The darkened night sky lights up in a mixed color of black and pink as the lighting strikes between the hardened rain falling from the sky. It was chaos at the surface of the earth where blood spilled right and left while screams of pain and anger hung in the air like a lullaby for nightmares. Humans are packed with raincoats mixed with blood on their bodies, bows, swords on their hands, and arrows on their backs, slicing through everything they deem the enemy.

There are more than just humans on the said land. There are those with darkened and wet fur, walking on all four with blood dripping down their muzzle as they jump from one flesh to another, size more prominent than a normal creature is usually referring to and known by many as a wolf.

But werewolves are what they indeed are. Breed of pure big-sized wolves that can turn into a human form as it was also part of their being, whenever they are pleasing to be. Not controlled by the moon nor weakened by it. They are the owner of the night, the daywalker, and the guardian of all the forests around the world.

The werewolf is the limitation created by the universe to stop humans from taking too much than they are expected to take, to prevent them from being too greedy and destroying nature as a whole—and thus, just like anything that is meant to be a limit for humans; they tend to hate it. They will try to find a way around it as if greed is what flowing inside their body in the place where blood should be.

It was chaos down there. Arrows pierced the wolf's flesh, sharp teeth tearing the meat of the human. No one wants to back down now—not when the peace is at stake, not when it is all no longer about the forbidden love that started the war but more to the repressed feelings both parties held for years of fake truce that finally make itself known at the face of conflict.

Among all that chaos, a woman with a long white dress painted red on a few parts by natural blood that she cannot even remember whether it was from her side or his side and torn by either tree branches around or an arrow meant for anyone—run across the field in a hurry. She only has her eyes on one big bad wolf. One that has been calling her his and running to her until the end of his time. She had been running from her side to meet him, but the force that she had to face with her fragile state of body for her hand to touch his fur made her reach him too late.

His black fur looks almost navy in some parts where the moonlight hits the rain and is torn, so that blood sticks on it like glue to keep it whole. Its chest heaves up and down very slowly and takes too many seconds in between. One of its eyes is closed as a wound prevents it from functioning well, but the other one is wide open—the silver orbs shine bright as it catches the sight of the woman he comes to love, reaching out to him.

Under the wolf's arm, her body can easily be crushed by its size, but she finds no fear in that—only warmth that she lacks from the touch of humans. Whenever the wolf nudges at her, it's hard not to lose footing, but she never fears falling because he will catch her, and it's an absolute thing for both of them. Among all creatures she comes to know in her short span of life as a human, he is the only one that is worth all the scars.

When she finally reaches him, falling down to her knees as she cups the cheek of the animal—he must have found comfort in the fact that he can feel her touch on his fur; he decided to close his eyes and give in to all the pains.

"No, no, no!" she chanted, holding his head close to her arm while rubbing its battered face as softly as she managed with her equally battered fingers.

The pleading was whispered so softly and in desperation that it burned into the wolf's heart and spread through its whole body, creating a sensation of warmth that he recognized as her—more robust than it usually felt since the body started to become cold. Yet, he still can't open his eyes. She feels far away despite literally having her hands on his face.

All she ever wants is to run with him, to follow him wherever he wants to go as much as the other will follow her whenever she wishes to be, to do everything together, to explore the world hand in hand. But here they are; instead, one is dying while the other dies inside as he slips off her fingers like sand.

Without even having the chance to see those pair of silver orbs again, the wolf stopped breathing just like that, and she was left helpless and freezing—by the cold of the rain and the realization that something within her had been pulled out of her chest so harshly that it left her empty. It killed her in a way her eyes lost their shine as she looked up from her lover's dead body to stare at everyone involved in the war around her.

The tears stopped, the sobs died down, and the eyes hardened. The woman looks down at the wolf once more and gives it a last soft peck on its upper nose, then pull the sword on its back like it was easy—as if she feels nothing. She rises from the ground then, and with a fire in her eyes that even the hardest rain cannot extinguish, she storms to the chaos among her.

"Balakosa is a kingdom that runs the town we currently know as Srigal Masa. As you all know, Srigal Masa is a ghost town abandoned in 1391 after the war broke out in Balakosa kingdom. The historian claimed the war was the most brutal civil war ever because many people did not run out of town back then and died in the town instead, so there are few to no live witnesses to describe what really happened back then."

Nagarjuna silently listened to the teacher's explanation as a group of high schoolers walked past him and his current client, Nina, who was so focused on examining the T-Rex bone in front of her as if she would find some hidden message on it. Her new obsession with the dinosaurs after discovering Jurassic Park movies is out of this world. This has been their third visit to the same museum—all because she wants to see the T-Rex bone again.

"So, the government called it the black war due to that very reason. Until today, we still don't know what went down there. No one has been going there to check on the ruin due to the government's ban."

"Juna, look at this spot! I think this bone is the real deal!" Nina suddenly exclaimed. She grabs the 180 cm tall man by his arm and shakes the other softly while her eyes are still glued to the T-Rex bone in front of her face. "If only we can touch it, it can confirm everything!"

Nagarjuna rolls his eyes at that, feels a little bit disappointed that he can no longer hear the teacher's explanation as the study tour group already walked ahead of them towards the next exhibition room—it was pretty interesting for him more than all the dinosaurs talk he was forced to have with Nina.

Nina Wasupati is heir to one of Indonesia's most famous coal companies. She dislikes the spotlight and all the scandal that she had to bear as the heir, so she spends her time away from the journalist, and her father lets her do whatever she wants as long as Nina studies well—and she does. Nina is a genius if anything, but she is unique personality-wise. She likes random things, is moody, and prefers to only hire one bodyguard that can drive instead of having four of them like how most of her peers did, which is why Nagarjuna Nagendra was employed in the first place.

A week ago, the 21 years old woman only talked about the cactus that her crush gave her. Yet, the moment she was done watching the Jurassic Park movie—it surprised Nagarjuna that she had never heard it before—all she wanted to know was about the extinct species. Nagarjuna thinks she may even forget that she had a crush at all at this point. Rich people are unquestionably weird.

"This is just a small museum, Nina. There are no claims this bone is real at all," he said, "If anything, your father's company should be the one who found the bone for you. All those digging and no bone found? Sound fake to me."

Nina gives him the side-eyes before slapping him lightly on the arm, "Meh, shut up. I specifically request us not to talk about Dad and the company in the same sentence on your contract or somewhere—I don't know, but that's not the point. I want to touch it!"

"I thought you hated the spotlight? Touching that will definitely give you just that! Don't drag me to jail with you. I need to have a clean history to survive, mind you."

Nina slaps his arms again, "You are no fun!"

Nagarjuna slips his arms into his jeans pocket and shrugs at that.

"You are no fun, and you have no appreciation whatsoever for my dino babies, so you better go and be useful somewhere for me," she states with a pouted lip, "Go buy me something to drink. It's hot in here. The AC must be dying around here."

Nagarjuna scoffs at that, "I'm your bodyguard, not your maid," he started as he pulled his hand out of his jeans pocket to flick her softly on the forehead—ignoring her soft 'Ouch, ya!' and continued on, "And older than you at that, so have some respect for your elder, Nina, come on. I raised you better than this!"

Nina rubs her forehead softly as she hisses at Nagarjuna, "You did not raise me, old man! Just go buy me something to drink! Aren't you thirsty? Buy some for yourself, go!"

She slaps the other again, this time on his shoulder, as an act of revenge before rummaging through her tiny bag and pulling out her black card. "Here, use this. Now go and bother someone else in this place!"

Nagarjuna wondered whether Nina even realized what kind of drink she wanted that she thought she could pay it with a black card. The nearest store around the museum only sells cans of soda that cost less than ten thousand rupiahs, and he is pretty sure they need a payment terminal for this. Once again, he cannot comprehend rich people.

"You know I'm supposed to be with you wherever you go, right? You only hire one bodyguard, which is me, Mam."

Nina rolls her eyes at that and shoves the card into Nagarjuna's hand,

"Nobody going to attack me in a museum! There's security there and a lot of cute kindergarten children over there with their parent and teacher—I will be fine, Juna, go, go!"'

Nagarjuna knows that, actually, and not because of what Nina claimed to be but because he knows Nina is a black belt on Taekwondo herself so having him around is just to give peace of mind to her parent but that won't hold him back from annoying the youngest, of course.

"Fine, I'll be back in a sec, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Don't touch the bone!"

"No promises!"

The air conditioner inside the museum must be indeed dying because when Nagarjuna arrives at the small store, it has quite a line of people waiting to buy something cold to drink, unlike how empty it was when they first came. It seems that it will take a while before he can return to Nina and make sure she did not crush the pile of T-Rex bones.

He stands on the last line, behind a man holding what seems to be his six-year-old son on his arm, and pulls his phone out—randomly opening browser tabs and inbox as he tries to fill in the time he has to wait.

Despite many people lining up in the front of the store, most people did not even chat with each other; only a few of them, and it was done in a whispered voice. It's pretty windy, and many leaves have fallen from the tall trees around the area. Nagarjuna can hear how leafage hits the ground and is dragged by until it crashes into another leaf and creates the sound of a paper being ripped into two. It's not like he has a superpower, but one of the things that got him quickly hired into being a bodyguard is that his hearing is excellent, and he can easily pick up different sounds simultaneously.

That's why it was easy for him to hear—among everything else—the whisper of a man somewhere from his right side where a vast green field exists, a few meters or less from where he is currently waiting in line.

"Nothing new. It's the same old boring story. Balakosa is all they are talking about."

Nagarjuna looks up at that and spots a man standing with his back to him from where he heard the voice coming from, currently leaning on his shoulder to the tree by his right with both of his hands in his jacket pocket. There seemed to be no one around him, and he did not look like he was talking to anyone but Nagarjuna was sure the voice came from him.

The man has long dark brown hair down to his shoulder and ties it half up. He doesn't look like he is in the middle of calling anyone with a lack of phone, but the other may wear an earpiece that Nagarjuna can't see from where he is currently standing because he hears the other utter something again.

"After years, I still find it ironic that they didn't even mention us when the town itself was named after us."

Nagarjuna raised his eyebrow at that. Wondered what the other trying to say, but his train of thought got cut off as someone lining up behind him coughed to wake him from his daydream and signaled him to move forward as the queue had advanced without saying a word. He murmured a soft sorry at that and walked ahead.

When he looks back to where he saw the mysterious man, the long-haired man has disappeared.

***

"Thanks."

Nagarjuna accepts his change and two cans of cold soda while bowing a little to the shop owner before making his way to the side so people lining up behind him can finally order. He finds himself still peeking to that spot where he saw the mysterious man who talks about Balakosa and a town that should be named after a bunch of people he refers to as 'us'—finding it quite disturbing that the other can disappear fast just like that and curious about what the other actually talking about.

IIt's not like he had never heard about Balakosa before—everyone in Indonesia knows about it; they are all learning about it from the history book in High School, but even in the book, there is not much that can be said about Balakosa, so it always been something that draws Nagarjuna into wanting to know more. Especially after age 15, Nagarjuna decided to search all about it through the browser and find more conspiracy theories than actual facts, which is a bummer, but if you are into mystery, it is not that bad, actually. It all would make sense if only the theory did not involve fictional creatures like witches, vampires, werewolves, and other things.

He was just about to get back into the museum again when he heard the sharp sound of car tires colliding with the surface of the road so roughly—something that only happens when a brake is stepped hard so suddenly while the car is still driving high speed. He looks at the source of the sound only to catch the sight of the mysterious man he saw earlier, currently sitting down near a tree right by the gate of the parking lot while playing with his phone as a car crash right into him, covering his whole being and causing a loud banging sound.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! What is happening? Somebody knocks the car window open!"

"Don't get closer! Let the security handle it!"

"Everyone, please stay calm!"

"Be careful!"

"I saw someone getting hit! Did you see that? I swear I saw it!"

Among all those yells and sudden chaos that happened right before his eyes, Nagarjuna found himself holding his breath until he almost lost consciousness due to the lack of oxygen as the shock hit him. He staggered on his feet as his body remembered how to breathe. He shut his eyes as his head kept repeating the moment the car crashed into the man's body.

"It's okay, everyone, it's okay! No one got hurt. The driver is fine, but he seems drunk, so we are holding him until the police come. We will handle this!"

"What about the one who got hit?"

"Yeah, I thought I saw someone too!"

"You must be seeing it wrong, Sir, Mam; there is no one here besides the driver. No one he crashes into. We have checked under the car too, but there is no one. So, don't worry!"

Nagarjuna's eyes snap open at that. He saw the man—two other people did too—but no one was there?

That's impossible.