This Savage Song

Any time now,” snapped Kate as the Corsai rattled and hissed.
“Can’t rush art,” said August

Plenty of humans are monstrous,

and plenty of monsters know how to play at being human.

But she held on to him

“Do I need to schedule an appointment?” he asked.
She waved a hand. “My office is always open.”

But Harker had to keep an eye on his monsters. Had to know when new ones showed up, when old ones misbehaved. The culled footage had been filtered into categories. Monster. Human. Genesis.

Most of the shadows stood still, but one began to crawl, spreading like the pool of blood, now stiff, away from the body and up the wall. It stretched, and twisted, and drew itself upright, off the blood-flecked wall and into the room.

It hadn’t been just about the sinner in the end, it was about the sin itself, the shadow that ate away a human’s light.

He could be the monster, if that kept others human.

And then the cat reached out, and rested a small black paw on the bridge of his nose.

Her eyes ached from tears, but they’d stopped falling hours ago,