• The arms sprouted out of the thick pool of tar, followed by a lumpy body, it was the exact same thing Jean saw on her way to school. The only feature its "face" had was the row of lipless, pointed, sharp fangs that lined its mouth. The creatures breath sounded labored, the air made ugly gnashing noises as it rushed through the creatures fangs. This shadowy monster reeked of all sorts of emotions, jean felt the martyrdom, rage, and lost love, of many souls come from this thing. It started reaching its claws toward Jean.
    Jean backed away, reared her leg, then kicked the thing square in the chest as hard as possible. The monster was only disoriented for a second till it got back up.
    "Freak!" Jean yelled as she started running.
    The monster receded back into its liquid form, then started flooding down the hallway. Jean ran around everything in her way, and if she couldn't get around it, she rammed her way through it. She passed a couple of teachers, who yelled at her and looked at her like she was crazy, and seemed totally unaware of the giant black mass flowing through the halls. When Jean finally reached the outside she looked around for something to use as a weapon, she spotted the recycling dumpster. Broken florescent lights stuck out at the front, Jean grabbed one and shattered it on the ground to make a sharpened point.
    The black flood finally reached the doorway, and dripped through every opening in it. The flood took a solid form once more, the pulsating tendrils that flowed in and out of its body gathered around the creature's arm, then shot out toward Jean, the tendrils ripped the florescent tube out of her hands then shot into her right eye, she made an aggrivated grunt, but didn't scream, and ripped the tendrils out of her eye.
    "Come on! You've chased me this far!" Jean said, flinging her arms out as if opening herself up for target practice. The monster positioned itself like it was going to lunge, but then stopped.
    "Honestly, Jean, you teenagers always end up dying before getting to know life, it's a shame if you ask me." a feminine voice behind Jean said. Jean swirled around to see a woman with long curly blond hair in a white gown, and a bow and quiver of arrows strapped to her back, leaning against the dumpster with the florescent tubes in it. The first thing that would cross most peoples mind when seeing this woman is "Greek goddess." which was true not only because of her beauty, but because air of deception and malevolence behind it. The first things that crossed Jean's mind was, "Little goody two shoes, daddy's little girl, ignorant buffoon." which she had half a mind of speaking out loud.
    "What do you want, Cinderella?" Jean said with her arrogant scowl crossing her face.
    "My name is Ganovyn, but you'll just keep calling me Cinderella anyway..." the woman sighed, "I've been sent to give you some advice."
    "Whatever, now listen, Cinderella, could you just go prance with a unicorn or go to a tea party or something? Because I have to deal with this thing."
    "That's why I'm even here, Jean, these things are a menace to us all."
    Jean turned around to look at the monster, it prowled around, making hissing noises at Jean and Ganovyn.
    "You're lucky you only lost an eye in escaping its clutches."
    "What the hell are you talk-" Jean reached for her right eye, she felt warm liquid running down her cheek and looked at the blood on her hands, her vision went blurry, she held her arms tight onto her stomach as she kneeled over. Ganovyn reached out for her and stopped her from falling.
    "It would have made a second attempt if I hadn't come quick enough."
    Jean slowly made her way onto her feet.
    "What, what is that thing..."
    "It's called a ripaway spirit, they tear souls into shreds, take the core, and turn it into another ripaway spirit. This one's been stalking you for a long time."
    "I've been stalked, by a big blob of tar, for how long?" Jean looked outraged.
    "You'll know in time, all I can tell you for now, is that you need to find someone named Kergo, he'll tell you what do."
    "Why can't I just live a normal life? It's not like I had some sort of path set for me to go on some sort of adventure."
    "No, you weren't, but you were the only one who fit the bill, just look for Kergo, he has a shop in one of the back alleys downtown, tell him Ganovyn sent you, but first..." Ganovyn pulled a bow and arrow off her back, and shot the ripaway spirit as if it were a daily task, it shrieked and writhed, then melted into the ground. Then without another word to Jean, Ganovyn disappeared like dust in the wind.
    "Why should I take the orders from some pretty princess huh?!" Jean shouted to the sky, but Jean knew she couldn't just return to her normal life, with a missing eye and a crazy story about ripaway spirits and a lady in a white gown.

    To be continued...