"I guess it's just a dream! Tomorrow, I'll wake up and everything will be ok. That's right!" only it was a bit hard to believe in, even after the words were spoken aloud.

"Wow, I didn't think it would be a girl!" it was apparently addressed to me, since I was sitting all alone in a dark alley, leaning against a brick wall.

I decided not to comment on the stranger's remark, hoping that he would leave. However, he was purposefully walking towards me. His hands were in his pockets, the movements clearly gave out laziness and relaxation. He was avoiding the lights, so it was impossible to see his appearance. But the one thing that really surprised me was complete silence – one could not hear the sound of his steps or any other sound at all. The entire alley was filled with garbage, broken bottles, packages, but not a single rustle of his movement was heard. And only when the man came closer, it became clear why. The stranger was literally floating in the air three-four inches above the ground.

Is this one of my hallucinations?" the question was rather rhetorical, but the stranger answered.

"Don't be afraid, dear! It'll be over in a minute anyway. I'll take that from you!"

"That?"

"Yes, that! Something that Charon has given you."

"WHO?"

Was it my imagination again, or did a goblin-like man, too twisted and thin to look like a man, utter the name of a mythical character? This guy hovered above the ground and had a greenish tinge of skin, his hair was long and swaying in some tact, although there was no wind outside.

"Is this some gang leader? He has a very strange nickname. Anyway, I assure you that I do not know anyone by that name, and he certainly gave me nothing for storage."

The strange creature laughed. Apparently, something I said sounded very funny.

"Do you really want to chat in the last few seconds of your life?" he spoke at last.

"Will you kill me?"

"Sure! I cannot get the power without killing you," the goblin shrugged his shoulders.

"What power? What are you talking about?"

The goblin's eyes narrowed, and he looked suspicious. He pulled his hands out of his pockets, and I was horrified. His fingers, fingernails, and hands were not human-like, and they resembled the paws of some dinosaur with long claws.

"Stop talking! Let's get over with it!"

He opened his mouth to reveal a serpentine tongue, and his hands, if one could call it that way, inexorably approached my neck. The shock passed and gave way to such a strong fear that I jumped to my feet and screamed.

"NO!"

A strong, translucent wave of black color pushed the goblin away. He was imprinted in the wall opposite me, in which a wide crack was formed. I looked at my hands, steaming the black smoke.

"It's real!" I heard my own whisper.

"Sure it is! Like what I'm about to do to you!"

The goblin rose and went towards me hissing. I backed away until I felt the wall by my back. It was weird, but I was not afraid anymore. It seemed to me that the goblin would not be able to hurt me. He came up to me for the second time and finally grabbed me by the throat. In return, I wrapped my hands around his hands and slowly relieved myself. The goblin's hands began to shrink like Jackson's hands a few hours ago. The goblin fell to his knees and gasped for air unable to make a sound as I sucked the life out of him. The energy smoothly flowed from him to me, and I felt it. It was better than a thousand doses of espresso or a gallon of energy drinks.

When I felt that I could not stand it anymore, I let go of the goblin, who looked like a dried-up mummy. His body collapsed helplessly at my feet.

"Have I just killed a man?" the question flew into the void.

"Well, first of all, it wasn't a man!" I turned abruptly to the voice. The entire world was chasing me today. And the most insulting thing was that everyone around knew what was going on, except for me. "Secondly, if you don't finish him he will come to life!"

"Oh, I think he's deader than ever!" I shrugged.

"You're wrong!"

I looked towards the new stranger. He was sitting on his haunches on a thin bar of the fence like had no idea of the gravity. His posture was relaxed as if it was the most comfortable chair but not the fence of a thin tube and mesh. The evening light slightly illuminated the guy, who seemed normal only at first glance. On closer examination, his pupils caught my attention. They were glowing. They were incredible – black inside with red glowing halo. The ends of his hair were of similar coloring. It seemed as if his head was burning. White roots were smoothly shifting to bright red ends and barely covering his ears. He had a tattoo on the neck that slightly reached his cheekbones and temples and went deep down under his jumper. He wore black tight jeans and a leather jacket. I would call him incredibly handsome if his whole image was not so frightening with those weird eyes.

"How did you get there?"

He smiled and easily jumped off, landing on his feet as if sailing the distance of three meters.

"You need to finish him off! And do this quickly! Look!"

He pointed to the goblin who was slowly regaining his former shape. I looked at the guy and saw the handle on his belt. Apparently, it was a sword. He reminded me of a knight from the Middle Ages if men wore leather jackets and dyed their hair back then.

"You are the one who has the weapon, so finish him off yourself," I said. I did not want to kill anyone even if it was not a human being at all. When I was a child my mother taught me to have mercy even for the smallest creatures. We caught butterflies, ladybugs and other insects, and then released them. And now I had to kill someone bigger than that.

"I can't! You have to do it on your own."

"Says who? Who said that I have to kill anyone? I'm just a human. I'm eighteen years old, and I don't want to kill anyone. I didn't ask for any of this! Just give me my life back!"

While I was saying all that, the goblin finally came to his senses and rose to his feet. He was about to jump at me. Everything happened in its own way: the black smoke pushed him back, and the goblin's body helplessly hung on a pipe which penetrated his chest. The grey liquid, dripping from the end of the pipe, had nothing to do with human blood.

The goblin breathed his last and froze. Next moment, some dark substance left his body and pierced my chest. I absorbed it. It was a bundle of energy, rebellious and foreign to my body. It raged and tormented me until it found the right place, until it imbued my every cell like it was that first time at the back door of the Royal nightclub.

"What the hell is that?" I flared up. "Who was that? And who are you? If you have no answers to my questions, then tell me who does! Otherwise, I'll kill you!"

The man laughed.

"You're funny as for a human. I must say that it was spectacular. But you got lucky this time. The Markers are fast but weak, so don't get too excited because the next fight may not end so well."

"What next fight?"

"First things first. If you want answers, I'll give them, but you have to go with me," he extended his hand to me, and I skeptically looked at it, as if I was offered a free ticket to hell. "Listen, I don't like this as well! I should have been doing something else, but stuck with you – human. So, how about this? We will help each other, and all this will be over soon!"

"What if I have gone crazy because of stress, and this all is my sick fantasy?"