The pounding of our feet echoed through the underbrush as we ran. The howls persisted but they were now joined by banshee-like laughter. Donny was up ahead keeping pace with Betsey. It seemed as if he didn’t want to lose her during this time. I winced and grabbed my chest. My burn ached something terrible and it was slowing me down. Donny made a sound between pain and despair and fell into a black abyss. I stopped running and faced the abyss finding a terrified Donny crying within.

“I-I c-can’t g-get out! S-Save y-yourself!”

Andromeda sighed. “Donny we are not leaving you to die.” She turned to me. “I’ve got a laser gun. You help Donny free of the hole while I hold off the Houls. Betsey is waiting for us on the other side of this hole. I can feel it. She hasn’t gone far.”

Betsey rounded the hole and came toward us as if to agree, tails thumping in exhilaration.

I nodded as Andromeda took her gun out. “Very well,” I winced and buried my hand in my chest holding onto it.

“Andromeda placed her hand over mine squeezing it. “Are you alright?”

“I will be. Let’s get Donny out of there,” I whispered as the howls vibrated around us shaking the leaves of the trees. I faced the hole and guessed from the size, that it was a hunting gimmick and it’d give if any weight was put over its sides. I had to work from the middle out. I shone a flashlight on Donny’s form. He had rolled up in a ball and was rocking to and fro.

“Donny!” I cried snapping him out of his daze. “Did Jude give you any rope in that pack he gave you?”

Donny stopped crying and rummaged around before pulling something long out.

“I have a stanza!” he yelled tossing over the leather half up to me. I grabbed the handle and felt the thing elongate below. A stanza was an extendable metal rod that was far better to hoist things up than a mere rope.

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“Alright. Stanza’s secure! You can pull now!” yelled Donny. I grabbed the rod and pulled wanting to scream, as my burn stretched with the movement of my arms. I repeated them, slowly hoisting Donny up from the hole. A gunshot rang through the underbrush.

“Matt, hurry!” yelled Andromeda as another shot rang out.

My arms muscles bulged and I felt sweat trickling down my back as I kept pulling Donny up. A few more pulls and his arms were within the grabbing distance of the hole. Donny hoisted himself the rest of the way up. I let him have a breather as I collapsed to the ground on my knees tears springing to my eyes. There were blood stains on my hands from the opened blisters of holding the stanza, but that wasn’t what had me rolling in pain. My burn was aching now. I didn’t think I could run let alone stand as I was. Still, I tried taking a deep breath and whimpered.

I sat to my knees and slowly dragged myself to my feet, signaling Donny to do the same. “Come on we need to go. Andromeda…can’t hold them any longer.”

Donny nodded and took off running. I pressed the button for the stanza to shrink and stuffed it in my pockets before limping away. Andromeda met me a worried glint in her dark eyes distinguishable with my night vision.

“We need to pick up the pace, Matt.”

I nodded. I knew I wasn’t going to make it. I touched her face. “You and Donny run on. I’ll stay back and distract them.”

“But Matt…you can…”

I shook my head as the howling began again. “No buts. Go! Betsey lead on!” I yelled to the dog thing. It nodded and began running. Andromeda gulped and we kissed fervently. Parting Andromeda grabbed Donny’s hand and started one way while I faced the oncoming monsters. I grabbed my burn and collapsed on the floor struggling to breathe. The howling grew louder and I faced the trees pointing my flashlight at the moving undergrowth, waiting for the monsters to appear.

Slowly they lumbered into view. Three beautiful women wearing white from head to toe. They almost floated into view. These were what we were so scared over or were these something else? Something worse? They circled me in and glanced at me with red eyes pupilless eyes. Their lips were curled in seductive smiles as they glanced me over.

“Well sisters, we didn’t have to hunt far for a meal. He came right up to us and waited,” said the tallest one.

“What a foolish boy,” whispered the smallest.

“Well let’s dine!” said the only one wearing a veil. She gripped my head and turned my neck brusquely burying her incisors in my neck, The smallest took my wrist and did the same. The tallest smirked placing a hand on my cheek.

“As my sisters dine I shall read what your future could have been and laugh,” she said. She placed her hands on either side of my head and chanted. A few minutes later she was tearing her sisters off me. I felt too weak to move. Much of my blood was gone. I was near death. I couldn’t even feel my burn any longer, which to me was a good thing.

“Elana I wasn’t done!” whined the smallest as she wiped my blood from her lips. I was slowly fading from reality but I heard Elana say I was the future whatever that meant. I was hoisted up and something spicy and warm flooded my senses. It was delicious. I drank some more of it, feeling vitality return to me. The spicy drink was taken from me and I slipped into unconsciousness with Elana’s last words in my mind.

You belong to me, Matt.