The Record of Unusual Creature

“Mission? Europe?” Hao Ren stared at Raven 12345, blinking. “I didn’t know that there’s a foreigner in my list of tenants.”

Raven 12345 looked at him up and down in derision. “You don’t learn, do you? We’re talking about the-other-kind here. What do you think the nationality of that vampire girl is, huh?”

As the penny dropped, Hao Ren felt embarrassed at his own ignorance; his thinking had become so rigid as he had been living his entire life in the human world. “Target? Rendezvous? Time? And most important of all—on whose dime?”

“Oh c’mon, get over it!” Raven squinted at him. “Of course it’ll be on the administration’s dime. We do have a teleportation machine laying around but you’ll gain more field experience by doing things the traditional way. So, you’re gonna take the plane. As for your tenant, frankly, I don’t know how it’ll look like since, it must have disguised itself as somebody else. But rest assured, it will find you once you’re there as it’ll be able to pick up your MDT’s signal. And I’ve got you a passport, made to order. Do remember to pick it up while you’re on your way out.”

Hao Ren nodded in acknowledgment. “What about the two ladies at my house? They fight like cats and dogs every other day. I don’t think it’s a good idea to just leave the two of them at my place.”

It was hard to tell what would transpire as Vivian and Lily had been locking horns with each other all the while. He broke out in cold sweat just by imagining the collateral damage they would cause. So, he wanted it resolved at the soonest possible time lest his house be wrecked in no time.

“Bring them along, they may be of help. I’ll get them documentations.” Raven 12345 waved as she continued, “After all, the vampire is well-traveled. She’ll make a good guide and a bodyguard. No worries. They’re going to join the party, I bet my last penny on it. At the end of they day, they’ve been redundant for quite some time. So, take the trip as an opportunity to smooth out the rough edges.”

The words ‘of help’ and ‘smooth out the rough edges’ unnerved Hao Ren. He smelled trouble ahead but could not tell what it was exactly. He also did not bother to ask. He had known from experience that Raven 12345 would not want to talk about anything beyond the present.

“Now, move your ass!” Raven 12345 patted him on his back. “Check your bank card, the money is in. I’ll send the details of the rendezvous point to your MDT. It’s just a simple mission every rookie does. So, have fun!”

Before Hao Ren could say anything, the world started spinning around him. He soon woke up on the road in Bastard Barrio with time on his shoulders and a bag in his hand. He knew it wasn’t a dream but after every trip to the mansion, he would have this unexplainable, surreal feeling. He figured that it may have been caused by the crazy teleportation experience.

Hao Ren had no clue how Raven 12345 knew his bank card number. He was also flabbergasted at how ‘unsophisticated’ the way things worked in the Space Administration. It was nothing like the description in the novels he had read.

“Oh dear, I forgot that I had to ask Raven about the vampire’s failed blood magic!”

He remembered Vivian’s attempt to fix his nightmare condition; neither magic nor vampire’s blood worked. He could not make sense of it. The question had been hanging over his head for quite some time but he forgot about it when he was meeting Raven 12345.

He looked up at the bright, blue sky as though he could see that Raven was busy in the mansion. He shook his head and left the scene, leaving the question for another time.

As he got back to Whitestone Road in the Southern Suburbs, he breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that his old house was still standing—no smoke billowed out and no explosion was heard—the two girls may have reached a truce while he was away or it was just because Lily had been out. As Hao Ren took out his key and reached for the door, he exclaimed, “I’m back!”

There was no response from the inside. So, he went in and closed the door. The air-conditioning was off; the house was as quiet as a grave. He sneaked around for while only to find Rollie trailing out of the kitchen, greeting him.

“Oh shucks! Could they be fighting outside?”

Though he was not a pessimist, he could not ignore the probable, inconvenient reality that he would have to get accustomed to the scene of the ‘Tibetan Mastiff vs Siberian Wolf’ conflict and that the worst would happen when he was away.

The heat of the midday sun was so bad that it seared his skin while he walked home from the bus stop. He picked up the remote controller, wanting to switch the air-conditioner on. However, it did not respond to the command. There was no power in the house. An unexplained feeling of unease started to bother him.

“What’s going on? Ever since I received my first assignment, everything seems to have gone haywire.” He became superstitious.

But then, he heard two familiar voices; Vivian and Lily were at the door, they were back. It seemed like they were not in a fight.

“Wow, Landlord, you’re back!” Lily was the first to burst in, looking surprised. “It’s midday. Why don’t we have lunch together?”

Her brain seemed to comprise of food and food only!

“Where have you been?” He asked Vivian as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead. He did not even bother to talk to Lily, who had obviously become unresponsive to anything other than food. “I thought you guys had a fight.”

“The power went dead so, I thought it was time to pay the bill.” Vivian smiled and jeered, “Then I found this big dog out there so, I brought her along.”

Lily did not respond to her mockery at all.

“Two people to run a simple errand?” He looked curiously at Vivian but he quickly realized her condition. “Oh, I almost forgot, you can’t touch money.”

Vivian’s expression hardened because it touched her sore spot but, she shrugged it off as though she did not mind it. “The transformer at the substation is down. It’s going to take another half a day before the thing can get back to normal again.”

“Okay,” Hao Ren responded briefly as he waved a magazine back-and-forth rigorously to cool himself. “The weather is freaking hot and the power outage is not helping either. Lily, are you okay?”

He saw Lily squatting on the sofa with her tongue sticking out, panting. “I ran a little too hard on the way back.”

Vivian and Hao Ren looked at her, bewildered. It was not at all an exaggeration to say that Lily was a big dog when she was panting like one.

Although Lily had her own quirks and cuteness, they were not things Hao Ren could stomach. “Is it really necessary to stick your tongue out while you squat?”

Lily wiped her sweat away as she looked up. Her mind went blank before she became aware of her immodesty. “Excuse me, old habits die hard.” She chuckled.

Hao Ren gave her a wry smile. He did not know what ought to be said. During that awkward moment, a chill suddenly filled the air.

He turned around and was surprised to see that Vivian had transformed. She was emanating a layer of red fog much like a blood mist. She was waving two, foldable hand fans back-and-forth in quick motion, sending the chill to every corner of the house…

“Mr. Landlord, what do you think?”

Hao Ren was astonished. “I swear I’ve never seen anything like this!”

Lily had moved closer to enjoy the cool air but at the same time, she did not want to waste the opportunity to mock Vivian. “Hey,you, wingy thing! Isn’t that chill you release supposed to be smelly as well?”

Vivian raised her eyebrow. “In case you haven’t already known, the scent is only reserved for combat use. I’d like to keep it fresh whenever I need some chill air.”

It was an eye-opener. Hao Ren cracked up and joked, “Now, that’s proper usage of vampire magic! From now on, we can save on the monthly bill!”

And then, something came to his mind. “By the way, I’ll be going on a mission trip to Europe in two days. Would you two like to join me?”