Darkness fell on Gowan and Elizabeth for the first time since the three candles were lit. They had been taken to an office in the back of Lux Heights, a high end fashion and homewares department store. The strangers had taken the candle before they'd even left the pharmacy.

"What do we do?" Elizabeth whispered.

"We could try to find the door. Although I don't know how safe the other side would be."

They didn't need to begin the search. The door was aggressively pushed open. Candlelight illuminated the door frame.

"Ok." A gruff voice said, "Follow me." The man still had his plank of wood in one hand with the candle in the other. Elizabeth noted that his voice didn't really match his baby face and greying hair.

As they left the doorway they were followed by the other man from the pharmacy who held the trolley bar. There was no way that Gowan and Elizabeth could run without risk of being hurt.

After winding through aisles of bougie homewares and electronics, the man knocked on a shelf in a distinct pattern.

"Yep." A familiar female voice called from the other side.

The backing to the metal shelf was dragged out of the way as the four had to crawl into the hiding place. It revealed a crude living area put together by the trio who had clearly been left to fumble in the dark. The bedding was made from soft clothing that had been taken from the racks. Snacks that had been obviously liberated from the gifting section were littered around.

The small entryway was sealed back up and the candle was placed in the center. Gowan and Elizabeth were made to sit in a corner as the three stood over them.

"You're not so scary when you're inside, are you?" The woman looked the pair up and down. She crossed her toned, tattooed arms.

"We haven't ..." Elizabeth searched for the words to answer the clearly rhetorical question.

"Haven't been outside? Interesting how you and your little friends can run around the halls with fire when," she pulled a lighter out of the small pocket in her jeans and clicked it, "none of our lighters seem to be working."

"My phone is in my pocket." Gowan tilted his hips while remaining seated. "You can take it out and check."

The babyfaced man with the plank of wood stepped forward. His pale blue eyes were filled with rage. "You can tear my wife limb from limb. You can fake a dead phone."

Gowan put his hands up, making the trio standing above them jolt back. "Woah! We definitely didn't do that."

"One of youse did, and you're a good enough sacrifice as any." The man squared up his stance.

The woman with the red hair tried to hide the turning of her head as she closed her eyes and braced for the impact of the wood against their skulls.

Elizabeth began slowly moving her hand towards the knife in her waistband.

"Wait." The man holding the trolley bar softly spoke up. As he moved forward, Elizabeth noticed that his thick, tightly coiled hair was not simply reflecting the light, but was a deep brown with dark pink dye crowning his head at the top. "What if it's true?"

The woman looked him up and down. "You expect me to believe that in the dead of whatever this is, that they're just normal people holding candles?"

"We are." Elizabeth looked at the woman directly. "My name is Elizabeth. This is Gowan. There are a group of us. Keep us alive and you can be where there's light all the time." She used the wall to help herself up slowly. "We can take you there."

"Stop." The pale man with the plank of wood commanded. "We're not moving to another location so you and your friends can rip us apart."

"We're not demons!" Gowan was exasperated. "Look, according to our calculations there's only about 12 hours until this whole thing ends. Just chill out for 12 hours and you'll see."

"I believe you." The man with the pink hair sat down beside Gowan. "I'm Saleem." He gestured to his friends. "Kellie and Evan."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Do you have no fucking survival instincts?" Evan snapped. "Don't give them information. You!" He pointed to Elizabeth. "Sit!" He gestured to Saleem with the wood. "You! I'm getting sick of you. Shut the fuck up."

"Please," Gowan tried to reason, "our friend is sick. We need to get back to her."

Kellie turned to Evan. "What if it's true?"

"You too?" Evan began pacing between Kellie and Saleem. "You saw it too, right? Kellie? You saw Shay get fucking decimated, right? Why do I feel like I'm losing my fucking mind?"

"You think I don't have shit riding on this?" Kellie stormed over to Evan, shoving his shoulder. "What do you think's gonna happen to me if they're right? If this was just a storm? If this all stops and the cops come?"

Evan grabbed the neck area of her tank top. "We both saw that body disappear. You did what you had to do and for whatever reason, that smoke did you a solid. You be grateful and you shut the fuck up. That's what you do."

"Smoke?" Gowan shouted into the scuffle.

"Stay the fuck out of this." Evan snarled.

"You saw smoke?"

"No. You didn't hear that. Shut the fuck up. Shut the FUCK up!" Evan began pacing and mumbling to himself rapidly. Suddenly he stopped. "We're leaving. We've got to leave here. What if they know we're here because they're here."

After snatching the candle, he flung the shelf backing aside and crawled out.

"Follow me."

Nobody moved from their position. It was hard to see anything as the glow of the candle forced it's way over the shelves and through the space where Evan had crawled. Saleem turned to Gowan and subtly shook his head. Gowan gave him a look that would scream "no shit", if Gowan ever swore.

"Follow me!" Evan said a little louder.

Kellie hesitated, looking to the trio in the corner. Her eyes were underlined with bags. Elizabeth was unsure if it was from mascara that had been cried off, or bags from a lack of sleep. Perhaps it was both. Either way, Kellie simply looked empty.

Kellie's shoulders dropped and she let out a deep sigh. She got on all fours, ready to crawl through the shelf. She was half way out when she said Evan's name like it was a question.

In an instant, there was an ugly noise. The thwack sounded like the time a boy in Elizabeth's class pushed her down the stairs and she fell on the back of her head. Of course, worse. Juicier. Another loud thump occurred, as Kellie let out a blood-curdling cry. It was guttural and full of betrayal. Evan grunted as a third strike was made and Kellie's body crumpled like a piece of paper.

Evan grabbed Kellie's shoulders and dragged her out of the shelving, discarding her by the candle which he'd placed on the ground. "The rest of yas. Get out now."

"N- No?" Gowan stuttered.

"Doesn't matter what you want, fuckhead." Evan pushed the shelf forward.

Saleem grabbed them, pulling them backwards as the large, metal shelf towered forward. The top of the shelf just missed the trio pressed against the wall in the back of the store. There was nowhere to run. They could not back further into the two walls, and the one remaining shelf making a temporary wall was braced against the shelving behind it.

Saleem grasped the trolley bar.

"You wanna die defending demons, noodle arms?" Evan asked, looming closer.

Elizabeth could feel Saleem shaking. He remained silent.

"Which of you wants to be next? This is the fucking apocalypse? I'm gonna make sure I'm the last one standing." He was getting closer to striking distance.

Elizabeth brandished her knife. "Back off." She was nervous and could not hide it. "Two weapons against one, Evan. I'm asking you to think this through. It's not too late."

"FUCK!" He slammed the plank into the fallen shelf. "IT'S ALWAYS BEEN TOO LATE!" His voice was gravelly.

Elizabeth didn't have time to consider what he'd meant. An ethereal sound filled the air. It was like out of tune violins and gears grinding against each other, but just slightly. It was like the sound of the elevator in Elizabeth's apartment coming to a halt. She always found it somehow both weirdly comforting and somewhat unsettling.

A dark smoke began flowing out of Kellie's body. It smelled like sour milk and freshly asphalted roads.

Evan looked down and leapt towards the trio in an effort to avoid the smoke. "What the f-"

As Saleem grasped Gowan's shirt and moved backwards quickly, Elizabeth closed her eyes and gouged the knife into Evan's side with as much force as she could. It wasn't the stabbing that surprised her, it was the suction she felt as she pulled the weapon out to go for a second stab. She got as low as she could to avoid Evan swinging the plank wildly.

Saleem managed to hit Evan's arm to drop the plank, but not before getting a firm hit to the head. Gowan scrambled for the plank as Elizabeth continued to stab, over and over again until the threat was neutralised.

Only then did she step back and really see what she had done.

Evan lay in his own blood, holding his side the way Matthew does. He was wheezing, just the way Matthew does. She had blood on her hands, just the way Victor did.

She stood over Evan, not quite realising she was watching the man die. All she could do was reflect on what the men she worked with had told her. "Killing was never something you pictured yourself doing until you had to. You could make awful mistakes, but hey, at least you didn't kill anyone".

It wasn't something she could take back. As she watched Evan struggle on the floor while she stood still, she thought that perhaps it wasn't something she would even try to take back. She was frozen as his chest stopped rising and falling. She chose to leave the knife with the body. She didn't want anyone else to make the choice that she just had to make.

With a deep breath, she picked up the candle that had been knocked over. It was still lit. She nodded to the two men. "Let's go home."

The ethereal screeching played the postlude to their captivity. Smoke began to billow into the area as the smell of sour milk and asphalted roads returned. Evan's bloodied corpse disappeared into the darkness as the trio and their candlelight wandered further and further away.