If I had to choose one word to describe my situation at that very moment, it would be ASS. I didn’t think it could get any worse than that. No, scratch that. It could and was about to get worse. At any given point in time, I could be brutally killed by Licho. Which, honestly, would be the best case scenario. Death didn’t sound so bad anymore. Death. That was a way out. Wasn’t it? It would have been much worse to survive and continue living this way.

  “Brr,” I shivered. Further wrapping myself into the cocoon of cozy woolen blanket. Earlier today, my grandma kept telling me how hot it was outside. Confused as to why I felt this cold, I looked out the window. Rectangular and long, reaching all the way to the floor. During the past week of self induced imprisonment, I spent majority of my time here. This window enclosed by white, wooden frame was my only means of gauging the weather conditions on any particular day. There was also my phone, but who has the time and mental capacity to look at weather forecasts when their brain was busy killing them from the inside. The outside world was peaceful tho.

  Grayish, tall, thin branches covered in dark green moss were lightly swaying with the wind. Its leaves spread out all over, resembling drops of watercolor paint. With each new gust of wind, their color was alternating between spots of lemony and darker, warm shades of green. Sun still didn’t reach its halfway point in sky resulting in lower branches of this tree to be fully covered in shadow falling from my house. The contrast between this dark, shadowy side and the brightly colored crown of the tree was striking, beautiful and calming.

  I should have gone outside. Majority of this past week has been as sunny as April can get. Too bad, I didn’t go out today, again. I sighed. What I was doing at that moment was so obviously making my mental state worse, but I just couldn’t get up.

  “What the heck is he so happy about?” I thought. While I sat on the ground, gazing out the angled window and sinking deeper into the abyss of my thoughts, he danced and sang. On my desk, which I could easily see by making a slight 90° angle and leaning on the bed, Phobos, my fate-bound predicament, was watching music videos on my computer. “What a bizarre choice,” I thought, “Seriously. K-pop?”

  I had to admit, raven trying to copy the dance from that music video was hilarious. At the same time, it was maddening how happy and nonchalant he acted given our current circumstances.

  “So you got any possible strategy in mind?” I asked. Not expecting anything from this birdbrain. But, I sure as hell wasn’t expecting this.

  “Aaa,” I screamed inside. Very odd feeling really. On one hand, I was so scared my butt was getting sweaty. On the other, simultaneously, I was feeling proud of myself for holding all my fear in, without a hit of sound escaping my mouth. Sadly, this didn’t change the fact of it crawling up my leg.

  Before, I could even think, I shook my leg, causing me to slide backwards.

  Meanwhile, that…ahh (inhale) hah (exhale). Asshole by the name of Phobos, origin of which I was yet to find out, without even acknowledging my OBVIOUS distress, without making any eye contact with me, silently, he walked to the laptop. This was a very peculiar bird indeed. It would have been very hard to find one so skilled with technology. Given how easily he paused the video and typed something into the search tab, convinced me that he has done so before.

  However, how would knowing that had helped me at that moment. I couldn’t care less about what he was doing with that computer, eight legs were making their way up the blanket. Immediately, I fell backwards on my palms. Causing me to slide further back on the smooth hardwood as I shuffled my legs, wiggling my way out of the blanket. Still, it was crawling in my direction. I used my hands to throw away the remainder of blanket clinging to my knees. Disregarding the blanket thrown at it, it continued to move forward. It was about to reach my toe when…

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  “Plop,” a cup was placed on the floor, imprisoning it within.

  “Don’t worry,” he said with one leg on the cup, “This one wouldn’t harm you.”

  I admit. It was just a tiny spider, but… Wasn’t it completely justifiable to be cautious, given everything that happened?

  “Remember. That horseshoe on your front door didn’t let me in,” he flew back up to the desk to grab a sheet of printer paper. Placing the paper in my hand, he continued, “ there is no way that ward would allow those two in here.”

  The horseshoe he mentioned was what I originally thought to be nothing but a decorative vestige of superstition. This symbol of good luck and protection hung just above the front door of my house. My family must have know about its power. Otherwise, I couldn’t find any other explanation as to why it was never moved since the time my great-great-grandmother built this house. Not sure why nobody told me about it.

  “Carry the spider outside and make sure not to kill it,” he said. There was a superstition that killing spider attracts bad luck. I wondered if that one was actually true too.

  Soon enough, I heard whistling, it was very melodic, catching my attention. Phobos was playing yet another song. At first, I was interested in figuring out what that song was about, but lost interest relatively quickly. It appeared very K-poppy in nature. The song itself wasn't to my liking, and there was only one word I understood as I slid the paper under the cup and prepared to flip it to remove the spider from my room.

  I believed that word to be S-class. “S-class,” I thought on my way towards to the front door. “The only thing S-class about me is my laziness.” I managed to throw the spider out.

  I had to admit. It was a bit scary to open the door. I knew that Phobos mentioned how strong this spell shrouding my house with barrier was, but it did have a weakness. As long as the one denied entry is given permission to enter by the resident, regardless of who or what they are, those who were stopped before can enter. The rules, based on my understanding, were very lax too. Take Phobos, for example, all it tookwas carrying the raven sitting on my head inside.

  I was back. He was playing another song and I picked up my headphones. Stuck in my head again. Sitting in that corner between window and my bed, I turned the volume all the way up. Just like this song said. It felt like I would never leave this place, there was no escape.

  Knowing Licho, she would have wanted to savor every last bit of my misery. Yes, misery. If there was one thing my mind was good at, it was making myself sink deeper into hell.

  “Breathe in,” I took a deep breath. “…and out.” I had to do something about this horrible pain in my chest. I am no stranger to this sort of pain. Better than anyone, I knew that those were my raging emotions to blame.

  “Ha, ha..” Was that laughter or beginning of my madness? I wouldn’t have been able to tell you.

  “I’m my own worst enemy,” I mumbled, but before I could continue my self-loathing, I saw him.

  He pulled the headphones out of my head. It hurt a bit as he pulled on my hair as well.

  “Hey! Give those back.” I stood up and ran in his direction. It was dark for some reason. Looking out the window, it was obviously nighttime. I wasted another day.

  Learning has always been my life line and this time I ended up missing two exams due to this. Not that this was any different without some psycho green one eyed creature chasing me. Still, it wasn’t helping.

  Licho knew what she was doing. I was sure of it, she could smell my anxiety increasing with every passing second. There was so much I wanted to do with my life, but I was sabotaging myself every step of my way there.

  He dropped headphones on my bed.

  “Why do you worry so much?” He asked sitting on the headboard of my bed. “Worrying about an event doesn’t solve the issues at hand.”

  He was right, I knew that much. I couldn’t retort him.

  “All it does is drain you of energy and make you lose the will to fight. If it’s Licho…”

  “It’s not just that. My biggest worry is my future.” Still standing, I looked down at the ground.

  “…”

  My anxiety was increasing. Instinctively, I crossed my arm. Slowly squatting as I continued soothing myself with a hug of a sort. “At this point, I need to do something equivalent to wining a Noble Prize, in order to fix this.”

  “So DO it,” he said with confidence.

  “What?”

  “I don’t see why you can’t.”