Chapter 2

Willa was down on her luck.

With weary steps, she trudged down the hallway of her dilapidated apartment building. Built a hundred and ten years ago, it seemed it had last been updated sometime in the sixties. Turquoise paint peeled, and water spots dotted the ceiling, reminding her of the dark spots on the moon.

Where there was acoustical tile, it had blackened and yellowed; all the while, the fluorescent lights buzzed.

But hey, at least it was cheap... for New York.

"I'm going to be ok." She assured herself, gripping a piece of paper in her left hand, clenching like a fist as she recited her mantra. Barely visible were the words.

"Notice of severance."

Half of her department had been laid off with her, it was just a crappy janitorial job, but it got her through since a series of unfortunate events had seen her lose her spot at the University six months ago.

The death of her grandmother meant she had lost her financial backing, and now, here she was, alone, unemployed, and trying to make ends meet.

Her job had been disgusting but perfect. Even on her meager salary, she was able to attend night classes and keep her belly fed on something approaching food, if not exactly.

Sure, her sodium levels would have given a lab technician a nosebleed, but she was twenty five and still kind of immortal.

There would be time to worry about nutrition when she could afford it.

Now, though, that was all in jeopardy. Life sucked, or at least it had these last six months.

Finally arriving at her door, there was more happy news waiting, posted in a cheery yellow that caused her to feel nauseous.

Notice of Eviction due to Eminent Domain- Long Island Commuter Railway project.

Something broke inside as she read the news. Turning, she looked down the hallway only to see duplicates of the very same notice on many of the doors she had passed, and for some reason, that made her feel even worse about her own predicament.

"What am I going to do?" She couldn't get a new place without a job, her savings were nonexistent, and her parents had died when she was twelve...

Panic gripped her heart like an icy wind. "It's ok... Lots of people live in their cars nowadays... I'll take what I have, maybe head out west, find another shit job and another community college. Just keep moving, that's what grandma said..." She recited those words, too, like a mantra.

It was all she had left.

Entering the small studio, it was as empty as she felt. A twin mattress and a few blankets occupied one corner. A PC and monitor, years out of date, were against the wall, looking out on the fire escape. She had an amazing view of a similar shit box apartment's rear side, but at least it wasn't a solid brick wall. The wall to her direct left had a small mini fridge with a hot plate on top of it before giving way to a mini bathroom.

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175 square feet of crappy apartment, but at that moment, she realized how much she was going to miss the place.

It had been hers, better than nothing, and paid for all on her own, a foothold from which she hoped to climb the mountain of adulthood.

Now, all of that was gone, too.

The tears flowed as the agony and the stress worked on her like twin prize fighters going at a side of meat. Her heart quivered in despair as her knees shook, then buckled, causing her to collapse in the doorway.

"I don't have anywhere to go." She sobbed, clutching her severance papers like a stuffed animal, rocking back and forth, the anxiety and the despair overwhelming her thinking.

I could always just kill myself; hell, I might be better off...

The dark solution blew like a winter wind through the back of her mind. Hope was already feeling like an impossible idea, but that...

"No... why am I even thinking like that? Grandma wouldn't want that for me... Mom and Dad..." She said, in defiance of the rogue thought, but they were all...

Gone.

Wiping at her eyes, she rose. "Just have to keep moving forward."

Pulling out her cell phone and checking her bank balance, the first thing went right for the day.

Dutifully, her company had direct deposited her final paycheck, and it wasn't like she was going to have to pay rent that month.

Setting the abused severance papers down on the mini fridge, Willa stalked towards the bathroom, washed her face, and then proceeded back out the door.

This was a night for pizza and planning. Maybe she'd look at job listings while she munched? Her performance reviews were good, and janitors were needed everywhere, after all.

Things would work out, either here or out west.

Faintly, she blew on the tiny embers of hope she had, hoping for a flame, as she trudged back down the hallway, out into the chill of the early spring evening of New York City.

Heading out back, moving through the alley that had always been safe enough, an ear splitting roar, followed by a scream, drew her attention to an obscured shadow filled spot to her right, lined with dumpsters.

One of her neighbor's kids was in the corner, shivering in fear. In front of her was a something that she couldn't quite describe.

It had the quadrupedal stance of an animal and seemed as big as a tiger but was devoid of all detail as if it was an outline made of nothingness itself. A deeper blackness than she had ever known made up the whole of the creature... if it was even a living thing.

"Hey! Bad Dog! Leave her alone!" She screamed, drawing its attention. Two lurid yellow orbs that could have been eyes stared her down, forcing her to look away. It was as if the very existence of the thing clawed at her mind, forcing it to recoil in disbelief as it sprung to pounce.

Meanwhile, back in the Celestial Control room, alarms were going off.

"Oh Shit, Oh shit!" Riley fidgeted, pawing at the ground, as her wide eyes went somehow wider in horror.

On the screen, the two lines converged over New York City. Flashing in red, in sync with the klaxons, were the words:

Erkandir Detected... Warning... Warning...

"This is what the button is for," Grimm assured, unnerved himself, as he slapped his paw down on it.

"This is what the Celestial Military is for! Those things eat reality, unmake the tapestry! They're supposed to be extinct!" Riley was shaking.

"Almost extinct. We're safe here... this is why we watch. One always seems to pop up somewhere every now and again, or so they taught us." Grimm, inside, was terrified, but showing fear wasn't his way.

Your emergency is important to us. Please remain on the line, and an Archangel team will respond within 100 years. You are currently 9366 in the queue for your multiverse section.

"We're going to have to go down there and do something," Riley intoned, nervousness dripping from her words as she watched in abject horror.

The Erkrandir was stalking towards Willa now, ready to pounce...

"Remember what Alaric said, don't get involved. We need to be patient. Let the team trained for it handle it; we're only watchers," Grimm counseled.

"Then you wait here for help. Those things are outside the established order... That reality won't last a hundred years if we don't do something to hold it off," as if that settled matters, Riley pulled at her magic and vanished, appearing between Willa and the Erkrandir just as the beast pounced.