A whole month passed with me following the same cursed routine. Training, patrols, rest, repeat. And contrary to my experiences the first night of patrol, there were no more monsters strong beyond the norm. In fact, I could handle most of the monsters myself, without any assistance from Samuel.

Speaking of Samuel, that guy was a big, hard reality check. I had assumed, incorrectly, that since his ability hadn’t yet unlocked, he would not be that great in the field. I had experience patrolling with the likes of Frank and Frost, I was sure patrolling with Samuel would pale in comparison. I couldn’t be more wrong if I tried. The guy was a monster in his own right, his lack of an ability not hindering him in any way.

Today, though, was not going to be an ordinary day. There would be sparse training and no patrol. No normal ones, at least. You see, today was the night Luna, the second moon would be red again, after my first night as an Untethered. Due to mishaps of the last time and the attack of the hell-kite, Frost had arranged for double the usual patrols for tonight. There was a sense of anticipation welling inside me, borne from the fact that the last time Luna was red, there had been great breakthroughs for me, personally. Through some trials and tribulations, I had become an Untethered and had received my tattoo too, all on the same day.

Don’t get me wrong, the last month had been great, training-wise. Samuel was a great teacher, although not the ideal one. He was never one for praise, always pushing me to the extreme so that I don’t waste my potential. It wasn’t that I was ungrateful, it’s just that I needed some form of credit and encouragement from time to time.

I did receive a lot of encouragement though, from unexpected sources. Random Untethered pulling me away from some task, just so they could wish me good luck. If any Untethered encountered us on our patrols, they would take huge pains to introduce themselves to me and praising me for going on patrols, as if they weren’t doing the same thing themselves, much to Samuel’s consternation. To add insult to injury, they acted as if Samuel wasn’t even there. This hero worship was getting on my nerves frankly but due to the risk of sounding ungrateful, I didn’t voice my feelings.

Frank and Frost had been no help in that regard, though. They were only too happy to let me wallow in my misery if they were not actively adding fuel to the fire. On a personal level though, they were a major help. Frank still treated me normally and buffered my introduction to the Untethered in general. He was always happy to listen to my frustrations regarding my training, my patrols and the lack of a true challenge. Frost was a stable leader of the Untethered in general, happy to offer help to whoever asked it. No one would be able to replace Frank in his eyes though. All in all, my social life was much different from the one I had in the mortal world. From the social pariah to the guy who everyone yearns to befriend, it was a complete shock for me.

On another note though, the month had been frustrating and disappointing. I had been fighting monsters and training hard, growing by leaps and bounds. Or, at least, that’s what Samuel said once when he was in a sociable mood. But I couldn’t help but find myself disappointed. Maybe it was because of the never heard of progress I had made on my first day as an Untethered, but my recent progress had me tearing my hair off. I did not doubt that I was improving but there was just no tangible evidence for it. Samuel still whooped my ass in training, although, to be fair, I lasted longer nowadays and could even land a few punches on him sometimes, if I was lucky. But the lack of challenging monsters and no other training partner other than Samuel made it very difficult to measure me against some level or even someone.

But, by far, the most perplexing and mysterious thing of the past month was the arrival of Emma in my life. The angelic girl was an enigma, always finding ways to talk to me or offer me guidance. Most of the times though, she was just trying to gauge my intentions or my thoughts. I would have thought she was flirting with me or trying to gain my attention, just because I was ‘special’, but no, she was aloof most of the time. Not in the playing hard-to-get way but the couldn’t-care-less-if-you-live-or-die way. But much to my display, I found myself developing a schoolboy crush on her. She was definitely a mystery that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the depths of.

It was with these thoughts in my mind that I reached Frost’s club. There was a large crowd gathered there. Unlike the crowd of other nights though, this was a group consisting mostly of fighters. Patrol groups were made of two, three or even four members, depending on the individual strengths of the people making up the group. Groups were never tinkered with though; Frost was high on teamwork. The fact I had been given to Samuel as his sole partner was a testament to the promise Frost saw in me. At least partly. It was also because Samuel was without a partner and no one was available. And no one, not even Frost, could patrol alone. That made Samuel angsty and that made Frost give me to him as a partner, even though I was a complete rookie. I suspect I would have joined Frank and Frost in their patrol group if things had been different.

When it seemed like everyone had gathered, Frank began giving out his instructions. “Okay, as you all probably know, the last red Luna coincided with a series of mishaps. I think it’s in everyone’s best interests that the amount of patrols is increased from now on red Luna nights. We don’t want any causalities in our ranks, nor do we want any interference from monsters in the mortal world. That’s why I have selected various sectors for each of you to patrol. It’s very important to maintain communication, so keep on the lookout for any distress signals or calls from others.”

After that he unveiled a map which had various areas marked, I guess indicating where a group would be patrolling. I was surprised to see that the map contained more than the city itself. In fact, it seemed to contain the whole country. My mind was boggled. I quickly turned to Samuel and asked, “Why is Frost handing out responsibilities for the whole country?”

Samuel just replied, “The entire country falls under the jurisdiction of Frost when it comes to the matter of the Untethered.”

‘What?’, I mentally screamed. Why had no one bothered to mention it to me? Before I could ask any more questions though, Samuel just put his index finger, signalling me to remain silent. I felt like a petulant child being told off by his teacher. The shame!

When most of the crowd had been assigned its duties, we finally reached Frost and Frank to get our own assignment.

It was Frank, surprisingly, who designated us with our duties. “Samuel, you will be staying near the general area of the club. This city is where most of the monsters gather anyways, so we are assigning a major chunk of our forces here. You think you can handle it?”

Samuel just nodded before proceeding to walk out the door. I quickly followed him but not before showing a thumbs up to Frank, as he looked stressed with the various duties he had to perform.

I caught up to Samuel and finally asked the questions I was dying to know the answer to. I enquired, “Hey, what did you mean that the whole country was under Frost’s jurisdiction? Is he some sort of appointed leader or something?”

To my utter disappointment though, Samuel refused to answer my question, saying it was a question for another time as it would take a lot of time to explain the facts. I was not discouraged though. I had more questions to ask, after all, and I was determined to get some answers.

“Were all the Untethered of the country in that club right now? I mean, if they were, I have to say, we aren’t that many.”

Samuel looked at me like I was a fool for even asking that question. For a moment I thought he wasn’t going to dignify me with a response, but then he said, “No, of course not. They were more like representatives from certain areas of the country. Kind of overseers of certain areas whom Frost trusts enough to hand out responsibilities to.”

I nodded at that. That made much more sense, of course. While we were walking towards our destination, we ran into the enigmatic beauty that is Emma Turner. Like a lovesick puppy, I quickly greeted her, my actions earning a snort from the normally reserved Samuel. To top it off, Emma didn’t respond to my greeting, preferring instead to just say to Samuel, “Be careful out there.” Samuel responded, in a tone as dry as stale bread, “I will.”

I preferred to stew in my embarrassment rather than speaking and somehow making the situation worse, although I had no idea how that could happen.

To my utter surprise, it was Samuel who initiated the conversation this time around though. “You should stay cautious of her. She has more puzzles and mysteries stored in that brain of hers than a sphinx on a sandy day.”

That stoked my curiosity. “Okay, do you know her somehow? And more importantly, are sphinxes real?”

Samuel just responded with another snort of amusement. What’s happening? Does Samuel become fun on red Luna nights? I was broken from my train of thought by Samuel saying, “You really should stay careful.”

I could see that he was serious and just responded with, “ I can take care of myself, don’t worry. And what about the question regarding sphinxes? I really want to know.”

I was met with a wall of silence and all was right with the world. We continued in this companionable silence until Samuel informed me that we had reached our destination. To say that this place was not suitable for picnics or gatherings would be an understatement. The place screamed terrifying, cracked walls and worn off paint was the signature look of this area. This is the sort of area you go to when you want to get mugged or worse yet, killed. I had an inkling that it was going to be an eventful night. Maybe I had jinxed it but before the night was over, I was proven right!

The first sign that the night was going to be an absolute mess was when we were ambushed by twenty cyclops immediately. Although they were taken care of with relative ease, it was still alarming because, in all of our patrols, we had never encountered a horde of cyclops like this. I wasn’t even aware that cyclops or monsters, in general, could exhibit herd mentality. It had us on our guard immediately. Two guys without abilities, relying mostly on hand to hand combat could be a recipe of disaster when fighting a group of monsters. But contrary to our expectations, everything was silent for a while. Until it wasn’t and things went to hell all too quickly.

The reason for my panic, you ask? A creature stalking its way towards us, with a grace far exceeding any ballerina dancer I had ever witnessed. It looked at us in silent contempt, almost insulted that we walked the same planet as it did.

The creature itself was beautiful, like a tank or even a nuclear explosion. It looked just as dangerous. The body a lion, the head and wings of an eagle. Yes, I was looking at a creature straight out of legends. I was witnessing a griffin floating towards us, for there was no way any creature could walk that smoothly, ready to judge us for the various crimes we had performed in our lifetime.

I was terrified but not of the creature itself. It was bad news alright but I had kind of accepted it as inevitable that I was going to meet my maker today. No, what had me terrified was the reaction of my companion. The usually infallible Samuel was shaking in his boots, just muttering “No way!” to himself. To see someone who I held in the highest of regards afraid was eye-opening and heartbreaking for me, at the same time.

I mustered up whatever courage I could and asked Samuel, “So, what’s the plan?”

Samuel just looked at me, his face still exuding horror before he finally composed himself. “We need to call for backup and fast. I am going to attack it and the first chance you see; you run and call for backup. We can’t handle this creature by ourselves, we need Frost here.”

I looked at him, almost amused and flatly replied, “Yeah, that is not going to happen. Not to sound cheesy or heroic, but I am not going to abandon you so that you can die a glorious death. I am not high on self-sacrifices, you see.”

Samuel just looked at me, irritated at my response, before he just gave up and accepted that I was a stubborn fool who was also going to probably die tonight.

The griffin had enough of our heart to heart, it seemed, as it galloped towards us with all the force of a train. We just managed to roll out of its way before Samuel charged at it with a roar of defiance, me following quickly behind him. He dodged the claws that the beast struck towards him and punched it in its midsection, sending it flying. Not letting this opportunity go to waste, I jumped and kicked it while it was still in the air, right where Samuel had punched it. The griffin groaned in pain before it quickly morphed into a roar of anger, probably offended that two creatures below its level had managed to wound it. It just unfurled its wings and quickly changed direction in mid-air. It flew towards with its claws held high, intent on finishing us off in one stroke. I managed to evade the strike by rolling out of its way.

Samuel, though, was not so lucky. The griffin struck him right in the chest, its full force impacting with Samuel. I watched horrified as the griffin raised its claws one more time, standing on top of Samuel, to strike the potentially killing blow.

That’s when it happened. Everything seemed to slow down. The griffin, the blood seeping out of Samuel’s chest, the duration of the flickering of the street light. Everything. I rushed towards the griffin and kicked it on its side, saving Samuel. It crashed into the wall and was seeming dazed for a moment. I didn’t wait for it get back up though. I quickly followed it up with punches of blinding speed, managing to actually hurt it as the griffin screamed in anguish. It raised its claws to strike me and funnily enough, the claw seemed to be coming at me in slow motion. I dodged it without much effort and began punching it again, afraid that even if I stopped for even a second, I would die.

After what seemed like ages of me blindly punching it, the griffin retreated, although it would be fair to say that I let it retreat.  I could have easily caught up to it as the griffin looked really sluggish. I thought that the griffin was just formulating its next course of action when I saw something that frankly stunned me. The griffin was looking at me with something close to fear and panic in his eyes. It seemed to make its decision and with a final cry of despair, it just opened its wings and flew away, leaving me in a state of shock, puzzled as to why the griffin would not regroup and attack again when it had me dead to rights.

My adrenaline settled and I quickly noticed that my chest was glowing. Or rather, my tattoo was glowing again. I pulled off my shirt to reveal my tattoo, which was still glowing, although it was growing fainter by the second. When the tattoo finally stopped glowing, I saw that some changes had occurred in the tattoo.

The serpent had bared its fangs and its wings seemed to be larger. Hell, the whole serpent seemed to be larger. But the most important distinction in the tattoo had to be the watch. One dial was still stuck at three but the other dial which had previously been at zero had changed its position and now pointed to one. Almost as if five minutes had passed on my chest.

I knew what that meant. I had unlocked my first ability. But other concerns came to the forefront of my mind, like Samuel’s condition. I quickly ran over to where he was. Looking at him closely, I saw that he had lost a lot of blood and looked a little pale. The look on his face was priceless. He had shock written all over his face, which changed into a look of fondness and pride when I knelt beside him. He was still his usual serious self when he said, “So you unlocked your ability. Well done, kid.”

I just smiled at him, thrilled to earn his praise. It was hard-earned, after all. I said to him, “You look a little pale. You’re not going to die on me, are you?”

Samuel just guffawed and I had to join in, it was infectious. Finally catching my breath, I said, “ Man, can you believe it? I totally believed we were going to die. Instead, I unlock my first ability out of this deal. What do you think my ability is though? My senses felt enhanced and I could move faster than I had ever done before. Do you think it’s some of an enhancement ability?”

Samuel gave me a look that suggested that I had all the brain cells of a  mosquito. “Idiot, that’s totally not what happened. You…..” Just when he was about to say what actually happened, his voice faltered as he gazed in a direction behind me. I turned around to see what he was looking at and found myself stumped. There seemed to be a hole in the air, almost as if someone had torn the fabric of space. But it was what came out of that tear that had me cowering in fear.

An ethereal creature was floating towards us, its face masked by its hood. But the distinct look was capped off by the scythe in its hands. Behind me, Samuel began to laugh maniacally, muttering, “Of course, the grim reaper!” His words sent my whole being into shutdown mode. The Grim Reaper! Death incarnate?

We seemed to be frozen in our spots as the grim reaper just raised its scythe and in one fluid motion, separated Samuel’s head from his body. I couldn’t even scream as Samuel’s blood splattered all over my face. The blood painted the surroundings red, the red light of Luna reflecting off the blood, making the blood shine like the rarest ruby in the world. The grim reaper then raised its scythe to strike me and then when I felt a power rush out of me.

I watched in slow motion as the grim reaper stared at me for a few moments, lowered its scythe and went back into the portal. If that was the end of it, I would be shocked as it is. But the sequence of events continued. The warm blood on my face rose into the air before entering Samuel’s body and head, as did the rest of the blood. If that wasn’t crazy enough, the head reattached itself to Samuel’s body and Samuel woke up with a gasp before falling unconscious, still breathing heavily.

I knew whatever had happened now was my doing, due to the tiredness I felt in my body. I felt as if I run around the earth with another earth saddled on my back.

But more importantly than that, I knew what I had done. I had reversed time! I now knew what I had done against the griffin. I had slowed time down for it.

I realised what my first ability was, the significance of the pocket-watch as my tattoo. I could control the flow of time!