It was a quiet and languid Sunday evening, with Daniel zoning out on the couch, like usual. The sunlight streaming from his window was slowly fading as the sun dipped below the horizon. The TV wasn't on, and he was instead idly scrolling through his phone. It should have been a relaxing day, but he couldn’t really concentrate on the newsfeed. It wasn't exactly because of the endless selection of inane topics on display, either. Not just because of that, anyway.

  The creature was gone.

  Daniel supposed he should be glad, since it had seemingly decided to stop bothering him. But he didn’t really feel as relaxed as he should have, instead feeling somewhat... anxious. Daniel locked his phone with a sigh, before getting up off the couch. He opened the door of his apartment, looking around the exposed hallway. The dwindling daylight lengthened the shadows, making it difficult to make anything out, but he peered into the hallway just the same. He was seeing a distinct lack of suspiciously large bug-shaped shadows, which only made him more worried. This strange hollowness, tinged with anxiety, it was like... the strange silence after the killer of the movie disappears from view.

  He shivered as a cold wind brushed past his ankles. He hurriedly shut the door and closed the blinds, eyes darting around erratically. Unless he saw the creature with his own eyes, he couldn’t be sure where it was. It was uncertainty that made him nervous. Every creak of the house, every eerie gust of wind groaning outside his windows heightened his nerves. It would almost be a relief to have it burst out in front of him.

  Fortunately for Daniel, that didn’t happen. Instead, his front door abruptly caved in with a loud bang.

  The middle of the wooden door bent inwards, before the whole thing abruptly snapped in half and flew into the living room. Daniel stood in shock as the dust settled, turning his head slowly towards the newly vacated doorway. Illuminated in the flickering hall lights, a diminutive figure stood. Or rather, floated. Fluttering dragonfly wings kicked up the dust as they worked to keep the figure aloft. It was humanoid in shape, dressed in strange clothes and sleek silver accessories.

  “A fairy?” Daniel asked in confusion.

  The figure struck a pose in midair.

  “The amazing, the gorgeous, the beautiful, Princess Petra is here!” It announced grandiosely.

  “Uh, Petra? Where’s the enemy?” A youthful voice asked suddenly.

  It was only now that Daniel registered the existence of another person behind the fairy. It was a young boy of around 14 or so, with a mop of black hair on his head and nervous brown eyes. He looked around worriedly, seemingly anxious about the devastation caused by his partner.

  “This isn’t going to plan, Petra. Maybe we should just get out of here.”

  The teenager didn’t seem too eager on whatever plan they had in mind. Unfortunately, his fairy friend made up for that in spades.

  “This’ll be easy, silly!” She giggled. “Hey you!”

  She pointed her arm at Daniel, and her bracelet began glowing menacingly.

  “Tell me where your partner is, and make it quick.” She said melodically. “Or else, something bad might happen to you...”

  Daniel could only look on in dumbfounded confusion as things moved entirely out of his comprehension. And things only got stranger, as he spotted something move behind the nervous teenager’s back. It was little more than a shimmer, like the heat haze coming off of a summer-beaten footpath. A grey blur, matching the colour of the hall. But as it moved, the colours faded, and from the shimmering grayness emerged...

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The creature.

  It sprang into action, startling the black-haired teenager as it leapt over his shoulder towards the unsuspecting fairy. The fairy’s gleeful chortle was struck short by the creature’s body slam.

  “Ugh, what the-”

  The fairy turned in place, but the creature avoided her line of sight, moving like a green and brown lightning bolt. The fairy tried desperately to aim her glowing bracelet at the brown blur, but it was too fast. She let off a hasty shot, releasing a large ball of energy that promptly crashed into a dusty black surface, destroying it utterly.

  “My TV!” Daniel cried out instinctively.

  “Ugh, why you...!”

  The fairy manically turned around and around, breathing heavily in exertion, or fear. But the creature was gone; it had returned to invisibility. She couldn’t even see a hint of the hazy shimmer.

  “If that’s how you want to play it...” She muttered, as her whole body began glowing dangerously.

  “Petra, no!” The teenager cried out.

  Fortunately for Daniel, she never got the opportunity to release her attack.

  The creature leapt up behind the fairy’s back and stabbed her with a stinger emerging from the end of its body, injecting her with its venom. The fairy fell to the floor with a scream. Daniel watched as the stinger retracted, becoming hidden in the creature’s body by a chitin sheathe.

  The creature approached the fallen fairy.

  “Petra, get up!” The teenager yelled hysterically.

  But the fairy stayed on the floor, limbs twitching. It seemed the venom contained some kind of paralytic agent. With great effort, the fairy turned her head and began to cry as the creature approached.

  “S-stop, don’t come near me...” She stuttered.

  The creature ignored her, studying her wings curiously. The translucent wings caught and scattered the light from the living room lightbulb, forming a shimmering rainbow pattern that shifted with every movement. Every hue was captured in the creature’s faceted eyes, reflected many times over like a kaleidoscope of colours. And then it opened its mouth.A plate of chitin opened up from beneath the creature’s head, revealing a strange assortment of moving mandibles. Firm but flexible, the mandibles dripped with a mucus-like substance, and seemed to be able to move in any direction. The plate of chitin seemed to function like a lower jaw, allowing the creature to scoop up food into the waiting fingers.

  Daniel stood there in stunned silence as the creature started nibbling the wings of the fairy, causing her to go from scared whimpers to full blown pained cries. It tickled, tasted and tore the gossamer membrane right from the fairy's back, blood oozing from internal veins as the creature ripped the wings apart, piece by piece.

  “Petra!” The teenager yelled, rushing towards the creature.

  Unfortunately for the youth, his newly found courage quickly evaporated the closer he got to the creature, bottoming out as he found himself only a step away from the ingesting insect. The youth beheld it with a pale, fear-stricken face, as the yellow living room light revealed every contour on its misshapen torso. In desperation, he turned to Daniel.

  “Hey, make this thing stop!”

  It took Daniel some time to realize he was being talked to.

  “Huh?”

  “Make it stop!” The teenager repeated. “It’s going to eat her, man!”

  Daniel looked on for another moment before lurching forward with a start. He instinctively grabbed the creature by the body and lifted it off of the struggling fairy. The creature’s carapace was smoother than he expected. He had expected it to be somewhat slimy, but it had a dry texture, and it was slightly warm. It was also surprisingly light. The creature continued chewing, heedless of any distractions as the torn wings slowly disappeared into its mouth. The teenager cradled the sobbing fairy in his hands, crimson blood began seeping onto his palms from the wounds the creature had left in its victim's back. The unfamiliar youth stared at the creature in utter horror.

  Daniel looked around the room, his gaze moving from the destroyed television flickering with sparks, to the wooden chairs knocked down by the creature’s frantic flight, to the glaring hole where his front door used to be, paint flaking off from the indents where the hinges had been.

  “What the hell is going on?”