Reflections of Night

Discovery

Maddie walked down the road, the dark closing in in the twilight of the day. She wished she could be back at the institute, or better still, Nyx's house, anything instead of following up a rumor of more infected downworlder's attacking people and causing havoc. Every day, another family disappeared, taken by the twisted, corrupted creatures.
The worst part was, the Clave still had to disclose what they had discovered about this, leaving most of the institutes with no idea what they were dealing with or how.
Oh yes, it wasn't just happening here. It was everywhere.
And no one knew how to stop it.

Maddies thoughts drifted back to the L'ange household.
She loved the L'ange family, so different from her own, so kind, generous and understanding, they were their own form of imperfect perfection. Maddie wished her family were that close, that friendly, instead of choosing to send her off to the four corners of the earth whenever she became an inconvenience, which seemed to be every other week.
Except, this time she had chosen to be here. For the baby.
Gingerly she touched the barely visible bump in her front.
She had to look after her baby, whatever the cost.

A noise to her left alerted her to something. Silently, she crept towards it, staying in the shadows out of sight. She heard it again, a hissing, gurgling sound, like the voice of someone trying to speak whilst gargling, followed by a high pitched, keening, whimpering sound.
Peering around a corner, she saw them
A faery, obviously infected, mouth frothing, eyes popping, skin paper thin and peeling, hair falling out in clumps, wielding a wicked looking jagged blade. Looking as if it were a horror risen from the grave, the creature stood over a cowering figure, which whimpered in fear and pain. Maddie squinted, trying to make out what it was. Her breath caught in her throat when she realized.

A demon.

Well, this was new.