TERROR FILLED MEDEA’S heart as she watched Robin’s flesh burn like parchment beneath a flame, but hers was nothing compared to the terror in his screams. She’d never heard someone in so much pain… and there was no doubt in her mind if she lived through the night that sound would haunt her remaining days.

By the time he mercifully succumbed to unconsciousness, a great swathe of Robin’s skin on his shoulder and pectoral down to his arm had been burnt horribly, the acid continuing to eat at the muscle and nerve beneath the skin. She worried he would hemorrhage to death right there, but the acid seemed to have a cauterizing effect on the wound, granting him another few short moments of life before the monster inevitably finished the job.

The monster turned in place, its gaping maw pointing toward her instead of Robin’s unconscious form as she’d expected.

Of course.

This was no mere beast… it was a hunter, and they its prey. It would prioritize the greatest threat.

Medea glanced around quickly, taking in the darkened surroundings as best she could in the moonlight. The village was deathly quiet, save for the patch of nearby grass sizzling beneath a pool of acid and Robin’s labored breathing.

Where was everyone?

Were there more Blighted, or just the one?

Important questions she had no time to seek the answers to.

The creature lunged for her, going from standstill to midair in the span of a heartbeat, its altered jaws snapping with malevolent fury.

Medea let loose an involuntary scream as it dove for her head, scrambling for the door to Gedd’s house. It wasn’t much safer than outside… but on open ground Medea was certain the creature would run her down in moments.

It bounded after her, moving like some kind of deranged spider, its previously human limbs twisting and bending in ways they’d never been intended to twist or bend.

Medea’s heart pounded in her chest, each thunderous beat echoing in her ears like the striking of a drum. From one thump to the next, her eyes scanned the house in search of anything that might save her life, settling on the table they’d been seated at only a short while ago. She dove behind it, flipping it up to use as a barrier. The monster slammed into the wood, its maw catching the top of the table just above her head.

Medea stared up into the wriggling chest cavity in pure horror, acid dripping down between her legs and burning a hole in her dress. Deep within the transfigured flesh she spied Foden’s still beating heart, displaced further into his body by whatever madness had taken his flesh for its own. She’d thought the creature a corpse… but was this not proof it still lived?

The wood splintered and gave beneath the creature’s powerful jaws, and as they opened wide once more to tear into her next, Medea thrust the iron pan she still held into the waiting maw, jamming it as deeply as she could. The creature struggled against the thick pan, unable to open its jaws any further… and also unable to close them.

It tried to reach up with Foden’s arms, but was either limited by their range of motion or simply incapable of controlling them with such precision, and fell forward, pawing ineffectually at its maw. The raw horror of the situation was only compounded by the creature’s eerie silence, the only sounds in the room her frenzied breathing and the thing’s perverse limbs pounding on the floor.

While it flailed, Medea frantically searched for anything nearby she could use as a weapon, diving for an iron poker resting against the fireplace as the creature rounded on her, scrabbling for purchase on her dress and tearing a large chunk of the fabric away. And then Medea felt a familiar sensation; the swelling of aether.

Fear lanced through her body, accompanied by visions of acid melting flesh. Her fingers wrapped around the poker as she twisted in place on the floor, thrusting into the creature’s open maw—right past the pan and through the glob of acid building around it.

The acid burst like a bubble, spilling within the maw and from the sides and landing in great globs on either side of her, while the poker sizzled and held strong as Medea struck deep into the creature’s chest, thrusting straight through Foden’s still-beating heart. Coagulated blood oozed like pus from the perforated organ. The monster spasmed and went rigid, toppling to the floor.

Medea scrambled away frantically, breath coming hard and fast. Blood rushed through her ears as her heart pounded, and she whipped her head around in a panic, searching for more of the creatures that were no doubt lurking in the shadows.

When none came, she finally allowed herself to breathe, slowly rising to her feet and taking stock of herself. Acid had burned several small holes through the sleeves of her dress and a large one between her legs, but her body remained miraculously unscathed.

She’d… actually done it? She’d killed one of the Blighted…?

And without so much as a scratch?

Her eyes widened.

Robin!

She dashed from Gedd’s home and found Robin lying on the grass where she’d left him, sweating as his chest rose and fell too quickly, his face a rictus of pain. Medea knelt to inspect the wound, wincing as she took in the angry red flesh. Acid still sizzled on his wounds, dissolving Robin’s body before her eyes.

Medea ran back into the house, shouting loudly. “Gedd, please help! Robin is hurt!”

He wouldn’t understand the words, but she hoped he would at least understand the intent. She wouldn’t wait idly while Gedd decided, however, and gathered a pale of water from the kitchen as well as a nearby cloth. She moved as quickly as she could, falling to her knees beside Robin, rinsing the acid from his skin with the cool water and dabbing at it with the soaked towel. She had no idea if her treatment would be effective or make things worse, and wept a silent apology for being so useless.

Gedd emerged shortly after, cursing something in his strange tongue at seeing the corpse of the Blighted before poking his head out the door to make sure it was, in fact, safe.

Medea knew it wasn’t his fault, but in that moment she felt a pang of resentment towards the man for his cowardice. She’d proved the monsters weren’t impervious after all, and with Gedd’s assistance, Robin might not have been hurt. As it was, there was no guarantee he’d survive the night.

Sesara and Talia followed Gedd out a short while later, and between the four of them, they managed to get Robin inside and onto a bed. Sesara took over, retrieving some kind of leafy green plant from a cupboard before pressing it directly to Robin’s inflamed wound. Medea had doubts as to the leaf’s medicinal efficacy, but it was certainly better than the nothing she’d managed.

Talia brought Medea food at her mother’s bequest, bread and meat they’d been planning to serve for dinner. At first she’d refused to eat, believing herself incapable of forcing it down, but as exhaustion set in it soon became impossible to ignore the allure of her first meal in a long time. She ate slowly, her stomach unused to having anything in it and threatening to reject it all if she didn’t allow it time to settle.

Afterward, Medea drifted in and out of consciousness, too tired to stay awake but too worried and afraid to truly sleep. Robin started awake at some point, bolting upright in bed as he frantically searched for something. Medea had barely uttered the word safe before he’d fallen back into the sheets and lost consciousness again.

Eventually she lost her own battle against sleep and faded into oblivion, dreaming of monsters, headless men with their limbs twisted at wrong angles awaiting in the shadows to dissolve the flesh of unsuspecting prey. When a headless body with severe burns along its side grabbed her, Medea found Robin’s head on the floor, staring up at her with strange runes carved into sightless amber eyes. She begged him to release her, told him how sorry she was… but he wouldn’t listen, and Robin’s severed head kept repeating the same phrase over and over again as the maw opened wide.

Open the door.