“Morning, Dad,” August said, snatching a fork and dousing the pancakes in syrup.

Her father started, his reaction delayed, as if he hadn’t heard when she entered the room. Then He watched her consume droves of the pancake, not a word fashioned by his mouth. She had an inkling of what troubled him. However, to broach the subject was a different matter.

At last, he found the right words. “Do you have an idea how you got here last night?”

Mid-stuffing her face with a piece of pancake, she paused, glancing at him, then closed her mouth and dropped the fork. “Um, yeah. I assumed Mom called you to pick me up. I’m sorry for putting myself in a dangerous situation. How did you find me, anyway?”

“Your mom called?” He shook his head. “Nope, that is far from what happened. You wound up at my door by 9 pm, passed out.” He chuckled in disbelief. “I couldn’t believe it when I opened the door and you were there floating as if in the arms of someone invisible.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I said more than oh. Believe me. Haven’t sworn like that in years.” He examined his surroundings like he expected to see the invisible person. “I assume that was Harry Tophat, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“I did.” She averted her eyes downward.

“No, Augie. You know what I mean. It is one thing hearing your accounts, albeit as vivid as they are, of your imaginary friends. It is an entirely different thing seeing it for real. With my own eyes. If you’d showed us for real before your mom and I separated, then maybe we’d still—”

“No Dad. No.” Tears welled in her eyes. “You know how Mom is. I tried. Really, I wanted to tell you, but I was scared of what Mom would say or do. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. What’s happened’s happened. Forgive me for dwelling on the water under the bridge.” He leaned back in his chair, head tipped to the ceiling, then looked down at her. “I spoke to a lawyer about your custody.”

She perked up. “Really?”

“Yeah, but no promises. I normally wouldn’t tell you this, so it won’t sow any discord between you and your mother, but I know you’ve wanted to hear it.”

“I love you so much, dad.” Her smile was the widest it had been for a while. “If you need me to sign anything, say anything, do anything, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

He rumbled into another chuckle. “Noted, Sweetie. Still, you have to be more conscious of security. You should’ve called me to pick you up. Or better yet, you should’ve taken the subway.”

Her brows rose. “Shit! Dad, I didn’t think of that.”

How could she have forgotten something as vital as the subway during her effort to come here?

He nodded. “Finish up. We’ve got to head out.”

The only sounds about now were the clinks of her fork and her moans as she savored the delightful treat. Her father still watched her with a curious interest, seeming like he had more to say. She finally confronted him before they were out the front door.

“Dad, what is it?”

“Nothing, Sweetie.”

“Do you want to see him again? Harry Tophat?”

His eyes wandered. “Can I?”

She rolled her eyes. “Harry, please come on out.”

And the Harry Tophat did, materializing before her, his posture bent in a bow with his hat in hand. Her father stared off at the wrong area, unable to see the sasquatch. She had yet to come across someone who could see her imaginary friends. Harry Tophat, being the intellectual fellow he was, understood the task at hand. The sasquatch held onto a chesterfield with ornate legs and hoisted it into the air. Her father swiveled around, gasping. Then he studied the floating sofa strenuously, waving his hand where the sasquatch ought to be.

“Incredible,” he said. “So he really is there, but I can’t feel anything.”

Lily snuck up behind him and summoned a ball of fire that exploded harmlessly with a loud bang.

“Fucking hell!” He dove to the ground, turning to discern the source of the sound and heat.

The fairy clutched her tummy with tear-filled laughter.

“That’s not nice.” August frowned.

Between bouts of laughter, Lily said. “I know. I just had to see the look on his face. Blame it on my intrusive thoughts. You know me and my propensity to cause mischief.”

In the end, she had to drag her father, who seemed more interested in her imaginary friends than running late to work, to the car.

❊ ❊ ❊

Persia leaned down to inspect the mutilated body laid out before her. Its stomach had been ripped open, its guts spilled on the blood-soaked rug. The head was missing, of course, clamped off at the neck. A swift and efficient job.

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“How many bodies?” she asked.

“Six. Four adults, two children,” the officer, a reasonably fit man with a bald head, said. “This is the last one to be examined by forensics.”

“Where are the rest?” she asked, massaging her sore palms.

She wore a long coat with black pants and shin-high rugged boots. A knight, her only other partner, standing beside her, came fully equipped. The rest of the knights were scouring west of the northeastern state of Pennsylvania, where the Tsuchigumo frequently hunted. This was the fourth scene she had inspected in the past week. There were fifteen such crime scenes in total where they believed the Tsuchigumo was the perpetrator.

“In body bags at ground level,” the officer said. “I could show you.”

“No need. Just make sure to cremate the bodies.” Her eyes scanned the small living room, looking for anything that stood out. “Did a superhuman live in this complex?”

“Yes, one Alex Cardenas. Lived on the seventh floor. We believe she is among those abducted.”

“Take me to her apartment.”

They were in an apartment complex, south of Allentown, in a small town called Ottsville.

In Alex Cardenas’ apartment, she searched all the rooms for signs of struggle. However, the apartment was in pristine condition, as if a cleaner had just finished a good day’s work. She cleared a desk of its items with the swipe of her hand in frustration, startling the accompanying officer. For two weeks now, the demon had eluded them effortlessly. She knew that to be the most likely scenario given the inherent abilities of a Tsuchigumo, namely its illusion magic and mind control. But if things continued on this trajectory, her reputation suffering a heavy blow would be the least of her worries. To make matters worse, when she needed the nosey Lightflare for the first time, she found out he was on vacation at the worst of times, his phone unreachable.

She wasn’t even sure they were any closer to finding it than when they started. Like a wrecking ball, the Tsuchigumo continued to rain havoc on the mortals of Pennsylvania. And the public was catching on. According to their news reporters, there was a superhuman serial killer who had a particular fondness for cutting off heads and leaving a trail of corpses. If only they knew what truly lurked in the shadows. When she brought up the idea of evacuating the mortals living around the area the demon hunted, Mason shut that down, citing the astronomical costs.

The officer, laying witness to her outburst, spoke up. “If you are looking for something, a sign of struggle perhaps, I believe you should check apartment thirty-seven. The evidence is still there.”

Before she even stepped foot on the tenth floor, the metallic scent of blood hit her in waves. The walls of the long corridor bore deep long grooves in the concrete, a testament to the demon’s deadly claws. On the ceiling and sections of the wall, she spotted uniform holes, no doubt where the Tsuchigumo traversed with its pointy spider legs. The front door of apartment thirty-seven lay in the lobby in tatters. Streaks of blood had painted the living room walls dark red. The apartment was in a state of disarray; torn-down walls, broken furniture, and caved-in ceilings. It took her a few passes to piece together what had happened.

The Tsuchigumo had torn the front door to shreds. Then it met resistance in the living room, where a battle occurred.

She stared at a disfigured couch with collapsed legs.

“What were the superhuman’s abilities?” she asked.

“HAVEN disclosed it to be energy projection. Category three. She could shoot concussive blasts from her hands.”

That makes sense.

It explained the scorched, fist-sized holes dotting the apartment. Alex Cardenas had surprised the Tsuchigumo, drawing the demon’s blood while being pinned against the couch. Persia marked the spot where the Tsuchigumo’s blood had spilled and told the knight to collect samples of it. A smile crept on her face for the first time in two weeks. The Tsuchigumo had made its first mistake.

“Will you get them back?” the officer asked. “My cousin is among them. It’s still hard to believe everyone living in this complex was abducted by a demon, unseen, in the dead of the night. What has this world come to?”

The knight handed her a vial of the Tsuchigumo’s dried blood. “If I were you, I’d start mourning that cousin of yours. Consider them all dead. I’m done here.”

On the ground floor, she pushed open the double doors leading outside and was greeted by an army of police officers joining hands to hold back a crowd of eager onlookers. Since her vehicle was parked around the complex, she had to pass by the crowd.

“What do you have to say about your failure to apprehend the skull collector?” A reporter stretched his hand with a microphone over an officer’s shoulder. Nearby, a large camera peeked over the crowd.

To the reporter’s dismay, she snatched the microphone and crushed it in her grip.

In the car, the driver asked. “Where to, Grand Master?”

“Hermosville,” she said. “It’s clear as day now the Tsuchigumo is amassing an army of spawn and heading straight for Hermosville. What it wants, only the eternal master would know.”

❊ ❊ ❊

Days later, Persia stood atop a mid-rise office building, binoculars pressed to her face, observing an industrial district. Far to her right was the gray, blue ocean bleeding into the horizon. Her focus lay in meticulously scanning the premises of manufacturing plants, office buildings, power generation and distribution plants, factories, agricultural storage units, and other large buildings that piqued her interest.

A white streak weaved through the street below and ended up on the roof with her. Thankfully, Howard, Director of HAVEN, cut Lightflare’s vacation short.

“I saw nothing out of the ordinary,” Lightflare said.

“Then you didn’t search well enough,” she said. “Perhaps you’re still sluggish from your vacation.”

“Look, how are you even sure the demon is hiding there?”

“A hunch.” She paused, giving a quick command through the microphone within her helm. This occasion required her to be as best prepared as possible. So she had donned her full Grand Master knight armor, her red cape fluttering in the wind. “From my thousands of years of experience. Plus, this area is also the closest place, with large buildings suitable enough to house a spawn army based on the trail of the Tsuchigumo.”

Three-fourths of her knights were now stationed in Hermosville, most in this district, while the rest guarded the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ready for the Tsuchigumo should it pass through.

“Did you take a look inside the buildings you searched?” she asked.

“No, that would be highly illegal without a warrant. I only inspected the compounds.”

“Then you are not ready to do what it takes to protect your people. Perhaps when you see firsthand, whole swaths of the populace turned into demonic spawns, you’ll begin to understand that some rules have to be broken for the greater good.”

Lightflare sighed, scratching the back of his head. “You sound just like Metal Shadow.”

The door leading to the roof they stood upon swung open. Peter strolled past Lightflare, greeting him with a nod, and stopped near the balcony beside her. When she held out her hand, Peter placed a pendant in it.

“The high priest just finished it an hour ago,” her second-in-command said.

It was a four-sided crystal pendant, one side longer than the rest, fastened to a free-rotating hinge that connected it to a metal rope. She raised the pendant, and it swiveled on its hinge like a compass. Trapped in the heart of the crystal was the Tsuchigumo’s blood. Soon it stopped turning, pointing in a direction she had been looking past at all morning.

“Have the knights encircle the area,” she said, demarcating a small sector of the district. “We must find that demon today.”