“Klaus… Klaaaaauuuuuus, wake uuuup”

Klaus groggily raised his head up from his arms upon hearing the soft whispering. He propped his chin atop his desk and opened one of his eyes. His eye was met with pure white skin and long flowing hair.

“Mira?”

Mira, who had her chin propped on her arms, stared at Klaus. She gave him a glowing smile.

“Looks like you’re finally up,”

Klaus rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, stretching out his arms. Klaus looked out the window to see the sun dropping below the treeline.

“It’s pretty isn’t it?”

“You could say that,”

Mira chuckled.

“You see this pretty much everyday huh?”

“Most days, yeah,” Klaus responded while yawning.

“I miss being here,”

Klauss eyes lingered towards Mira who was staring out the window as well. Her eye’s shimmered against the sun rays beaming through the forest. The slight smile on her face never disappeared. But, Klaus knew that there was something she wanted to say. Mira never made her true emotions known. They were always hidden behind a mirror, never reflecting truly reflecting herself.

“The view gets a bit repetitive after a while, but I guess it’s nice to know that it’s there every now and then,”

Klaus reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a fresh pack of cigarettes.

“Ah! I thought you promised to quit,”

“Old habits never die,” Klaus said as he began tapping the pack against his wrist.

“You know those are gonna kill you right?”

“That’s if the beasts don’t get to me first,”

He pulled out a cigarette and tucked one between his lips and lit it with a lighter.

“Why would you say something like that?”

“It’s the truth. The fact of life,”

“What’s the issue with being a bit optimistic?”

Klaus took a drag from the cigarette and inhaled it deeply.

“I don’t think we really have the luxury of being optimistic,” Klaus said while exhaling the smoke.

“Don’t you think it would be nice though? To not have to worry about all.. well all of this?”

“Yeah, it would be nice,”

The two continued to stare out the window for a while.

“How’s the testing going?” Mira asked.

“It’s going about as well as we can hope for it to go,”

There was a brief moment of silence.

“It’s scary to think about it. Combining humans with beasts…”

“I wasn’t to keen on the idea at first either. But, every day, we lose more hunter’s than there are beasts. It was inevitable that we’d have to start thinking of a way to make hunting them easier,”

She shifted her gaze to Klaus.

“Are you really okay with that? Becoming a part of something that we’re meant to hate?”

“It was inevitable. There’s only so much we can do in our current state,”

Klaus began ruffling through a pile of papers on the desk as he ashed his cigarette.

“I saw your file finally come through,”

“Really?

“Yeah. Looks like your body is reacting well to the procedure,”

“Doesn’t really make me feel great to hear that,”

Klaus couldn’t say anything to that. How could he?

“You know… When I volunteered for the program, even though I don’t like the idea, I thought that I was going to be able to do better.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve always dreamt of a day where we wouldn’t have to fight. I wanted to be able to travel to places and see the sights rather than showing up to see it being destroyed. I thought that this procedure would give me the ability to do that, but now I’m not so sure. Don’t you think that’d be nice? Work a normal job, laze around watching TV, going to cafe’s… You know the mundane stuff.”

“That’s a nice dream… I wouldn’t mind a life like that.”

“When do you think the procedure will start to take effect?”

“I don’t know… But, if it’s you, I’m sure that when it starts, it’ll be fine,”

“I hope so,”

Stacks of paperwork lined Klaus’s desk. Grabbing a piece of paper from the top of the closest stack, he jotted some notes down on it before setting it aside and grabbing another one. He repeated this process in his office for hours.

After what felt like an eternity, he dropped his pen and stood up from his seat and opened the window. He lit a cigarette as he stared off into the skyline. There was a calming breeze that rustled the curtains. Their shadows danced across the wooden floorboards of the room.

The calming sense of the moment was interrupted by loud and rapid footsteps approaching the door. Soon after, the door slammed open as an out of breath woman in a nurses uniform rushed in.

“Klaus! You have to come quick. Something's happening!”

Klaus quickly crushed his cigarette and followed the nurse.

She led him to an operating room. On the operating table, was Mira. Despite being tied down, her body was moving erratically, kicking and flailing her arms around. The doctors and nurses, struggled to hold her down.

“What’s happening!?” Klaus asked.

The nurse pointed to the screen. It was a sonic scan of Mira’s body that was tracking her internal state, live.

Klaus’s jaw began to drop slowly as something began to grow and morph inside her womb.

“We don’t know what’s happening. Nothing like this has happened before!”

“Try to get her under control!”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to do for the past fifteen minutes! No amount of sedatives we give her has been working, which is why I went to get you! What should we do!”

Klaus grew nervous as he clenched his fists.

“Get everyone out of there. I’ll go in,”

“Wha-”

“Just do it!”

The nurse, despite being hesitant, followed Klaus’s instructions. As soon as she had cleared the operating room, Klaus entered. Mira’s movement was growing more aggressive with each passing second.

He cautiously approached her as the nurses and doctors watched from the other side of the glass. The rattling of the ties and the clanking of the operating table grew louder as Klaus stepped closer.

“Mira…” Klaus whisphered.

Mira screamed out in pain, her arms pulling against the restraints. She was sweating profusely and strands of her long hair were sticking to her skin. The color in her skin had gone pale and her veins were protruding through her skin.

“Mira, I know you’re in pain right now, but I need to you get a hold of yourself” Klaus continued to whisper to her as he paced closer to her. Eventually, Klaus stood by her side. He managed to grab hold of one of her hands and held it tightly within his. He caressed her head as he felt tears welling up in his eyes.

He knew that the woman laying before him wasn’t Mira. Something was trying to take hold of her. Her face began to look sunken in as she bore her teeth at Klaus.

“Mira, I know you’re in there. If you can hear me, I need you to beat whatever’s inside you right now,”

Mira continued to scream and shout.

Klaus continued hold her hand. After a few minutes passed, Mira stopped moving. Klaus looked at her lifeless body resting on the operating table. Klaus pressed her hands against his lips. Unable to hold back his tears any longer, he wept.

A fragile hand touched Klaus’s cheek. He looked up and there it was. The smile that never went away. Mira smiled at Klaus intently through her exhausted state.

“Klaus… I heard you…”