"Shit!"
Sam cursed under his breath.
Faint white mist escaped his lips with every ragged exhale, the cold air biting against his face. Yet despite the freezing night, every breath felt like swallowing fire. His throat burned, his lungs screamed for oxygen, and his legs were beginning to feel like they no longer belonged to him.
He tilted his head slightly, glancing over his shoulder from the corner of his eye.
His heart immediately clenched in an icy grip.
She was gone.
'Where—?!'
He didn't slow down.
His feet hammered against the pavement as he pushed himself to run faster, faster, his body screaming in protest.
Then his instincts suddenly shrieked.
Sam's gaze snapped upward, his eyes widened. His pupils contracted until they were little more than pinpricks.
Something was above him.
A creature hung high in the air, descending through the darkness.
Its skin was ashen and horribly wrinkled, stretched tightly over a gaunt frame. Its arms were nearly twice the length of its body, their skeletal proportions making them look more like the limbs of some malformed insect than anything human.
Its jaw hung unnaturally wide.
Inside was a forest of crooked, jagged teeth, each one gleaming faintly beneath the moonlight. A grotesquely long tongue twisted between them, wet with saliva, while thin strands of drool stretched from its mouth.
Then the creature spread its arms.
Its fingers unfolded.
Long, sharpened claws glinted in the moonlight.
And it dropped.
It descended toward Sam with terrifying speed.
Trusting his instincts, Sam threw himself sideways. He leapt forward and rolled across the pavement.
SWISH!
CRACK!
The creature's claws missed him by a hair.
They slammed into the exact spot where Sam had been standing a moment ago, cracking the concrete beneath them.
Sam didn't even look back.
He scrambled upright and continued sprinting, cold sweat ran down his back despite the frigid air.
Behind him, the creature slowly raised itself.
Its thin, wet black hair fluttered from the impact before settling over its face, obscuring its features.
Then two pale, ethereal lights shone through the darkness beneath the strands.
Its eyes.
They locked onto Sam's retreating figure.
"SKREEEEEEEKHH!"
The creature released a monstrous howl that pierced through the night.
Then it gave chase.
But it didn't run like a normal creature.
Its short legs barely touched the ground.
Instead, it used those absurdly long arms to propel itself forward, grabbing onto walls, lamp posts, rooftops, anything it could reach.
One moment it was skittering along the pavement. The next, it was sprinting sideways across a wall. Then it launched itself through the air, sailing over an alley before catching the side of another building.
It moved like a crazed revenant, every motion erratic and unnatural.
Sam's knowledge of the area became his only advantage.
He took every turn he could remember, darting left at one intersection, then right at the next. He squeezed through narrow alleys and cut across familiar streets, constantly changing direction to prevent the creature from catching him in a straight line.
Every few seconds, he glanced backward from the corner of his eye.
Nothing.
Then—
SWISH!
BANG!
A violent gust of wind struck the back of his head, something had just flown over him.
Sam's blood ran cold, he didn't even need to look to confirm.
He already knew, because the creature landed directly in front of him.
Its claws scraped against the pavement.
SCRRRT... SCRRRT...
Its milky eyes fixed onto Sam.
Then its lips peeled back.
The creature began to giggle.
A wet, broken, almost childish laugh escaped from its throat.
Sam skidded to a stop, shoes scraping hard against the pavement.
He tried to spun around, but the creature lunged faster than him. Its right arm swept toward him.
Sam barely had time to react, he threw himself backward with every ounce of strength left in his body.
SWISH!
SPURT!
"Fuck!"
Sam cried out as the claws finally found their mark.
Three brutal lines were torn across his chest.
His shirt ripped open beneath the impact, and blood immediately began seeping through the fabric.
The pain was hot.
Far too hot.
The creature froze.
Its gaze dropped toward the blood running down Sam's chest.
Slowly, it raised one claw toward its mouth.
Its tongue slid across the blood, the creature shuddered. Its entire body trembled with ecstasy, the pale light within its eyes intensified.
Its grin widened.
It had tasted him.
Now it wanted more.
The creature raised its arms again.
It knew exactly what Sam would do.
He would turn around.
He would run.
And the moment he did, it would strike.
But then—
FWOOM!
Sam moved.
BANG!
"SCREW! OFF! BITCH!"
Gritting his teeth, rage burning through the pain, Sam charged forward instead of retreating.
He lowered his body like a battering ram, his right fist drove straight into the creature's temple.
CRACK!
The impact snapped its head sideways.
The creature staggered.
For one glorious second, it was stunned.
That was enough.
Sam turned around and bolted like the wind.
He ran as though the devil himself had latched onto his back.
The wound across his chest continued bleeding, but thankfully it wasn't deep enough to cripple his movement.
His lungs burned.
His vision began to shake.
His legs screamed.
But ahead—
There.
His house.
The familiar wooden door was waiting at the end of the street.
'Just a little farther.'
'A few more seconds.'
'Just a bit more...!'
Each second stretched into an eternity.
Each step felt heavier than the last, as though his legs had been filled with molten lead.
But hope was still there.
Tiny.
Fragile.
Yet burning brighter than the pain.
Fifteen meters...
Twelve...*
Then—
SLASH!
Agonizing pain exploded across Sam's back.
He staggered forward, choking back a scream.
The creature had caught him again.
But he kept running.
He had to.
"Come on, legs!"
His voice trembled.
"Just... a few more meters...!"
Then the world tilted.
Sam's body suddenly lost its balance and crashed onto the pavement.
His body slid forward across the concrete, for a moment, he couldn't understand what had happened.
He tried to push himself up, his palms scraped against the ground. His body responded, some of it, except his legs did not.
Sam froze, he tried again.
Nothing.
There was no pain, that was the worst part. He couldn't feel anything below his knees, dread slowly crawled into his chest.
"No..."
His breathing became ragged, his hands trembled as he looked behind himself.
His legs were gone. Both of them, they had been cleanly severed.
Blood poured from the ruined ends of his body, spreading across the pavement beneath him.
A short distance away, the creature stood beneath the pale moonlight.
Each arm held one of Sam's legs impaled upon its claws, it stared directly at him.
Then, with a grotesque grin, it lowered one leg toward its mouth. Its jaws opened impossibly wide.
Crunch.
The sound echoed through the street.
Sam's stomach twisted.
He immediately looked away.
He refused to give the thing the satisfaction of seeing him break.
Instead, he dragged himself forward.
Again.
Somehow, despite everything, he crawled.
His palms scraped against the concrete. His elbows dragged his body forward inch by inch.
Blood streamed behind him, his vision began to blur, his skin grew paler, his strength rapidly disappeared.
How many times had he done this already?
How many times had he dragged himself forward, desperate for survival?
He didn't know anymore.
His arms eventually stopped listening to him, they went limp and Sam immediately collapsed.
His mouth was parched.
His lips had begun turning blue.
His breaths came shallow and uneven.
His vision dimmed around the edges.
'Damn it...'
'So close...'
'I was... so close...'
He clenched his teeth.
If he'd been faster.
If he'd paid more attention.
If he'd reacted sooner.
Maybe none of this would've happened.
His eyelids grew heavier.
Just an arm's reach away—
The wooden oak door of his house stood before him.
So close.
So painfully close.
Then something grabbed him, sam's body was violently turned onto his back. His blurry vision slowly focused, the creature loomed over him.
It began to laugh again.
Wet crunching noises filled the air as it finished devouring his legs.
Its enormous jaw opened once more, One arm pulled backward, its claws glinted beneath the moonlight.
Sam stared at it.
Even now, something stubborn remained inside him.
He refused to give it the satisfaction.
"Fuck... you..." he rasped.
His voice was barely audible.
"Ugly... ass... bitch..."
The creature tilted its head, Sam's lips curled into the faintest grin.
"I hope you... get... constipated..."
The creature's arm came down.
SLASH!
BANG!
Wooden splinters erupted into the air.
Blood sprayed across the pavement.
But not Sam's.
The creature was suddenly blasted backward, its body tumbling through the air as it released a shrill, agonized shriek.
Sam's fading consciousness barely registered the sound of a door opening.
His eyes remained fixed upon the ceiling.
Then a face appeared above him.
A woman's face, battle scars marked her features.
Her expression was familiar. Far too familiar.
Sam's eyes widened.
"...Mother?"
The woman smiled.
"Hello there, son."
Her smile vanished almost immediately.
"Took you long enough."
She glanced toward where the creature had been thrown.
Her expression shifted into annoyance.
"Tch."
She looked back down at Sam.
"We'll talk again later."
She rose to her feet.
"Hold on, champ."
Her hand reached behind her.
"Got a chump to kill."
She disappeared from Sam's field of vision.
Then—
Click.
The unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked.
'A shotgun?'
Sam forced himself to turn his head.
His brain nearly stopped working.
There, standing in the middle of the street, was his mother.
She was wearing full battle armor.
A shotgun rested casually in her hands.
And beneath her—
A bright red tricycle.
Sam stared.
His exhausted brain struggled desperately to process what he was seeing.
His mother wearing battle armor, her hands carrying a sleek shotgun as she sat on the tricycle.
For several seconds, he could do nothing but stare.
'...What the fuck am I taking?'
At that moment, Sam's dying brain seriously began questioning whether some unknown drug had entered his bloodstream.
Because there was absolutely no way this wasn't a hallucination.