The girl clutched her doll tighter, her tiny fingers trembling. "Please… my parents… they're in the forest. The monsters took them."
Her voice cracked just enough to sound real. Her eyes shimmered with tears that didn't quite fall. She looked up at me, wide-eyed and broken.
Jian knelt beside her. "We'll help you. Don't worry, okay? What's your name?"
She hesitated. "Lila."
Too fast. Too clean. Too… rehearsed.
I said nothing. Just nodded and let her lead. The forest swallowed us whole, the canopy above blotting out the last of the sun. Shadows stretched long and thin, and the air grew colder with every step.
Jian walked beside her, asking soft questions. "Where did you last see them?"
"By the river," she said. "They were hiding in a cave. But the monster found us. I ran."
"Did it chase you?" Jian asked.
She shook her head. "No. It… it laughed."
I narrowed my eyes. That line. That exact line. I'd heard it before. A report from a village two provinces east. Same setup. Same words. Same outcome: everyone dead.
Still, I said nothing. Just watched her walk. Her steps were too steady for someone who'd been lost for days. Her dress was torn, but the tears were symmetrical. Like someone had designed them.
Jian didn't see it. He was too busy trying to comfort her.
We walked deeper. The trees grew denser. The air thicker.
Then she stopped.
"There," she said, pointing to a thicket. "They're just beyond that."
I didn't look. I looked at her.
"Lila," I said. "What's your mother's name?"
She blinked. "Um… Mira."
"And your father?"
"Uh… D-Daniel."
I stepped closer. "You hesitated."
"I—I didn't—"
"What's your doll's name?"
She looked down. "It's… it's…"
She didn't answer.
I sighed. "You should've picked a better script."
Before she could react, I moved.
My fist ignited mid-swing, a comet of flame and fury. It connected with her chest, and the sound was like a tree splitting in half. Her body flew backward, twisting unnaturally, and slammed into a thick trunk with a sickening crack. Her neck bent at an impossible angle.
Jian screamed. "SHIGEN! WHAT THE HELL?!"
I didn't answer right away. I walked over to the body. The girl's form twitched. Then melted. Skin sloughed off like wax. Bones cracked and reformed. What lay before us now was no child.
It was a demon. A blood-shifter. Its limbs were long and jagged, its face a mess of shifting features. It hissed once before dissolving into a pool of steaming crimson.
---
Epilogue: The Hunch
Jian shoved me hard. "You hit a child! You broke her neck! What if you were wrong?!"
I shrugged, brushing soot from my coat. "Then I'd be in jail, I guess."
"That's not funny!"
"I'm not joking."
"You didn't know she was a demon!"
"Nope."
"Then why?!"
I looked at him, deadpan. "She blinked too slow."
Jian stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "That's it? That's your reason?"
I nodded. "And the doll. It was too clean. No kid hugs a doll for three days in the woods and keeps it that clean."
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Rubbed his temples.
"I hate you," he muttered.
"I get that a lot."
We stood in silence, the forest still around us. The pool of blood hissed as it sank into the earth.
I lit a cigarette with a flick of my thumb. "Come on. If there's one, there's more."
Jian sighed. "Next time, maybe ask before you go full Mortal Kombat on a maybe-kid."
"No promises."
As Jian stormed off, muttering curses under his breath, I stayed behind, staring at the scorched patch where the demon had died. The forest was quiet again. Too quiet.
Then I felt it.
A ripple in the air. Like a breath on the back of my neck.
I turned slowly.
There, standing where the girl had first appeared, was another child.
Same dress. Same doll. Same wide, tearful eyes.
But this time… she smiled.
And then she changed.
Her body stretched unnaturally, limbs elongating, curves forming where there were none before. The silhouette grew taller, fuller—woman-like, almost seductive in outline. But it was still wrong. Too fluid. Too perfect. Like someone sculpting flesh from smoke.
She stood there, half-shadow, half-nightmare.
And her voice was not a child's.
"You're getting warmer, Shigen."
The forest ignited behind my eyes.
[End of Chapter Two]