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Yeonha trembled, her heart pounding violently as her vision started to distort.
"Why did it have to be you, you brat?" her mother hissed, words sharp and stabbing. Memories of her mother's cruelty resurfaced, the years of neglect and disdain flashing before her eyes.
"Why did I have to see your face again here of all places? Why can't I get rid of you?" That last words became a low growl, animalistic, inhuman-and then the woman's eyes turned black and sharp claws pushed out of her nailbeds. Any words she tried to say next were muffled by a gargle as a viscous stream of bright red blood spewed from her mouth.
"If it's too much, if you can't face her, then let me do it for you," Yeonha's monster whispered, its presence growing stronger within her, taking advantage of her shaken state.
A crash and a cloud of powdery concrete shocked Yeonha back into the room. Hyun lay on the ground in a crumpled heap, barely conscious after hitting his head against the concrete wall while trying to protect Yeonha from her mother's attack. The woman had torn off a chunk of his forearm with her teeth too.
"Hyun!" Yeonha's voice cracked with fear and anger.
She tried to hurry over to him, but her mother, having given in to her monster, was both stronger and faster. She grabbed Yeonha by the hair and pulled hard. "Those eyes still make me sick," her mother growled.
Yeonha screamed as a sharp claw dug into her eye socket, an excruciating pain piercing through her left eye. The pain triggered her monster, and it emerged, grabbing her mother's hand and crushing it in retaliation. Her monstrous mother snarled, razored teeth gnashing at her while her other hand continued pulling Yeonha's hair. Half-blinded, Yeonha struggled, fumbling as she grabbed her mother's jaw with one hand and pushed it shut.
"All those years she caused you so much pain and hurt you," her monster whispered. "Now it's your turn to hurt her."
Yeonha didn't want to hurt her, didn't want to kill her mother, but she couldn't let her hurt anyone else. She had to do it.
She felt the bones crunching and breaking under the fierce pressure of her own fingers. She exhaled through a distressed pant, enveloping her mother in cold air, and the woman screamed as Yeonha pushed her head all the way back until she heard a sickening snap.
Yeonha didn't let go as the body fell limp. Her fingers dug into her mother's skin, freezing through her veins, turning the body into a frozen corpse, then she let go.
Her mother was dead.
She had killed her.
"You did well," her monster praised. "She can't hurt you anymore."
Yeonha blinked, her left eye still blurry. Her hands were covered in the woman's blood. She looked at the lifeless body and waited for that feeling of relief or satisfaction.
