The storeroom off the back of the bar was dim and dusty; as desolate and lifeless as the rest of the town. The slight creak of the door shutting behind us made us both cringe. Gwyn grabbed my hand as I reached out to latch the door behind us, motioning for me to be silent. Drawing her gun with one hand, she rummaged in her pocket with the other and drew out a stone on a long cord; crouching, she stuck a loop on the end over her thumb and tossed the stone. It clattered across the concrete floor noisily, coming to a stop some 15 feet away. Both of us stayed motionless, straining to hear anything in the silence that followed. A few seconds went by. Five. Ten. Twenty.
Nothing happened.
I let out a whoosh of breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding as Gwyn stood. “Clear.” She said, “Still, pull the latch behind us, just in case.” I did as she hopped down the three steps, casting a brief appraising eye around us.
“Doesn’t seem to be much here,” she said with a sigh as she walked over to the stone.
“Still, make yourself useful and look around-” she continued, picking up the stone and winding the cord around it before sticking it back in her pocket “maybe we can find something that makes this whole trip worth i-”. Her words were cut off by a low snarl that rose into a high-pitched, shrieking whine that sent icy shivers down my spine.
I knew that cry.
Gwyn’s gaze flicked off to her right.
“Fuck.” She breathed, then whipped around, raising her gun to fire. Not quick enough.
The creature hit her full on, tackling her to the floor. God knows what happened to her gun- I reached for mine before remembering she’d disarmed me when we met.
“Kid!” Gwyn grunted as the thing gnashed it’s teeth at her, her hand clamped around it’s throat the only thing keeping it from making her a meal. “Any time!”
Frantic, I looked around before my eyes fell on a crowbar stowed on the shelf next to me. Grabbing it, I ran up and swung with all my might, slamming it across the creature’s back.
It shrieked, reeling up- and turned to look straight at me.
A cold terror washed over me, paralyzing me as I stared into those mad red and gold eyes in the blue-tinted, pale face. It snarled again, Gwyn forgotten, and turned, ready to pounce- and crumpled to the ground, the hilt of a knife protruding from the back of its skull.
Gwyn stared down at it, breathing heavily. Reaching down, she grasped the hilt and wrenched the knife free before looking back up at me, one eyebrow raised.
“Took you long enough.”
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