It was over, the jackalopes rushed the fire welding maniac pushing him into the tree groves and destroying Mary's half finished garden along the way.

It was like watching ants swarm a sugar cube, just the sound of feet, paws, loose bricks and stones in motion amid the hazzy trees and bushes.

Another gout of flame made things visible again however, clearing away some of the shadows of the trees, darkness and night for a moment.

In that flash a man covered in horned rodents fighting for his life could be seen, ripping the creatures off his body and throwingthem every which way, trying in a mad attempt to get away from the swarm of them.

But it was futile. Just like that they pulled him down, by number or wounds, he fell into the pile.

The pile moved and squirmed. then was motionless.

It was over, Ali thought giving in and relaxing. Her knees at that moment gave out and she fell on her rear, ignoring the cold lawn in front of her home. Tears slowly streamed from her eyes as a torrent of emotions mixed with the pain of her damaged hand.

The flair of pain, kept her cradling her injured hand close to her body almost drawing her body in to protect it.

Then the moon got bigger.

It didn't happen at once, but it felt like it did, a cool pressure that seemed to press down, decended onto her from above.

Ali flinched and looked up as a deep malevolence washed over her.

The moon didn't have the feel of a warm indifferent sun shining down on the English countryside but the opposite, more of a cold looming body not beating down but weighing down in a way that Ali couldn't quite explain.

It wasn't just Ali who felt it, Mary and her brothers also started to wilt, like the last embers of the fire on her house were, not yet touched by water but going out all the same.

Then she heard it.

A high pitched scream of pain.

Animals in pain.

Ali's eyes were immediately drawn toward the source after suddenly being dragged back to reality and there he was again, the man she'd grown to hate, standing there after everything as if nothing had befallen him, in the shadows of the trees partially hidden. Jackalopes lay dead and dying, ripped apart and wounded all around him in a blood covered shroud but he simply stood there wearing a savage smile after somehow fighting his way back to his feet.

Wounded, bloody but changed in a way that wasn't natural.

"Strigoi. I forgot." He wasn't talking to Ali, more to himself but his voice carried, it was a slighly different voice and tone from his manic whimsy that he seemed to use when speaking to her. It was like the moonlight was drilling into him, giving him back some form of vitality, which carried over into his tone when he spoke.

He sounded older, with his voice seeming much more filled out and fluid than before.

Blood flowed from the growing litter of dead jackalopes as he seemed to effortlessly carve apart the bold or foolish remaining jackalopes with his hands. So many fell that those that remained began drawing back into the grove.

"I forgot who I was, taking over this body was so easy, no soul to fight but the person before was an addict."

"What the hell are you talking about? Why won't you just leave or die or both. Why won't you leave me alone?!" Ali found herself crawling back to her feet with every word.

The pain, the cold of night, the very weight of everything mixed with the throbbing of her hand.

"I want to leave!" He yelled at her stepping forward, "B... but I took over the body of an addict."

"I want to be gone from here but his last thoughts, his focus is on your death. I just wanted to use his body to complete the task that's binds me to this world but his love of flames and hate for you are overwhelming my needs."

"I almost forgot what I am..... amazing. I didn't think that someone could become so fixated on burning someone alive." The Strigoi said moving out of the trees coming into the opening around the farm house thus fully becoming bathed in moonlight.

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"I will drink you dry and burn your corpse.

The man I... he... was before I took this form was obsessed with you, especially your death.

All those lingering emotions are still deeply ingrained into this shell.

To appease them and quench my thirst I will drink your blood then light your corpse ablaze until only one of this vandal's addictions remain.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!" She yelled still keeping her damaged hand close to her chest. The earth and gravel in her left hand that she had gripped while standing, was thrown uselessly in his direction.

Then it blurred.

Blasting into him like buckshot from a shotgun. Knocking him off his feet.

Ali looked at her left hand in shock, she remembered her dreams and some of what Ila tried to teach but she hadn't realized that her way of thinking about her ability was so limited.

Picking up one of the loose bricks that previously adorned the lawn of her home before all this, Ali stepped forward, cutting the space between her and the Strigoi to less than an arms length in asingle beat.

The brick in her left hand slammed into his jaw, with a sickening crack.

He didn't blench from the blow as his head twisted to one side but instead swung his arms to catch her in his grip.

Ali took a step back, which put her well out of his range.

Until he jumped forward in an unexpected rush, quickening his movement to almost a blur he slammed into her.

The sudden body blow using his size to his advantage sent them both crashing into the ground before Ali could properly evade it. She was now trapped in an awkward position where her good hand was pinned by him forcing her to use her injured hand to ward off his rotten breath and all white face that had warped into a snarl as he tried to rip at her throat.

The Strigoi's teeth were getting uncomfortably close to her neck and her hand was once again screaming in pain, she struggled to free her other hand which was pinned down at an odd angle just below the wrist but that proved useless, she then tried to shift and buck the larger man off but he too shifted himself into a better position and tightened his grip on her.

With every second his fanged maw drew nearer and nearer to her neck with his fangs seemingly growing larger and sarper, rancid saliva splattered and dripped onto her face in thick globs of maggot filled ooze that smelled absolutely horrible but it was only after a single fang scraped neck that she remembered her own.

Ali's mouth opened, she showed him her fangs.

She tried to bite his face off.

He pulled back in shock for just a moment but it was too late, Ali spat out a chunk of flesh and geared at him.

Reeling back in surprise of the sudden development was all Ali needed and that's when she flicked her wrist, slightly, barely a movement, her hand let go of the brick, then it was gone.

Vanished from her hand like a magic trick from a stage magician and exploding between them.

The man on top of her was blasted off after being dealt an unexpected blow, the brick impacted his chest and exploded into pieces, some of those pieces rebounded and hit her solidly in the chest, the damage wasn't as significant as what was dealt to him but she was certain that some of her ribs were broken.

Ali winced in pain and threw up as the wind was knocked out of her, she coughed and wheezed as she forced herself over onto her side clutching her abdomen to relieve some of the pain.

Ali knew that this wasn't likely to be over and a quick glance over her shoulder revealed that the Strigoi was almost back to his feet.

She cursed internally.

Just before a cricket bat, slamed into the side of the head with a crack.

Mary emerged from the shadows with a running swing making no effort to hold back, the blow was aimed to take his head off but when it didn't she pulled back to swing again and again and...

The backhand she received knocked her boots off, literally knocked her out if her boots.

As she hurtled backwards she was was all but flailing through the air.

Shawn, her eldest brother rushed to her despite the injured leg, he managed to somehow catch her but not stop her as the weight and motion was too much for his leg which gave out sending them both to the ground.

Bryan seeing both of his siblings down rushed forward only slowing for a quick grab of the bat that Mary had dropped as she fell and he used it the wrong end first to ram into the man who called himself a Strigoi.

The blow staggered the Strigoi but he was too far beyond the pain to care. Only blood and fire mattered to him now.

Grabbing Bryan by the shoulders he drew in mouth open to rip his throat open to get at the lifeblood beneath.

A rock, a simple stone hit the Strigoi in the face with an explosive crack before flying off in a random direction.

Teeth flew from his mouth like mints from a dropped bowl, forcing him in part to release his death grip on Bryan.

Only one hand still held on.

Until the second stone blasted the Strigoi in the chest, in the same spot that he was kicked earlier. His grip broke away from Bryan as the force sent them both reeling backward.

Before he could recover his balance a third stone arrived knocking him off his feet as if he was hit by a sledgehammer, only in the haze of falling to the floor did he then realize where the attack was coming from.

Ali stood gasping for air, blood dripping from her mouth, eyes red from tears and pain. Her uninjured hand now covered in mud cradled another few stones that she pulled out from the soil all around her, blood dripped from her nails from the act of pulling them out of the ground.

All the while she looked at him with pure hatred and fury in her eyes.

"My mistake, you don't aim a punch at the face... you aim for the back of the head."

Ali muttered to herself as her boxing lessons flickered through her memory, her coach used to yell at her to aim through with her punches, three inches beyond.

'You don't throw a punch just to hit your opponent, you aim to punch through them.'

The moment the former arsonist sat up the rock was already in motion aimed perfectly at its target.

Two inches behind him.

All he could do was look down at his perforated chest in shock and horror at the empty spot where his heart should have been before dropping to the ground lifeless.

His eyes remained filled with shock as another rock blasted through the back of his head.

"Like hell, I am falling for a horror movie trope."

In the distance the siren of a firetruck grew louder as the Thornhill manor burned with golden flames.