Sarah gawked at the kid standing right in front of her. All this time, she had only met people who were around thirty. They all had assumed, that whatever had happened to them, only people around their age were able to get through it. They had been wrong.

“A-are you a m-monster?” The kid stammered out and fidgeted with its hands. It was wrapped in strange clothes. Only its eyes and mouth were visible through the thick clothing. The clothes looked too smooth and fine to be made by anyone she had met so far. Except for the administrators. But for some reason she was certain, that this was just a regular kid.

“I’m no monster,” Sarah assured him with a warm smile and held up her hands. “I’m just fucking badass.” She grinned slightly and winked at the child.

The child giggled and held its hands in front of its mouth. “You swore! You’re not supposed to do this.”

Sarah held up a hand in front of her mouth and widened her eyes in fake shock. “I didn’t know! You won’t tell anyone right?”

The child giggled again and shook its head with a wide smile. Then something changed, and sadness and fear came back into its eyes. “You have to help us! Daddy is hurt! The big monster hurt him!

Sarah smiled and slowly walked towards the child with her hands raised high. “Slow down a little. First, tell me your name, okay?”

“I… I’m Chloe.” The girl said and her breath started to quicken.

“Chloe, that’s a beautiful name,” Sarah said with a smile and crouched down in front of the scared girl. “My name is Sarah. I will help you if I can. Tell me slowly and precisely what kind of help you need, okay?”

Chloe nodded quickly and started explaining her situation. It involved a lot of questions and repetitions, but Sarah eventually got the situation out of the kid. As badly as she wanted to help the scared child, she wouldn’t run into a situation like this blindly. There was a real possibility for a setup from some twisted individuals who had pressured the child into doing this.

But to Sarah and her mind's perception, the story of the child felt genuine. She and some other kids had run from their home with their father. They had walked through the woods for half a day until they had run into the lizard. The kids had hidden in a cave up in the cliff and their father had stayed back to protect them. He had managed to drive the lizard off but had been badly hurt in the process.

“Can you show me which direction to go?” She asked gently and softly stroking the child's head. Chloe nodded and pointed to the left side of the cliff. “You are a very brave girl, you know that right?”

Chloe smiled slightly and a blush reddened her cheeks.

“You have to be brave again, can you do that?” Sarah asked and Chloe nodded again. “Alright, so I will take you piggyback and will run fast to save your dad and siblings. You have to hold on tight, alright?”

Sarah who didn’t want to waste any more time turned around, and offered her back to the child.

“Your horns are so cool!” Chloe said and gingerly tapped them.

“They are, right?” Sarah asked and looked back at her with a wink. “Hold onto them.” With that, she began running. It was still not that fast for her usual standards, but she didn’t want to throw the kid off.

Chloe tightly gripped her horns and gasped loudly, as the trees sped past them.

As expected, her sprint didn’t take long, until she felt a strong reaction from Chloe on her back.

“Are we here?” Sarah asked and scanned the cliff. But there was no cave entry anywhere.

“Yes. There, look!” Chloe said and pointed towards a part of the cliff roughly two meters above ground.

At first, she saw nothing. But then she realized, that there was a crack in the stone, where the children must have taken refuge.

Sarah gently let Chloe to the ground with the instruction to hide behind a bush, as she lept up to the crack. As she was hanging on the wall right in front of it, it seemed more obvious than from below. She peered inside but saw nothing. Her mind sense told her, that there were around twenty or more people cramped deeper inside the fissure.

With some effort, she managed to squeeze through the crack and stumbled to the ground on the inside. She tried to elegantly move to her feet again, but she was pretty sure, that it looked weird.

Before she could think about that any longer, she felt something smack against her head and splinter.

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

“G-go away, monster! I warn you!” she heard a boyish voice from her side and she looked at him with raised eyebrows. The boy pointed a short, broken branch at her. His whole body trembled so badly, Sarah wondered how he was able to stay on his feet.

Knowing that there was no point in talking around much here, she shouted. “Chloe, come in here. Your friends are safe!”

“Chloe?” The boy said and even stopped shaking from the surprise. Upon closer inspection, he also wore the same strange clothing Chloe wore. No coincidence then.

“Chloe!” The boy shouted and ran past her towards the girl, who had quickly climbed up the wall. “We thought you were eaten by that monster when we heard its roars.” He said while starting to sob.

Sarah watched with an amused smile, how the much smaller Chloe hugged the boy and patted him on the back in a calming gesture.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. This nice lady here defeated it!” she said with a bright smile, and the boy looked at her suspiciously.

“Don’t worry, I’m here to help you,” Sarah said with a warm smile. It felt like it broke her heart to see children who had to fear for their lives and hide in this cramped cave.

“You can trust her,” Chloe said softly to the boy, and his stance relaxed a little.

“Can you help dad?” He asked her in a desperate voice, and his eyes flickered towards the deeper parts of the cave.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Sarah said but she knew, that she herself probably couldn’t do much.

The boy and Chloe led her deeper into the cave to the other children, who were huddled together in a corner of a slightly larger cavern. They looked at her fearfully, but Chloe and the boy went over to them to calm them down.

Sarah ripped her gaze away from the scared children and looked at the motionless body on the ground.

It was a tall man, dressed completely in white, strange clothes. He had a hole in his torso that was so big, that she was able to see the ground beneath him. Other than that, one eye was missing with a part of his head, as if it was cleanly shaven away. The wounds were blackened but didn’t smell burned. This man was most likely an administrator. But why was he still dead?

She remembered vividly, how the administrators had simply come back to life after she died so gruefully back at the caves.

“Did the lizard do this to him?” She asked the children in a calm voice.

For a few moments, no one said anything. Then Chloe stepped forward with fidgeting hands.

“No.” She said with a shaky voice. “It was the evil woman. But we escaped. And then the lizard came and he made it go away, and then… and then… he…”

“It’s okay,” Sarah said with a sad smile as Chloe went towards the other children and started crying with them.

She turned around to look at the man again. If Chloe was telling the truth, this man had simply walked around even though he was so horribly wounded. What a monster. But still, why was he still dead? Was it the position of the wounds? Was it the type of attack? What sort of attack could kill an administrator?

She looked closer at the blackened wounds. She was sure, that those weren’t burns. But then, why the black color? Something tickled at the back of her mind. She narrowed her eyes and shot a glance at the kids and carefully slit out a claw.

She infused it with disintegrative energy and made a small cut near the man's collarbones. She was only able to scratch his skin, as the flesh underneath felt as solid as nothing she had ever felt before. But her suspicions proved correct.

The edges of the small cut looked blackened, just like the bigger wounds he had. But as she was watching, the wound stitched itself together as if it had never been there.

Taken aback, Sarah scratched him again, only to be met with a similar process. Only now, his skin stayed slightly blackened around the cut.

“How odd,” Sarah murmured.

A loud vibrating sound underneath her ripped her out of her musings. She jumped upwards so high, that she smashed into the ceiling and plopped to the ground like a wet piece of fur.

She looked at the administrator in alarm, but he still didn’t move. But there, in his hand, was one of the tablets the administrators always used. And it was vibrating and glowing.

She looked at the surface but couldn’t make sense of what she saw. Strange letters formed words she couldn’t decipher. She bit her lips and carefully touched the tablet, ready to react at a moment's notice.

As she touched the tablet, the vibration stopped and the moving image of a boy in white clothes and long silver hair came into view.

“Damnit Mark, what the hell have you… Who are you? Where is Mark? Oh shit, he’s dead.” He said and rubbed his temple in anger.

“Did you kill him? No, you didn’t. All right. Forget.” With these words, a mental assault hit her mind, and she nearly lost consciousness. But she didn’t forget.

The next thing she knew, the tablet was pulled out of her hands towards the administrator lying in front of her.

She looked at the man in shock, as his form seemed to twist and swirl and shrink towards a tiny, black point in the air. And with a quiet pop, he was gone. As if he had never been here in the first place.

“What did you do?” She heard a kid scream out in fear and she looked at them in shock. Her own emotions were mirrored in their faces.

“I didn’t…” She began quietly and cleared her throat. “I didn’t do anything. I think… I think someone took him away.”

“The bad woman?” The child asked and Sarah shook her head.

“I think it was one of his friends.” She answered and looked at the spot in the air where he had disappeared. She had no idea whatsoever what the hell had happened here. Who had killed the man? And even more important: What had killed him?

“Will they make him whole again?” the kid asked, this time with a tremor in his voice.

Sarah looked at her again and shook her head. “I don’t think so, sweety. Your dad is gone.”

A few muffled sobs followed her statement, as she stood up and dusted off her clothes. “But we need to get you out of here. You can come with me if you want. I will protect you from evil monsters, okay?”

The children murmured fearfully to each other, and Chloe started talking to them intensely.

Sarah waited patiently until they were finished and Chloe stepped forward. “You won’t eat us?” she asked seriously and Sarah shook her head with a smile. “You will not leave us behind?”

Sarah’s smile dropped in sadness and she shook her head again. “You don’t need to fear anymore. We will look after you. Now come.” She said and held out her hand.

Chloe came closer and Shily took her hand. She looked back and nodded at the other kids who were starting to follow them outside.

Sarah smiled because of the warmth of the tiny hand she held until her smile froze somewhat.

“How the fuck am I going to explain that to Melissa?”