I slowly regained consciousness.
As I groggily opened my eyes, I was met with another face peering into mine. A girl—about my age—with shoulder-length red hair and striking red eyes was staring at me with intense curiosity.
The sight startled me, and I fell backward off the table I'd been lying on. As I hit the floor, she laughed.
Groaning, I pushed myself up and stood. As I dusted myself off, I noticed someone standing next to her—a guy, also around my age, with short black hair. He had his arms crossed and was shaking his head, clearly disapproving of the girl's actions.
"What happened to me?" I asked, rubbing my forehead as I tried to piece together how I ended up there. I remembered coming to the club room… playing with a cat… getting bitten… then—nothing.
"You tell me. We found you passed out on the floor," the guy said. "What were you doing here?"
I paused, thinking it through, then answered.
"I came for the Supernatural Conspiracies Club. No one was here, so I looked around and found a cat on the table over there. It bit me… and then I passed out," I explained quickly.
When I finished, the red-haired girl muttered, "Crap," and glanced at her partner. The two exchanged a worried look—like something had gone wrong.
"What? What's wrong?" I asked, feeling uneasy.
The guy looked back at me. "Let's sit down. We'll explain," he said, turning and walking to the table. The girl followed behind him, trotting.
I stood there, hesitating for a second. The whole situation felt off. They both gave off sketchy vibes, and honestly, I didn't want to get involved in whatever this was. A quick glance at the window told me it was already dark out—I'd been unconscious for a while. I just wanted to go home.
Still, curiosity got the better of me. So I followed them to the table, taking a seat.
Once we were all seated, the guy spoke again.
"What I'm about to tell you—you can't tell anyone," he said, his expression serious.
"Uh… okay," I replied, feeling even more uneasy. What the hell was this? Was the club some sort of underground animal trafficking ring? Was that why there was a random cat on the table?
"Alright. Good," he said with a nod. "We should probably introduce ourselves."
The red-haired girl brightened. "I'm Aya," she said, holding out her hand with a friendly smile.
She seemed nice enough, and that helped ease my nerves a bit. I reached out and shook her hand.
"James," I said.
She shook my hand—vigorously. Her grip was surprisingly strong, and it hurt like hell. It felt like she was about to rip my arm out of its socket. The pain must've shown on my face because she let go abruptly.
"S-Sorry!" she said, covering her mouth with both hands.
"It's fine," I replied, rubbing my arm with a wince.
The black-haired guy facepalmed and shook his head in disapproval.
"Sorry about her. She gets a little excited," he said, holding out his hand. "I'm Mark."
He had a serious, but not unkind, expression—like a leader who takes his mission seriously but still cares about his team.
I took his hand.
"Nice to meet you. But can you explain what's going on? It's late, and I really should be getting home," I said as we shook hands.
He broke the handshake and gave a small nod.
"I understand," he said, leaning forward like he was preparing to dive into a long explanation. Aya sat down next to him, fidgeting in her seat like she was bored but eager for him to start talking.
"To put it simply, Aya and I are demon hunters. We go around killing demons that attack the city. Our city is actually a hotspot for them. The cat that bit you? It was a demon-cat hybrid. We kept it here because we were planning to take it to our...uh, how should I put this... higher-ups. We sensed a lot of untapped power in it, which was strange, so we kept it." he explained, his tone serious.
It was a lot to process. Demon hunters? Demon cats? Honestly, it sounded made up, but they looked dead serious. So I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Okay, let's say I believe you. Why are you telling me any of this? If you're part of some super secret demon hunter organization, why let an outsider in on it?" I asked. I mean, aside from being bitten by the so-called demon cat, I couldn't think of a reason they'd involve me. They could've lied and let me go.
Unless…
"W-was the cat poisonous or something? Did I get infected?" I asked, suddenly panicked.
Aya chuckled, clearly amused by my fear.
"Well, not exactly. We don't think you're gonna die or anything, but…the cat's energy is inside you. We both can feel it," she said matter-of-factly, arms crossed.
"So I'm not gonna die?" I asked, just to be sure. The stuff about energy was weird, but honestly, I didn't care—I just wanted to know if I was gonna die or not.
"Not from the cat, anyway," Mark said.
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"Well, you've got a ton of demonic energy inside you. Aya and I can both sense it. That means we can't just let you go—it'd be irresponsible," he explained.
I freaked out. Was this guy going to kill me? I didn't even feel any different. Whatever energy they were talking about, I couldn't sense it at all. For all I knew, they could be lying.
"Relax," Aya said, interrupting my spiral as she stood up from her chair.
"We already talked it through while you were out cold. We're going to take you to our higher-ups and see what they want to do with you. So don't worry," she said, walking over and placing a hand on my shoulder. "You might not die."
That did nothing to calm my nerves.
"And just who are these 'higher-ups' of yours?" I asked, uneasily.
She gave me a smile—meant to be reassuring, but somehow it just made things worse.
"Oh, just the gods," she replied casually.