“I WILL NOT HAVE THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOUR IN MY HOUSE!”
   
    The vase was thrown across the room, smashing against the wall on the other side. It shattered into a million pieces, one of them hitting the poor creature just under its left eye. It shrieked in pain, scampering over to the box and cowering under it, covering its injury with a scaly paw.

    It wasn’t sure what it’d done, but it could tell that the Malign was displeased with it. And you never made the Malign angry, or she’d crush you under the weight of her soul and ego.

    The next crash was louder, and the creature could hear the shards of whatever had broken scatter all over the wooden floor. It shrank deeper into the confines of its box, squeezing its ears and eyes tight shut. The Malign shouldn’t be able to hear its fear when it was in the box. It was safe in the box, that’s what it had been told.

    Still, it held its breath, curling up into a ball of scales and a hard outer shell. Don’t let her smell how you feel. Don’t let her hurt you. She can’t hurt you if she can’t smell you.

    It took a few agonising minutes of bated breath for the footsteps to retreat from its box. But still, the creature didn’t let itself be deceived by the Malign’s perceived retreat. She could strike at any moment, appearing from the shadows to tear your tail off, skewer you whilst you’re asleep and dreaming.

    Keep dreaming, Malign. You’d got it once, you weren’t going to get it again. It was wise to you and what you say now. It knew your lies; it knew the ones you wore like a coat and the ones you kept under your skin, in the body you barely had. The Malign couldn’t hurt it anymore, not really. It could try but it would never be able to fully succeed.

    The creature slowly let its breathing return to normality, slowly unfurling its ears to properly watch out for any intruding predator, before it gradually unclenched its eyes as well, gazing out into the pitch black darkness of the box, still watching and waiting, tail rising with each shallow breath.

    “I can smell you in there,” the Malign spoke, sending jolting shudders through the creature’s body. She sighed, loudly and heavily, and sat down in her cracked leather armchair, the creature flinching at the creaking sound. “You’re such a pathetic species, aren’t you? Always cowering... “

    That wasn’t the right thing to say, at all. The creature shrank further into the box, tail curling around itself. It made a slight clicking sound with its tongue.

    The Malign laughed shrilly, shattering the already broken glass and evaporating it into sand. “You’ve got guts for such a scared little thing… Telling me something like that. Telling your saviour something that crude takes a lot of nerve. Although maybe that’s nerve you shouldn’t have.”

    It should have come out then. It knew it. But it was still jumpy, still scared out of its skin, and it knew that the Malign could smell that. It had to play to instincts, keep itself from collapsing and dying like the rest of its kind. Keep itself alive. Just natural instincts, after all.

    But it didn’t. It stayed hidden.

    There was a tearing, slashing noise, and the creature whimpered curling itself up into a tighter and tighter ball, closing up its ears and eyes and nose, hiding itself away from the horrors that were doubtless in front of it.

    The Malign got to her feet, blank face smirking at the ball of scales and claws in the grasp of her shadow. “What a shame,” she said, somewhat wistfully, dragging a perfect nail down the side of the creature’s face. “What a waste. Shame. I invested a lot of money in you. But you were just f***ing pathetic.”

    One glance at her shadow, and a nod. The shadow squeezed, tighter with each passing second until the creature began to scream.

    The Malign’s smirk grew wider and wider as the scream got more shrill and more grating. The creature’s face suddenly relaxed, eyes opening to show a look of pure terror in its gaze, still screaming with a mouth wide open.

    “Come on, get on with it,” the Malign gave her shadow a frustrated glare, clenching her fist and digging her nails into her palm. “Make a mess of it. You know how I like my decor.”

    The screaming suddenly stopped, swiftly followed by a wet popping sound and the feeling of dampness on the Malign’s hand. Her smirk slowly dropped, a tongue flicking out from the blankness of her face to lick at the droplets of blood on her fingers.

    “Beautiful work,” she purred, her lips ghosting the shadow's cheek. “Just perfect, my love. I knew I could count on you. I always can. And you know that I always will.”

The shadow purred, rubbing its head against the Malign's neck, slowly lapping at her chin. The woman giggled, throwing her head back and smirking at the ceiling, the shadows of her face twisting and turning, never forming a clear portrait.

"Come on," she breathed out, pushing the shadow away from her, splaying her fingers and sending it scattering in a million directions. "We need to get rid of that worthless creature's carcass before it gives me away."