I rub my stomach and crouch down, wishing everything wasn’t so hard. Two long weeks have passed since my last meal, and I’ve barely eaten since.
Humans are violent creatures.
“Where are your clothes? Are you one of them mentally disturbed people? I can call an ambulance, but I’m not sure you can afford it.”
I drag my claws through the dirt, thoroughly frustrated to be deprived of dinner again.
Something booms in the sky, and I stand up, turning towards it, my whole body aching and listening to the sound.
“What is that?” My voice is rusty and harsh, even to my ears.
“Thunder? It’s the sound of the storm coming.”
The woman approaches and stands beside me. She smells like flowers and death. It’s a nice smell.
“Honey, you really don’t look good. I can count every bone on your body. What happened to you?”
I purse my lips, catching a faint hint of something that is similar to the Siren that tried to kill me. Electricity in the air. The thunder booms, rattling my bones.
I ache for them. I wish I didn’t, but ever since I heard their song, saved my Lirin, my inner thoughts turn to them when I least anticipate. They were mine. Or at least, they should have been. Now they are just the enemy.
“Humans are mean.”
She makes a hacking sound in the back of her throat. “Aye, we are. We can be good, but we are not good with change or anything that is different.”
“There’s no food. The rain is constant. People have weapons with stones and burning fire.”
“You aren’t human, are you?” she says with a tremble of fear. “Don’t come closer.”
She backs away, but I ignore her. This is nothing unusual, and I don’t fear this helpless old lady with her stick.
The dog screams, and the old lady bolts in that direction before I can stop her. I follow but take my time. It’s not until I hear a rasping wheeze that I connect the dots. A death rattle.
When I smell the blood and a familiar decay mixed in with it, my heart slams into my chest and threatens to explode. My limbs lock up, and I shift into the creature that has survived Nightmare.
No, he can’t be here. I won’t be able to survive if I have to escape him here.
I approach carefully, but by the time I find the old lady, her insides are holding her tied to a tree, and she’s gone back to the Earth that birthed her.
There’s no one here.
Just a faint hint of a memory of something so frightening that I have no doubt even humans will feel uneasy.
I leave the old lady and her dog, running as fast as I can, putting distance and time between me and whatever killed her, just in case I’m right.
Just in case he somehow found a way to follow me across. It should be impossible. I’m supposed to be safe.
My hands shake, but fear drives me on, long past when I should stop. I just keep running.
I hear their song in the world growing stronger and stronger, and I make a decision based on desperation.
The enemy of my enemy isn’t my friend, but they might keep me alive a little while longer.
Becky opens a portal to save her Fae lover. I can feel the power blaze into the world. Her rage turns it into white flames that shoot high in my mind. I am drawn that way like a moth to a flame. It doesn’t matter that she is a stranger. I will always recognise her now; I spent too long inside her.
“Wait-”
She whips around, turning all that power and presence that she is morphing into on me.
