Chaos erupts.
I stumble forward and fall to the ground, dragging Emily down with me. Feeders shove past us in a panic, and pain flares across my back. They step on me, forcing my head down into the corpses littering the ground.
A cry tears through my crushed lungs, and my hand breaks away from Emily’s as I try to push myself up, only for someone else to trample me, pressing my face into a dismembered torso.
My breathing becomes laboured, and I desperately claw my hands into the torso and drag myself out. When I look up, dark blue eyes come into focus before I understand Jax is heading for me, shoving people away. Grabbing my arm, he pulls me to my feet and reaches for my cheek, only to shove me back as a leathery blur leaps past and into the swarm of people at the wall of the courtyard.
“Cole?” I call out, whirling around and scanning the mess until I find him scrambling out from under a table. “Have you seen Emily?”
As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I see her on the ground. Blood seeps from her head, and wide, horrified eyes stare vacantly at me. Her face is twisted in horror, and the side of her skull is caved in.
“Let’s move!” Jax grabs our hands and leads us into the kitchen. When we reach the door, he lets go of our hands and pulls out a bloody keycard, pressing it against the screen. A red symbol appears, and “Access denied” echoes robotically throughout the kitchen.
“Fuck me dead and hang my balls out to dry,” Jax growls, pressing the card to the screen again, only to be met with the same message. “Why the fuck isn’t it working?”
My focus drops to the keycard, and I notice blood smears across the barcode. “Clean it. You need to clean it, Jax.”
His lip curls as he mutters a curse before spitting on the card and rubbing it with his sleeve.
“Saya.” Cole tugs on the sleeve of my bloodied gown.
I turn, releasing a shaky breath as I take in the monster at the kitchen door. It scrutinises us, its head tilted to the side, drool dripping from its slack jaw as it prowls closer.
Grabbing Jax’s arm, I say, “Don’t open the fucking door. This one’s smart. It wants to escape and is waiting for you to open the door.”
“Shit,” Jax seethes, handing me the keycard. “If I tell you to leave without me, open the door and get the fuck out. The only reason I was able to kill the other one was because I got the jump on it.”
I hand Cole the keycard and step in front of him.
Jax spins the stake in his hand and stretches his neckwith an audible crack. When the monster realises we aren’t opening the door, it hisses and edges closer to us.
“Okay, motherfucker. Show me what you got,” Jax taunts.
The monster lunges, its clawed hands gripping the side of the oven to launch itself towards Jax. It swipes a leather-winged hand at Jax, but he steps back as he jabs his weapon forward. The creature hisses and recoils, seemingly scared of the piece of wood. As it flinches away, the eyes on the creature’s shoulders lock onto us.
“Oi,” Jax yells, waving his arms to catch the creature’s attention, but it leaps over him and charges towards us.
A cool breeze sweeps across my back. Cole has the door wide open, and he grabs my arm, pulling me down to my knees as the creature leaps over us and makes its escape.
Jax appears behind us and says, “I’ll let my brother know, and the slayers will hunt it down. Let’s hope it can’t walk in the sun. Now, come on. We’re nearly out.”
I gaze in the direction the monster vanished, but my breath catches at the sight of the night sky. Beyond the clusters of stars, the moon is dripping red. The milky outline of a woman tenderly cradles the crescent moon, her body curving with it, naked and exposed to the red light. Parts of her chip away, leaving blackened, cracked holes across her body.
“The red moon,” Cole whispers.
“Mother,” I murmur.
“Mother?” Cole says, looking away from the sky and toward me.
Jax grabs Cole’s other hand. “We can look at the moon later. Let’s get the fuck out of here!”
We make our way to the bent and twisted gate, as if a truck passed through when it was closed. My heart pounds in my chest as I step over the line marking the boundary between the Feeding Ground and the city beyond. The weight of what happened sits heavily on my chest.
Manni.
Emily.
Even Dan.
