Under Her Cursed Scythe

As soon as she settled down next to a statue, her eyes began to scan through the city attentively.

On one side, it was bustling with people. She heard police sirens, loud rhythmic music from clubs, and cheering as well as shouting from jostling pubs and parties. Lights shone from almost every window and advertising boards up ahead in that the area looked so alive and as if it was still daytime even without the sun.

On the other side of the city, it was dark and quiet, almost deathly quiet. There were rarely any street lights and they were mostly dim. There were barely any movements on those streets, only a clutch of adolescents with their hoods and caps on strolling down the empty streets occasionally and soft movements of older man squirming under their blankets as they lay on their cardboard mattress, sound asleep.

However, none of these sceneries or things were Alivia's target. She was merely scouting for the "red lights".

Albert was right about the marks. Even though Alivia didn't comprehend the meaning of those Chinese characters too, they appeared to be symbols for her to discern her prey for her mother's ritual on Halloween night. However, what Albert hadn't discovered yet was that the marks didn't just appear after the branded ones were killed. They existed on them since the day they were born. Nevertheless, they would only become visible to normal human eyes after they died.

At a certain moment prior to their death, the marks would sparkle in bright red colour like a distress signal light, notifying Alivia, the owner of the Reaper's ring-who also found out to be the only one who could see those lights-that the "fruit" was ripening and it was the right time for her to reap (which normally started 8 days before Halloween).

Alivia waited and waited when all of a sudden, in the distance, she caught sight of a red light and among it was another brand new Chinese character she had not seen before.

At that instant, her heart sent a great pound throughout her body and beat ambitiously. She halted her blinking to lock her stare on her prey and then, she glided towards one direction like a gust of wind, jumping from rooftop to rooftop and finally landed on top of a street lamp, right above her prey.

She gingerly took inventory of her surroundings, making sure that there were no one around and no surveillance cameras presented (a new item that she had added to her what-to-do list before striking since Albert's "presentation" at school the day before).

'Remember... Don't look into the eyes. Just reap and go!' She lectured herself inwardly.

The prey staggered briefly and then its body fell down, soulless.

"Sorry." Alivia still couldn't help herself from whispering that before she exited from the scene.

She teleported herself back to the top of the city's monument and, once again, waited for the red lights to appear. When the clock struck 12 at mid-night, the location of the second prey was revealed. A Chinese symbol shone brightly in the night sky.