Masako tensed, her instincts kicking in as she released her daughter’s hands and pushed both out of harm’s way, unleashing her own energy to help them break from the pressure coming from the beast, then dove past the slashing, snarling beast as it lunged forward.

  All of them tumbled in different directions, the two daughters falling in awkward motions, splashing and scraping against wet ground.

  Masako rolled to a knee, clenching her jaw as her heart raced.

  The werewolf crashed into the ground in a heap of wetness and clamoring. It shook its body and was picking itself up when she turned to her daughters, her heart sinking for their safety as she moved to drag both up and away from the beast. Her desperation kicked in to ensure their safety, not caring if she was harsh or loud.

  She grasped Katherine’s shoulders in a jerking manner, her voice sharp and quick. “Katherine! I need you to focus and do what I say.”

  Katherine nodded, frozen and shivering in fear. She knew this was a tense and urgent moment. A dire one. She could see it in her mother’s face, sense it in her bones. One where things were going wrong, and quickly. “O-okay.” The look in her mother’s eyes and the way she spoke also told her it was serious.

  “I need you to take your sister’s hand, and run. Don’t look back. Pull her as hard as you can, and go.” She glanced over Katherine’s shoulder as the beast spun around and readied itself for another strike. “Drag her kicking and screaming. Carry her if you must. Run all the way home. Don’t look back and do not stop for anything, you hear me?”

  Katherine jerked, looking like she was going to cry. Masako was being harsh, but she had to be. She calmed herself for a quick moment. “Close and lock the door. I’ll be right behind you, okay?” She smiled a warm smile, a smile that Katherine would always remember. Something warm and reminiscent. Something she’d mourn because it would be the last time she would see it, even if she didn’t know it at that moment.

  “But mom, I—"

  “Do as I say, Katherine!” she snapped.

  Katherine looked like she wanted to cry again.

  Abigail was already crying, frozen in fear, perhaps even soiling herself because this thing was not a friendly, cuddly dog. No, it wanted to eat, to devour, and enjoy, and part of her little mind knew this as prey often do on an instinctual level, even if she was just a child. “Mommy, I’m scared. I wanna go home.” And the tears, much like the rain, flowed as she gripped her mother’s clothes.

  Masako turned to her with a sweet smile like a toasty fire. She touched her face tenderly. “You and Katherine need to go, and I want you to run as hard as you can, as fast as your legs can take you, okay, baby?”

  Abigail nodded but sounded reluctant and sad. “But, mommy. I don’t want to leave you.” She hugged her mother tight, and Masako, with a peeling reluctance, pried the crying girl from her, even though it hurt, she knew it’d be all right, as she had done this before, countless times. Fought Corrupted and absorbed them. It wasn’t her time just yet. She’d be fine, and so would they, but only if they left now.

  She glanced over their shoulders to see the beast ready to leap into action. Then back to Katherine and gave her a stern look. “Go, now!” Then she turned and stepped between her daughters and the Corrupted, standing strong, proud, and true.

  The Corrupted sprang into action, bounding through the air, reaching out with a claw, snarling and snapping as it did. Masako pushed her daughters away with her abilities, knocking them down, hard. Wounds and cuts and bruises would heal, even though it killed her to have done that. She had saved them again, though, but took a hit from the beast’s slashing strike as she had diverted her energy, and thus lowered her guard, to knock her daughters back.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  She fell to a knee with a grunt from the impact of slashing, sharp claw across her stomach.

  Katherine and Abigail tumbled to the ground with a hard thud, scrapping knees and elbows. Abigail wailed in agony, but Katherine shook it off, not sure if she was bleeding or both were bleeding or more.

  She took her little sister’s hand, and ran.

  What else could she do? Stick around and be devoured by that thing. Her fear kicked in, as well as her duty to obey her mother. So, she grabbed Abigail’s hand and tugged her, crying as she did, not knowing what would happen. Running out of fear, and doing whatever she could to survive. Part of her wanting to stop, to tell Abigail to run and hide, and then she’d go back and help her mom somehow because she had a sinking feeling. A terrible feeling she’d never see her again. But her fear and survival instinct pulled her away, and she yanked on Abigail with all she had.

  The Corrupted spun around and let out a low growl as it narrowed its eyes on Masako, glancing toward where the daughters had run.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” Masako spat with disdain as she’d die to keep her daughters safe, even if she was wounded.

  She met the Corrupted as it charged after her daughters, cutting it off in its tracks. She summoned her Switch, the thing that allowed her to fight creatures like this, her powers bestowed to her by the Covenant of the Switch Guardianship. She gripped the black-handled axe with its read head in her fingers. The power pulsed through her, and she engaged a Limit Barrier with her Switch that formed around her and the creature, enveloping them both in a bright light.

  . . .

  Katherine and Abigail burst through the door of their condo, their bodies and hair dripping wet as they slipped around and frantically called for their father. Abigail raised a hand to her face, noticing something wet and warm. A red substance. Blood? Was it hers? She’d fallen before, cut herself, bled, and remembered how much it hurt. This hurt even more, knowing that it could be hers, or maybe mama’s. Her eyes went wide as she glanced down at her clothing to see that some of it was on her clothes. Where did that come from? Horrified, Katherine checked her, but there were no wounds on her body, save for a scrape on the elbow and knee and chin.

  There was more blood than there should have been.

  Katherine’s eyes went wide with realization. Their mother must have been wounded by that thing, because it wasn’t from either of them.

  Her heart sunk. “No.”

  Abgail suddenly burst into a waterfall of wailing tears, not caring about her scrapes as she wiped blood and wetness from the sleeve of her arm across her face while she shuddered uncontrollably. Katherine knelt next to her, trying her best to console her little sister, calling for their father again, her voice screeching and cracking.

  Richard burst out of the bathroom, dashed down the hallway, and slid to their sides.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, worry etched on his face. He looked around and blinked. “Where’s your mother? And, what’s with this blood?” They were so wet, and crying, and bloody…?”

  “Momma!” Abigail wailed.

  Richard checked them, noticing that save for a few bruises and cuts, they couldn’t have bled that much. Still, what had happened?

  When he met Katherine’s eyes, a terrible, sinking feeling hit him.

  “Watch your little sister!” It wasn’t a question.

  He grabbed his jacket and an umbrella and stumbled to the doorway, turning around to look at Katherine again, both of their eyes wide with terror as if sharing the terrible realization that something horrible had happened. “Stay with your sister and don’t leave. I-I’ll be back soon. With your mom. Keep your sister safe and lock the door behind me.”

  The door slammed and he was gone, vanishing into the rainy night, the sobs of Abigail filling the silence.

  Katherine stood, white as a ghost, eyes wide, staring at the door. Her lip quivered, her eyes glazed over. She yearned to follow her father, to see her mother, to do something to help her because deep down inside she had a sinking feeling that she’d never see her again. Yet she didn’t move. The door felt so far way, like it was moving from her as Abgail held steady and bawled. There was a small part of her, a deepness in her heart that whispered for her to join him, to follow him, told her there was still time, but the terror kept her there. The complete and utter horror that hits someone when they are faced with a deathly situation like she had. And she was just a kid. And the door was like a black void of nothingness, and the fear hit her in her bones and heart and being.

  She hugged Abigail, a feeling of emptiness falling over her, knowing that she wanted to go, but not moving at all. And with that thought, that knowing, tears streamed down her face as she whispered for him not to go, lifting an arm toward the door—a futile gesture.

  “Don’t go. Please. But…” Her lip quivered. “Bring back mom.” But he hadn’t heard her as he was already gone.