They’d be done soon, she clung to the thought as she donned her cloak and stepped past the pile of broken shades into the streets filled with angry shadows. Her ginger steps ginger with pain from the shallow cuts along her stomach. Maybe they could relax for a day perhaps two, she nursed the idea, but unless she was bed-bound didn’t think she’d justify the waste. Not when there was so much to do.

She bowed her head and dimmed as she let Mensha tug her. Maybe an hour was much longer when you were amidst a sea of dark that would kill you if you raised your head. Despite or because of the pervasive tension born of the gloom, Summer focused on the city’s sounds. All indefinable in the quietude save for a faint clicking

Until Mensha froze and spun before firmly pulling her in the opposite direction. She followed not raising her head, as her thoughts whirled, she slipped a hand around the bat poking from her bag. Was it a particularly thick group, it seemed unlikely and she doubted he could see anything that wasn’t right in front of him. A thought came to her as his pace hastened, and she glimpsed a thick black puddle on the sidewalk.

A monster had been chasing the group, and they were so very close now. She felt it then, a pressure at the edge of her thoughts, niggling at the underpinnings of her anxiety, urging her heart to race. Her light bloomed before she reigned her emotions with an unsteady breath.

A dozen sharp clicks rang behind her and the pull rose to a drag as they ran. Stone cracked behind her and a force crashed into her back and stole her feet. She tumbled and glimpsed a mass of green chitin spear running shadows and frozen shades. She rolled to her feet and the light from her fallen hood glinted of a segmented form as it slid down the road its large flat body held high above the ground by dozens of spear-like legs of varying lengths. One thing ran through her mind as fear drowned all into a distant thrum, Why did the many eyes in its segments seem to stare at her?

Mensha grabbed her and she lost sight of the monster. Her freezing fear grew wings and though she knew the emotion alien she let it carry them away. Clicking chitin pounded the ground her, she ran faster and dragged Mensha along. The sound closed and felt it close with her light, but she could go no faster with Mensha’s slow steps.

“I’m picking you up!” she screamed and did exactly that, her coat thrown open as she swept him off his feet. She pushed and despite the unwieldy weight in her arms her steps only lightened as she ran for her life.

“How aren’t those other guys dead!” her voice colored by naked terror.

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“There close I can lead us there,” he said with an almost hopeful tone.

Fear asked to agree, to make this anyone else’s problem, it whispered that she should drop for the ounce of extra speed. She refused, “No!,”

“Then where are we going!” he said panics crept into his voice.

“I have no idea!” she’d have laughed if not for the monster tailing them, She sharply turned into a thin street, yet the pounding continued above.

“It can climb!” she screamed like a curse.

“We have more important problems,” he said no longer screaming but terse. He pointed at the clump of darkness clogging the alley’s exit.

A curse died in her throat as the creature started dropping towards them. She charged and turned her shoulder to shield him before she snapped her eyes shut.

A jolt ran through her and she felt bone break against her as she plowed forward through the splatters coating her face. She kept going as the creature slowed with the sound of several rapid thuds. She risked a glance at Mensha, his wide eyes were fearful as he stared back at her.

“Centipede.” He muttered, a haunted refrain to his voice.

“Centipede,” she agreed and returned her attention to dodging the various shades that fled or froze upon seeing the monster. For a sharp crack to echo behind her as carapace bore through flesh to pierce stone. A dark shape flew through the merger awareness her light granted and she darted to the side before a crumpled shadow smashed against the ground beside her.

“We need to find more shades,” he said the words barely registering as darted away from another dark projectile.

“So it can throw them at us!” she was barely managing now, was silenced s she ducked to another corner.

“We need a distraction or it’ll chase us forever,” and laughed as the absurdity hit her. They’d die when their strength faded, or this monster caught up.

“Do all your plans involve something dying,” Her attention split between finding shades and not tripping on the hem of her cloak. The periodic person-shaped projectiles didn’t help.

“I’ll tell you if it does,” he snarked as her gaze swept an intersection and caught a very large gang traipsing down it. She charged carried forward by fear and the pain of her fresh wounds. “Break line of sight when we pass them.”

“How!,” she said and clutched the man close as the group turned and froze, as they beheld the ever nearing creature.

“I don’t know!” filled her ears as he tensed, and she entered the crowd. She stepped past the first, jumped over the second as their feet abandoned them, and momentum carried her through the third. Her feet wavered but after seconds that dragged she was through accompanied by the few shades that ran and the crash of stone.

Her gaze whipped around and frantic steps launched her at the first opportunity to be rid of the monster’s many eyes. She dove through a window, and crashed to its floor. Glass rained around her as she scrambled through cuts to her feet with Mensha’s help.

He pulled the hood over her head, and they ran through isles of clothes threw a door and onto the streets once again. “What now?” She said eyes darting for what little she could see from her hood’s recess. She hastened as much as the light threatening to spill from her cloak would allow

“Run and hope,”