Prologue

Don’t you just hate it when you’re woken up from a deep sleep but have no idea why? This is exactly how Xzavier felt as he laid on his back with his eyes closed. He was irritated, knowing that this would be one of his last peaceful nights of sleep after bringing home his precious newborn daughter, but something had him on edge, what exactly? He didn't know. Xzavier’s instincts told him to keep his eyes closed, so that is what he did. He strained his ears listening for what had woken him up, but all he heard were the light inhales and exhales of his girlfriend lying next to him. Wait… the sound wasn’t coming from beside him on his bed, it was coming from his upper left. Xzavier was confused, why would his body be on such high alert when it was just his girlfriend, the love of his life, moving around the bed? He would soon find out.

Xzaviers eyes shot wide open as two small, yet incredibly strong, hands suddenly found themselves wrapped around his neck. His girlfriend was straddled on top of his body, slowly choking the life out of him. As his air supply lowered and his chest began to burn tightly, Xzavier’s fight or flight kicked in as he began to kick and scratch at his girlfriend in an attempt to free his windpipe.

“W-why?” Xzavier raspily choked out as he changed his defense plan and was now frantically searching his nightstand for everything and anything that would cease the sudden attack. His heart sank when his girlfriend did nothing but squeeze harder as a wicked and sly smile slid onto her face. Xzavier, who was now seeing stars, finally got his hand around the glass of water he always left on his nightstand at night. With his freehand and all the force he could muster into his increasingly weakening muscles, Xzavier swung and smashed the large glass around his girlfriend's left temple.

She screamed as the jagged broken pieces of glass sliced her skin and the stale water mixed with her blood dripped down her cheek. She released her deathly grip off of her boyfriend, who quickly kicked her off of him after gasping in the sweet air his body craved. Her body smashed into the wall and she let out another gasp of pain. Cries escaped from the baby’s crib across the room.

Xzavier’s girlfriend brought a hand to her temple and then looked at her hand. When she realized what she had been hit with she said to herself softly,” No, No, NO! You idiot!”

A frantic Xzavier, who had just shoved his wallet and car keys into a pocket in his pajama pants, stepped back in horror as he stared into his girlfriend's bright green unnaturally glowing eyes. All he saw in them was a deep hunger. Right before his eyes, Xzavier’s girlfriends shorts and underwear were torn into pieces as her legs morphed together into a long, slimy, dark blue fish tail. The baby started to cry even harder once Xzavier’s girlfriend started crawling towards him and the infant's crib. Xzavier drank in his girlfriend's new monstrous features; a maw full of sharp, dagger-like, teeth, gills on top of her collar bones showing through her wet tank-top, her tail, and long black claws protruding out from where her nails used to be. He knew in his heart what she was now, he’d read plenty of mythology on the very creature in front of him when he was younger and bored. He was frightened and felt stupid for not seeing it before and letting himself fall prey to this very dangerous predator.

“What about our baby!?” Xzavier shouted after narrowly dodging his girlfriend after she lunged at him. She went head first into their shared dresser.

“I could care less,” she admitted honestly, after picking herself up,” I think I’m going to eat her once I’ve finished picking your bones clean.”

Truth be told, Xzavier’s girlfriend had planned on killing him many months ago, but after finding out she was pregnant for the first time she decided she would extend her long con even longer to see how everything woud all playout. After spending nine months pregnant and three days in the hospital after giving birth to her newborn, she decided that motherhood wasn’t for her and there wasn’t an ounce of love for her child in her heart. She had been going over the different ways of killing her boyfriend and baby in her mind that whole day.

Xzavier quickly grabbed his crying daughter out of her crib, and strapped their emergency pre-packed diaper bag over his shoulder. He then jumped onto his king sized bed to avoid going in his now ex-girlfriend’s path. He grabbed the lamp that resided on his night stand in a last ditch effort to have some protection against the monster laying on his floor, knowing she wouldn’t let her meal escape that easily.

“Don’t follow us” he instructed menacingly, pointing the lamp at the creature. Xzavier turned to leave his hungry-for-bloodlust ex-girlfriend once and for all, baby in hand, when a sharp pain on his right calf caused him to stumble. He managed to twist his body in a way where the baby would not be harmed in the fall. He took a quick glance at his aching leg and found four deep bleeding gashes. The adrenaline and shock in his system numbed the pain enough for him to continue inching towards the door. He looked back at his irate ex-girlfriend who had his blood dripping down her black claws, she was crawling ever so closer to him and his daughter. Tightening his grip around the heavy metallic lamp, Xzavier quickly struck his girlfriend in the head yet again, but with adrenaline and fatherly love coursing through him, it was a much stronger blow than earlier. A loud thunk sounded out as the metal made contact with her skull. Xzavier took the advantage of slowing his ex down and swiftly got back on his feet- protecting his daughter the whole time- and made a run for the door.

He froze in his tracks, hand on the doorknob and all, when he heard his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child say,”I’ll find her one day, and you as well. When I do, I promise you… I’ll enjoy killing the two of you with my own bare hands.”

Xzavier said nothing as he left his bedroom without looking back for the last time, holding his daughter tightly in his arms, vowing to always keep her safe, no matter what.