Rebecca stepped confidently through the mist. She felt she could rely on her new sensory abilities to keep her safe. She knew the ‘old her’ would have been terrified to be in her current predicament, but the new Rebecca was unshakable. Such an odd experience to no longer fear anything at all. She didn’t feel invincible, though she knew she was stronger and more agile than before—it was simply that the thought of death didn’t worry her anymore. Death would come for everyone eventually; she no longer felt the need to fret over that fact. The new mindset was the biggest change she had undergone since contracting vampirism.

Josie and Lewis disappeared at her side as the mist thickened. She sensed no danger as she followed Clark into the dense cloud.

The next thing she knew, she was lying prone on the ground with a boy standing over her. The boy’s hands were hovering around her neck.

Rebecca kicked up at him hard between his legs.

“Oooff,” the boy grunted as he fell by her side.

Rebecca quickly took in her changed surroundings. Channie, Steph, and Clark—still disguised as a second Steph—were all standing off to her left. The differences between the two Steph’s was obvious to Rebecca, though they certainly looked like twins to everyone else.

“Did I lose consciousness?” Rebecca asked. She stood down from her assault on the new boy. He continued to writhe around back and forth across the pavement beside her as she hopped quickly to her feet.

“Time is frozen here,” said Channie. “That necklace Landon put on you unfroze you.”

Rebecca’s hand went immediately to a nut dangling from a string of twine around her neck. It was hardly the oddest thing that had happened today, but it was unusual. “And Josie and Lewis?” she asked Clark pointedly.

The shapeshifter bowed. “I protect you. They continue on.”

Landon eyed Rebecca venomously as she extended a hand to help him to his feet. Rebecca matched his icy stare but kept her hand extended until Landon begrudgingly gripped onto her wrist.

Rebecca sniffed at the air as she pulled Landon up effortlessly. She could still faintly smell Josie and Lewis. Their trails were distinct, but partially dissipated. It was clear to her that it had been several minutes since they moved on from the area. There were other scents on the air as well—unfamiliar stinks that sent Rebecca’s nostrils flaring with disgust.

“Things are near,” she said. “We should move.”

The other girls looked around wildly, eyes wide with terror. Rebecca smirked to herself. It was freeing to not hold any fear. Landon was staring at her. She sensed that he had been leading the group before.

Well, not anymore.

Everyone felt the shift of power—Landon submitted wordlessly, making things easier than she could have hoped. She could tell his feathers had been ruffled, but he knew what was good for him. Rebecca exuded alpha energy. She led the way forward without further discussion.

Rebecca couldn’t explain exactly how she was choosing her path. It was like she was following a trail of energy. It drew her forward like the needle of a compass. The source of the energy was a mystery to her.

“You can sense them too,” said Clark, sticking close to Rebecca’s side. “The time eaters.”

Landon frowned, peeking at her from behind Clark. “Are you talking about the basilisks? The giant lizards that are stopping the flow of time?”

Clark nodded. “They came to my world long ago. A moment turned into infinity. We all woke up slaves to the Agares.”

Rebecca was surprised by how nonchalantly Clark spoke. A whole world enslaved! How can we stand against an enemy that can stop time? It was crazy to think that their little group was all that stood between the Agares and the end of the world. No pressure….

A distant tinkling of carnival music told Rebecca they were nearing the festival grounds. The music sounded even more twisted than usual as the pitch of the notes became warped by the strange swirling winds. Rebecca’s heightened senses picked up another sound that nobody else seemed to have noticed yet: A clicking, chittering noise—dozens of tiny legs scampering across the pavement.

Rebecca proceeded cautiously.

Clark was the next to hear it. The shapeshifter’s eyes bulged out farther than a human’s naturally protrude. “A grabbler is near!” said Clark in a rushed whisper. “Stay still—it can sense movement and is mostly hairless.”

Rebecca cocked an eyebrow at the odd description. Everyone stopped where they stood and remained in place as the chittering grew in volume to a level that was finally audible to the rest of the group. The mist was thick at their feet, hiding the grabbler as it approached.

Channie and Landon both had rightfully fearful expressions on their faces as they held in place. Steph, on the other hand, had a look of curiosity.

“What did you call it?” asked Steph, a little too loudly.

The chittering stopped momentarily, but then the silence was broken again by a hiss as the grabbler popped its head up out of the mist. Its gray, segmented insect body wormed into the air like a charmed snake, searching for the children with black, beady eyes.

“Ew,” said Steph, a pinched expression on her face.

The grabbler dropped to the ground and scampered towards her with clicking legs and mandibles.

The look on Steph’s face only turned to worry when the grabbler lived up to its name by grabbing onto her shirt and dragging her to the ground.

Clark sprang into action, human arms turning into tentacles as the shapeshifter lunged into the fray. Rebecca joined in as well, rushing to where Steph had just been standing. A muffled cry sounded from the mist at Rebecca’s feet. She felt across the ground, searching for Steph in the dense layer of cloud. She latched onto what she hoped was Steph’s leg and began pulling with all her might. Despite Rebecca’s increased strength, Steph didn’t budge under the weight of the grabbler and Clark combined.

She gave another useless tug before switching her approach. She wrapped her arms around the thick body of the grabbler itself. It was like grappling with an anaconda! Its body was hard to the touch, naturally armored, and made of almost pure muscle.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Steph lifted her head and cried out as they managed to pull the creature away from her face for a moment. “You said it was mostly harmless!” Her eyes were bulging out of her head.

“Mostly hairless,” repeated Clark.

“Why would I care if it has hair or not?!” Steph gasped harshly.

Clark shrugged.

Landon pulled a taser out of his backpack. “Stand clear,” he said as he jabbed at the massive insect. The click of the electric current buzzed loudly as a blue bolt arced between the device’s electrodes. A second later, the grabbler received the zap. The monster immediately released Steph and slithered away even faster than it had approached.

Steph had definitely received at least part of the shock. She climbed back to her feet, rubbing her wrenched jaw with her fingertips. “It tried to put something in my mouth….”

“It wanted to turn you into a mommy!” said Landon.

“Incubator host,” corrected Clark.

“Great,” said Channie, “so the only creature here that doesn’t want to kill us directly wants its babies to burst out of our chests instead.”

“No,” said Clark, “the babies eat you before coming out.”

Steph gagged.

“You didn’t swallow any eggs, did you?” asked Landon.

Steph eyes teared up. “I don’t think so,” she said.

“You would know,” said Clark. His tentacles morphed back into human arms. “Big eggs.”

“We should go before it comes back…” said Landon.

Rebecca helped Steph back to her feet. “Let’s assume everything wants us dead from here on out,” she said.

Steph grimaced, embarrassment finally settling in.

“What else do you have in that backpack?” Rebecca asked Landon.

Landon smiled without his eyes. “A sandwich bag full of Carolina Reaper peppers.” He pulled out the baggie as he put away the taser. He began to hand out the ridiculously spicy peppers as if they were a snack.

Clark held one up to his mouth, but Channie smacked it away from him before he could eat it. “Are you crazy? That would burn so bad!”

Rebecca was fairly certain Channie was mistaking Clark for Steph.

“Just feed those to the basilisks if you get a chance,” said Landon.

“Really?” asked Channie. “That’s the best you have in there?”

“I also have wristbands for the festival, but I don’t think the ticket taker is checking very hard with time being frozen and all.” Landon gestured for everyone to follow him. “We won’t be taking the main entrance in, regardless.”

They continued on until they reached a strip of chainlink fencing that blocked their path forward.

“I can’t climb that,” said Channie, rubbing her leg.

“You don’t have to,” said Landon. He pulled a wire snipping tool out of his backpack and got to work on the fence.

Rebecca could feel the presence of the basilisks ahead. She didn’t like the idea of being armed with only a pepper. As soon as Landon had snipped enough links he pried back the cut section and everyone filed through one at a time. When Rebecca leaned over to slide through the gap, Landon whispered in her ear: “It’s fine if you want to keep leading the group—the basilisks are over by the cornhole competition area.”

“Is that what your journal tells you?” Rebecca asked. “Lewis told me about your instructions.”

“Yeah,” said Landon, “it’s yet to steer me wrong.”

“I suppose that would be what would happen,” said Rebecca. “I mean, the journal was created by countless versions of you boys trying every possible combination of events until something worked, right?”

“I mean—” started Landon.

“—So each previous version probably had everything work out just fine, that is, until something didn’t, and somebody ended up dead or something, and then they would go back and change the journal to work around the problem. What if the problem that kills us hasn’t been solved yet?” Rebecca stared Landon down.

“I mean, yeah, that’s how it works I guess, but we have a system. If I was to edit something in, I would mark the instructions as having never been attempted before, that way a future me would know when to improvise if necessary.” Landon wrung his hands together. “I’ve never had to add anything before, personally, but that’s what I told myself I would do, anyway.”

Landon tried to follow Rebecca through the gap, but she shifted her weight and blocked the opening once more. “What else did your instructions say about today?” she demanded.

Landon matched her dead-eyed stare with a frown of his own. “After warning of basilisks at the cornhole area, it just says one thing: ‘Let Rebecca do what she does.’”

Rebecca grabbed Landon by the front of his shirt and pulled him through the fence to her side. By the scent of fear seeping from his pores, Rebecca could tell Landon was feeling more than a little uneasy. “Sounds like past-you knew what was good for him,” she said. “Stay out of my way.” The vampirism was definitely affecting her demeanor. She knew there was no reason to be mean, but she was also glad to put Landon in his place. He was just another boy with a savior complex as far as she was concerned. She knew she was being harsh, but she didn’t really care.

“Come on!” said Channie. “What’s taking you guys?”

Rebecca pushed past everyone, following the tingling feeling in her mind that Clark said was her sensing the basilisks. The mist thinned as they crept deeper into the fairgrounds. She could smell other things on the air long before visibility cleared up enough for her to see them.

A large stadium bleacher structure was surrounded by all sorts of nasty monsters. Clark stepped up to her side and pointed at the towering shape in front of the bleachers. “Dreadnaught.”

Rebecca was taken aback by how large the creature was, easily standing two-and-a-half stories tall—her eyes didn’t want to believe it at first.

“It’s a friggin’ space cat!” exclaimed Landon.

Rebecca glared at him. “And you’re telling me everything is up to me? I have to figure out how to take that thing down?”

Landon was as pale as a ghost. “I didn’t know it was so big….”

“Umm… guys?” said Steph. “My necklace is glowing.”

Landon’s head turned back around towards Steph so fast that Rebecca wondered if he might have given himself whiplash. “You gotta get rid of it!” he cried. “It’s gunna blow!”

Rebecca felt the tug of fate drawing her forward like a hook behind her navel.

“When that thing goes off, we aren’t going to need the Carolina Reapers!” exclaimed Landon. “If basilisks ‘eat time,’ then this thing DEVOURS it!”

The sickly sweet stink of fear became overwhelming in the air around Rebecca as everyone else sweated out their emotions. They all turned, staring fixedly at Steph as the nut on her necklace began to glow brighter.

“How am I supposed to get rid of it?” asked Steph. “Won’t I freeze if I take it off?”

Rebecca followed the tug of fate as she ran up to Steph and ripped the necklace from her. She could feel heat radiating from the glow. The moment the necklace pulled free, Steph froze in place, just as she had anticipated.

Rebecca turned around, immediately eying a pole with a trapeze bar hooked at its top. Its placement was conveniently above the towering Dreadnaught. She made a beeline for the structure, running as fast as her agile feet would carry her.

None of the amassed monsters around the bleachers noticed her approach—at least none turned her way. The glow from the necklace intensified. Time was running short. When she reached the pole, the nut was already starting to blind her with its shine. She placed the cord of the necklace into her mouth and bit down hard to hold it from falling as she climbed.

With eyes closed to save her vision from the glow, Rebecca gripped onto the hooked rungs of the pole’s ladder with both hands and climbed like the universe was depending on her. It wasn’t until she reached the top that she snatched the necklace out of her mouth with her right hand, while simultaneously grabbing the trapeze bar with her left. She yanked it loose, and without a moment of hesitation jumped from the perch.

Rebecca flew through the air above the hulking beast with the greatest of ease. The nut was glowing so brightly that she had to squint to make out the snapping jaws at her feet. She followed her instincts, releasing from the bar and tumbling haphazardly through the air as she took aim at the Dreadnaught’s gnashing teeth.

“Take that, Space Cat!” Rebecca screamed as she chucked the glowing nut straight into its gaping maw.

The Dreadnaught exploded into white light.

I warned you about the Gobu nut…. What a brilliant display of energy! The Dreadnaught didn’t see it coming, not at all! That was about a thousand years of built up energy collected into a single point—a mini singularity—blasting off all at once. A holy hand-grenade! Just wait until you see what grew out of the stump of the Dreadnaught’s body! The funny thing about the Gobu tree is that it doesn’t grow in just one direction in time. Everyone who was frozen while it sprouted will suddenly see it appear, but instead of being confused by its presence, they will all remember the tree as having always existed in that spot. Its roots drink time, not water, and they establish themselves in the past and future simultaneously. It even twists up my mind to think about it. Sometimes you just have to accept that something exists and move on. Just don’t drink the sap. That stuff will give you diarrhea so bad you’ll feel it yesterday.

Keep vigilant,

-Mr. Gray