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Suddenly all the car alarms cease, the horns stop honking, the engines still and the space is brought back into a silence so thick it seems to bounce off the walls.

Except there is one sound.

The tic tic tic of sharp claws slowly coming my way.

Then the raspy, wheezing breath, not of something having troubles breathing but of something that shouldn’t have lungs to begin with. Something that’s trying out our air for the very first time.

My mouth is sandpaper dry as I hold my breath, trying not to make a sound. I eye the staircase again, calculating how much time I think I have, how close I think it is. I can’t think about the alternative. I can’t think about what happens if I fail.

This is no dream.

This is life or death.

I decide to go for it. It’s now or never.

I burst forth from the Escalade without even a glance behind me and start booking it as fast as my legs will carry me.

It starts running too, what sounds like a fast yet lumbering gallop, like a grizzly picking up speed. It’s coming closer and closer and the exit sign bobs in front of me as I’m one stall down, two, three.

Four.

Almost there!

My hands are in front of me, reaching already for the handle and the thought of it being locked flashes through my mind and there’s hot breath at my back and a gurgling, growling and I can feel the immense heat and dread and utter despair that seems to be thrown over me like a net.

I’m not going to make it.

I cry out in utter sorrow, the last grasp of life slipping in front of my eyes, knowing in the next second the beast will be upon me and it will be too fucking late. I’ll be caught with one hand on the door.

Death is horrible for those left behind. It’s even sadder for the ones who have to die. I never realized how much I loved life until I knew it was being taken away.

Then there’s a SNAP and everything warps and bends and the space in front of me becomes a wall I crash into, solid, cold, and then spin off of until my back is flat against the door and I’m facing the other way.

It’s Jay, literally appearing out of thin air, all six-foot two hulking beast of him, ready to take on another beast. He was the wall I bounced into.

He doesn’t even glance back at me, his shoulders are hunched up, muscles and veins in his arms popping as they get ready to what I can only assume is fight the monster.

I see that beast now in all its glory. Something so horrible it’s almost indescribable, like my brain can’t make sense of it, as though its protecting itself against future nightmares.

What gets through my eyes to my brain is black matted fur in some places, gaping lesions in other places, filled with eyes and mouths, like the creature has swallowed souls—people—and they’re fighting for a way out through the bloodied skin. There are six-inch claws that attach to legs that belong to a spider, a tail that belongs to a crocodile or serpent and then a face that’s more disturbing than everything else put together. It’s nearly human, like a child but not a child. Innocent and full-cheeked and dead wrong. A bald, elongated head, holes for ears, tiny eyes set so far back in its sockets that they’re nearly in the brain.

Red eyes that burn into mine. Eyes that hold me in place, making my heart and gut and soul double-over from the pain that happens when you stare at pure evil.

We finally meet, it hisses at me. An inhumane voice, no gender, no emotion. It’s a voice that only brings suffering.

But not for me. Not now.

Because Jay is going for it. He’s not here just to protect me. He’s here to kill this thing.

And I have no idea how.

The beast turns its red child-eyes to him and for a moment it stares at Jay like it recognizes him. A sort of shock that quickly turns to disappointment, if it could ever feel such a thing.

Jay notices this long enough to make him pause.

Then Jay and the beast lunge at each other.

I have no idea what to do. Do I run to safety? Jay isn’t telling me to run. It’s like he wants me to watch.

The fight doesn’t last long though. The beast snaps at Jay with a beak filled with serrated teeth that comes out of its widening child mouth, like a scene from Aliens, while its claws go for Jay’s arms.

It gets him too, a gruesome gash across the forearm, then the upper thigh, the stomach. Jay grimaces in pain, blood pouring from his wounds, but it doesn’t stop him from wrapping his large hands around the beast’s neck.