There's something about being visited by three bats in the span of two days that makes a woman want to pull her hair out. Just ask Shelly. She would know.

"Go do your erratic dance somewhere else," was the last thing the winged creature heard before flying out into the vast sky. It was quite remarkable how Shelly, a city woman with zero experience with animals, had calmly managed to get the bat out of her house, all by herself. This being the third time the incident was taking place probably had something to do with it.

Admittedly, the first time Shelly had faced off against a bat flying around her house had not been as pleasant. That is, if you consider waking up to fluttering noises behind your curtains as pleasant under any circumstances. Originally having brushed it off as birds flying around her balcony, one can only imagine how shocked she had been when pulling back the curtains revealed a bat, of all things.

Ten minutes and a lot of reckless broom-swinging later, Shelly had finally managed to get the bat out of her room.

Unluckily enough, her relief had been short lived. Five minutes after chasing the first bat away, another had decided to rise from its presumably deep slumber behind the curtains. A considerable amount of time had promptly been spent cursing her luck and getting the second bat to leave, at the end of which, Shelly was exhausted.

One would think dealing with two bats would, frankly, be enough hard luck for any person, even someone living on the outskirts of the city, near the farm area.

As it turned out, God hadn't been done tormenting her after all. Once again, for the third time, Shelly had woken up to incessant fluttering behind her curtains.

She really should've learnt to keep her window shut by now.

Fortunately, the previous two incidents with bats had taught Shelly a lot. Instead of pulling open the curtain, which would give the bat access to her room, she managed to open the window wider through the curtain. Eventually, the bat managed to figure out that the giant space in front of it was meant to be an exit, and it left.

Shutting the window behind it, Shelly let out a tired sigh. As much as she loved living in the fresh outskirts of the city, having bats regularly drop by her room was not something she had signed up for.

Perhaps getting out of the house for a while would help.

With that thought, and a phone call to her sister to ask if she was free, Shelly was soon on the way to Nicole's house.

Nicole, Shelly's sister, lived quite deep in the city. On the way to her house, Shelly passed numerous houses and buildings; big and small, old and new. She passed shops and stalls, restaurants and cafes. Usually, she wasn't a big fan of spending money on small items, but decided to stop at a peculiar looking shop anyway. She recalled having bought a diamond-shaped pendant from this shop, the one she was wearing right now. Today she decided to buy an intricately decorated cup, and even stopped for ice cream a few stalls ahead.

Treating herself truly proved to be a good idea after receiving so many uninvited guests in her room.

Shelly decided then and there that she never wanted to face another bat ever again.

So it really was unfair, and absolutely ridiculous, that a bat decided to visit her at her sister's house too.

Bat No. 4 seemed incredibly angry that Shelly, mother of bats, had left her home and decided to be even more stubborn than the three before it. The security guard eventually had to be called to chase it away.

By evening, when Shelly was finally on her way back home, all she could think about was how her luck could possibly get worse. On top of having bats pop up wherever she went, the cup she had bought from the shop had also been knocked over and shattered thanks to the last bat aimlessly flying around.

And maybe it was just a coincidence, but when Shelly passed the previously mentioned shop, it turned out that the shop was in a state of chaos. The display glass was broken and the cups and vases were all lying on the floor in pieces. The small area seemed deserted, even the baby-faced shopkeeper was missing.

It looked as if someone had wrecked the shop in a fit of anger.

It also looked like the perfect metaphor for the terrible few days Shelly had been through.

When she finally reached her home, the sun had already dipped below the horizon, leaving barely enough light to see. Shelly stepped out of the car, coming to the conclusion that things couldn't possibly get worse.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she expected that conclusion to be contradicted, as most of her thoughts seemed to be these days.

However, she really couldn't have expected to find a woman with milk-white skin, midnight-black hair, brilliant gold eyes, and a pair of huge bat wings on her back, standing at her front door.

"Look, I just want my pendant back."