They all laugh and curse drunkenly as I run, shove past everyone in my way. A customer grabs me by the arm, shouting, "Watch yourself, boy!" His laughter stops when the table above is shattered. The creature slams into the wood, scattering splinters, knocking cups and bottles across the floor. He doesn't see it; he doesn't see the monster's limb slash his head just as he turns, ripping the man from his soul.
It consumes the soul right then. I wrench free of the dead man's grip. The man's body falls to the floor in a silent thud, his dying soul screams curses at me, but I ignore it as I sprint for the door.
My feet skid on wet boards, slipping on spilled drink. The creature crashes through the bar after me, knocking stools aside, scratching deep lines in the floor.
The door slams open. Cold night air crashes into me. Fog rolls through the alleys of Bruis. I stumble outside, gasping, clutching my already burning lungs.
The monster bursts through the doorway behind me, its carapace rattling, mandibles snapping with hunger. I can hear its voice, sounding as if it were in my head.
"You! Are! Mine!"
I run quicker, my legs barely hold me. I can't let it catch me. I won't.
It chases. The thing smashes into the stone alleyway coming after me, screeching a horrible, guttural noise.
I can't feel my legs anymore. I don't even know if I'm running or falling with each step. My lungs are knives in my chest. The cobblestones blur, slick with fog and old rain.
The thing crashes behind me, splintering barrels, ripping abandoned carts apart. The noises of the brothel echo faintly.
I don't dare look back.
It's close. Too close. The sound of its limbs skittering across the stone walls gnaws at my ears, like nails on glass, like nails on bone.
I stumble into a narrow street, my shoulder smashes into a brick wall, and pain flashes up my arm. I bear it and keep moving forward. I have to.
The creature screeches into the night, whipping its limbs. It stutters across the walls of the narrow street, using its limbs to keep itself from getting stuck.
The alleyway twists sharply. I can't turn quickly enough.
I grit my teeth, slamming my shoulder into the wall, gasping. My hands push off the stone, heading down the alley.
But I see it. The horrible situation I find myself in: a dead end.
I reach the end. My head turns, searching for some way out. There has to be a door, maybe a short gate.
My hands claw at the wall, desperately scratching at it, hoping for some sort of passageway. But there's nothing.
The air grows heavy. The fog thickens until I can't see my own fingers. The creature emerges, its limbs twitching, with a single eye that drips with rot. Its tongue drags on the stones, leaving a trail of slime that steams.
It clicks its mandibles, swaying side to side like it's savoring the moment.
"Mine... Mine... Mine..."
I press my back into the wall. My chest heaves. My throat burns. I can't scream. No one would hear me anyway.
The thing rears up, limbs spreading, blotting out any moonlight. Its eye widens, filling my vision. My knees buckle.
I don't want to die.
The long stalks of the monster pierce the walls, breaking through the stones and anchoring themselves.
The tongue floats toward me, stretching out, wrapping around my waist. It coils around, tying my arms and legs, locking my neck.
The fog thickens.
I smell death. I see death. I know death. And it has arrived for me.
The monster drags me from the wall, lifting me into the air. Its eye fills the fog, dripping with rot. It widens, dilates, until I see nothing but its endless gaze.
I can hear it inside my mind. Its whispers curls around my heart.
"My Prey. My Prey. My Prey... You. Are. Mine."
The words beat in my skull like a hammer. I want to scream, but the tongue coils around my throat tighter. My legs kick uselessly. My nails tear into the slick flesh, but I can't rip free.
I think of my mother. Her empty eyes saw the false truth those demons told. Her still hands filled with empty promises. Her silent lips frozen mid-breath, as I watched her soul ripped from her body.
Is this how she felt? Is this how she died?
The creature tilts its head, mandibles clicking like laughter. Rows of human teeth, hundreds of them, grinding together in anticipation. The eye trembles with hunger. I know it's going to eat me the way it eats Delvan, the way it eats them all.
This is it.
My heart shatters in my chest. I can't fight. I can't breathe. I can't—
The fog splits.
A glow, faint at first, like the shimmer of a candle seen through smoke. Then brighter. Stronger. White flames spill from the roofs, spilling into the alley, bending the mist away.
The creature screeches, mandibles clattering as the fire grazes its tongue.
The light explodes, the flames erupt, swimming along the tongue of the monster. A guttural roar escapes. I fall to the ground as it releases. The creature's tongue reeling toward itself.
I clutch my throat, coughing, my body rolling across the wet cobblestone. I'm shaking. My ribs flare in pain.
The flames coil along the alleyway, twisting like serpents of pale light. I cough, struggling to sit up, when a shadow cuts through the blaze.
A boot plants itself on the stone in front of me. I freeze. My eyes crawl upward.
A man stands between me and the monster. His long, tattered coat burns with a white fire that doesn't consume him. The flames lick his shoulders and arms, rising like a halo. His sword gleams, naked steel covered in light.
The creature screeches. Its mandibles snap in fury, its limbs hammering the walls, shaking the alley.
The man doesn't flinch. His voice cuts through the silent fog: "Begone," he says.
The creature lunges. Its eye dilates, its tongue whips through the air.
The man moves once.
A line of white light splits the fog. The tongue falls to the ground in two steaming pieces, writhing like worms.
It shrieks, a hundred voices pouring from a single throat. Its limbs stab forward, trying to impale him.
The man dashes into the strike, readying his blade, with the fire slithering across its length. He swings it up and sends a downward cleave.
The blade moves faster than my eyes. In one breath, in one flash, the monster's limbs split in two. The fire eats it from the inside, spreading like cracks in glass.
The creature screams. A sound like rusted metal against bone. Its eye bulges, snapping to the man.
The man doesn't retreat. He steps in.
In flaming steel arcs, he cuts another limb—white fire coils up the wall, searing into the stone. The monster thrashes, slamming into the alley walls, shaking bricks loose.
It lashes its cut tongue, snapping it like a whip. The man turns his wrist, cuts it down mid-air. It writhes on the cobblestones, steaming, and it burns to ash.
The creature howls. Its body splits apart, bone-white stalks spreading like a spider's web, trying to surround him.
The man's coat burns brighter. The flames bend with him, coiling his sword, rising higher. He dashes forward, fire trailing behind him like wings.
The blade curves a white line across the alley. The creature's eye widens in shock, then splits down the center. A crack of light bursts from it, tearing through its body. The sound is deafening, a hundred voices screaming all at once.
Flames surge through the cracks. The limbs convulse, hammering against the walls and clawing at the stones. The screech rattles my skull.
Then, the fire shatters, its body breaking apart into burning fragments that dissolve into ash, which drifts upward into the fog. The alley shakes once, then is silent.
The white fire burns a moment longer, curling along the stones, then dies, leaving nothing but smoke.
I'm on the ground, coughing, my vision blurring. My hands shake too much to push myself up.
The man turns. His sword drips light, then fades to steel again. The fire on his coat dwindles, but never goes out. It clings to him as if it were the stitching.
He looks at me, his face pale and eyes dying like stars.
"You see them," the man says.
I couldn't answer. I only nod.
His gaze hardens. He steps closer, the fire flickering along his shoulders.
He stands before me. I struggle to crane my neck to look at him. "Wh-Who are you?" I ask.
He shakes his head, tipping his sword toward him, pointing at me. "Go to sleep," the man said.
Then, he taps my head with the tip of his sword.
And it all goes dark.