It all happened in slow motion. Before the rest of the Eclipshura emerged from the ground, I snatched Gianna’s body and dashed out to the street as the rest of the walls crumbled into the alley. Her smile was gone. Her eyes, wide open like they were held by invisible clamps, fluttered in shock, and I could feel her pulse quickening. I wasn’t a stranger to blood. And yet, seeing the red flowing down her skin – it sickened me to my stomach.

The Eclipshura reared back its head and roared, but a golden pulse of light interrupted it. Someone was already fighting it: A magical girl.

Seven rifles swirled around her, each firing a pulse of energy at the Eclipshura at different parts of its body. Each attack seared away chunks of black, filling the air with a horrible hissing sound. This idiot! What was she doing? Firing off random blasts like that–

Another roar. The shockwave would’ve knocked anyone else off of their feet; even the magical girl struggled to find footing among the rubble as she parkoured between falling cinder blocks and rebar.

This Eclipshura looked like a cross between a wolf and a mantis. It had the wolf’s body, bisected down the middle and held together by energy, but six writhing insect appendages took the place of its arms and legs. Four of them were lined almost entirely with serrated edges, and it stood on the back two. Its head was like a cross between the two creatures, vaguely taking the shape of a wolf, but bulging with multiple sets of compound eyes and fidgeting mantis teeth.

“HEY! YOU!” I called out to the magical girl. She looked back at me between a thick-brimmed military style cap, her face seeming to say: Civilians? Shit. “QUIT FUCKING AROUND! FOCUS ON ONE POINT!”

Another rumble. The Eclipshura swiped down on the magical girl, following up almost immediately with another to the left and right. Its arms cleaved through buildings like a hot knife through butter. Thankfully, the magical girl was somewhat competent; she weaved in blasts during graceful flips and dodges, evading each strike, managing to ballet her way onto unsteady footholds and crumbling brick. I’d never be able to do that. I relied on my flight too much.

A stray piece of rubble came crashing towards us. I was prepared to sidestep out of the way, but the magical girl flipped towards our direction, aiming at the rock, and managed to blast it into harmless pieces with scary precision. “You two need to go!” She shouted as she dashed away from another strike. “Get out of here!”

I hesitated. Gianna’s face started to drain of color; I had to get her to the hospital. But it was the middle of the night, and the nearest one was at least a couple blocks too far on foot. My eyes went back to the magical girl. Her reflexes were good, but the way she fought reeked of a greenhorn. If she failed and no one else came, who’d stop the Eclipshura?

No. Someone else would handle it. I wasn’t a magical girl anymore.

I made like the wind, running with Gianna cradled in my arms, until the sounds of the battle became quieter and quieter. Sirens sounded off from ahead: A blockade of police cars, and with them, an ambulance. If god was real, I’d give him a sloppy blowjob after this.

The other side of the blockade was flooded with people. Paramedics standing idly by, joking to each other; Bystanders who couldn’t seem to care less; and police trying to calm down a yelling, frenzying crowd.

One of the first officers who’d noticed me pulled out their gun. My heart skipped a beat, but I didn’t blame him. Humanoid-type Eclipshura’ve tried to break past police blockades in the past by disguising as fleeing people. I stopped in my tracks, setting Gianna down slowly, putting my hands in the air.

He stowed away his gun once he got close, exchanging it for a flashlight. A few more came to back him up, with their weapons still drawn. The first officer shined a light in my pupils, into my ear, and into my mouth – just the standard procedure. Most Eclipshura could replicate what was on the outside, like the surface appearance of a person, but the stuff on the inside was difficult. They knew what skin and hair looked like. They didn’t know of the iris, uvula, or eardrums.

“Clear,” The officer announced. “We’ve got a civie. Escort her over.”

“Wait,” I interrupted as two more of the cops flanked me. “The girl. She needs help.”

“Ma’am, paramedics’ve been hauling their ass tryna patch the wounded we’ve already got. Their hands’re tied.”

“Fuck that!” My voice grew low, desperate. “They’re not doin’ anything! And she’s dying right now, look!” I jabbed my finger towards the bloody hole in her chest. My heart sunk all over again; did her face get paler? Was she still even breathing? “You’re going to help her. I don’t care how much it costs, I’ll cover it all. Just keep her alive!”

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The officer sighed in exasperation, as if he were meeting with a misbehaved child. “Ma’am, I don’t think you heard what I just said. None of the medics are available.”

“Are you blind?!” I reached out a hand to turn him around, but he swatted it away, frowning.

“Nearest hospital’s ‘bout ten minutes away… but I heard it’s pretty booked right now. Things’ve been getting rough out here, I’ll tell you that.”

Ten minutes? That was too long. She’d be dead by then. My breaths drew shorter, more strained, more ragged. “That’s… there’s no time. There’s no time for that. Now– you have to help her, now!”

“Afraid there’s not much else I can do.” The officer gestured towards Gianna. “‘Sides, doesn’t she look long dead already?”

It was like something in me snapped. In the blink of an eye and a whoosh of wind, I grabbed him by the vest and slammed him into the ground. A crater in the earth formed from the sheer force of the blow, and I could hear the police behind me fumble to the ground. “She’s. Not. Dead.” I rumbled to the officer. “But if you don’t get her treated, she will be. And if that happens–”

The officer hacked out a cough. I heard the sounds of weapons being drawn, but the officer I’d pinned raised a hand, signaling for them to back off. He blurted something into his radio, and the paramedics who were standing idle rushed over this way. They looked annoyed, but when they saw Gianna, their eyes widened in surprise. The next thing I knew, they were carrying her in a stretcher. I released my grip, and felt cuffs attach around my wrist. I didn’t care. As long as Gianna was doing ok.

Suddenly, a gleaming light raced through the sky before crashing into a nearby building and falling to the floor: it was the magical girl from earlier, and she didn’t look good. Several of her rifles had disappeared, and her outfit was mired with blood, dirt and scratches. Before I could even catch a breath— CRASH! The Eclipshura appeared, barreling through another building. Its jaws reared wide and it let out a spine-chilling shriek. And its many eyes, before which were darting about, focused onto me – no, onto us. Onto everyone.

Panic erupted in the crowd as everyone pushed against everyone, elbowing, trampling, struggling to get away. I felt my hairs stand on end, a shiver jolting through my body.

And then the street turned into a warzone.

“OPEN FIRE!” A gunshot. Another. And another. Pattering against the Eclipshura’s body, a rain of bullets; it might as well’ve just been water. In one blink of an eye it bolted to us, flinging aside cars and streetlights with every fulgurous movement – and in another, sunk its teeth into one of the officers, holding her high in its splitting maw. Her body went limp. Her screams went silent. Scarlet splashed across the black of her handgun, and as it fell to the floor, the sickening crunch of her claimed bones lingered in the air even after she was devoured.

The officers were frozen, rooted to the spot. Those who weren’t paralyzed in shock kept pelting its flesh with gunfire to no avail. Bladed arms swung from above and bisected, trisected, decimated and diced everything in sight; a flurry of slashes. I barely managed to maneuver out of the way of one of its strikes — the chain on my cuffs got snagged on some debris. Damn them! If my hands were free, I could at least use the wind to run, to shield me, anything! Every single one of my movements was an awkward lurch here, an uncomfortable step there. At this rate, I–

The Eclipshura shrieked again. Black mist coiled around the bodies of the slain, shoveling the corpses into its mouth; an array of tongues slithered from its wolflike jaw, coiling around each body and wringing them dry. Not good, not fucking good. My eyes darted to the magical girl, but she was nowhere to be seen. I whirled around, and as the fires and debris swelled over spilt blood, my worst fears were realized. I was the only one alive.

I didn’t have time to linger on that. With me as its sole target, the Eclipshura lashed out with its arms and a shrill howl. I weaved back and forth, dodging stray rubble, sidestepping the storm of blades, my heart racing at a million miles an hour. It was a ferocious onslaught, and it was all I could do to stay out of its way. If I got hit once without my gear, I was as good as dead.

Another swing! With a hasty dash backwards, I dodged it – or so I thought. My ankle crumpled the moment my foot hit the floor, long before my brain realized it. I stumbled to the ground, coughing up blood. Shit. Shit, shit, shit! Where did I get hit? In the shoulder? In the arm? It took everything I had to try rising to a knee, but just as I limped up, I felt a stabbing pain explode from my thigh.

“FUCK!” I yelped in pain. There was a huge, bloodied gash ripping across the side of my leg, bits of black still embedded in the flesh, torn muscle fibers wrapping around them. Bile rushed up my throat just from looking at it. My body collapsed to the floor, gasping for air – and when I wasn’t, I was groaning in utter agony.

And then I saw death.

Black crept into the corners of my eye: a fuzzy, dim black. It became a struggle to just keep my eyes open. I had to keep them open. I had to stay alive. Yet, each blink lasted longer and longer than the last. And the pain; every time my eyes fell shut, it was washed away in the dark. Slowly. Surely.

Death was about as peaceful as I imagined, every bit as comforting as I wished it to be. I just wish it wasn’t on the street like some dog. Cuffed. Crippled. The embrace was warm, the darkness soothing, but smothering. Like I was paralyzed prey, tenderly being gorged on by some glutton. The dark, with its midnight knives and shadow-clad forks, cut pieces of me away; and I could feel bits of myself slipping with every bite. My joys. My sorrows. My pride, my falls – my flaws, my light, my life. And I didn’t even have a chance to contest.

What a shitty way to go.