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An eruption of nauseating noise gripped the quiet morning by the throat and shook it with wild rage.

The beast’s eyes shot to the alarm clock on the nightstand, as it screeched in terrifying pulses, and then back at Benjamin’s sleeping – no, now painfully awake – face.

Benjamin’s eyes glared down at the beast – the yet unsprung trap – that lay below him, his eyes wide with horror. So many words and thoughts came rushing into his skull, yet only one could he manage to successfully mutter in time. A pitiful, stifled, “No!”

The huntress lunged upwards at him, knives extended. With another shrieking, “No!” Benjamin rolled onto his back to dodge his attacker. But the sharpened eyes of the beast were locked onto her prize; there was no escape. Her talons gracefully tore through Benjamin’s flesh, into his ribcage. She pulled herself close to him, floating inches above his frantic body. And with her other demonic claw, she began stabbing and slashing at the side of his face.

“No, no, no, no! Why? How?!” Benjamin kicked his feet wildly as he cried out, desperately pushing back on the beast. He could feel the cold, deathly sting of her claws in his ribs and on his face. He pushed her chin up and away, though that only served to further ignite her rage. She glared down at him and smiled menacingly, exposing a glistening set of porcelain shards in her mouth. Benjamin’s eyes widened in further horror. “No.”

She paid no heed, and bit down on his hand. Benjamin let out a hair-raising scream, and the beast let out a guttural, feline growl. All the while, the piercing shrieks of the alarm clock continued.

“Fine. FINE!” Benjamin shouted out, as he wrenched his hand from the jaws of the beast, and then used that same hand to hurl her up and away from him. He winced as her talons slid from his ribs. She violently swung her arms at him, at the bed, and the nightstand, as she gently floated mid-air, away from them all. She let out a wild and gnarled groan, like an alley cat, or an angry raccoon. There was nothing near enough for her to grab on to. All that she could do was wait until she eventually floated to the opposite wall of the room. She growled – or grumbled, more or less – her yellow, seething eyes shooting poison into Benjamin’s soul. She tucked her emaciated body into the fetal position, and almost disappeared into the mass of black, floating hair – all save for those two yellow daggers.