I hurried towards the tool shed to find as many flashlights as Alex had stashed away, if this thing can hit and run that fast than the only possibility is using the shadows… and since it just turned nighttime, we have the entire night to find and kill this thing. Or be killed by it.

I found a few small flashlights as well as a couple big square shaped ones that are as bright as the sun. I ran back to hand Rob and Kelly the big ones and passed a couple of the small ones to the others that were not as shaky. I didn’t know their names but right now that wasn’t important, this little training mission just turned into a horror movie but luckily for me, I’m not wearing a red shirt.

I pulled Stacy and Hailee with me and walked towards Kyle… I didn’t want to do this but it’s an all hands on deck kinda moment. I didn’t know what rank this creature was but it’s a hell of a lot better to be safe than sorry. We found Kyle huddled around a campfire with a couple girls that seemed to be warming themselves up with his body heat… I hate when cliches come to life… I sighed as I walked up to him and as he saw me his cocky smile instantly turned sour.

“What do you want lowborn?” He said with pure contempt like how dare I breath the same air as him.

“You know what’s going on right? You know that it’s all hands on deck right now, since you’re a part of my team we…”

“YOUR TEAM! WHO DECIDED IT WAS YOUR TEAM?!” He screamed as he jumped up while pushing the girls aside. He walked up to me and pulled my collar and lifted me up while choking me. I grabbed his arm but for some reason it was like grabbing onto a steel beam with how tough it felt.

“Let…Me…Go…” I managed to squeeze out before his grip tightened and choked off the rest of my air. Stacy and Hailee jumped in and tried to pull his arms away from my neck but they couldn’t even make his arms budge.

“I will kill you lowborn, I will destroy you and then destroy this dirty disgusting chicken farm your so happy to be apart of.” His eyes flashed red as his smile grew wider than what a normal human smile could… My vision was blurring by now and everything was getting hazy.

“KWEH!” Rhonda squawked as a clawed foot came flying so fast that it seemed to actually displace the air, it crashed into Kyle’s body and like a ragdoll he went sailing into the ground several meters away.

I fell to the ground coughing and hacking as my lungs burned in the attempt to draw in air. Shadow was right there nudging me while whining before turning towards Kyle and growling and raising his hackles. I was still dazed and so could barely make out the feelings Shadow was sending me that was telling me he was feeling the same as earlier. I felt as a pair of arms on each side helped me stand up and a small light surrounded my body and the burning in my chest faded away and I started breathing way easier.

I looked towards Hailee as her hands were glowing and I smiled while thanking her. I was going to speak but was stopped as a cackling came from Kyle as he continued to lay on the ground. He raised his head to glare at me but his eyes weren’t normal, they glowed red, and that smile seemed even wide as now It showed a mouth filled with almost shark like fangs.

“I’m going to kill you James Frough!” He yelled as he jumped from the ground towards me. Shadow this time stood in front of me as his body glowed green a little and a small gust of wind went rushing forward as it formed a sickle like blade before cutting into Kyle’s chest, his armor glowed red shortly before the impact and it just shook off the magic like it was nothing. Kyle didn’t stop but instead of going after me, he changed targets to Shadow and with a kick empowered by whatever that red aura was, Shadow was flung away with a howl of pain.

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“YOU BASTARD!” I yelled and pulled out my axe before swinging it towards his head. I didn’t care anymore about whatever the unknown monster was, my only aim is Kyle’s death. Plain and simple.

He looked at my axe swinging towards his face like it was child’s play and with one hand he grabbed the blade and smirked at me. What he didn’t see was my other hand that was swinging low with my knife that aimed for the opening in his armor where his arms came out of. In a split second it seemed like his eyes glazed over and the red light faded before they came back and he blinked rapidly, almost as if he had just woken up.

SHICK

The knife went all the way to the hilt as I pierced his chest, I heard the gasps from the girls but what I paid attention to was the gurgling that came from Kyle’s mouth, his face contorted in confusion as he looked down at the knife then back up to me.

“Why?” He muttered before falling to his knees as blood came bubbling from his mouth. I pulled my knife out of his side and the blood came squirting out, his eyes now were filled with pain and panic as he pressed a hand to his side and tried to reach me with another. Why was he acting like this now? I know I went to far in the heat of the moment but he said he wanted to kill me and even hurt my pet… Something wasn’t right here.

“Help… Me… Please!” He gasped as the life was pouring out of his body.

“Fuck! Hailee heal him as much as you can! Rhonda go get Rob! Stacy go find Shadow.” I made the decision and pulled out some of the Mush before slapping it onto his side. He kept looking at me in confusion but I didn’t look back at him. I was confused and panicked as I kept repeating that I had killed him and this was my way to try and convince myself it was not my fault since I was now trying to help him… Stupid I know but my mind wasn’t working right.

Hailee’s healing light was just enough to keep him in agony, but alive, and with the mush his bleeding side was slowly closing up. His breathing was still ragged and every so often it would stop. I did the only thing I could and I gave him mouth to mouth. I didn’t do CPR as that would just be pushing the blood around but I made sure to keep filling his lungs with air. Thankfully Rob and the rest came rushing towards us and without asking what was going on he pulled out a potion from his bag that was filled with a deep crimson colored liquid. He had me hold Kyle’s head as he poured the contents down his throat.

Within seconds his breathing eased and his once pale face gained color. His eyes were closed but they were moving around like he was asleep.

“Now that that is over, someone tell me what the hell is going on?” He looked straight at me while speaking. I explained everything that happened, from me walking up and seeing him with a couple girls, to Shadow being kicked away, to me stabbing my knife into his lungs…

“You almost killed him James. If I hadn’t came when I did…”

“I know, I know, Something just came over me when he kicked Shadow and I couldn’t control myself.”

“Kyle wasn’t in control of himself either, he never used to act like that Director. Something happened to him recently that changed him.” Stacy spoke up as she came over and handed me the whimpering Shadow, his leg was bent at an angle and his feelings of pain were flooding my mind. My breath hitched as I didn’t know what to do but Hailee came over and used her healing light, She told me to hold him tightly as she took his broken arm and snapped it back into position. He growled and tried to bite at her but I held him against my chest as she then placed her hands on his body, he scratched her hand enough to draw blood but she just winced and kept going as the wounds closed within moments.

She backed away as soon as Shadow was healed and held her hand. I looked down at Shadow and he was licking his arm.

“I know it hurt buddy but Hailee helped you. Tell her thank you.” I said while petting him, he looked at me with a short glare but soon huffed as he hopped down and walked towards Hailee, He pawed at the air in a ‘come here’ motion. She leaned down hesitantly but when she leaned down he licked her hand before turning around and walking back to me as she smiled.

“That was nice and all but back to the unconscious guy that was just saved from a stab to the lungs?”

I snapped back to Rob and thought for a second. “I think something was controlling him.” Thinking back to the way Kyle smiled and how non-human it looked. I explained the gut feeling while seeing that to Rob, he took a couple seconds to digest the info but soon nodded.

“This could be the work of some parasitic monster… Something that we didn’t know about until we got here and locked ourselves up with…”