Apricus

Prologue - A Strangers First Meeting

There was a man following you. No doubt about it, he had been trailing you ever since you had left school. How long had he been keeping this routine up? You pursed your lips, attempting to recount when exactly you first sensed his presence. Up until now, you were under the impression that it was the paranoia talking, but now you were sure of it. It really wasn't your fault; nowadays, it was hard to distinguish what was real or fake - whether the monsters that seemed to attach themselves to people and mutter vulgar threats were just another thing out of your imagination.

You turned left at the closest alley way, straying from your regular path with the intention to corner and confront the man. So what if he pulled a knife on you? Though you'd been taught stranger danger, you were sick of the overbearing reminder that whatever you saw could just be another one of your hallucinations. Quite frankly, your curiosity ruled over fear. Perhaps the stupidity was a result of your youth, or an idiotic trait that you happened to possess.

    His footsteps were almost completely silent. The lengths he pulled to disguise himself from a twelve year old were rather humorous, but now was not the time for laughs. As you feigned oblivion and crept further towards the darkness, you suddenly turned on the man. To your surprise, he wasn't a disfigured creature, but instead a rather good looking young man sporting a blindfold.

What the hell? Have I just been picking on a blind man?

    "Why are you following me, old man?" You demanded, leaning towards him with furrowed eyebrows. The angry look on your face could only be described as closely resembling that of a frustrated Pomeranian.

    "Eh? Old man?" The man's jaw dropped in an unseemly way, slanting to create a freakish expression.

    "Yeah, you heard me," You clutched at the straps of your bag, "Your hair 's white enough to twin with a senior resident."

    He put a hand on his chin, leaning over to match with the pose of the young girl before him. He seemed to observe you for a moment through his blindfold, and the teen felt appalled as to what this man could possibly be seeing.

    "Hmm... you're quite an interesting kid ya know."

    "If you're trying to traffic me, I know how to fight."

    "Is that so?" He held out his palm. "Why don't you give it a shot? I'd like to see what kind of technique you could possibly have."

    A confused and annoyed look flashed on your face. As you balled your fists in preparation, you took a step back as if to warn the man that he would, in fact, not want whatever power you were about to unleash. As you threw your shoulder towards your target and launched your fist, skin connected with skin and a feeble slap resounded from the walls of the alleyway. The two of you seemed to stand frozen for a second, fist to palm and palm to fist before he threw his head back and barked a laugh.

    "Wow kid, you are weak!" The man said between laughs, his fingers reaching under his blindfold to wipe away tears. "I was expecting a lot more from a person with that level of cursed energy."

    "H-hey!" You exclaimed, huffing a breath of irritation.

    "You're all bark and no bite aren't ya?" He leaned in, bending over nearly two feet to match the girl's height. "Huh, I don't suppose you even know what curses are..."

    "Whatever, you're crazy," You turned on your heel to leave, both to extinguish your fuming embarrassment and mitigate whatever drugs this man could possibly be on - whatever it was, it was strong enough to be contagious.

    As soon as you reached your third step, a force grabbed your bag and yanked you backwards. As you screamed and flailed, you felt your feet lift off the ground to match eye level with the stranger - not that he had any uncovered eyes to look at.

    "Don't you want to know why I've been following you?"

    "No! Get off of me!" You thrashed around, speaking through gritted teeth. "You're a creep who's going to sell me!"

    "This is why Japan's birth rate is declining..." He sighed, "You see weird things nobody else does? Monsters who seem to ooze off negative energy?"

    You immediately stilled at his words.

    "Ah, that seemed to have piqued your interest," He smirked, "What do you want to know about curses?"

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Hey guys! Before I officially start this I'd like to share a few words.

Firstly, this is not the type of writing I'm used to. I've been meaning to start projects on here that would help me with my writing, but I often start one and lack motivation to continue it. I'm a huge perfectionist, and whenever I write it takes a long time for me to properly form the words I like (in summary I'm an overbearing poet). I usually write essays or short stories (typically for competitions and such) so this is a first for me, and I hope that as I'm able to write without stopping or constant editing, I'll be improving. This point of me writing this was to basically just thug it out even if I hate what I write. Please be patient with my writing as it's not my best work and purely just a project for fun and to help me improve! Because of this reason, I'll do my best with weekly updates as hopefully chapters won't take a very long time for me, but I am a very busy person so I may delay things... sorry :(

Some of my grammar errors are intentional just because I like to write weirdly and I really enjoy writing poetry! There'll definitely be influxes of styles but nothing too major I think.

I'm currently in the process of planning this and thinking about where I'm going to be driving this plot. I'm really trying to nail my characters down and write accurately so yeah... once again please bare with me.

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now! Thank you readers ^_^

-Kosero