I flew once more over the barbed wire fence that separated Lecolie from Gronorlie, this time in a far better position to observe the fortifications below. I shared Lily's amusement about the effort put in to prevent land travel while nothing was done to prevent aerial incursion, although that didn't seem quite so important now that I knew monsters weren't actually breeding and migrating anywhere.

My goals here were to take out the police commissioner, the mayor of Kholakel and as many of their supporters as I could get my claws on, expose the truth to the general public about what had happened to the kidnapped children, and to visit Lily's parents. They deserved to know what had happened to her. In fact, I could do that first; now that I knew the mayor had no idea I was sentient, there should be no reason for me to visit them, so they shouldn't be under watch.

After that, who knew? Maybe I should run for mayor myself. The office would be open, and being a mass murdering psychopath seemed to be a desired qualification, rather than any sort of detriment. I should fit right in.

I flew high above Kholakel, scanning the ground below for anything suspicious. Seeing nothing, I accelerated downwards, dropping into Lily's backyard. My ability was supposed to be something like mass negation, but I wasn't sure that could explain going from a full speed dive to a full stop as soon as I touched the ground without turning myself into a two-dimensional smear, although it did at least explain why I didn't leave a sizeable crater. It had all been instinctual before, but now I couldn't help trying and failing to apply science to it. I guess that's what makes it supernatural.

There were no open windows, such a thing around here being seen more as an invitation for a house invasion than a source of fresh air. Perhaps breaking in would be counterproductive, anyway? I wasn't exactly going in there to kill everyone, like the past couple of houses I'd visited. I knocked on the back door instead, tucking myself close to the wall to stay out of sight of neighbours.

...Knocking the back door probably wasn't much better than breaking in, was it? This was a private garden, after all, so I had no right whatsoever to be here. But no way I'm going around the front. Why does not killing everyone have to be so harder than mindless slaughter?

I saw the face of Lily's dad peering out of the kitchen window, and poked my head up, letting Lily's face do the talking for me. The double layer of glass did little to negate the shriek he emitted as he toppled over backwards, which would have given even my screeching harpy voice a run for its money. I patiently waited for him to recover, before glancing pointedly at the door. He didn't budge though, just staring at me.

"Who are you?" he asked, talking loudly through the window, but not even opening it, a deeply suspicious expression on his face.

Finally, someone who's reaction wasn't completely idiotic. Respect for Lily's parents. On the downside, that means I need to explain. Answering with 'the monster who stole your daughter's body' probably wouldn't go down well. Alas, I failed to come up with an acceptable answer before Lily's mum looked into the room, immediately spotting me through the window then sprinting to the back door and throwing it open.

"Wait!" shouted her dad, but she wasn't interested, grabbing me and pulling me into a giant hug.

"Lily!" she sobbed. "I knew they were lying!"

I stood there completely nonplussed. Okay, I take back my previous respect. Respect for her dad, perhaps, but I'm leaving her mum out of it. "Do you hug every harpy you see?" I asked, "or only those with your daughter's face?"

She ignored me, crying into my fur. Hopefully they'd let me borrow their bathroom for a wash. I looked over to dad for... wait, Lily's dad for help, but he seemed clueless how to react, his panic somewhat diminished by the way I didn't know how to react either, and that I hadn't immediately attacked anyone. She had her arms wrapped around my wings, pinning them to my sides. I could easily have broken out, but I was trying to create a good impression here. Besides, it didn't feel bad...

"Leona," I said, taking the opportunity to answer Lily's dad's question while I was otherwise restrained.

"Huh?"

"You asked who I was. Leona. That's the name Lily gave me." There; acceptable answer discovered. I've implied there was a friendly link between the two of us without admitting that I stole her body.

Lily's mum looked up in shock. "No, you must be her. Your face!"

"Also, my wings, claws, horns, ears, voice and general inhumanity. I'm pretty sure Lily was human." I'd have winked, but that would be taking things a bit too far.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"How do you know our daughter, and why you have her face?" asked Lily's dad.

"Can we get properly inside and close the door first?" I asked in return.

"No offence, but you're a monster. I'm not sure I want you in my house."

"You know, that's among the most sensible things anyone has ever said to me." I said. "Unlike this one," I added, glancing down at mum... at Lily's mum, who was still gripping me despite her confusion. Need to stop doing that before I embarrass myself; they aren't my parents. "How do you want me to prove that I'm safe? I doubt you'd take my word for it."

Lily's dad grabbed a saucepan from a cupboard. "By slicing this in half," he answered. "That's a thing monsters can do, right?"

"Umm... Isn't that the exact opposite of reassuring you?"

"Just humour me."

"If you insist," I said with a shrug, gently disentangling Lily's mum from me and then bisecting the saucepan with a kick. One half remained in Lily's dad's hand while the other dropped to the floor with a clang. Lily's mum stared wide eyed, while her dad just nodded.

"Good enough," he said, closing the back door. "Welcome to our house."

I stared in incomprehension, leading to him adding, "if you can do that to a saucepan, you can do it to us, and nothing we can do could stop you. We might as well let you in, because if you wanted to hurt us, closing a door on you wouldn't help."

"That's... rather pragmatic," I said, following him through to their lounge, but hanging back a bit to hide from the front facing window. "I can see where Lily got that trait from." Bah, these claws of mine were not designed for carpet, and keep catching. I need my wings outstretched to do my hovering trick, and there isn't space.

After we'd all taken seats, both of the adults looked at me, the mother with something that was a contradictory mixture of hope and despair, while the father was looking far more serious. "So," he started. "You came here for a reason, and I doubt it was just a comfy seat. Would you like to talk?"

"I came because I thought you deserved to know the truth. It's unlikely it'll help you at all, or make you feel better, and if you actually shared it with anyone you'd end up dead, but you should know anyway. Everything you may have seen in the news about a paedophilic police captain by the name of Justin is an utter fabrication. That man tried to save Lily and the others, and not only got murdered for the trouble, but had his name dragged through the mud by the real ones responsible. Grant, your mayor, and his subordinates, trying to manufacture some sort of mind-controlled monster army. The ones he considers failures end up getting sent to the misty woods as fodder for their annual hunt. For sport. And as for the kidnapped children, they are the raw materials the monsters are made from. I was... made from Lily."

"Then Lily is..." Lily's dad let the sentence hang.

"Yes. I'm sorry. She was... a strong girl. She... went on her own terms, by her own will, and left me with a decent chunk of herself as a parting gift. It's why I'm here talking instead of... what I would otherwise do if I found myself indoors with two juicy looking humans."

"And what evidence do you have for this?"

Another good question... I could see the hope draining from Lily's mum, leaving nothing but the despair, but her dad was being as serious and analytical as ever, as if inviting harpies into his house was something he did on a daily basis. From Lily's memories, I was pretty sure it wasn't, and that this pragmatism wasn't out of the ordinary for him, but it was still odd given everyone else's reactions. You'd think describing someone as juicy would garner some sort of adverse reaction.

"Not much. There's my face, for one. Second, I have all of Lily's memories, or at least I think I do, so you can question me on them. Other than that, I have this." I tossed over the phone with Maximilian's research. "The historical research notes from before your mayor took over the experimental side. Records of experiments of turning people into monsters that took place in Gronorlie."

Dad was staring wide eyed at the filenames alone, before even opening a single file. Lily's mum on the other hand had perked back up at the mention of memories. "Was she looking forward to our beach trip?" she asked. "I know it wasn't much, but we really couldn't afford to go further."

"Yes. She would have liked to swim in the sea, but having a day out with her family was all she really wanted."

"Lily?" came a new, small, sleepy voice, but one that Lily's memories identified immediately.

"Oh, did we wake you?" said Lily's dad, gently. "Sorry Ben, but we're having an adult conversation here. Can you go back to bed for us?"

Lily's little brother, only eight years old. And his dad's efforts had been far too late; he'd already seen me before speaking.

"Lily! You came back!" he exclaimed again, completely ignoring his dad, charging at me, jumping into my lap and clutching at me. "You're all fluffy!"

Oddly, neither parent seemed perturbed. I... guess they trusted me? That's good? Maybe? I feel like I'm not living up to my monstrous reputation here. But what do I do now? Being hugged was really not something that was inside my comfort zone, and the only suggestion my instincts offered was to behead the boy, which would run counter to my whole purpose of being here.

Wait. Since when did my instincts get so unimportant? I'd barely even considered them since Lily... did what she did.

What would human instincts have to say about this situation? I considered Lily's memories a bit more, then gingerly wrapped my wings around the boy, making sure to keep my claws angled away. He burst into a fit of giggles before snuggling in to me, which I found strangely gratifying.

I looked up, only to see mum looking at us with a warm smile, with no trace of her previous despair. I even caught dad sneaking regular glances at us, despite his best efforts at pretending to be engrossed in the phone. Well, if I've brought them some comfort, that's my mission complete, I guess. I should get back out and prepare for my attempted mayoricide.

I felt a tickle on my cheek and rubbed it with the back of a claw. The claw came back wet.

Seriously, I'm crying?!