We stick to corners and back streets as we make our way across the village. Regardless of how stupid the others think this is, we don’t want to endanger them.

Elena hangs back, only just keeping us in sight.

Peggy is scouting ahead, beckoning me forward as the way stays clear. There are no Valley Beasts in this village. Whatever creature we’re going to face, none of them want anything to do with it. That makes it marginally easier. If there are no other enemies, we can focus on the Beast in front of us. On the other hand, it lends more credence to what they had said about it.

I shake my head as I dart across the street to join Peggy. There’s no point in having second thoughts and I stand by what we said. There has to be a way for us to get out of here.

We’re about a mile away from the other side when we hear it. No, we don’t hear it first we smell it first. A putrid, sickly sweet smell of rot mixed with decaying meat. It makes me want to gag and I can only imagine what it’d smell like without our masks. Peggy furrows her brow in question the second before there’s a soft, almost musical, moaning from our right.

She throws her arm out and waves me toward the wall in front of her. We’re in an alleyway creeping toward the edge as the moaning sounds again, louder and closer than before. There’s a large street opposite us. Twenty, maybe thirty feet across. We’d be exposed if we tried to make it across and there was no telling what it’d do when it saw us.

Peggy moves to my side, her back pressed against the wall. “I’m going to look,” she mouths.

“Careful,” I mouth back.

She nods, then peeks.

Peggy is the strongest person I know. Her mental fortitude has always been stronger than mine and her ability to adapt and make quick decisions never ceases to amaze me. Even physically, the only person to match her strength is Priya. Even scared, she manages to keep it together.

When Peggy turns back to me, her face is blank. No fear or confusion or even anger. Just blank.

“Peggy,” I whisper. “Peggy.” Lifting my hand, I flick her forehead twice. She blinks slowly, her eyes still glazed like she’s in a dream. “What did you see?”

“I…I don’t know.” She shakes her head, hand rubbing her forehead. She doesn’t rub it like she’s registering the pain. More like a reflex than genuine irritation. “I—It—There’s nothing.”

“What does that mean? Do we have to retreat?” Her eyes meet mine and I can’t see a clear answer. There’s too much going on in her head. I pull out an arrow and grab a chunk of my hair. This will get its attention, but once I shoot, we’ll be gone.

I tie my hair around the arrow and all at once that rotting smell is in my nose and crawling down my throat and the Beast is upon us.

It’s not a bear. Bears don’t have antlers. It’s not a deer. Deer don’t have claws. It’s not a hawk. Hawks don’t have fangs. It’s not any of those but it has something about it that puts me in mind of them. It’s not anything I’ve seen before, Beast or animal. It just…isn’t.

And now it’s here, bearing down on us with venom dripping from its mouth and rot forcing its way past our masks and into our lungs and eyes. Peggy pulls her mask off as bile rips from her throat and lands at our feet.

I’m frozen. I can’t move as my mind tries and fails to comprehend the bulk and mass of the thing twitching its head in anticipation. It shouldn’t fit in the alleyway, but it squeezes in leaving thick, pulpy residue where it rubs against the wall.

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“Go.” Peggy’s voice is strained as she struggles to stand. Her grip on her knife tightens as she holds her hand out. “Keep your distance and I’ll stay right here.”

I can’t get the words out as she pushes me, her gaze never leaving the Beast. I want to protest. I want to tell her that we can’t fight this thing. At least, we can’t fight it while we’re so close to it. Not with that smell making my eyes water. But I can’t get any words out. Instead, as feeling comes back to my legs, I turn and run.

The further I go, the more my head clears, and I choke down the panic that threatens to consume me. We need to get out of here. Come back another day with a different plan. A better, more air-tight one than this. How could I have been so stupid? Mom and Dad are better Hunters and Trackers than me and Peggy combined, but I refused to listen because of what? Stubbornness? Pride? My stupid promise to Vidia and Vahn?

There’s no time to dwell on that now. I turn a corner and find the ladder I was looking for. It’s flimsy for something made of metal, but it does the job. I almost lose my balance on the slanted roof but keep my footing as I look back.

Peggy is in the street. The wide, exposed one that makes my stomach flutter thinking about it. She’s fast on her feet and seems to have left her mask in the alley. She’s throwing knives, aiming for its head, its legs, its body, its feet. Anything that might prove to be a weakness. The blades hit and sink in, an odd slurping sound echoing across the streets as the blade it slowly swallowed by the Beast. It doesn’t seem to feel the pain. It keeps stalking toward her.

I nock my arrow and take aim. I’m far. Almost out of my range but it’ll be something. Maybe it’ll be enough to get its attention long enough for Peggy to get more distance between them. It flies, cutting through the air.

When it lands, the Beast stops. The arrow landed in the bulk below its head. Maybe a shoulder or a back or—anything. It could have been anything, but it hit and the Beast stopped. My arrow isn’t sinking in the same way Peggy’s knives were. The arrow sits in its place, unmoving as the Beast turns its bright white eyes upon it.

I look for Peggy in the street and she’s not moving. Why isn’t she moving? She’s watching the Beast as it tries to pull the arrow out. Its claws fumble to grip the shaft and it only pushes it deeper.

I want to yell at her to start backing away, but she’s creeping forward instead. Her hand is on her knife, inching closer as the Beast continues to push my arrow deeper. It doesn’t seem to be in pain, but it doesn’t look to Peggy as it tries and fails to remove the arrow.

I nock another arrow and let it fly. I break out into a run, sizing the distance between houses as I do. It’ll be close, but I can make it. I land in a messy tuck and slide down the roof, hands desperately gripping nothing. I stop at the edge of the roof, feet and legs hanging off the side as I struggle to get up again.

A shudder runs through me as that low, melodious moan echoes. As I get to my feet, I can see it again. My arrow struck true, and it let out another moan as it tried to pull this one out. I glance around for Peggy and she’s closer now. Too close and even at this distance I can see her struggle to keep her retching choked back.

She lunges, swinging wildly with her blade and it hit, slicing through the Beast. It screams like a like metal crashing against wet stone and turns all of its attention to her. Peggy pulls at her knife but its stuck and she lets go. She takes a step back but it’s too late. The Beast has her in its sights, its white eyes like mold pulses putrid green. She’s frozen staring and I start to run.

I know it’s futile. I know I’m too far away to stop what’s coming but I can’t stop moving. My legs propel me forward over roofs and around chimneys as I pray to a god I know can’t hear me.

It’s head twitches, turning and breaking and snapping until it’s upside down and I can see milky white bone protruding from its neck. Peggy starts to walk forward and I cry out, hoping it could pull her from the reverie. She stops, staggering for a moment. There’s a brief moment where I allow hope to grow. She heard me. She can run now I just need to give her an window to escape.

It happened so fast. I jump to another roof, pulling on another arrow out and the Beast explodes. It expands, bulbous and engorged, hundreds of screaming faces pushing against its rotted flesh. The smells hits me like a brick and I throw up. My mouth doesn’t even have time to water.

Teeth like razors grow, flicking out to form a cage around Peggy as it stretches up and out, blotting out what little like shines down. Peggy turns to me, her eyes wide as she comes back to herself. She says something I can’t make out past the rushing in my ears and the Beast snaps shut, absorbing Peggy into its mass.

That doesn’t stop her scream from ringing out across the village as I land on the other roof.