-- vigilantes were better cops than actual cops.

Teresa reached out and took the baseball bat in her hand. She'd never fought using any type of weapon before... then again, she'd only been facing humans.

"I'm Teresa," she told the girl, following her as she got moving. Heroes had already laid out plans and systems, it seemed. This was why --

"People are probably going to be injured and need help evacuating," Teresa suggested. "And if the... demons... are attracted to the smell of blood like predators... they're going to need protecting."

So Teresa's gut feeling had been right. "Jesus Christ..." she unconsciously reached up to clutch the gold cross around her neck.

She looked back at her shop, then at the woman and shook her head. "No. It's just me..."

After another moment, she said: "Wait... I want to help."

-- knew what it was, but she also acknowledged the thought might just be human ignorance.

Teresa had frozen when the rifle was pointed at her, then she whipped around to see that she'd just shot a demon. She looked at the body of the creature, horrified.

"... What is that thing?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly. She had an awful feeling in her gut that she already --

*is

-- uncomfortable.

My goal is not to hurt people though. It's to open their eyes, make them think. I believe people are capable of great change, but only you can improve yourself. All I can do it help you see.

Teresa gasped when she saw the person crash. People around Teresa had begun fleeing, screaming... but Teresa started running towards the person that had just gotten thrown into the car. She needed to see if they were alright.

"'Spiders'...?" Teresa had a feeling the woman didn't mean your everyday arachnids when she'd said it.

She glanced down below at the scene with the police, then back at the woman. "So far," she confirmed. "Who're you?"

Teresa nearly jumped out of her skin. She wasn't expecting someone to come up behind her 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘺.

"Fuck—" her hands flew over her mouth to silence herself. She didn't want to alert the others below that she was watching. "What the hell?" she said after a moment, still looking rattled.

-- On the house. It's vegan."

-- planet, by the way. There's nothing high or strong about factory farming animals, then buying packaged meat off a shelf for your sandwich."

Teresa took a cupcake out of the display case, set it on a plate, then slid it towards her on the counter. "Everything you do is a choice... Here. --

-- thanked the spirits of the animals they killed. Back then, you could make the argument of hierarchy. But even back then, humans weren't at the top of the food chain.

In this day and age, you can't make that claim. We don't need to eat meat anymore; we choose to. At the expense of the --

Teresa was calm, looking at her with an almost amused look. She shook her head. "It doesn't sound complicated at all to me. It does sound pretty hypocritical. Especially the 'hierarchy' part.

In the world of hunter-gatherers, they carved their own weapons, they hunted themselves, and they --