Peering from her balcony where it lurches halfway over the railing. Two pits of absolute darkness stare back from its haggard face. The creature seems impossibly tall. It looms there, all jutting bones and coarse fur over wasted muscles and pallid flesh.

"Wha-..the hell.." Orianna's mind screams to run, to fight, but her limbs betray her, rooted in a paralyzing horror that seems to seep from the creature's very presence.

Almost against her will, her eyes travel down to the thing's feet as they swung over the railing and onto the balcony. Bile burns the back of her throat when she saw the long, curved claws extending from its furry toes.

Orianna continues to not move while the elongated creature twists slowly toward her balcony. Its beady eyes staring right through fragile glass - and flesh - to her at her vulnerable soul cowering within.

However, the more she looks at it, her nose wrinkles. She recoils with her upper lip curled to reveal clenched teeth,"What is that?" A shudder of revulsion ran through her as she stares at its grotesque form

In her peripheral vision, she sees Leo's feathers raise in aggression and his beak open in a silent warning cry. The deadly intruder beyond the glass did not react at all, furthering its beady eyed stare… but then the spindly fingers were curling, tapping against the glass pane.

Beckoning her to let it inside.

'What do I… What do I do?' Orianna's mind raced, eyes wide, while her body remained paralyzed with indecision.

Though as if impatient with her, the creature's arm - like a telescoping pole - reaches toward her balcony door and eases it open. The night air brought no relief, only the foul stench of fetid flesh. The more it slid closer, Orianna shudders.

After, a piercing shriek split the deathly silence. A blur of iridescent black and blue feathers marks Leo's attack. He slashes at the beast, shattering the midnight standoff. Talons raking through fur and flesh with wet, meaty sounds.

The creature, its nails resembling rotten, gnarled wood, claws into the railing for balance, emitting puffs of foul, death-like odor from its gaping maw.

Orianna seizes her chance - with trembling hands she grabs the lamp from her nightstand. With a swift, forceful tug, the cord snaps free from the wall. She hurls the lamp to the ground, shattering it, leaving jagged shards of glass glinting in her grasp.

Quickly, she runs and lunges forward. Driving her makeshift weapon into the creature's black right eye just as it regains its balance. A bubbling shriek echoes in the darkness.

The creature thrashes in maddened agony, further cracking the balcony railing. It rears back with Leo still clawing at its paws with his talons, and the ledge finally gives way. With a bleating wail, it grabs Leo and plunges out of sight into darkness.

An agonized thud a moment later signals its harsh landing below.

"Leo, no!" Orianna's horrific cry splits the chaotic night. Heart in mouth, she whips her head over the balcony. She glimpses the hulking form dragging itself with impossible, preternatural speed toward the swirling woods... Leo's dimming blue feathers still clutched in its grip.

"Shit!" Panic claws at Orianna's mind as she spins towards her bedroom door, the urge to race downstairs overwhelming. But the servants patrol at night - rushing heedlessly into their domain risks alerting her foster parents and losing the trail in endless interrogation.

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'No, running inside is too risky... There has to be another way.' Her gaze frantically swept the surroundings, landing on the massive oak by her balcony.

She bites her bottom lip, 'The tree... it's my only chance.' she whispers.

Next she sprawls around looking for something to use. Luckily, a hammer is found in her closet, from a tool box a servant forgot to take.

"Here we go…," she murmurs through clenched teeth. With a plea to any saints that like watching damaged foster kids, Orianna slings a leg over the icy rail. She steels her soul against images of shattered bones on unforgiving soil far below.

The night holds its breath, she jumps and falls, falls...then collides with the scratching bark. Her body recognizes tree-limbs as home as she clings fiercely. The familiar escape soothes wild panic into determined purpose.

Adrenaline reaches her, not noticing if she got injured or not. Orianna descends rapidly, bare toes gripping rough wood till she drops lightly onto the frost-crisped grass.

Pausing just a moment to steady her mind, she grips her hammer tightly. Then, with Leo's imagined cries whisking her feet forward, she plunges into the darkened woods without looking back.

———————————————————

The midnight forest looms around Orianna. Shadows play tricks with her mind as branches grasp like skeletal hands. Her feet already throb with pain from cuts and scrapes, making each step a struggle.

She glances left and right, gripping her hammer like a lifeline. 'Breath Orianna Breathe,' Doubt and dread drain the adrenaline that fueled her initial courage.

Her grip on her hammer tightens as she scans the eerie silence, searching for any signs of Leo. But all that greets her are shifting shadows and the rustling of leaves in the wind. "Leo?" she calls out, her wavering voice echoing back unanswered.

Even the customary night songs of insects and owls are curiously absent. The deeper she stumbles down the moonlit paths that wind through the old-growth firs, the more disoriented she becomes. Both in direction and fragmenting purpose. Each minute lessens the chance of Leo being alive

Icy tendrils of panic threaten to halt her feet. "This can't be real…" She pinches her arm, wincing at the flare of pain grounding her firmly in this impossible reality. Taking a deep breath, Orianna steels herself against the urge to turn back. She came too far.

Stepping into a lonely clearing, an azure glow pulls her from her spiraling thoughts - otherworldly illumination beckoning through the hanging moss.

Hoping to get answers, Orianna scrambles towards it, sweeping the moss aside to reveal the source. Her breath leaves in a stunned exhale.

There stands a mirror taller than herself and narrow as a coffin. Silvered glass ripples with ethereal azure light. Its polished surface seems ageless, devoid of tarnish or warping from exposure. Strange symbols spiral across the carved mahogany frame, unreadable yet teasingly familiar, like childhood memories lost to time's erosion.

"A mirror...in the woods. Just like they said" Orianna whispers in disbelief, eyes locked on her own frightened face reflecting in the liquid depths. Heart pounding, she drifts closer, peering into the silver glass.

Her reflected curls shift in a wind unfelt, the fabric of her pajamas rippling, but the night air is still. Orianna's hands grasp at her hair and clothing, feeling no movement, no disturbance at all.

Orianna nods,’Yep, time to go’

But before she could turn around, a scene unfolds within the mirror that seizes her full attention - Leo, finally free from the creature's grasp, attempting to fly away.

Orianna's head whips around, scouring the silent woods. But neither Leo nor his monstrous pursuer are actually in sight. She turns back to the mirror's visions with building dread.

His feathers flash as he darts desperately between trees, using them as cover to hide. Yet, the beast stalks closer in the scene, hellbent on Leo despite its ruined right eye. It's just moments later that the bunny finds him and swings a massive blow, batting Leo like a rag doll against unforgiving wood.

"NO!" Orianna shouts out, her hands slamming the mirror's surface in desperation. But the creature stalks closer to her helpless bird lying ruined on the forest floor.

She looks behind her in the woods frantically again but they are nowhere to be seen. "STOP" she yells in the open, hoping her voice is heard, but the scene plays out relentlessly in the mirror.

Not hearing her words, the mutated bunny raises its paw above Leo's limp body on the ground.