Tanya shoved the back door open wider with her shoulder. The rusted hinges squealed in protest, but there was no time to stop it. Ishita slipped through first, Fahad clinging to her neck, his breath hot and fast. Tanya followed last, sword low, spectral hand flickering behind her like a nervous animal.
They emerged into the alley—a narrow spine between buildings, cluttered with bins, broken crates, and thick black bags that twitched if you looked too long. Above them, the rooftops loomed. Somewhere out front, the larger creature roared again. The ground shuddered beneath its weight, but here in the back, things were quieter.
"Go," Tanya whispered. "Fast and low."
They ran.
The alley twisted behind the kebab shop and the pawn shop, which had a large 'keep out' graffiti across the back.
Ishita led, weaving tight between bins with Fahad on her back. Tanya kept pace behind, head on a swivel.
The alley narrowed into a winding strip between the buildings. There were more exits on this side than on her side of the street, with pathways winding down between shops behind as well as this side.
A thud echoed behind them—metal bins rattling. Then came the skittering sound. Wet and scraping.
Tanya glanced back and saw two of the creatures slinking out from the building they'd just escaped. Another dropped from the roof, landing with a splat near the corner of the pawn shop.
Too fast.
"Keep going," she hissed, pushing Ishita forward.
They ran.
The path twisted sharply, forcing them around an overfilled skip. The alley wasn't clear—boxes, broken crates, a smashed trolley. Tanya took point without thinking, sword in hand.
Behind them, the sound of pursuit got louder. More of them. Maybe six now. Too close.
She spun on instinct. One had nearly reached them. Its maw was wide, no difference between the black ichor of its inside and outside—no teeth or tongue or anything but the hole.
She moved without thought, slicing through its neck. She held back but too late and it was mostly severed. The creature crumpled—silent, almost limp—and then immediately began to melt. Limbs liquified, ribs popping loose into black sludge.
Tanya swallowed.
Out of the bubbling remains, something twitched.
"Shit—no—" She lunged again, cutting across its torso as something inside writhed.
Another mistake.
The pieces only spread wider, forming into crawling things. Limbs. Eyes. Mouths.
She backed up fast. "Don't cut them! Don't—don't cut deep!"
Ishita hesitated mid-swing, a fence post raised overhead. "What?"
"Fuck! I cut one" Tanya's breath hitched.
Another one came in close. Tanya panicked and drove her blade through its shoulder. It collapsed. Then began to shift. Legs thickened. A second head sprouted from the gash. One became two.
"Don't kill them!" Fahad cried out, voice cracking.
Tanya looked over her shoulder just in time to see Ishita bash one into the ground and become a puddle.
"Oh no. Too much force does it too!" Ishita called.
Tanya dragged her blade free and shoved the next monster back with the flat. Not a slice. Just force.
It hit the wall hard, wet. It twitched—didn't melt.
She stepped forward and hit it again. Side of the sword to the head. Not enough to crush. Just enough to knock it down.
A second tried to crawl past. Ishita swung her fence post low and caught the creature across the knee. It folded. The wood knocked it sideways into a pile of crates. No sludge.
"That's it," Tanya breathed. "It's not the death—it's the… destruction. The breakin'-apart."
"Keep them whole," Ishita said, between gasps. "Hurt them, don't ruin them."
Easier said than done.
The alley sloped slightly downhill, footing slick with something oily. A monster lunged, and Tanya barely managed to twist aside. She drove her shoulder into it, knocking it off balance. The sword came up—flat side—bashing into its spine. It crumpled without bursting.
Tanya panted, blade heavy in her grip.
Ishita knocked another creature down with a heavy strike to the ribs. The post bent slightly but held. The monster let out a sick gurgle and went still, twitching faintly but intact.
Another round the corner. They were trying to flank.
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"No more cuts," Tanya muttered to herself, voice raw. "No more panic. Just control."
But control was hard to come by. Her legs burned. Her eyes stung. Her hands were slippery with someone's blood—maybe hers. Maybe Ishita's or even Fahad's. With Ishita's powers, she didn't know if the blood was ever even Ishita's.
The monsters didn't stop coming. Not fast—but enough to press them. The threat wasn't in brute strength. It was that every time you lashed out the wrong way, you created two more enemies.
They had to unlearn everything.
Fahad clung tighter to his mother's back, face buried in her hair.
Tanya backed toward a bend in the alley, shoving another half-formed thing aside with the sword's blunt edge. It slipped on the wet ground and slid into a wall. Another tried to climb over it and she met it with a sideways bash that spun it around.
They were adapting.
"We're nearly clear," Ishita said, voice taut.
"Don't rush it," Tanya warned. What would happen if they did this wrong hung in the air.
They reached another bend. Tanya took point again. Turning from the back alley down to an even smaller side alley was the best method to get to the main road again. It was the same as beside Tanya's house, only just large enough to wheel two bins down side by side.
Tanya stopped and Ishita ran into the back of her.
A delivery van had been crushed between the two walls. The roof looked like crumpled paper and the sides had been torn off. Tanya couldn't tell if the van was worse off, or the walls around it. Beyond it, the alley narrowed even narrower from an extension to the pawn shop—barely wide enough for a person to pass. But the real danger loomed above: a twisted iron fire escape had been dislodged by the collapsed van. It sagged over the alley, bent like a dropped skeleton. Half its bolts were missing, the rest groaning with strain. To squeeze through the gap would likely jiggle it enough for the whole thing to come down.
"Shit," Tanya muttered. "It's unstable. That thing drops, it's game over."
Fahad coughed. "There's something coming."
A scraping noise echoed from behind—the wet, dragging shuffle of multiple creatures closing in. Tanya turned just in time to see two of the vine monsters lurch around the corner, wet and glistening with their own decay. They didn't hiss or charge. They just shambled, half-formed, twitching toward them on all fours.
"I know," Tanya replied. She stepped between them and the spawn, raising her sword flat. "Back, you little shitstains. Not today."
The monsters crept closer.
Tanya slammed the blunt edge of the blade against one's shoulder—not a cut, just a jolt. It skidded backwards with a wet gurgle, limbs scrabbling for traction.
"They're not pressin' yet," she said. "But they'll trap us if we aren't careful"
"We have to go now," Ishita hissed. "That fire escape's not going to last."
Tanya backed a step.
"Can the hand lift it?" Ishita asked. "Hold it up while we go under?"
Tanya summoned it without a word. The pale, ink-like hand crawled into being and floated up to the base of the escape. It touched metal.
Groan.
The whole structure gave a twitch. A rusty bolt popped free like a champagne cork.
"Okay nope," Tanya said. "It's too far gone. That thing is thinking about falling."
She pressed the flat edge of the blade against another monster, accidentally cutting off one of its limbs and cursing under her breath.
Ishita crouched, shifting Fahad off her back and setting him gently against the wall. She slipped into step beside Tanya and swung the fence post side to side across the gap to slow them.
Fahad piped up from behind them. "What if I blink through… I could try to take one of you with me?"
"No," Tanya said flatly. "We've never done that before. It could kill you or them or both."
"Can the sword eat it?" Ishita offered through clenched teeth as a monster charged up to her makeshift bat, she held it with one hand on each side against its concave chest. Her voice came back more strained. "Like it did… with that pipe… back at the car lot?"
Tanya hesitated. The sword pulsed slightly in her hand as if hearing that. "Maybe. But it took a while before. If I stand still, those things will jump me."
"I'll cover you," Ishita said.
"You can't take a hit," Tanya said, looking at the blood pouring down her leg from Fahad's transferred injury.
"I don't have to take a good hit," Ishita replied, raising her fence post like a shield. "Just stall."
The monsters crept closer. One of them stopped to sniff at a trash bag, then turned its split skull toward them with a delighted twitch. More were coming in behind. Any very limited chances they had of pushing their way through without cleaving them were gone. She kept it in mind anyway. Better to have more monsters later than be dead now.
Tanya gritted her teeth. "I'll try it."
She shifted her stance, gripping the sword in both hands. The spectral hand retracted and curled protectively behind her shoulder. Slowly, she stepped up to the slanted beam of the fire escape. The sword's metal edge shimmered where blood had dried into it, and the tip sparked as it touched the bolt.
She focused. Thought about hollowing out—about letting it consume. The metal gave a soft thhhp. A coin-sized piece vanished and her chest ached like someone had spooned out all of her insides.
• • •
Attributes
Strength: 12/17
Dexterity: 24/ 30
Vitality: 2/ 22
Concentration: 10/16
Will: 20/ 25
• • •
She was doing well except for Vitality.
Shit.
Her mind raced with her potential mistakes. The car had been too much metal? Or maybe Assistant had needed to take some after its pain inside the kebab shop? How was it so low already?
Behind her, Ishita swung. The fence post smacked one spawnling back against the wall. It hissed—not in pain, but protest like it was being denied a prize.
"Hurry!" she barked.
"I'm trying!" Tanya barked back. The sword sparked again, pulling another bolt-sized piece of the strut into its frame. She yanked it back further, trying to stop it from consuming more. It hummed faintly now—overfed.
The metal groaned above. The platform sagged lower.
"Fahad," Ishita said as she grunted another swing. "If this gets too scary I want you to blink away and stay behind Mrs Eceer."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Yes, you are!" Ishita snapped. "Please Fahad, get ready to teleport."
Tanya turned and sucked in a breath. The monsters were pressing harder. She slammed the flat of her blade into one's chest. It crumpled backwards—but immediately tried to rise. Ishita had a new strategy; bending so she was waist height and they found it harder to grab the post with their strange tendrils.
Think. Think.
She raked her hand through her hair and stared at the fire escape overhead. Her eyes flicked this way and that between the van and the creaking structure for anything to get them past.
"I've got an idea," Tanya said, unsure.
Please be sharp enough.
"Tell me it's not run towards them," Ishita said.
Tanya stabbed the blade into the metal, point-first. It stuck.
Then she let go.
The sword stayed embedded in the beam. The fire escape twitched again, and another bolt popped free, but the sword held firm.
"It won't fall for now," Tanya said. "Crawl, don't run."
Fahad didn't hesitate. He dove forward first, dragging himself past the crushed van and under the newly created hole. The moment he touched the shadow he vanished, teleporting further in. Ishita followed, moving sideways, keeping her weapon pointed toward the spawn.
Tanya was last.
She grabbed her sword, yanked it free and squeezed into the crevice. The rest of the platform collapsed with a roar just behind her heels, slamming to the alley floor with a spray of sparks.
The monsters halted, dust and noise startled them just long enough.
She didn't wait. Tanya pushed herself further into the gap and didn't look back.
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