The child caught my sleeve, bringing my sprint to a standstill. For a moment, we stood still together. My cloak fluttered in the breeze, decorated with thousands of shimmering colours. In the distance, my quarry faded among broken buildings and rubble. A hiss of disappointment burst from my lips, but the iron grip of the child rooted me in place, the ground roaring upwards to surge around and grip my feet. Fangs bared, I whirled to face this aggressor, this marauder.
It was a wee little thing, barely a person. A shadow, perhaps. Not quite real. More of a ghost than a living creature. It was tiny, impossibly so. I could devour in one bite, barely even a nourishment. Barely even a snack. But perhaps tasty. Licking my lips I leaned in closely, my flesh rippling open in anticipation. The hunt could always be rejoined later.
"Please, miss", it begged. "Please, come with me. We need your help."
My hand found its throat, clutching it tightly. "You dare to interrupt my hunt?"
"What hunt, miss?"
"The great hunt, of course!" I flapped my mighty wings once, carrying both of us off the ground, the rubble ripping and tearing as it struggled to follow. Up, we flew, into that empty and desolate sky.
The child did not seem cowed. "What do you hunt, miss?"
"The prey."
"What prey, miss?"
I roared. Stupid child.
"Look, miss. There is no prey."
We both glanced down. No prey was visible true. They hid from my splendour. They had to be flushed from their holes.
It tried again. "Please come with me, miss."
I landed on the roof of an old building. It was half collapsed, the stones shifting angrily under our combined weight. "Look below, child. See the small things that crawl over my domain. See how they plead and beg. See how they howl at my approach. See how they know their place."
"The rats, miss. You are glorious and powerful and you hunt rats, miss. Is that right?"
My tentacles tightened around the shadow's throat. I whispered, low and dangerous. "I hunt the prey."
"You waste your time, miss."
I was furious. I was not about to be disrespected by a failing shadow. Shadows don't speak. They are cast and sometimes they are eaten. "Silence, child. What would you know of the affairs of monsters?"
The child laid a hand upon my shoulder. It was unafraid of me still! "What's your name, miss?"
"I am spoken only in the whispers of the mad. I bear no name."
"That's not true, miss."
"Are you mad?"
"Aye, miss", it said.
"Then you would know of such things?"
"Aye, miss", it said again.
My jaw opened wide. I lifted the child into my mouth, caressing it with my teeth. "Then you know what I do to the mad?"
"Aye, miss." It paused for a moment. "You create them."
"I didn't make you."
It's voice remained calm and level even as my sharp teeth sunk in. "No, miss", it said. "I made you."
I bit down hard, crushing it into pieces. For a moment, I hesitated, now alone. My wings stirred in the gentle breeze. I could smell something foul on the wind. Deep below me, the prey crawled through the ruins of my city. Something was wrong. I didn't know what. With a mighty roar, I leapt forwards, barreling through the sky, descending towards the ground, towards the hunt. I was hungry. I didn't know for what.
I was preening myself, beak nestled into my crevices, fur standing on end. My nest was nestled into a hole smashed into the side of a great tower, high in the sky. It had been someone else's home once. Now it was mine and I had redecorated appropriately. Corpses scattered around me, their bones slowly decaying. I'd stolen a live one for later use and it trembled helplessly in the corner, muttering to itself. I was full and content. The city was a little cleaner for my hunt. The ozone in the air set my joints on fire, promising lightning. I was expecting a storm and by fang or claw was I going to be one.
There was a knock at the door to this cavernous room. I hesitated and stared at it. The door was too small to admit me, designed for the little people who had built the city. It led deeper into the tower, deeper into the depths, where even I could not treat. The prey didn't knock on doors or climb the towers. It fled from the light, low to the ground. I stared at the door. I did not want to know what was on the other side of it. I did not want to know who dared approach me. But I was a god. Who could hurt me?
"Enter.", I said.
"Excuse me, miss", said the child as it entered, whole as the last time I had seen it.
"You", I hissed through bared teeth.
"I was wondering if you could help me, miss. Please?"
"With what? Do you seek death?"
It shook its head, a silhouette in the shape of a person. "No, miss. We need to rescue someone. Please come with me."
I rose to my full height, splaying out my colour and muscle. "I'm happy here."
It swirled, losing cohesion. "Miss, you don't belong here. Surely you know that. Surely it feels wrong."
It did feel wrong. "Liar!", I yelled. My voice felt unfamiliar as it crept through my rotting lips. "Liar! Betrayer! This is a trick!"
"No, miss. You need help. Please, miss?"
"I'm beautiful. What help could I need?"
In the corner, the prey shouted something in an unfamiliar tongue. I hissed and it went back to curling up quietely.
"When was the last time you saw yourself, miss?
"Eyes cannot turn backwards, stupid child."
"But my eyes look forwards, miss. I see you. I see how wrong this is."
I strode forwards on heavy paws, my form rippling as I went. I could feel it beginning to break, knives aching to pour of me. I wanted to be a killer. I wanted to slice the child to ribbons. How dare it speak to me that way? How dare it look at me with pity in its eyes?
"Little shadow, I am perfection. I am glory. I am a queen. Bow and scrape and I may be merciful, pathetic runt. Do not dare speak to me in such a tone."
"Queen of a crumbing ruin, miss. Perfection compared to what?"
My fangs found its throat. "You."
"Oh, miss. Oh, I'm so sorry." It was infuriating how its voice never broke from that slightly condescending gentle tone. "Please, miss? I need you to come with me."
I threw it against the wall and watched as it collapsed into a heap. With one talon, I impaled it and dragged it over to the hole in the wall. Moonlgiht shone weakly through the clouds, casting faint beams. The child, which was more of a shadow than a real thing, screamed with pain as I held it in one.
"Please, miss. Please. You know how wrong it is. Please. This is not how things are supposed to be. Please, miss. You have a name. You are a-"
I never heard what it was going to say next. Instead, I devoured it whole.
I sat there in silence for a moment, thinking. Trying to understand.
"It's incredible", said a voice from behind me. The prey was standing now, shakily, on two legs. Arm outstretched, mouth open, it stared at me.
"Silence!", I roared.
"Do you want to know who I am before you kill me?"
Low to the ground, I hissed, hackles up. The prey wasn't supposed to speak. It was against the rules. It was unnatural. "No. I kill you so I never have to know."
"Oh, okay", it said softly, distantly. Almost relieved. "You're self aware enough to admit that?"
I didn't respond. My head hurt. This wasn't right.
"You have a name, miss", said the prey. "You were someone, once. You were-"
The rest of the words were lost to the wind as I took to the air. I couldn't do it. For the first time since I started, I couldn't kill one of the shadows. Instead, I fell like a rock, my wings unable to open. Like a meteor, I hit the ground and for once there was blissful silence.
The child haunted me. I saw it in my dreams, fitful and lengthy. It was there when I awoke, begging me for mercy. It followed me on the hunt, spooking the prey and whispering unfamiliar and harsh words. It dug through my life, trailing me as my own shadow. In the long light of the sun at noon, it stood behind me and begged.
And every time I would kill it. And every time it would come back. It never acknowledged the murder. It begged, but it always begged. It was disrespectful, pitying, almost condescending. It never stopped and oh how I despised it. There are no words to describe how badly I wanted it to stop. How badly I wanted to feel normal.
But the feeling grew. The world itself was missing something. Something was wrong and I had no idea what.
"This isn't right."
I curled up tighter.
"This isn't right."
My body shrunk.
"This isn't right."
The voices were a chorus now. They dominated my every waking moment, pressing into my brain, sinking into the very depths of my soul. It was a constant litany, the rasping chant of every damned prey from the entire damned city. The chant only grew louder and louder, until my ears rung and I staggered, confused. My body wasn't working right. My great clumsy swipes decimated their numbers. But every time one fell, two more emerged to replace it. And with voices united, they chanted at me.
"This isn't right. You have a name. You are someone."
"No!", I screamed. "No, no, no! I don't want to." I was sobbing now, tears streaming from all of my millions of eyes. "I don't want to remember. Please don't make me remember."
"This isn't right. You have a name. You are someone."
"I can't. I can't! I won't. Stop. Please. Stop. Please." My words were punctuated with sobbing gasps. "Please."
The chanting halted and my eternal aggressor returned. "Hello, miss."
"Make it stop."
"You have to come with me, miss."
Anything but that. "No."
It laid a hand upon my shoulder. "Miss. It's time."
"I can't do it."
"We don't care, miss. We just need you to try."
"I did good here. I'm good here. I'm worth something."
"Oh, miss. That's not true." It pulled me to my feet. We were surrounded by corpses, nothing but corpses, thousands of bodies, all with the same face. "You've done bad things, miss."
I screamed something I couldn't name. The wrongness was omnipresent and overwhelming. It felt like reality itself was cracking apart around me, the city splintering into pieces I had to struggle to see through.
"It's okay, miss. Please, come with me."
The child was fading away, decaying into nothing. "How?", I asked.
"You have to ask the question, miss", it said.
And then it was gone and I was alone and everything was wrong.
The prey's frail body cracked and crunched beneath my weight as I landed, pinning it to the ground. The sky overhead was dark and cloudy, full of malice. I shifted slightly, ensuring I wasn't crushing it fully. It was whispering something to itself frantically.
I rolled it over and studied it. It was small and weak, helpless beneath my might. "Are you going to eat me?", it asked.
"No", I said. My breath caressed it. "Tell me, prey. Who are you?"
It smiled sadly. "My name is Violet."
"Violet", I repeated.
"Are you going to eat me now?"
I hesitated. I knew what I had to do. "No", I said. "No." I stood up, releasing it.
It stared at me, confused.
"Go", I said.
It remained still. We stared at each other for a long moment before it touched my face gently. "Thank you", it said. And then it was gone.
The city was empty. I hadn't seen the child-shadow or any prey in years. Perhaps decades. I drifted through empty skies and counted the rocks. The city was empty and I was lonely. Maybe I'd made a mistake. I yearned to sink my claws into something, to feed my rising hunger. The feeling never abated. Something felt wrong. Maybe I had been tricked.
I sharpened my teeth while I waited for something, for anything. It was okay. The child would back to taunt me again and I could mock it and tear it to shreds and beg to know where it took my prey. The prey would return. The prey always returned.
And next time? I wouldn't be so foolish.