["NOW!"] —Louise shouted.
Those who had been hiding on the shelves stood up, breaking open bags of flour and containers of talcum powder. In a matter of seconds, the air turned into a thick, white fog, harsh on the throat.
And in the middle of that cloud, the shrieks.
That damn shriek that drilled into your stomach, high-pitched, inhuman, even with the earplugs in. But no one had time to cry; the scream was the signal.
The students hiding under piles of clothes burst out like trapdoor spiders. Mika and Franco, positioned at the base of the table where the Vitrum was perched, slammed their metal bars against its joints. The monster lost its balance and fell onto the mattress of fabrics and carpets, while they rolled to the side, barely avoiding being crushed.
And for the first time, the shriek changed:
It wasn't a threat, nor mockery, nor a warning.
It was pain.
[[[[[[AHHHHHHHHHHHH]]]]]]
A heart-wrenching shriek that made us howl too. We covered our ears by instinct, while its two companions roared from further back, choruses of wrathful glass that shook the air.
Almost all of us were paralyzed.
Almost.
["DON'T YOU GROWL AT ME, you ugly son of a bitch."]
Astrad, still sitting, raised his rifle and fired. One, two, three times at point-blank range into the fallen Vitrum's face. Then he turned and fired at the ones waiting behind.
Blood was running from his ears, proof that the shriek was tearing him apart from the inside, but he continued, relentless, pulling the trigger as if he enjoyed it.
["WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ATTACK!"] —Louise ordered.
And we did.
Each group played its part:
Some threw flour and talcum powder, others ran around preparing the next steps under Carlos's strained orders. Franco, Mika, and the jocks attacked with everything they had. They were like an improvised biker gang, but instead of attacking a poor innocent victim, they were fighting a colossus of glass and metal.
Heartbreaking and threatening shrieks continued to mix, but they lacked that murderous, paralyzing coordination that damaged you.
Suddenly, a possibility came to my mind.
A sharp thought, as if it had always been there:
["This whole time, they were just playing."]
The Vitrum thrashed as if to confirm my idea. One of its deformed hands stretched out with an unnatural movement, breaking the rules of its humanoid form. The arm shot out like a whip, spinning 360 degrees.
One of ours didn't react. His torso and legs were separated, not by a clean cut, but by a shredded line like something out of a grinder. Another managed to step back, but his arm was left in tatters.
["NOOOO!"]
The collective scream threw us back into pure fear. The Vitrum vibrated, covered in blood, shrieking a mixture of pain and sadistic pleasure. Its body expanded, deforming, as if announcing that now, it was getting serious.
["Get excited about this."]
Astrad cursed and fired the harpoon gun. The projectile pierced its face and torso, pinning it to the floor. The shriek lost its coordination, turning into pure hatred.
["WHERE'S THE DAMN TARP?"] —Astrad roared, without stopping his fire on the other two.
["HERE!"]
Louise unfurled a camping tarp that was impossible to fold neatly even with twenty hands. Several of us threw it over the Vitrum. It wasn't elegant: we looked like clumsy fishermen trapping a demon. But we did it.
We covered it completely, not forgetting to throw dust, clothes, whatever we could, under the tarp, while the monster writhed, impaled.
The tarp didn't fully contain it: blades pierced through with every thrash, and several people were injured, but little by little, we noticed something.
The fragments weren't reassembling.
The crystals were getting stuck in the fabric, in the carpets, in the mattresses. The body stopped reforming. The Vitrum swelled up like a porcupine of glass shards, shrieking with the fury of a caged hell.
["Perfect timing, kekeke."]
Astrad's laugh sounded almost casual. But his eyes had that dangerous glint that made us shudder, because they seemed to foreshadow a reality for which no one was prepared.
.........
["Perfect timing, kekeke,"] —Astrad said between laughs as he lowered his rifle, probably out of ammo or gas.
In the distance, the other Vitrum were slowly reassembling. Their growls, now completely uncoordinated, were proof of the infinite hatred they held, not for us… but for him.
The being that didn't play their sadistic game from start to finish.
A nemesis not in the sense of strength, but in the psychological game.
As if in a play, Astrad got down from the table with total indifference. Calmly, he picked up a shovel and a large, improvised shield that were nearby.
We all knew what that meant.
It was time to end this.
No one had to say anything. Carmelia and Amelia gathered the things Astrad left behind and ran towards the exit, taking what they could on the way. Most did the same, grabbing objects and moving towards the exit, from where the sound of the metal gate being lifted could already be heard.
But the Vitrum weren't paying attention. Their faces, if you could call them that, were fixed on the bloodied boy who was staring back at them, foreshadowing a sinister outcome.
Meanwhile, Louise and a small group approached Astrad, who was already in front of the convalescing Vitrum. Without a word, they threw buckets of water they had prepared earlier on him.
["Don't you dare die,"] —Louise said, making a gesture, and we all moved away from the central area to hide among the shelves, with the exit behind us.
Astrad, now light on his feet, with nothing but his empty hood, a pair of special anti-cut gloves, the shovel in hand, and the huge improvised shield at his side, remained unperturbed.
["So, you're pretty brave, huh,"] —His voice echoed in the supermarket, which had returned to silence after a long time. Every word was loaded with vicious sarcasm.
We understood in that moment. From the beginning, Astrad had never been truly hostile towards us.
Only now were we about to understand what it was like to be on his bad side.
His voice emanated a sharp and sinister intent. Even the weariness in his breathing created an extreme contrast with the foul-mouthed and unpleasant boy, who was harmless as long as you didn't provoke him.
The ones who felt it the most were, of course, the Vitrum. Those creatures that had never stopped emitting infernal sounds since they appeared were now completely silent before the imposing presence of such an insignificant boy.
["What if you're stronger? What good is that against us? The ultimate pack species,"] —he said, as he raised the shovel, the curved metal pointing at the Vitrum's head, which was barely sticking out of the tarp.
["You got the balls to hurt the rat kid's vixens?"] —he exclaimed with manifest anger, his eyes radiating an irreconcilable hatred as he embedded the shovel into the Vitrum's neck.
The agonizing shriek once again took over the entire shopping mall as Astrad twisted the shovel.
And yet…
[Kekeke.]
His laughter, chilling and vicious, could be heard clearly.
["What's the matter, you sons of bitches?"] —he said, looking at the two almost completely reassembled Vitrum not far away.
He released his left hand from the shovel, without stopping his pressure on the Vitrum with the shovel still held by his right hand. He then moved his now-free hand over its head and closed his fist with evident force. As he did so, he didn't take his eyes off the other two Vitrum, his eyes wide in provocation, sinking his hand into that cluster of intertwined glass and metal.
Of course, the Vitrum didn't stay still. Even in its stuck state, it managed to drive glass stakes and throw fragments that slowly caused new wounds on Astrad, especially on the hand pressing down on its head.
But none of that seemed to matter to him.
["I thought we were having fun…"] —he said as he pulled his hand back, tightening his grip on the Vitrum's head while simultaneously pushing the shovel into its neck.
The Vitrum's shrieks became increasingly desperate, while the other two, now reassembled, expanded and deformed into unrecognizable creatures, closer to beasts than men.
["AHAHAHA."] —But Astrad didn't care. He put his foot on the shovel and pulled with more force, letting out an almost lunatic laugh.
For an instant, I'd swear I saw a crimson flash cross his dark pupils, as the image of the sarcastic boy in my mind warped and rebuilt itself.
["WHY'D YOU STOP SINGING TO THE RAT KID, YOU SONS OF BITCHES?"] —he finally shouted, his words an invitation, a provocation, and a warning all at once.
All this while he ripped the Vitrum's head off with a strong pull, dragging a long thread of interwoven metal and shattered glass with it.
—GRIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—the Vitrum erupted with the most pitiful scream I had ever heard as its head was torn from its roots, its trapped body writhing in agony.
The other two Vitrum finally couldn't take it anymore. They charged without reservation. Each step tore through fabrics, mattresses, and clothes. The resulting delays were left behind them, slowly accumulating.
["NOW!"] —Louise shouted.
Quickly, we all lit our lighters and threw them at the previously agreed-upon spots. In an instant, the flames spread like snakes seeking their prey, from all directions, but towards a single target.
Astrad, surrounded by fire as the Vitrum charged towards him, dropped the shovel and the Vitrum's head as if it were trash. He then grabbed the huge shield he had left to the side and started running towards us.
But he wasn't fast enough.
One of the Vitrum approached its fallen comrade, covering it with its body, while the other charged without holding back.
[[[ASTRAD!]]] —we screamed, as the huge claw lunged at him, running towards us.
["Tsk,"] —he clicked his tongue, raising the shield. The flames had reached them both. The suffocating screech of metal and glass clashing resounded throughout the supermarket.
The next instant, a body was sent flying from the flames, crashing against the shelves, bouncing like a tennis ball.
["EVERYONE, RUN!"] —Louise roared, her legs faster than her mouth, running towards Astrad, who had been thrown all the way to the cash registers.
She didn't have to say it twice. We all ran as fast as we could, the fire burning at our backs, covering our ears in a desperate attempt to resist the indescribable shrieks.
["You'd better not be dead,"] —Louise complained, crouching to help Astrad. Despite her sarcastic words, her choked voice betrayed her worry.
["If I die, you're coming with me,"] —Astrad replied, his voice dragging, the pain evident, but he still staggered to his feet, helped by Louise and Mika, who had caught up to him.
["You'd better…"] —Louise insisted, trying to sound tough, though her sobs and relief were obvious.
All of us who survived exited the supermarket, now engulfed in searing flames that were slowly spreading. The shrieks had ceased to be threatening and had become a cacophony of pleading wails.
We moved clumsily, pushing carts, dragging backpacks, and carrying the most seriously injured. The Vitrum were still shrieking, and the song pursued us like a musical pack from hell.
In the shopping mall's corridor, the outside light—pale but stark—silhouetted our figures.
["Are they… trapped?"] —someone whispered, with a relief that tasted like nothing.
["More or less,"] —Astrad said, standing awkwardly, refusing treatment, more interested in leaving than anything else.
Still, even he couldn't help but look back at the burning supermarket. It seemed to list like an old ship sinking after its final battle. A smell of hot plastic began to spread.
["It's catching fire…"] —Amelia said, with a voice that was more an accompaniment than a lament.
["Let it burn,"] —Astrad said, spitting blood.
For an uncomfortable instant, amidst the seemingly infinite sea of fire, I had the impression of seeing clumsy ballerinas crossing a stage of knives.