Lorraine's POV

It's been a few weeks since the Monsters have been considered "free". But so far, they're in temporary housing that they built amazingly fast for themselves. The news constantly hounds on them, asking rude questions and of course there's the typical hatred that's been spreading like a virus.

'Not that there's already enough hatred and bigotry going around.' she bitterly thought as she walked around campus to her next class.

The stares she would get were always a bother to her. But she dealt with it. Including the constant bullying from the jocks that thought they were ABOVE everyone else. But what she couldn't deal with, was the extra set of eyes that seemed to peer at her from the darkness.

'I feel like I'm being watched. But I don't know where it's coming from...'

Her thoughts were interrupted as the bell rang and she hurried to her next class.

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As the day went on, she continued to feel like she's being stalked. And it only got worse after school. She rounded a corner and stayed there for a minute or two. She peeked and she didn't see anyone. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief until she turned around and saw five jocks with big burly wings and muscles literally dropped in front of her. They looked down at her with a sneer.

"Hey look what we have here, the little murderer."

"Are you going to kill us too, freak?"

"How many is on your kill count anyways?"

"Trouble.. That's what she is."

"A wingless troublemaker."

Lorraine held in her rage and calmly tried to avoid them. But unfortunately for her, they surrounded her. "Look guys, I'm not looking for trouble. I just want to go home..."

"Well, trouble just found you." One of the jocks cracked his knuckles.

"You know what they do to dogs that kill people?" Another asked, pulling a knife.

"Should have put you down years ago.." Another slipped on brass knuckles. The last two brandished their own weapons, a pistol and a bat.

How they were able to carry these weapons without campus security finding out is a mystery. But what isn't a mystery is that this time isn't like the other times where they bullied her. This time was different.

'So the leader finally snapped?!' The leader was the top flier on the jocks team. And pretty much everyone respected him. Normally he wouldn't even send just his cronies after her. Normally he and a few of the team just slang garbage at her or insulted her while passing by in the hall. But this time felt different.

"What? Did your boss finally snap? Or... you're acting without his orders, aren't you?" She concluded with a shit eating grin. Not that she wasn't nervous. She was hella scared. But she didn't dare show it in front of these jerks.

"Shut the hell up, bit-" There was a heavy feeling in his soul, then he was sent flying back and slamming into the other wall. The others looked around, confused.

Lorraine looked equally confused but she was a bit scared this time. But when she saw an opening, she attacked the one with the bat. She successfully sucker punched him in the face and knocked him out. She grabbed the bat as soon as the others came back to their senses.

"What the-" The guy with the brass knuckles and the guy with the knife went on the attack, the one with the knuckles was quickly pulled away with the same feeling as the first.

The guy with the knife swung at her, aiming for her arm.

She twirled and did a drop low sweep off move and promptly kicked him off balance. Afterwards she whacked him in the head with the bat and knocked him out. While the one with the pistol grew nervous at his surroundings feeling as though he's being watched. The other charges blindly with a pathetic battle cry and tries to punch her in the face.

She gave a deadpanned look like this was the most stupid thing she ever saw. Which, in hindsight, it probably was. She easily caught his fist with her hand and gave him a death glare. "Really? This all you got?" She twisted his arm and pinned him down and pinched a sensitive nerve on his neck which knocked him unconscious.

The guy with the gun was quaking now, looking around for whatever was watching him. "Where are you?! I-If you don't show yourself, I-I'll shoot her!" He pointed the pistol at Lorraine.

Lorraine instantly froze. She didn't want to spook him and have him shoot her. Although she had no idea who he was talking to. There was no one else around. Right?

As she took advantage of his distracted glances around himself. She slowly moved closer. Suddenly a flash of blue moved at the corner of his eyes. The jock was about to shoot whatever was there until Lorraine restrained his arm tightly and knocked the pistol out of his hand. When he turned his head to see what happened, all he got was a harsh elbow hit to the face. A loud "CRACK" could be heard from his nose. He fell to his knees, and with a single little push from her finger, the bloodied nose jock fell backwards faster than a brick in water.

Lorraine huffed and panted. "Well that's all of them?" She started to walk away until the first guy woke up and started to charge her. She didn't know he was coming. But by the time she looked behind her, there was nothing. She did a quick recount of the jocks.

'Wasn't there five of them?' She wondered until something black caught her attention. She saw a single feather floating oh so innocently floating to the ground.

'What the... a Crow's feather? Where did that come from?' she searched for any crow nearby, but there were none. But that's not the only thing that stood out to her. The feather was HUGE!

'So.... Is someone really stalking me?' she looked around terrified. But she didn't let it show. Much. She kept the feather and quickly walked home while calling 9-1-1 for someone to pick up the unconscious jocks that she had "found".

It was already past eight o'clock when she managed to get home. Only, she wasn't the only one home.

'Goddammit! Can't I catch a break for once!' She wanted to turn around and walk anywhere but there. But honestly, if she did she'd probably get something worse than a punch to the stomach.

'Hopefully he's in a good moo-' that thought was interrupted by breaking glass coming from the front window. She saw the beer bottle spilled and cracked all over the lawn.

'Great. Not only is he drunk off his ass, but he's in a FOWL mood...' she would've laughed at her own pun if it wasn't for the fact that when she opened the door, she had to immediately go for cover. Apparently he saw her coming and decided to throw another beer bottle at her head. Good thing she dodged in time. Last time she wasn't so lucky. Had to wash and pick glass pieces off her face for the last half hour.

"Ronald. Why are you throwing a fit again? Was it a waitress who flipped you off again?" She nonchalantly said in a dead panned voice. Already tired of his shit.

"N-nooo! Yer late! Late! Where th' fuk were you? Not home like you are!" He stumbled and slurred incoherently.

Lorraine rolled her eyes. "I had to take care of something at school, Ronald. I'll make dinner now, just sit down and watch TV." She didn't call him by "dad" anymore. That person died when they did. Bit by bit until he got like... this.

"'nother fight?" He stood up unsteadily, trying and failing to glare at his wingless daughter.

Again, she rolled her eyes and slowly marched up to him and shoved him down on the sofa. "Not like you care anyways. So yeah. Just watch your sports while I get dinner ready." She said nonchalantly as she went to the kitchen to pull out an oven ready meal.

He tried to stand once again, slurring incoherently. Something about murder? He stumbled from the living room to the kitchen. Then he threw his bottle.

It hit her head but luckily it didn't break on impact. This time.

"Old man, I'm getting really tired of this!" She hissed at the drunk man. She didn't want to start another fight with him. But she'll fight if she has to defend herself if needed with him.

"Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead,dead,deaddeadeadeadeadead..." He kept repeating until it all slurred into a jumbled mess. He went for another bottle. But this time Lorraine reached for it and threw it away. She huffed when he went to hit her. Luckily she was able to dodge since he was so drunk and couldn't aim right.

He swore loudly and tried again, only to fail again, which only pissed him off more. So he tried again. And again. Getting more and more frantic and pissed every time. "Come here you little shit, stop fucking around!" He managed that semi-coherent sentence out of anger. "I wish it was you that died that night!"

As soon as those words left his drunken mouth, she dropped the meal, that was still frozen, on the table and slammed the oven door closed. She had been managing to avoid him while trying to put the meal in the oven. But as soon as she heard that. She lost it. She calmly walked up to him and at first, gave him a sweet smile, which at first confused him. Then her eyes watered with sadness and her face scrunched with rage. Faster than he could think, she slapped him so hard that he fell on his ass. Completely gobsmacked and now sober.

"Talk to me when you're not talking out of your ass. RONALD." She spit out his name like it was venom. She grabbed her things from her room, which were in a ready to go backpack just in case, and marched out the front door and slammed it closed.

As she was storming down the sidewalk to who knows where, she pulled out her phone and played one of her favorite songs, "Kings and Queens" by Ava Max. She was so preoccupied with her headphones that she didn't notice the pair of blue eyes watching her the whole time.

............