I opened my eyes to see a yellowed wall. I was lying unconscious on the floor. I turned my head a bit and saw a broken bed, with a white mattress on the floor. As I got up with my hands on the floor, a gust of wind flew inside through the open window. On the mattress there were drops of black blood. I placed my hand on the bed. It was made out of dark wood, and it smelled the same as inside the shop.

After getting up, I opened the door and in front of me was an empty hallway with a few doors and stairs heading down. I touched one of the two handles, but it wouldn’t budge. Some sound could be heard from the other door, next to the locked room. It’s like someone was talking.

I put my hand on the door’s handle. I turned it and it actually opened. Inside the room were a bunch of seats and a round wooden table. My daggers were on the table…

A squeaking noise could be heard, but I assumed it was just the door. I reached for one of my daggers, but right when I touched it, two arms tried picking me up. They were wrapped around my chest, and I could feel the muscles. In a moment’s decision, I turned around quickly and slashed one of the arms. The person let me go. I quickly grabbed my other dagger and went forth, to the window in the back of the room. But the dilemma came, how was I going to jump from there? It was just the first floor, but I had  never jumped from that high. Without anything to do, I still jumped. Outside there were lots of people walking and having a good time. I didn’t know what to do , so I was headed to land in the grass.

I felt a slight crack, but that was it. I didn’t feel any pain. I sheathed my daggers and ran the hell out of there. Meanwhile, I looked back at the window and saw the man from earlier and a few other people got down through a hole they made in the ceiling.

“Don’t worry about it.” said one that looked like a boy no older than thirteen, who was floating. “He won’t get far…”

After I ran for a while, getting into the city center, I ran out of breath. I put my palms on my knees and rested for a bit. But once I started walking again, I hit something rock hard. At first I didn’t notice anything in front of me, but after squinting my eyes a bit, I saw a glowing yellow grid pattern. I tried to go through again, but my face hit something hard for the second time. I took a step back to look at it more. After the second step back, my back hit something with the same texture as the wall from earlier. I looked at it and it was the same as the other wall. I looked around and I could only see the closest glowing parts.

Suddenly, I heard a teenager’s voice.

“So what do you think of my cocoon?”

I turned around to see the kid levitating. On his face was a devious smile, and his blonde hair was getting in his eyes, which were now glowing yellow. The kid had a light blue colored jacket, which revealed a white shirt with three golden stripes on it, and one final line to cut all three of them, and they were all surrounded in a circle.

Suddenly, he fell. The boy landed with his back on the harsh ground, but no dust settled, and no sound could be heard. He got up and wiped the back of his jacket with his left hand. When he got close to the invisible wall, a hole in the gridded pattern was made for his size. 

“I’m Harlem.” he said, before wiping the smile off his face.

I was wondering if I should tell him my name or not. The boy turned around, placing both of his hands in his pockets. On the back of his jacket there was the same sign I saw on his shirt, but white.

“What are you waiting for? Tell me your name.” he said in a mocking accent.

“Uhm, it’s Ark.”

He whispered something to himself. “Hah, what a stupid name!”. I really wanted to pull out my daggers at that moment, but I realized that if he could fly, he could do much more than that.

Harlem exited the cocoon, and laid down on practically nothing. Right then, two more people came. I recognized one of them by his huge, muscular arms that were olive colored. He was much taller than the girl next to him. She had dark hair reaching just over her shoulders, on her lips was a cherry red lipstick, and she was wearing a tight, black blouse with ripped jeans. Her eyes widened a bit, but I looked back at Harlem.

“Good luck escaping this…” he said while raising his hand and gliding it through his thick, blonde hair.

The gridded walls turned into a sphere with the same pattern. I placed my hand over the almost invisible wall and noticed that it was shrinking. I panicked and tried to pull out my dagger, but my arm got stuck. There was a rope attached to my hand. I pulled as hard as I could, but I couldn’t budge it. I looked at my other hand, which was free, and I carefully grabbed my dagger from the sheathe and tried to slash the yellow rope, but all it did was make a loud bang noise. I tried one more time, and I swung as hard as I could, and this time I broke free. I ran towards the kid and slashed the wall of the cocoon, but nothing happened.

Harlem swung his right arm in the air and another rope came flying at me from the right. It grabbed my waist and handcuffed my arms. The dagger was dropped when the rope tied me. I looked at my cuffed hands and waist and realized that that time, I had no escape.

The girl on the right started speaking to the kid.

“Wouldn’t it be more efficient to keep him alive?” she asked while glaring at me and at Harlem. “Maybe we could replace our… lost comrade with him.”

“Him?” the boy asked while glowing his eyes at the woman. “Can’t you see he can’t escape a basic trap like this one?”

I lost focus of what they were saying, since the sphere was now getting close to squishing me. I gave the people staring in the back one last look before murmuring my goodbyes. Everything stopped for a moment. Harlem snapped his fingers and I was finally set free. The cocoon and rope all disappeared, leaving me to fall with my face on the ground. I placed my palms on each side of my head and pushed myself up. My hair got in my eyes and I brushed it off with my hand full of dirt. I spat out the sand that had gotten in my mouth on the street and asked them what they were looking at.

“What do you think we’re looking at?” a deep voice suddenly started talking. It was the muscular man from before. He was continuously scratching the outside of his palm, while staring at me. Right after he asked, Harlem said that he’s gonna go somewhere and flew away, leaving a yellow trail behind.

“Yeah, I’m going to  buy something to eat.” said the man before he walked past me, into the city center.

I rose from the ground, but something caught my attention.

“Hey, don’t worry about them, they’re a little harder to deal with, let’s say.”

I looked at her. She tucked a bit of hair after her ear, before spreading her hand out to me. I grabbed her hand. Although she looked older than me, her hand was small and soft. I thanked and asked what her name was.

“It’s Ivy.” she replied.

I looked at her left hand. On her wrist was the same sign as was on Harlem’s shirt and jacket.

“So are you all in some sort of group? I saw the same sign on your wrist on the kid’s jacket and shirt.” I asked.

She giggled a little bit. “Yeah, it’s kind of a group, it’s called a guild.” she responded while still smiling subtly. “Its name is Odin.”

The wind blew my hair right on my face, so I had to go with my hand through it again. She proposed we head back to the house I was at, so she could tell me more.