I looked up at his horrible red face. I could still smell the smoke and fumes coming off of my home; everything I had known, destroyed before my eyes by a devil. My greatly enhanced sensed only hurt me worse. I could still smell the blood from when the five monsters shot my mother and father, and I remembered their screams. I had taken a few blows to the head and was pretty dizzy. My clothes were torn, but luckily, they hadn’t gotten around to raping me. Not yet, at least.

Two of the bandits grabbed my arms, dragging me between them. There was a rat, and a badger looking one. How funny. A rat was going to be the death of a cat. It almost seems poetic. My hands and feet were bound, so I could not escape, and I was completely at their mercy. As I looked across the small field where my home once stood, I saw the bodies of my parents, already piled up in front of our door. I tried not to cry, but tears fell from my eyes anyway, and I was wracked by silent sobs. The red one raised his hand, throwing a fireball at where the bodies were piled, and they burst into flames. He and his group just stood around and laughed, while the devil walked through the burning wreckage of my house, looking for things to take.

I was being taken to the forest, just outside of my house. I remember playing around this area when I was much younger. It was funny how things tended to come full circle. One thing I had never expected was that I would die on this land.

I was working as a personal trainer in Austin after finishing my schooling, and the first wave hit just as I had gotten off of a long shift. After all of the madness started taking place and I had transformed, I decided to come back to my parent’s home outside of town to make sure they were okay. I was the only one who changed, but come the second wave, my parents changed as well. Neither of them knew how to fight, and my knowledge of combat was what I had gleaned from movies and TV. For the whole day before the bandits came, I had been practicing my momentum control skill in the area around our property, and while I was out, they broke into the house. After taking my parents hostage, they demanded that I submit to them in exchange for their lives. I surrendered, they tied me up and killed my father anyway. My mother was much less lucky, living long enough to both watch my father’s death and experience the personal attention of the devil. I checked my status to look for any changes but noticed nothing. I wasn’t even hurt yet, but I knew that would not be the case for long.

I had always had trouble talking to others. I got made fun of often by the other trainers for being too easy on my clients sometimes, but I think the people that got training from me were happy. It was almost funny that I would die here, quietly, with no one there to notice.

They laid me down under some trees on the edge of the forest and began to talk amongst themselves. I closed my eyes, and prayed to be saved, but I was not hopeful. Opening my eyes again, I saw something that made no sense. Floating in the air above the two bandits was an angel. Her hair and eyes were pale white, and her skin shifted like rolling clouds. Her hair moved as if blown about by a wind I could not feel, and she was watching me. Somehow the angel was both beautiful and terrifying in equal measure, watching me with her strange solid-color eyes. I guess she would take me to heaven when I died. It was nice to know that I would see my parents again. I had lost all hope, but I still didn’t want to let these bastards have their way with me.

One of the bandits walked a bit away to give the other more privacy. As the rat began to unbuckle his belt, I knew what was coming, and so I placed my tongue between my teeth preparing to kill myself before he could rape me. It was at that point that the angel moved, rapidly flying behind the rat, and ending him with a flash of lightning on her fists. Before I could make sense of the situation, the angel hovered over me, attacking the badger as well. She was actually clawed a bit, and some glowing ichor dripped from the wounds on her stomach. She picked me up, and began to run through the woods, away from the house. I was safe for now.

She led me to a small clearing deeper in the woods, where hopefully it would take a while for those guys to find us. Giving me a large pocketknife to cut my bonds, she stood and began surveying the forest, looking for any sign of the bandits in the area.

I stood, rubbing the marks on my wrists where the rope had bitten into the flesh. My feet, well, my paws were also pretty sore, but they were more flexible and didn’t hurt nearly as much. I had to be careful not to scratch myself, as I had some pretty impressive claws on the end of all of my fingers. I had tried to cut them with some fingernail clippers, but it hurt pretty bad to do, and it also felt really wrong as well.

“Th… Thank you. If it wasn’t for you, I would definitely be dead…”

It was all too much. My parents were gone, and our house was burned down, but I was just so relieved to be alive and safe, at least in the present. I began to sob once again and was immediately wrapped in a hug. She wasn’t warm to the touch, but the cooling sensation of her skin was pleasant, and a nice hug was what I needed right now. Ever since the first wave, my emotions had been really out of sorts.

In a quiet voice, she whispered, “It’s going to be okay. I’m here to help. My name is Victoria, but anyone who knows me calls me Vic. What’s your name?”

I pulled myself together, and was able to respond, “My name is Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn Dunn.”

She held onto my shoulders, and looked into my eyes as she asked, “Kaitlyn, I need to ask… are you alone? Is there anyone back there that needs help?”

No, I was alone. All alone. Everyone I loved in this world was dead and gone, and I was all alone! I tried to tell her, but I couldn’t hold it together anymore, and I was overcome by sadness again. She seemed to understand, as she didn’t ask any further.

Eventually she spoke again. “Kaitlyn, those guys are still out here. They are probably pretty pissed off at me for killing their friends, and we either need to kill the rest of them or find someone who can back in the city. It’s probably a good idea to get you somewhere safe though. I’ve refilled my stamina at this point, and I can keep moving for a long time. Can you run?”

Could I run? Yeah, I could run. I really wanted to as well. The idea of getting the hell away from here sounded awesome, and I was able to shelf my grief, briefly.

“Y... yes, I think I can. I don't know the way to the city anymore, though.”

She nodded, and said, “That’s okay, I can fly up and check if we need it. You can stay at my place for now. I have some friends that will help to take care of you.”

The idea of sleeping somewhere with other people sounded awesome, as there was no way it would be healthy for me to not be around other people. The idea of being alone filled me with such depression that I could barely stand, and Victoria had given me hope.

I heard the beating of wings above me, and then I heard the explosion of a fireball. They were back! I immediately jumped about 15 feet into the branched of the tree above me. I still had the knife, and I clutched it strongly in my fist. I closed my eyes and waited.

Suddenly, I heard a crashing through the trees and saw Victoria plummet to earth. She had actually finished off the devil! Right now, she was fighting the mouse, but the coyote was much more dangerous! Somehow, I could sense that among all of the bandits, he was the one with the most experience fighting, and while he didn’t look like much, he had the most skill out of all of them. I watched as the mouse fell, but the coyote was strong. He was attacking Victoria.

Victoria fell! She was losing, and she needed help. The knife was still in my hands, and I had the power. I was overcome with a terrifying rage. At that, I did something I had never done before.

I built up as much tension against the branch as I could, and I jumped as fast as I could strait down towards to coyote. Right before I hit him, I spun in the air, plunging the knife straight into his carotid artery, ending his life. Right before reaching him, I used my racial skill to halt my inertia, leaving me hovering in the air right behind him. The smell of his blood and the notification of his death filled me with such joy.

After running back to her apartment, Vic introduced me to Cindy. She was really nice, and it was cool being around other girls. I hadn’t had many options to make friends in the past year or so, and it allowed me to take my mind off of my family.

That night though, Vic’s friend Taylor was taken into the house. After hearing what happened to her, I was once again filled with rage. Yet another group of assholes that needed to be wiped from the face of the earth. My ears laid back on my head, and a low growl sounded through my lips. I got a few looks when I happened, but it felt good to be angry. Maybe it was unhealthy, but I would rather feel pissed off right now than sad, and this certainly helped.

Vic left the house to try and find the police station. I guess she thought that I needed to be inside, which was considerate of her, but I was more concerned that she would get in trouble again. She saved my life, and I wanted to repay that debt tenfold.

Followed her out of the fire escape and watched from the roof of her building as she beat the living daylights out of another rat (ew) and some kind of blood hound. The hound was killed but she decided to leave the rat alive for some reason. As much as I respected her desire to show mercy, I knew that as soon as the rat was let out, he would run right back to his master and tell them where Vic and Taylor lived. The bloodhound was already out of the picture, and the path to protecting Vic was clear. I went back inside of the apartment, and looked through Vic’s camping gear, finding a nicely sized hunting knife. Its size was right in the middle between a knife and machete, and I knew that I would work nicely.

I left the apartment once again, running down the side of the building and sprinting across the street in a vaguely golden blur. Previously I had rather dark hair, but after the change it had turned gold. I kind of looked like the typical Japanese gyaru, but I didn’t really mind at the moment. Right now, I was a hunter, and I was looking for my quarry. I could smell his frustration and fear all the way from the mouth of the alley.

He was conscious now and was struggling with his bonds. I opened up the trash can lid and saw that the little rat had worked his gag off. He smiled at me and spoke out in a disgusting voice.

“Hey! Help me out here! Be a good girl and help me get untied, would ya?”

I hopped into the trash can next to him and his dead dogkin friend and pulled out the knife. He smiled at me yet again, thinking I would actually help him. That remained right up until I pushed the blade deep into his throat. I got yet another level.

It was a dirty deed, but Vic was safe, and no one would know what happened here, at least not for a long time. I wiped both bodies down for fingerprints, just in case, and left them there in the dumpster to rot.

There were lots of these bastards throughout the city. They needed to die, each and every one of them. Vic didn’t need to sully her hands with the riff-raff. I could do that, and I would until I knew for sure that she was safe. This cheetah would protect her family.

There was hunting to be done.