Excerpt from working novel- Cyré: A world beyond Maya

Chapter One

When her friend, Tuluc, had stopped mid-sentence and stared angrily at something in front of them, Filinia curiously turned to stare at it too. But it wasn’t something, it was someone— a man. The springs of the couch creaked, shifting along with her, as she started to observe the oddity of this man. Burly with a predominant forehead and long straw-like hair. He was almost comical with how much of a walking stereotype he was. She pegged him as either being a huge heavy metal fan or late for a Comicon event. And what was up with the trench coat? It was a bit of an overkill, was it not? However, the more Filinia and Tuluc stared at the man, he became less comical and more menacing to the point where his green eyes seemed to glow yellow.

But that wasn’t the strangest part. Filinia’s gaze drifted down to what was gripped tightly in the man’s hand— a sword. A sudden glimmering reflection of the light came in from one of the windows, bouncing off the weapon and into one of the patron’s eyes, though it didn’t seem to bother the patron. It was as if the blaring light didn’t exist to the patron. If that wasn’t strange and menacing enough, the stranger yelled at the two teens, which sounded more animal-like than human.

The weight of the man’s next two steps into the room shook and rattled everything. Filinia’s fear rose higher when she momentarily turned to look back at Tuluc. Why did he look like he knew who this man was? As if the two of them had known each other forever—

“Where are they?” the man asked gruffly.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Tuluc said nonchalantly.

“Don’t play games with me! Where are they?”

“What is this ‘they’ you speak of?”

Even with his eyebrows furrowing together and his stance ready for the strange man to make the first move, Filinia marveled with how cool Tuluc remained. She, on the other hand, was so scared she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. The palms of her hands became increasingly sweaty along with her racing heartbeat, despite how tightly she gripped the couch’s velvet fabric.

And that is what terrified Filinia the most; the way Tuluc just stood up and acted as if the three of them were playing Clue.

When Filinia saw the man was about to throw his sword at her, she quickly closed her eyes so tightly to regrettable meet what she thought would be to her death. But death didn’t greet her back, the warmth of Tuluc’s hands on her shoulders did. Cautiously she opened her eyes and looked around her friend, over to where the man once stood. Now lying dead on the floor with a knife protruding from his head, Filinia became so paralyzingly frighten that she nearly fell out of her seat. And when the deceased psycho suddenly disintegrated like oil and sparklers, she almost fainted.

Where did the sw—, Filinia started to think until the exposed metal of the sword’s handle winked just above her head by the light of the sun.

“Filinia! Filinia! Are you all right?” Tuluc was asking.

“Wh—what the hell just happened?”

“I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer that. Let’s get you home.”

“What do you mean you’re not the right person to answer that? Where did that knife come from? Was it from you? Since when do you carry a knife?”

“Filinia! Fil—It’s not safe for us to talk right now. There’s a chance he will resurrect.”

“He disintegrated!”

I knew I should have stayed in bed today, Filinia thought as she rushed after Tuluc