Young Writers Society

Korina

Miranda and Jaegar followed the old ladies while the rest of us continued looking for a place to stay for the night. A few minutes later, they rejoined us. I noticed with alarm that Jaegar's arm was smeared with blood but said nothing. Since the ladies had been infected, lethal force was probably necessary.

We just strode right into a hotel lobby. Nobody was manning the desk, but Darcy pulled a few bills out of her pocket and laid them in the cash register anyway before we grabbed a few keys. Darcy and I immediately paired off, and Miranda grimaced in annoyance when she realized she would have to share with us as well. Anton, Jaegar, and John took another room, and the other boys stayed in the last one. We didn't talk much, all exhausted.

I set myself up at the computer immediately upon entering the room. Darcy glanced at me in concern. "Shouldn't you go to sleep?"

I shook my head, even though I was just as tired as any of them. "Go to bed. I can probably get a message out, get them to avoid the pwdre ser zombies, try and get them to evacuate if at all possible, that sort of thing."

She still looked a little worried, but went to bed, along with Miranda. I hacked into the early warning systems usually used for blizzards, taking care that my virtual trail couldn't be traced, and typed up a message that would flash across every television screen in New York City: Emergency. Manhattan Island is in imminent danger. Please evacuate to the harbors, where you can pilot the boats out to see. Avoid anything that looks the least bit unusual, as it could be very dangerous. Good luck.

I tapped send and started erasing all traces of my presence. Before I could finish, my head fell to the desk...

Anton Wolfe
I was shaking and hacking teeth, hugging myself to keep warm. It didn't help much. Normally I would've helped with taking out the zombies, but I knew I would faint if I tried, so I stayed and waited with the others. "I seriously need to change clothes," I muttered and looked around in the hopes of finding a clothes shop or something. I still had my wallet, luckily enough.

"Second-hand shop," John said and nodded towards a place.

Just the thoughts of all the scents stuck in those old clothes made me frown. "N-n-no w-w-w-way." I couldn't stop hacking teeth, not even as I spoke.

"You'd rather freeze to death?" He looked a bit amused.

"Sh-shut up." Sounding intimidating was difficult when you couldn't talk normally, and I could swear that I saw Alex snickering. I would've punched him in the face, but now I had to make due with a glare.

Jaegar and Miranda returned and we all went into a hotel. Luckily I got to share room with John and Jaegar. Anyone else would've driven me mad.

I still needed clothes. "I'm gonna check the rooms, see if I can find some clothes," I muttered before walking down an empty hallway. There were a few doors that had been left open, probably from people who had run outside after the explosion.

I looked into one of the rooms. Luggage on the floor, perfect. I rummaged through it until I found clothes that actually fit me. Blue slim jeans, a white t-shirt, brown leather jacket, grey sneaker and a baseball cap. Not something that I'd usually wear, but they fit, they were clean and they only carried one scent. I changed quickly and pulled down the baseball cap over my eyes.

By the time I had found our room I had finally stopped shaking, but I was so tired that I was having a hard time walking straight. I crawled down in the first bed I could see, not even bothering to answer Jaegar's comment about my clothes. I fell asleep as soon as I put my head down.

Jaegar Pen

I should have been asleep. Everyone else was asleep, John was snoring quietly in the corner and Anton was mumbling fragments of his dream under his breath. I could have been asleep too, I was tired enough, but I couldn't bring my brain to settle down and rest. For one, it was too dark. I sat with my back against the wall, my knees pulled up to my chest, and my head back. My eyes were squeezed shut tight, and I was too afraid to open them. How could a room be so dark? It would be better if I had my things - my bear, the picture of my parents and grandma and pop - but that had all been taken away from me, burned.

With a shaky sigh I edged my way to the foot of the bed and reluctantly stood up. If I could just make it to the door... There would be lights in the hall. I don't know why it's so intense tonight, but I'd bet my left arm it was because of the past few days. Way too stressful, too much too soon. I didn't expect killing those old ladies to be so hard. I shouldn't have cared, but one of them looked like Grandma...

That realization had my on my knees, the heal of my hands pushed into my suddenly wet eyes.

'You're too old to cry about this,' I reminded myself, but that didn't stop the lump in my throat from doubling in size and hot tears to streak down my face. Five minutes later I was feeling my way towards the room door and then standing in the long hallway.

At least it was brighter here. But the lights cast meaning shadows on the ugly carpet and peeling walls. My hand shot up and clutched the fabric above my heart. I couldn't go down there, it was almost worst than the death dark of the room. The hall ended in a fog of darkness on both ends that I couldn't bring myself to look at for more than a few seconds. I couldn't do it. I sunk to the floor and put my head between my knees.

It was such a stupid weakness to have, a fear of the dark, so freaking stupid.

"You're too old for this shit, Jaegar."

My mom's voice invaded my head and I had to agree. With a deep breath I stood up, closed my eyes, and ran until I hit the wall at the end of the hall. Getting down the stairs was harder, but soon I was outside and the moon gave relief. I needed to do something, anything, to distract myself. I wasn't getting to sleep any time soon.

I made my way to the van. The city would be evacuating right now if they headed our warning, should be anyway. I grabbed my ax from the trunk and swung it around lazily. The cold air bit at my exposes skin, but I steeled myself against the shivers. I practiced as the moon went down and the sun came back up. When the hot rays touched my skin I dropped my weapon and sat in the dirt, chest heaving and a layer of sweat and grim covering me. The others would be waking up soon, if they weren't up already.

I dragged myself self back inside, making sure to flick on all the light switches on the way, and went to the bathroom that was paired with the room I shared with John and Anton. I turned on the shower and nearly fell into it. Fatigue hit me then, hard, and before I knew what was happening I was on the shower floor, sleeping lightly. Don't know how long I stayed down there, but I would have continued that way if a banging wouldn't have come on the bathroom door.

"Alright," I called out. "Alright, I'm coming!"

Nathaniel,

As I toss and turn in the hotel bed, Alex and Adam snoring around me, my mind is a whirl of thoughts. The Bloodletters blowing the bridges and releasing the pwdre ser...Darcy...the white-hot anger that fills my being at the thought of those who have died...Darcy...What's going on with Torrance and the others? Are they trying to get to the island? Are they even still alive?...Darcy...I can't get her out of my head. I'm in love, for the first time, I am in love, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time. Sometimes, it's like she's completely inhuman, and I guess, if the story is true, she isn't completely human. But most of the time, I see her for what she is: the most human person I know. I can't bear the thought of losing her, even though I've known her for half a week.

And suddenly, I'm no longer in the cramped hotel, but out on the streets again. It feels like the old nightmare, the snarls and grunts and shrieks of the beasts hunting me. Except...It's coming from ahead of me. The creatures are not pursuing me. I rush onwards and as I round a corner, I find myself in Times Square, the lights blazing from all sides. And there, fighting for their lives, are my team. My friends. Guns fire, blades flash, and arrows fly. But it's hopeless. The anthropophagi outnumber them three to one. They are everywhere, the lights gleaming on their cold, white skin, illuminating their shark mouths and their terrible barbed claws. One by one, my friends fall. I can't see them all but I see Jaegar torn limb from limb....Alex, ripped open....Miranda's torsos lying in a gutter...and Darcy's head disappearing down the throat of one of the monsters...

"NO!" I scream, "I'll kill...kill them."

"Nathaniel! Nathaniel! Hey, NATHANIEL!" Someone is shaking my shoulder roughly. My eyes fly open and my hands fly to the person's throat. Adam chokes and pulls back. I blink and release him.

"Jeez, man," he rasps, "What's going on?"

"I, uh...Nothing," I mutter. Alex is looking at me with concern, and Adam is rubbing his throat ruefully. I stand up and stretch, "Just...just a nightmare."

"Do you wann ta--" Alex begins, but I shake my head sharply.

"No, Alex, I do not want to talk about it," I snap, but instantly regret it, "Sorry. I just need to go outside for a minute."

I push open the door and step into the hallway. I'm vaguely aware of the fact that I'm only wearing a tanktop and boxers, but I don't give a shit. I lean against the wall, breathing slowly. I stay like that for a long time, and eventually, I calm down.

When I look up, two men in torn NYPD uniforms are striding down the hall towards me.

Korina

I gradually became aware of my aching nose. Sitting up, I pulled off my glasses and gently touched the tender skin near my eyes. Still half-asleep, I mumbled blearily, "So that's what happens when you fall asleep with your glasses on. Painful."

As I became more awake, however, I noticed the insistent pounding on the door and the computer screen shining brightly in my face. "Oh."

I ran to the door and peeked through the keyhole. Two annoyed looking police officers stood outside, one of them holding Nathaniel's wrist. He had a sheepish, somewhat confused grin on his face.

Blinking, I rubbed my eyes, convinced I was still asleep. Nope. I looked to the computer and finally made the connection.

Oops. I was going to be arrested for hacking! Considering the bridges had just been blown up and there was a monster army invading Manhattan, that was kind of ironic...

Miranda sat up, rubbing her eyes the same way I had done. "What's going on?"

I stuttered, "Um, well, the p-police are her to arrest me, because I kinda hacked their computers, and now I need to pretend I didn't do it and..."

In one smooth motion, she strode across the room and pulled the plug to the computer. "That's a good place to start."

I felt my face flush bright red. "Yeah." Wow, I'm kinda...I have no adequate word to describe what I'm like today. Maybe it;s just that the end of the human race is probably coming. Or at least of New York.

She said calmingly, "Now, let me take care of this."

I sighed deeply, trying to focus. "Okay." I pulled the door open slowly.

One of the cops began to say, "This place is closed. You're all trespassers, also with a likely charge of-"

Miranda stepped forward and punched him in the face. A dumbfounded expression crossed his face, and he dropped to the ground. She quickly dispatched the other one while I remained speechless.

I dropped to the ground beside the first one, checking his life signs. "You could have killed him. What's wrong with you?"

Obviously struggling to maintain her temper, she said, "I told you I'd take care of them. I didn't kill them, so you should be perfectly happy."

Darcy sat up, probably woken by all the yelling. When she saw the unconscious cops on the ground, her eyes grew wide. "What happened?" This question was repeated when the boys came from their rooms, curious as to what was going on.

I pointed to Miranda. "This idiot decided that the only way to deal with these cops was to knock them out cold. Now what are you planning to do with them?"

Anton Wolfe
I groaned loudly as I heard sounds outside. Someone was banging at the door next to our room. "What the fuck is going on?" I muttered and got up. The clock in the room told me that I had been asleep for six hours. Not enough, but at least I wasn't cold anymore. For once I hadn't had any bad dreams. Perhaps I was too tired to dream.

"I don't know. Something's up," said John.

I looked around. "Where's Jaegar?"

He shrugged, so I checked the bathroom. The door was indeed locked. I could hear voices outside. Cops? i frowned. The meant that Korina had screwed up. Again. I banged the door until I finally got an answer. "Alright, alright, I'm coming!"

"Cops are talking to the girls. If you don't hurry you won't get to beat them up," I said and left our room.

In the door to room next to ours two cops were standing, just like I had heard. Before I had time to do anything one of them dropped to the ground, soon followed by the other one. I chuckled. Miranda sure knew how to take care of herself.

I walked over to the door, Jaegar and John close behind me, and Nathaniel was approaching from the other direction. "Tss, why do Miranda get to have all the fun?" I said and poked one of the cops with my foot.

"This idiot decided that the only way to deal with these cops was to knock them out cold. Now what are you planning to do with them?"

I stepped over the cops, into the room. "What, you never dealt with cops before? Tie them up and put them in the wardrobe," I said with a shrug and pulled the baseball cap further down to hide my eyes. I hoped that my clothes had dried, because these clothes were awful. Well, they were normal, but I hadn't worn anything else than black in years, and I didn't like it.

Under protest I and Jaegar tied up the cops and shoved them into the wardrobe.

"We should probably leave before someone comes looking for them," said Nathaniel. "We need to meet up with the others."

"Lets eat something first, I'm starving," I muttered before walking back to our room. Thank God - or whatever - my clothes were dry. I changed quickly and pulled the hood down over my face again. I decided to keep the leather jacket, just in case I got cold. Showing myself weak again was not something I intended to do anytime soon.

Nathaniel,

"We should probably leave before someone comes looking for them," I say, gesturing at the cops lying in the closet, "We need to meet up with the others."

The others nod, and Anton says, "Let's eat something first, I'm starving."

We go back to our respective rooms, and get dressed. All of my clothes are dry thankfully, but their dip into the Hudson yesterday has left them stained and smelling of sewage. Especially my Doc Martens. I laugh softly at myself. Here we are, fighting a terrorist army of monsters, and I'm worrying about how my clothes smell.

We meet back in the hallway, clutching our bags and weapons, and whatever food we can find from the hotel rooms. A few candy bars, some fruit. The basics.

"I don't have any signal in here," I say, glancing at my phone, "Korina, can you try contacting Torrance with that uberphone of yours?"

She nods, and punches in the number. Darcy looks at me oddly.

"You think he's still alive?" she asks.

"I sure hope so," I mutter, "I don't want to think about it, otherwise."

"He's not answering. All I got was a voicemail," Korina says. The others glance at me, even John, Jaegar, Miranda, and Anton.

"Well, then," Adam says, "What now?"

"Let's get outside, see what the situation's like," Jaegar says, already turning towards the stairs. We follow. Even before we step out of the lobby, it's clear that the situation has deteriorated severely overnight. Shouts and yells fill the air, along with shrieks and growls. Monsters, loose in New York City.

"Who's up for a little action?" I mutter.

Darcy

She woke up to see Miranda - and then the others as well - beating up some cops and locking them in the closet. The fact that she didn't give them any more thoughts than that, showed how deeply she was still under the impression of the dream.
Darcy shivered, recalling strange, cold notes, music echoing through the deep woods and by the dark rivers, the feeling of hands reaching for her, and the invisible screams locking her in that place.
Getting up and joining the others, she was barely present. A few words she exchanged with Nathaniel felt like floating in the air, as if she wasn't the one who said them at all. No one else seemed to be noticing anything strange about her, though, so she just followed them and stayed silent.

"Finnaly!" she heard as they entered the lobby, and frowned a little as she spotted no other people around. Following Nathaniel's glare, she whined a little. Monsters were lose in the city, moving like children of the playground, but Darcy wasn't worried about them. She locked her eyes on the people, or what was left of them, as they desperately crawled the street, trying to get compassion from the others. One little boy, instead of compassion, got his hand cut of by the tail of some monster - the kid just kept moving on, his skin getting more transparent with every moment. Darcy was pretty sure someone of the group left to the bathrooms behind her. She half turned to check, as she heard the same voice once again.

"Food." That wasn't anyone she knew - that wasn't a human at all. She turned back to the windows and the street; the monster was chewing the kid's hand.

No way. She was sure she looked like she saw a ghost. No freaking way.

If any of the others heard it, they would have said something, wouldn't they? Darcy turned to them again, searching for anything on their faces, and found nothing.

"Darcy?" Korina called. "You okay?"

"I don't have a weapon," She muttered, hoping that will be a good enough excuse. "I will go and find myself something."

Before any of them could stop her, she practically ran out of the building on the other door, into a smaller alley and then onto the parking lot. There were no monsters, and, what calmed her even more, no humans, and she took a moment to catch a breath. What the hell? Why could I hear that? Why could I understand it? What the HELL?

"Hey."

Darcy jumped and grabbed her pen, turning it to the attacker, before realizing it was Korina who glared at her, with a puzzled look on her face.

"Sorry," Darcy muttered, putting her weapon back to the pocket. "Are you alright?"

Korina nodded.
"Are you alright? You seem strange today."

I just understood a monster, Darcy almost blabbed. She wondered how they would take it - even she wasn't in peace with that finding. Why now, all of the sudden? She could calm them before, yes, but they never talked to her. She was still shaking. What if she was turning into something? What if she was just like those people, nothing more than a strange infected mutant that didn't even realize her clock was ticking all the time?
Korina touched her hand.

"You're really cold," she noticed, "are you sure nothing is wrong?"

Darcy wanted to stay strong and silent. But besides them, she had no one else - and what if he was really becoming different, something that will be their enemy?
"Everything is wrong," she whispered finally, looking up to meet Korina's eyes. What am I doing? She has her own problems. They all do. Darcy sighed. "I'm just tired of everything and the world is kind of ending. Wanna help me find a weapon of some sort?"

With those words, she turned and started walking again, not waiting to see if Korina was following her.
*

Korina

As we entered the lobby, I fumed silently. Assaulting police officers...what were we going to do when this was all over and they could actually arrest us? Assuming we survived all this, which I was beginning to doubt just considering how much Anton wanted to murder me, we'd all be in jail for a very long time.

For now, though, any police officers still, well, alive, had bigger problems to worry about. Such as the monsters and pwdre ser zombies crawling the street. Looked like we'd did the moment we'd step out the door.

Darcy paled suddenly. I frowned. "Darcy? You okay?" Stupid question. None of us were okay, not really.

Looking away, she muttered, "I don't have a weapon. I will go find myself something." She ran out of the building through a side door.

I glanced around at the others' faces. Nobody, not even Nathaniel, had seemed to notice she was acting strange, so I followed through the door.

I spotted Darcy at the end of the alley, head down, shoulders shaking. Approaching cautiously, I called out, "Hey!"

She spun around, holding her pen out defensively, then lowered it in embarrassment when she saw it was me. "Sorry. Are you alright?"

I nodded, and asked again, "Are you alright? You seem strange today." Massive understatement, but I suppose in this situation, everyone is stressed out. I frowned, remembering shouting at my parents yesterday. Yeah, nobody was going to act normal for a while now.

But then I noticed Darcy was still shaking. "You're really cold. Are you sure nothing is wrong?" Besides monsters invading Manhattan.

Darcy stayed silent for a long moment, then finally whispered, "Everything is wrong. I'm just tired of everything and the world is kind of ending. Wanna help me find a weapon of some sort?"

She turned and started walking. "Wait," I called, and she stopped. "Every monster out there can tell we're human and not infected."

A flash of emotion crossed her face. Of what, I wasn't sure...remorse....anger...guilt? Whatever it was, though, she hid it quickly. "So what can we do about it?"

I decided to ignore the odd emotion. "Disguise ourselves. Depending on the monster, they hunt by sight, sound, and smell. Most monsters would be ignoring sound because of all the other monsters in the city, and we don't have to worry about sight if we don't stay near the same monsters too long, because they'll assume we've been infected by pwdre ser. But we don't smell like monsters or victims."

She took a step back. "Are you suggesting we cover ourselves in dung or something."

I shook my head violently. "No way. Monsters would be as disgusted by that as I am. Do you wear perfume?"

"I don't have any at the moment."

"Then we'll have to go without for now, but if we pass a shop, break into that first. It's amazing how many monsters are supposed to be vanilla-scented. And how a useless piece of information like that is actually useful."

She smiled slightly, but quickly turned serious again. "And in the meantime?"

"Hope we don't pass any monsters with a good sense of smell." We both started walking.

I stuck my hand in my pocket absentmindedly and felt the cool, hard scale in there. A smile drifted over my face. I had lost all my notes and the large book holding them in the collapse of the society, but at least I still had this, the object that got me involved in this crazy group of monster fighters.

My thoughts went to my sister, alone in that dark crypt. I should visit her again after we get back. Slip out so nobody follows. I nearly laughed. Like Darcy was trying to do to us. But this was different. I had seen the looks Nathaniel cast at Darcy and she returned, and I had to admit I was fairly determined to make sure they got together when this was all over. Some of the members of the group might mourn me if I was gone, but I don't have anyone in love with me.

Isa's crypt was probably packed with monsters now, though. Dark and a good place to hide. My smile widened when I realized that wouldn't be the case. She had a guardian angel, in a way. Monsters could be petrified by basilisks too, so the creature that changed her was also keeping her safe. If she had still been human in all this mess, she might have died.

Darcy glanced back at me. "What are you smiling about?" she asked with a tone of genuine curiosity in her voice.

"Even though the world's ending, hope still exists."

Alex

Slowly, I became aware that I was lying on the ground. Then I became aware that the ground was hard and strange. At last I realized that I was lying on a stony mountainside. Strange place for me to sleep. How had I gotten here?

Slowly regaining consciousness, I rolled onto my side - I must have fallen and passed out, because I was lying on my face. I couldn't really remember how I'd gotten here - my memories were a haze of fog. Pushing myself onto my elbows, I opened my eyes to look around.

And a pair of huge, slitted yellow ones stared back.

For a moment I was frozen, and then the memories rushed into focus and I was screaming. I didn't even move, just sat there half propped up on my elbows, screaming, because the thing was there, and then it bared its teeth it had fangs and I somehow ended up on my feet and I was running so fast my feet hardly hit the ground, and....

....I jolted awake, just barely too startled to scream.

It took me a moment of rapid breathing to realize that I was lying on the floor of a room, not a mountain. Then I rose and rubbed my hands over my face, sighing. That was the third nightmare in a row, and it was the worst of them all - I'd been trying to forget that memory for its entire two-year existence. Discovering the Fear Liath had been terrifying, running from it had been horrible, but waking up to find it staring into my eyes was the only memory that I almost couldn't bear. Because the fact that it had been there meant that it had to have been waiting. Standing over my unconscious, helpless body.

It had been waiting for me to wake up - that was the only conclusion I could come to. And that meant it wanted something - probably to torment the invader of its territory a bit more. It still did torment me, from across the ocean - I still sometimes couldn't shake the feeling that I would turn around and see it looming over me, in the shadows, between me and an exit. The thought of those hungry yellow eyes watching me as I laid there helpless, ready to toy with me like a cat, still sent shivers crawling up my spine. I didn't care what Darcy said, some monsters were evil, and that was that.

I headed into the bathroom to splash some water on my face - I felt filthy, and it wasn't just because of my stained clothes. These last few days... bad things were happening. Things that were supposed to happen in the movies, to actors hiding behind scripts, not to us. Not to the real world. The Bloodletters were going to have a lot to answer to when we finally caught them. If we caught them. I was starting to wonder if we could - they could just keep hiding behind their terrorist-cryptids, and we'd be so busy trying to protect the public that they'd be able to just keep going. It made me feel sick.

There was shouting from the room, and a little bit of thudding. I wiped my face and opened the door, wondering what was happening and praying that it wasn't a Bloodletter attack.

Adam was kneeling on the bed, one hand on Nathaniel's shoulder, and Nathaniel stared around him with a fading, half-wild look in his eyes, gasping for breath just as I had a few minutes ago.

Adam rubbed his throat. "Jeez, man, what's going on?" he asked with a rasping voice.

"I, uh..." Nathaniel was sitting up. "Nothing. Just... just a nightmare." Just like me. I wondered if ours were similar.

"Do you want to ta-" I began, but it was a bad move.

"No, Alex," he snapped, "I do not want to talk about it." Then he took a deep breath. "Sorry. I just need to go outside for a minute." And he pushed off the covers, rose, and, not even getting dressed, walked outside. Even though he'd just woken up, he looked tired. I watched after him for a moment, then decided that trying to talk now would be a bad idea.

Adam was rubbing his throat still. "You alright?" I asked him, and he nodded. After awkwardly standing there in silence for a few more moments, I threw on my shirt - it smelled awful, but that wasn't really of high priority anymore - and stepped outside after Nathaniel. He was gone.

I quickly found him with the girls, looking at the flat forms of two unmoving cops. I found the fact that I wasn't overly surprised by this a little disturbing, but joined them anyways, just in time to watch Anton - who looked odd for some reason - help Jaegar shove the tied-up cops into the closet. I wondered how they intended for those cops to get out once we'd left - after all, they'd probably just been doing their jobs. We had technically broken in....

After everyone finished getting a close to decent as we could reasonably get - which basically meant dressed - we met back in the hallway. Anton was wearing black again - that was why he'd looked weird earlier - and hungry, and he wasn't alone. I hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before.

As we walked out into the hall to the lobby, though, I began to wonder if that was a good idea. We came into the windowed room and were confronted with a scene that made me mentally renounce my conclusion of this ordeal being like a movie - no movie scene I'd ever seen rivaled the one that roiled outside.

Through the windows - some of which were shattered and smeared with blood and grime - screams and howls assailed my ears, along with several less human sounds - Bloodletter work. Just looking around, I saw at least six different kinds of monster, and the streets were littered with people covered in pulsating, bulging veins covered with transparent skin.

I saw a kid, maybe eight, dragging himself along the street, leaving a streak of blood and I-didn't-want-to-know-what. As he tried to raise a hand to defend himself, a whirling claw or some sharp appendage took his hand. Blood spurted, and the now-useless arm snapped back, but the kid didn't even cry - he just kept moving, kept looking around for some sign of hope.

I thought I was about to throw up, but I felt myself raising my gun and firing. There were so many other gunshots going off in other places that mine hardly even made a difference. The monster responsible for the kid's hand - I didn't even care what it was anymore - reeled back, fell to the ground, and didn't move again. The kid collapsed blindly on the street, and I saw transparent skin - a pwdre ser victim. We had to kill him. I moved my gun, took aim at him, and took a deep breath.

I couldn't do it. I turned away, almost certain that I was going to be sick. The kid was going to die soon, and he was going to hurt people, but I couldn't kill him. I'd signed up to learn about monsters, to study their ways, to capture dangerous individual cryptids. I hadn't signed up for this.

But now here I was. If this had been a movie I'd have thought it was the cheesiest movie I'd ever seen, but this was real life, and people were really dying. I wondered dimly how many casualties there were already, and how many more once the infected died out. If they ever did.

I shook my head. I had to keep myself together - I couldn't afford to lose it, not now. If that happened, the Bloodletters had won - if this was a movie, after all, then they were the forces of chaos or whatever. So that would make the nine of us the forces of order.

Great, a tiny voice piped in my head. Now you're giving yourself cheesy pep talks. Just go and get rid of the monsters, you moron.

I turned back around - I'd have to face the bloody fray in the streets eventually, and I might as well do it now.

Nathaniel,

It's a warzone out here. Monsters of several varieties are running between buildings, attacking dumpsters and each other, and any unfortunate humans out on the streets. Most have stayed inside, though. I can see their terrified faces at the windows of the surrounding buildings. A pack of chupacabras are snapping and snarling around a motionless body, and I see the head of a bunyip peering out from a manhole. They all have the telltale flashing lights of the Bloodletter's control chips behind their necks. And there, stumbling across the street is a kid, a yound one, looking around, fear and desolation in his overly large eyes, his skin mostly transparent and falling off. As he passes the mouth of an alleyway, some sort of giant scorpion lunges out at him, and his hand his cut off in a spurt of blood. He barely reacts.

Next to me, with a dazed look on his face, Alex raises his gun and shoots the giant creature. It falls with a squeal, but the boy, he just keeps on crawling forwards. The infection has taken him now. He's a beast inside, and there's nothing we can do for him. I notice, dimly, that Darcy leaves, muttering about finding a decent weapon, and Korina goes after her, but I can't turn from the horror that the city has become. Miranda, Jaegar, Anton, John, and Adam are dispersing along the street, dispatching the monsters. I take a rattling breath, and pull out my gun. The boy has noticed us and is dragging himself towards mine and Alex's legs, growling and spitting. I close my eyes, and pull the trigger.

I don't look at what I've done. Over and over, like a mantra, I tell it to myself, He wasn't human anymore, he wasn't human, he was gone, an animal, he wasn't human. But he had still looked it, and he had been a kid. A kid, for heavan's sake. All at once, my rage at the Bloodletters swells again, and I stagger. Falling to my knees, I breathe in deeply. Focus. We need to organize. The whole city must be like this now, several million people dying or hiding in the buildings, unable to do anyting, while monsters, ripped from their natural habitat, go crazy in the streets. It has to stop. But how?

The others have killed most of the monsters on the street, animals and pwdre ser zombies alike. Darcy and Korina come back out of the alley where they disappeared a few minutes earlier.

"What can we do?" Adam says hoarsely. Blood is splattered all over his clothes.

"I think...I think I have an idea," I say, looking around at them all, "The Bloodletters are controlling the monsters, all except for the pwdre ser victims, anyway. They have those chips, right? So, there must be some sort of control mechanism."

Korina is nodding, perking up, "So, we just need to find it! Then, we can turn it off, and the monsters will fall back, maybe even die." She gives a quick look at Darcy, but she just frowns and nods.

"Right," Miranda says, "But something like that would be wherever they're based, their headquarters or whatever. It could be on the mainland, or on the other side of the country."

"I don't think it is," Darcy says, "There's something I haven't told you."

Korina, a short time before

Darcy kicked the case, and it shattered into a bunch of sparkling pieces. She lifted a couple of guns from the wreckage, avoiding the sharp glass, and tossed one to me. "Now we have weapons."

I nodded. "We really should get back." We slipped through the back alleys, avoiding the main streets where the pwdre ser zombies and other monsters strolled freely. Before we entered the hotel, I fell back, letting Darcy get ahead of me, and then slipped away. I had to check on my sister.

Before long, though, I heard a scuffing noise on the ground behind me, and turned to see Darcy. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"It's personal. You don't want to come." Before I could walk off, though, she grabbed my arm.

"It's too dangerous right now to walk the streets alone." I was quiet for a long time, thinking. I wanted a way to show her and ask her advice, and she wanted to help. Was it so wrong to bring her? Finally, I just gave a small nod of acceptance and started walking.


"Um, Korina, this is a graveyard."

I gave Darcy a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we aren't going to be visiting a grave." I pulled the ragged blindfold from my pocket. "Take this and tie it over your eyes."

She did as I asked. "Why?"

"Safety reasons. I don't want you to open your eyes at the wrong moment. I can keep mine shut because I'm used to the route, but you might accidentally open them."

She looked like she wanted to ask a question but held her tongue. I took her hand and lead her into the darkness.

After a few minutes of walking, we were at my sister's small chamber, which I kept lit with a couple of flashlights. I gently unbound the blindfold, and Darcy stared at my petrified sister.

"Isa, my little sister," I said, trying to keep my voice from breaking. "At first I thought it was my fault, but I know better now. I've been trying to cure her for years. With monsters roaming the streets...I just had to check to make sure she was safe."

The monster rubbed against my legs, like an affectionate cat. Knowing it would greet Darcy as well, I grabbed her shoulders. "Don't look down, whatever you do. Keep your eyes focused on me or Isa." In a calmer voice, I explained, "The basilisk that made her this way is still here. I wondered if you could understand it like the other monsters. Could you, without meeting it's eyes?"

~Darcy

As the blindfold fell, she found herself eye to eye with a statue. In the graveyard, among the stone angels and demons, between so many dead souls, she seemed lost. She was stone, but it wasn't right. Her hair was made into tiniest details, every strand visible; her skin, her clothes, everything seemed as real as Darcy's own, and her eyes looked scared and alive Darcy turned to Korina as she spoke.

"Isa, my little sister," she said, and Darcy looked away again, not wanting to see tears in Korina's eyes. "At first I thought it was my fault, but I know better now. I've been trying to cure her for years. With monsters roaming the streets...I just had to check to make sure she was safe."

Darcy opened her mouth to talk, as something rubbed against her leg. Automatically, she moved to avoid it and looked down to see was it something living or a mere illusion - but Korina grabbed her shoulders and locked her eyes on Darcy's.

"Don't look down, whatever you do," she warned. "Keep your eyes focused on me or Isa." Darcy frowned, both to her words and the tone they were spoken in. Korina took a breath and continued somewhat calmer. "The basilisk that made her this way is still here. I wondered if you could understand it like the other monsters. Could you, without meeting it's eyes?"

Darcy stared at her without a word. She wanted to say something - it was expected of her to say something - yet she couldn't focus and make herself think of words to say. Somewhere around her leg, she heard the hissing sounds, and for a moment she could've sworn she heard a sorry.
She slowly nodded.

"I- I think I can. But Korina, what are you doing? Why didn't you tell us?" She met Korina's eyes. "They could've helped you at the Society if-"

"They'd do nothing at the Society! Examine my sister and killed the basilisk, and call it closed case. I read everything, Darcy, everything I found, and there's no known cure. There was nothing else I could doBut to keep her safe and hidden and..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at her sister's face.

"I was cured of hellhound poison," Darcy muttered, and Korina frowned a little. "The other day, I almost died of it." She hesitated. Should I tell her? Nathaniel was understanding, yes, and he for some reason didn't want to let her go, but Darcy couldn't tell how any of the others would react. She liked thinking of Korina as of friend, but still..still..Korina lost her sister to a monster. She understood Darcy's ways and ideas, but nevertheless she was hurt by them, she knew they could bring no good. Darcy bit her lip, feeling the basilisk curling around her ankle, and met Korina's eyes again - and then sent it all to hell. "I think my father works with the Bloodletters," she said. "I think they have ways to come up with cures and controlling devices not even the Society knew of."
*

They were both silent as they walked back to the hotel. Darcy hugged herself, feeling guilty and more tired than ever. None of it was supposed to be like that - she wasn't even supposed to be there. I want to go home. I want to see the hills and the valleys of my town, and the forest surrounding it. I want to be free and have a family and get away from all the monsters and killing.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I should have tried to do something - I should have tried to catch it as it started moving away. I should've tried looking it in the eyes you to see if-"

"Darcy," Korina cut as they returned to the hotel again, "stop it. That would do nothing but add another statue to that graveyard and you know it. You have nothing to be sorry for - but you have to tell the others."

Darcy sighed and nodded slowly.
*

Around the hotel, she could now see bodies of both creatures called monsters and creatures which used to be called men - even children, with their transparent skin and lying in blood.
Joining the others, Darcy couldn't help thinking how they all look sad. In their ragged clothing, striped of practically everything they had, with nothing to return to and nowhere to run even if they wanted to.

I don't look at what I've done. Over and over, like a mantra, I tell it to myself, He wasn't human anymore, he wasn't human, he was gone, an animal, he wasn't human. But he had still looked it, and he had been a kid. A kid, for heavan's sake. All at once, my rage at the Bloodletters swells again, and I stagger. Falling to my knees, I breathe in deeply. Focus. We need to organize. The whole city must be like this now, several million people dying or hiding in the buildings, unable to do anyting, while monsters, ripped from their natural habitat, go crazy in the streets. It has to stop. But how?

"What can we do?" Adam asked, and Darcy looked up. She stood between Korina and Nathaniel, barely paying attention to anyone. Sme of them, Adam included, had blood splattered over their clothes. Darcy didn't want to know who's blood it was.

"I think...I think I have an idea," Nathaniel said, and Darcy catches his glance as he looked around at them. "The Bloodletters are controlling the monsters, all except for the pwdre ser victims, anyway. They have those chips, right? So, there must be some sort of control mechanism."

Korina seemed to lighten up a bit, though Darcy could still notice her eying her somewhat suspiciously as she nodded to Nathaniel's words. "So, we just need to find it! Then, we can turn it off, and the monsters will fall back, maybe even die." She looked at Darcy again, and Darcy nodded. She's right, she told to herself, you need to tell them. Look at them. They deserve to know, you liked it or not.

"Right," Miranda said, pulling Darcy out of thoughts again, "But something like that would be wherever they're based, their headquarters or whatever. It could be on the mainland, or on the other side of the country."

Well, now or never.

"I don't think it is," Darcy said, sighing and trying her best to not look at anyone. "There's something I haven't told you."

Nathaniel was the first to try catching her glance, but Anton was the one who spoke up.
"And what would that be?"

Darcy took a deep breath, finding with surprise how shaky it was.
"I..may have contacted them." She took up her hands to stop them before any of them said anything. "Just..just hear me out now, and then do whatever you wish, alright?" She didn't wait for them to react - she didn't even look, she didn't even care. "They came to me - this guy in dark red, and his brother, I think. They told me they tried to avoid the war, but the world got wrong - they don't want the monsters to die, that was just the only way to get the message across. The world, everything, is so wrong, but it's not the fault of creatures people don't even believe in."

"Are those their beliefs," Miranda interrupted, "or yours?"

Darcy met her eyes this time. They were both frowning.
"I don't want to destroy human kind," Darcy said in silent, cold voice. "I never said anything like it."

"What else do you know?"

"Not much," she shook her head, wondering if she should tell them about the phone number she had. "But I think.. I think they maybe don't really need the chips."

This time, they all seemed more surprised than mad - perhaps even more scared than surprised.
"What do you-"

"They have my father on their side," Darcy cut, closing her eyes and taking another breath. "I am rather sure he's around, and I'm rather sure I owe my..way of handling monsters..to him." she licked her lips. "But I can't actually tell if he's, eh..human."
***

Nathaniel,

"They have my father on their side," Darcy says, "I am rather sure he's around, and I'm rather sure I owe my...way of handling monsters...to him. But I can't actually tell if he's, eh...human."

I stare at her, as do the others. I, of course, had known what Darcy suspected about her father and her heritage. And it didn't bother me, not really. But the fact that she has been in contact with the Bloodletters, our enemies, those who caused all of this, hits me hard. I'd trusted her, known she was working for the greater good, just like us. I trusted her, and she betrayed that trust.

And yet, here she is, confessing it all.

I take a deep breath, but before I can say anything, Anton launches himself at her, the rage and violence that has always been there breaking free. His fist hits her in the abdomen and she grunts, but retaliates instantly, kicking out and taking Anton's legs out from under him. He hits the ground hard, but scrambles up. Before he can do anything else, I grab him, and so does Alex, holding him back.

"Anton!" I snarl, "Calm down. Fighting won't get us anywhere. You know that, dammit."

"She's one of them!" Anton yells, struggling, "She'll bring them to us, get us all killed! We need to kill her!"

Miranda, Jaegar, and John stare on in stony silence, while Adam and Korina look around anxiously.

"She's not a Bloodletter, man," Alex says, "She's helped us loads. And she saved your life, remember?"

"We have to work together, or they've already won," I say, "Darcy, why didn't you tell us about this before?" Can we trust you? I've defended her, but I need to know that she's behind us for sure.

Anton laughs, a little crazily, "She's been waiting, passing them intel, probably. And you trust her! You love her. You're probably with the Bloodletters too, Nathaniel."

Korina

I clenched my fists and strode up to Anton. Before I had time to even think about the stupidity of my actions, I smacked him in the face. "You're an absolute idiot. I'm simply amazed at your obstinate insistence of your own superiority. Look at Nathaniel's face. Even you should be able to recognize shock when you see it." Honestly, I was a little surprised at the level of venom dripping from my voice. But only a little.

Anton glanced at Nathaniel quickly, then returned his gaze to my face. "You don't seem at all surprised," he growled.

I took a deep breath. "I'm not. She told me on the way back here, and I pushed her to tell all of you. So leave her alone. All of us have secrets, Anton, and yours are most likely just as damaging as hers." I stepped back to Darcy's side and gave a shrug, hoping she could read my apology in it. I did all I could to keep him from gunning for you. I felt Anton's glare at my back, and thought, but now he has a different target.