Somethings you have to do, just to be a good person. The bare minimum required to be considered a Human, in fact. This was one of those things. I suddenly wished I weren’t Human.

The howls met my ear shortly after Aifleial shouted. He was loud, and not even the pounding rain could mask the cadence. Rage. I imagined spittle flying out of his mouth, his face red, embarrassed, ashamed. I’d gotten a jump on him, a mere Human, and he wanted his ounce of disrespect to be paid with a pound of flesh.

The average Human could probably run fifteen miles an hour in a short sprint. The fastest man alive could run nearly thirty. I was somewhere in the middle, but it was a maintained sprint, not a short burst. My legs moved with a speed I wasn’t used to, and the rain in my eyes only blurred the edges of my vision further. The average speed of a monster was unknown to me, but glancing back it was on the higher end of thirty. The creatures were already gaining distance, and the rope hadn’t impeded them at all.’

Four of the creatures I counted as I glanced back. That meant the leader of the little group, and two others were unaccounted for. I assumed one of the two was the one that had been blinded, so it meant I had four healthy ape-goblin’s chasing me down. One of them scaled along the side of the wall, and was only slightly slower than the one’s that galloped after me.

One of the ground ones hit a car shoulder first, and flipped it entirely over its form. I decided to look ahead after that.

They were stronger than they were stupid, and faster than they were small. It meant I had no hope of actually out running them.

My feet pounded the ground as I tried to speed up. The warmth in my body was in full effect, mana, I had to remind myself, and was being drained with the effort. It was a slow drain, one that wasn’t quite tanking my reserves, but it meant that eventually I would run out. Leaps in logic were necessary in order to define the warmth, and my physical condition, but I assumed that as it drained, I would grow more tired, my breathing wouldn’t be so regulated, my body would begin to ache, and the rain would feel much colder.

The creature’s would catch up when that started to happen.

My sprint through the street and down the road was still keeping distance, but they were gaining. I heard a window shatter to my right, and ducked down instinctively, feeling a similar heat to that mana in my chest coming towards my right.

One of the goblin’s, the wall crawler, had sped up and managed to be parallel to me, and had made a leap to grab me. The duck was fortunately timed, and it sailed over my head to crash into a car off to my left, and the whole thing tilted to flip onto its side. Metal caved in around the little beast, and I doubted it had even been hurt. Dazed, hopefully, but certainly not hurt.

I could feel them behind me now, a bundle of warmth, three dots in the back of my mind as if I could see behind me. Each one moved with its own rhythm, the heats all vastly different from mine, and varying in intensity. The one in the front was the fastest, and that meant his fire burned hottest, while the ones behind him were varying degree’s lower. The one that tried to tackle me roughly matched him.

I turned. It was too late to keep running, and I doubted any help was on my way, so there was only one real way out. My leg hitched as I turned, and the creature barreled forward at me with too much momentum to stop before my attack. I focused warmth- mana into that leg, and then kicked it as hard as I could, with as much strength as the leg and my body could stand.

The crunch was very audible. The creature’s momentum was entirely arrested by my leg, and I could feel the muscle of its form cave around my knee and upper shin, and I followed through, extending my leg out. The creature flew.

The height it gained was impressive, and the distance it traveled more-so, the creature careening through the air, to crash and slide on the pavement in between his two followers. The fourth of the creatures had managed to wedge itself out from the car, and joined them.

“Alright, come on. One at a time preferably.” I laughed, my voice quivering, and pointed my gun at the creatures. To say I was afraid was an understatement, I probably could’ve pissed my pants out of fear if it weren’t for the adrenaline, and the need to spare my dignity. Not that it would’ve mattered. I was soaked through, and that kick had shaved off a good chunk of the warmth, and now I was feeling the faintest edges of the cold in the air, and it would’ve made me shiver, if not for that fact that I already was.

Adrenaline. I was drunk on it, from saving those people, and from running for my life, adrenaline had made a cocktail of unfamiliar feelings run through my body. I felt strong, and terribly scared. I wanted to fight, and run at the same time.

“Gregroi! Get up!” One of the creatures, the one that hit the car, pulled his brother up. I could hear the little creature gasping for air, and almost felt bad, but that cleared when I saw it rise to its feet. It had hate in its eyes, and a want to kill, no matter how hurt it was. Maybe I broke its collarbone, or caved in a lung, or something that would impede it. It grinned, and suddenly I doubted that though.

The first of the two creatures dashed. They came at me like hounds, and I pointed the gun, and pulled the trigger. The trigger didn’t budge, which confused me, until I remembered the safety on the gun. By the time I flipped it down, it was too late.

One of the creatures swiped at my hand, and knocked the gun out of it, leading it to clatter to the ground and slide across the slick pavement. The other hit me, hard, head first in the stomach, and I instinctively let go of the bag in my hand. The air left my body instantly as I was sent flying back. Not falling, flying.

I may have been knocked four feet through the air from the hit, and it left me rolling in the middle of the road as the rough landing left me stunned.

More warmth gone, enough for my fingers to feel cold from the rain. If not for mana, I might have been left unconscious just from that one hit, and it made me not want to get hit ever again. I didn’t have the luxury of that option, however.

One of the creatures, the car one, had jumped the moment I landed. Over its brothers, and through the air, I was noting it was more acrobatic than the other three, his hands shaped into claws as he fell towards me. My elbow hitched into the ground, and I rolled myself out of the way, managing to avoid him crashing right on top of me.

As his claws made contact with the ground, I heard the sound of the pavement cracking.

“Reheh! You can’t run forever girl!” It said, rising. It’s words were mocking, and I matched it by standing up and shrugging my bag off of my back. It glared at me, and its brothers started stalking forward. I had to beat all four, I was realizing. The odd’s were not in my favor.

As the acrobatic one moved forward, I matched it again. There was no combat training in my past, my dad and I used to play box, but it was all just messing around, so I didn’t know the right form or how to throw a punch other than to not wrap my fingers around my thumb. The bare basics, if one could consider it that.

I did however, have mana on my side. As I moved in, I focused warmth into my arm, and the creature swiped. His outer claws hit my shirt, sliced through my clothes and into flesh, as I brought the fist down into his skull. It made a resounding thud, and we both stumbled back, with its brothers pausing.

I grimaced. My shirt was shredded across my belly, and the skin underneath didn’t look much better. It was a flesh wound, and I realized my mistake immediately. Too much mana had been focused into my attack, and I left little for defense. Had I of had nothing left in the tank, he may have exposed my guts to me, and after the punch the mana had rushed back to the site of the wound.

Warmth filled my belly, and the blood flow was staunched. The little creature was left staggering, and fell onto his bum. I hoped that was a concussion he was dealing with, but I wasn’t sure if I hit him hard enough for that.

Okay you can’t put everything into your attacks. You need defense too, spare some of that warmth for protecting yourself. It’s better to over do it than under do it. Keep some in my legs as well so I have leverage, and I’m steady.

I was learning on the fly. Figuring out magic wasn’t easy, I was finding out. The warmth didn’t necessarily react to my thoughts, rather my emotions, and what I felt I needed in the moment. Spreading it out took a concerted effort, but eventually my whole body felt warm, and I had more warmth in my chest than anywhere else. The next two creatures made their move, while the third focused on his brother.

Car-crash and Soccer-ball. The one I had kicked was furious, and I made the decision to focus on him as they moved. Soccer-ball rushed me, his movements heavy and sluggish from his previous injury, while his brother went for a flank. Two heavy swings of his claws were made my way, and I moved backwards, just out of their range, while feeling the dull throb in my belly. More warmth was sent there, I needed to ignore the pain. The third strike lingered just too long in the air, and I grabbed his wrist.

As Car-crash moved in with a leap, I swung his buddy up and off of the ground at him. The slam wasn’t as hard as I had wanted, I couldn’t go from no momentum to full swing as fast as I’d liked, but it knocked him out of the air as they both yelped. The went down in a tangle of confusion and fighting as I let go, while I immediately turned and dashed down the road.

I wanted for my gun. As I moved, I could hear them shout something, and felt movement to my side. Too fast, too sudden. The third brother, who I was dubbing Worry-wart, was now on me. He hit me hard, with a full body tackle, and flung me away from the gun that I had been feet away from snatching up. The pavement hit harder this time, with the warmth spread so evenly to my body. Without the reactionary protection, it hurt more to be hit by Worry-wart, and by the ground, but it was less than if I had no mana at all.

He was on top of me in seconds. The creature straddled me with a loud laugh, and begin slashing for my face, and I thrust my arms up to protect it as his claws cut into my bare arms. Each cut was shallow, thanks to warmth rushing to protect them, but it was a constant assault that was wearing me down. Warmth slipped away. The ground now felt cold beneath me.

As he clawed at my warms, my warmth protected me again. Each cut was shallow, but compiling, and I knew I had to act fast. Slowly, I pushed up against the flurry of claws, sitting up inch by inch until I found leverage. I grabbed both of the arms as fast as I could, and brought myself forward and him back.

It took a lot of effort but I was able to get him to the ground after a scuffle, keeping his arms held tightly so he couldn’t try clawing me again. It wasn’t a favorable position, my knee on the ground between his legs, and the other at the side of his left, but it kept him from continuing to gore my now crimson arms. It was hurting a lot more now, both my arms and my stomach.

“You little bitch, I’ll kill you-“ I didn’t care what he had to say. Hauling up, I was able to lift him off of the ground by his tensed arms, before I slammed him back down with as much strength as my body could manage. That took the wind out of him, and shut the little bastard up. I did it twice more, then another three times, slamming him until I felt his arms start to go slack.

I huffed breath, and stood as I saw the other two were coming my way.

I’m so tired.

For a moment, I thought about giving up. The warmth had dwindled, and I didn’t have enough to spare for the entirety of my body, and now I was cold. Both in a literal sense, with the rain chilling my core, and a metaphorical sense, where that core was truly emptying.

I though about my mother, and her being left alone. Noah could be dead, and she could be there, confused, lost. On good days she kind of recognized us. On bad days, she didn’t know us at all. What would she do if Noah were killed, and a group of these freaky little ape-goblins were to surround her? She’d be mortified. They’d maul her, and she’d be defenseless.

The little warmth sparked in my chest, and it was enough to get me moving again. I dove. Across the puddles, over my defeated little foe, and onto the pavement, I hit a slide across the ground and managed to grab my gun as the two were on me. Safety off, a turn and an aim, I fired.

Four shots I unloaded into the closest creature. The gun was small, and I had little hope it’d kill, and even the recoil felt non-existent, though it was still loud. It seemed to shudder and go still, the bullets having gouged into its chest cavity. I recognized it as Soccer-ball, the one I kicked early. It had distinctive floppier ears, and a bruise across its chest, and now bullet holes in them.

He dropped with a gurgling noise, and lay on the ground, while his friend stared at me with fear. I had little doubt that he was dead, but I aimed the gun at his friend, who shrieked something. May it was a plea. I didn’t much care, numb and cold and tired and hurting. I pulled the trigger at least twenty more times, but the gun only fired three.

He too dropped. My warmth was gone with the gun shots. Had the bullets been imbued with some of the warmth? Did me just holding it make the gun more deadly? I didn’t care. I flopped back, and laughed, laying on my back with exhaustion and pain. I’d won, or at least had a close approximation to victory. Three were wounded in the puddle.

The fourth was moving.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

My head lolled to the side, into a staining red puddle, and I saw him staggering. Knock-out, I nicknamed him uselessly, the one I had punched before. He had a nasty bruise on his forehead. I’d forgotten one, and the punch hadn’t put him down for the count. The nasty little creature staggered over, grinning ear to ear, his pointed, filthy, slobber covered yellowed teeth filling my vision.

I heard a crunch behind him.

“You will not take this kill from me.” Aifleial was behind him. The little creature now sported wings, large and raven with points along the outer edges of the wings, and each feather seemed more metallic than anything else. His tattoo’s had changed orientation since I saw him, I noted. He seemed a little larger, but not by much, and he seemed more angry than before. “You managed to defeat three of my charges? Fascinating. Maybe you are the Hunter you claim to be, or maybe you’re just a lucky fool.”

His voice was deep, gravely and loud, each word vibrating my skull. Everything was a little foggy now, I realized. I was losing more blood, and was cold. The rain shouldn’t have been this cold, this time of year. Magic stuff, I filed it under.

“A warrior like you is a rarity among your kind, if you’re truly no Hunter. Your back up never arrived. Braving four Kobaloi is something few can do - they’re nasty little fuckers. I brought them with me specifically because of that. They’re weakened like me, sure, but they should be able to handle ten of your kind a piece.” Aifleial was standing over me now, and I couldn’t respond. The man was praising me, and I felt no pride in the accomplishment. I hadn’t won. There was no victory here. I was more angry that one got away, than the fact that I was going to die here. That was a weird thought in and of itself, and he seemed to be able to read my mind.

“You’re not happy.” He spoke.

Obviously I’m not happy you little shit. One got away, look at him, all smug and arrogant. I should’ve hit him harder.

“I didn’t kill all of them.” I muttered to him, and was surprised at how tired I was. My voice sounded weaker than I felt.

The lord paused, and then grinned ear to ear, laughing loudly. It was uproarious, the man was doubled over despite himself, wings that were too heavy for his little form threatening to tip him over.

He laughed for a long time, and I could only listen.

“Yes little human. May I give you a parting gift. I have no use for failures. May you die knowing your actions lead to the defeat of all four of my charges.” He raised his hand to Knock-out, who was staring wide eyed at his master.

Light. Warmth.

Raw and unfiltered poured from the digits of the little lord. The wave of it, a solid beam in fact, covered Knock-out, engulfing him in heat and flame and warmth and the glow of black mana, and his screams were drowned out by the ocean-like noises of the attack, and of the pounding rain. Seconds later, the light vanished, leaving only a charred mark on the ground that steamed in the rain and cold.

“You’re responsible for the death of two now, and the injuring of two more. May you find peace with that much.” His digits raised towards me now, and the lord seemed amused.

I wasn’t happy with just two, but I smiled and gave him the tiniest nods. The digits glowed with the flexing of his hand, and he was going to give me the same death that he gave the little creature. It was a powerful death. I was only not noticing how warm the man was, how much power he held in that little form, and how the tattoo’s were like bindings, restricting that warmth in a hug of flesh.

My eyes closed, and I was ready for death to come.

Seconds passed, and I didn’t feel anything. I reasoned I was too numb, my chest too hollow and empty. I felt a shadow over me, and heard the grunt of the little man. Effort was needed to open my eyes again, but when I did I was washed over with relief.

Aifleial was being held. His attacker was a gray haired man, larger and muscular, easily dwarfing even some of the larger body builders I’d seen. His hair was peppered with gray, and he was old, but I couldn’t easily tell it on a glance. It was a power struggle to keep Aifleial held back, the little man flapping his overly large wings for leverage, and I could see the older timer was wounded. He had bruises and cuts all over his body.

Above me, was a much smaller figure. Without the blood on her face, I almost didn’t recognize her from before. Small, younger than me by half, and missing most of her teeth, was the small girl from the group before. Raven haired, and as drenched by the rain as I was, she was shivering, but was hovering over me protectively.

“I see two wasn’t enough to deal with you disgusting humans!” Aifleial roared, and twisted, trying to break free of the old man, and for some reason he seemed fearful. In my eyes it was a stalemate, I didn’t know what he thought would happen.

“They got most of us, but I wasn’t going to let that young lady over there die.” The old man grunted, and grinned a grin of death, as he kept the lord still. His muscles were coils of wire-like masses, the skin stretched top the point of looking unnatural, his power flowing. The old man was a beacon of warmth.

The little girl was similar.

She had her arms extended over my form, and I was confused on what she was doing. The digits were splayed, pointed directly at Aifleial, and I only now noticed he was staring at the girl with wide eyes. The rain had stopped.

No, that was wrong. It had stopped around us, and was now floating. Each droplet had still been there, floating in empty space, each one angled to be stretched and thin, and all pointed towards Aifleial. More were gathering too, before long.

“Hurry up, Ella!” The old man roared, as Aifleial kicked it into a higher gear. His tattoo’s squirmed, and the man wretched, this time moving the elderly muscle-man with his strength.

“A little longer!” The little girl, Ella, yelled.

I wanted to help them, but the tank was empty. The man roared again as his trapped combatant struggled more, and I could see he was slowly gaining more and more ground, the old mans arms trembling and his feet sliding as wings started flapping harder and harder.

The rain moved all at once. The pointed lengths of many mechanical pencil lead sized rain droplets all converged, and moved in a point, all focused at the center of Aifleial’s chest. One alone would’ve done nothing, but there had to be hundreds of them, and together they made the point of a thick spear that slammed into the little lords chest cavity, puncturing and pushing through, before blowing out of his back in a splatter of water and blood.

Ella collapsed on top of me, unconscious. She was now as cold as I was. Once a radiator of warmth, now complete bereft of any. The girl had done more than I had, with a busted mouth and broken nose, and I felt a little pride for her.

Aifleial likely did not.

The man staggered, a hole now the size of my fist existing through his body, and I could see the gore of dripping blood and his spinal column, still in tact, through the rain and the gaping wound. He wobbled, nearly fell, and then was airborne in one single powerful flap of his wings, completely wrenched from the old man’s grasp. His flight path wasn’t great, he crashed into the rooftop edge of one building, seemed to wobble in the air, and then vanished over the building, hopefully never to be seen again.

The old man grunted, and collapsed forward. His muscle mass was cut in half all at once, and the spare skin sagged, but he wasn’t the skeleton of a beaten man I had saw before. Unlike me, and unlike Ella, he still had some warmth left in the tank.

He looked as relieved as I did.

“Girl, you’re alive?” He spoke, and I nodded. “Good, good. You saved us, back there. Come on.” The large man grunted, and moved over to a flipped car. His hand grasped at the roof, caving in the metal, and hauling down he managed to flip it entirely.

“I was on the straight and narrow all my life, but I can probably hot wire this old bastard. Trick of the trade.” He laughed, and joined us both. The man hauled Ella into the backseat, and me in the front seat, over the course of the next couple of minutes. He was careful with moving us, and was extra careful with the small girl.

“My bags.” I had managed to mutter, and he retrieved both of the soggy bags dutifully. After that, I stayed quiet, listening to him work in the driver’s seat. After a bit, he left the car, went to the trunk, and returned with tools. While exhaustion was still present, I paid attention, and saw that his confidence may have been partially unfounded, but after ten or so minutes of fiddling, he managed to get the car running.

I was so terribly grateful when the heater blasted on that I could cry.

“Where were you going girl? There’s a movement to get to the airport. Would you go there?” He spoke, and I shook my head. In the time it had taken for him to hotwire the car, he had shrunk by another half in mass. Still more fit than an old man, but with more excess skin than before.

“My mother, and my brother. Alone. Near Coloumbus Park.” I managed that much, and he looked at me with concern. I didn’t want him to give me that look, I knew. They hadn’t made it. I still needed to see for myself though, and gave him the best pleading look I could manage.

He obliged. The car was brought to life, and started down the road, slow goings thanks to all of the obstruction and remaining traffic, and many times he went off onto the side walk. There was a silly little part of me that wanted to chastise him for that. What if he hit someone?

I was a little delirious, I realized, but the cars heater was bringing me back to life. The warmth in my chest didn’t return during the first half of the car ride, but my normal human faculties did, my mind becoming more sharp, and my body slowly rising. The cuts on my arm and stomach, along with a huge blotch of bruising on my side and back, hurt like nothing else, but mercifully there was no bleeding. The wounds were clogged with what looked like scabs, and I didn’t dare pick at them.

“You’re looking better already. I’m Alvin, Alvin Hofmann, that’s Eleanor, my granddaughter.” He made introductions, and I found quickly that I was liking Alvin. He reminded me of a grandfather I never had, he was jovial and friendly despite dark circumstances, and his smile was wider than any I’d seen. He was bare faced, and wrinkles showed heavy, but his hair was messy in a teenage boy-band kind of way, despite being more salt than pepper at this point. He put me at ease, despite my injuries and worries.

“Charlotte.” I spoke, managing to sound a little more like myself now that I’d been warmed through.

“Charlotte, pretty name, like the spider.” He said, and I nodded and smiled. My dad said something similar to me once. “Do you have any idea what’s going on, Charlotte?”

I shook my said.

“No sir, I was out on a date and everything turned blue.” I said.

“Your date alright?” Alvin asked, and seemed concerned.

“Yes sir, we got separated but I know she’s fine.”

I didn’t like lying to him immediately, but didn’t know what he’d say to her being a Vampire. It was partially the truth, at least, we were separate by her mother and the invasion after all, but it didn’t feel right. He seemed to pick up on it, I noticed his eyes look towards me, but he nodded. I was relieved that he didn’t pry further.

“Your folks armed?” He asked, and as he did he reached down. Out of one of his pockets, he retrieved my little pink hand gun, and handed it off to me. For some reason I was strangely relieved to have it, despite it not having any bullets. I didn’t even know what kind it took.

He seemed to notice that, too. I was aware that he was more aware, and in turn that made me notice how aware I was as well. Even low on mana, I noticed things more, just like I did in the tea shop. He seemed to be the same.

“You’ll want .320, it’s a smaller round so I’m surprised you can even use it. Meant for self defense more than killing monsters. Still, the best gun to have is the one you carry. If we pick up your family, we should hit a gun store. Looting’s gonna start the moment this stuff dies down. Need to stock up on clean water, the essentials.” Alvin explained as we road, and hit a particularly nasty pothole in the road, but managed to keep us straight and away from most obstacles.

“Ah- Water, right uhm.” I reached back, into one of my back packs. I frowned at Ella’s sleeping form, and reached out to check her temparature, which was fine. She was warmed too, and I saw Alvin looking for relief on my face to know if his granddaughter was okay, which I gave him with a smile and a nod. He sagged visibly at that fact.

Out of my bag I retrieved water bottles with the strip club’s logo. One was passed off to Alvin, and he eyed the fish on the bottle, then looked at me with his busy eyebrows raised.

I glared back.

“No judgment.” He said, and took a grateful swig of water as I did the same.

“None taken, don’t work there. Was just hiding there.” I said.

He nodded, and either didn’t seem to believe me, or pretended not to just to fuck with me. I reached over and jabbed him, and he grinned and laughed.

Alvin was a weird old coot, but a nice one at least.

The water, and the conversation, reinvigorated me, and I felt the warmth in my core finally returning. I noted that, too, as I had noted with the fighting. Basic needs replenished mana. Water, Warmth, Rest and Conversation, and I assumed other things would do so as well. Things that were good for the soul, I supposed. I wondered if our experiences were mutually exclusive.

“You figure this whole magic thing out?” I asked, while digging back around in my bag.

“Magic?” Alvin asked, and his eyebrows shot up. He was surprised.

“Yes sir, the uh…. Heat, in your chest. You have that?”

“Ah. I suppose I do.” He nodded as he spoke.

I was the one to arch my eyebrows now.

“The muscle? How’d you figure out how to do that? And the rain, too. With uhm, Eleanor, she punched straight through that guy with the water.” I remembered how the little girl had done more damage than I had even managed with my gun. Shit gun it seemed, but it was still odd.

“We were going to the museum today, family thing, when things started to go wrong. One second we were walking, the next a giant…. Worm, I suppose, came out of the ground. It had Eleanor’s father before any of us could move, my son.” His voice grew heavy as he spoke, and grief came out. I realized it had always been there, his eyes had always looked a little sad, but now the lines were heavy across his face, and it wasn’t the wrinkles that caused it.

“We ran, and kept low. We were hunted…. Over the next eight hours, I tried to keep them safe. Her mother went next. That’s when Eleanor turned on our attackers, and used the water from a nearby fire hydrant. Ripped it out of the ground to get at the water. The attackers took it worse than a hole in the chest.” Alvin explained while we drove and it gave me time to relax, but I still gave him my full attention. “That’s when he showed up, that scraggly bastard. I figured out how to use my muscles, as you’ve seen, after he punched poor Ella right in the mouth.”

I noticed the grip on the steering wheel grow tighter, and the air marginally warmer.

“We fought, and got captured, and they rounded us up. From what I gathered, men are to be killed no matter what. Women to be captured unless, didn’t hear this part, in which case they were meant to be killed. Children captured if they show special abilities, killed if they don’t.”

“Jesus.” I muttered, and felt my heart drop at the thought.

“Now would be the time for him, eh? Thanks again, Charlotte. That was brave stuff you did back there.” Alvin looked to me, and gave me a beaming smile. I looked away, embarrassed, but happy to have saved them.

The rest of the drive was kept in mostly silence. Ella woke up, somewhere along the way, and Alvin shared his water with her. I gave her a shirt to clean up the dried blood from her face, and she accepted. It seemed she didn’t want to talk much, and part of me wondered if it was because her mouth hurt. The dried blood, her lack of teeth in the front of her mouth, and the silence, along with the mention Alvin made of her being punched, painted a pretty clear picture. If I got hit that hard by that man, I wouldn’t speak either.

I felt bad for her. She was too young for this. I was too young for this. Alvin was too old.

We approached my neighborhood after a bit of driving. It hadn’t been too far to begin with, but the destruction made it take time. Everywhere we went, buildings were destroyed, there were dead bodies, cars were ruined, parts of the ground up heaved, and on several occasions we had to take detours around. I gave him my address, and guided him roughly to the right location.

My neighborhood hadn’t faired much better. Fire damage was apparent the moment we arrived, and I recognized several landmarks. My old babysitters house was part of a completely caved in portion of the neighborhood. At first I thought an explosion had leveled it, but I quickly realized something had stepped on those buildings. Little imps were out and about, but they were more like cats than the ape like goblin creatures that I had fought. They were sleeked and slender, swiveling around tree’s and buildings, and scattered when we drove past.

Large birds, with square shaped beaks and long tassel like feathers were devouring a man. If I knew him, I didn’t know, his face long gone. One bird went at an angle, and plucked an eyeball with the edge of his square mouth. I gagged.

When we pulled up outside of my house, I was relieved to see it was neither stepped or, nor burned down, but my heart skipped a beat as I saw the front door was wide open, and the screen door was broken.

“Want us to come with you? Ella probably can’t fight, but….” Alvin asked me, and I shook my head.

“Keep the car going.” I told him.

Without hesitation, I opened the car door, and stuffed my gun into my hoodie’s pocket. Despite being empty, it was still reassuring to have. The warmth in my chest had partially returned, and it was enough to what I had to do, at least I hoped it would be.

If some monster was inside, they were about to regret it. I had some frustration to get out.