After Nova left her room, she went downstairs to the first floor and walked toward the dining table.
At the dining table, plates filled with breakfast were already neatly arranged. Nova sat in the wooden chair and looked around the dining room.
"Hm, where are those two?" Nova asked while picking up a spoon. What Nova meant were her two younger siblings who were 11 years old.
Nova had two younger siblings, Noah and Lunar. Although they were born on the same day, Noah was born first by about 1 minute, so technically he was older than Lunar.
"They already left for school earlier with Ena," her mother answered from the kitchen direction.
Ena was the neighbor's child from the house to their right. The 11-year-old girl was very close to Noah and Lunar. The three of them always went to and from school together, and Nova herself rarely talked to her.
"They're like family, aren't they?" Nova began eating her breakfast calmly.
"I think that's natural, besides they've known each other for a very long time. Your two younger siblings even prefer spending time with Ena more than with you," her mother said while smiling slightly.
"Yeah, yeah," Nova replied.
Her father, Nolan, was sitting on the family room sofa watching the morning news.
After finishing her fried rice, Nova got up from her chair and took her school bag that was hanging on the chair's backrest.
"Alright Mom, I'm leaving now," Nova said while shouldering her bag.
"Yes, be careful on the road. Don't forget your lunch!" her mother replied from the kitchen.
"Yeah yeah, I won't forget." Nova opened the front door of the house and walked toward the front gate.
Their family's house was surrounded by a stone wall about 2 meters high with a fairly large iron gate—even a car could enter easily. The stone wall had small holes for looking through.
After opening the gate, Nova walked to the right toward her school. Their family lived in a fairly busy residential complex—on the left and right sides of the road were rows of houses with almost similar architectural styles. The distance from home to school wasn't too far, about 13 minutes on foot at normal speed.
As usual, the main road in the morning looked quiet. Most people had already left for work or school earlier.
But suddenly, Nova stopped walking. Her eyes were fixed on something ahead.
"What is that?" she muttered while squinting her eyes.
Nova stepped closer and stopped right in front of the strange object. Its shape was like... a puddle of blood? But the color was darker and seemed to be moving by itself.
"Isn't there anyone else who sees this?" Nova looked left and right, but the street was indeed empty. Nova felt strange because a puddle of blood that size should attract attention.
"Maybe this is just red paint from children's toys, or maybe props for a short film or something..." Nova tried to calm herself with logical explanations.
"Alright, I don't have time for something like this." When Nova was about to step again, suddenly something cold and sticky wrapped around her ankle!
"What—?!"
The blood moved like a living creature, pulling her very strongly. Although the blood puddle didn't look big from the outside, Nova felt her body being sucked in like falling into a deep pool.
"What... what's happening?!"
Nova fell hard on the ground. Nova looked around her surroundings. When she looked around, she was shocked by what she saw.
Everywhere there were large trees with thick leaves that blocked the moonlight. The sky above looked dark.
"Where is this?" Nova stood up while cleaning the dust off her school uniform. Nova felt confused because she was suddenly in a completely unfamiliar place.
"Am I now inside a forest? And... why is it night here? Wasn't it morning just now?"
"Did that blood puddle pull me into here? But how is that possible?"
"Huh?!" Suddenly Nova quickly looked behind her. Nova could feel that something was walking toward her.
"Who is that...?!"