he man had heard the roar, and was on the trail following the sound, and pulse of distorted energy it had left behind. Usually he would take his time finding, hunting, and killing a corruption of this caliber. A weak bottom feeder, that got too big for its britches, not even a problem for him. But now, he had sensed something else here, someone else, in this area. Big problem, an unsuspecting normal would be easy prey for anything that crawled out of the Infinite. As he sprinted through the deserted campus, he continually cursed between breaths, it was his job to protect this campus, the man couldn’t afford another death onto his conscious. Shaking his head, wiping the hanging doubt out his mind, replacing with one goal. Focusing on not being late, he pressed forward into the night. 

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Ashton was thanking his mom for forcing himself to run track back in high school, because this fucking nightmare fuel was hot on his heels. Even at top speed, the monster was gaining on him while on all fours, contorting in an unnatural way. Each movement of its limbs sounded like bones breaking and cracking, a sound so unnerving it spiked up Ash’s anxiety tenfold. Now a long ways away from the bus stop, the predator chased him through the ghost town of a campus. It jumped from wall to wall, building to building, tree to tree, wherever he ran it was close behind.

Did he dare look back? He had to. Swinging his head back quickly, just for a second, catching a glimpse of it fading into the dark of night. The creature’s sound dulled as the atmospheric sound of night replaced it, calming Ashton down just a little. He coughed, and hacked, as his years of being a lazy stoner caught up with him taking his legs first. They tingled with soreness having been pushed farther than they were comfortable with. Ashton leaned back, letting the crisp air fill up his lungs once again, but he wouldn’t be able to relive his track days ever again. Standing in the middle of the walkway that was a cobblestone road, surrounded by tall, thick oak trees on either side that formed a canopy of green at the top letting little bits of moonlight poke through. Each gasp of air relaxed his mind, but the feeling of uneasiness still sat within him. Looking left, it was all clear, as was the right. Not in front of him either. BEHIND? Ashton spun around so fast you would’ve thought he was the King of Pop, but the flashy move had no audience to witness it. Clear, too.

The trees that covered the walkway shook gently, as a few leaves fell from above onto Ashton’s jacket shoulder. He looked up into the canopy overhead, dread set into his spine as he saw the glowing eyes, full with gaping mouth full of fangs. It pounced on him from within the dark pinning him to the ground hard.  He was surprised at how strong it was, the monster held him down with such force that he couldn’t lift his head up. The slender framed beast held his right arm down with its claw like hand, but Ashton’s left arm was free. Fumbling around on the ground next to them, his hand started to search for something, ANYTHING. The nervous fingertips discovered a handful of something, without thinking he slapped the glitching static monster in the face. Dirt and sticks flew into Ashton’s face, sputtering, spitting twigs out of his mouth. The reversal failed him, but the monster kept staring at him.

Its eyes glowing, the mouth held wide leaked drool like a starving dog waiting on its first bowl of food. The inside of it looked like an endless abyss party that Ashton didn’t want an invite to. He felt the rush of blood pulsating past his temples, as he kicked and screamed out for help. But before it could take a large, life-sized,  bite out of his chocolate face, lightning cracked through the air. Arcing its way from the distance at a blind speed that caused the trees to shake off petals in fear. It impaled the creature in the chest, cracking its black-and-white exterior, knocking it off Ashton. The monster desperately tried to hold on to no avail, it tore a gash in his left arm. As it flew further down the road it shrieked in pain. Yeah me too buddy, he thought clutching his arm feeling the cool sting of the crisp air as warm blood met his fingertips. Whimpering it got up and limped back, scared of whatever threw that lighting, at this point he couldn’t blame it. Luckily for him he was now about 200 pounds lighter than before, and he wasn’t going to waste this chance. Ashton began to run in the direction from where the spear came, jogging created the distance, but now there was no savior. Only the darkness, the monster, and the merciful luminescence of moonlight bleeding in the night sky.

Crrkzzzzt. The sound of the lighting rang out once more echoing out across the campus followed by another bright blue light that began to form right in the distance. It charged, elongated itself like a long, thin, needle, and it rose up in the dark, reeled back. Flying from an inhuman force, the wind tore as it skewered the air spinning straight at Ashton. He quickly shut his eyes waiting for death to come, but it never texted him back. The impact from the javelin cracked the ground throwing him off balance, but he wasn’t going to fall again. Once the rubble subsided he peeked out of one eye to see if he had made it to the other world, he wasn’t dead, he wasn’t bleeding out, and he still had his legs. He took inventory of his body parts accidentally tapping the gash wound which stung him right back. Ow the searing fire on his arm kept the adrenaline pumping, but the question popped into his head. If it didn’t hit him, then where was it going? Slowly turning around he saw his old friend static monster impaled again, only this time it was into the ground just inches away from pouncing on him once again. Only this time he was wasting moving, still un vibrating, the static within its body had subsided and it returned to the onyx black Ash had seen before he woke it up. Slowly it began to crumble and fade away in a shadowy smoke, leaving no evidence of its existence.

Ashton let out a deep sigh of relief, falling back a step as the adrenaline left his body on-setting the pain his arm was in. The bleeding had not stopped, the warmth within his body grew colder. He looked down seeing the same dark shadows waft from the wounds on his arm, the stars danced in his vision as it faded to black. The last thing he can remember seeing was the approaching of a gray coat from the shadows, his sight left him, but the pain kept pressing on into the darkness.