Where monsters roam

I stood, frozen to the ground, watching in horror as the wall that had protected us for so long came under attack. A shadow beast roared behind it, latching onto the top and pulling down on the bricks till the topmost ones crumbled away. Another paw reached up, claws glistening in the faint light of the setting sun, and pulled off another set of bricks and mortar.

Someone crashed into me suddenly and I stumbled backwards. People were running everywhere, fleeing from the beast, surging towards the only other place they could think of; the other side of our village, furthest from the monster. The only problem was that they would come face to face with a second wall, one that stood immensely high and was made out of chain link, not stone or brick, and that I now knew surged with current. The chain link around our village was five times higher than the one I had come across past Death Trap.

A scream snapped me back to the present. I thought at first it was a child, then I realised the monster had made it. It was guttural and wild, almost bloodthirsty. That sound could not have been made by a human.
“Fulgora, what are you standing there for?”
I turned; Kari had stumbled her way out of the house and was cocking her head slightly. Her unfocused eyes wandered, but I was almost sure her full attention was on me.
“What should we do?” I asked, “What can we do?” My frantic eyes turned back to the beast.

My heart skipped a beat. The cold black eyes of the thing, surrounded by a lighter shade of grey, were staring straight at me.
“Kari...” I said slowly, before she had time to reply, “it’s staring straight at me...”
“What is? What are you talking about, Fulgora?”
I felt a sudden stab of pity for Kari then. She probably hadn’t known what was going on this whole time.
“There’s a monster breaking down the wall, and it’s staring straight at me!”
Kari moved suddenly, faster than I’ve ever seen her move before. She was right beside me in a second, her right hand in a fierce grip around my upper arm. I winced slightly, and I knew she heard, but she ignored it.
“Fulgora, when it breaks down the wall, you must lead it to the chain link fence. That’s what you did to the other one, isn’t it?”
I didn’t even think about how she’d worked that out, I just nodded with my mouth hanging open slightly. I can only imagine how dumb I looked, and then realised Kari couldn’t see me.
“Yes,” I managed to croak out.
The head of the beast disappeared back behind the wall. I watched, waiting for the claw to reach back up and chip away at a few more bricks. So you can imagine it came as a shock when a thick fist pounded straight through the wall like it was tissue paper. Bricks fell, dust appeared, and a screech of a roar tore through the air.
“Run, Fulgora!” Kari cried.
I couldn’t run. My feet wouldn’t move. All this time, the shadow beasts had the power to break down the wall in a second, but they had waited till now to do it. My slow mind was trying to work this out, trying to figure what it meant...
“FULGORA!”

Hands shoved me sideways, breaking my concentration. I turned away; ready to sprint for the wall, feeling the current pound through me as I breathed in deep. It was something Kari had taught me a while ago. The slower and deeper I breathed in, the stronger the current felt inside me, and the slower the rest of the world seemed.

I was faster than anything.