Fox Lady

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."

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