Chapter Seven

It was impossible.

It couldn't be real.

The creature standing before me defied all the logic I had and I found myself wondering, while fear spiked through my heart, how my own imagination could dream up something so terrifying. A monster that was both lovely and grotesque. My breathing became erratic as my brain tried to process the thing that stood towering before me while the headache raged violently against the inside of my skull.

The creature was immense as it stood at least around three metres tall, its hulking body frighteningly brawny and instead of skin it had scales that ran all the way up to its shoulders where tufts of dark matted fur flowed along its shoulders and collar bones like some grotesque scarf while it smiled down at me with a face of such angelic beauty it was almost blinding. That stunning face being coupled with such a bestial body made it all the more difficult for my mind to wrap around the creature as it grinned down at me, seemingly pleased with itself.

I heard a feminine whimper behind me and the grin slipped from the monster's beautiful face as it shifted its violet gaze onto one of the women that stood fear-frozen behind me, an expression of complete disdain passing through its angelic features. Suddenly the creature reached out swiftly, the movement sending currents of air sharply against my skin, as it grabbed Bridget in an impossibly huge meaty hand tipped in sharp, jagged nails. A scream ripped through the strawberry blonde's pink lips as she stared with wide baby blue eyes at the creature holding her captive while it brought her to its face.

The monster hissed at the young woman, its polyphonic voice not as lovely as when it had spoken earlier, while it said, "Shut up! How dare such an insignificant pest such as you make such annoying sounds in my presence?!"

Shadowy tentacles shot forward to whip at the monster, just before Kyriel pushed me behind him and yelled at me to run. I frowned at him and was about to open my mouth to tell him off because something that wasn't real couldn't possibly hurt me when I noticed the terrified sobbing nearby. A sigh escaped my lips as I turned to face the Gibson twins while Kyriel stepped towards the monster; as much as I didn't believe this was real and as much as I disliked Melani and Melana, a part of me - a good part that obviously had impaired judgement - pushed me to save the sisters.

I rushed up to the girls, "Stop crying and run!"

Melana lifted her head from her sister's shoulder to stare at the monster while Melani asked in a terrified voice, "What about Bridget? We can't leave her, can we?"

"You can't do anything for her now! Get moving unless you want to join her!" I shouted at them.

That seemed to shake the Gibsons out of their terror induced stupor and they disentangled from each other, only holding onto the other girl's hand as they started off in the opposite direction of the monster. I followed after them, not bothering to look behind me as I wondered how no one from any of the buildings had come out to see what the commotion was about. The lack of response from any bystanders within the buildings only served to solidify my belief that these monsters and everything else that happened was all in my head. The same head that was being battered by a headache that just seemed to be growing more and more painful by the minute.

If this was real then someone, at least one person, would have taken notice of the noise outside or even someone driving past the university grounds should have seen the monster. The only reason that no one could see it would be that this was all a nightmarish illusion created by my own imagination. It was this belief that allowed me to get my racing heart and breathing under control. I had initially panicked upon seeing the creature, but the more I thought about it the more I realised how impossible any of this was.

However, even this belief did little to keep my heart at a steady pace when an angered cry roared in my ears moments before a huge shadow soared overhead and the monster landed heavily in front of the twins and me. The Gibson sisters shrieked, spun around and bolted again in the opposite direction. The creature turned around to face where I stood, paying the twins no mind as its violet eyes settled on me while it still held an unconscious or possibly dead Bridget in its overly-large meaty hand.

"Oh, no, no, I won't let a delicious morsel such as you get away," its lips parted in a wide grin while its masculine yet also feminine voice sent icy shivers down my spine.

I instinctively took a step back and that unsettling grin widened further as it succeeded in driving fear into my already racing heart. It wasn't real. I just needed to hold onto that truth. It was all in my head. Hallucinations or nightmares couldn't hurt you. Could they? I shook my head as I firmly pushed such doubts from my mind. No, monsters like this weren't real and definitely couldn't hurt me. My heart was a bit less convinced of this than my head was and continued to beat away like it was trying to pound its way through my ribcage.

Suddenly, a beam of bright white light shot down from the sky exploding against the beast's shoulder causing it to cry out in agony and drop Bridget, who would have hit the ground face first if it were not for a man appearing just in time to catch her. I frowned as the man jumped out of the way of a swipe of the creature's meaty hand and rushed over to me. He seemed familiar to me as he plopped the unconscious Bridget on the ground next to me.

"Keep back and look after this innocent soul," he ordered.

I frowned at him wondering if he'd still think Bridget innocent when she woke up and opened that annoying mouth of hers. I also wondered at why he seemed so familiar to me, something about him told me that I had met him before from the white pulsing light spread out from his back like wings to his shoulder length golden hair and pale blue eyes all the way to his casual-formal clothing. I studied him as he stepped towards the monster while a shining silver sword materialised into his hand, unable to put my finger onto why he seemed so familiar.

"What the hell are you doing here, Goldie Locks?!" Kyriel demanded as he rushed over to where the blonde man stood.

Goldie Locks? I frowned then gasped as I realised that this man was the same one who had first appeared in the police department building. At least this meant my brain was good at remembering the shit that it made up and had recently decided to plague me with. My head throbbed sharply at the thought that my mind was stringing together imaginary events and beings in order to create some imaginary story and I found it difficult to breathe as I realised that I must have hit my head harder than I had first thought and that this must really be some coma induced world that my brain had made up for me. The biggest question I had about that though was: why did my brain hate me so much?

The blonde man looked at Kyriel pointedly, "My name is Lukael, dark-born, and I am here to protect that woman as you are obviously failing. Perhaps this will change her mind about you being a saviour and she will finally come with me."

"She would be a fool to trust that a light like you could ever protect her," Kyriel scoffed.

"Excuse me!" I interrupted, "I am standing right behind you, so don't talk about me like I'm not. Also, maybe you two should focus on the giant fucking monster!"

Lukael looked at me wide-eyed, "She certainly has a mouth on her. Is that your doing, dark one?"

"Huh." Kyriel grunted, turning to look at me, "You want that monster dead, princess? Consider it done."

His lips curled up into smirk as he faced the beast who had been observing the two men with a calculated appraisal. Suddenly, a shadowy smoke oozed from the ground beneath Kyriel's feet swirling and shaping itself before compacting into the shape of a two-handed double-edged battle axe. I blinked rapidly, before rubbing my eyes and looking again. Nope. The shadowy axe was now in Kyriel's hands as he shifted it as though testing its weight. I really was insane. Axes don't appear out of weird smoky shadows. Axes of that size don't just appear period.

The monster's lips curled back in a snarl that still seemed somehow lovely due to the impossible beauty of its face. However, the expression did match a lot more with its bestial body which rippled with muscle as it sent a huge fist flying straight at the dark-haired man. I expected Kyriel to be sent flying as though he were made of paper in a breeze, but he deftly moved out of the way and swung down with the axe; however, the attack did little more than leave a mildly deep scratch in the monster's scaled arm.

The monster roared in anger, lifting its massive fist high before bringing it down with the intention of squishing Kyriel flat. Its attack was cut short as another shaft of white light shot down from the sky and I realised that it looked very similar to lightning. This attack also exploded as it hit the creature's arm causing it to cry out in agony as well as anger. I glanced at the blonde man, Lukael, only to see him standing there calmly with his sword pointed towards where the mysterious lightning had struck the beast.

Kyriel snapped at Lukael, "I didn't ask for your help, holy pigeon!"

"I was merely taking opportunity while this beast was distracted," the blonde man shrugged.

The polyphonic voice of the monster snarled dangerously, "How dare such an insolent speck such as you call a mighty demon of pride such as myself a beast?! You are nothing to me but an annoyance that must be put down!"

"Good luck with that, scales," Kyriel snorted.

Lukael said nothing and simply levelled his sword at the self-proclaimed demon as another bolt of white light exploded against the monster's back. Shadowy tentacles followed suit by whipping at the beast and, as I stared, I noticed that each was barbed in sharp downwards curving shadowy blades that chipped at the scales covering the demon's body. The monster shrieked out in pain and anger, its cries almost deafening me and causing the throbbing in my skull to grow even more restless and painful.

Lukael took the opportunity to charge at the demon with his sword, only to be back handed hard and sent flying as the beast recovered faster than the man had obviously expected. Kyriel backed up so that he was standing in front of me as Lukael hit the ground with a rolling thud. The demon breathed out sharply, its exceptionally lovely face mildly marred by the outrage contorting its expression.

I stepped back as it huffed out another angry breath, glancing down at Bridget and wondering if that part of me that lacked judgement would allow me to leave the strawberry blonde to be squished. Even though this had to all be in my head, I didn't particularly relish the idea of being imaginary squished especially since if I really were in a coma, I had no idea if imaginary dying would result in real-world dying.

Lukael picked himself off the ground just as the beast huffed out a final breath of outrage and I saw Kyriel tense as the demon's violet eyes began to glow while black lines etched across its face from its eyes like sickly veins. As I watched this, my headache decided to grow even more intense to the point that it felt as though someone where hammering away at my head in the attempt to split open my skull and I felt dizziness trying to take a hold of me as I took another step back from the beast.

Suddenly a feeling of static filled the air as Lukael's eyes widened and he charged towards where I stood next to Bridget, shouting for me to move. The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion as the throbbing increased to an almost blinding level within my skull.

Kyriel settled into a defensive stance while shadowy smoke circled around him forming the barbed tentacles. Lukael was shouting at me to get away while he tried to dive for the incapacitated Bridget. The demon's skin began to flicker with arcs of electricity and its meaty hands were aimed straight at Kyriel just before streaks of lightning shot forward. Lastly, a translucent wall of glittering grey smoke coalesced in front of Kyriel seconds before the lightning hit it in a blinding explosion.