章 5: Allow me to handle this.

Mark was petrified. As he stared at the silver-haired maid sitting a few meters away, he began to feel that his brain could short-circuit at any moment. Thankfully the surrounding chatter helped snap him out of it. It took him a couple of seconds to understand what kind of situation he was in, and his mind went into overdrive trying to draw his next course of action.

He was already on the move soon after. First, he handed the girl her phone back, then he walked over to the maid and grabbed her hand.

"I know I said I liked it, but did you really have to do this?" He said, trying to sound as normal as possible. "You went too far with your pranks this time!"

He was trying to make it look like everything was just one big prank, but something told him it wouldn't work. Of course, Mark wasn't about to wait and see the results. He hightailed it out of the lecture hall without looking back then disappeared from the campus entirely.

Once they were outside, he quickly took out his phone and rummaged through it a little. Lara stared at the hand holding hers for a while, looked up at him, then looked up at the sky.

"The sun…" she spoke, her voice a little wistful. "It's rising…"

Confused by her statement, Mark looked up then back at her.

"It's nine in the morning." He replied. "It has been rising for a few hours now."

A taxi showed up not long after.

"Get in." He said after opening the door.

The maid did as she was told. Once he gave the driver an address and the car moved, Mark finally allowed himself to relax.

"A car is a lot less stressful than the subway." The maid said. "That said, I cannot help feeling that the underground routes seem safer."

Her comments drew the youth's attention, but his silence lingered. Eventually, she turned away and closed her eyes, heaving a sigh as she added one more thing.

"You need to obtain a personal vehicle, Master. It is quite disgraceful that we have to rely on mundane transportation used by the rest of the population."

Mark was speechless, continuing to stare at her with his jaw hanging like an idiot. He noticed the driver watching them through the rearview mirror and sighed.

"Don't ask." He said while shaking his head. "I don't get it myself."

The driver returned his sight to the road, though he kept glancing at the mirror whenever they stopped at a traffic light.

'She's real…' Mark thought, still staring at the maid. 'Other people can see her… does that mean…'

He still couldn't believe it, but a part of him was starting to think that maybe he hadn't lost his mind after all.

"Master, I believe I have already voiced my displeasure with the way you stare for so long," Lara spoke again, pulling him out of his thoughts. "I request that you stop."

"You seemed to be doing just fine back in the lecture hall," Mark said. "Are you saying you only hate it when it's me?"

Glancing at him for a couple of seconds, the maid let out another sigh.

"There is nothing I can do about a curious crowd. Besides, Master's gaze is quite unnerving, especially when you refuse to acknowledge my existence." Her eyes narrowed. "You were the one who summoned me, weren't you?"

Mark didn't know how to answer that question. The silver-haired maid, Lara Becker, turned her head away in a show of displeasure. If she thought that would get the message across, though, then she was sorely mistaken. Despite seeing her with his own eyes, and despite getting confirmation from other people, Mark still couldn't believe that she was real. She wasn't supposed to be real.

Lara Becker was a character he had created for his game, one from an update he has yet to even release. He considered the chances of all of it being a big prank, but even the few people who played his game wouldn't know about her. It was difficult to imagine someone going to such lengths just for a prank, but the alternative was even less believable.

"Hm…? What's in the world…"

The driver's confused voice didn't even register in Mark's mind. The youth was too focused on the maid sitting beside him, and his conflicted thoughts prevented him from taking his eyes off of her. It was only when he noticed a bunch of people running past the window on her side that he realized something was off.

A loud impact drew his attention to the front where he saw the car that was in front of them moving back. The driver must've been on something as he bumped into their taxi, pushing it back into the next car. He then proceeded to turn the vehicle around and kick the gas pedal, driving right into the sidewalk before taking off.

The scene was nothing short of horrifying. Mark caught a glimpse of the driver's face. It had a look of absolute terror, one born from having witnessed something unimaginable. He didn't know what was so horrifying that it would cause a grown man to act so recklessly, but he didn't have to wait long before the reason showed itself.

"Master!"

Following Lara's call, the taxi suddenly shook violently once more. Looking ahead, Mark saw it. A corpse. A human corpse. The mutilated body of an adult human, one missing its head and an arm. Blood was splattered everywhere, oozing from the long cuts that stretched over the body. The gruesome scene was straight out of a horror movie.

Up ahead, the intersection was a disaster zone. Fire spread in every direction, devouring cars that had been crushed flat or piled on top of each other. Motionless bodies littered the ground, bathed in the same blood flowing out of their wounds.

At the center of it all, something was moving. It leaned toward one of the cars and stretched its hand, grabbed the driver, then brought him close to its face. A large maw spread open to reveal two rows of bloodied fangs, and an instant later, those fangs joined once more, crunching the man's head as he screamed for help.

Mark refused to believe what he had just witnessed. He was ready to accept that the maid beside him was real, but when faced with such a scene doing so became impossible. It had to be a dream, there was simply no other explanation.

'Was it the whispers?' He thought, remembering the confusing nightmares they gave him before. 'Did I get some kind of brain damage?'

"Master."

Mark's entire body jolted up when he felt a firm grip on his arm. Turning to the right, he was met with Lara's piercing gaze.

"We need to flee this place at once."

The maid was calm. Strangely so. They were a dozen meters from a carnage but her face showed none of the emotions one would feel in such a situation. She didn't wait for his approval and went to open the door. Her movements were slow, calm, and stealthy, surprising Mark who had yet to accept the current reality.

He felt her pull his arm and moved toward the door on her side. She was sitting closer to the sidewalk which was now devoid of people. Everyone had run away at some point leaving only the two of them there. Exiting on that side was the most logical choice, considering the alternative.

A cold chill caused his body to shudder and Mark couldn't resist looking behind him. There, at the center of the gruesome carnage, the monstrosity had dropped the corpse it was biting and was now staring at him.

The cold murderous intent flowing from its eyes wrapped around him like thick ropes, and when combined with the fear and confusion freezing his legs, he couldn't bring himself to make any kind of move.

Just then, a head of silver hair appeared in from of him, drawing his eyes away from the abomination. The intricate maid uniform fluttered slightly in the wind. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground and her right arm was raised protectively by her side.

Lara held the bloody monster with her ruby eyes and spoke in a firm tone.

"Please step back, Master. Allow me to handle this."