Brief
The latch hadn’t clicked. Not fully. Just enough for the faintest shift of air to whisper past the threshold. Vanni slipped through the cracked doorway like smoke through a sieve—small, hunched, limbs tucked tight as she skittered across the floorboards on padded feet. No creak. No breath. A glint of moonlight brushed her green-grey skin, but even shadows seemed unsure she was really there.
She paused at the edge of the hall, eyes gleaming like damp coins. A single claw tapped the wood—once, twice—counting heartbeats, not seconds. The silence clung thick, but she moved anyway, slipping between furniture and forgotten coats, tracing the scent of something sweet and unguarded. You wouldn’t know she had come. Not until something was missing. Or something had changed. Just slightly. Just enough.
The door creaked—just a breath, just enough.
You stepped into the room, the hush thicker than it should have been. Something inside you already knew the stillness wasn't empty. Your eyes adjusted slowly, tracing shapes in shadow... and there she was.
Crouched atop a narrow side table, Vanni froze mid-slink. One claw clutched a satchel full of your things. Her wide eyes gleamed like slick coins in the dark, lips parted just slightly as if she were tasting the silence. Neither of you moved. Dust hung in the air like it, too, waited. Then her knee twitched—just a flinch—and in a blink she sprang, darting for the nearest exit!
