The Dark Before The Light

"None of you move!" Tosic roared, rushing to Acacia's side, his face grim. "You need to finish them. That thing... it touched... it could kill Poppy."

"Please, we mean no harm!" Vincent's voice, now tinged with desperation, carried from behind the closed bathroom door. "We just want to be like you! To be free of the limitations of our species! To become stronger!" The banging on the door intensified as Maximus quickly slammed it shut.

"So, in order for you to live, you need to consume human flesh," Acacia stated, her voice cutting through the thudding. "You can't survive on normal food or fruits; your natural scent repels animals, but humans can't detect it. To 'be like us' would mean to entirely replace us." The banging on the door abruptly ceased.

"Didn't I tell you they wouldn't accept us? You kept blabbing and blabbing about peaceful integration when we should have seized power immediately!" A new, cocky voice rang out from inside the bathroom. "I stayed quiet, allowing you to delude yourself. We feed on them, they feed on us... but they even have options beyond us: fruits, grass. We can't eat those, so why bother pretending to be like them when we could simply be better?"

Acacia's gaze flickered to Maximus, but before she could react, he was flung away with terrifying force as the bathroom door exploded open.

"Maximus!" Acacia shrieked in shock, her eyes tracking his tumbling form, watching him struggle to regain his footing.

"Stop it!" Vincent yelled from behind the now splintered doorway. A particular figure strode out, his body swelling unnaturally. His skin ripped and tore, revealing an explosion of fluffy green feathers and a grotesque, razor-sharp beak. He grew taller, impossibly larger. His chest, devoid of feathers, was a horrifying tapestry of contorted human faces, seemingly trapped within his skin, puffed out proudly as if displaying his trophies.

"What are you waiting for? Let's eat!" The monster cackled, and the rest of the group swarmed out, ignoring Vincent's desperate cries, transforming into their true, monstrous forms, their chests puffing out in an obscene display of newfound power.

"Tosic, get out of this building, now!" Acacia gritted her teeth, her voice a low, furious command, her left index finger twitching. Tosic didn't hesitate, grabbing his bag and bolting from the restaurant, almost tripping over a fallen chair in his frantic escape.

"Quite confident in yourself, little bird," the lead monster sneered, his grin widening to reveal rows of jagged teeth beneath the beak. "Do you truly believe one person is enough for all of us? You will die, and I will preserve the rest of your kind for the winter, and some as delightful little snacks." The monsters behind him mirrored his expression, their wide smiles gleaming with predatory excitement.

"Behemoth, hide!" Acacia ordered, feeling him writhe against her. "Do it!" she commanded in a cold, sharp tone. Behemoth stilled, then crawled away from her body, scaling the wall and pressing himself flat against it. Acacia kept her eyes fixed on the monsters as one charged, a blur of green feathers and snapping beak. She dodged, the sickening snap missing her by an inch. Grabbing a chair, she launched it at the creature, watching it screech and shrug off the impact as the entire group lunged. She seized another chair, raising it, using its legs to keep one of the monsters from clamping down on her. Pressed against the wall, she struggled to push them back with the flimsy furniture.

'Come closer, bastards,' Acacia thought, a grim determination hardening her resolve. She released her grip on the chair. It slipped, and they instantly swarmed her, their beaks tearing at her skin, claws raking, shredding her flesh. Acacia bit her bottom lip, the pain searing. One of them ripped off her arm, then her leg.

"Stop! That's enough! This is not what... I wanted..." Vincent's voice broke, a shaky whisper of horror.

The monsters paused, turning their grotesque heads to Vincent. "You need to stop being weak. Our goal is to eradicate the humans. They are food, not people. And don't act so innocent when the body you inhabit isn't even your own. Haven't you indulged yourself many times before?" The monster licked its beak, a vicious, green sheen, as it addressed Vincent.

Acacia slowly raised her head, watching them devour her severed limbs. An unsettling, almost serene grin spread across her face just as dark, web-like patterns began to spread across the skin of their chests. One by one, they staggered, then collapsed to the ground. "Was that delicious enough?" Acacia asked, her voice a low murmur, as her body began to steam, her torn flesh knitting back together.

The remaining Mimickers in the restaurant erupted into a frenzy, a chaotic swarm of green feathers and desperate screeches, like a flock of terrified birds trapped in a cage. Acacia's gaze fixed on the growing pool of her own blood, now smeared across the floor by their panicked movements. With a fierce concentration, she focused on it, and in an instant, the blood surged, hardening into countless sharp, thick needles. They shot upwards, impaling the flailing monsters against the ceiling with sickening thuds. Two Mimickers, however, managed to scramble out of the building, escaping the deadly attack.

Acacia sprang to her feet, nimbly sidestepping the twitching, impaled forms. As she burst out of the restaurant, a sharp chill bit into her skin, the air heavy with the scent of rain. Puddles mirrored the faint, moonlight from the sky. Her eyes darted, searching. She couldn't see the two escapees, but tell-tale green feathers lay scattered on the wet ground. Looking up, she spotted them, high in the sky, still flying in a dazed, erratic pattern. With a sharp flutter of her wings, Acacia launched herself into the air. Mid-flight, she bit down hard on her finger, tearing off the digit. In a flash, a coiling whip of hardened blood materialized from the wound. She flicked her wrist, sending the whip lashing out, wrapping tightly around one Mimicker's neck. With a powerful downward surge, she plummeted back to the earth, pulling the creature with her. Its body slammed against the ground with a sickening impact. Acacia yanked the whip with all her might, and a grotesque crack echoed through the air as the creature's head tore free, rolling limply onto the wet earth.

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She ascended again, scanning the rooftops. Her eyes, now sharp and predatory, zeroed in on the second Mimicker, hunched and coughing blood on a distant rooftop. Her whip dissolved, reforming into a gleaming spear of solidified blood. She descended like a vengeful hawk, plunging the spear deep into its chest. It screeched, writhing wildly, but Acacia drove the spear deeper, stabbing it repeatedly, mercilessly. With a final, choked gurgle, its monstrous form wavered, the green feathers melting away, leaving behind the stark, naked body of a human woman.

"It hurts... please..." Tears welled in the creature's eyes, now shifted back to a more human-like plea, as it gazed up at Acacia.

Acacia stared down, her wings sharply raised behind her, twitching almost imperceptibly. Then, with a chilling resolve, she plunged the spear into its face, repeatedly, until the squirming ceased. She let out a heavy sigh, gripping the blood-slicked spear as she launched herself off the rooftop. Her eyes quickly scanned the ruined street below, spotting two more Mimickers, their bodies showing the unmistakable marks of her earlier impalement.

"You're quite durable," Acacia called down from the air, her voice devoid of emotion. They raised their feathered heads, their eyes fixing on her.

"You tricked us! You could've just killed us from the start, but you decided to poison us instead!" one of them shrieked, spitting something green onto the wet ground. Acacia offered no response. With a synchronized flutter of wings, they launched themselves into the sky, converging on her from different angles, talons extended, trying to tear at her in mid-air. The spear in Acacia's hand blurred, instantly reforming into a **whip of glistening blood**, its edges now razor-sharp. She lashed out, cracking it against them, twisting her body through the air to dodge their strikes. One Mimicker darted in from behind, but Acacia flapped her wings with sudden, furious speed, creating a powerful wave of air that slammed into it, disrupting its flight. In that split second of distraction, the other Mimicker clamped its talons onto her arms, pulling her with blinding speed. Her body slammed into the abandoned restaurant wall with a sickening crack. She squeezed her eyes shut against the impact, feeling her skin tear and bones groan as it slammed her against the wall again and again, a horrifying drumbeat of impact. Then, as suddenly as it began, it released her. Both of them plummeted to the ground with a harsh thud, the Mimicker gasping and coughing blood, while the second one remained aloft.

Acacia slowly pushed herself to her feet, spitting out a loose tooth, steaming emitting from her face. Her eyes, now glowing feral red in the gloom of the night, are fixed on the gasping Mimicker on the ground. The second one swooped down, landing before her, spreading its wings wide and letting out a guttural screech.

'I need to end this quickly,' Acacia thought, her gaze narrowing on the injured Mimicker. 'Since they ingested my blood, I wonder if I can control it.' She focused, a thread of dark power reaching out. The Mimicker on the ground began to convulse violently, its chest heaving. Then, with a wet, grotesque burst, its chest exploded outwards, unleashing a swarm of razor-winged, iridescent butterflies. They swarmed the second Mimicker in an instant, a living, fluttering cloud of death. The creature shrieked, but the butterflies devoured its skin, gnawing their way through flesh and feather. Acacia stood perfectly still, watching as the living storm of butterflies completely enveloped the second Mimicker, silencing its screams as it was consumed.

"You... are not supposed to exist," Vincent's voice trembled, raw with fear, as he stared at Acacia. "Why are you here?"

Acacia met his gaze, her blood-whip slowly transforming, solidifying into a brutal, gleaming axe. She gripped it tightly, the subtle shift making Vincent flinch back.

Poppy POV

"Did you really think you could defeat me? I've had lessons from the best!" Poppy said, slapping her cards down on the floor.

"Don't get cocky. I'm older, which automatically makes me smarter," Henry retorted, his grin widening as he saw her hand. He dropped his own cards, promptly scooping up two of her marble pouches.

"That's not fair! You cheated!" Poppy pouted, her lower lip trembling.

"Losers are always so pitiful," Henry chuckled, shuffling the cards again. He deftly separated the deck, handing her fresh batch before meticulously inspecting his own.

'I can't let him win!' Poppy thought with renewed vigor, hugging her new cards close to her chest. She carefully sorted through them, noting her handful of goldfish cards but her one precious whale. A cunning smirk played on her lips as she waited for Henry to make his move. Slowly, deliberately, he laid down a jellyfish card. Without hesitation, she slammed her whale card onto the floor.

"Ha! Who's the loser now?!" she declared triumphantly.

"Tsk tsk, don't you know you should never play your trump card too early?" Henry countered instantly, slamming his kraken card onto the floor. Without missing a beat, he swept up all her pouches.

"No!" Poppy shrieked, throwing her remaining cards down in dramatic protest.

"Just like Tosic taught us: to truly win, you keep all your trump cards close. Deceive the enemy, act weak, but don't hesitate to swallow them whole when the chance presents itself, and you'll find yourself rolling in sweet victory." Henry opened one of her pouches, gazing at the marbles with a smug satisfaction, when a sudden **knock** echoed through the room.

"Who—" Poppy started to ask, but Henry's hand clamped down firmly over her mouth, his head shaking a silent warning. 'Right. Nobody's allowed inside until he comes back.'

They held perfectly still for a tense moment. Then, Poppy's ears pricked. A familiar voice. "Poppy? Please open the door."

'It's Jia!' Poppy struggled, trying to pull Henry's hand away, but he held fast. Her efforts ceased abruptly as she finally registered the strange, unreadable expression on his face.

They waited a few more minutes until the knocking stopped, and the faint sound of footsteps receded. Henry remained silent for another tense moment.

"We open the door for no one," Henry stated firmly. "Absolutely no one, unless it's Tosic."

"But Jia isn't 'no one,' she's my friend," Poppy protested.

"I know, but what if someone was pretending to be Jia just to get inside? We can't risk it, especially since everyone is supposed to be in their homes right now. Why would her family let her roam around in the rain?" Henry pressed.

'I guess that's true... but what if it really was her?' Poppy thought, nodding reluctantly.

"Let's play another round," Henry suggested, ruffling her hair. "Get your mind off it." Poppy giggled, and they resumed their game.

After a few hours, the two had stopped playing, succumbing to sleep in their room, which was a chaotic tableau of bows, ribbons, and forgotten trinkets. The small, flat bed offered little comfort. Poppy shifted in her sleep, rustling, and rolled until she met a hard, flat surface instead of the familiar softness.