My eyes flew open, the deafening crack of the door nearly breaking down making me jump in my foggy half-sleep. 'I have to get the door fixed. With a lock. Wait...never mind the lock. I'll just go live in a cave.'

The intruder, which I knew was one of my two forced roommates (the other one being my little 4 year old sister), rushed about the room, looking for something. I saw out of the corner of my eye that she stopped to fiddle with something on my side of the bookshelf next to the bed.

"Would you mind not touching my stuff please? It's bad enough that I want to kill you." I mumbled non-committedly through the bunched up blanket hiding my face.

The little dragon figurine was put back, and she rushed right back out, leaving the door open and the closet light on, the room cluttered with all of her upturned stuff. I gave up loathing her for a long time now. It was pointless. So I just packed up what meager things I had, leaving only a few trinkets, and accepted the fact that I probably wouldn't get any peace from here on out.

I sighed, burrowing deeper into the blankets, attempting to fall back to sleep. The door was left open, and the ruckus from the kitchen filtered through no matter how covered my ears were. Sighing, I gave up. I'd have to try and sleep tomorrow. Usually I would attempt to sleep during the day to avoid everybody, but because they couldn't see me studying, they often thought me a lazy slob who parties all night and sleeps away valuable daylight. I did my chores. I studied. Heck, I was on the verge of a small odd job by doing commissions for tattoo designs. I had even gotten connections to someone who knew a lot of people in the military, who were young, careless, and all too willing to toss money around.

I stumbled into the kitchen, lured by the scent of cooking bacon. It was already gone, all that was left was the remains of potato and eggs. Typical. I don't think I'll be able to eat today anyway. That tickling in the back of my throat that had started the other night had grown into a dry spot, making me cough periodically.

'The other night...'

My eyes went wide, remembering what had happened. My mind raced, and the various voices of reason (more like unreason) chattered excitedly at the possibilities. I shook my head, attempting to silence them. It was a dream, nothing more.

I sunk into the couch, watching all of the adults leave. Typical. They all leave me with the kids. But I don't really mind. The little one is easily distracted by the TV, and as long as I kept her and the other brat separate, I wouldn't have a hard time.

Right now the annoying one was with me in the living room, while the little one was glued to the boob tube in the bedroom.

"Hey, what happened to your arm?"

"Huh?"

"There." She reached over and prodded my upper arm. Pain lanced through my entire right side, and I hissed loudly through my teeth.

"Would you stop that!" I snapped, cradling the abused appendage. 'I didn't know I had that...'

"It looks weird." She commented, turning back to her corny teenage sitcom.

I looked down to the source of the pain, which now lingered at a dull throb. It was two mildly concerning bruises that wrapped around my arm, like stripes. 'Hey, they kind of look like...'

I shook my head. 'Dream. It was a dream. You probably slept the wrong way again.'

Despite the insistence that it was a dream, I hesitantly reached up and felt my neck. Nothing. I sighed, slightly disappointed and extremely relieved at the same time.

'Seriously, if it was what you think it was, which was actually a dream, you'd be dead.'

Well, regardless, I had to do something with the time, and getting lost in la-la land every other second was probably not the best way to spend it. But on the other hand...

Absently, I took out a sharpie and started another tattoo on the back of my hand. This time it was Dimension. I was trying to learn something from the pillars. So far I convinced myself I could talk to trees, and the wildlife liked to follow me around enough as it is. After a few epiphanies, I convinced myself I learned something about nature. I had already carved the symbol into a patch of tightly packed sand in the yard, so I decided that perhaps I could add the others over time.

Since then, I had a sudden tolerance for spiders. Heck, right now I was housing a clan of spiders (appropriately nicknamed the Zephonim) that grew to about the size of a large walnut. But don't tell the other house guests that. Dad was cool about it though. Whenever he saw them, he always caught them in the middle of doing their jobs: devouring the smaller organisms. Although Zephon himself was long gone, I was still ushering his children to the safety of the walls.

I stood up and stretched, careful of my bruised arm. What I wasn't prepared for though, was the pain that raced down my spine and shoulder as I cracked it. I grunted, sinking back into the couch. The faint memory of being tackled came back to me. But this wasn't the blunt pain of a bruise. It was sharp and tender. Like broken flesh.

The other one was occupied with her show, and didn't notice my slight lurch as I made my way to the bathroom.

I lifted the back of my shirt up to my neck, looking over my shoulder to see the mirror. I inhaled sharply through my nose. 'Boy does that look painful.'

Running down my back were long, red, shallow scratches, which had already scabbed over. There were a few puncture wounds and cuts in my left shoulder, which had opened up, blood slowly seeping out from the barely sealed flesh. 'What the heck is this...?'

I was startled when the bathroom door banged open, the removable rack that was hung over the door catching the frame, making it sound like splintering wood, much like a toned down version of our bedroom door.

"What happened to you?! Should I call Papa?" She looked actually worried. 'Congratulations, you managed to show some kind of concern for someone other than yourself.'

"It's nothing." I said flatly, replacing my shirt and adjusting it.

"How did you get it? Does it hurt?" She reached out to touch me, and I stepped away, glaring at her as a warning.

I shook my head. "I was in my tree last night. I stumbled while I was getting down. And it won't hurt as much as you when I'm through with you! What the hell are you doing, barging into the bathroom anyway? Didn't anybody teach you to knock? What if I was on the can? Or, god forbid, screwing my brains out?"

"I needed some tylenol. My stomach hurts! And who would screw you anyway? Raziel?" She scoffed.

"This coming from the one who loves the pug-faced rabbit. And I like Rahab! That melodramatic chicken can jump back into the abyss for all I care!"

I rolled my eyes and swept by her, disgusted. She wasn't even old enough to have her period, and thinks she requires painkillers for something as simple as a stomachache. She makes a bruise sound like a shattered bone or something. I also regretted letting her in on my obsession. She's a Turel lover. I don't see why though. Not only does he look like he got his face smashed in by an angry housewife wielding a comically oversized frying pan, but I doubt his ears and skin are the softest things in the world. Not only that, but it's usually implied that he's too obsessed with either being a lapdog, or overthrowing his superiors to care about anything else.

I often imagined what it would be like if she ended up in Nosgoth. During the Empire. I even wrote a few stories about it. She was either murdered or traumatized in the end. Although there was one rare instance where she actually cleaned up her act and started being tolerable.

I decided the children wouldn't kill each other for a while, and stepped outside. Maybe if I had some time to think I might come up with something. Perhaps a way to get out of this obsession.

I headed straight for my tree. It was all by itself next to the house. There was a stack of discarded concrete blocks and old bricks that I used to get up there. From my perch, I could see both in front and behind the house, making it the perfect spot to keep a lookout. The four main limbs came together at the base, one of them slightly lower than the other, making a nice little seat.

I settled myself in, grateful that when I leaned back, the tree supported me by my sides rather than my back, although I still had to be careful with my shoulder. Now with a proper jacket on, the cold didn't affect me as much. I stared into the forest across the street, thinking.

'I've never really gotten into any one particular thing this much. Even my six month obsession with Castlevania was eventually quelled with a quick scan through the history books.'

I kept my eyes on the tree line, the lack of leaves making it easier to see anything that might have been there. I don't know why I watched it so closely. It was something I always did since I first thought of other mythical creatures that could be hiding in the shadows, a mystery to society. Of course, I always supposed that maybe Videogame characters could be walking around in plain sight as well, but I never took it so seriously until now.

A loudmouth crow broke me out of my thoughts, startling me. It was in the tree next to mine, staring me down. I returned it's inquisitive, plotting stare.

"I know you're there." I said quietly, narrowing my eyes at it. It cocked it's head to the side. "Don't play dumb. I know you're there. You're probably just waiting. Waiting for us to destroy ourselves. So you can take the spoils. It would be nice if you could show up a little earlier. We obviously can't handle it properly." I hissed, crossing my arms.

The crow, thoroughly confused, squawked and fluttered away. He probably smelled roadkill.

'Okay, that's it. God, sometimes you scare me Victoria. Talking to birds? Okay, I can understand if you were asking it the meaning of life or some other philosophical bulldinky, but really, suspicious interrogation?! What were you thinking?'

What? It's well known that crows are spies.

'So you were asking if Vorador would come to the rescue and save the world from overpopulation?'

You know me so well.

'(sigh) Snap out of it. Sulking like a stereotypical misanthropist isn't going to help you. Before you know it, you'll be wearing black just because you think it's the color of your soul. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to stand you if you started that. Now just quit- ... Hey, what was that over there?'

My eyes were glued to the far left of the forest, nearly in the backyard of the house next to it. I could've sworn I saw something. Another flash of movement had me staring far out in the distance. My heart skipped a beat.

'Be careful what you wish for...'

Regardless of the fact that I didn't care if I died, I still feared getting there, and the pain usually associated with the process. I shivered a little as the cold finally pierced my jacket. It was getting dark, the sun briefly painted the horizon red, before everything dimmed into a flat, dark grey.

I watched for a few minutes more, before reluctantly climbing out of the tree. I couldn't feel my fingers. I gave the forest a few glances and double takes, thinking I might have seen something else. I headed into the backyard to circle around the house a few times. Maybe I could visit with one of the stray cats. The faint feeling of being watched loomed over me.

"YOU!"

I spun around, properly frightened. What I saw only served to intensify it.

It was a...demon of some kind? It looked like maybe it might have been a gargoyle. The skin looked charred in some places, and it carried the scent of ashes and the noxious fumes of something that had burned. Most of it's snout was missing flesh, the teeth and jagged nasal cavity exposed in a permanent sneer, only one, long and delicate fang remaining, it's sibling broken down to a useless nub. It had a crown of exposed bony ridges and horns, the skin around them completely shredded. It's claws were just as skinless, and wickedly sharp looking. It looked pretty starved, not too far away from Raziel if he still had his organs in the right place. There were a few loops of faded metal around it's arms and legs, and a few on it's horns. They might have been gold at one time. It wore a rope necklace, with an extremely worn out metal pendant on it. Whatever was on it was long gone, but it maintained a vague shape. But what awed me the most, was it's wings. They were very large, and magnificent, even if they were only shadows of what they might have been. The membrane was shredded, barely holding onto the frames, and yet they looked like they might still carry it's owner, though not very far. The creature's presence spoke of faded glory.

What held me in that constant peak of trembling fear though, was the eyes. They were fierce, hungry, rage driven, and lacking patience at the moment. That, and they were dead. Lifeless. They had gone mostly red and raw around the outside, the iris and pupil an indistinguishable greyish white, almost like they were nearly cooked out of it's skull. It chilled me to even think of them, let alone stare into them. They held me to the spot.

'Goddammit! What are you doing? RUN!' Maybe it wants something?' It pinned me with a murderous glare. 'Okay, maybe running away from what is obviously a predator is not the right thing to do.'

"YOU!" It pointed a faded claw at me. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

My heart clenched and stilled for a few seconds, stealing my breath. When it started beating again, I still didn't breath. 'What did I do? I think I would remember something like that. I don't even think I'm capable of something like that. It's obviously mad as hell. What the hell do you do when there's an extremely pissed off demon staring you in the face, obviously intent on your demise?'

Nothing. That's what. I started breathing again, and slowly lowered myself to the ground, keeping my eyes on it the entire time. It looked rather angry at this.

"What the hell are you doing? Get up and fight me!"

I inhaled through my nose, pursing my lips. 'Does it look like I can fight?' I resisted the urge to grin ridiculously. I had a horrible reaction to being cornered, or any form of nervousness or panic: I smiled. My mom was so pissed off at me for that, before she realized that I couldn't help it.

"COWARD! You had no problem with killing me before!" It boomed, getting more frustrated by the second.

'So I killed it apparently. That would explain a lot about its appearance. But why would I kill something that is obviously beyond death? Wouldn't I know that killing something like that would come back to haunt me later?'

Still, I said nothing. Just looked at it, hoping that I wasn't showing anything more than fear and confusion.

"GRAAAAGH!" It roared, snatching me up by the throat and slamming me against the house.

"You..." It hissed through clenched teeth. It was shaking with rage now, and raised its claws. I closed my eyes, and waited for it, bracing myself.

I heard the nearly inaudible whip of claws slicing through air, before pain exploded across my left cheek.

There were three parallel slashes running from my ear down along my jaw.

"Hey, are you okay? I heard something!" The back door creaked open, and it dropped me, shooting into the air with one stroke of it's powerful wings, and had disappeared in a matter of seconds.

I crumbled into an undignified heap against the side of the house, panting, trying to regain my breath. I composed myself quickly enough to hide my bleeding scratches with my arm.

"What happened?"

"I did something very stupid." I replied faintly, my voice a bit ragged. "But I'm fine. You should go back inside. It's dark." It was complete nightfall by now.

"What did you do?" She was grinning.

"I decided to fall out of a tree." I said, slightly sarcastic. She needed to leave. Now. 'God I hate doing this...'

"Hey, I bet the kid is messing with something, I heard noises in our room."

"What?! That little..." She gave off unintelligible grunts and muffled whines, storming back into the house. I knew I was probably going to return to a huge fight, but right now I needed to collect myself.

'Now that I think about it, that creature did look vaguely familiar somehow...'