The house was wrapped in the undying smoke, frozen in its dilapidated state. The front garden trampled, huge footsteps imprinted into the ground that cracked stones. The door hung crooked on a single hinge, swaying in the heat of the firelight outside.
"Mom?" Keita called, breath ragged.
Moonlight spilled across the entrance, stretching his shadow long across the floorboards.
"Come eat," a voice drifted from the darkness.
Too light. Too warm.
For a moment, worry left his face.
He stepped inside.
"No! Don't come in," another voice cried from deeper within the house—stained and desperate.
His heart slammed against his ribs. Two voices, both hers.
"Come eat," the first repeated, its tone eerie.
Keita's foot slid backward.
A chair groaned softly against the floor, slow and deliberate as something rose from the shadows.
A shape stepped forward, partially into the light. Long limbs, wet breathing, jaw unhinged bearing fangs.
Keita froze.
Before the monster could pounce, a body slammed into it from the side.
Steel drove into its abdomen.
The creature shrieked as it was thrown against the wall. The knife lodged in its flesh.
Keita's mother stood between him and it.
The creature twisted its torso unnaturally, bending around the embedded blade rather than pulling it out.
"What are you standing there for!" She shouted.
She grabbed his hand and ran. They burst through the back door into the grassland.
Fire roared, as rows of crops lay destroyed, inventory burst into flames and the mutilated bodies of horses littered the ground.
Their breathing came in ragged gasps.
"What are we going to do," fear and frustration lined her face.
Her grip increased on Keita's hand.
"Mom, the castle," he said.
"That's where we planned to meet up." he murmured.
Her eyes scanned for a trace of hope, something to cling to, too focused to hear words.
"Come eat!"
"Come eat!" The sinister voice echoed.
The creature approached slowly, as if already certain of victory.
It stepped out beyond the smoke revealing its human-like outline. Dull grey skin stretched smooth in some places, and faintly tight in others. Where ears should have been, there was nothing. Its slit eyes were too far apart. Its mouth opened farther than it should have, exposing narrow rows of uneven teeth.
The knife wound on its abdomen was shallow, almost irrelevant—like it lacked organs entirely.
"Kei—ta," the voice rang out.
The creature rushed forward, its intent bearing down on them.
"Ahhhh—!"
Keita's mother was slammed back, the force splintering the stable's wooden wall. She shoved him aside at the last moment, taking the blow herself.
Blood streamed down her arm where the claw had ripped through her shoulders, the wounds deep avulsions of torn flesh. Her unconscious body slid across the stable floor, scattering splinters of wood in its wake.
"Mother!" he screamed, smoke clawing at his lungs.
The monster loomed over him, slowly licking the blood from its claws.
Then its body began to change—not smoothly.
Its skin tightened, stretching across its skull as if something beneath it were pushing outward.
A series of bulges crawled across its head.
One—then another.
The flesh rose and fell in uneven pulses, like something inside was trying to find its place. Hair sprouted, shaping into something resembling his mother And for a brief, horrible moment, the outline of a human face tried to emerge beneath the creature's skin.
The flames got to Keita before the fear of the monster's revelation fully registered.
He tried running to his mother—but a wall of fire erupted, searing parts of his clothes.
He had nowhere to go.
"What are you standing there for!"
"Come eat," the creature said.
The voice was perfect. The same warmth. The same tired kindness.
But his mother was still lying in the stable behind him.
"No… no… no…" he whispered, stumbling backward.
His chest tightened, His vision blurred from tears.
That wasn't her.
It couldn't be her.
The creature stepped forward slowly, its shadow cast across jagged flames.
"Kei—ta," it called.
He screamed, "Somebody help!"
A sudden crash split the air. A figure burst through the burning gates.
"Survivors!"
A knight in scorched armor charged forward, sword already drawn. His eyes locked onto the creature.
"...What the hell is that?" the man shouted.
The monster's head jerked its head toward him.
"Kid… Listen!" he barked. "Get out of here!"
He threw himself between Keita and the creature. The blade in his hand trembled slightly.
"Crap… why are there still more people here," he thought to himself.
The monster's smile stretched to the edge of his face.
It lunged.
The knight barely caught the claw with his sword, sparks exploding as the impact forced him backward through the burning debris.
"...Why is such a monster here?" regaining his balance, the knight brushed the smudge of burnt wood from his face.
"Get a move on kid," he shouted.
Keita's body moved on instinct. He ran towards the stable jumping over flames.
"Mother!"
He fell beside her.
The wounds on her shoulder were already soaked through her clothes.
"Mom… wake up… please…"
Behind him, metal clashed with claws. The knight fought desperately, sword slashing the creature's torso—but the wound closed as if nothing had happened.
The creature tilted its head again, curious, then struck again. The knight was thrown through the air, colliding with a wall.
"Curse this stupid job," he struggled to stand.
The creature approached slowly, almost playfully.
It let him attack again.
The knight swung his blade with all his remaining strength—the blade broke.
Claws pierced through the knight's chest as blood ran down the monster's arm.
"...Sorry… Marlene…" his sword slipped from his hand.
At the same time, a pendant fell from his armor, holding a picture of a woman and a child.
His body collapsed.
The monster tossed him aside like broken armor.
But that moment had been enough.
Keita's mother stirred, her eyes opened weakly.
"Keita…?" she murmured.
"Mom!" he cried.
She forced herself upright, pain tearing through her body.
There was no time.
A single horse remained amidst the chaos. She grabbed Keita's arm and dragged him toward their last hope.
"Get on!" she gasped.
"Mom, no—!" he cried.
She shoved him onto the small cart.
For a second, the creature let out a terrifying screech–enough to widen cracks created in the collapsing stable.
The horse panicked as wooden beams fell.
Keita's mother summoned her last strength to clear a path.
"Keita…" She breathed heavily.
She pulled him in one last time.
"Keita," she whispered.
His name—not shouted, not in fear.
"I am your mother."
The creature tore free from the flames. Its silhouette growing in the smoke.
"There is nothing in this world you could become that would make me stop being your mother."
The monster roared. Closer.
In a breath, she struck the horse's hind. Fierce.
The horse bolted into the fields, cutting through the flames like a blade.
Through the smoke and fire, Keita saw her standing there—small and bleeding.
Her voice barely carried through the chaos.
"...even if you're a monster…" Her voice broke.
"...I'm glad I gave birth to you," she continued.
But the roar of the flames swallowed her words.
He didn't hear it.
"Go, my little monster. Survive."
She smiled.
He saw her lips move—but sound vanished beneath the creature's screams.
In Keita's shattered mind the sentence twisted. Fragments of sound. Fragments of meaning. Something darker filled the gaps, rewriting her voice.
His terror twisted into something else–sharper, cold.
"I… not your mother… I wish I never… you monster"
His chest tightened and his ears rang. He kept staring at her through tears.
The words—the wrong words—echoed in his mind.
"Monster… monster"
The horse raced into the night as their home crumbled down behind them.