The three thugs waved their weapons menacingly, but kept their distance. I could see two of them had visible pistols, and the fact that they hadn't drawn them was a good sign. They wanted our money, not our lives. This wasn't my first robbery, and I felt confident we could get out of this uninjured. I kept a wad of cash with me for exactly this purpose; enough that it should satisfy them, but not enough that we wouldn't be able to eat this month.

The third member of the thugs was licking his lips while staring hungrily at my wife. That was more concerning, but given that he was the only one without a gun, I hoped that the other two would keep him in line. Money was only money, and could be replaced, but that would be something else entirely.

I hurriedly rooted around in my pack, unwilling to risk them growing impatient. I already had my hand around the bundle of notes when a loud thud made me look up. The lecherous thug was on the floor, and his head was... burst. It looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to a watermelon. I looked on in shock, completely clueless as to what had just happened. I'd only looked away for ten seconds!

The remaining two thugs were equally confused. "Boss?" Called one of them, turning away from the corpse to the other thug, who presumably was the leader of the three. No, correction, where the other thug used to be. He had gone. No honour among thieves apparently; he had fled at the first sign of trouble, leaving the last member alone. Alas, he still had a gun, so little changed for us, unless he decided to flee too. Or had his own head popped. That would also work.

The last thug spun around wildly, presumably looking for his missing boss. Not seeing anything, he turned away from us and ran. He managed three steps before a shadowy shape swooped down from above. I saw movement that I couldn't make out, and the thug fell to his knees, clutching at his throat.

Now I felt a new sort of fear. That thing wasn't human. As close as we were to when the annual monster hunt was supposed to take place, had their population overflowed? One had decided to move into the city? And the missing thug hadn't fled. He was right there in front of me, clutched in the monster's talons, missing one arm and very obviously dead. The monster picked up the injured thug too, then turned to face us, hovering casually in mid-air despite carrying a fully grown adult in each of its viciously clawed feet.

I couldn't do anything. It wouldn't go away if I threw money at it. I couldn't fight it or flee from it. There was no method by which I could sacrifice myself to save my wife. I desperately wanted to run, however useless it would be, but I refused to abandon her. We would die here together. I looked into its inhuman yellow eyes, and for a moment I felt pride in the way I was managing to remain standing. Then it leapt, and my resolve fled as if it had never existed. I collapsed to my knees, closed my eyes and whimpered, but the end never came.

I opened my eyes again and looked around. The corpse behind us was gone, and I could see a receding shadow in the sky. It had apparently decided that three was enough. We were saved. As relief flooded my body, my legs gave out completely, and I fell to the floor panting, a warmth in my crotch betraying my previous terror.

"That... That was Lily!"

I looked up at my wife, who despite her reaction to the muggers, seemed to have taken the monster attack rather more calmly than I had.

"Who?"

"One of those missing children from the news today! That was her. I swear it!"

Okay, maybe she was more hysterical than I thought. The thing about the missing children is that they were children, not flying monsters. But she was utterly insistent, and although we really should have gone straight to the police, I wasn't averse to a quick trip home to let her try to prove it if it meant that I could get a much needed change of clothes.

And thus it was that I ended up in front of our computer, looking once more at that monster's face. Her hair was brown instead of blue, her eyes hazel instead of that unnatural yellow, the horns and animalistic ears were missing, she was wearing a small smile rather than the look of a predator looking at prey, but there was no doubt that this girl was the one who had attacked us earlier. My wife had been right. How was that even possible?

"I'll go to the police," I said, eventually. I couldn't think of anything else to say.

Leaving my traumatised wife in bed to recover, I headed to the local police station. Our brief piece of research had also let me know that the monster that attacked us was a harpy, not that putting a name to it reduced the horror in any way. When I reported the harpy attack at the front desk, they were very interested, as one might imagine, and I soon ended up in an interview room with the police commissioner himself, who had rushed over personally from their headquarters.

"And you're absolutely certain that the harpy had Lily's face?"

"Yes. It was completely identical."

"But you're sure it was unintelligent? It didn't say anything?"

"Yes... Those eyes... I'll never forget them. It was a monster through and through, and I was nothing more than its food. There was no intelligence there."

"Did you see where it went once it left?"

"Towards the city centre. I didn't see exactly where."

"And did you get any evidence? Pictures or video?"

"No, of course not! I had far more important things on my mind!"

"Sorry, but I had to ask, just in case. My final question then; who else did you tell? Who knows about this?"

"No-one. Well, my wife knows, obviously, because she was there, but that's it. One of the thugs was alive when it flew off with him, but given the amount of blood he was spewing, I doubt he is by now."

"Okay, that's all. Thank you very much for your cooperation."

I nodded and stood up. The commissioner stood up too, and then drew a silenced pistol, levelling it straight at me.

"Wha..." I started, before I heard a dull thud. I looked down in shock at the blood pouring from my chest, unable to move or react. The head of the police in this city had just shot me?! I collapsed to the floor, still in disbelief about what had just happened. Why?

The commissioner walked off without showing a shred of concern, opening the door and talking to someone outside. "We need to get a clean-up crew to Hook Street immediately. We'll claim there was a botched burglary. Everyone died."

"Understood. Shall I call the janitor to clean this mess up too?"

"If you would be so kind."

My wife! They were going to murder her too?! For what? Seeing a harpy?

The commissioner walked back in and looked down at me with an expression of pure contempt. I see... I was wrong. There was nothing evil in the eyes of that harpy. It didn't know any better and was just being itself. There was evil in the eyes of the man in front of me, though. He did know better, and yet he chose to do this anyway. Which one of the two was really the monster?

"Damn that mayor, expecting me to clean up his mess," the commissioner muttered, sounding inconvenienced and irritated. And that was the last thing I heard before the darkness took me.