those people were already dead the moment they were possessed.

Moreover, Adam had not even tried to call her at all throughout these couple of days of sheer nightmare that she had been living through. Did he just not care?

She laughed at herself. It was sad how the opinion of Adam seemed to matter more than the horrors she had witnessed in that god forsaken place on that god forsaken day.

"Ugh..."

Her head hurs and she ignored the phone as it stopped ringing after some time. Her thoughts were all over the place and she had a hard time focusing on any one thing at the moment.

Rather... She simply did not wish to focus on anything right now. Just forget everything and everyone.

For whenever she did try to focus, those haunting scenes would come back to her and she would be even more lost.

There was so much she did not understand. So much she wanted to know.

But... who? To whom should she ask all of this?

It was then--

"My... What a pitiful child."

Sae opened her eyes wide and looked up.

There, floating in the air above her, was a woman clad in a long blue robe that was struggling its utmost to hide her voluptuous and glamorous body. Her long black hair that reached her back had a hint of purple at the tips and her jewel-like purple eyes shone like a star in the sky in her glamorous and gorgeous face.

"You... Who are you?"

Sae should have felt panicked. After all, some stranger woman had entered her room out of nowhere and was even flying in the air like she was in superwoman or something.

But strangely, all she could feel was a feeling of calmness wash over her.

"Who am I?"

The woman pointed at herself with a mischievous smile as she hovered down and came close enough to be able to pat Sae on her head with her outstretched hand...

"My name is Bridget Bishop and -- I am a witch."

Her smile became more pronounced as she stretched her other hand toward her...

"Sae Kirishima. I come as the bearer of good news."

There was a letter adorned with golden engravings on that hand of hers.

"As the Headmaster, I come to ask if you would like to join our prestigious Academy."

(AN: Welp. Vol 5 is officially finished with this chapter. Let's go for Vol 6 now. Sae suffered greatly. But don't worry. She will stand up again and keep her smile.)