Hours passed. Sunny sat in the alleyway with her legs pulled close to her chest. It was nearing 10 P.M., and she was beginning to drift off. Benji snored beside her, drool wetting her jacket sleeve.

“No, I want the last slice of cheesecake,” Benji mumbled in his sleep.

Sunny giggled. Goodness, was she tired. It’d be so easy to—

No! Sunny slapped her cheeks. You gotta stay awake! For Papa!

The rustling of leaves caught Sunny’s attention, and adrenaline woke up her limbs. A gasp escaped her lips as something crawled out from the bushes. She couldn’t fully make it out due to it hiding in the darkness, but it had four legs.

“Benji, Benji,” Sunny whispered as she shook her friend. “Wake up! It’s here!”

“Hah? But the chee—” His voice caught and his muscles tensed. “Holy crap, it’s there. W-What do you wanna do?”

“What else?” Sunny rose to her feet, her hands clenched. “We take it out.”

The air was cool and humid. Street lamps kept the mostly empty road decently lit with dim luminescence, except for a few dark spots that the light couldn’t reach. Behind the park bench was the Lurker she’d been after; it had to be. They’d need to be careful. No one would be coming to their rescue if anything happened.

Not at this hour.

“I can handle this,” Sunny said. “Only help if something goes wrong.”

“Only? You never mentioned this!”

Sunny glanced at Benji over her shoulder. “I don’t want you to use Chlorine Eyes unless you have to.”

Sunny withdrew a kitchen knife from the pouch on her backpack, clenching it in her right hand. “I got this.”

Wings sprouted from between Sunny’s shoulder blades. She squatted down momentarily before jumping to help grant her the initial boost of speed and airtime she needed. This fight would need to end quickly and cleanly. Once her wings were gone, she’d be a sitting duck. Benji was a last resort.

With the blade held at her side, Sunny rose higher and higher, intending to swoop down like a hawk and tear the beast’s throat out in a single slash. She’d done it plenty of times before when hunting with Ren. This time would be no different.

Once she’d risen a few dozen feet over the tops of the trees, she narrowed in on her target—a small dark blip on the ground, occasionally moving its head to gorge itself on the delicious meats Benji had roasted. Sunny drew three short breaths, then nosedived.

The wind felt terrific against her ears—natural, even. Below was her victim, and she was the bird of prey. Sunny repositioned the blade in front of her, the point held outward, at last recognizing the shape of her target.

The Lurker walked on four legs, low to the ground. Black scales covered a creature with eyes protruding in a circle around its body where its shoulders should’ve been. It reached out with one of its clawed feet, wrapping its slender fingers around the prime rib and guiding it to one of its two pointed snouts. The snouts lay atop one another like two sets of jaws. Bone crunched and shattered between the creature’s pointed teeth.

Sunny swooped in, making a radical turn moments before hitting the ground. She was mere inches above the ground and proceeding at an alarming speed.

The Lurker whipped its head around toward Sunny, reeling back as she soared past it. Sunny tumbled past the bushes, quickly redirecting her momentum to the Lurker. A bizarre bark escaped the creature’s throat. It was hollow and sounded like someone was saying ‘Oh!’ repeatedly.

Sunny flew at the creature again, and the Lurker dodged, lowering its head to the ground. A forked tongue ran out of the reptile-like creature’s bottom jaw, an unnerving hiss filling the air.

Sunny hovered above the ground. Knowing that hesitation would be her downfall, she swiped at the beast from the right, then the left. She knew nothing of knifeplay, only what she’d seen on TV. It was much more challenging than it looked, and her energy was quickly leaving. Beads of sweat dripped off the edge of her brow, and she began to pant. It wouldn’t be long before her stamina was spent.

“Damn it, just die!” Sunny let out a frustrated scream, holding the knife’s grip with both hands and driving the blade forward.

Leaping to its side, the Lurker wrapped its long, black tongue around her torso and threw the weight of its body backward, sending her along with it. Her body hit the ground, and the knife went flying into the bushes behind her.

“Sunny!” Benji cried.

“No! Not yet!” Sunny yelled before grabbing the Lurker’s tongue and biting into it with her teeth. It was nothing like she’d expected. Tiny pin pricks like furry cactus needles draped across leather lined the creature’s tongue. Biting into it was like munching on glass-covered rubber. Sunny yelped and coughed before the creature slammed her against the ground a second time. “My wings! Stop!”

An angry snarl hissed between the teeth of the Lurker as it spun in a half-circle, releasing Sunny from its tongue and sending her smack against a nearby tree. A sickening crunch echoed among the trees like a clap in the air as Sunny cried out for help.

Sunny’s entire body trembled as she reached behind her with one hand. One of her precious wings had snapped off. She felt where the wing used to be, disturbed by the sight of it beside her. Her teeth chattered as the leaves rustled in front of her. Her snapped-off wing was flaking and rising into the air as if someone had set fire to it. The Lurker was drawing closer, eager to make her its next meal.

There was no fight left. No flight left.

All that remained was fear.

“Help! Please, help me!” Sunny bellowed.

The Lurker suddenly yelped and turned around in a flash, scraping its front claw against the dirt. Just past the creature, Sunny could see Benji.

He’d put the Halloween basket over his head—one of the last things he had left of his mother. Benji bowed his head forward slightly, his eyes unseen. “Get away from her, you monster,” Benji hissed. The Lurker growled and snapped its top jaw before running toward the boy.

The air around Sunny and the Lurker grew cold.

And then one of the Lurker’s arms fell off—its right hind leg. The Lurker fell to its right, whimpering and hollering. Its left foreleg fell off next. Then its course changed. No longer did it desire Benji’s blood. It desired survival. The beast began to scrape its way to the side with its remaining legs. As Sunny watched, she observed the eerie blue-green fluid that dripped across Benji’s mask whenever he used his Jitter.

Benji slowly approached the creature. The crying and sniffling that Sunny had come to associate with Benji’s Jitter emanated from out of his mask. Sunny swallowed hard, watching as the Lurker went still before shattering into hundreds of pieces of frozen flesh moments later.

Benji sobbed as he stumbled toward Sunny’s direction and fell to his knees. Sunny began to cry as well, standing and falling with each attempt to approach him.

Benji removed the basket from his head, wiping what remained of his tears from the empty socket where his eyepatch normally was. His lips were pulled into a straight line, and his good eye was bloodshot. Sunny found the strength to stand at last, and shakily rose to her feet.

Sunny pulled Benji into a tight embrace.

“W-We need to get out of here,” Sunny said.

Benji didn’t speak. He rocked back and forth, and Sunny felt him nod. But as the two supported each other on the way back to the alleyway, a series of growls and snarls followed them. Sunny and Benji turned around to see no fewer than a dozen of the same creature Benji had killed just seconds ago.

The air left Sunny’s lungs, and the two began to sob. This was it; there was no getting out of this one. Running would do them no good, and Benji couldn’t take on a dozen of these things.

“I’m so sorry!” Sunny cried. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Benji sniffled, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

A rough wind blew past them, and they shut their eyes. Sunny’s strength left her, and as they fell to the grass together, something swooped her up. The sensation of falling and jumping swept over her skin, and as she opened her eyes, she gasped.

The world was whisking past her. Something soft and furry cradled her, and she blinked rapidly to see that Benji was resting in something large and claw-like.

“What just happened?”