No more shots go off. No one is brave enough to look, and the shots don’t seem to deal damage to non-living things, so the thing isn’t blasting away at our defences… but I can hear it slowly padding closer. I want to do something, but every second I’m not getting hit is a second I get a bit more Energy, raising the likelihood I’ll live through a blast of that stuff.

The thing about cover is that it stops being cover when the enemy is on top of you.

I crawl over to my sword, left by the wayside as I rushed to help Tom, and grip it firmly. I look around quickly, trying to see if anyone is planning anything that I can help with, any speck of hope, but everyone just cowers or stares back with frightened eyes. Nate is nowhere to be seen.

And neither is Lauren. I really only have two days of experience fighting with her, and barely one where she got to use her stealth effectively, but I know she isn’t a coward. She was always in fights, but never a part of fights. She used distractions and other people to work best, never landing the first blow… but frequently the last. She specializes against single targets so… why was this Shade still standing? Simple: Lauren can’t reach it.

How much do I trust her? Definitely not enough for what I’m about to do: give her an opening.

Nobody else is going to do it. I’m the only one with any chance of surviving. I have to.

I don’t deserve to die a hero… so I’ll definitely live, right? My heart deafens me with every beat.

The bottle of fire. Now’s as good a time as any. Will it be enough? I’ll make it enough. It isn’t much, but it’ll get that thing’s attention… then I will keep it.

I take a deep breath, forcefully keeping ‘Fortify’ from activating, and yell with everything I have as I jump to my feet, launch the bottle, duck the retributory blast, then vault the barricade and charge the swirling mass of despair.

The first shot hits the barricade, thrown wide by the fire licking up its legs.

The second… I never even saw coming. I’d only gotten halfway to the Shade before I was hit, but all I could think of as I fell was that this Shade felt familiar. Not a Dwarf, certainly, but… that voice?

I became insensate as my awareness focussed exclusively on fighting for my life.

---

Lauren had been hoping, even praying that someone would give her the distraction she needed. She had circled the thing at least four times, looking for an opening, but every time she tried, her senses warned her away. Somebody needed to act, threaten it somehow, draw its focus… anything! But they all cowered behind their stupid barricades. It’s one fucking monster! She wanted to scream at them, call them the cowards they were. Even Nate was gone… he wasn’t a fighter, but it still pissed her off.

Her heart nearly soared when she heard the yell, then took an immediate nosedive the moment she saw who had stepped up.

No! That fucking idiot! Of course he was the only one stupid enough!

There was no time to feel anger or hurt. He was saving them, one way or another, and she needed to do her part. Time almost slowed as she focussed solely on taking down the bastard in front of her, thankfully keeping her attention off Anthony and… what was about to happen to him. To her, if he died.

She flew through the night, a silent arrow gliding, swift and undetectable. Lauren slammed her dagger right into the back of the Shade’s skull. It- she screamed. A very human scream. Lauren wrenched the dagger from her skull, going to stab again, but the woman knocked her away with an arm far too strong for its size. Lauren landed hard a few feet away, looking up in horror at the face of this horrifying hybrid of Shade and human as her poison took effect. A bright gout of flame erupted from the back of her head, eliciting a very inhuman screech. The flames burned away the shadows covering her face, revealing the tortured visage of Shaye… Shaye from camp… Shaye who had been dragged into the dark and presumed dead.

The sight of her anguish burned itself into Lauren’s memory as the fire burst her eyes in a shower of gore. The screams changed from those of rage, to fear and pain. There was only one thing Lauren could do. As Shaye fell to her knees, wailing with a sound of heartfelt despair that Lauren had hoped only existed within herself, the assassin ended the miserable existence before her.

She did not even stop to pull her dagger out before rushing to Anthony’s side. She heard shouts of warning. She didn’t care. His skin felt cold, and some of the solidified darkness played across the surface of his skin, but he still gave ragged breaths. He was still fighting.

Don’t you die on me. Don’t you dare fucking die on me.

She held his head in her hands and rocked gently, perceiving little other than the continued ragged breaths. She didn’t want to think about what she would do if they stopped.

A hand touched her shoulder, breaking her stupor. Nate.

~”If it looks like he isn’t going to make it, kill him.”

-”W-what?”

~”Kill him so he doesn’t become one of them.”

No -”...Yes… I will.” What? She didn’t mean that… she didn’t try to say that! She tried to say: “He won’t fail.” There. She felt lightheaded. Nate looked at her strangely.

She tried not to think about Shaye, whose body smouldered even now. What if she could have saved her? What if Anthony could have with his weird Energy shit? Where were the other two who were dragged away? Oh god… she had killed again… killed a human, even if it was a poor, desperate husk of a human… again… could she never escape the person she had become? This horrible, amoral murderer?

~”Come. We need to talk.”

She rose, lifting Anthony into her arms.

~”You could leave him if you wanted. Someone else will get him.”

She shook her head. No one else would touch him with that darkness raging inside him. Too afraid for themselves.

Nate shrugged and led the way.

---

Lauren deposited Anthony in one of the coffins turned bed, and immediately Nate began to speak.

~”It’s alright, you know. We knew Shaye was lost… just not how lost she really was. You saved her from suffering. That’s what you do, where your prodigious talents lie. You are truly a great weapon, as long as you know who to strike... and when. You can trust me. I won’t lead you astray. With me, you’ll become the strongest, most feared weapon out there. None will dare cross you.”

She raised her eyes from Anthony’s resting form. Nate was smiling gently at her.

Smiling like he hadn’t just confirmed her worst fears.

Smiling like she would have if she had heard those words, that praise, only days earlier.

But… a great killer wasn’t not who she was… not who she wanted to be. She knew with certainty she was no one’s pet… right? But why did it… sound so good? So right? She shook her head slightly, trying to snap herself out of whatever weird thing her head was doing, but it persisted.

What came out of her mouth was: “Yes, sir.” It took all her will just to keep from smiling at him as she said it. Why was it so hard to control herself? Was this shock? She knew she didn’t want to smile, in fact, she wanted to mention his absence on the battlefield… but that just seemed like a bad thing to do. He clearly knew what he was doing, so retreat was probably the right call, and she was just too stu- AHH! She shook herself, harder this time. It seemed like her thoughts started to turn against her the moment she let them wander. It was almost like before… before Anthony had done anything, but instead of the haunting images of all the people she had hurt, it was Nate. Everything related to Nate. It would just change.

~”You should probably avoid getting too close to him. He’s unlikely… to stick around.”

She tried to shake her head, and failed. She couldn’t will herself to disagree, he was kinda’ an asshole, trying to help her… there was nothing wrong with he- STOP. There was something wrong, but it wasn’t Anthony, and it wasn’t her… not any more than usual, anyway.

She wanted to stay by Anthony. She didn’t want to leave Nate either, even if he was a coward. She would make it work, make him see.

~”You are to refuse his requests to accompany him on hunts.” What?! She didn’t want that at all! She told him so: “As you say.” Her heart hurt, speaking those words, because she felt like she meant it, but she also… didn’t? What was-

…

Oh… no...

Anthony… she was so stupid. So fucking stupid.

Anthony was right about Nate… He’d been right to warn her… No god damnit! She would fight this, with everything she had. She struggled, rage burning within her, to say or do anything to spite Nate. Even to frown at him!

Nothing worked. She could find no reason to do any of that, so she didn’t.

It was too late.