The students were having a school field trip, they were so excited. While heading to their destination, a girl saw something strange in the woods but not sure what it was. "Lay. Lay!" her friend, Claire, called and she responded with a "Huh?"

"You're spacing out again."

"Ah, sorry. It's just that there's..." She pointed to the direction of the strange thing but paused when it was not there anymore. She got confused and so did her friend. "What?" her friend asked, "Um, it's nothing. Let's go, before we'll get left behind." Lay said then they hurried to their classmates.

While everyone was busy doing something, Lay could not seemed to find peace in her mind and kept thinking about the thing that she saw in the woods earlier. Debating whether it was real or maybe just a figment of her imagination. She was too bothered about it that she did not even notice that Claire was approaching. Claire suddenly shoved her face right in front of Lay saying "What's up?" which got her really startled, resulting to her falling over from her seat, which also made her friend burst out laughing before helping her up.

"Why'd you do that for?" she said, as she slap Claire on the arm.

Claire said "That was so wholesome." as she continued laughing.

Right after that, she then asked "What up with you? You were gazing so far you could see the Mars." And Lay just told her that she was just thinking about some things and emphasized to that it was just some random thoughts because she knew Claire would not leave her alone if she finds out that it's something that's bothering her. Then, they went to join the others.

Everyone had fun doing activities and learning for the day. Then they cleaned up after they had their dinners. Lay, after washing up, went out to see the night sky. While she was walking, something caught her attention again, it was the strange thing she saw earlier. She stared at it intently. But she got startled when an old lady suddenly spoke to her. "It's rare for a will-o'-the-wisp to show itself."

"What did you say it is again, grandma? A will-o'-the-wisp?"

"Hmm. Did you know that following it leads you... to your fate?"

"Fate? What do you mean?"

The old lady looked at her and smiled, and said "Follow it and you'll know what I mean. But be careful, fate can be cruel." With that the old lady left.

Later that night, when everyone was asleep. Lay lied on her bed with eyes wide opened. She kept thinking about what the old lady said, and it bothered her so much that she couldn't fall asleep. So she decided to went out to look for it.

In the woods she kept looking, she shone her phone's flashlight here and there but she couldn't find it. She sighed "What am I even doing...?" She turned around and was about to give up, but then the will-o'-the-wisp showed itself from a distance. Lay slowly went closer to it but in every steps she made the will-o'-the-wisp moves away, it was like it's maintaining the distance between them.

She was hesitant but she made up her mind, "Okay, this is it. No turning back now." She took a deep breath and said "Please, take me to my fate."

Then the will-o'-the-wisp started moving deep into the woods as Lay followed it.

As they get further, Lay was getting chills and she started to get scared because she's not sure where she was anymore and there are strange things started to appear out of nowhere. Then the will-o'-the-wisp stopped, she also stopped. She looked around, and said "Is this it? Don't tell me my destiny is to get lost in the forest." and then went closer to it but it suddenly disappeared, so she panicked. She looked around for it but she couldn't find it anymore.

As Lay kept looking for the will-o'-the-wisp, a huge unknown creature appeared behind her. She heard a growl from behind her, and by the time she looked back, the creature has already raised its claws, ready to attack her. She got terrified, and fell to the ground, then she remembered what the old lady said about fate being cruel. The creature was about to hit her, so she closed her eyes and thought that that must be her fate.

She waited, but nothing happened. So she slowly opened her eyes to see the creature lying on the ground slowly disappearing into glowing particles. She also noticed a white haired guy holding a sword and was approaching her. "Are you... alright?" the guy asked, and Lay just stared at him.

Shawn, an innocent 11-year-old boy who believed that he had the happiest life with the happiest family. A loving and caring parents who always had time for them, and a little brother named Mike who had always looked up to him. They often went on a family bonding.

One day, Shawn went to his friend's house to play. When he went home, he saw that there were a lot of people gathered in front of their house, there were also police cars, an ambulance and fire trucks. He went closer to see what was happening, then his face filled with horror when he saw their house burning. He ran towards their house crying, looking for his parents and his brother, but got stopped by a police. He kept screaming and begging them to save his family.

But then he fell into despair when the firefighters carried out two completely burnt bodies of adults.

When the fire has been put out, Shawn asked the police lifelessly "What about Mike?" The police looked at each other confused and then asked him who Mike is, and he responded "My little brother."

"How old is Mike?"

"He is 8."

Then the police went to ask the others to help find Mike. But after looking for a while they found nothing. Shawn cried more and more.

While Shawn sat there depressed, a man in his 40's went to his side and spoke, "Your brother is probably dead." Shawn looked at him.

"If he's lucky enough to live, he's probably been kidnapped by the people who killed your parents."

"Huh? Kidnapped? People killed my parents? What do you mean?"

The man explained to him that the fire wasn't an accident, that his parents were killed by a gang called Dark Horse. Then he offered his hand to Shawn and asked "Will you avenge your parents' death and take you brother back, or will you just let them hurt a lot more people and your brother?" Shawn hesitated for bit but accepted the man's offer.

The man brought Shawn with him, and trained him. He had an intense training day after day after day.

10 years later, he has become an assassin, he had killed people he's ordered to. Because of that, he became well known to other gangs and mafias as "The Reaper."

And the day he's been waiting for finally came, he was ordered to assassinate the leader of the Dark Horse Gang. All the Dark Horse members present at the their base were down on the ground lifeless, blood was everywhere. The only ones left were the leader of the gang and his right man. Shawn pointed his sword at the leader and asked him sternly "Where's my brother?!"

"Brother? What brother?" was the leader's response.

"My brother who you kidnapped after killing our parents and burning our house 10 years ago!" Shawn shouted.

"I don't know what you're talking abo..." he paused after he realized it, and then he laughed and said "Oh, that brat. He's not here, kid."

"Then where is he?!"

"I don't know. He must be in heaven now... or maybe in hell." He laughed and continued "My men must've killed him somewhere after escaping. Haa, that brat was f***ing stubbo..."

Before he could finish his words, his and his right man's heads got separated from their bodies. Shawn stood there thinking that he had finally avenged his family. Then a gunshots were heard from behind, one after another after another, until he fell on his knees. He released a sigh of relief, "I can finally see you all, again." were his last words before he fell to the ground and drew his last breath.

Shawn woke up in a very bright place. He looked around and saw nothing but white. Then a lady's voice suddenly greeted him, he looked everywhere but found no one. "Who's there? Where am I? Am I... in the afterlife?" he asked.

"No. You're not in the afterlife yet, Shawn. You're in the spirit realm."

"Spirit realm? Why am I here?"

"You're were sent here because you've done things you must not have."

"But I just did that for a reason!" he argued.

"And now you're here because of that reason."

Shawn couldn't argue back knowing that she was right. "For you to go where you want to go, you must do something." the lady continued. "What is it that I must do?" he asked.

15 years had past after that, Shawn had become one of the spirit realm guardians that maintains balance in the spirit world, and his hair turned white as a sign of being a guardian.

Shawn was sitting on a tree branch admiring the moon, and thinking of what the mysterious lady told him that he must do, "Losing something I treasure the most... What more do I have to lose? I've got nothing left."

Then a gust of wind suddenly hit him, like it has told him something. After that, he rushed to where the wind came from, and that led him to a spirit that was about to attack a living girl. So he swung his sword and hit the spirit. That spirit was slowly disappearing into glowing particles. He approached the girl and asked her, "Are you... alright?" The girl did not respond and just stared at him with a shock look on her face.

Meanwhile, A lady from another place, with white glowing eyes and white hair, surrounded with will-o'-the-wisps, suddenly spoke to herself, "This is where your fate... begins."

They both stared at each other for a moment. And there was nothing but silence between them, until Shawn ask her again "Are you alright?" But still no response. He ask the same question to her again but he raised his voice a little. That's when Lay came back to her senses.

"Ahh... Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, I'm fine. Not a scratch." was her response, as she stood up and cleaned herself.

"What are you even doing here?" Shawn asked, then he added "This is not a place for the likes of you."

For some reason, Lay felt insulted, though she knew what he meant. The words that came out from Shawn's mouth echoed in her mind. She scoffed and snapped at him. "What do you know?!" She paused for a moment and then she continued "I didn't want to be here in the first place, you know. I just followed some d*mn whisp-what-not or something, and the next thing I knew, I was about to die! I don't know what has gotten into me, why I followed that stupid thing. All I want now is to go back, okay?!"

"You can't." was Shawn's cold response.

"What do you mean I can't? And what is this place anyway?

He hesitated for a moment as he sighed "This... is the spirit realm."

"Huh? S-spirit realm?" she stood there stunned as she start realizing and remembering the weird things that she had encountered along the way. "If this is the spirit world, then are you... a-am I... No, it can't be. This isn't real. This must be a dream. Yes, a dream. This is just a dre-"

"This isn't a dream."

"T-then there must be a way to go back, right? Please lead me to... No, just tell me how to go back..."

"You can't."

"You keep saying I can't! What do you mean I can't?!" she yelled at him. And be just coldly replied "Once you enter the spirit world, you can never go back..." After hearing what he said, Lay fell distressed. She cried, regretting her decision of following the wisps and for believing what the old lady said.

She was mumbling about how she should not have believed so easily, blaming herself for being so gullible, blaming others for telling her something they shouldn't have, and "...then maybe, I wouldn't have died."

Shawn just stared blankly at her, "You're not dead."

Lay raised her head, surprised by what he just said. "Huh?" "I said you're not dead yet. Do you have any problem with your hearing?"

"But didn't you say earlier that-"

"I never said anything about you being dead." He corrected her before she could finish what she was trying to say. "You were the one jumping in to conclusions."

"Oh..." was all she could say after realizing he was right. She wiped her tears and sighed feeling I a bit of relief. But she was still worried for another reason, and that is getting out of that place.

"The portal of dusk." Shawn mumbled, loud enough for Lay to hear.

"Portal of dusk?"

"A portal that connects the realm of the living to the realm of spirit opens for a brief moment, the portal of dusk and dawn. The portal opens from time to time, probably at least 5-7 times a year . And it seems like it's happening today." He paused for a moment, and then continued "Since, you have entered through the portal of dusk, if you want to go back right away, your only chance is the portal of dawn."

"I just entered, though. Maybe the portal of dusk opens up until almost midnight... Anyways, not that I care about that. As long as I can go back, none of that matters now." was what she was thinking to herself as she set those thoughts aside.

"The portal of dawn..." Lay felt relieved once again knowing there's a way back. "So there is a way back..." She said as she slowly walked up to Shawn. And before he could even react, Lay smacked him hard at the back of his head and then furiously yelled "Then why did you keep saying I can never go back earlier!"

Shawn looked at her with a genuine shock expression. "Who... is this kid? How can she..." was what he was thinking. But he set those thoughts aside, then he fixed his posture and cleared his throat "We should be there before the day breaks so that you can go back. But before we do, let's deal with that first." as he looked at her hand.

Curious, Lay checked out her hand and there it was, a tooth-like tattoo. "What's this? I never had a tattoo like this on my hand before. How did I get this?"

She looked at Shawn, but all said was "Follow me." Then they went in deeper into the woods.

While they were walking deeper into the woods, Lay noticed something from afar. As they get closer to it, she realized what it was, it was "A will-o-the-wisp." They appear one after another, until it lit up the place.

"My, oh my. Who do we have here?" A fox like lady with an eerie aura around her suddenly walked out from the dark shadow of the forest. She smiled and said "If it isn't Shawn, The Reaper."