It seems fate conspired to prevent me from getting any sleep at all.

Just hours after drifting off into a fitful, nightmare-filled slumber, I was awoken by a cold hand on my shoulder. I turned over to see the a glittery green Imago standing over me. “Quinn.”

“What is it?” I managed, groggily. Just sitting up gave me a headache. My eyelids felt like lead.

“There’s something inside the dormitory.”

The instant she said that, I was on high alert. The adrenaline kicked in like crazy, and I was wide awake. This had to be horrible for my body, though there was no time to think about that. I noticed it immediately. There was a Demon inside the building. Somehow. And a fair number of Echoes alongside. “Why did you come here?”

“Why?” She seemed confused. “Because you’re Quinn. You’re Vespa’s host. You know what to do better than any of us.”

“Me?”

“You stopped Ecto.”

“That was... that was... whatever.”I hurried out of bed. I nearly fell out of bed as I morphed. It hurt especially badly this time around. My skin was still a little raw from the last time, having had just enough time to settle down before having to melt back again. All this transformation felt like it was taking its toll on my body. Or maybe it was just the lack of sleep. Joy helped me to my feet. “I’m really not that good.”

“Oh,” she sounded disappointed. And, I guess, why wouldn’t she have been? But all those expectations she had, whatever she’d heard... I mean. It wasn’t really me. “I’m just a little scared.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said.

I opened my door into a hallway that was eerily quiet. The stone floors were cracked, bits of still-molten rock strewn about. The lights flickered on and off, the scattered embers glowing in the darkness.

“Did you see what it was?” I asked.

“Only briefly,” said Joy. “It was big, and fast. I don’t know what to do.”

“I...” Neither did I. “We should um... look for Miriam. Or someone. Anyone.” There were some of the locusts flitting about, though they seemed oddly... preoccupied. They certainly weren’t keeping an eye on us as they flew in small bands through the hallways and up into the vents. “Weren’t there supposed to be people guarding the entrance?”

“I think there were, but...”

Someone grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into an alcove. At first, I panicked, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t a Demon. “Quiet, both of you,” she said, pulling us both to the ground. She put her hands over where my mouth should have been. “It’s coming.”

“What is?” I whispered.

At that moment, an enormous creature crashed through the hallway. It thundered over the tiles on molten iron hooves, a huge mass of molten muscle and metallic bones. Despite its hoofed feet, it was clearly a predator, with a wide, fat head brimming with sharp teeth. It slowed down in front of our alcove, stopping and sniffing the air. I drew my weapon, but the girl behind me held my arms back. “Don’t,” she said. “They’ll hear you.” The creature looked from side to side, its molten breath cooking the air around us.

“They?” I whispered.

“Shh.”

After a few moments, the huge beast lumbered on, and the girl released my mouth. “Sorry,” she said. In the flickering light, I could just make out her features. She was perhaps the strangest Imago I’d seen, entirely pale ghostly gray. She was also translucent, something that was extremely unnerving to see with her human-shaped body. The only part of her that wasn’t see-through were two solid black eyes, like goggles floating in the air. “I didn’t mean to startle you two. What are you doing out here, Quinn?”

“You know me?”

“I’m in your class. Grace.” She held out her hand, and I hesitated before shaking it. “I know, I know, I’m kinda freaky. But don’t be scared. I mean... the whole world’s already scared of us... can’t go around being squeamish with each other.”

“We’re out because we noticed the creature,” I said. “And hold on, what did you mean by ‘they’ll hear you’?”

“Oh,” she said. “You haven’t seen what’s... what’s going on upstairs, have you?”

“Upstairs?”

Grace looked between both of us and sighed. “I’m going to regret this, aren’t I? Okay. Come with me. See for yourselves.”

***

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After checking for the Echo, we sneaked up to the stairs. The door opened with a painfully loud creak, but it seemed like the creature didn’t notice, and we proceeded into the stairwell. The lights were flickering here, as well. It was several flights of stairs up to the classroom at the very top. Muffled noises were coming from above.

“I came down from the second floor,” said Grace. “Along with whoever else I could grab before things got too intense.” As she said that, a group of Angels hurried down the stairs past us. She stopped the first of them and pulled her aside. “You made it. Great. Keep going. There’s a large Echo in the hallways, but besides that it’s clear. Try not to make a racket. Word from above is that, for now, the attack is limited to the upper levels. We want to avoid drawing attention to the lower floors.”

The girl nodded and hurried on. The Angels behind her were all transformed as well, in various states of disarray. There were bent wings, and broken or missing limbs. Some had puncture marks where translucent greenish hemolymph was oozing out from them. They looked in poor shape, though their human bodies would still be mostly fine if they could get to a safe place to rest.

“As you can see, things are quite rough,” Grace continued.

“There’s been an attack?” asked Joy. “On the second floor? That’s where... where...”

She nodded. “Much more brutal than what Quetzal has been up to recently. It’s not his style. I mean, they aren’t his Echoes, either.”

“What do you mean?”

“That was, what, Daeodon?” she said. “Quetzal is more cool than that. Non of his Echoes are mammals. This has to be one of his lackeys. I mean, Demons can technically bring back Echoes from any time, but they tend to have preferences, right? And Quetzal is very much a late-Cretaceous, giant reptile fanboy. He likes ‘em big and bombastic. Not.. sneaking in the middle of the night.”

I just stared at her blankly.

“Sorry, I’m rambling again, aren’t I?” said Grace. “I’m just.. you know, I’ve always been a fossil nerd, and Echoes are so cool, and I just... enough. We gotta focus. This seems like maybe Dawn, I think. She seems the most normal of his goons. And by normal, I mean.. well, downright vicious. Quetzal has a habit of choosing kinda wishy-washy subordinates; like come on, you saw Ollie, right? But Dawn...”

As we ascended, the hallways were in disarray. Smoke and dust filled the air, making it hard to see very far, but what I could see was dire. Angels were rushing by in all directions. A few doors were creaking open, some of the Angels peeking out to make sure it was safe before making a break for it. Stonework was smashed and crumbling. Glass was shattered all over the ground.

As we hurried further, Grace continued to give instructions to the fleeing Angels that passed. The stairway deteriorated more and more as we ascended, and the sensation of Echoes filled my head. There was far more than just that one, wasn’t there? We opened the door on the second floor, and a gust of sand scraped against my feet. The cloud was even denser here, filling the whole space with a dense, sepia haze. “You see?” said Grace. “Dawn’s fingerprints all over this. She’s um, well... she doesn’t mind a lot more destruction, no?”

Joy rushed through the doorway. “Hurry up,” she whispered. “Melody and Russula have their rooms here, too.”

“They do?” asked Grace. “I don’t think I... I don’t think I saw them.

The ground was crawling with Echoes. A torrent of little molten black and red and orange creatures swarming to and fro freely. They brushed against my feet, completely unconcerned by my presence here.

“What happened here?” I whispered.

Figures came in to focus, leaning against the walls. Angels. Their Imagos were broken, largely beyond repair. Some were lying in puddles of hemloymph, while others were almost completely deteriorated, arms and legs and torsos lying half-devoured or destroyed by Echoes. It was harrowing, even knowing that they would be fine. They would be able to regrow from a small chrysalis despite the complete destruction of their Imagos. Still, it was deeply disturbing to see these human-shaped shells being gnawed at by the Echoes scurrying underfoot.

“I don’t feel so good,” mumbled Joy.

Bood. There was blood everywhere. Dark stains on the walls and floors... red blood. Angels didn’t have blood like this. There were no bodies, at least, and so I wondered where it had all come from. Had Angels been injured in human form?

Joy banged hard on the door to Melody’s room, trying the handle time and time again as Grace and I stood watch. Besides the Echoes running between our feet, the place seemed relatively free of direct threats. But it would’ve been hard to notice, regardless. The presence of so many Echoes nearby made my head spin. Drawing my blade, I swept through the masses, slicing them into little rocky bits, all over the ground. It made no difference to their numbers.

“Help!” the voice was loud and clear and welcome.

“Melody!” said Joy, sprinting down the hallway.

“Hold on—” said Grace.

I didn’t bother trying to stop her and just ran after her. At top speed, I could just keep on her trail through the dense clouds of smoke and dust. And, like a miracle, Melody was there. She sat propped up in an alcove, her platinum-blonde hair mixed with dust and sand. Her uniform was torn in a few places, with no obvious cuts, but there was one dark red spot around her shoulder. A gunshot wound. She’d tied a makeshift bandage around it to staunch the flow of blood, and her body, besides that arm, had transformed into her Imago, though the injury appeared to be hampering her ability to transform.

Her head, too, was still human, and tears were streaming down her face. She seemed completely inconsolable, and it took us a good long while to get something cohesive out of her. When she finally spoke, it was, as expected, bad news. “Russula,” she murmured.

“What happened?” Joy asked.

“They took her.”