Chapter 1
Cherie Madison
----------------------------------------
Cherie was gonna end it this time.
She sat on the quarter-full subway car, one hand around Liam’s skinny arm, scared to let him go for even a second because he was in one of those moods where he’d run off the moment she took her attention off him. The other arm was curled protectively around Aiden, strapped into one of those baby carriers that was like a backpack but in front of her—he was getting too big for it, honestly, but it would be okay for this one trip. Aiden had stayed mercifully asleep up until now, but he was stirring and fussing and she knew he’d fully wake up soon, cranky and hungry and dead set on toddling around after his brother. She held the oversized rolling suitcase between her legs, cat carrier strapped on top with bungee cords, and the baby bag was still slung over one of her thin shoulders. She burrowed her face deeper into her scarf.
In her fist, she held a crumpled post-it with directions to a women’s shelter, and she kept looking at it, reminding herself of everything the lady at the hotline told her, scared she’d get distracted and miss her stop. Her neck was sore and aching, and the spot on her back where she’d hit the table throbbed. Her head hurt, and the world felt fuzzy and far away. She fought through those feelings to stay alert—she needed to get off at the right stop, and to notice any cops or metro employees before they noticed her. None of Chris’s cop buddies could know where she went, or this would all fall apart.
She just shook her head at him. Even with his hearing aids, he wouldn’t hear her over the noise of the train, and more of an answer would require two hands. She wasn’t sure she could unclench the one around his arm if she wanted to.
With her other hand, she fumbled for her phone in the pocket of her jacket. She knew she wouldn’t get reception until she was back above ground, but she couldn’t help herself—she was still hoping for a reply from Maddie, her oldest, whose high school classes would be getting out soon. She opened her texts with her free hand.
> Dont go home after school today
>
> Get on the subway and go to the same station where we bought your sneakers, ill meet you at the dunkin on the corner
>
> This is important!!!
>
> Dont talk to chris or let him know where youre going
>
> Text me when you see this
>
> Love you
Still no reply.
The train’s brakes started to screech, and the car swayed as it began to slow. Cherie tensed, ready to grab her kids and her suitcase and slip down the train if anyone official-looking got on, same as she had for the past four stops.
Guy in a suit, a couple teenagers… Her stomach flipped when she saw a woman in blue, official-looking clothes, but on closer examination she realized it was just a mail carrier’s uniform. Nothing to worry about.
The station cleared and the door started to close. Cherie let herself breathe again.
At the last moment before the doors shut, two men pushed their way into the subway car, breathing heavily like they’d been running. The shorter one, a 30-something guy in a gray coat, collapsed into the seat next to her, while the taller one…
He loomed.
The second man was enormous, probably the tallest, broadest person she’d ever seen. He didn’t take a seat, instead opting to stand over his companion. She glanced at his face and took in the long, jagged scar that ran from his forehead down his left cheek—then quickly looked away so he couldn’t catch her staring.
She was frozen. She just… She couldn’t take having a man standing over her like that, not right now. She wished desperately that she could run for it, but she was stuck in place.
She breathed deep. This guy wasn’t Chris, or…or anyone else who wanted to hurt her. He couldn’t help being tall and kind of scary looking. He was probably a nice guy, and that tensed-spring, attack-ready vibe she got off him was most likely all in her head.
And if he was a threat, running would just make things worse.
She was still fine. Just two more stops to go.
She made herself turn her attention to Aiden, who was sleepily rubbing his face against her chest. She’d hoped he would stay asleep through the whole trip, but that was wishful thinking, really. He was 18 months old now with endless reserves of energy. She’d need to distract him somehow before he started crying about being stuck in the carrier. She dug around one-handed in the baby bag for the pacifier the doctor told her not to give him anymore—she felt a pang of guilt that she’d never managed to break him of the habit, but having a quiet baby just made everything a little easier.
She was still digging through the baby bag when the train lurched, hard.
She skid out of her seat, lost her grip on Liam, and was sent sprawling onto the floor of the train car, barely avoiding falling on her front and crushing Aiden. Sparks flew up past the windows as the train jumped off its rails and scraped the sides of the tunnel with a horrifying metallic screech. She grabbed the bottom of a subway pole and curled herself around it to keep from being thrown further down the car, free hand shielding Aiden’s head as best she could.
A moment later, the guy in the gray coat came crashing right into her. As the train lurched sideways, he reached over and grabbed the same pole she was curled around, then was thrown to the side, clipping her with an elbow as he flailed. She couldn’t do anything, couldn’t help or fend him off, just clung on helplessly as the whole world narrowed to the subway pole and the unbearable screech that wouldn’t end.
Finally, mercifully, the car slowed, then stopped with a lurch. The silence was overwhelming after the horrible noise of metal on concrete.
Aiden started wailing.
Cherie carefully picked her bruised body off the ground and turned her attention to the toddler, giving him as good a once-over as she could while he was still buckled to her front. He didn’t seem to be bleeding or anything, thank God—his sleeve was dirty from the subway floor but he seemed unhurt, just shaken up by the noise and falling. She wrapped her arms around him, maybe more for the comfort it brought her than anything else.
The man who’d crashed into her was getting back to his feet too, hauled up by one arm by his giant companion. As he rose, his dark eyes met hers for an instant.
That momentary glance shot through her body like a bolt of lightning. She felt...exposed, like he’d flayed open her mind and soul and saw everything about her in an instant—every secret, every fear, every weakness. The feeling was bizarre, and it shredded what was left of her already-frayed nerves.
After only an instant, though, his eyes softened, and the feeling changed to something like a deep sadness, but the emotion felt strange--it didn’t match up with how she should feel. It felt like it came from outside her, somehow.
She looked away as fast as she could.
“They found us,” she heard the man say to his huge companion.
Wait. Liam. Oh God, where was he? She berated herself for losing hold of him, for not thinking of him immediately, terrified that he was seriously injured or worse... Cherie turned to the back of the subway car, heart in her throat as she looked for her son.
He was right there, on the floor but sitting up, cradling a skinned knee but otherwise okay.
She rushed over to him and helped him off the floor, giving him a once-over to look for any more serious injuries. Like Aiden, he seemed fine other than a few scrapes and bruises—his hearing aids were askew but still attached, and she absently fixed them as she ran a hand over his buzzed, dark hair and pulled him close. Their suitcase, cat carrier still attached with bungee cords, had skidded over here too, and she carefully righted it to a mrrrr of protest from inside. Liam immediately stuck his fingers into the carrier to comfort the cat—whose name was Katsuki for some reason Maddie had told her but she couldn’t remember—and the animal nuzzled against them. She bounced Aiden absently and mumbled some soothing nonsense, and his crying settled down into small hiccups.
With the three small beings she was responsible for all handled for the moment, Cherie looked back up the car.
Other passengers were picking themselves up off the floor, and although she could hear some moans and quiet swearing, everyone seemed alive and largely mobile.
One of the passengers she’d seen earlier—the mail carrier—came over to the door nearest Cherie and started trying to pry it open.
Cherie left Liam distracted by the cat and went over to help.
“You okay?” the mail lady asked. “And the kids?”
Cherie nodded.
“I think this car got disconnected from the rest of the train, somehow,” she said as she tried to get her fingers into the gap between the subway doors. “I don’t know…it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that could just happen. Maybe somebody tried to blow us up but couldn’t finish the job. A botched terrorist attack or something.”
Cherie felt like she should reply, but somehow the part of her that knew how to talk to people wasn’t available at the moment. She stared dumbly.
The mail carrier seemed to notice Cherie’s distress. “Uh, sorry, that was morbid. The important thing is that we’re okay, and I’m sure they’ll send someone down here to help us soon.”
Cherie took a closer look at the woman—she was Black, with deep brown skin and close-cropped dark hair. She had a solid, stocky build under her shapeless uniform, and seemed a bit older than Cherie, maybe around forty—though perhaps that impression just came from how together she seemed, despite the terrifying situation they were in, locked underground, lights out…trapped.
She could feel her breathing getting faster.
The woman seemed to notice something was wrong. “Hey, maybe you should sit,” she said. Cherie shook her head and took a step back—she was suddenly certain that if she stopped moving for a moment she’d fall apart. “Okay, well...could you go check if anyone’s hurt?”
Yeah. That was something useful she could do! First she’d check on Liam again, and...wait, he’d skinned his knee, hadn’t he? The hot core of guilt in her stomach surged to the surface again to remind her that she was a terrible mother, but she pushed it back down with a few deep breaths.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Liam was still with the cat carrier...and now he was trying to open it and get Katsuki out, apparently. Luckily, the latch was too hard for a little kid to open. She patted his shoulder to get his attention.
Liam nodded and clambered into the seat. She got to work, dabbing at his knee and trying to get the worst of the gross subway dirt out of it, though without water or wet wipes there wasn’t that much she could do. She layered a few band-aids over the worst parts and tried to flash him a smile as soon as she was done.
His skinny arms flailed, his signs wild with the outburst. This wasn’t like him normally—he was definitely the most even-keeled person in the family—but, well, he’d been through a lot today. No wonder he was freaked out.
She didn’t bother replying, just reached out to him. He glommed onto her side immediately.
WHAM.
Something big suddenly slammed into the subway car, and she stumbled back, only barely keeping her and Liam upright. The door that the mail carrier had been trying to open dented inward—the woman jumped backward away from it.
WHAM.
Again, something slammed into the door, denting it further. Cherie pulled Liam a few steps farther away from it, getting between him and the source of the noise. She could see out of the corner of her eye other passengers scrambling—some getting to their feet, preparing for whatever was happening, others shrinking back and hiding.
“What is that?!” the mail carrier shouted, looking to their fellow passengers for anyone who could explain. There was murmuring and confusion from the people scattered throughout the car, but no one had any answers.
The huge man she’d seen before strode up to the dent in the wall and settled into what looked like some kind of fighting stance, like from an action movie, or maybe a martial arts thing?
“Stay back,” he said in a deep, rumbling voice.
WHAM.
If this was some sort of prank, or an elaborate trick for Mr. Giant Guy’s YouTube channel, she was gonna have words for whoever was responsible.
His companion, the guy in the gray coat, was suddenly beside her.
“Don’t worry, he’ll handle this,” he said, glancing in Cherie’s direction but keeping his gaze lowered, like he didn’t want to meet her eyes again. “He always beats them.”
What the hell does that mean?! Cherie thought.
“What the hell does that mean?!” the mail carrier turned to shout at him. “We’re being attacked? By who?!” She strode up to the man, looking like a woman at the absolute end of her rope who was about to shake some sense into somebody...but Cherie watched as her eyes met his, and she seemed to deflate.
WHAM…kreeeeeeeeee!
The metal sliding door of the subway car peeled back like tinfoil, and something came in.
It wasn’t a person. The...thing...was hard to look at head-on. It seemed to jump in her vision, made up of some dark matter that writhed and swirled within a form that was vaguely humanoid, but that kept changing shape, bulging huge one moment, limbs going thin and wispy with too many joints the next. It stepped forward on two legs, wobbly like it wasn’t used to walking, arms out for balance like a toddler taking its first shaky steps.
Cherie gripped Liam’s arm harder and pushed him a few halting paces toward the far wall of the subway car, her eyes never leaving the creature in front of her. Liam was making a panicked sound in the back of his throat and pulling at her grip like he wanted to bolt, but every instinct she had was telling her that you never run from a predator, because it wants to chase. She had to get him low down and out of sight and quiet him down somehow.
The black form tottered another step, then it seemed to give up on its humanoid form and pushed forward in a dark wave aimed at the seats where Cherie, Liam, and the man in the gray coat were crouched. Cherie covered Aiden’s head with her arms and braced for impact.
But impact never came. She heard a bizarre sound, like a squelching noise echoing in a huge, empty room. She looked up.
The giant man had caught the thing around its formless middle and was holding it in what looked almost like a wrestling grip. His arms were locked around it, and he threw it to the ground, going down with it to hold it in place against the floor--the thing changed shape and struggled wildly in his grip the whole time.
Something under the huge man’s clothes was glowing with white light in long geometric patterns up and down his limbs, across his shoulder blades and down his back. It was clearest on his uncovered hands, but the light was strong enough that it shone through the heavy material of his coat and pants.
The thing’s struggling lessened, and for a moment it looked like the giant had subdued it. But then it jerked, hard, and with one huge lurch threw the massive man down the subway car. The man only narrowly missed crashing into an elderly woman who’d just been put back in her wheelchair, did crash into a man with a stubbly beard and a teal ski jacket, and was sent flying, tangled up with the other guy, toward the rear window.
The huge man seemed to twist in the air, barely making contact with the floor but still changing direction with incredible speed. He caught the stubbly bearded man and threw him out of the dangerous trajectory he’d been on—about to smash face-first into a metal seat—and somehow used that momentum to fling himself back toward the monster. His feet barely touched the ground as he took one, two, three bounding steps and crashed into the dark figure once more, sending them both rolling toward the front, a few more passengers jumping up onto the seats to get out of their way as they crashed like a pinball through the car.
The monster landed on top this time and slashed at the huge man’s chest--Cherie couldn’t tell what part of the smoke-like form was sharp enough to cut someone, but she saw a spurt of blood and heard the man grunt in pain. A woman screamed as the monster got near her, but it ignored the other passengers and made its way back toward Cherie. It was back in humanoid form, walking more surely now but still moving much slower than it did when it was formless. She shrank back and pushed Liam fully under the seat behind her, then started pulling at the clasps of Aiden’s baby carrier to hand him off to his brother, but her hands were shaking too hard to undo them. She scrabbled at them uselessly as the creature came closer and closer.
There were tendrils of black smoke radiating off the monster, and one curled off its strange body and lightly brushed the back of her hand.
Cherie jerked back in shock--the spot where it touched felt like it was freezing and electrocuted at the same time, icy bolts shooting up her arm. She let out a strangled scream and scrambled over the seats behind her to put the seat backs between her and the creature. A blueish burn mark bubbled up on her skin, stinging even when she got away from it.
“Pretty sure you’re looking for me.”
The man in the gray coat stepped in front of her, blocking her from the thing’s view. When he spoke, he didn’t sound scared--a little annoyed, maybe, but there was also a smirk in his voice. His arms were limp at his sides, and he made no move to fight the thing, but he did take a few steps to the side, drawing its attention into the center of the subway car and away from Cherie.
The monster’s smoky arm reached for him, and the freezing tendrils touched his face. He didn’t react at all as it reached out to embrace—or engulf—him.
But instead of grabbing him, the creature was shoved forward and crashed down again—the huge man had gotten back up somehow and tackled it back to the floor. He lifted it up and slammed it back down, once, twice, three times, and the creature grew more formless, more like a puddle of ooze, with each hit.
After the fourth time, the big man let go of the creature and let it slump to the ground. The thing had stopped moving, though it was still smoking slightly.
“That one almost got you,” the man in the gray coat said to his companion. “I think you’re slipping.”
The huge man scoffed as he got back to his feet. “I had it under control—”
“Sure, buddy. Of course you did.”
Cherie was still on the ground, shaking and clutching both kids to her. The man in the gray coat turned to her and smiled down gently, though he didn’t meet her eyes.
“Hey, rough day, huh? Sorry about that. Don’t worry, they’ll take care of this soon.” He got a hand under her elbow and helped her awkwardly to her feet.
All around the subway car, people were stirring, standing up if they’d been knocked down, checking on their companions. Someone was crying quietly. Cherie could see the mail carrier inching closer to the puddle of monster on the floor, her sneaker inching closer like she wanted to prod it. Another guy, the man in the suit she’d seen get on earlier, stomped up to the huge man on noticeably shaky legs.
“Wh-what do you people think you’re doing?! Is this a prank? E-explain yourself!”
The huge guy ignored him, instead turning to the man in the gray coat. “We should clean up.”
“Yeah, yeah.” The man in the gray coat was still supporting Cherie’s weight, but he turned to face her. “Look at me, would you? I want to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”
She hesitated for a moment, nervous to meet the man’s eyes again, but...what a stupid thing to be nervous about. The bizarre feeling she’d experienced twice now had to be in her head, right?
Her eyes flicked up and met his.
Once again, she felt like she was being turned inside out. The man’s eyes were dark brown with little flecks of amber around the edges, and they seemed to grow and fill her entire vision. She was frozen, everything that made her her on display, every memory, every feeling, every secret...
But then, her vision grew cloudy around the edges. She felt tired, and almost...peaceful. Her body went slack and she released her grip on Liam—a spike of nerves shook her out of it for an instant as she tried to grab him again, but the soothing feeling intensified, and her arm fell limp to her side.
“Shhh...it’ll be okay,” she could hear him saying in a soothing voice. “It’ll all be fine soon.”
She could sense the events of the day getting foggier in her mind. She remembered vividly the image of the monster approaching her, its tendrils of fog caressing her hand with electric fire...but that was nonsense, wasn’t it? They’d been in an accident, and she’d gotten a bit banged up and...burned her hand, somehow...but monsters weren’t real. Obviously. She’d been tired and stressed and her subconscious mind had made up some weird fear-based nightmare...better to just forget.
Let it slip away…
A sickening squelch, and Cherie snapped back to reality. She was still staring the man in the eyes, but their mesmerizing power was replaced with a look of shock, mouth gaping in surprise. His body spasmed, and whatever strange link he’d built between them was broken.
Cherie looked down to see a dark, swirling tendril spearing him right through the chest. A red stain was spreading quickly across his coat.
The man slumped forward. Cherie caught him on instinct and went to the ground with him, slowing his fall a little and trying to keep his limp body from crushing Aiden.
“Dom!” From over the man’s (Dom’s?) shoulder, Cherie could see the giant guy rushing toward them, but he was blocked by more writhing tendrils of darkness—the monster had sprung back to life and was attacking furiously. The giant man tried to get ahold of it in another wrestling grip, but it flung him back, and this time she could hear a horrible crunch of metal and bone as he crashed into the subway seats.
Dom gasped in her arms, and she looked back to him. The tendril that had skewered him had been yanked back out, and the oozing blood was gushing now. She pulled off her scarf and wadded it up to staunch the flow, pressing down hard.
In only a few seconds, it was soaked through.
She could hear a battle going on nearby—the giant man roared and she heard the squelch of him grappling the monster again—but she couldn’t spare any attention. The man in the gray—red—coat seemed like he was trying to speak to her, but he couldn’t get the words out, couldn’t do anything but gasp wordlessly.
“Shh, shh, it’ll be okay,” she murmured absently, like he’d said to her just a few minutes ago, like she’d soothe her own kids when they were upset. Aiden was fussing and squirming in the carrier now, jostling her as she tried frantically to stop the bleeding, but she couldn’t spare any attention for him.
She just hoped he was too young to remember any of this.
Dom gasped again, and blood dribbled out of the corner of his mouth. That couldn’t be good, but there was nothing else she could think to do. She heard another slam as the giant was thrown down again.
The bleeding man flailed a hand awkwardly at her, and it landed right on Aiden’s back. I really hope he’s too young to remember this, she thought as blood smeared on the baby’s clothes.
His dark eyes locked with hers once more. This time, she didn’t feel anything strange—she just saw a scared, hurt person who wanted it to stop.
An instant later, he burst into nothing.
He was there one moment, gone the next—no blood or guts, just an incredibly brief flash of light and his body exploded outward so fast she could hardly follow it. The hand she’d had on his chest to hold his blood in went right through the void where his body had been, sending her falling forward. She scrabbled at the floor for a moment, unable to process what she’d just seen, unsure if he was gone or somehow invisible.
All he’d left behind were bloodstains on the floor and her clothes, and tiny, glowing bits of something that sparkled in the air like dust in a sunbeam.
Cherie looked around frantically, remembering that they were still under attack. Only ten feet away, she could see the giant man struggling against the monster, but he was pinned underneath it this time--she saw one of the other passengers throw a backpack at it, but the object missed it entirely, or maybe it passed right through.
The thing slammed the huge man into the floor, almost like a parody of the move the giant had used just a few minutes ago, and he lay still.
As she watched, though, the tiny motes of light spread throughout the subway car. They’d seemed harmless as they surrounded her body and filled the air around her, but as they touched the creature, it jerked away as if burned. It attacked wildly and randomly, coming disturbingly close to hitting a few other passengers who scrambled out of its way, but it didn’t seem to be aiming for them at all.
The terrifying figure changed shape as it flailed, now human-shaped, now a bulging slug, now all elbows and knees, always made out of the same swirling nothingness. But as she watched it, frozen in place, she saw that it was being diminished bit by bit. It was no longer fighting the huge man—he lay unmoving (dead?) on the floor—but something was destroying it a little at a time. It didn’t try to attack anyone, just whipped around wildly while bits and pieces of it dissolved, hissing and dissipating into the air.
A few moments later it was the size of a golden retriever, then a house cat. The other passengers were frozen just as she was, glued to the spot as they watched, no idea what they should do or if getting any closer was dangerous.
The thing shrunk smaller and smaller until only a tiny wisp of smoke remained. A moment later, that wisp was blown away, leaving nothing behind but a torn-up subway car and a too-still man.
Silence descended, the onlookers all stunned into stillness.
A long moment passed. Cherie heard the other passengers start to move around, talking in hushed voices, but she let them get on with it without her. She sat back heavily on the floor of the subway car, held her boys close, and waited for rescue.