“Shit, shit, shit,” Lilly hissed under her breath as she hurried down the corridor. Thirty seconds later she moved past a desk with a tired-looking nurse behind it who looked up at her. Sweat ran from her hairline and into her eyes. Despite her best efforts, she could feel the panicked expression on her face.

The Nurse’s suspicious expression at her obvious panic made Lilly sick to her stomach. She gave the woman as friendly a smile as she could manage and nodded down the hallway “Bathroom?” She asked, her voice appropriately strained.

The nurse relaxed and opened her mouth to answer but alarms began to sound and instead, the woman sprang to the phone and started barking orders. Lilly kept on towards the lifts but despite repeatedly mashing the button, they wouldn’t move. She sobbed in frustration and hurried around to the stairs. At first, she ran, often skipping steps, but after two flights she mistimed and nearly lost her footing. After that, she moved more carefully.

At the bottom of the stairwell, she stepped out into the fluorescent-lit concrete cave of the underground carpark. She couldn’t see anyone, and she hugged the wall intent on reaching the far exit to the street with as little exposure as possible. The baby in her arms gurgled a little and moved around in her blanket but didn’t wake. She saw the ramp that led to the street and again whimpered as hope welled inside her that she’d make it.

As she put her foot on the ramp to start up towards the light, she heard a terrifying snuffling. Something that could only have come from a massive dog. She ducked back and shrank into the shadows, the baby clutched close to her body. What came around the side of a pale blue minivan was the size of a pony and had the dimensions of a mastiff. Its muzzle was massive and the fangs protruded past the lips and dripped with spittle the colour of puss.

For a heartbeat, Lilly entertained the madness that it might not notice her squashed back into her corner, but then it lifted its head and sniffed. The large black pupils dilated in eyes the hue of coagulated blood. Then it turned and looked right at them and in those eyes, Lilly saw a terrifying intelligence. She fumbled along the wall, one hand against it behind her until she felt a door. With a prayer on her lips, she pushed and the door swung in. As it did, the great hound snarled and started towards them.

The door swung closed again once she was through and she sprinted down the dimly lit service corridor. Against her chest, the baby protested the jostling while she took corner after corner until she had no idea where she was in relation to where she’d been. Behind her, the unmistakable sound of that door smashing open made her turn blindly into the first room she saw and shut the door behind her.

Lilly scrabbled for the lock then flicked the light off and skidded over the cold concrete floor to hide behind a metal shelving unit. She fumbled for her phone with one hand and hit 6 on her speed dial.

"Lilly!" Cain called happily down the line. "Hey, John will be back from the store with pizza and beer in a minute, come round, we're gonna watch porn!"

"Cain," she hissed, "I need you!"

"That's what she said," Lilly heard Thomas say.

Cain hissed inarticulately at him, "Lil, what's going on?"

She sobbed, "There is some kind of hellhound thing out there!"

"What?" Both voices demanded together.

"Please, please help me." She jiggled the baby with one arm desperate to keep her calm.

"Have you got a knife?" Cain asked.

"I can't fight this thing with a knife it's fucking huge," she squeaked.

"Lil listen, I need you to cut yourself, the hand is good. Find something, anything, and cut your hand on it." Cain instructed.

She looked around frantically. The edge of the shelving wasn't sharp enough for a clean cut but she swallowed hard and nodded to herself. As gently as she could she set the baby down behind the shelving and slid a box in front of it. Then, with her eyes closed tight she gripped the edge as hard as she could and jerked her hand back towards herself. The resulting tear in her skin stung and she whimpered. "okay... okay, now what? Oh God, can it smell this?"

"It doesn't matter," Cain's voice was firm. "Use the blood to draw a circle on the floor okay, big enough for you to stand in."

Lilly did as she was told. "okay, now what?"

"Look into the circle, and very clearly I need you to say 'Libidine' like you're calling a name."

She swallowed hard and stared into the circle. As clearly as she could she said "Libidine", but nothing happened. "What now?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"That's not gonna work!" Thomas hissed. "Lilly listen to me, Um... okay, okay, we're at the bar, right? The Mayfair, and I'm at the other end of the bar, and it's my shout, but I'm talking to some skank and ignoring you. Yell for me." He urged. "Loud as you can. Make me pay attention."

"It'll hear!" She hissed, "I can't."

"Lilly, listen to me, you're being hunted. It is going to find you. You have to summon me, right now. Get my attention babe, I swear you call my name and I'm gonna be there."

"What about Libi-whatever?"

Thomas snorted, "That was never gonna work, ignore it. You know me, you know my name, I'm coming all you have to do is call. Come on Lilly, show me where you are."

She closed her eyes tight, balled her courage into a tightwad at the back of her throat and tried not to think about being torn apart. "Thomas get over here now!"

The blood began to bubble as though it were boiling and Lilly pulled her hand away though it wasn't at all hot. Instead, it seemed to spread in towards the middle until it looked like a bottomless pool of thick blood level with the floor.

"Yes!" She heard Cain cry through the phone.

The pool of blood rippled as though something moved below the surface and Lilly stared at it in fascination until the door flew off the hinges and forced her to dive back behind the shelving to protect herself. Hidden behind the box of replacement light bulbs, the baby began to cry. The hellish beast was crouched in the doorway snarling. Between it and its prey, in the pool of blood, was Thomas.

He held up a hand in front of him, "back up, fucker." The beast snarled and crouched lower. "Hey! Don't even think about it, mate."

Lilly sobbed in relief and put her hand back on the blood as Thomas stepped out of it. Without encouragement or direction, she closed her eyes again and cried out "Cain!" Again the blood bubbled and rippled and as she blinked, one moment the air was empty, the next, Cain stood there. "Oi!" He yelled when his eyes fell on the beast in the doorway.

The Hellhound regarded them and continued to huff and snort. Its hackles raised and its eyes darting always back to what it could see of Lilly cowering in the corner. She lay one arm over the box and tried to jiggle the baby to calm it.

"It's not gonna happen," Cain said firmly as he and his brother moved beside each other to effectively block the thing’s access to their friend.

“He can’t back down now, he’s got a scent.” Thomas took a slow, deliberate step to the left, and Cain mirrored him to the right. “We’re not exactly soldiers, Cain…”

Lilly had to simply let the child cry in order to put her hand back on the pool of blood. Her head swam and the edges of her vision dimmed as though she’d been running for a long time. “John! John please,” she begged.

The pool bubbled and rumbled and then John was there. Taller than the others with massive shoulders and a confused expression. He saw Thomas and Cain, he saw the Hellhound, and he heard Lilly’s last sigh behind him before she passed out. He dropped the shopping bags he’d materialised with and snarled a terrible inhuman sound.

“Can you kill it?” Thomas asked.

John’s face split into a broad grin. “C’mere you ugly bitch.” He dropped his shopping bags which landed in the pool of blood with a sickening splash and hunched forward like a great gorilla. His muscles grew and his frame expanded while the bulge of blackened, mutilated wings grew on his back. The Hellhound snarled and launched itself at him.

The ensuing ruckus was loud enough to alert even the distracted hospital staff who were still attempting to evacuate the building. The scuffling pair rolled sideways into the metal shelving and dislodged bottles of cleaning supplies and reels of printer paper. The bits and pieces tumbled down around the baby missing her by inches. Cain picked up a broken section of shelf support and attacked the hound’s flanks while John seemed intent on tearing its jaws apart. Thomas left them to it and worked his way around the room to where Lilly lay unconscious. He began to scoop her into his arms when he suddenly noticed the baby.

“Fuck me!” He half dropped Lilly and she groaned.

John looked over his shoulder, “Just grab her and get out of here.”

“There’s a fucking baby over here!” Thomas shouted.

“Well grab it too and leg it!”

Thomas picked up the baby and her cry became more insistent. “Hey, whose side are you on?” He then slid his other arm around Lilly’s body and hoisted her up against his side. “Hey! Wake up, Lil! Come on!”

She groaned and opened her eyes.

“We gotta get out of here, babe, hold on to me okay?”

She blinked stupidly and then peered around. When she saw he was already holding the baby she put her arms around his neck and tried to put some weight on her feet. Her legs were wobbly but they held.

Thomas looked over at his brother, “I’ve got her, let's go!”

“Cain, help them,” John grunted. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“Can you kill it on your own?” Cain asked.

John’s muscles bunched again and he tried to haul the hound off its feet. “Bit out of practice. Gonna have to make a break for it.”

“Shit.” Cain abandoned his length of shelving and hurried to Thomas to take Lilly from him. “You think that’s hers?”

“What, since this morning? Just take her, dumbass.”

They moved to stand close together, Thomas and Cain each put their left hand on the opposite shoulder of his brother before Thomas looked back at John. “You coming?”

“Right behind you, just go!”

The twins looked each other in the eyes. Perfectly ordinary chocolate brown melted into a fiery yellow with unnaturally shaped pupils and between one heartbeat and the next, they were gone along with their precious cargo. The hound growled in consternation at their exit and tried to wrestle away from John’s grip to search for them.

“Ohh no you don’t, fucker,” John leaned back and put a foot against the chest of the beast. With a monumental effort, he booted it back through the doorway. The hound shook its head for a moment and then launched itself back towards him, but its jaws snapped shut on empty air. John had disappeared.