Nyla held her right hand in front of her mouth waiting for the churning in her stomach to stop as she held onto the wall. A sob escaped her mouth. It was not real. It couldn’t be real. Her mind was desperately trying to convince her that this was all a bad dream. She fell asleep at the office after filing reports on the store incident and dreaming about this due to stress. It was not the first time that she had such awful dreams. They were her constant companion from a young age. Even though she never remembered the details, the feeling they left her was always there to greet her in the morning. But the cold sipping through her glove was telling her that this was reality. The horrific scene and familiar faces flashed behind her closed eyes making her queasy again.

She felt another wave of liquid coming up her throat as she bent over the bricks one more time. As she was trying to get back on her feet, she noticed that there were more breaks on the ground further along and looked up to see that the east wall of the building was broken in half making a huge hole in the building. What on earth had happened here, she wondered to herself.

As she was crying to herself, she heard footsteps crunching the snow. Nyla heard a warning bell in her mind as if someone was trying to tell her to run away. It was the same feeling she had while walking to the house. She turned around slowly to only see Billy standing a few feet away from her. A sense of relief came over her. Whatever had happened here, he had survived. Maybe there were more survivors!

* Billy!

She yelled happily and ran to hug him. He was too cold and patches of snow in his messy hair and wet cloth told her that he had been outside for a while. Maybe he was hiding in the trees out of the killer’s -or killers’, this couldn’t have been the work of one person- eyes.

* Are you alright? Is there anyone else with you? What happened here?

She started bombarding the poor kid with questions as she patted the snow off his hair and coat. While doing so she noticed large dark stains on his coat. At first, she thought it was because of snow but as she touched them a red-stained left on her gloves.

* Are you all right, Billy? Did you get injured anywhere?

She asked while panicky removing his coat and sighing in relief as she saw no signs of injuries and hugged him again. Billy remained silent to her question and only raised his arms to tangle around her neck, returning her hug.

* First, we should get out of here, they might come back…

She told him while loosening his arms around her neck. The only thought in her head was to take him as far away as possible and call the police. They could look for the other survivors with their help. She hugged him quickly once more gratefully and let go but kept a hold of his shoulders. That was when she noticed something strange. Something was amiss. She looked at him trying to figure out what was wrong but couldn’t put her finger on it. As she was inspecting Billy, they both missed the shadow peaking at them through the hole in the second-story wall.

*******************

Alexander was hiding and taking a break from his fight with the daemon when he heard her scream. Her scream made him jump out of his skin. This definitely was not a daemon or its seed’s scream, so he decided to check out the source but to his surprise, she came running to the side of the building he was hiding at.

* “How the hell did she get in here?!”

He asked himself. The humans were surveying the boundary, and the boundary of this daemon was not very large – about 300 yards give or take—so no one should have been able to enter it without him getting a report. He wasn’t sure what to do. He recognized her right away. She was a volunteer at the orphanage. During his stay, she was quite suspicious. After all, she sensed his presence during his recon mission two weeks ago and told that damned story.

This was not good. Liam probably wanted her alive to check on his report about the suspicious story she was telling the boy. But he wasn’t sure if he could protect her if the daemon showed up. this was one hell of a daemon. Strong, intelligent, and fast. Luckily, they were already in the area, otherwise, the daemon and its seed would have already reached the town and caused more casualties. He was fighting it for only two hours before he was forced to pass the task to the squad to take a breather about ten minutes ago. He unconsciously moved to go to her but then stopped. The rest of the squad was entertaining the daemon somewhere farther so there was no immediate danger. Besides he had no obligation to save the part-time volunteer at a dingy orphanage where he spent the last two months starving because of a stupid – but correct- suspicion Liam had. Besides Liam didn’t directly order him to protect the girl—he would if he knew she was there.

But he had a weird feeling. She was not the key – he had tested her when he heard the story, she was telling the young boy who shared his dusty room. So why did he feel the need to protect her? He observed the girl throw up and cry while contemplating what to do next. Then something amazing happened. The seed appeared out of nowhere and slowly walked towards her.

His first instinct was to hide. He couldn’t feel any bloodthirst from the small figure and there was no trace of his daemon. This was peculiar. Seeds usually either hid or stuck closely to their daemon. They didn’t wander off especially when the pair were being attacked by an outsider like these two were. And they never stayed calm, like this one was being at the moment. They usually writhed in pain and screamed as he was when they saw him first. With his keen ears, he could still hear gunshots in the distance, so the squad was still attacking the daemon. He decided to save the girl. This seed might have been unique –his daemon had shown more intelligence than average- but she might have been special too. There were too many points about her that picked his curiosity. It was worth checking out anyway.

* I would get away from him If I were you.

He said with a cold voice as made himself visible to the pair standing in the snow. Nyla quickly looked up to see a man sitting on the edge of the broken wall, nonchalantly. He surprised her by jumping down the wall and landing perfectly on his feet. He didn’t look human in her eyes.

* Who are you? Did you do that to the others?

She yelled angrily at the stranger while pushing Billy behind her. Alexander got slightly irritated. Despite his attitude, he would never commit such a heinous act. What would make her think that he did that to those poor people while hiding the culprit behind her? Even though he didn’t want to come here, most of those people were quite nice to him and treated him fairly. “If only I was stronger…” he quickly stopped the regretful thoughts in his mind. In this line of business, the regret was worthless and led to nowhere. He couldn’t save everyone that was the truth he had accepted a long time ago. He raised his hand to show that he was unarmed when he noticed the blood on his sleeve and all over his body. It was mostly his blood while fighting the daemon, but she didn’t know that. No wonder she thought he had a hand in the events of today.

Seeing him raising his hand, Nyla pushed Billy further behind her to hide him completely from the new guy. He seemed quite dangerous, and she could feel that there was something not quite normal about him. He jumped out of the second-story building without any trouble, covered in blood, carrying some sort of weapon on his back, as if he was strolling through the park on his way to a picnic. If he was a normal bystander, she had wings and a horn on her head. Billy held on to her hand and squeezed hard as if he had the same feelings toward the man in front of them. She quickly looked around to see if there was anything she could use as a weapon but couldn’t find anything except a few bricks around her feet. She picked up one brick with her free hand and turned back to the stranger. He was looking at her action amusingly.

* Seriously? You are going to protect that thing? And with what? A brick?

Alexander asked mockingly and started walking towards them while taking his katana out of its scabbard. He had used many weapons over the years but nothing replaced the sharpness of eastern katanas when dealing with hard bone and flesh.

* Stop! Don’t you dare to come any closer! Otherwise, I’ll…I’ll…

Nyla cried as loudly as she could while raising her arm higher.

* What are you going to do?

He responded slightly impressed by her bravery. There was nothing she could do to fight him. He was at least one head taller and twice as large as her. He looked like a panther walking towards a little kitten that was hissing at him. Most people would run when he took out his sword. Not because he looked scary, it was the survival instinct awakened in them by the blood thirst he gave off. But she didn’t run away and kept glaring at him. It made him smile.

Let alone the physical differences, Nyla wasn’t sure if she could actually hit him with the brick. She had never hurt an insect in her life, let alone a human being. Even under this type of situation.

She glanced back to check on Billy. She might not be able to fight him to save them both, but she could definitely hold him back long enough for Billy to escape. She loosened his grasp on her hand and slowly backed away while trying to get closer to the exit path as much as possible.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

* Billy, listen to me. I’m going to keep that bad man busy so you should run to the main street and try to get away from here as far as possible, ok?

She whispered to him as quietly as possible, while keeping an eye on the killer who was looking at her with uncertainty. She hoped he hadn’t heard anything. Even the smallest advantages were important in the current situation. Billy whispered something back, but she couldn’t hear him properly.

* What did you say?

Nyla asked him while keeping her gaze on the enemy in front of her and moved a little more towards the path. Alexander stopped in his path but was still observing Them. He thought he saw the seed talking. But that was impossible. After awakening seeds were supposed to lose their mind. He knew the characteristics of seeds and their materialization better than anyone since he had been fighting them for more than thousands of years. They could only communicate with their daemon through some sort of telepathic link and their emotion. The young boy whispered again.

* Seriously, young lady! Just hand that thing to me. You are making everything more difficult!

He said with a rush. This seed was definitely different from the usual ones and that only meant trouble.

* That thing has a name! And why should I hand him to you? So, you can add him to that abomination at the entrance, y..you! YOU SICKO!

She yelled at him in anger. She had watched similar situations in the movies where villains would make absurd requests like “hand over your loved ones” but that was just movies. She couldn’t believe hearing it in real life.

* What?! How dare you! I didn’t kill those people!

He yelled back. She was seriously pissing him off. He started walking towards them again.

* Yeah, then who was it? You are standing at the crime scene with blood all over you and saying you didn’t do it? Who would’ve believed you? WHAT is it, Billy?

As Nyla was arguing with the intruder Billy started whispering and tucking on her sleeve.

* Did you like my artwork?

He said quietly. Alexander stopped one more time. Confused by what he was seeing in front of him. She turned her head and looked at him with confusion as well. Billy was looking up while holding her sleeves. She finally noticed what was different about him. His eyes. His eyes were brighter and yellower than before with narrower pupils. There was no mind or eye trick. The eyes were different but what was worse was his smile. He was smiling brightly with anticipation.

* What do you mean…?

She started asking and then stopped. Something was not right with Billy. He might have been in shock.

* I need a head for my snowman… can I have yours?

He asked playfully as if he was going to invite her to play on the playground and his smile widened.

* SHIT! LOOK OUT!

Alexander called to her and started running as the daemon appeared in her blind spot. She turned to see him running toward her but suddenly everything turned black as something heavy hit her from the side forcing all the air out of her lungs.

********************************************

The first thing Nyla felt was a sharp pain in her chest as she tried to take a deep breath. She opened her eyes to see only white. Freaking out that she might have gone blind she started blinking quickly until she started seeing some blurry images. She took another breath causing more shooting pains through her body. From the coldness of the snow on her chest and right cheek, she noted that she was lying on her stomach. “What did happen?” Nyla asked herself. She tried to get up but was greeted with more pain. She groaned and decided to remain as she was. In her current position at least, she didn’t feel as much pain and the cold snow was actually making her feel better. She tried focusing on her eyes instead and continued blinking a few more times hoping to bring her vision into focus. After a while that seemed like an eternity to her, her vision improved slightly.

In the distance, she could see the silhouette of a familiar building. How did she get here? From what she could see she was about 300 yards away from where she remembered standing. Did someone take her here? The last thing she remembered was something like a truck hitting her from the side while talking to Billy. It was probably that intruder’s partner. Then why did he try to warn her? She blinked a few more times. Now she could see a few shapes moving around. One of the shapes was quite larger than the others. They seemed to be dancing… no… fighting was more like it. As if her brain had requested it suddenly, she started hearing a buzzing sound. Her vision was almost back.

In the distance, Nyla could see a creature fighting a few people. It was too far to be exactly sure, but it definitely was not of this world. It was standing on its legs and arms like an ape with some sort of horns sticking out of its shoulders. There were two more horn-like things on its head, and it was slashing at the people surrounding it with its dagger-like claws. She was hallucinating. That was the only explanation. She probably was hit by a truck driven by that psycho killer’s partner and hit her head badly enough to cause hallucinations.

Suddenly she heard footsteps crunching the snow from somewhere behind her.

* He said she flew somewhere in this direction…

The voice belonged to Lieutenant Kain Lyons. He had served with the ADA main branch for about ten years while spending half of this time in the special unit under Alexander’s command. This was his fifteenth demon-hunting expedition. And so far, this demon was the most intelligent one he had ever seen. They had labelled it as alpha. A while ago they were fighting the demon to keep it away from the commander by entertaining it with their military vehicles –bastard destroyed six, he groaned thinking of the paper--when it suddenly disappeared into thin air. While trying to locate it again, they received a command to find a civilian who was hurt by the alpha instead of engaging with the demon itself. So, he and his sergeant Emily Kirby were looking for the aforementioned civilian throughout the woods while the rest of the unit went to support the commander.

Nyla unaware of their intentions decided to stay still in case they were enemies, not that she had much choice in the matter with her tattered body.

* Does he think we are all like him? The poor girl is probably dead. We would be more useful fighting the demon than combing through the woods.

Emily said with annoyance. She rarely got the chance to face a demon since she was in the administrative. She finally managed to find her way to the special unit six months ago but was kept out of the action as much as possible. “So that creature was a demon…” Nyla thought to herself. Could the ‘he’ they were talking about be the intruder? Does that mean it wasn’t him who did that to Maryam and the children? She was pretty sure he was after Billy…

* I hope she is alive. It would be good publicity if we had at least one survivor.

Lieutenant truly hoped for this. Their position with locals in Pendle was worse than he imagined. A survivor could smooth things for them, unaware of what his words meant to Nyla. At least one survivor? Then Billy… was he killed by that monster? Or was it that man? Nyla sobbed. He was the only one left and she couldn’t even save him.

* Did you hear that?

Seargent Kirby asked while raising her gun and shushing her Lieutenant.

* I did. I think it was from this side.

Lieutenant ignored her disrespect and pointed in the direction of Nyla who was hidden by some bushes from their view with his gun. Nyla heard them getting closer to her. She tried to move again but it was just impossible.

* I found her!

Emily cried in surprise. She kneeled beside the broken bundle and softly touched her shoulder. Nyla groaned when she felt the touch.

* Great! You are alive! She is alive! Hey, my name is Emily. I’m a hunter from ADA. Can you hear me?

Emily flashed a light in her eyes while talking calmly. Nyla tried to respond, but no voice was coming out of her throat, so she stooped to a simple groan.

* Don’t force yourself to talk if it’s too difficult. I think you’ve hurt your neck so I’m just going to check your condition and give you some first aid until the medics come along.

She started turning her body carefully and gasped. The body in front of her was in worse condition than she initially thought. Nyla couldn’t move her neck but at least now she could see her surroundings better. The sky looked as bright as when she came to the building, so not much time could have passed. Suddenly Emily’s face came into her view. Unlike her warm voice, she had a quite serious face. With her golden-brown eyes, high bridge noise, and honey-coloured skin, she looked quite handsome.

* Hey pretty girl. How is this?

Emily asked kindly. The girl in front of her was obviously in too much pain to reply. She tried to make her as comfortable as possible while checking her many injuries.

* Hey… OH MY GOD!

Kain gasped in shock and went away to contact the headquarters to request medics. He was never good at dealing with injuries and Emily knew that.

* How long until they get here, sir?

Emily asked with worry. She wasn’t sure how the poor girl could last without proper medical attention, and it probably was not wise to move her.

* They can’t come here yet; this zone is still too dangerous for them.

Kain said sadly. They had a finite number of medics and couldn’t afford to lose them.

* What?! Those cowards!

Emily raged. Medics were still soldiers of ADA so they should be ready to get into the red zone any time.

* Well, what do you expect? No one in their right mind would get this close to a demon.

Kain tried calming her down. Emily tended to lose her temper frequently but it never lasted long. It was one of her charming qualities, he thought.

* Then what are we going to do?

Emily asked as she took the girl's pulse. She seemed to be conscious but not aware of her surroundings.

* I brought a stretcher. We can move her to the outside of the barrier…

Kain suggested.

* Are you crazy?! Can’t you see…

She moved him a few feet away to continue their argument for a few moments and then she returned to Nyla’s side, defeated.

* Sorry love, we don’t have any other options except moving you ourselves. This is going to hurt a little bit but try to stay conscious. Blink twice if you understand.

Emily asked gently as she brushed a strand of hair off her forehead. Nyla blinked twice to agree. She didn’t have any other option anyway. Emily nodded in response and put her hands under Nyla’s shoulder gabbing on her coat while Kain grabbed her boots. They were the last present Maryam gave her, Nyla thought to herself.

* On the count of three. One, two, three!

The next thing Nyla remembered was an intense pain throughout her body and her consciousness drowned in darkness.