Chapter 86 Kristen
"Move!" Anna's hand clamped around my wrist and yanked me forward so hard I nearly lost my footing. We were running before I could process what was happening, swept up in the tide of panicked bodies flooding away from whatever was making the ground shake.
BOOM.
The impact rippled through the earth and up through my legs. I stumbled, my ankle turning, but Anna caught me before I went down completely.
"Don't stop!" she shouted over the screams.
The park had transformed into chaos. Families abandoned their picnic blankets, food and toys scattered across the grass. Joggers sprinted past us without their usual controlled pace, just pure survival instinct. A woman dropped her stroller and I watched in horror as someone else grabbed it mid-fall and kept running with the baby still inside.
BOOM.
Closer. It was always getting closer, and I still couldn't see what it was. My lungs were burning, each breath coming sharp and painful as we ran. I looked back over my shoulder, searching for the source of the tremors, but all I could see were trees swaying violently and birds exploding from the canopy in massive black clouds.
BOOM.
A tree cracked with a sound like a gunshot. I watched it fall in what felt like slow motion, the massive trunk crashing across the path we'd just been on. If we'd been five seconds slower, we would have been crushed. The realization made my stomach drop even as my legs kept pumping.
People screamed louder, the sound splitting the air. Deidre was somehow ahead of us despite her age, moving with surprising speed. The golden key bounced against her chest with each stride, catching the sunlight and throwing off sparks of that strange internal glow.
"This way!" she shouted, veering left off the main path.
We followed, cutting through the grass. My shoe caught on something, a root or a rock, and suddenly I was going down. My hands hit the dirt hard, the impact jarring up through my wrists.
Anna spun back. "Kristen!"
BOOM.
The impact was so strong I felt it in my teeth, the vibration rattling through my jaw and skull. I scrambled up, dirt under my fingernails, heart hammering so hard it hurt.
"I'm fine, go!"
We kept running, past the playground with its abandoned swings still swaying, past the empty basketball courts where someone had left a ball rolling in lazy circles. My legs felt like they were made of lead, each step harder than the last.
BOOM.
Something roared.
The sound cut through everything else, through the screaming and the pounding of feet and the rush of blood in my ears. It wasn't human. It wasn't animal. It was something else entirely, something that made every primitive instinct in my body scream at me to run faster, hide, disappear.
The sound was raw and furious and hunting. I could hear the intention in it, the terrible purpose.
What the hell is that thing?
We reached the fountain plaza and Anna stopped so abruptly I almost crashed into her back.
"We can't..." she gasped, looking around at the wide open space. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to take cover. Bad tactical position, and I didn't even know how I knew that, but I did.
CRASH.
The tree line exploded. Wood splintered and flew through the air like shrapnel. Something massive broke through the barrier of oaks and maples, tearing through them like they were made of paper.
And I saw it.
Oh God.
It was twenty feet tall at least, its body covered in skin that looked like stone, gray and textured and wrong. Wings were folded against its back, massive leathery things that would probably span forty feet if it spread them. Its claws were the size of swords, curved and sharp and gleaming.
A gargoyle.
But not like anything I'd ever seen in books or movies or my worst nightmares. This was real. This was breathing, its massive chest rising and falling with each breath. This was moving with terrible, deliberate purpose.
Its head swiveled slowly, scanning the fleeing crowd. Its eyes glowed with a faint white light that made my skin crawl.
Someone screamed, a high piercing sound of pure terror.
The gargoyle's head snapped toward the noise with inhuman speed. It lunged forward and grabbed a man who'd been trying to help an elderly woman. Just reached out with one massive claw and lifted him off the ground like he weighed nothing.
"No..." The word came out of me before I could stop it.
I started forward but Anna yanked me back hard enough to make my shoulder ache.
"Don't!"
The gargoyle tossed the man aside. He hit a tree with a sickening crunch and crumpled to the ground. He didn't get up. Didn't move. I stared at his still form and felt bile rise in my throat.
No no no.
The creature kept moving, stepping over people who'd fallen in their panic to escape. It was searching for something, its glowing eyes sweeping across the chaos methodically.
"We can't keep running," I said, my voice shaking so badly I could barely get the words out. "We have to do something."
Anna's face had gone pale, all the color drained away. "Like what?!"
I didn't have an answer. I didn't have powers. I didn't have weapons. I didn't have anything except the sick certainty that people were dying and we were just running away.
Anna exhaled hard, her breath coming out in a visible puff even though it wasn't cold. "There's... one thing I can try."
She turned to face the fountain, raising her hands. The water stopped mid-flow, drops suspended in the air like someone had hit pause on reality. Then it froze. Ice spread across the fountain faster than should have been possible, the entire structure turning solid and crystalline in seconds.
"Anna..."
She gritted her teeth, her whole body tensing. Her fists clenched and the ice shattered. Giant shards broke free from the fountain, each one the size of a car door, jagged and deadly.
She screamed and threw her hands forward. The ice launched through the air, flying straight at the gargoyle. The shards slammed into its chest with a crack that echoed across the plaza.
The creature staggered backward. Roared. But it didn't fall.
My mouth dropped open. "You can move things?!"
Anna was breathing hard, sweat beading on her forehead despite the cold radiating from her hands. "Just water. And it only happens when I'm really agitated."
She grabbed my arm and started pulling. "So we seriously need to go now."
We ran past benches, past scattered bags and dropped phones, past a child's stuffed bear lying abandoned in the grass. Each detail burned itself into my brain with crystal clarity.
BOOM.
The gargoyle was moving again, and it sounded angrier now. Faster. Its footsteps came quicker, more aggressive.
It swiped at a fleeing couple. The woman screamed as they both went flying, hitting the ground hard enough that I heard the impact even from where I was.
I stopped.
No.
"Kristen!" Anna yelled.
But I couldn't. I couldn't keep running. Couldn't keep watching people get hurt and killed while I saved myself.
"I can't do this." My voice came out strangled, barely recognizable.
Deidre spun around, her face furious. "Are you out of your mind?!"
"We have to save them!"
Anna's eyes were wild with fear. "We can't do anything! We need to..."
"No." My hands curled into fists, my whole body shaking. "I'm tired of running."
I thought of Leo. He would have heard by now. Would be on his way. I knew it with absolute certainty, could almost feel him getting closer.
He's coming.
"We need to help. Buy time until he gets here."
Deidre groaned and looked at Anna, then at the gargoyle. "Congratulations. Your friend is about to get us killed."
Anna started to protest but Deidre raised her hand.
Wind came from nowhere. A gust that hit like a physical wall, strong enough to make me stagger. The gargoyle stopped, its massive head swiveling as it tried to locate the source.
The wind picked up speed, circling faster and stronger. Deidre's hand was trembling, the golden key at her neck glowing so bright it hurt to look at directly. Her eyes were focused with terrible intensity.
The wind formed a vortex around the gargoyle, lifting debris into the air. Grass, leaves, dirt, all spinning in a deadly tornado with the creature trapped in the center. It roared, a sound of pure rage, and tried to move forward. The wind pushed it back.
"Yeah," Anna said breathlessly. "Deidre's an aerokinetic."
The wind spun faster, a true tornado now, and I could see the strain on Deidre's face. "If you're going to do anything, now's your chance!"
I didn't hesitate. I ran toward the chaos, toward the people who were still down and hurt.
"Get up! Move!" I grabbed a woman's arm and helped her stand, pointing toward the exit. "Run!"
I found children huddled near an overturned bench, crying and frozen in fear. I dropped to my knees in front of them.
"Hey, it's okay. You need to run. Can you do that?"
They nodded, terrified but listening.
"Go! That way!"
They scattered, running as fast as their little legs could carry them. All except one. A little boy, maybe seven years old. He tried to run but his foot caught and he fell hard.
No.
"I can't hold it much longer!" Deidre screamed. Her face was red, sweat pouring down her forehead. The wind was starting to waver.
I ran to the boy and grabbed his hand. "Come on, up!" I pulled him to his feet. "Run! Go!"
He took off, stumbling but moving.
The wind stopped.
Just stopped. Like someone had flipped a switch.
Deidre collapsed to one knee, gasping. "I can't..."
The gargoyle dropped, landing hard enough to crack the pavement. Silence fell for one heartbeat. Everything was perfectly still.
Then it stood. Slowly. Its wings unfurled with a sound like leather stretching.
I backed up one step, then two. The creature's head turned, scanning, searching.
Then it saw me.
Its eyes locked onto mine, the white glow intensifying until it was almost blinding. It wasn't looking around anymore. Wasn't searching the crowd.
It was looking at me. Right at me. Only at me.
My blood went cold.
Oh God.