"Hey! Are you alright? Lin?" It was her friend Trish.

It took a few seconds for Lin to calm down a bit and noticed that she was causing a scene. After the flower pot had crashed, there had been a few startled responses but none as freaked out as she was. She glanced back up towards the balcony, but the creature was gone.

"What happened, Lin?" Her friend asked, but Lin was barely paying attention.

"Did anyone see that?" Lin asked the people around her.

"Yeah, are you okay? That pot almost hit you," a little girl responded, her mother was trying to gently drag her away, but she wouldn't go.

"No, I mean on the balcony. Did anyone see anything on the balcony?" Lin pointed up to where the creature had been.

"There wasn't anythin' on it," a nearby man stated.

"NO! There was a cat!" This time it was a young teenage boy who answered. "It was black...I reckon it knocked the pot over on accident, or something, jumping from one balcony to another."

"Lin, is everything alright?" Trish asked as the crowd started to disperse.

"Yeah, um, fine..." Lin replied and started walking. "Umm...can we call it a night? I'm actually really tired."

Trish looked at Lin a bit concerned and nodded her head. "Call me if you need anything, okay?"

"Alright. See ya at school tomorrow."

"Kay, bye," Lin responded before heading towards her home with a growing sense of being watched.

When Lin got to her little apartment, she double checked to make sure all the windows and doors were locked before finally going to sleep.

~

Lin took a deep breath and choked on the rancid smoke filled air. The smell of rotting flesh and burning plastic hovered in the air and made her gag. Trees, grass, and other vegetation around her burned and black smoke rose to the ceiling of the glass tower, blocking out the sunlight.

Twisted burnt and bleeding figures surrounded her. Sharp teeth lined the insides of a few of the figures mouths and their big almond shaped eyes glowed red. A few of the figures looked almost human, but most of them seemed like dark twisted versions of goblins and other monstrous creatures she had seen in story book illustrations.

Some of the figures were still moving, clawing at the ground to move closer to her as they whispered something to her in a strange language. "Come, come to us. Come with us." She didn't know how she understood the meanings of their strange whisperings, but she did.

Lin backed away and turned around, only to be confronted by more of the foul creatures. The injured man with the cruel sharp-toothed smile reached out and grabbed her arm. A searing hot pain shot through her arm where the man had grabbed her, burning her skin wherever he touched. "Found you."

Lin screamed and tried to yank free of his grasp, but it only tightened; intensifying the pain. The creatures that circled them started chanting in a guttural language that somehow screeched against her ears and tore through her mind.

Blood started to trickle out from underneath the man's fingernails and down her arm. A few drops of blood hit the ground and instantly sizzled and burst into flames. The flames raced around the circle of chanters surrounding them, turning the foul creatures to ash on the spot then rushed back towards the two of them.

There was a whistling sound right as the flames caught hold of the man and then a sickening 'thunk'. The man holding her staggered back suddenly, losing his hold on her then disappeared in a blaze.

Everything seemed to slow down for a few moments afterwards. She felt herself fall, but time was moving at such a listless pace it seemed as if she were just hanging in midair.

Somebody had caught her. Warm strong arms picked her up. She felt as if she were floating. Wind gently rushed through her hair and made her open her eyes. She had closed them just before the injured man vanished in a torrent of fire. She blinked, wondering if she was actually falling. The ground was so far away and she seemed to be rising.

A sudden rush of weariness overtook her as she looked up into the face of her savior.