Taking a few steps past her down the block, ‘Justin’ shadowed me. The sound of rubber dragging against the concrete from boots clearly not meant for her had become noticeably grating. 

“How could you make it any more obvious?” I muttered to myself.  We made it beyond my gym and stopped in the middle of the block. To our right was a rusted fence that opened onto a small, vacant parking space beside the building. The sidewalk curved down around the edge of the street so cars could potentially roll in, but it was clear no one had used it in years. The fence's door was tilted inward from a busted frame and half-folded in on itself. I slid the door to the side. It buckled when I pushed myself through the gap. Justine followed. The parking space itself was a deserted, dead-end lot covered in overgrowth, trapped between three brick walls, with only one way in or out. I turned to face her. 

“Alone, Christian Creed? I see you are aware then,” Justine said with a series of Clicks fluffing the tail end of her sentence. 

“I’m aware I don’t want you causing a scene in front of my home. Seriously, you guys never let up.” 

“You do not smell of fear, dragon tongue.” She said, 

“Nope, I’m…I mean, maybe I’m a little nervous. Oh, hold on a moment,” I said, reaching back to tear the velcro around my back pocket to pull out a pen and my notepad. Justine stared at me kinda dazed, as I clicked the back of my pen. “Ok, so what are you exactly?”

“What?” she clicked. 

“Oh, and what do you want, I guess, is another question I have.-”

“-I don’t understand.”

“Sorry, it's just most of you guys just try to eat me on the spot,” She continued to stare at me. 

“So anyway, I like to document every time one of you shows up, but  I normally gotta wait till the crazy parts are over. But you’re so articulate, I just thought I’d ask-”

“-You do not fear me?” 

“I mean…when you grow up a Runner, running away from monsters is just a Thursday,”  I said. We locked eyes. I gave my pen another double click.

           “My clan wishes to take you back to our home. We do not intend to eat you. We’d like to have a discussion.” 

             “Ok, good, great start,” I said, jotting that down. She took a step towards me. I also took note of that. I side-stepped slowly, matching her movements. I kept my head down, watching the center of her chest while I scribbled more quick bullet points in my book.

“So a Clan, huh? And they all talk as well as you? I’ve only met trolls who were as chatty.”

“Will you come with me or not, meat?”

“Ohh, I like that. It’s like you’re negotiating with a pork chop.” We circled each other until we were now standing on opposite sides of where we began our conversation. 

“Don’t misunderstand, Runner. This is not a negotiation. It’s already a courtesy you're not being drained, don’t try to escap-”

“-Oh, I’m not gonna run,” I said before closing my book and putting it away. I then dug into my shirt collar. The rattling of the silver beads in my hand caused the beast to shudder. 

“What is that?” 

“You won't be around long enough for that information to matter,” I said as I placed my left leg in front, in a staggered stance, heels slightly elevated.

“Ugh! Enough of this!” Justine shouted. They charged me. I counted. One, two, by the time I got to three, the spot in her chest I was staring at had taken up most of my vision. It was time to react. I kicked myself off into a drop step, switching my feet, and tilting my body to her left side. My knuckles connected with the center of her nose. My left foot was now behind me, allowing the weight of my whole body to travel right between her eyes. A Switch-Cross. 

Justine was on her back pretty quickly. The monster began cloud-gazing, its face full of ketchup. “Shouldn’t have done that,” I said.