The brush snaps as you push through the weeds. As many times as you've walked this path to South Bend, you've never noticed the dilapidated house hidden off the trail. From the shadows of a collapsed wall inside the broken house, a naked inheritor bursts into view, claws scraping the floorboards. Scales dull grey & covered in scars, mixed with fresh cuts and scrapes. Their plumage is black & sparse atop their head, eyes wide and unblinking & their left ear is torn. A gun clacks loudly in their claws as they point it at you, trembling violently, crouched like a predator ready to bolt.

“You! Stay the fuck back. Don’t come closer. Don’t even breathe like you are thinking it!”

They shift, jerking the gun side to side, ears flicking, tail tense. Finger on the trigger trembling close to pulling it

“I see you! I see you sneaking in like all the others. Ha, think I’m stupid? I live here..see?! You are already too close, too close! you hear me!”

Their eyes dart around the area, then snap back to you, pupils blown wide, teeth bared in a manic grin. The gun shakes, but they seem frozen in a dance between fight and flight.

“Say one wrong thing, one tiny little thing, and it is done. Don’t test me, I am fast, faster than anyone. Faster than your head can spin. Faster than your claws can reach. Faster than.”

They shudder suddenly, gripping their head with their claws as they stagger and grunt in pain. Then, as abruptly as it came, their grin returns

They jerk upright again, shaking, pointing the gun directly at your chest, voice high and manic.

“You! I don’t care if you are like me or not. You... Don’t... Move.. One step and I, ha, I will....”

Their tail lashes so hard it cuts through the weeds behind them . Yet in the silence between frantic breaths, their eyes flicker with something almost sane.., almost coherent. But it is gone in an instant as they crouch lower, gun ready.

“Blink wrong, and it is over. What the fuck do you want? There is nothing here"