Starlight

Chapter 8: Run

The monster was lightening quick, letting the boy fall from its claws to the wet pavement as it dropped to all fours and charged.

At me. Leaving behind a wake of melting snow.

I screamed, diving clumsily out of the way, my body protesting against the stiffness of my frozen muscles. The mist shuddered against me, the pressure suffocating. I sprang to my feet and began to run the way it had come, the way that was clear of snow. I didn't dare look back, didn't need to as the sound of the its clicking claws sounded on the pavement as it turned quickly to follow after me.

My mind raced. This was no fucking hallucination. It was impossible. But what was it? I strafed left, ducking behind a snow covered truck. I sucked in a deep breath, the air burning my struggling lungs and throat. My heart beat against my rib cage. I had to keep him away from the kid and stay alive in the process, but how?

I looked around me. If I could get to the boy and drag him under a car, but I wasn't sure if the monster could lift a vehicle or if I could distract it long enough to get him to safety.

Panic tore through me as I slid my body under the car, feeling the dry pavement underneath, protected from the falling snow. Not that it mattered, I was soaked and numb. Heavy footsteps sounded around me. I could hear its deep snorts like a strong wind, steam surrounding the car from it's hot breath. The snow was now gone as it approached the vehicle and it trickled down to me like hot blood.

I couldn't keep hiding under the car. It knew where I was.

Metal shrieked all around me and sank down. I winced, trying to think. I had to go. My eyes darted to the boy. I had to go now.

I rolled out from under the car, launching myself to my feet with my hands just as the monster lifted the trust, the massive claws hidden inside the metal. I kept running, tackling the body of the boy, pulling him into my arms as I turned to see the monster again.

It snarled, the noise reverberating everything around me as it tried to pull its claws from the inside of the truck and for one precious moment, I thought it was stuck, trapped in a metal Chinese finger trap. But only for a moment, then it wrenched one arm free and shook the truck from the other arm, sending the truck rolling.

We were going to die. I tried to not let the thought take hold as I put myself in front of the

boy, my eyes still searching for the next hiding spot. If I could get into the mall, maybe, but the hope that there would be one unlocked door was a fool's hope.

Suddenly the monster froze, lifting its monstrous snout into the air. It snorted in deeply, tasting the air before breathing out more tendrils of smoke. It turned away from us, a sharp growl rumbling through the night as if answering some unspoken command.

I didn't care what it was. I lurched to my feet, my boots crunching on the ice of once melted snow now frozen again. I let go of the soft material of the boy's shirt and slipped my arms under his like a harness and began to pull. My heart was pounding but I wasn't sure if the monster was done with us or if I only had a few seconds sent by the Gods. I didn't look at the monster.

If I looked at it, I knew I would freeze, and lose those precious moments.

The boy was heavier than I had expected, all fifty pounds dead weight against me. I dragged the unconscious child through the snow, unable to worry about the cold and wet that was seeping into his clothes to bite at that soft pale flesh underneath. And as I stumbled backwards, my back slammed into something. I turned, an SUV. Maybe the door was unlocked and we could get inside... but then I remembered those claws, shadow in nature, still ripping apart the truck.

Were we safe anywhere?

A roar filled the air and my eyes jumped to the threat. It was pawing at the ground and snorting, as if readying itself against something. It seemed to be blind to us now, ignoring us as if there was something more important coming. I only had one option. I had to get the boy out of the snow. I turned, wrenching the doors open, nearly falling backwards as the passenger door sprang open. I grabbed the boy again and pushed him up into the passenger seat and then onto the driver's side. I climbed into the vehicle, shutting the door and put my head to the boy's chest.

I listened to the shallow breaths and rhythmic beating of his heart and breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive. And that was at least one blessing for the night. I pulled off my parka, ignoring the cold that bit at me in the frozen car. I peeled the wet shirt off the boy, feeling disconcerted by how limp he was and dressed him in the warmth of my jacket. Goose flesh rose on my arms, but the adrenaline that was running through me kept me from succumbing to the cold.

I had no idea if we were safe, but at least we were safer in the car and the boy was warmer in the parka versus the wet clothing that would likely lead to hypothermia, if he didn't already have it. His body looked so pale, almost gray in the dim light, the pink bled from his lips.

My eyes darted out the windshield checking on the monster.

It was still there, now pacing, tufts of white smoke anxiously spiraling around it.

It had noticed we were gone. And it was no longer focused on the unseen danger it had been preoccupied with previously. No, now it searched furiously.

For us.

I took a deep breath and held it, hunching down in the car. I wasn't sure how it could track us but I was sure it would find us either by smell or the sound of our breathing. And I prayed, to whom I didn't know but I prayed.

I peeked up, looking out the window and hoping that it wouldn't be able to see through the tinted windows. It was closer now, massive claws tasting the air as it thrashed its arms about as if those claws would lead it to us.

But something, even in the terror caught my eye. The blue wisp. I could see it again, darting near a shimmering place. A shimmer like the one the boy had disappeared into. And the monster saw it too. It bristled, the shadowy mist around it raising like an arched cat. It began to paw again at the ground, ready for something.

And that something was there as the shimmer twisted and three people in strange dark clothing spilled out.