The night had become too quiet.
Sam stood several meters from the building, lightning faintly illuminating the spaces between his fingers.
His eyes moved slowly across the grassland.
Nothing.
The distant trees stood motionless.
The building behind him remained dark except for the warm orange glow escaping through the cracks around the windows.
He could hear Elena breathing inside.
The children whispering.
The fire crackling.
Everything normal.
Everything except the feeling crawling beneath his skin.
Something was watching him.
Sam slowly turned his head.
Nothing.
Then
Tap.
His eyes snapped upward.
A small rock rolled across the roof.
Sam's pupils narrowed.
The rock stopped near the edge.
Then
Tink.
It fell.
Sam stared at it.
"...What?"
Another movement.
Something had disturbed it.
His instincts immediately sharpened.
He took one step backward.
Then the rock suddenly flew.
Not falling.
Thrown.
It sailed through the darkness and disappeared into the distant grass.
A moment later
Rustle!
The rock landed inside a thick patch of bushes.
Sam's entire body turned toward the sound.
His perception expanded.
Mana flowed through his nervous system.
His enhanced hearing separated individual sounds from the night.
Crickets.
Wind.
Leaves.
The distant ocean.
The fire behind him.
His own heartbeat.
Then
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No breathing.
No heartbeat.
Sam's expression hardened.
"...Okay."
He slowly raised his right hand.
Lightning gathered around his fingers.
He began walking toward the bushes.
One step.
Then another.
His boots pressed softly into the grass.
His senses searched ahead.
Still nothing.
Yet that feeling...
That horrible feeling...
Only grew stronger.
Above him
The creature moved.
It had been waiting for precisely this moment.
Its long fingers released the edge of the roof.
Its body folded inward.
Then it jumped.
No sound.
No wind.
No displaced air loud enough for Sam's enhanced hearing to register.
The grey creature sailed across the darkness.
It crossed the distance between the building and the treeline in a single impossible leap.
For something so tall and thin, its movement was disturbingly graceful.
It landed on a branch.
The branch barely moved.
The creature crouched there.
Watching.
Its red eyes followed Sam.
Sam stopped.
He looked toward the treeline.
Something was wrong.
He could feel it.
His skin prickled beneath the shapeshifted armor.
His combat instincts were screaming.
Not warning him about an attack.
Warning him about death.
Sam swallowed.
"...Why do I feel like I'm walking into a grave?"
He looked around.
Nothing.
His fingers tightened.
He had fought vampires.
Oozers.
Dungeon monsters.
Rainacorns.
Wizards.
Shapeshifters.
He had been dismembered.
Nearly killed.
He had watched entire swarms of monsters descend upon cities.
Yet this was different.
There was no visible enemy.
No magical aura.
No bloodlust.
No killing intent.
Just...
Presence.
Something his instincts recognized even though his mind didn't.
Danger.
Absolute danger.
Sam stopped walking.
For several seconds, he considered returning.
Then
A woman's voice came from ahead.
"Help..."
Sam froze.
His eyes widened.
The voice was coming from behind a large tree.
"Please..."
It sounded weak.
Terrified.
Female.
"I... I can't move..."
Sam's expression immediately became suspicious.
The voice sounded almost exactly like the one from the door.
Yet this time
There was something different.
Pain.
Realistic pain.
Or an incredibly convincing imitation.
Sam didn't move.
"Who are you?"
Silence.
Then a quiet sob.
"Please..."
"I've been hurt..."
"There's something in the forest..."
Sam's eyes narrowed.
"What happened?"
The woman answered after several seconds.
"It attacked me..."
"I ran..."
"I thought I was going to die..."
Sam stared at the tree.
His instincts screamed louder.
He could feel the danger now.
Not just nearby.
In front of him.
His body prepared automatically.
Lightning traveled up his arm.
Earth mana hardened his legs.
His skin thickened.
Shapeshifting subtly reinforced his joints.
His Demon Eye Sword remained behind with Daniel.
He regretted that decision.
But he had never expected this.
"Stay where you are."
"I'm coming."
The woman whimpered.
"Please hurry..."
Sam took one step.
Then another.
The tree was perhaps fifteen meters away.
His senses swept over it.
Nothing.
No heartbeat.
No breathing.
No detectable mana.
That was impossible.
Even vampires left traces.
Even shapeshifters had body heat.
Even dungeon creatures had some form of presence.
This...
This was like trying to sense a hole in reality.
Sam stopped again.
"...What are you?"
The woman's voice suddenly became quieter.
"What?"
"You heard me."
Silence.
Then
"Sam..."
His blood ran cold.
He had never told the woman his name.
The voice continued.
"Sam Please..."
"I need you."
Sam's expression changed.
Every instinct inside him screamed.
RUN.
Instead
He stepped backward.
Slowly.
The voice behind the tree stopped.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the woman spoke again.
But this time...
Her voice was wrong.
Not louder.
Not deeper.
Just slightly distorted.
"...Why are you walking away?"
Sam's eyes narrowed.
"I don't know or trust you.. Like honestly, you're a unknown creature.. ."
A long pause.
Then
"Yes..."
"I suppose you don't."
The voice changed.
The feminine tone remained, but something underneath it became apparent.
Something cold.
Something empty.
Sam felt the hair on the back of his neck rise.
The figure stepped out from behind the tree.
Sam's body went completely still.
For several seconds...
His brain refused to process what he was seeing.
It was tall.
Far too tall.
At least seven feet.
Maybe more.
Its body was impossibly thin, yet not skeletal.
Grey skin stretched over narrow muscles and angular bones.
Its arms hung almost to its knees.
Its legs were elongated.
Its hands were enormous.
Each finger ended in a thin, perfectly straight claw that looked less like an animal's talon and more like a surgical instrument.
Its neck was too long.
Its shoulders were too narrow.
Its head tilted slightly to one side.
And its face...
There was almost nothing human about it.
Two crimson eyes stared at Sam without blinking.
No pupils.
No reflection.
Just red.
Its mouth was narrow.
Almost a line.
But behind the lips
Sam could see rows of tiny, perfectly arranged teeth.
The creature stood completely motionless.
No breathing.
No heartbeat.
No magical signature he could recognize.
Nothing.
Sam stared.
"...What the hell are you?"
The creature didn't answer.
It simply tilted its head farther.
Crack.
Its neck bent farther than any human neck should.
Sam's stomach tightened.
His combat instincts went into overdrive.
He had seen monsters.
But this wasn't merely monstrous.
It was wrong.
He searched his memories.
Adventure Time had taught him that the world contained almost anything.
Vampires.
Demons.
Cosmic entities.
Ancient monsters.
Mutated humans.
Creatures from other dimensions.
Things that existed before civilization.
But this
He couldn't remember anything like this.
Not from the stories he knew.
Not from the episodes.
Not from anything.
"...You're not supposed to be here."
The creature's head slowly returned to its normal position.
Then it smiled.
Not widely.
Just enough to expose those impossibly thin teeth.
"You..."
Its voice was no longer the woman's.
It sounded like several voices layered together.
Male.
Female.
Young.
Old.
All speaking simultaneously.
"...are very observant."
Sam's lightning intensified.
"That's not an answer."
The creature took one step forward.
Nothing.
No footstep.
No rustle of grass.
No sound whatsoever.
Sam's eyes widened.
He could see the creature moving.
But his enhanced hearing registered absolutely nothing.
His perception couldn't even properly determine how fast it had crossed the distance.
It was simply...
Closer.
The creature took another step.
Sam's instincts screamed.
He immediately activated Static Field.
Electricity expanded outward.
The grass around him flattened.
The air crackled.
The field touched the creature.
Nothing happened.
Sam's expression changed.
The creature simply stood there.
Unaffected.
"...Interesting."
Sam's voice became quieter.
"You can resist magic."
The creature smiled again.
"No."
It took another step.
"I simply..."
Its red eyes brightened.
"...don't belong to it."
Sam felt something cold settle in his stomach.
That sentence made no sense.
And somehow...
That made it worse.
The creature suddenly looked toward the building.
Toward Elena.
Toward the children.
Sam moved instantly.
He stepped between the creature and the shelter.
Lightning erupted around his entire body.
His mana surged.
Stone Skin hardened.
His shapeshifting reinforced every muscle.
Earth magic flowed beneath his feet.
"Don't."
The creature looked at him.
For the first time...
Its expression changed.
Curiosity.
"You protect them."
Sam clenched his fists.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because they're my family."
The creature stared at him for several seconds.
Then its smile disappeared.
"...Family."
It said the word strangely.
Almost as though tasting it.
Then its gaze returned to Sam.
"I wonder..."
"...what you would become..."
"...if I took them away."
The air seemed to freeze.
Sam's lightning exploded outward.
His eyes became cold.
"You won't."
The creature leaned forward.
And whispered
"We'll see."
Then it vanished.
Not moved.
Not jumped.
Not teleported in any way Sam understood.
It simply ceased to be where it had been.
Sam spun around.
Nothing.
Behind him.
Nothing.
Above.
Nothing.
His perception searched desperately.
Still nothing.
Then
A soft sound came from the roof of the shelter.
Tap.
Sam looked up.
Two crimson eyes stared down at him from the darkness.
The creature smiled.
And for the first time since arriving in this strange new world...
Sam felt something he hadn't felt even when surrounded by two hundred vampires.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
Something deeper.
The instinctive knowledge that there were things in Ooo that even the stories had never prepared him for.
The creature slowly crouched.
Its claws curled over the roof's edge.
And Sam realized with sudden certainty
Tonight wasn't going to be about hunting.
It was going to be about surviving whatever had found him.