Kelly's arms began to swell, her skin stretching as veins darkened and pulsed beneath the surface. They looked less like veins and more like black cables feeding something unnatural. Her fingers split and reshaped into long, ridged claws, each one gleaming under the flicker of a broken streetlight. Her grin widened unnaturally, revealing teeth that were far too sharp to belong to anything human.
"Still think you can talk back to me, Nakamura?" she hissed, her voice distorted, two tones overlapping.
I didn't bother replying. My pulse stayed steady, and my eyes followed every twitch of her body. The woman behind me was trembling, too terrified to move, but I couldn't afford to look away. Kelly's movements were erratic—too fast, too violent, like her body was breaking itself just to hold that form together.
When she finally moved again, it wasn't like she ran. It was like the air tore around her. One moment she was standing still, and the next her claws were slicing through the space where my chest had been a second earlier. I dropped low, the rush of air from her swing brushing past my face. My hand caught a rusted pipe lying against the wall, and I swung it into her ribs as hard as I could. The impact bent the metal like foil, but it sent her stumbling back with a guttural snarl that barely sounded human.
She landed heavily, cracking the ground beneath her feet, and before I could breathe, she lunged again. I shifted sideways, feeling the air move beside my ear as her claws scraped the wall, leaving glowing streaks on it. Dust fell in thin clouds, and I used that brief moment to close the gap between us. My knee slammed into her stomach, and the sound it made was dull but heavy. The force sent her flying backward until she crashed into a dumpster that folded under her weight with a loud metallic crunch.
Dakavoth's voice rolled through my head, calm as if none of this mattered. "Impressive," he murmured. "For a mortal."
I wiped my lip with my thumb and muttered, "Not helping."
Kelly's scream cut through the air, her voice warping further as her humanity slowly slipped away. She slammed her hands into the ground, and cracks spread like a spiderweb beneath her palms. The next instant, she launched herself upward, using the broken pavement like a spring.
She came down fast, her claws aimed straight for my neck, but before I could even think, something inside me reacted first. My shadow stretched and shifted, forming long, dark limbs that rose from the ground. They caught her midair, wrapping around her arms and torso like living chains. The weight of her body slammed against them, but they didn't break. Her claws sliced through one, but two more reached up immediately, holding her in place.
She screamed again, thrashing as the shadows tightened. My vision blurred slightly, tinted faint red, and I could feel Dakavoth's presence stirring beneath my skin like an echo. My voice came out quieter than I expected, but steady. "You're not my problem anymore."
The shadows reacted instantly. They pulled downward, slamming her into the ground hard enough to send a crack through the concrete. Dust rose in a cloud, swallowing her form for a few seconds. When it cleared, she was trying to get up again, her limbs shaking from the strain. I stepped forward before she could.
Her eyes met mine, wide and full of hate, but there was fear there too. I grabbed her by the collar, and for a moment, she stopped struggling.
"Kelly," I said quietly. "You should've stayed human."
Then I punched her. The hit went straight through, through the hum of the neon lights, through everything. She flew backward, crashing into the far wall with a force that cracked the bricks. Her body flickered in and out of form—half human, half monster—before she hit the ground and stopped moving.
For a long moment, there was nothing. Just silence. The kind that fills the air after something violent ends.
I stood there, breathing slowly. Behind me, the woman finally spoke, her voice soft and shaking. "T-thank you…"
I didn't look back. I just kept my eyes on Kelly's broken form for another few seconds before turning away. My shoes splashed quietly through the shallow puddles as I walked toward the street. There was no rush, no sense of victory. Just a dull ache where adrenaline had been.
By the time I reached my apartment, my body felt heavier than before. I kicked off my shoes and sat on the edge of the thin mattress, staring at the floor for a moment before letting myself fall back.
Dakavoth's voice drifted faintly through the quiet. "Strange," he said. "I was supposed to erase you, not share a heartbeat with you."
I didn't answer because I didn't hear it. My eyes had already closed, and sleep took me before I could think of anything to say.