THUMP.
The building stopped shaking just long enough for me to hope the thing had gotten bored and wandered off to terrorize someone else.
Then it dropped.
Not walked down. Not used the stairs like a civilized nightmare.
It just fucking dropped from the second floor, landing with a concrete-shattering impact that sent cracks spider-webbing outward like the world's most terrifying connect-the-dots puzzle. The floor buckled under my feet, nearly sending me sprawling.
"Oh," I breathed, because my vocabulary had abandoned ship along with my courage and dignity. "That's... big."
Big didn't cover it. This thing made the hook monster look like a toddler's art project. Nine feet of pure, biological terror stood before us, its massive frame covered in overlapping plates of dark, chitinous armor. Each hand ended in claws the size of hunting knives.
Its head was almost reptilian, with a jaw that unhinged to reveal row after row of needle-like teeth.
The shadow things on the walls went absolutely still. Then, as one, they flattened themselves against the concrete in a grotesque parody of worship, their amorphous bodies quivering in what could only be terror.
"Rome," the girl said, and something in her voice made my heart stop. I'd heard her angry, annoyed, even grudgingly impressed when I'd tackled the hook monster.
I'd never heard her afraid.
Her hand shot out, gripping my forearm with bone-crushing force. Blood leaked from the corner of her mouth, and her eyes were wide with undiluted panic.
"RUN!" she screamed, her voice raw and desperate.
We ran.
Or we tried to. My legs pumped furiously, but the distance to the exit seemed to stretch. Each step covered inches when we needed miles.
Behind us, the monster moved.
The speed of it defied physics. One moment it stood in the center of the room, the next it was a blur cutting off our escape route. Its massive frame now blocked the entrance completely, those awful, knowing eyes studying us with what looked disturbingly like amusement.
It was toying with us.
"Get behind me," the girl snapped, shoving me backward with her good arm.
She lunged forward, her katana a silver arc aimed at the creature's leg. The blade connected with a sound like nails on a chalkboard, scraping across the monster's armored hide. When she pulled back, I saw a shallow scratch on its surface, already sealing itself.
The creature looked down at the mark, then back at the girl. If a face like that could express contempt, it did.
It didn't bother with a real attack. It just backhanded her.
A casual, almost dismissive gesture.
The girl flew backward like she'd been hit by a truck. Her body slammed into a pile of rusted machinery thirty feet away with a sickening crash of metal and the wet thud of flesh. She didn't get up.
And then it was just me. Alone with the monster.
It turned those ancient eyes on me, and I swear to god it smiled. The exit behind it might as well have been on Mars. Hope evaporated like morning dew on a hot sidewalk.
I took a step back. Another. My back hit a concrete pillar.
Nowhere left to run.
The creature moved with deliberate slowness, savoring my fear like a fine wine. One massive, clawed hand reached out.
I tried to dodge.
I might as well have tried to dodge gravity.
The hand closed around my torso, fingers nearly wrapping all the way around my body. It lifted me off the ground with no more effort than I'd use to pick up a coffee mug.
And then it squeezed.
Pain exploded across my chest. My ribs creaked, then cracked with sounds like wet twigs snapping. Each breath became agony, shallow and desperate. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision.
I was going to die here. Just like my friends.
"You don't have it." The girl's words from earlier echoed in my mind. "You're normal."
Normal. Powerless. Useless.
The story of my life. Never strong enough. Never special enough. Always the one passed over, passed around, passed down.
Foster homes and lonely nights and always, always being at the mercy of forces beyond my control.
The pressure increased. Another rib gave way with a sharp crack that vibrated through my entire body. I tasted copper.
Something hot and wild bubbled up from deep in my gut. Not fear. Fear had burned away, consumed by a far more primal emotion.
Rage.
Pure, molten fury at the unfairness of it all. At being powerless. At being prey.
No.
If this is what it takes—if power is the difference between being the victim and the victor—then I'll take it. Whatever it is. Whatever the cost. I don't care what I become.
My free hand clawed upward, fingers scrabbling at my neck. They found the smooth, cool surface of the obsidian pendant—my mother's last gift, the one constant in my chaotic life.
I will not die like this.
With the last of my strength, I yanked down hard. The chain, worn thin by seventeen years of continuous wear, snapped with a sound like a gunshot.
The obsidian pendant fell, hitting the concrete with a soft, final tink.
The world stopped.
For one perfect, crystalline moment, everything froze. The pain. The fear. The monster. Me.
Then that moment shattered.
The pressure around my chest vanished as the creature released me with a shriek of pure agony. It stumbled backward, massive claws clutching at its face. Four deep gashes had appeared there, as if some invisible beast had raked its talons across the armored hide. Dark ichor leaked from the wounds. Its left arm hung useless, nearly severed at the shoulder.
I dropped to my feet, landing with a grace I'd never possessed.
Something was happening to me. Energy coursed through my veins like liquid fire, but instead of burning, it healed. My broken ribs knitted themselves together with audible pops. The bruises faded from my skin. Power surged through me in waves, each stronger than the last.
The air around me ignited with violent purple light.
It felt right. Like finally stretching after being cramped in a tiny box for years.
The pressure built, a dam about to burst, and then—
CRACK!
The air itself shattered like glass. The barrier that had trapped us—the "Curtain," as the girl had called it—fell away in glittering fragments that dissolved into nothingness. The distant city lights and the star-filled night sky suddenly visible through the windows.
A movement caught my eye. The girl—pushing herself up from the wreckage, bloody and battered. She froze when our eyes met, her expression shifting from pain to shock to... fear.
The same fear she'd shown the monster.
But now directed at me.
"Your eyes," she whispered, the words barely audible. "What are you?"
I didn't answer. I wasn't sure I knew anymore.
Instead, I turned back to the creature. It had recovered somewhat, now standing upright despite its injuries, watching me with those ancient eyes. But something had changed. The coldly amused intelligence was gone, replaced by something I recognized immediately.
Fear.
The tables had turned. The predator had become the prey.
I cracked my neck, a slow, deliberate movement that felt entirely natural and completely foreign at the same time. A smile spread across my face, one that belonged to someone—something—else.
"All roads lead to Rome," I heard myself say, my voice layered with harmonics that hadn't been there before.
I took a step forward. The creature took a step back.
I was hungry. So hungry. Seventeen years of starvation suddenly making itself known with a vengeance. And standing before me was a feast of demonic energy, ripe for the taking.
"Let me show you how we handle monsters in this town," I growled, the purple energy around me intensifying until it cast strange shadows across the warehouse floor.