Lii, abandoned by her father

The air splits open like tearing flesh. A wound in reality itself, black and writhing, spilling something into a world that does not want it.

Her.

Lii stumbles forward, bare feet hitting cold pavement. The air here is different—thicker, heavier, filled with something wrong. Or maybe it’s her. Maybe she’s the thing that doesn’t belong.

Behind her, the wound shifts, dark tendrils curling inwards, collapsing. He stands just beyond it. A shape that isn’t a shape, a voice that isn’t a voice. If she looked too long, her mind would shatter under the weight of it. But she knows he’s smiling.

“Two years,” he says, his voice slithering through the cracks of existence itself. “If you survive, perhaps you will have learned.”

Her hands tremble at her sides. “Fath—”

But before she can finish, before she can beg him to stay, the wound snaps shut. The air is silent. The world is still.

And she is alone.

She walks. That’s all she can do.

The city is a beast, massive and pulsing, suffocating in its closeness. Lights flicker like eyes, cars pass like screams, voices blur into a cacophony that grates against her senses. It’s too much. She wants to cover her ears, wants to run. But she doesn’t know where to go.

She watches humans pass, their faces empty, exhausted, sad. Every single one. Why are they like this? She thought. They have no masters, no Eldritch chains binding them, and yet they move as if something unseen is crushing them.

She steps too close to a group of men. They turn to look at her. Their eyes feel like teeth.

“Hey, shawty,” one of them grins, stepping forward. He smells wrong—rotten. “You lost?”

Lii wants to try. Wants to trust. "Yeths." She says her lisp strong, the human tongue feeling moldy in her mouth.

Another one leans in, eyes dragging over her hoodie, her jeans, her bare feet. He whistles low. “Look at that. Not even shoes. You looking for a good time? I know you junked up bitches are the most sexy in bed.”

She hates the way they sound. The way their words slither like worms beneath her skin. She can sense his thoughts, they claw and bite at her. She turns to leave.

The man loses his grin. “Oh, come on now, don’t be rude—”

A car honks, people argue. The distraction is all she needed.

She runs.

She doesn’t know how long she runs. The streets blur, twisting into each other like snakes on the earthy forest ground until she finds herself somewhere wrong. An alley. Dark, damp, trapped.

Footsteps.

Lii turns just as a shadow moves behind her. Too close. She thinks. A hand grabs her shoulder and slams her into the brick wall.

“Where do you think you’re going?” A different voice. Not the men from before, but just like them. Smiling. Hungry. Rotten.

Lii doesn’t fight. She hates fighting.

But she is afraid.

Another hand tangles into her hair, pulling, forcing her to look up.

“Y’know,” the man murmurs, breath hot against her cheek, “you’re real pretty. But something’s… off about you.” A pause. “I like that.”

She doesn’t think. The air around them distorts, warping like heat off pavement. A crackling sound, deep and low. A small tiny tendril forms from below her left delicate foot, slithering up.

The man screams.

His arm jerks away, his body convulsing. Lii doesn’t stay to watch. She runs.

A door stands open, stairs lead up. She doesn’t know how she got here.

The city stretches beneath her, endless and pulsing, glowing with a thousand artificial lights. From up here, it almost looks… beautiful. Almost.

Lii sits at the edge, knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them. The wind tugs at her hair. It feels cold.

She presses her forehead to her knees. Her chest aches.

She thought humans would be better. She wanted them to be better.

But maybe her father was right. Maybe they are cruel. Maybe they are monsters. Maybe this world—this place—isn’t worth saving.

Maybe she should stop pretending. Stop fighting what she is.

Maybe… she should become the monster they already see. Cleanse the world from the rot of sadness.