Once the investigators went inside, I was forgotten. They walked up to the closed bedroom door, knocking sharply.

"Ma'am, we are representatives from the CCG, please open up," said one of the investigators curtly.

I stifled another giggle. "You shouldn't do that..." I said in a singsong voice, teasing.

"Why not?" asked the younger investigator quizzically, turning back to me.

An evil smile spread across my face, hidden in the dim light. "You shouldn't wake Mommy," I said simply. "Things could get... out of hand."

The older investigator stopped knocking and turned to me. "Look," he said sternly. "There's not use hiding it. We're here because we suspect your mother of being a ghoul. You know what those are, right?"

I nodded.

He looked at me, concern written all over his face. "Please," he said. "Wait outside. And if we tell you to run, run like there's no tomorrow."

I didn't understand the expression, but nodded anyway. How funny, I thought. They're worried about me.

Stupid. They're just stupid, them, and every single one of their friends back at their headquarters.

They should be worried about themselves.

"Don't tell me what to do..." I said, the words just a hiss of air, so soft that nobody could hear them.

My hand reached down, snaking into the crack behind the bookshelf, where I kept my mask.

I was standing in the middle of the room, my head dipped so that my shroud of unkempt black hair hung around my face like a veil. My eyes took on a crazed sheen, glazing over.

"I'm going in," said an investigator. The other one nodded, clenching his suitcase.

With one push, the door swung open, revealing the contents of the musky room.

The younger investigator staggered back, his eyes wide. "What is it? What is it?" exclaimed the other.

"It- it's- " he stammered in reply, eyes wide in fear.

My hair parted with a little 'shff' of noise as I slipped my mask into my face.

The second investigator unclipped his suitcase, quinque unfurling. "Holy gods," he hissed through clenched teeth. "What could've..."

"You shouldn't have done that," I said again, taking a step forward. My lower kagune unfurled, the tail snaking across the floor.

The younger investigator was on his knees. He looked traumatized, his eyes wide open, seeing everything but not believing.

"We were wrong..." he gasped. "We were wrong, it was the girl! It was her all along!"

"G- Get it together-!" said his partner, the sentence stopping short as he saw me.

I laughed brightly, the sound choppy at first, but then dissolving into a fit of giggles. All I could think about was how good, oh how amazing the smell of freshly-spilled blood would be. Suddenly I lashed out, slitting the first investigator's neck with one quick slice. I could smell the blood trickling down onto the floorboards, almost taste it, as the body fell motionless, now simply a wide-eyed shell.

Because I knew what was inside the room. I had known all along just how wrong they all were.

Inside of that room, splayed out and motionless on the sheets of the still neatly-folded bed was my adoptive mother's dead body.