Despite Taite’s festering terror, she was determined to act. She leapt from the couch, tossing the large blanket towards the intruder. She swiped the metallic object from the coffee table, slipping the knot formed from the thick string around the middle finger of her right hand. She positioned herself behind the couch, making her towards the door to her bedroom. But, as she did this, she launched the metal object towards the intruder. The rapid clicks of internal mechanisms begin to resonate from its dense body.

When the blanket was thrown their way, they had been engulfed by its large size, pulling the sheet off of them after it did. They were soon met with a heavy blow to their face, a reverberative, metallic thud rang out from the point of impact. The being stumbled backwards, grabbing onto the door-frame in order to regain their balance.

As the object collided with the intruder, Taite flicked her wrist, causing the contraption to recall towards her. She caught it with her hand, taking this moment of their dazed state to rush towards the bedroom door.

With quickened steps, she reached the door, throwing her entire being into the wooden construct, forcing a loud bang to sound out. With shaking hands, she grabbed the doorknob, twisting it, and another loud bang rang out followed by the smell of gunpowder.

She had been shot.

Taite threw the door open, stumbling inside of her room before slamming it shut. Her right arm fell limp to her side, dropping her only means of defense to the floor. Her left began to apply ample amounts of pressure to her wound as she was now relying on pure instincts to survive. Streaks of crimson soaked through her black t-shirt, clinging onto her digits as it did. Her eyes were shut, her teeth were clenched, and tears rolled down her freckled cheeks.

With all of her pain and agony, she was still driven to block out the intruder from getting within the room. She pressed all of her weight onto the wooden door, even if it meant expending all of her remaining strength to do so. She pressed the back of her head against the door, and though choked gasps, she yelled.

“Harlow, please, wake up!!!”

A radiant light soon made itself apparent within the bedroom, piercing through the pitch blackness as it did. It was warm, in fact, Taite began to feel incredibly hot from the growing temperature. She opened her eyes, and bore witness to the image of a woman being surrounded by a maelstrom of flames.

Hues of red, green, and blue intermixed with each other amongst the spiraling flames; and the one within the center of it all was Harlow. Her forearms and calves had streaks of fire protruding from them in the shape of feathers. Her red-eyes gleamed with intense ferocity, however her face remained stoic.

She approached Taite, who was now dazed from the sequence of events to speak, let alone process what was occurring. Harlow gently guided her towards a chair in the room, sitting her down upon, and reaching for a shirt in a nearby drawer. She hastily began to tie the clothing around her shoulder wound, making sure it was tight to continuously apply pressure to the wound in hopes of reducing the amount of blood loss.

Taite winced from this, reclining back into the chair, and tried to command her arm to move. Try as she might, it laid unresponsive. Further increasing the pain that was coursing through her arm as she continued her futile efforts. The debilitating feeling of agony forced her to cease, her head hanging low as she cried tears of fear and pain.

The wooden door of the bedroom began to creak open. Harlow’s gaze shot towards the door, and Taite recoiled into the seat. The door was then pushed open, a streak of crimson immediately shooting across the room.

It was Harlow, her flames trailing behind her as she stepped through the room with elegance and precision. Her left hand grasped tightly on the wrist of the intruder, allowing her control over the hand they used to wield their firearm.

Though her flames harmlessly licked against the surfaces of the wooden interior, it had the opposite effect on the intruder. The immense heat causing their skin to redden, and eventually begin to inflict burns as they struggled in her grasp.

The warm light she emitted allowed for the intruder to be seen, from their shaggy, red hair and to their lazily worn work clothes. It was Yves, and his pupils gleamed a vicious red, his cheeks wet from his continuous crying. The sclera of his eyes were mechanical and artificial in nature, various miniature cables and wires connecting into his pupils.

“You bastards!!!” Harlow cried out, fearsome anger carrying her words forth as her grip tightened on the wrist of Yves. He gave out a pained yelp, dropping the gun he carried as he tried to grab onto Harlow with his free hand.

She didn’t allow him the opportunity to do so, for she intercepted his hand with her own, delivering a sharp blow to his abdomen with her knee. Yves recoiled from this blow, his body folding inwards as Harlow pushed the man outside of the bedroom and onto the floor.

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Harlow kicked the firearm inside of the room, stepping out from it, and closing the door behind her. She assumed a defensive stance, raising her arms squared with her legs as the plumes of multi-colored feathers were overtaking more of her limbs. Her lips contorted to form a beastly snarl, her crimson glare focusing onto Yves who was beginning to rise from the ground.

Despite being an intruder, the man had succumbed to sorrow and dread. His mouth and cheeks twitched, as if the words he tried to spill out from his mind were being impeded by some internal entity. He was hesitant, reluctant, and yet he stayed on the offensive. With a trembling hand, he reached into his button-up shirt, and retrieved a pocketbook from within. His digits, though quivering and convulsing, flipped the book open. And from below his feet, a magic circle began to form.

Harlow was quick to notice his intent, and with this, she lunged towards the man. As she drew near, she ducked low, sweeping one leg towards him, and using this to carry her body forth. She aimed to deliver a strike with her palm up towards the man’s jaw, and when she did, her blow had missed its mark.

Or rather, it was redirected, for a thorny appendage constructed out of a mesh of paper had diverted her blow elsewhere. Harlow hastily formed distance between herself and her opponent, eyeing the arcane circle that had formed below him.

The light it gave was a nauseating hue of greens and purples. It was chaotic, impure, and lacking in proper form. “Holder of a Miracle, and yet it appears as this. What have they done to you…” Harlow mused, sympathy beginning to manifest within her heart, however she knew better to let her guard down. And so, she began her attack once more.

She anchored her left foot onto the ground, pivoting her body upon it as her right foot raised to strike against Yves’ torso. Again, a paper mesh began to form into an extendable appendage. Firing itself towards Harlow’s leg in attempts to deflect the attack, and that was when her leg morphed into the limb of an avian creature.

Using her martial prowess, and her newly formed leg, she managed to latch onto the thorned mesh with her foot. The talons locked it into place before erupting into flames. It didn’t take long for it to burn away into mere ashes, and flames trailed towards the pocketbook that was held within Yves’ hands. The book was lit aflame, and his hand jerked from the pain, dropping the book in the process.

Harlow stamped her bird-like foot on the book as it erupted into flames once more, incinerating what little remained of it. Yves was left defenseless against the fiery wrath of the white-haired woman. He was disarmed, and his only means of manipulating paper had been vanquished. Any sane person would flee the scene in hopes of saving their own life, but Yves did not. His legs convulsed, taking a couple steps backwards, but something forced him to stay put.

He then lunged all of his weight towards Harlow in a blind attempt of an offensive maneuver. His arms flailed as if he was merely a puppet being controlled by the puppeteer’s strings. With this, Harlow delivered a sharp and fast blow to his gut once more with a clenched fist. His body recoiled, folding in itself as any air he had inside of his system was instantly heaved out through his mouth.

Gasping for air, Yves stepped back, clutching onto his abdomen while he fell to his knees. Harlow, now standing over the man, looked down upon him. Her eyes were filled with a flaming rage, but the rest of her face expressed melancholic grief. She raised her more humanoid leg in the air, and delivered one final blow. Her foot impacted the side of his head, knocking him out instantly as his body unnaturally twisted and contorted before resting still on the wooden floor.

Not so long after, blaring wails of an alarm and the flashes of red and blue lights just outside the window were made apparent and visible. The flames on Harlow’s body dissipated, and her leg returned to its previous state. She quickly made her way towards the bedroom, throwing wide the door as her eyes immediately trained onto the chair she left Taite upon.

Taite was right where she had been left, a cell phone with a bloodied screen clutched loosely in her left hand. Her eyes had shut, and the rest of her body laid limp against the backrest of the chair. Alarmed, Harlow rushed to her side, clutching onto the relaxed body of her friend.

Taite was unresponsive, and this further raised alarms within Harlow. She placed a gentle hand upon her chest, and she felt the steady, slow beat of Taite’s heart, alongside the rising and lowering of her chest. “Must’ve passed out from the shock of it all…” Harlow whispered to herself, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman, and picking her up.

She cradled Taite close to her being, hastily making her way outside of the apartment. She heard multiple footsteps from down the hallway, other residents had the doors shut, and people dressed as police officers were quick to climb the three stories that led into Taite’s apartment. “The attacker is in there! Please, is there an ambulance outside?!” Harlow cried out, clutching onto Taite’s unconscious frame as she made her way down the corridor.

An officer stopped in his tracks, providing a reassuring hand that laid upon Harlow’s shoulder as he pointed towards the staircase. “Just outside ma’am, we’ll make sure to have all of this under control.” He spoke calmly, yet urgingly, before rushing off towards the doorway that led into the apartment.

With that, Harlow continued onward, making her way down the staircase, and exiting the complex. From there, a team of paramedics who stood on standby, noticed Harlow and who she was carrying. They rushed to her and Taite’s aid, taking her off of her hands, though much to Harlow’s dismay, and lowered Taite onto a stretcher before loading her into the back of the ambulance van.

“Are you a family member or friend of the patient?” A female paramedic asked Harlow, and she quickly nodded in affirmation. “Yes, may I please be allowed to go with her? I need to make sure that she stays safe…” Harlow pleaded, her ferocious gaze from before now softening into a look of guilt and remorse. The paramedic went up and began to lead Harlow with a hand upon her back as they walked towards the front of the van.

From there, they drove off into the night, making a quick trip towards the hospital as the police were beginning to secure and defend the scene.