I could still hear the crashing from downstairs, Danny’s voice like a wild animal, Misfit’s footsteps weaving through it, never stopping. She was keeping him busy, giving us this chance. We reached the door. I threw it open with my shoulder and burst out into the street, cold air slicing across my face.
I yanked the passenger door open and helped Squeeks in, checking her seatbelt like some part of me still believed in normality. In stupid, mundane safety. Her petite frame curled up, silent tears carving fresh lines down her cheeks. I shut the door abruptly, keeping her inside that bubble. My stomach churned, bile rising. I’d never seen a body like that before. I’d never heard Squeeks sound like that before. I pressed my forehead to the cold glass of the car window, stealing one more moment to gather myself, one more second before my life would change forever. If this was my chance to end him, I was going to fucking take it.
Turning from the car, I rested my hands on my knees, taking deep breaths and trying to get my feet to move. My eyes snapped towards the house when I heard it. A high-pitched, ear-piercing scream. My legs instantly set out into a sprint towards the door. “Misfit!”
Bolting through the house, until I reached the kitchen.
I froze.
The moment I stumbled through the doorway, every fibre in my body locked in place. It wasn’t fear; it was something colder, deeper. Like my soul recognised what I was seeing before my brain caught up. My breath caught in my throat as my eyes fixed on the scene.
Misfit's face had contorted into a dangerous grin as she pulled herself up from in front of Danny, her chest rising and falling in quick, uneven bursts. And between her and Danny was... it.
I didn’t know what the fuck I was looking at. It loomed in the low kitchen light, a shadowy silhouette drawn from every childhood nightmare I never dared to speak aloud. Its body rippled like living smoke, impossibly dark, barely held together. The only solid thing was those eyes. Gleaming white and unblinking, fixed on Danny like a predator already tasting the kill. Danny was crumpled on the floor, his face twisted, tight with fear, his mouth moving without sound. I’d never seen him like that. Not furious or violent. Terrified.
“I guess the Demon is out of the bag,” she shrugged her shoulders like this was all fucking normal. “He’s hurt you. And I can’t let that slide.”
My gaze flicked between them, void of all words.
She honed back onto Danny as the demon at her side taunted Danny with its burrowing stare.
“What—what the fuck is that?” His fear-drenched words were hurled towards her.
Misfit gave a short laugh, “That, is the last thing you’ll ever see.” Stepping away from him.
I took in this stranger wearing Misfits face. She was enjoying this, revelling in his terror.
“You shouldn’t have touched me. You shouldn’t have hurt him.” A predatory growl accompanied her words.
“Please—”
“Oh no,” she cut him off, chuckling to herself. “No begging. Not from you. You don’t get mercy. You get me.”
That’s when the weight of it started to settle, the command in her high-pitched whistle, that… thing responding like a fucking hound. My heart hammered in my chest so hard I thought I’d pass out; its smoke-like form slithered its way toward Danny.
I flinched at the violence in its subtle movements. Not wild or chaotic, but precise.
Controlled.
As if it were answering a call, it had waited a long time to hear.
Danny’s scream pierced the house like a blade to the skull. I staggered backwards a step. The sound wasn’t just pain; it was terror—total, soul-crushing terror. It didn’t merely enter him; it invaded, sinking beneath the surface, swallowing him from the inside out. And then came the noises.
God.
The snapping. The cracking of bones like dry sticks underfoot. Muscles tearing. Danny’s body convulsed like a puppet with its strings cut and rewired. Every part of it looked wrong. Twisting, bending, melting. Like his insides were being rebuilt by a hand that didn’t understand how humans were supposed to look.
I didn’t look at Misfit. I didn’t want to see the pure evil in her face. Didn’t want to find out if this was something she’d done before, if she meant for me to see it now. Because something in me broke, watching that.
Danny had been a monster, but this was different. This was a kind of horror I couldn’t even find a word for.
The worst part?
It wasn’t in a rush.
It wanted Danny to suffer. I should’ve turned and run, should’ve gotten in that car with Squeeks and disappeared. But I didn’t. I just stood there, the smell of blood and burning airfilling my lungs and realised something I couldn’t shake, I didn’t know who Misfit was anymore.
Blood poured from Danny’s face, his nose, his eyes, his ears. It carved its way down his cheeks in thick, dark lines. And still, that thing kept going.
