Reflections of Mist

Flailing

It was not asleep.

It was so not asleep.

Nick kicked at it from his place on the stairs, scrambling at the bannister to pull himself further up the steps, it snapping at his heels with its multilayered, razor sharp teeth, tearing up the landing hall with its horns and talons, its tail obliterating whatever little furniture still survived on this floor.

The step beneath his feet suddenly crumbled away, crushed by the beast's claws, causing Nick to stumble back, falling against the stairs, the creature looming over him.

Flailing his arms out, seeking purchase on something, anything, to stop himself sliding down the stairs into the demons grasp.
His hand grasped a lose pole on the broken bannister, and with one movement he wrenched it from it's place, dragging it out of its socket with the force from the free-fall down the stairs.
Just as the creature went to bite, he swung the wooden pole at its face, the jagged ended wood making an almost satisfying gash in it's monstrous flesh.

Taking the opportunity, he bolted up the wreckage of the stairs, the main body of the stairs breaking away behind him. For a moment, he found humour in the completely random thought that this was something like how Mario must feel in one of those computer games.
Except being computer generated, Mario couldn't actually die.

The immediate​ danger pulled him out of his computer game orientated thoughts as quickly as he'd sunk into them.
Racing up the last few steps, he dove onto the above landing.

The creature mounted the frame of the stairs, attempting to heave it's hulking body upwards, onto the shaking wooden frame.

However, its previous attempts to catch him, whilst working in it's favour them, did not so now.

The stairs were too weak, and fell away completely, separating them on two different floors.

Refusing to panic on the thought that he may not be able to get back down, Nick strode along the corridor, looking for the right room.

Upon finding it, he pushed open the door and walked to the described location of the box.

And then he spied it.

"Bloody... The kid is so dead when I find him."