Brace's eyes fluttered open to the dark, starry sky. She was confused as she wasn't supposed to be up, nor did she care for the dark.

She stayed curled up on her little rock, too scared to move. During the day she felt strong and confident, like the world could throw anything at her and it wouldn't hurt. At night time...well, that's a completely different story.

She was like a rabbit, timid and fearful of her surroundings. Frantic and always on her feet or hidden away where no predator would find her, but not tonight. She had nowhere to hide, left out in the open for anything to make its move and end her short life on this small blue planet.

Brace's eyes darted around as she felt something watching her. Then, her ear picked up something that sounded deep...and menacing...

A deep growl could be heard from the darkness...

Brace froze, every hair on her skin standing on end as she started to breathe so timid and quietly. Her eyes slowly looked to where the sound was coming from.....

Deep, deep in the dark bushes were two sharp and hungry eyes staring back at her, piercing into her fragile soul...

Brace closed her eyes shut, feeling around for a weapon.

"Oh God, please, please, please! Give me something!", She thought to herself, fighting back swelling tears.

As if her prayers were answered, she felt a small, cold rock in the dirt that was a pretty hefty size. She opened her eyes, gripping the rock.

She really wished she didn't eat all that pie, maybe she could've given some to the beast and it would've left her alone. There was no point for wishful thinking now, it's either you or the beast...

She stared at the beast as it stared back at her. Taking a few steps back for a head start, then raced towards her and full speed. It's jaw opened as it was ready to sink it's knife-like teeth into her frail neck.

Brace used the rock and bashed in the head, making it fall over...whining.

The beast growled shortly afterwards, slowly standing back up and growling more viciously. Brace scrambled back, fearful for her life. She felt a sharp stick scrape her back.

She yanked it out of the dirt and just as she turned to use it, the beast attempted to pounce on her, his chest hitting the stick.

She winced as she felt the stick plunge through the beast chest, killing it instantly. She gasped and kicked it back, hugging herself.

What did she just do...

She stared at her shirt and hands, both felt wet with a red substance. She looked back at the body, it was so still and silent. It's eyes were dull and cold, staring into the starry sky above.

A few peaceful minutes go by, only sounds of crickets and other nightly sounds filling the air. Brace slowly crept towards the being, getting a closer look at the blood stained fur and it's sharp teeth. Brace covered her mouth as tears began to swell as the thoughts of guilt filled her mind.

I killed something....

She thought to herself, fighting back from bursting into tears. She couldn't bear the thought of killing something, even if it tried to kill her first.

Brace didn't know what to do now....

But cry.

Brace soon laid down at a nearby tree, just to finish off the night.

She opened her eyes to darkness and stars in the distance. She looked down and noticed she was floating!

She let out a scream and fell back a bit, drifting from where she was. This place was so cold she could see her own breath!

She looked around besides her, nothing but black.

Behind her stood a being with three green eyes, very red skin and a strange... thing....on his head.

Brace froze in fear as she stared at the being hunching over her, glitching and shifting...breathing slowly. It blinked, making her flinch as it tried to start talking.

All of it sounded like incoherent gibberish to her, nothing was making sense...

This made him angry..

The being swiped one of its hands at her, luckily she moved out of the way and started to float away. The being yelled at her, as if telling her to go back. She couldn't control her floating well, even so she definitely wouldn't want to go back.

She snapped awake to reality to hear the birds chirping and the sun beaming through the trees.

Brace looked around and noticed the body was gone....as if someone took it. Tiny little human food prints followed back into the bush and beyond.

Brace wanted to investigate but decided it'd probably be best not to. Whatever took the carcass was probably worse than what she killed.

Either way, she didn't want to move...

She couldn't go into town like this, what would they think of her?!

"A monster, that's what they'd think of me." She murmured to herself.

She seemed very frustrated now, angry with herself. Why couldn't she have just run and hid?

Letting out a heavy sigh, deciding to just try to move on. What happened, happened, and she shouldn't keep thinking about it.

Now she needed new clothes, or somewhere to try to wash them.

She got up and stretched, her body filled with pain as usual. Pain was easy for her to ignore, plus it didn't hurt that bad.

Brace wandered the woods, on guard as she looked for a lake of some sort. Luckily it didn't take her long to find one, well it was more of a pond.

She took off her shirt and began washing it very quickly, feeling something was watching her. Some of the blood stains came out but were faded now. She quickly put it back on and shivered, not caring that it was wet.

Then she went back to town to start her day all over again.