It was nearing six in the evening, and the sky was beginning to darken. The sidewalk was filling up with people who had just gotten off of work, and everyone who passed the woman couldn’t stop themselves from staring openly.

Some held stares of admiration, while others were simply impressed by the aura she radiated. Most stares were closer to leers, however, and several married men had to shake themselves to continue on. More than one glare followed her as she walked, courtesy of envious passerby.

She didn’t spare anyone a second glance, and you almost would have thought she had no idea of the impact she caused, if not for the glint in her eye. Her hair was blonde, and it reflected the sun as it flowed out behind her. Her jeans were designer, and they fit like a second skin against the legs that seemed to go on for miles. Her shirt had a plunging neckline, and it was a soul-sucking black, one that was impossible to tear your eyes away from. Her heels were six inches high, and they made a satisfying rhythm against the pavement.

Her skin was flawless, and it only served to highlight her blood-red lipstick. That lipstick-covered mouth was in a straight line, and her face was breathtakingly beautiful, but it was as hard and still as a statue’s. Her eyes were the only things that carried a hint of emotion, but even then, when they passed over you, you had a sick feeling you were being spared from something terrible.

Men and woman alike went to approach her, but abruptly changed their minds once they looked into her eyes.

However, there were some people who have no sense of self-preservation, no sense of impending doom. There were some people who like to stick their nose in other people’s business and force their unwanted opinion onto them. There are some people who have a death wish.

Watch closely now, because one such fool is about to make a mistake he will never be able to take back.

There was an older man, one who was dressed in an ill-fitting suit. His balding head was damp and shiny, and his beady eyes lingered too long on far too many women. He waddled more than walked, and he looked as if he had a bank account shored away somewhere in the Caveman Islands.

Well, this foolish little man happened to walk past the woman on the sidewalk, and, feeling entitled to share his superior opinion, he called out to the woman as he passed in a drawling New Jersey accent, “You outta smile sweetheart, you’d look prettier that way!”

Time slowed down, and everyone else seemed to fade into the background, and the man watched as the woman paused in her tracks. The light seemed to fade much more quickly, and the man briefly wondered how long it had been this dark?

Wait, where did everyone else go?

Sweat beaded on the man’s forehead as the woman slowly turned around as if she had all the time in the world. Foreboding suddenly crept its tendrils into the man’s mind and a terrifying fear grasped his insides with icy clutches.

The woman finally made eye contact with the man, and when she did, the man was petrified with horror. His blood ran cold, and he couldn’t move an inch. The woman, on the other hand, started to slowly advance towards the man, and anyone watching would have been reminded of a cat stalking its prey.

Actually, anyone else watching would have likely also been petrified with fear, and that was because instead of the red lipstick smile the portly man had been expecting, there was a gaping mouth filled with two-inch fangs, saliva dripping from the tips.

The man’s mouth opened in a silent scream of pure terror as the woman’s mouth opened wider than he had ever thought possible, and he was staring down a tunnel of teeth. Her pupils expanded until they overtook her eyes entirely, and they were completely black.

The world went black, and there was a short, blood-curling shriek of pure agony, and then silence. Pure, uninterrupted silence.

The cops that would arrive on the scene would stare in fright at the corpse with a cavernous hole torn into his chest. There would be muffled whispers, wondering what on earth could do something like this, what on earth could rip into a man and take its heart, then leave everything else?

There were rumors about rabid animals, as if they could have done something like this. Rumors about a psychopathic criminal, although that didn’t explain the teeth and claw marks. The case would never be solved, and it became a ghost story around the city.

Somewhere, the woman was wearing a blood-stained smile.