“So, what's your name?”

Through a curtain of flowing white hair, the petite girl peered. Her pink irises gleamed like sparkling jewels.

“...My name is Itylia.”

“Eh-” The swingset Lia had been enjoying the nightly air on came to a squeaky halt as she forgot to keep kicking.

“Is something wrong?” The young girl asked.

“Well, no, it's just that it's not a very common name.” Lia laughed nervously.

“Isn't it?”

“No. Definitely not.”

“Strange.” The little girl paused and looked up to the starry sky. The full moon stared back. “Where I come from, everyone knows that name.”

“Oh? Are you from a foreign country or something?”

Itylia nodded and, for the first time since suddenly appearing, smiled. “Yes, " she said. "I suppose you could say that.”

That explains a lot. Lia observed her with envious eyes. She looks like a princess from a fairytale. I'm jealous...

At first, it seemed that this strange girl didn't want to talk. Yet talking to her felt gentle and easy. It got lonely sometimes at the park, so Lia couldn't help but feel a little curious and excited about a stranger coming to join her.

“So what’s upsetting you?” Lia asked.

Itylia furrowed her brows and tilted her head, as if she were confused about the nature of her question.

“Oh, please. People don't just sit on a swingset at some random park next to somebody they don't know.”

“I suppose they wouldn't...”

“You sat down here because you wanted to talk to me, right?” Lia folded her arms across her chest and smiled rather confidently. “Go ahead. Ask me anything. Big sis Lia will answer any question you want to throw my way.”

Itylia pondered for a moment, observing Lia with a strange burning curiosity. There was a certain admiration in that stare that made Lia feel quite proud.

“How can you be so confident in front of a complete stranger... You must be quite powerful in your world, Lia.”

Eh? Powerful? What does she mean by that... Is that just another way of saying important where she comes from? Yes, that must be it.

Lia nodded. “That's right. Im very powerful.”

“Wow.” Itylia’s eyes sparkled with adoration.

Lia’s heart fluttered with joy.

Ah, she's just too cute!

“It must be nice to have so much power. Where I come from... I'm considered the weakest.” Itylia raised her pale, petite hand. It looked frail, almost sickly. “My older brother is capable of ripping the head right off of one of his prey with a single hand. I am unable even to sever the head of a small chicken.”

Eh?

A cold wind blew through the park. With no trees to shield them, it felt glacial, yet Itylia did not shiver.

Huh? What the hell does she even mean by that? The head of a chicken... Wait, I've got it! She must hail from a country where people still hunt for their own food.

Lia had no idea what to say in reply, but when their eyes met, she had no choice but to speak.

“So you come from a family of hunters?”

Itylia quickly looked away. After a deep breath, she gave a shy nod. “Does that... make you scared of me?”

“What!?” Lia exclaimed. “Of course not. I have a great deal of respect for people who hunt for their own food.”

“R-realy?”

Lia nodded. “Of course. It's an admirable thing where I come from. Look over there.” Lia pointed to a small shop across the street with the lights still on. It was an old shop, squeezed between countless other brick stores competing for a place on the pavement.

“That place?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“That's my family’s business. We process and sell meat. Without hunters and livestock farmers, it wouldn't even exist.”

“Wow...”

“You shouldn't be ashamed of something that feeds you and your family.”

Itylia's eyes fell to the floor. “I... I just don't really enjoy it the way they all do. For me, it feels...”

“I understand.” Lia smiled. “Not everything is easy at first, but after a while, I'm sure you will get used to it.”

“You think so?”

“Of course I do.” Lia reached over and ruffled Itylia’s hair until it turned frizzy. “What surprises me is how someone so pretty can come from a rough-and-tough family of hunters.”

Itylia blushed and looked away.

“I mean, seriously, look at you! Man, I'm so jealous.”

The sound of sniffling caught Lia’s ears.

“Huh?” Lia quickly leapt off the swing and circled around to face Itylia. Crystal-clear tears were rolling down her cheek. “Im so sorry! Did I say something that offended you? I take it back! I take it back!”

Itylia smiled and laughed, but the tears continued to roll. "It's just that,” she dried the tears with the sleeve of her white dress. "It's just that no one has ever called me pretty before.”

“Eh? You're kidding, right?”

Itylia shook her head.

“Is everyone you know blind or something?”

Itylia’s laughter was so pure and innocent that it almost made Lia break down into tears herself. For a while, it stayed just like that, with the two of them laughing and enjoying the solace of the night.

When the laughter died down, and the moon was reaching its peak in the sky, Itylia broke the silence once more.

“Hey, Lia, could I ask you another question?”

“Of course."

Itylia took a moment to think about her question, then turned to face Lia with her sparkling eyes. “I want to know what it's like to be normal.”

"..."

The question slightly took Lia aback, but instead of getting defensive, she took a deep breath and turned to see the lights go off in the butcher's store across the street.

“There's no such thing. Believe me, I should know." She said, "My life has been anything but normal up until now. But who wants to be normal anyway, am I right?”

Itylia stared relentlessly as a tear trickled down Lia’s face. The large oval eyes that glimmered like jewels didn't miss anything. Not even the slightest shifts in emotions. They stood out like lanterns in the surrounding darkness.

"What happened to your arm?"

Lia pulled up her empty sleeve, which wavered in the nightly wind, revealing her missing arm. Then, with a stroke of her fingers, she pulled back her hair to reveal a scar where her ear used to be.

“Car crash.” She answered. “I was injured pretty severely. The medics arrived quick enough to save me... But my parents didn't make it. I was so young back then, I hardly even remember them.”

Suddenly, Itylia leapt from her swingset, raced over and embraced Lia. She was cold, but Lia didn't have the strength to resist, so she sank into her shoulder and embraced her back.

When was the last time I let someone hug me like this...?

“Can I ask you one more question, Lia?” Itylia asked, her voice muffled by the curtain of her own hair.

Lia couldn't find the courage to speak, so she only nodded.

“If you had the choice to switch lives with someone. To start again somewhere new... Then would you?” Itylia’s words were so gentle and soft it was as if a ghost had spoken them. In unison, all of the streetlights lining the footpath flickered and buzzed, and the cold wind ceased.

Lia laughed as if this strange girl had just said some hilarious joke. The tears started to come now, and she had no power to stop them.

What a stupid question... She thought to herself, thinking back on her life. What right did she have to complain? There were millions of people out there in the world living tougher than she was.

I have a roof over my head. A homeschooled education. Loving grandparents and food fit for a king and queen. And even a family business to inherit.

Lia thought all this, and yet when she opened her mouth to speak, this is what she answered.

“Of course I would...”

At that moment, Itylia's pink strawberry eyes turned a dark shade of red. Her thin lips peeled back to reveal four sharp, jagged teeth like the fangs of a snake. Finally, with a hiss, she sunk her teeth into Lia’s exposed neck.

Lia’s eyes widened. She screamed, pushed and struggled but failed to separate herself from Itylia as her teeth sunk deeper and deeper.

What...? What's happening?! N-no. I don't...

The world around Lia became a blur, and she toppled to the ground as the last of her strength left. The monstrous image of Itylia, standing over her with the once frilly white dress, now drenched and dripping with blood, was the last thing she saw before falling unconscious.

Click

The sound of Itylia's fingers snapping together reverberated throughout the park, causing every inch of steel to vibrate in song. A portal opened before her, a gateway to some far away place. Magnificent colours burst forth from the scar-shaped tear in the ground as if whatever was inside was trying desperately to get out.

That's when the wind changed. Bark chips, small stones, litter and dried leaves surrounding the park were all sucked inside the portal, like water into a whirlpool. Gradually, the pull got stronger until even Lia was sucked inside.

“Good luck, Lia,” Itylia whispered as the gateway closed and the park returned to normal.

Before Itylia’s eyes mellowed to their usual strawberry pink, she punctured her stomach with her right hand, leaving behind a gaping wound. She crumbled to the ground, gasping for air and convulsing as the entire structure of her body began to alternate.

Her hair turned from pure white to dark brown, and her eyes shifted from pink to ocean blue. Her dress started to tear as her torso and waist grew. One arm shrunk, and one ear disappeared. Before long, everything about her changed, until she was the spitting image of the human girl she had just attacked.

“Hey! You over there. What the hell are you doing out here at such a late hour? And what was that weird light I saw.”

A vehicle with blue and red flashing lights was parked on the side of the road, and a strange man wearing a blue uniform was approaching her with a torch.

“Please...” Itylia groaned. “Help me.”

"Shit!" Noticing the young, injured girl, the officer sprinted over. He crouched down beside her, taking her in his arms and inspected the wound around her stomach before picking up the small black machine strapped to his chest pocket.

“I need an ambulance at Slaran Park immediately! I've got a little girl here covered in blood; she seems to be barely conscious! Possibly a stabbing.”

The lights in every building suddenly switched on. Curious and concerned faces appeared in the windows overlooking the park.

“Stay with me, sweetheart. Stay with me!” The officer pressed his hand down hard on the gaping wound, and the little girl whimpered. “Oh my god, who did this to you!?”