The strange fog surrounded them, a dark blue mist that obscured the forest beyond. Seth stared into the wisps of vapor and watched as the tendrils drifted through the trees. What could it mean?

“Hey,” Seth said. “Did you hear anything a moment ago? Something about a First Shadow?”

“What? I didn’t hear anything.”

Seth shook his head. So she hadn’t heard it. Before, he might have thought the voices in his head were just hallucinations. But with the strange mist and the supernatural darkness and that horrid wave of nausea, Seth knew something more was going on. And whatever it was, it had to do with that cursed parasite living in his chest.

“We should go,” Seth said. He grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled her away from the clearing, heading deeper into the woods.

An engine rumbled in the distance. An ATV. Shit.

His fingers clenched tight around the revolver’s handle. He stumbled back just as an ATV jumped over a hill, burst through the mist, and skidded to a stop in front of him. Riles leaned back, her eyes blazing yellow and a wicked grin across her face.

“David owes me fifty bucks,” Riles said. “I told him you’d take the shortcut to Rusties. But no, he wanted to guard the road. What a dumbass.”

A long rope hung from Riles’s hand, all coiled up in a wide loop. Otherwise, she appeared unarmed. That would be her mistake.

Seth didn’t hesitate. He raised his revolver and shot her in the chest.

Blood sprayed from Riles’s shoulder, and she jerked back from the impact. She hissed in pain as she righted herself. Crimson rivulets dripped down her leather jacket.

Riles leaned forward and revved the engine. “Nice try.” She gunned the ATV forward, pine straw spitting in its wake.

His thumb pulled the revolver’s hammer back, and he fired. Fired again. This time Riles leaned into the impacts, and the bullets punched through her with little resistance. Puffs of blood burst from her chest, but she shrugged off the bullet wounds and tried to run him down.

Seth dashed to the side as Riles speared past him. She continued into the campsite before turning around in a wide arc, ready to take another pass at them. He held the revolver up, hand shaking as he tried to center his aim. How was she ignoring three shots to the chest?

The ATV rumbled over the uneven ground as Riles angled around the circle of tents. She hunched down, her leather jacket soaked in blood. Her dark hair whipped in the wind, and she snarled as she pushed the engine to its limit. The ATV screamed toward him.

Seth centered his iron sights right between Riles’s yellow eyes. He fired.

Her head snapped back with a wet crunch. The ATV swerved to the side as Riles lost control. A second later, she jerked the handlebars back, barely dodging a tree. Riles turned to Seth, her eyes blazing, bright against the swirling mist. Dark blood leaked from the hole in her skull and dripped down her nose. Somehow, she’d shrugged off a bullet to the head as well.

“You’ll pay for that.” Riles swung the ATV around and charged straight toward him.

Seth froze, unsure what to do. He raised the revolver, then thought better of it and dodged out of the way.

The ATV shot passed, and as it did, Riles tossed out the loop of rope. The lasso slipped over his head and caught under his arm. The noose cinched tight, then yanked him off his feet.

Seth skidded across the packed dirt, pine straw biting into him as he skipped across the uneven ground. The ATV dragged him through the center of the campsite, straight toward the smoldering fire. The rubber wheels ramped up the circle of rocks and jumped over the fire pit.

Seth wasn’t so lucky. His chest slammed into the rough stone, then he crashed through the fire in a shower of sparks. Burning embers stuck to his hoodie, and he thrashed to get them off. Even so, Riles kept going, pulling him through the campsite, then angling around.

The sharp turn sent Seth crashing into a tree. The impact forced the air from his lungs, and he struggled to catch his breath. Battered and bruised and scraped raw, Seth still clenched the revolver with all his strength. He felt the metal flex under his grip, hot and slicked with sweat.

Riles revved the engine, and then they were truly flying through the woods. Her path dragged sharp stones and sticks and a thicket of thorns against Seth, grinding him down like sandpaper.

Why couldn’t she have just brought a gun? Even a knife would be better than being dragged to death.

A knife! Seth reached down with his free hand and struggled to yank Earl’s knife from its sheath. A sharp turn from Riles sent his shoulder slamming into a pine trunk. The impact thrummed down his arm, made his fingers go numb. Even so, he clenched them tight around the knife’s handle and pulled it free.

Seth pressed the blade against the noose. The rope swung wildly as Riles wove through the woods, but it remained taut under the constant acceleration.

The noose squeezed against his ribs, the bones straining under the pressure. Seth swung his knife up, pressed the blade against the taut rope, and began sawing at it. He lost his grip a few times as Riles whipped him back and forth, but then the knife was through.

Seth skidded to a stop. He lay back against the pine straw, his breathing heavy. His jeans were torn to bits, with large chunks missing and a web of white fibers stretching across the gaps. His bloody skin peeked through the holes, scraped raw.

Every inch of his body stung with pain, but he wasn’t seriously injured. At least, Seth didn’t think he was. He stood and peered into the mist, listening for the rumble of the ATV as it drove deeper into the woods.

Seth turned and ran back toward the campsite. “Alex! Where are you!”

“Over here.” She stood beside the mine, hunched close to the brick wall. “Is she coming back?”

The roar of the engine answered that question. Riles burst from the fog, cutting off his path to the mine. She looked between her two targets before settling on Seth.

Was she still upset about the bullet to her brain? Jeez. If she was going to be a bitch about it, then Seth would give her another. He raised the revolver and fired the last two shots.

The first bullet traced a red line across her scalp. The second punched through her neck. A gout of blood sprayed out the back. Riles narrowed her eyes. She smiled, even as blood gurgled up her throat and oozed between her teeth.

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Riles leaned forward and pushed her engine to the max. The ATV screamed as it rocketed toward Seth in a blur of steel and black plastic. Blood and pine straw and exhaust sprayed in its wake.

Seth dashed between two tents just as Riles shot past. Her wild charge sent her careening into the side of a tent. Guy lines snapped and canvas ripped and aluminum poles broke free as the tent collapsed on top of her. She growled, thrashed against the heap of canvas that held her down. It wouldn’t hold her for long.

“Let’s go,” Seth said. He sprinted across the campsite, ignoring the pain that rippled through his nerves with every movement. “We need to run.”

He didn’t like it. Leaving Riles alive would just lead to more problems. But Seth had poured six bullets into her and she’d barely even flinched. There wasn’t much more he could do.

Alex waited for him. Her eyes widened. “Look out!”

A clawed hand grabbed the back of his neck and yanked him back. Seth gasped. A throbbing pain hammered against his skull as Riles tightened her grip, pinching his nerves. She held him up, carrying him as if he were a lost kitten.

The knife slipped through his fingers. Clattered to the ground. The revolver as well. It took all his strength to paw at Riles’s hand, to try and pry her fingers loose.

Riles spun away from Alex, her bloody smile pressing into Seth with sadistic glee. She raised him up, then slammed into the ground so hard that a wave of dirt sprayed from the impact. The breath burst from Seth’s lungs, and he tried to move, but he was pressed into the ground, a Seth-shaped crater holding him in place.

He looked up at Riles. She towered over him, her short hair matted with blood. She raised her boot high in the air, then stomped down on Seth’s chest. The blow pushed him deeper into the ground, and his ribs flexed to their limit. His heartbeat thundered under the wave of pressure.

Seth’s vision blurred. He almost closed his eyes, but then he saw Alex. She crept closer to Riles, her hand tight around the flare gun. What was she doing? There was no fighting this monster. Seth tried to mumble a warning, but no sound escaped his lips.

Alex fired the flare gun. A burning ember streaked through the air and thumped against Riles’s back. As expected, it didn’t do a damn thing.

The pressure released from Seth’s chest as Riles stepped away. She turned toward Alex, her smile widening.

Her back turned to Seth, he noticed a trail of smoke swirling away from Riles’s jacket. The flare’s impact hadn’t done any damage, but the ember had gotten stuck in her hood. And it burned with a hellish fury.

A dark stain spread across the leather jacket, followed by a web of cracks, and then the whole thing blazed into open flame.

Riles shrieked. She spun around, tried to bat at the flame, but the fire only spread, enveloping her arms, wrapping around her chest, creeping down her legs. A crown of flame danced across her hair, bright red and sickeningly hot.

She realized fighting the fire was futile and turned her rage on Alex. Even as she burned, she marched forward with supernatural strength. “You little bitch. Do you really think you can escape? The First Shadow has descended. The Holy Signal blesses us with its strength. You are nothing but a worm beneath our heels.”

Alex cowered back against the brick building. The fire flared brighter around Riles until it hurt to even look at her. The heat billowed out in pulsating waves. And through it all, Riles continued pressing toward her quarry.

Sharp pain stabbed Seth’s ribs with every movement, but he had to do something. Even climbing to his feet sapped his energy, and he fell to his knees, sweat dripping down the inside of his hoodie. He needed a weapon. But if bullets and fire couldn’t kill this monster, what could?

Seth stumbled forward. He squinted against the bright heat and tried to look around. There was nothing but stacks of firewood. Maybe one of the tents would have something that could help? No, he didn’t have time for that. Riles stood a few feet away from Alex, and she reached out with a flaming hand.

A flash of light caught Seth’s attention. Sitting against a stump lay a hatchet, its blade reflecting the dancing flames. Seth raced toward it, nearly collapsed beside the stump. But he managed to catch himself, his ribs screaming in protest. His sweaty fingers wrapped around the hatchet’s rubber grip, and he started toward Riles.

“You thought I would burn to death?” Riles asked as she traced a flaming finger across Alex’s cheek. “You underestimate the Holy Signal’s power. Don’t you hear it? This is the Voice of God.”

Alex screamed. Her skin was red and cracked, and it wouldn’t be long before the mere presence of Riles burned her to death.

Seth sucked in a deep breath, then held it as he charged toward the flames. The heat pressed against him, but he forced his way through. He swung the hatchet with all his strength.

The blade bit into Riles’s neck with no resistance, snipped through her spine, and sliced out the other side. Her head spun in the air, the flesh burned down to the skull. But her eyes still blazed yellow as the head flopped to the ground. A heartbeat later, Riles’s body collapsed as well.

Alex ran to the side and fell to her knees. She hunched forward, coughing and retching. “Holy shit! What the fuck was that?”

The flames slowly died down, leaving a scorched pile of steaming flesh and charred bones. Seth backed away, then fell on his ass. His whole body was drenched in sweat. Or perhaps it was blood that dripped down his skin, hot against his badly scraped flesh.

“Are you okay?” Seth asked.

“Me?” Alex laughed. “You’re the one who was dragged through the woods.”

That was true. Seth felt like shit, but considering the circumstances he was lucky to be feeling anything at all. He didn’t know how that woman could be so monstrously strong. Nor how she’d survived multiple gunshots and a blazing fire. At least the hatchet had finally done the trick. Right?

Seth glanced toward the body. The skull lay beside the crumpled flesh, its eye sockets staring at him. But the yellow glow had dissipated. It seemed Riles was truly dead, but he supposed there was no way to be sure.

The body shuddered. Seth jumped back at the sudden movement. Could she still be alive? The body continued to shake, and it looked like something was trying to claw its way out of her stomach.

“Oh, what the fuck.” Alex hid behind Seth. “Gross. Seth, kill it!”

Why was that his job? He stared at the shuddering body, hoping it was just the dying remnants of her fried nerves. But no, he knew it was something more. A creature oozed from the stump of her neck, a yellow web of slime that coalesced into a fat slug. Just like the black one that Beck had given him.

Seth strode toward the parasite and swung his hatchet in a wide arc. His blade cleaved the slug in two, but the two halves surged toward him, recombining in the process, then dove into the flesh of his thigh.

He screamed as the parasite swam through his veins. Its presence was ice cold, but it left a trail of fire in its wake that left his muscles feeling numb and empty. And then the pain was gone, as fast as it had arrived.

“Seth. Seth. Look at me, tell me what’s happening.” Alex tapped on his shoulder, her chest trembling. But her words felt so distant.

Something rumbled deep within his gut. A voice, but stronger than before. “Integration threshold exceeded. State your desire.”

What did that mean? The first time he’d heard those words, Seth thought it was just a hallucination. A vision brought on by the stress of being kidnapped. But now here it was again. State your desire? What did that mean?

Seth stumbled back. He laughed at the absurdity of the situation. State your desire? State your desire? Right now, the only thing he desired was to have the slightest inkling of what was going on.

“Wish granted.”

A bright rectangle flashed across his vision, filled with black text, and no matter where he looked, the screen followed Seth’s eyes.

Inkling Version 1.0

Name: Seth Mayhew

Stage: 2

First Shadow [+50% Efficiency]

Strength: 17

Reflex: 8

Vigor: 9

Clarity: 13

Integration: 32%

Free Points: 8 [+4 Each Stage]

Wishes:

ChainBreaker [+10 Strength | +5% Integration]

Inkling [+5 Clarity | +25% Integration]

Seth stared at the text, more confused than ever. It looked like a stat screen, and the layout seemed familiar to him. In fact, it was the exact same layout as the demo he’d been working on for the career fair. The same colors, the same format, the same fonts. But instead of stats on his telescope imagery model, it seemed to show the stats from a role-playing game.

What the fuck?