“Frau Elisabeth!” said Sister Gudrun amongst the other sisters and caregivers in their night gowns. The women ogled at the intruder. Spinnenfrau snarled and stood in front of Elisabeth, who was crying out for help.

“Release her!” Sister Gudrun boldly yelled. The hardy women of the group cracked their knuckles. Spinnenfrau gave them a cocked-brow look that could only be verbally summarized as “Seriously?”

The women lunged. Spinnenfrau dashed the jar of preserves at their feet. The workers recoiled at the broken glass when... the intruder gave a low, cruel laugh that brought Elisabeth's arm hairs on end.

Spinnenfrau raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

Sister Gudrun suddenly screamed. She began scratching and wiping at her gown with wild eyes.

“EE-AAAH! Spiders! They’re all over me! Get them off! Get them off!” Elisabeth shuddered at the sight of Sister Gudrun—the strict Sister with the menacing air of discipline—suddenly leap out of sanity from imaginary arachnids. Blood streamed down the flesh that she herself clawed at.

“Sister--stop! There’s nothing on you!” said one woman, but another began screaming and slapping at her arms and ruffling up her hair.

“They’re everywhere! They’re biting me!”

Spinnenfrau swiped her umbrella off the floor and pushed the handle’s button, closing it. Elisabeth tried to pry herself free from the woman’s grip. Instead, she found herself yanked over to the entrance. Spinnenfrau kicked down the door. The hardy humans who still had their wits charged for her, but Spinnenfrau, like a skilled fencer, held them back with her sharp, metal-tipped umbrella and shut the door in their faces. She then ran out into the storm, dragging the orphan behind.

Elisabeth still couldn’t scream from the shock of it all. She gasped from the cold deluge that instantly drenched her. Spinnenfrau made it halfway down the flooded courtyard when the two halted. Sirens and blinding red-and-blue lights added to the mayhem of the bullet rain and clapping thunder. Blocking the gateway flashed an ambulance and a police car.

“Put your hands up!” a cop yelled. He and his partner pointed their guns from behind their car doors. “Step away from the girl!” Elisabeth glanced behind her to find the sane women rushing out onto the balcony. Spinnenfrau glimpsed the swirling sky above her and back at the armed humans blocking the only exit. Well, hey, it wasn’t the only exit. Elisabeth nearly came to her senses when she felt herself carried up in Spinnenfrau’s arms, the umbrella still grasped in the woman’s right hand.

Elisabeth wanted to yell, “Let go of me you drenched, crazed--” She couldn’t finish her thought. Next thing she knew, Spinnenfrau leapt three stories into the air, cleared the high gates and flashing vehicles, and landed further down the puddled road.

...Now Elisabeth screamed.

Spinnenfrau ran through the dark and deserted town, fast. Very fast. Good god how could anything run this fast. Whatever this demon from hell could be, it was heading up the road to the wooded hills.

The cop car whooped behind in the thick fog, blindly chasing after whatever the hell was moving like something from nightmares.

Elisabeth tried once again to make herself useful instead of screaming into the night. She fidgeted, only to make the demon hold her tighter. Spinnenfrau spoke a language incomprehensible to the average human who ever had or will walk on Normal Earth, but it was clear her panting was becoming more and more pronounced. Her boots flitted over black puddles reflecting the orange streetlights in the fog-filled night. Lightning flashed. Elisabeth looked over the demon’s shoulder to find the police lights were now mere specks in the storm. They passed a few gothic buildings huddled together in the pelting rain. She looked behind her again. She can’t see anything, too much fog!

Elisabeth looked ahead and squeaked.

The bell towers of the cathedral poked over the trees. The more the church grew from the ground, the more her childhood memories of this place flashed: teachings, Mass, confessions, funerals. The lawn came into view. All that curiosity that Elisabeth experienced earlier? Yeah, not happenin’. The compelling force of forbiddance from the lawn hit her as a full-blown tsunami. She screamed and squirmed even more.

“Stop! Don’t take me here!”

Too bad, Elisabeth. The demon jumped the fence into the lawn and passed the white tree. A painful, flitting memory shot through the teen. A knell, a snake, a girl...

Her swimming mind resurfaced into reality when she noticed how incredibly dark and foggy it became. Her lungs squeezed in her chest. Her mouth bone-dry.

They were in the Black Forest.