Mortal Flaw

four | dawn.

――☽☼☾――

Gladvern Forrest

Harper contemplates, "Maybe I should go back for him."

From Harper's perspective, I need to make sure he's okay. That's the right thing to do, right?

Filled with anger, Julian sprints at full speed until he sees her, 

then stops.

Harper, hearing something, turns and asks, "Julian? ... Is that you?" She walks closer and squints, "Julian, I'm sorry—but I'm really glad you're okay."

She shields her eyes from the rain with her hand. "We should talk about this when the rain lets up. Meet me under the awning," she says, then takes off running for shelter.

Julian rushes toward her, seemingly unaffected by her words. 

Harper turns, stopping suddenly, "Julian? ... 

Where are you?"

Turning back around and startled, she cries out, "Julian—you scared me." Julian remains unresponsive, ignoring her entirely.

Harper approaches Julian cautiously, fear evident in her voice as she screams, 

"What—what are you!" 

Before she can flee, Julian digs his claws into the back of her scalp, forcefully dragging her into the forest. She screams for help, Julian begins to claw at her face, and when that isn't enough, he starts biting her. 

Harper's screams gradually fade. Julian reaches into her chest and ruthlessly tears out her heart.

Hearing footsteps, Julian panics, dropping her heart, and starts looking around in every direction.

He is surrounded by yellow eyes staring back at him.

A sound triggers Julian, and he begins screaming frantically, clawing at the ground, and repeatedly yelling, "Make it stop!"

"Louder, he's not turning," someone urges. 

Julian begins transitioning back, staring at his hands covered in blood.

His gaze then shifts towards Harper's lifeless body, and he softly utters, "Harper?" Filled with rage, he starts to shift back.

He commands again, "Turn it up louder." Another person intervenes, cautioning, "If we turn it up any louder, it will hurt the other animals in the forest."

Despite the warning, they increase the sound, and Julian begins to grab his head as memories flood back to him.

It falls into pure silence until someone speaks up, "Kree, what should we do?"

"What do you mean, What do we do? It's obvious ... we kill him. He's not one of us, and he killed on our land," he jumps.

Kree grabbing him in the act, "Enough! We go by a code, don't we? He is a child." Kree jumps down right in front of Julian and says, "What is your name?"

Julian looks him up and down, beginning to back away, questioning, "What do you want?"

Kree's eyes focus in as he moves towards Julian. "Where are you from?"

Julian, defensively, raising a shaky hand, shouts. "Stay back—I don't know what you are, but if you do anything to me, I will—"

Kree's gaze intensifies, cutting off Julian. "You will do what? Kill me as you did her?"