Moments before chaos broke out in the small library room of Michael’s old school, Michael and his companions heard the clicking sounds. And then they saw what caused them. On the window ledge outside the large windows on one side of the library were small, humanoid, but inhuman creatures with large bat ears and claws on their feet. Their faces had a bat-like quality as well.

Sarah said again, this time almost screaming, "What the fuck!"

And Michael said, "It's... uh, I mean..." he wasn't quite able to process the creatures as they seemed to climb over the top of each other and look in at them through the windows.

Katie's worried voice came to Michael as if in a dream, slow and muted as the shock of seeing these new creatures and his brain's reaction to the panic made him slow down.

"We've got to go," the petite woman said to her friends. Michael could barely understand the words as they all looked out the window and the little creatures were joined by a large black one with big bat ears.

"Look at the size of it," Lucy said.

"I know, but it doesn't matter, we have to get out of here!" Katie repeated. She turned and her big, beautiful eyes locked with Michael's, her voice soft but hurried as she spoke.

The clattering on the roof remained, and even as Michael nodded to affirm Katie's plan, the scratching at the door to the library started to make a crunching sound as if the creature or creatures trying to get through the doorway had been unsuccessful with claws alone, and were trying something else.

There were no more doors out of the room and so they were stuck.

"What are we gonna do, Lucy?" Sarah asked the other redhead, her eyes wide as Michael looked around for anything he could use as a weapon, in case he had to try and defend himself or any of them against whatever was outside, trying to get to them.

Michael was distracted from his own thoughts when Lucy replied to Sarah.

"I'll do my thing," Lucy replied. She gave the platinum blonde a strange, almost apologetic smile, but the blonde seemed to know exactly what she was talking about in a way that Michael didn't. Katie nodded, but the worry in her eyes made Michael realise that this plan wasn't a great one. Again, Michael remembered he was an outsider to this group, his presence unneeded and almost unwelcome. He deduced that there must be a downside to Lucy’s transformation.”

"Girls, I think we should blockade the door before it’s…”

As Michael started to say, a crunching and ripping sound emanated from the doorway as it began to bend inwards, cracking at its edges, and splinters flew across the room in their direction as a dark brown limb with black claws and scales pried through the wood, a horrible scraping and tearing noise that made Michael's spine shiver. As the ripping continued, the dark brown creature's limbs pushed the wood to one side and ripped it away, the cracking sound now getting louder as it made its way through to them.

As he tried to understand how to react to what he was seeing, the creatures in the doorway became more and more apparent as the wood flew in all directions. He turned and looked over his shoulder, and noticed Lucy had begun to make her way into a corner, trying to stay away from whatever it was coming in. Katie was right next to her and looked to be whispering in the girl's ear. He didn't have any idea what they were saying or doing. It looked like Lucy was crying.

Sarah's expression had gone cold again and Michael turned his head to see her, and the tearing and crashing from the doorway almost deafened him.

"Girls! Get back!" Sarah said, in a voice that Michael found oddly alluring for its protectiveness, despite the dire circumstances.

He could not afford to be distracted. His attention went back to the door, now completely shattered and torn away as he tried to comprehend what he saw in the opening.

While he was expecting the creature at the door to be a batlike creature like the ones outside the window, this one was far more human-looking in appearance. It stood slightly taller than Michael, maybe six-feet tall or so, and had the general shape of a man. His features - he assumed it was a man - were covered entirely by a shroud that he was wearing that reminded Michael of an old film set in Arabia or some desert somewhere; all black, with only a hooded cape and some wrappings over its face that looked to Michael to be completely and utterly dark, even though he couldn't quite make out any detail as it stepped forward into the doorway. He also saw a huge black sword that was strapped to its side.

As it stood in the doorway, Michael realised that Sarah had moved to stand just behind him to his right, bat in hand. He made the snap decision to put his body between the thing and her. But as it walked in the doorway and Michael tried to stand his ground, he was fighting every instinct that told him to run.

The creature in black had stopped, its body poised as though it was sizing Michael and the others up, the huge, heavy-looking sword still on its hip.

Thinking as quickly as he could force himself, he damned the fact that there were florescent lights in the library, and throughout the school in general, because it meant that Sarah's shadow-skipping gift was useless. He thought about distracting the cloaked figure while the girls got away, but the black adversary was blocking the door, and the only other exit was the fire escape which would put the girls within claw-and-wing range of the bats outside. Michael cursed that he hadn't brought any weapons with him, and realised he'd been complacent by thinking the girls' home base was a safe haven from the monsters outside. They'd have to make their escape past the thing, and his best hope was to talk it out of killing them. That probably wouldn't work.

But before he could open his mouth, Sarah stepped forward.

He put out his arm to try and block her, and her expression said that he'd better have a damned good reason to do so. "Let me try to talk to him," Michael said. He turned back to face the dark, imposing, tall creature, its shroud wrapped over it's face, making it impossible to read. The body language was calm but intimidating. It reminded Michael of the feeling he got when facing a particularly mean looking bouncer outside of a club or pub, where the guy was much bigger than him and probably used to hurting people. It made his guts clench and he tried to think about what to say, his voice shaking a bit. "Um. We, uh, mean no trouble, OK?" The figure did not reply and seemed to have gone perfectly still.

As he looked at it, a feeling came over Michael like he was being judged and was being found guilty, a shudder of cold energy running down his spine.

The figure took a step forward and lifted his blade.

"I guess it was worth a try," Michael said, trying to muster some sort of positivity.

"It really wasn't." came the reply. He couldn't really see Sarah, but her voice came through clear.

The black-robed creature then made a clicking and clacking sound like a chitinous insect. The language, Michael realised, must be that of these strange creatures, and he figured that this humanesque creature must be in charge of the raid, trying to communicate with the bat monsters outside the window. Michael realised that the coast was clear down the corridor and stairs behind the black-clad figure. Just the one, huge, intimidating and threatening figure with a big, black sword.

"Girls," Michael said, looking back over his shoulder to the others. Lucy was crying now and being comforted by Katie.

Sarah looked from him to them, then to the cloaked creature. And Michael said to her, "I'll handle this guy. Take them and run past us. I'll try and distract this thing."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Sarah simply nodded at him, as though it had been her plan anyway. Her gaze lingered for just a moment and then she went over to the girls. Lucy had started shaking and looked like she was going to start hyperventilating, her whole body vibrating. As Katie held her and comforted her, Sarah tried to pull Lucy's shoulder, saying, "We need to move. Right now, Luce!"

"I can't!" she said back to her, her voice a screeching cry. The noise made Michael wince.

Michael tried to stay focused on the task at hand and as Lucy continued to get herself together, Michael walked toward the black-robed man., his back to the girls. He was doing all he could for them, he told himself.

Michael readied his body and said, "Alright then," as the figure shifted slightly, and it brought the huge sword from his belt and held it to his side. The weapon looked heavy and unwieldy to Michael. And yet, in a swift, precise movement the dark blade swung and the metal swirled through the air in Michael's direction. His brain just barely processed the information as the sword moved so quickly it seemed like a black blur.

Michael stepped back very quickly. He knew his plan was mostly likely futile, but if he could distract this menace long enough for the girls to get away, then he could run for it himself. But the speed of the creature's blade was something to be very afraid of, as the creature's shrouded head seemed to snap to the side and it brought its sword in an upward motion.

Michael threw himself backwards and almost lost his balance. But he regained it just enough to fall onto the floor and then jump back up. His brain felt foggy from the earlier incident where he had passed out. And yet his focus remained.

Michael got into a fighting position, trying to make the figure attack him. It moved so swiftly, with such an agile grace, that Michael was unsure of how he would get past it. The only plan was for him to move quickly enough and avoid being sliced to pieces. Then, the creature did exactly what he hoped. It took several quick strides forward, blade swinging in a horizontal arc towards him. He felt a shuddering panic run down his spine and his whole body went into a hyperactive mode, dodging to his side as quickly as possible. But not quickly enough.

Michael felt a burning, hot, white pain searing across his skin. The blade had slashed across the side of his left arm and the skin was torn open, leaving a deep, red cut which gushed with his own blood, the searing hot pain coursing up and down the nerves on that side of his body, and then he heard himself yelling all kinds of obscenities at the invader.

As Michael regained his bearings, he did see that the girls were no longer in the library, and he only hoped that Sarah had taken the idea of going through the building rather than chancing it outside with the bat creatures. As the cloaked man took several strides in Michael's direction and made another swipe of his huge, black blade. Michael barely dodged the blow, feeling the air on the sharp edge of the metal brush against his face.

He didn't want to give the thing a second chance, so he made his move to try and escape, moving around the side of the figure, hoping to slip past him and make it down the hall. He realised then, to his dismay, that he was now pinned in the middle of the library, no escape route. His head spun and his heart thumped so loud he was sure they could hear it. He dodged, his feet tripping over one another, his vision clouded with panic. He grabbed at a book that was on a table and threw it, knowing that it'd not be enough to distract the man for long. It didn't distract him at all, swatting it away like an insect and keeping a bead on Michael with the shrouded, hidden face of his. He backed up, knowing there was only the wall between them now, his arm throbbing. Michael tried to get away from him as he walked in Michael's direction.

The creature brought up the sword again and was just about to make another strike when Michael saw something he didn't expect to see.

Over the shoulder of the hooded figure, stood firmly by the doorway that Michael wanted to use, was the figure from his last vision. It never occurred to him that he'd had a vision of a black-robed man before being attacked by this one, but in a brief second that seemed to stretch out into a longer period of time, the cloaked man stood over Michael's adversary's shoulder. Unlike the enemy stood between them, the figure from Michael's vision was definitely human, and Michael watched as the new entrant into the proceedings raised his hands to lift his hood off, revealing...

Revealing a face that looked exceptionally like Michael's.

Stunned into paralysis, Michael stood still, almost bewitched, as his enemy moved ever closer, the blade raised to his shoulder, his intention to slice him to pieces, probably, he didn't know. All Michael could do was stare in awe and wonder, the look in the face of this stranger, almost the spitting image of him, but with slightly different eyes, maybe. Or the chin, possibly, and he stood behind the robed figure, just looking at him.

As the cloaked figure turned his head slightly and Michael saw his chance, his opportunity, as his body was bent slightly at the hip. He lunged to the left and grabbed the nearest thing to him. It was a small reading table, which he threw clumsily at his foe. Operating more on instinct than anything else, he barrelled into his attacker with one thing and one thing only on his mind; grab the monster's sword-wielding arm so that he could disarm the bastard. He didn't know how to fight with a blade but it didn't really matter. It was his best shot at making an escape. It felt as if his mind had split in two, because the man behind them, the man who was almost his spitting image, simply stared, eyes wide open, expression calm. He had his hands raised slightly as if trying to gesture to him.

His thoughts didn't go much further, and he only snapped out of the reverie as he heard the robed man give off a grunt, almost a gasp. His face snapped to his opponent, and Michael used that second of the figure's confusion, grabbing him around the wrist, the man trying to swipe at Michael with his free arm and they both tumbled to the floor, Michael on top of the humanoid creature, both his arms grasping the sword-holding wrist of the black-clad creature, trying with all of his strength to prevent it from swinging and swiping. They wriggled and writhed and Michael used the weight of his whole body to pin his adversary's sword-wielding hand. His muscles burned with effort, trying with every last ounce of his energy and effort, but he was sure he could wrestle the weapon free if he just managed to pin the figure down. He slammed the attacker's wrist into the floor repeatedly, hoping to no avail that his foe would drop the sword.

As his enemy struggled, Michael worried that the creature was simply too strong, and as his left arm weakened due to his injury, it seemed that'd be the case. Still he fought, pinning down the intruder and fighting to get the sword free.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a single boot come into view. And then another. The man who'd been watching him, his doppelgänger, stood above him now, and the expression was unreadable to him.

Distracted, it took Michael a while to realise this figure was eerily translucent, black wisps forming around its extremities like smoke, or maybe something like steam. It reminded him of something recently.

Trying as hard as he could to concentrate on the monster below him, he was instantly taken by the memories of the arm appearing from nowhere to grab Sarah's bat at the last moment or the black, magical claw that sent Mrs. O'Brien to her second death.

Then it hit Michael.

"Are you... me?"

Brought back into the reality of the life-or-death struggle he was currently in by a sudden slash across the side of his head from his attacker, who was able to reach him with his free arm's claws. The robed creature, which was still pinned beneath Michael's weight and body, struggled and fought. And he felt his grip loosening.

But he couldn't shake the idea that his doppelgänger, stood there watching him with those strangely calm and reassuring eyes, had appeared like a vision to help him. Michael yelled, trying to fight the man beneath him, who struggled with increasing strength. Michael thought his body was going to break.

"Please help me," he said, more to himself than anything. But the vision above him stood, its black edges fraying in and out of reality as though either bemused or waiting for a command.

Feeling the creature scramble beneath him, losing power all the time, Michael clamped his eyes shut, concentrating on using what strength he had left to fight off the beast beneath him.

And a second or so after he clamped his eyes shut, a strange feeling came over him, and in his mind's eye he saw himself from above. It felt as though the man in black who was watching was giving him a bird's eye view.

Michael didn't have time to indulge this out-of-body experience, but in the instant he first saw from this new perspective, he felt as though he could control the other body. It started with Michael looking at "his" hands, turning them upwards to see the palms.

Knowing he had to take immediate advantage he commanded, or controlled, his doppelgänger, using the extra body at first to stomp on his enemy's face. Michael heard a sickening crunch as a boot met with a black-wrapped skull, the writhing body below Michael giving off an unearthly squeal as it began to flail around. The other version of him then dropped down to its knees and, using both hands, grabbed and wringed the creature by its throat. It didn't occur to him to be worried or frightened about this other him as his other hands reached around the struggling foe and he used his weight, his other self and the leverage of his arms on his opponent to continue holding its sword arm. He felt the struggle for the weapon turn into a horrid convulsing as Michael's double choked the life from it.

But it didn't last long, the thing's body slumping down on the ground. His enemy's death-throes were unpleasant, but short lived.

Michael opened his eyes. His own, real eyes, and shot a glance up only to see his double above him. They both looked to each other as the doppelgänger dropped its arms, standing back up and staring at Michael as the black, smoky, almost foglike edges of his double began to evaporate into the ether and Michael could see right through it.

Michael watched as this doppelgänger gave him an approving smile and disappeared.

Alone, and feeling far less victorious than he ought to, Michael rolled off his dead adversary’s body, grabbed his bleeding arm, and took some deep breaths as he lay on his back on the cold floor of the library.

What the hell had just happened?