Two months later, it was August. Already. Time was going too fast. I hadn’t managed to kill Ama yet. Even less devouring her. So I was only eating pork and beef. That stupid prophecy was true…

Snow will fall again, the bird will try escaping it, but the cold will be too much and prevent it from hunting.

Snow, cold… I wasn’t sure yet what they were, but they prevented me from killing my prey. I would meet her every night, try to kill her. But I couldn’t. I started understanding what they were on that peaceful warm day when I smelled smoke and approached a building that was seemingly on fire. Someone was yelling…

“My daughter! My daughter Ama is in that building! Someone please help her!”

Coincidence. It had to be. I started walking away, but… I growled to myself, approaching the woman who was shouting.

“What does your daughter look like?”

“She’s Asian, she has brown eyes and long black hair! She always wears a ton of rings and a necklace! I was getting something in my car when the fire alarm started, the people didn’t let me go back in!”

“Where is your daughter?”

“Apartment 22, fifth floor! Please, save her…”

I sighed and looked towards the building. Okay. So my prey was in there, uh. I hissed and ran to the main entrance, pushing everyone who’d get in my way. Once in, I ignored the smoke that was slowly filling the place. The fire had seemingly started on the first floor of the building, so it was propagating towards the top and quite quickly at that. I could’ve used my powers to go through walls and ceilings, but I always refused using my powers during the day. Just in case someone would see me.

So I ran, hurrying to the stairs, climbing them at full speed until I was on the fifth floor. There, I looked around. 22… there. I went there. Luckily, the fire hadn’t reached this floor yet, but the smoke had filled the entire place. Ama was there… on the floor, unconscious. She had difficulty breathing. No wonder with all that smoke. I growled and grabbed her, taking her into my arms before I headed towards the window, opening it. The firefighters were down there along with the crowd… I couldn’t just jump down, it would be obvious that I wasn’t human. So instead, I held Ama with one arm and grabbed the edge of the window, letting go and grabbing the one under, and again and again until I was back on the ground level. Once there, people applauded, having followed my controlled fall.

I let the firefighters run past us and the other emergency people took care of my prey, making her breathe pure air, helping her system get rid of the smoke. I watched until she opened her eyes, her gaze digging into mine. There was a message in there. Reading it, I knew that she knew.