Right Under Our Noses

"N-No!" he screeched. "OH GODS NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Tough taste tug in mouth. Warm drink spill in throat. Hands tear skin from skin. Bone from skin. Muscle and sinew from mouth. Marrow from bone. Bone crunch. Skin tear. Marrow chomp. Eyes of fear quiver. Life-paint color streets. Pick eye from fleshy prison. Bite in mouth. Tear bone! Drink life-paint! Feed! Hunger quenched! Thirst quelled! Bash cap! Dig flesh! Chew fleshy, chewy innards! Taste ichor of mortal! Consume fleeting existence!

A wave of vertigo rushed over her mind, causing her to stumble, rain dripping atop her head. It was dark, far too dark for most to see the carnage that had been wrought. Unfortunately for Kyra, she could see all of the carnage she had wrecked. What was once a well built young man was now unrecognizable. He was torn to pieces, or at least the little that was left of him was strewn about the alleyway, the essence of his mortal coil seeping in and washing away with the drizzling waters, red and blue mixing and melting to a dull brown. She had torn open his skull, exposing the core of one's being, his very brain, and furthermore revealing the bite marks upon its winding, twisting core. There were no remnants of his left arm, and all that was connected to him was his torso, head, and right leg. The other members of his body were rent asunder, strewn about in various states of disrepair.  Fingers torn from hands, hands from arms, forelegs split in two... Kyra could not even gag at the sight before her, knowing that this was her doing.

Her stay in Clover Town per Jen's request was...disastrous. Jen forgot to give her any money, so Kyra got hungry each night, and this was now the fourth body torn to shreds, the brutality of the matter evident. Rumors swirled of the people calling for aid from someone, anyone to investigate the matter, and Kyra knew that she could not be found. Not for fear of her own life, but for fear that Jen would be enraged at her for giving in so easily. Kyra almost feared Jen as much as the beast that churned within her own body, yet both were a part of her life that she merely needed to accept as things that had power over her.

She sighed, defeated, and returned to the inn that she had booked. Of course, the first night of her stay was in homelessness, having not had a single penny to her name. In a mix of fortune and misfortune, the first victim of her unwilling onslaughts had the unfortunate fate of carrying several thousand Jewels on his person, which was enough to rent Kyra a room until the day was done. Yet no matter how much food she ate during the day, each night she would find herself in a situation like this, having slaughtered an innocent person and haphazardly consumed them in a brutal fashion.

The morning sun shone bright in her eyes as Kyra left the inn. Instinctively, she looked towards the sight of her... incident last night, where she saw a strange scene. As expected, people were investigating, but they were clearly not Rune Knights. Rather, these were dressed in red, rather than the Knight's sky blue. Kyra, intrigued, neared them, trying to make her way to the crowd, asking the one who appeared to be in charge, "E-Excuse me, w-what s-seems to b-be the matter?"

The man before her said it completely straight, and she looked upon the scene, no emotions but disappointment rising inside her. "I-I see..." she muttered weakly. As she looked upon the mangled, nearly unidentifiable corpse, she felt a sensation of her mouth watering upon the carnage, and decided she needed something else to focus on,

"I-If y-you would be f-fine with it, m-might I h-help?" she asked, unthinking. The realization of what she was doing bored into the back of her mind as she asked this. She was trying to assist others in catching her! "I-I doubt i-its an a-animal of s-some kind, s-so that just l-leaves a p-person, r-right? I-I-I mean, i-if it were an a-animal, th-then it'd b-be caught alright, r-right? I-If that's the c-case, the c-culprit might be e-expecting the R-Rune Knights o-or police. I-I can u-use a bit of m-magic myself, b-but I c-could just s-serve as b-bait or s-something..."

Thoughts raced in the back of her mind. Thoughts of how she could further help, thoughts of how to convince this man to let her help the investigation, thoughts of how those two others would taste... thoughts of how she was enjoying this. What had Jen done to her? This girl that once could hardly bear the thought of hurting a fly was now demanding, asking, practically begging to follow this wild goose chase, to lead this man astray. She was playing with him, playing around with the thought and enjoying the thought of making this into a game. How could she further make this a more enjoyable experience for her?

"D-Don't w-worry about my s-skills, I-I'm a g-guild mage!" she chirped at the man, still trying to make her case. "I-I'm a member of G-Goldheart! I-I'd s-show you m-my guild t-tattoo, b-but it's i-in an e-embarrassing s-spot..." She was finally becoming more like her siblings. Lies came so naturally to the rest of them, while Kyra, like always, fell short of their expectations. Was she finally learning? Of course, there were some truths. Goldheart was a small guild on the outskirts of her family's land, and at least a few of her siblings were members there, so perhaps she could simply claim she were one of them, should this man investigate. "I-I just want to h-help these p-people out, i-if you would be s-so kind... I-I may not b-be able to do m-much, b-but I just r-really want to h-help!"

Still shrinking into her sweater ever so slightly, she tried her best to look up at the man, to little avail. She was still visibly nervous, though she had hoped that it would be considered as her being nervous towards bravely putting herself out there for the sake of trying to find this mystery culprit that she knew all too well. Yet in her head, she hoped, she prayed that he would accept for the sheer thrill of the game. That he would allow her to help in some capacity to test the limits of her power and strength, and test how she could tear apart his little underlings limb from limb, tasting sweet flesh upon throat. She blinked, it seeming innocuous, though was truly an attempt to dissuade the beast within from emerging unprovoked. "M-my m-magic allows m-me to see b-better a-and have h-heightened s-senses, s-so I can h-help s-search at n-night..."