She bought black clothes and went down to the park to hunt. She hid in a bush, turning her body into a black spot. She waited. She let several dogs walk past the bush. They were no good: either the owners were too close or the dog just wasn’t right. Later she understood that there is a definite bond between predator and prey that manifests when the two meet. Her heart skipped a beat when she laid eyes on the German Shepherd; it was a sensation of falling, like when you realize you’re in love. This was the dog she needed, this was the dog she wanted, and the dog knew it too because it pricked up its ears and walked over to the bush, sniffing the air. It was a beautiful moment, and she knew exactly what to do. Her instincts kicked in, the instincts of a born predator.

She instantly grabbed the dog and bit it.

The sensation was the same as the first time – the dog collapsed under her teeth, and she herself felt like exploding out of her own body. She became fully herself in that moment, as if her entire life before had been nothing but a dream, an approximation of life. This moment, this was life; it was a moment without fear, without second thoughts. A moment that existed only in itself, separated from both the past and the future. She felt her heart pumping, her muscles tensing, and for the first time she felt completely at home in her own body. Before that, her body served merely as a mask, to make contact with other masks at her workplace, at school, on the street, at the bakery. Every body was just a vessel, a tool. But at this moment her body was a weapon, a clockwork, a miracle. It was not a means to an end, but the purpose itself. Her tongue tasted like adrenaline and she felt she could see in the dark. She waited until the German Shepherd lay down on the ground and quietly started to whimper. It yielded to her completely.

After this act of submission she let go of the dog and retreated to the darkness.

As a hunter she had certain rules to be followed. A dog could only be bitten once. If she had already bitten it on its belly, she couldn’t bite it somewhere else. Nor could she pick the same dog twice on separate occasions. Once bitten, the dog was to be left alone on subsequent nights. She never allowed herself to fatally injure a dog; the goal was not killing, but the rediscovery of her true self. The violence against the beasts was only the means to this end.

‘But you can’t understand it anyway,’ said Nikolett. ‘Until you try it yourself, you won’t get it.’

Over time it created a chasm between the two of them.