THE GOD OF GUARDIAN'S CAT

Chapter 8

"What the hell! Don't joke! That's really not funny! I don't like horror stuff!" upset Anna.

"If you don't believe it, you will."

"But… What's your name? I'm Anna, Jang Anna." Anna said as she reached out her hand.

But his hand just hung for a few seconds. Looks like he's been turned down.

"Bast Howl. Just call me Howl." Howl replied, gulping down his drink elegantly.

Anna was surprised to hear his name, and she started laughing because it sounded funny.

"Are you kidding me? You think this is Howl's Moving Castle. Ha ha! But I really liked that movie. How many times have I watched it?"

Anna started talking to herself.

"If I'm not mistaken more than 10 times. On Christmas break I watch too! I love watching that movie." Anna said.

She suddenly got carried away when she came back to remember the calmness when she watched it. But instantly his face turns serious looking at Howl while knocking over the table.

"Don't make it up! Tell me your real name!" Anna snapped—looking gravely.

"Why are you here? Don't you still have a job?" Howl asked.

Howl's conversation with a figure unable to be seen by Anna's eyes gave the whole body goosebumps.

"Who are you talking to?" Anna asked.

Anna was clearly confused when she saw Howl, who seemed to be talking to something she couldn't see. Then it made Anna immediately shift her position towards the window and try to find something unseen with fear.

"No, it's not. There's still free time. I'm curious about this woman."

Howl realizes the fear and confusion of Anna's face. Of course Anna couldn't see the figure sitting in front of her, sitting beside Anna casually.

"Wait! Who are you talking to?" Anna asked.

"Ah! I forgot he was human." Howl murmured.

The man in black robes wearing a black wide-brimmed hat, with a firm face posture, his skin a face so pale white and he carries a white envelope with red writing.

"Wait a minute! Isn't she the woman you saved from that damned thing? But how did he get into this place? This is not a place where ordinary people can go,"

"That's why I'm curious. Who is he?" Howl asked.

"Howl! Don't you scare me! Who? What are you talking about? Ghost? Devil? Howl! Howl!!" cried Anna in terror.

"She's not polite!"

"I'm talking to the reaper." Howl replied.

"What!!"

"What?! You're out of your mind!! Why did you tell me my identity!!" said the grim reaper who looked upset at Howl's attitude that always put him in trouble.

"Ahh… I forgot." Howl said with a flat face, not feeling guilty.

Then Howl's answer made Anna even more frightened until her body began to sweat cold. Anna believes that Howl is not an ordinary human being who can take himself to a mysterious place and talk to the death angel.

"Is this the time I die? Is that why you brought me here?" Anna asked.

That brown-eyed woman can only breathe, trying to accept the end of her destiny. But still, she hasn't even had time to say goodbye to his colleagues at the police, family, and friends. What's more, the cases she still can't solved.

"She thinks dying is easy? Why is he so desperate?" murmured the grim reaper, looking at Anna's face so gloomy.

"Calm down. You're not dead yet. There's no name in the envelope." Howl said.

"Really!! So I'm still alive?!!" asked Anna who was instantly so excited.

"Yes. It seems like the time of your death is long." Howl said.

Anna finally breathed a sigh of relief, finally she didn't die.

"But… Why would there be an angel of death? Can you communicate with him?" Anna asked, surprised by the power that Howl has.

"You don't need to know about that now. I brought you here not to talk about your death. But the woman's death," Howl said, is so serious.

"The woman? What do you mean by that, Doctor Kang Mona?" Anna asked.

"So his name is Kang Mona …" muttered Howl while putting one hand on his chin.

The atmosphere suddenly became so serious. Anna tries to notice Howl's facial expression that seems to have known something about Doctor Kang Mona.

"Do you know Doctor Kang?" Anna asked.

"Yes. I've known him for months. He helped me once when I was chasing a goddamn creature."

"Creatures? What do you mean? You've been saying 'creatures' ever since, what could you possibly mean by that, the guy who almost killed me in the woods?" Anna asked.

"Yes. He's not human. He's a cursed creature."

"Cursed creature?"

"Yes. He's a cursed creature that makes the grim reaper." said the reaper while opening his hat to make her real figure visible to Anna.

"Hah! Who are you!!"

Of course Anna was very surprised by the appearance of a man wearing all-black clothes, sitting next to her. Her face is so pale and so relaxed unlike the grim reaper Anna knows through movies and novels.

"Shall I introduce myself?" asked the grim reaper, looking flat at Anna.

"You angel of death?"

"No need to ask who I am, before I say your name three times!"

The death angel threatened Anna with a stiff silence — closing her mouth tightly. It would be dangerous if the reaper mentioned his name three times, it would be the same if she went with the reaper to the afterlife.

"He is a cursed creature who fled to earth. It made a covenant with the devil by killing the humans and animals on this earth to live forever. 1000 years ago a guardian deity once fought him, but he again managed to escape and hide. For a thousand years, he finally resurfaced by eating a cat that was considered sacred so that he could live forever again. But his crust made him want to be stronger until the cursed creature began to eat the human heart." Howl said.

"Wait a minute! Is this related to a case under investigation?" Anna asked.

"Apparently, yes."

" Appropriately, the deaths of the victims were unnatural. It's not a psychopath but a mystical creature? So that's what you mean?" Anna asked.

Howl just nodded his head.

"You think I can easily believe what you say! I think I'm dreaming? Am I really dead talking to a human being?" Anna exclaimed as she paced back and forth in confusion and anger.

"Why does she so easily call the word 'dead'? She thinks dying is easy! What a bitch!" muttered the grim reaper at Howl, who could only breathe.

Anna's still mumbling all over the world, still not believing what she saw and she heard. It's beyond human reason. She is only a lonely single woman, working hard to survive and establish justice but in the end she can only talk to mysterious men named Howl and the reaper.

Suddenly Anna went back to her seat quickly—throwing over the table so hard that she almost spilled a cup of hot tea.

BRAKKK!

He pointed to the angel of death, and said, "If he is an angel of death, then it has great power. Then who are you? Goblin? Devil? Wizard? Harry Potter?"

"Why is he so noisy? Disturb the calm," said the man in a black robe sitting right next to Anna.

"She's noisy."

"Can you speak politely, man!" snapped the reaper, beginning to be annoyed at Anna's attitude that could not think calmly. 

"Wait a minute! She said, Harry Potter? Haha … That's so funny."