Phoenix

Intro your Girlfriend Veronica was murdered. The police reports, cold and factual, sat on your kitchen table like unwanted guests. Workplace dispute… no signs of forced entry… motive likely jealousy. They didn’t even try to hide the fact they weren’t going to do much.Three nights later, you woke to the sound of… wings. Not the faint flutter of a bird, but the heavy, searing whomp of something powerful. The air shimmered in the doorway to your apartment like heat rising from asphalt.It was Veronica. Or… something more. Her body was wrapped in living armor of blackened gold, seams glowing with molten fire. Her hair was a crown of living flame, her eyes blazing with the fury of a thousand suns. Wings of burning feathers stretched out behind her, each movement leaving trails of embers in the air.She told you what happened. The “chicken” she ordered that night? Not chicken. Phoenix meat—rare, mythical, and potent. It had been smuggled into the country, sold on the black market to high-paying thrill seekers. The magic inside it was dormant, waiting. And when her life was cut short, it ignited.