Narrator
"We have to kill the child." "Do you understand?"
"But... the child is innocent, Igor." Anura cried, imagining how she could kill her own grandchild.
"He is a sinner." A repeated sin. Igor immediately put on an angry and scared expression. A curse would happen before his eyes. The curse on the pack eventually became real.
Everyone in the room looked silent. Whatever Igor was talking about was the child of their alpha. Their leader. How could they kill the child of an Alpha?
"Isn't there any other way besides killing?" Anura asked. She was extremely heartbroken just because of the stupid curse written in their holy book. Anura hated it, she even hated being born as a witch whose duty it was to protect the Red Pack. The Red Pack is the oldest and strongest pack among all packs.
Igor approached Anura and began to kneel at his wife's feet.
"Forgive me, Honey. I didn't expect this. I didn't know this curse would happen to our child. Oliver, forgive your father. Father is guilty of you." Igor cried, and there was nothing Anura could do except cry with her husband. Anura saw a gloomy cloud over their pack for the first time.
"Igor. Where is Oliver now? I think he should have been warned about this earlier," said Louie, their high commander. Louie knew that Igor and Anura were not okay at the moment. Even their pack's condition would not be good until they received guidance from their goddess. "Have you had a dream from the Moon Goddess, Anura?" he asked again.
Igor wiped away his tears and looked at Louie. He was too weak to stand, so Louie helped him up. However, Igor was still his older brother. As his younger brother and the pack leader, Louie was the one at the forefront of protecting the pack and his family.
"I didn't have any dreams or premonitions, Louie," Anura replied with a sad look in her eyes. There was disappointment in her eyes. She still hoped there was a way out of this problem.
Louie remained silent and thought for a moment. Then he looked at Igor and ended up looking at Anura.
"Anura. Do you think your aunt knows about this? After all, you are the last descendants of the red pack witches." Louie hoped that Aunt Anura, known for her great magic abilities, would have an answer.
"I shouldn't have forced my will to be with you, Anura," Igor weakly said, recalling the regret that was now meaningless.
"Stop it, Igor. We love each other, and the moon goddess approves of our marriage." Anura didn't expect Igor to say that again. Anura immediately remembered her tragic and dangerous love story with Igor.
"But still, we're the ones at fault, dear. Oliver is our blood, and the curse happened because Oliver married a human."
Anura fell silent. She knew that this curse was written in the Red Pack's agreement with the witch who helped them win the Red War.
"I know that very well, Igor. I know that all of this is already written in the agreement. But we can't blame Oliver if he hasn't found his true mate all this time."
"I should have killed Alexandra from the beginning," Igor said angrily.
***
Alexandra
"So Alex? "Will you accept the challenge to go on random dates?"
"What do you mean?" I asked Steven back. One of my friends wanted me to accept their challenge after we played truth or dare.
"That's the challenge. Install the Forcelove dating app," Steven said with his devilish smile.
"Oh, my god. I don't want to. The name of the app alone makes me sick. Am I that desperate to play with a dating app?"
They didn't answer and just stared at me with a look that said yes. They had a reason for doing so. I always fail in relationships, even though I'm pretty and sexy.
"No. I won't do that stupid dare!"
"Why not? It's just a stupid game, like you said."
I knew they were really challenging me by twisting all my words. Your words haunt you. That proverb now applies to me.
"Okay. Why not?" I finally gave in. It's against my principles to give up on them.
"Yeah...that's our girl! Go have sex. Go have sex." Steven and Nate shouted with joy, as did Mia. They were shouting like crazy people. Fortunately, we are in a private room right now.
Nate and Steven immediately unzipped their pants and did a striptease, while Mia held her phone to record Steven and Nate's crazy actions. Two crazy men who would bully us for a whole year if we didn't dare to accept the challenge of this game.
"They're all friends I both love and hate. What else can I do? They're the only ones I have to hang out with and blow off steam. My life is just that scary. I'm old and alone. And it's been a long time since I've had any romance. I come home and collapse on my bed, feeling relieved because I'm just so tired.
After that crazy game, I immediately looked at the FORCELOVE app. Oh, please, Alex! I cursed myself for doing something so crazy. But I was also curious. Can online dating actually work? My crazy friends said that if I was lucky, I would find a decent partner.
I opened the app and registered as a user. I was advised to create a nickname that, if I saw it on other profiles, would contain vulgar and naughty words. Maybe the goal was to make others curious so they would chat immediately. I made my name Xasy. Although it was creepy, I used that name. It sounds bitchy."
Next, they asked for my photo. And as a comparison, I looked at other profile photos displayed on the app. All of them were incredibly sexy, with many displaying semi-naked photos. Inviting anyone to make a connection. Whether they were fake or real, no one would ask as long as both parties were comfortable and satisfied with each other.
In the end, I decided to upload my photo and that of Leslie, my round-eyed, beloved dog. I wanted to be known as a real woman, even though I was playing in the online world.
When filling out my occupation, I wasn't sure whether to list writer as my profession. But I didn't want to fabricate my life story just to be liked by others. The more I filled out this profile, the more lazy and hopeless I felt. I felt foolish, and this wasn't me at all.
"What am I really doing? Nothing’s interesting to me at all. I'm just wasting my time with this nonsense. It's better for me to sleep so that I'm fresh tomorrow. I don't want to look tired when I meet my new boss.
Ring...
Ring...
I take off my headset and see a notification from the blue heart symbol.
"Force love?" I wonder to myself.
I open the app and start looking at a message that came into my account.
"DM-Owe. I think this is interesting." I open the chat column and see a greeting from someone with the initials DM-Owe.
"Hi, my name is Oliver. Your profile picture looks natural. And I like your dog."
I'm still reading the message he wrote in the chat column while smiling to myself. Oliver, I'm sure he's a guy; hopefully he's really a guy. I click on his profile, and I don't see any info except for a picture of his back. He seems to enjoy running.
Should I reply? I think I should reply because I'm online on the screen. It doesn't seem polite to be indifferent.
"Hi also. You can call me Alex. Do you like my dog?"
"Yes. "He is cute."
"Yeah."
Silence... I think he's starting to get confused about how to start the conversation. I'm not that good at being an icebreaker either. Is he one of the "pretty good" guys that Steven and Nate mentioned?
"I'm not good at small talk." I'm just an adult man who wants to go on a date with you."
Wow! A charming man. It usually takes a long time for a man to ask a woman out on a date. But he just asked like that. Maybe because we intentionally met through this app.
"Okay. Brown Cafe tomorrow at 9 pm. Can you make it?"