Winner NinaKari

The street was far too quiet for our normally bustling neighborhood. To be fair, it was almost 3am but being a night-owl, I knew there were the normal ambiences of our neighborhood, not just the hushed calling of Stella's name coming from my brother.

He whistled for our chihuahua, again calling her name into the night and a sudden chill ran over me that wasn't caused by the warm air. 

Everything seemed still.

No wind. No people. No animals.

My breathing hitched as a familiar yippy bark came from ahead. 

"Goddammit Stella." We muttered simultaneously before looking at each other with caution. 

I was sure his initial anxiety about finding our runaway mut had dissipated and was now replaced with the same concern I held.

Where was everyone?

The yipping continued to echo eerily but neither of us called for her. 

Until her yip cut off abruptly.

"Stela?" Miguel murmured and I clutched his arm. Staring straight ahead rather than into his face that I was sure distraught.

The last yip that rang out was definitely hurt. One of pain and I forced back my own hot tears. 

Something was wrong. This wasn't right. The knot in my stomach and chest told me so. 

"Miguel." His name was strained coming from me and I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath until now. "Don't."

"Pero-"

I hushed him with a sharp shake of my head and a finger to my lips. 

"We needed to get home. Now."

The warm Miami air had turned abnormally chilled, rustling the palms and creaking the colorful buildings with it's light breeze. Strange shadows began to cascade down with the shifting moonlight. Despite it being full, once giving minimal light, now the main source of illumination came from our cells and our shakiness wasn't helping my vision. 

We hadn't moved from our frozen stance, though I could feel him trying to inch away from me, my grip never eased. 

My gaze flecked to movement in front of us. There was someone standing there. Within the darkest part of the shadows, a tall slender figure, no three figures. They loomed. I almost wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't already known they weren't there moments before. 

I flashed the light in their direction but just as quickly as the shadows were there, they were...gone. A shimmer of misty smoke, danced as it was carried away with the wind.

"I saw it." I'd opened my mouth to voice my concern but he'd apparently followed my gaze.

He took a tentative step back, mumbling under his breath the word for Devil in Spanish.

My body shook with the word and I tried to calm myself but failed when I felt my knees tremble.

"Diablo?" He repeated, hand finally taking mine and snapping me out of my frozen state. 

"Vamos." I started to pull him back but he pulled forward with Stella's name just above a whisper. "No. Ahora." 

I repeated my statement of "now" when he looked as if he wanted to plead with me.

I didn't want to leave her either, but it was quiet again. That eerily still quiet that sent chills down my spine, like death himself had caressed his cold fingertips across my back. 

I wasn't sure what had happened to Stella, hell, what had happened to the entire neighborhood, but I wasn't about to stick around and find out. 

Pulling Miguel reluctantly, we turned to go back home but bumped into a fleshy wall causing my shriek to get lodged in my throat and Miguel's to ring loud and shrill. 

We flashed our phones towards it, but it wasn't the Devil coming for our souls, it was Adam our mother's cop boyfriend just coming to retrieve our bodies.

"What are you two doing out here so late?" He scolded in a bad southern accent, though I was sure he was from up north. His badge shined as the light passed over it and reached his square face. "Your mother is worried sick. You shouldn't be out here."

"Stella ran out." Miguel whispered fiercely, face scrunched with dislike for the man pretending to be our father but slowly switching back to concern as he thought about Stella. "We heard-"

"She'll be fine." He nodded towards the way we'd come. "She'll find her way back."

"We heard something," I pressed. He was a cop, he should know what's going on, right? "And saw...something. A shadow. Shadows...where is everyone?"

"Probably asleep. Like you two should be. Like I should be." He mumbled beginning to take my arm but I pulled away. He wouldn't have been sleeping since he was on duty. In this moment, he wasn't Adam: mums annoying boyfriend, he was Detective Smith and he was supposed to protect and serve. 

"You're not understanding." I pressed. "Someone-someTHING got Stella." 

He'd finally taken my arm but paused on dragging us home. Maybe he heard something in my voice that said I was being truthful. Or maybe he knew I was normally the level-headed of our duo. Whatever was going on behind his baby-blue eyes made his bushy brows scrunch and lips purse. 

"Okay." He rubbed his scruffy beard with his hand before raising his flickering flashlight in the direction we'd pointed. "But stay here. Keep the light on me."

There were no arguments from either of us as he walked down the sidewalk briskly.

When he'd gotten to where we'd heard her, Miguel nudged my shoulder, distracted. "Isn't that Norman's corner? He never leaves his spot."

I shone my light in the same direction and noticed a large black smudge under a newspaper blanket. 

When a short manish yelp and a clank came from Adam's direction we flashed our light back towards him but he wasn't there. 

Only his flickering flashlight, rolling down the sidewalk. 

We called his name tentatively, walking his way but no response.

Only a similar black smudge on the ground.

"Miguel. Run."