Skye looked around. “Yeah, I guess y'all should get more of an answer than I gave before.” She glanced at Zac, “and not everyone was even conscious for that explanation, either.”

Zac nodded.

“Okay. Slasher 101. Slashers, or revenant slashers, are basically malevolence wrapped in powerful magic and stuffed in a nigh invincible body. I don't know where they came from or why they exist. There's not much research on them for what I think should be fairly obvious reasons.”

Alex had the common sense to look away then. He and his comrades had, after all, tried to capture one for research and look where it got them.

“Anyway. Most of what I know comes from a very short briefing and, well, I have some memories and stuff from past Reapers.”

“Past Reapers? What does that even mean?” Alex asked.

Skye glared at him, and then shrugged. “It's simple. I'm Skye. I'm a fourteen year old human. This body. As Skye, I carry what is called an Aspect. In my case, Death. There's apparently a few more, but I don't know any personally. Anyway. Death, the Aspect, is immortal and functions pretty much how the legends imply, sending the souls of the deceased on to the next stage of existence, whatever that may be. Death goes on, I however can and will at some point die, passing the aspect to the next Reaper.”

Zac frowned. There was a lot she wasn't saying in that short statement.

“Back to the slasher.” Skye straightened. “What it wants is simple: pain, fear, and death. Your deaths not my Aspect. Anyway. Slashers operate under certain patterns of behavior. They gather stables of victims, traditionally seven or thirteen.” She looked at Alex. “Don't suppose you have a head count for me?”

“Does he count?” he pointed to Zac.

“Yeah, he was in the mall when the Slasher began moving, so he is part of the stable,” Skye said. “I don't count, I came in after.”

“Then...” Alex muttered to himself, counting softly. “There are twelve. It already killed one, Dr. Reed.”

Zac winced, remembering the woman's demise. He was going to revisit those moments in nightmares any time he dared let himself dream for the next, oh, rest of his life.

“So thirteen total, great,” Skye muttered. “Okay. So, it gathers a stable of victims, and isolates them in an environment it gains some kind of control over. You'll find it's impossible for any of you to leave this mall. The doors won't open, glass won't break, stuff like that. You try to leave, you'll be stopped.”

“But not you,” Zac said, softly. “You can escape.”

“Yeah, pretty easily,” Skye said, “but that would defeat the purpose of sending me here in the first place.”

“What purpose?” Zac asked. “Why are you here? Who sent a child into this... horror?”

“There's a lot going on you don't know about,” Skye said, voice soft. “You've learned about the Hunt Initiative. The hard way.”

Zac nodded. “I don't understand what they... why they...” he wrapped his arms across his chest.

Skye made a sound deep in her throat. “Because they're monsters.”

“Hey!” Alex protested. “I'm not...”

Skye pinned him with her gaze. He fell silent.

“There are other groups. That know about and deal with the Hidden. You, uh, know about the Hidden?”

Zac gnawed his lip a moment. “They,” he pointed to Alex, “demanded information about them. I know nothing.”

“Yeah. I... I don't think Labyrinth even has a file on you...” Skye muttered. “Anyway. Labyrinth is the group I work for. They try to help out the Hidden, and help normal people caught up in... weird stuff. Like locating and shutting down Slashers. That's why I'm here. I'm the most qualified to send this thing back into dormancy.”

“How do you propose to do that?” Alex asked. “Make snide comments and glare at it a bunch?”

“No, I mostly plan to stab it a lot.” Skye shrugged. “To render it dormant, I have to stop it from killing its entire stable of victims until dawn. I don't know why until dawn that's just... how it is. So the easiest thing is to find the other, ah, nine guys in this place and fight the Slasher any time it tries to kill one of you. Fairly simple. Not easy, no, but simple.”

“You won't fit thirteen people in this room,” Zac pointed out.

“Nah, I just figured you needed to rest and this room's probably too small for the creature to get into.”

“Oh.”

Zac had more questions, of course. Dozens of them. Starting with exactly how he was alive. But this was clearly not the time.

Alex said, “Are we ready to leave this closet yet?”

Skye paused, and Zac noticed something interesting. Where before, her eyes had been pale gray, they flared bright silver for a moment. The difference was subtle but present. Alex and Jacob flinched. Zac scoffed at them. She was an Aspect, of course it showed!

Her eyes returned to their previous state, and she nodded. “Yeah, it's on the move.”

“You can sense the creature's presence?” Zac asked.

Skye glanced at him and nodded slightly. “It is, essentially, one of the dead. I can sense any spirit that should pass from the world and hasn't, no matter what body it wears.”

“Oh that's not freakish at all,” Alex grumbled. He moved to stand over Zac and Skye.

“You should have some respect,” Zac snarled.

“Why?” Alex asked. “She's just another freak. Another monster pretending to be a person, taking what rightfully belongs to real, red blooded humans. Putting real people in danger, just so she can pretend to be a person.”

“Stop it,” Zac growled. He looked at Skye. Her hand was on his shoulder, trying to calm him, but the skin around her eyes was tight, pained. Alex's words struck home. He hurt her.

“Make me, freak.” Alex was contemptuous. And why not? Zac was still on the ground, sitting upright apparently only because a young girl helped him keep his balance.

Funny thing, though. Anger lends strength. And Zac was very angry. It was one thing to call Zac a freak, a monster. He was. But Skye? She was only a child! And she had come to this place to help Alex and his comrades. How dare he speak to her like that?

“Leave him alone,” Skye ordered Alex.

“Why should I?” Alex stomped forward until he was standing over Skye, who twisted to her feet to face him. “While you're babying this pathetic freak, that monster is out there hunting my men! Who knows what it's doing to them?”

Skye shrugged. “Who cares? I only have to keep most of you alive to stop the slasher.”

Alex pulled an arm back either to punch or slap the girl. Zac had enough.

Zac launched himself at Alex, aiming to punch the man square in the jaw for daring to strike at a child. Alex stumbled back from the sudden movement, eyes wide. He raised a hand, maybe to hit Zac, but Zac didn't give him the chance. He wrapped one hand around Alex's wrist and pulled the other back for a punch.

Alex's scream of pain startled Zac into releasing him. Where he'd gripped his wrist, there was a bright, livid mark in the shape of Zac's hand, with faint tendrils fading around the edges. Zac backpedaled until he hit the door.

“What... what was that?” Alex demanded. “What did you do?”

“I... I don't...” Zac looked down at his hand. What had happened? Was he dangerous even to touch now?