I stopped to drink at another little brook, snacked on sour wild apples – then had a stomach ache and refused to complain about it. Was ready to discard the oozing ill-fitting shoes, but thinking of some distant future where I’d find pavement again, didn’t.

Road was buried under the grass and brush so thoroughly we could have turned around and I wouldn’t have known it. Maybe even strayed on purpose once or twice – some sights were surprisingly alluring. Upon closer inspection during one of these times, the black shrubbery looked like anything but what it appeared from afar. And they moved when observed. The marshland suddenly gave me two sinking feelings.

“Are we still on the right path?” I asked after a long while of uncontested peace.

Monster assured me that we were and I sidled closer to the known evil. That may or may not have been strongly influenced by some of the bushes taking on human and animal shapes. If I never saw the great outdoors again it would be too soon.

Forced to ignore the haunting beauty all around, I turned my attention back onto the monster walking by my side. The hood was pulled up again and I found myself relieved. I knew what was beneath it, I knew this hidden state was his full appearance, but something at the back of my mind still compelled me to imagine human features underneath.

My fingers felt the rough texture of his skin-coat and I looked down to find myself gripping crook of monster’s arm. Chewed my lip. I was far too impulsive and physical for self-restraint when it came to other people. Let go, watching my hand lazily drop down and brush rest of the sleeve in the process.

His fingers flexed and caught mine at the last moment. I looked up but there was no expression to tell me what he could be thinking. I held on wordlessly. There were no waves of unreasonable pleasure, but the contact was still nice. Comforting. And load-bearing, as I soon came to find out after tripping over a submerged root.

“Do you want to be carried?” he snarled out but it wasn’t unkind.

“Oh, god, yes please,” I muttered exhaustedly and threw my full weight into demon’s arms without glint of shame. I was so sick of slogging through mud. Walking was never my calling. And I had to have some pride in first place to be abashed by my actions. What was I even trying to prove yesterday?

Demon hummed looking dead ahead, “Too bad you’re too capable of doing everything on your own.”

This sly devil! I grinned and feigned dying. Twisted towards the sky with elbow over the eyes to cry, “I was so young and stupid then!” Then barked out meshing the words together, “Also it is all your fault for being sensitive mountain flower, your guy would have dropped me off like yesterday.” And I wasn’t even exaggerating for once.

Demon’s ticking growl switched up as if reluctantly conceding. He bent down and scooped me up onto his forearm just like before. I melted onto noticeably warming chest. Finally, some rest. I hadn’t even noticed this headache before. I could nap. The fact that my face was pressing against rough leather which I held back from touching for what seemed forever kept my eyes wide open.

The fleshy layer underneath didn’t writhe nor was there any soft prickling. For once he stayed well within his own skin. How… lamentable. I was effectively limiting his senses, which probably wasn’t fair on my part. But boundaries were nice. Not everybody granted me that gift.

I stared at his hooded head again and to both of our surprise my hand ended up flying towards it. I knew demon was caught off-guard because I heard the flesh rearrange as if by instinct and still a split second later. I froze up too, moving only after the panic subsided.

“Tell me if I’m doing something wrong,” I whispered and carefully prodded absence of face again.

“You’re not letting me repair you,” monster hissed back just as quietly and his facial maw cracked open. I landed one fingertip on a tooth.

“I’m not broken,” I replied in low tone, as dictated by the tranquil moment. Upon retrospection I probably was, but that went beyond his power.

“And I’m not human…”

“Clearly,” I sank my fingers onto the sharp pricklers.

“… Yet you regard me like such. I can do so much more for you,” demon finished interrupted sentiment.

I sagged down around creature’s neck and closed my eyes. The insistence would have been irritating if not for the earnestness behind it. For some reason he listened to me against his own better judgement and I felt better for it.

I was napping for a good while when intensifying growl woke me up. I was all groggy and sluggish.

Tick. Tick. Tick tickticktick. Splat.

Wiped chunks off my face. They weren’t bloody per se, but transparent film definitely oozed out. Warm, pulsing flesh. Small needle teeth.

“Ew,” I dropped the slimy chunk instinctually. Some dots connected and I looked up to find half of monster’s hood missing. I really should be reacting to that, whoever was piloting my listless body told me. Monster jerked again as two more whacks forced otherwise steady tower backwards. Gunshots. Gunshots were gutting the creature. That’s when a real terror gripped me and instead of screaming I gutturally snivelled.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I felt the force of each impact with my body, but no projectile touched me. I didn’t even have a scratch. Looked back up and found faceless creature fully mended and thoughtfully ticking away. Monster ate the metal like it was candy, swerving only when they seemed to be aiming for me. Perhaps hugging a target with all my might was bad idea, but I could not let go. I still couldn’t get over seeing a headshot, even if the only head the person in question carried was mine.

“They call themselves special anti-entity unit,” growling relayed bits of what must have been an incredibly distant conversation.

“And?” I shouted, gripped by fear as hard as I was holding onto the special unit’s quarry. I failed to see the relevance of naming, besides of course the fact that danger has perhaps doubled. Why wasn’t he hightailing out of here?!

“I wonder how especially squishy they are.”

I normally would have said something very derogatory about humanity, but these particular individuals were determined and carrying some serious heat. I could tell the demon did something I didn’t even register because a deafening explosion got diverted away.

Following precision hits aimed to harm his horns in particular. Perhaps by accident or maybe anti-creature regiment really knew what it was doing. Demon swerved and this time it took him serious effort to stay on his feet. Another one of those explosions dangerous enough to avoid completely shook the ground to our left and wave of heat wafted in my face. Monster regenerated the injured antennae and seemed to be done with playing.

I felt my hands sink into a squishy mass and then get forced apart as another distinct form bulged out of the monster’s back. I blinked and two of them stood in the field. The sniper was still aiming for the horns, but now both of them maneuvered the heads, effortlessly avoiding getting shot. One trotted on ahead whilst the other carrying me kept walking in the same pace.

“Let me down,” I muttered, still gripping creature’s shoulders like my life depended on it. It probably did.

“No.”

I couldn’t argue further. I was too scared. Way out of my element. Dying was supposed to be much more relaxing. This was not it.

Thus far things were going well. Creature seemed unbothered, perhaps even thrilled. He probably faced armed humans all the damn time. Previous massacre wasn’t even a challenge, after all. This is fine. It’ll be fine. I just regretted having front seats to this show.

He unexpectedly stopped. Bad feeling made me look out into the field where other body should be conducting business. There was no sound of battle and bullets have stopped. White smoke billowed in angry welts. A slumped body was getting slowly covered by it. I could still see two coiling prongs sticking out.

Unexpectedly, my demon turned around and ran. Smoke chased and another hissing pop landed in our path. More treacherous smoke reached for us. I felt like sinking in molasses and monster’s flesh started closing up over my hands. His arms squeezed me to his core harder, although I wasn’t even struggling. My head got enveloped in something elastic and it was all dark.

I was inside him. I curled up. There were no teeth, I was whole and unhurt. Air was heavy, thick and there was not much of it. And he was still running. Have I ever seen him move this fast? The growl was varying but I could not discern words. He didn’t need to spell it out. That white cloud was bad news.

The rocking of his leaps wasn’t even anymore. He certainly tripped that time. Fell, now. And didn’t get up. Growl has ceased and it left me feeling emptier than I would have ever imagined. I stayed bunched up, even when it became hard to breathe.

I spoke to him, all sorts of incoherent nonsense to coax out a snide reply but there was nothing. No sound, not a twitch. I was so dizzy and only partly because of suffocation.

When I heard voices I could not bear it any longer and began clawing my way out of the body. There were gunshots. Scalding pain; disgustingly warm liquid covering my leg. I pulled it back in and gripped with effort to staunch the flow. It hurt more.

“Wait! Stop! Stop! I’m human!” I shouted through the cacophony as lifeless corpse absorbed worst of the barrage. Corpse. There had been no doubt of the fact in my hazy mind now. What I considered an opportunity for freedom not so long ago, now coloured my black and red world with regret.

Another friend was dead. Friend. Perhaps not quite yet but he had potential of becoming so. After all, he was one of few on my side. I snorted at the absurdity and told the corpse all about it. No response.

Juices were oozing off the stomach walls as though salivating. In actually this body was rapidly decomposing. It immediately smelled different. Not sickeningly sweet like this world’s meat, just as though nothing held all this mass together and separate components re-emerged. I screamed more words whilst gripping the flesh around me but all I managed to grasp was more of the ooze.

Feeling the lull more than hearing it and drowning now on top of suffocating from bad air, I forced myself out. Mouth and nose were full of the foul mucus but I was able to pull in a couple of breaths. I kept muttering that I am human to all the barrels pointed at me. Wasn’t offended. I would be wary of gut-surfing swamp monsters too.

Specialised unit stood cautious but wasn’t shooting anymore. Several were aiming flaming hoses. Others held high calibre launchers. Most were spread out and spraying some other mist over the field. Everybody wore gasmasks, even though there was no sign of the drifting death anymore.

Frogs were silent and mosquitos didn’t bother me for once, albeit thick layer of mucus would have probably stopped them anyway. I stared at the corpse. Then the other similar gathering in the distance. A bulky vehicle was backing up towards a container.

Over. That part of my life ended abruptly and all too quickly again. Perhaps I can finally just go back home and forget that last month has happened altogether. Forget the death that followed me.

Glanced back at the suited up faceless men. All of them twitchy and vigilant. Yeah, I was far too optimistic about my future prospects.

They looked like they were still in a presence of monster. Considering circumstances and my appearance, I didn’t blame them. I was lucky they didn’t shoot me… Scratch that, they did, but I was lucky it wasn’t a headshot yet. I probably need to work towards keeping it that way. Rather than unconvincingly repeat that I was human and therefore undeserving of their bullets I chose to engage in a fuller conversation.

“Outstanding rescue, boys, but where’s the hot cocoa?” I croaked, throat still full of transparent slime which I choked on and subsequently got into coughing fit over. Which was far too jerky for these fine, jittery men who valued their lives above mine. I forced myself to stop, clawing at the ticklish throat.

“Nothing? Not even sweet tea? How ill-prepared,” I attempted playful chastising, but my voice was thing of nightmares and I was turning red from holding in the cough. Not my best look. “I’ll settle for water?”

A canteen dropped at my knees. Someone took pity and I smiled at one of the masks. The others did a dance from leg to leg or throw a glance towards the good samaritan. So the camp was split between the unsure and wary. Good, I can work with that. Daugas, I read on raincoat uniform of the bleeding heart and filed information under just in case.

Right after I took a greedy drink – which still did not clear my mouth of the monster juice - a smaller figure strode in and stood safely right behind the line of fodder. Someone in charge, then. Woman spoke sternly, “I was told this one communicates?”

“This one has a nice cup of coffee, would you like some?” I graciously saluted her with the canteen.

“Good work. The pod for mouths is on the way. Stay sharp,” woman said and strutted off.

I reeled and even though I was already sitting, felt like sinking even deeper. “Hold on, lady! Wait. I’m human!”

I tried to get up but circle of guards got restless and started shouting. I remained in my puddle and in just a moment more, threw up the weirdest looking glob of slime. How very human of me. This one was no longer transparent. I, along with all the soldiers, half-expected it to grow legs and run off. We stared. It did not.

I had this nagging feeling that once I am put in that pod that would be the end for me. It was also utterly pointless to beg or try to convince the disposable men in the frontlines. And yet I babbled on, “It’s gonna be so awkward for your boss in a little while. Does she have a boss?”

Well, okay, I guess they had to make sure before letting a potentially dangerous creature go. But all that work just to salvage one deadbeat human? Yeah, unlikely.

I pulled out the cigarette which remained miraculously dry in my inner pocket beneath the coat but all three remaining matches refused to light. Perhaps it had more to do with my shaking fingers. The same one guy with conscience started digging under his raincoat and eventually threw me a waterproofed box of his. The little kind gesture felt like cement on top of my grave.

Helicopter started buzzing above as the doomed man worked on his last smoke.