"Ouch!"

"That's the last of it." His body now refreshed and without wounds. The girl settled the bottle down and turned her attention to him. "What was inside the room you talked about earlier?"

Rubbing his skin, "Well... It had red eyes, giant sharp claws and it's fur was black."

Her eyes turned into slits, crunching her hands into fists on her lap.

"But it was too big to fit in the window."

"Can you show me? The room?"

"Um..."

She giggled and smiled. "Not tonight, tomorrow of course."

"But... I thought I was going to go home."

She stood up, "I guess I'm just curios, besides, if it was trapped there then it would be easy to kill it then and there."

"You wanna... kill it?"

"It hurt you, I can't stand by having monsters like that roaming around." Dusting her hands on her waist.

"What if it eats us?"

"Don't worry," She leaned close to the boy, putting her hand on his shoulder. "I'll protect you. I won't let it eat you as long as you stay behind me, okay?"

He nodded. "Okay."

She leaned closer to the boy's forehead, pausing and then retreating back while giving him a smile.

What was she?

The wind turned violent. Footsteps surrounded the cottage, faint growls and sniffing were circling them. Barking erupted.

Claws burrowed their strength on the walls. She ran to the door, locking it tight. "Stay close to me." She whispered.

Their backs against each other, wind whistled through the small cracks, blowing out the lanterns.

Everything faded to black, chills made his skin crawl, he watched as shadows stretched from the light outside the cottage, creeping their way closer to them.