Mia didn't take her eyes off of it. "Does anyone have a plan?"

"It's getting closer," I whispered, holding out an arm in front of them as it lumbered toward us.

"Don't move," Elize said.

"What?" Mia snapped.

"Don't move until I say so."

"How fast can those things run?" I asked.

Elize shook her head. "I'm not good with numbers, you know that. Just...wait." She gripped my shirt and a chill went down my spine. The monster eyed us hungrily. Was it going to kill us and just kill us? Or would it eat us? Or-whatever. All of that was blocked from my mind when it started running straight at us.

"Don't worry, don't worry," Elize kept repeating to us. It didn't sound like she was saying it to reassure herself at all.

"Uhh, Elize," I stuttered as it ran to us. Her grip on my shirt started to hurt.

It came closer, and closer, and closer to the point that my breathing hitched. In a fraction of a second, the creature would reach us and we'd be pressed against the wall. Then my back hit the wall, but not the one we were facing away from. Elize had pushed all of us to the side so the monster crashed against the barrier.

While it steadied itself, Elize gripped her katana, I took the sheath, and Mia grasped her knife. Elize made the first move and swung her katana, but it retaliated and pounced. The only thing keeping its teeth away from her face was the blade.

Mia was hesitating where to stab it. Elize's arms were too close for a proper aim for Mia's knife. I jabbed it in the stomach and once it was off Elize, Mia stabbed the monster and it screeched. I flinched at that, still holding the sheath. I was afraid I'd break it.

The feeling of monkey limbs squeezing my own was strange. And it hurt. Especially when the monkey body itself was heavier and trying to kill me. I wanted to put it on the floor and pin it down, but it was flailing around too much.

Mia went in to stab it again, but it let go of me so she missed. Elize tried to strike and cut the monster's leg as it jumped off and used Elize by jumping onto her back, then off to Mia.

Mia cursed, dropping her knife at a failed attempt at stabbing it. When the monster was back on the floor, it was panting with that weird blood dripping onto the cement.

With her knife clattering on the ground, it took its chance and pounced, pinning her against the pillar and pushing her face back. I heard Elize scream as my mind clouded with panic.

I did something really, really impulsive next, and RenRen still hasn't forgiven me for it. So, er, yikes.

I ran straight at the monster, then at the last second, turned my body so I hit it shoulder first. I got it off Mia and the impact made both of us roll on the floor, but somehow I managed to use my elbow to pin it to the wall.

It felt like the world shook under me at that moment, when it growled and snapped its teeth at me. My brain would have screamed if it had a voice. Well, that's what it felt like, anyway. I grabbed the thing closest to me-something shiny-and drove it into the monster's face just as its teeth was about to graze my skin.

"Holy—holy shit," I panted, backing away. Someone cried out and told me to move out of the way, and I did. The next thing I knew was that the monster's neck was slit already, mouth hanging open. Elize stood in front of it with her katana hanging at its side.

"Oh my god, si Mia," She said.

Mia was curled up against the wall, two hands on the back of her head. Her eyes were shut tight and she was groaning.

"Mia! You okay? Mia, what happened?" I asked.

She looked up at me and removed her hands. "I just...I just hit my head, it just hurts."

"Let's go back to your house and get ice," Elize suggested.

Mia shook her head. "No. No, let's go to Aerron's house."

Elize and I exchanged a glance and I realized Mia was probably the only one with a good relationship with him. I annoyed Aerron (though that was on purpose) and Elize liked him too much to be her loud, outgoing self. And what was Mia going to do there anyway?

She was walking fine and didn't seem to have trouble seeing things or remembering events. Though, she did reach back and graze the back of her head with her fingertips every now and then and flinch. Elize and I asked her questions, just to be sure she didn't have a concussion or anything.

"Where do you live?"

"In my house, obviously."

"Who are we?"

"Elize and Diana."

"Elize and Diana...what?"

"Elize Go and Diana Alberts, I'm fine, I promise!"

"Where is Aerron's house?"

"Just over there," Mia snapped, pointing to a house with a dark front door. That was pretty weird to see since both Mia and Elize's houses had screen doors, both of which I had visited today. "I'm okay, now leave me alone!"

To my complete and utter shock, Laurence opened the door when I knocked. He made a disgusted expression at Elize. "You brought her?"

Elize's casual smile turned into a sour one. "You broke into Aerron's house?"

"Why would I break into someone's house?"

"Because you hate him?"

"I don't hate him! And what would I be doing here anyway?"

"Like, kicking him or something."

Elize took my place and bickered with him and seemed to forget Mia. When I looked past Laurence I could see a black and white counter with someone sitting on it, a kitchen behind it, a couch, and stairs. I sighed when I saw Aerron approaching.

"You're so annoying, you know that?"

Elize did a mocking bow. "Why, thank you."

Laurence scoffed. "What kind of response is that?"

"The right one?"

Mia just stood behind Elize, patiently waiting and not complaining. Her butterfly knife was stuffed in her pocket and her eyes were tired. The back of her head was probably throbbing in pain. The two should have shut up.

"You're so hard to talk to."

"You're saying the same things over and over again, you know that, Laurence?"

Aerron saw Mia, glanced at Laurence and rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but Elize left another snarky comment for Laurence to endure so he shut up. Aerron glanced back behind him and crossed his arms.

"Can't you just let us in?"

"Why should I?"

"Oh my fucking God, Fernandez, this isn't even your house! What are you even here for, to hit someone with a tennis racket?"

"Excuse me?"

"HELLO! Mia is right there!" Aerron said with a lot of force. He gestured to her and finally made the two stop arguing.

I patted Mia's back. "Inside you go."

"Jeez," Aerron muttered. "What happened to you?" He looked Mia up and down.

"She hit her head against a wall," I answered.

Laurence caught up to us with Elize shutting the door. "She what?"

Aerron's eyes traveled over to Elize and stayed there. "I think Mia's not the only one who needs ice."

"Can I...?" RenRen looked over Aerron's shoulder. He nodded.

Aerron slipped his hand under his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "News report, please?"

"Nothing much," Mia said, but I shushed her and pointed to Aerron's couch. She and Elize sat down.

"Wait for whatever RenRen's getting," I said and turned to Aerron. "We went to the parking lot where no one goes to practice with the sword and knife until a monster came and y'know, the usual. A fight went down, someone got hurt."

"Did you win?" Aerron asked Elize.

She stumbled over her words until Mia said, "Yeah, or else we wouldn't be here, dumb dumb."

"That's not nice, Mia," Philip's voice rang out. He sat on the counter still wearing his school uniform like Aerron with his legs crossed. Except Aerron still had his hoodie on, of course. I could just see the white collar peeking out.

"I'm not nice," Mia replied.

"You didn't even say hi to him," I mumbled. Elize waved at him.

"Diana, look, it's you." The lights in the kitchen were turned off, so RenRen's face was illuminated by the light of the freezer. He held up a yellow box. "Danes cheese." I smiled at his corny joke and waved him off.

"Wait, did you find the ice or is there none?" Aerron called as the rustling of plastic sounded through the room. A second later a plastic bag was thrown at his face. He threw it back just as I realized it had ice in it.

Philip caught it before it could get to RenRen and hopped off the counter, passing the ice to Mia. "Ah...Aerron, my foot fell asleep," he said, smiling timidly and leaning against the wall.

"Slap mayonnaise on it or something," Aerron answered.

"Edi gisingin mo," ("Then wake it up,") Elize joked.

I looked around. "Just...keep walking?"

Aerron snapped his fingers, catching my attention again. "Diana. What happened?"

"Uhhh...Long or short version?"

"With details."

"Just say long, ito naman...Anyway, like we said yesterday when you called me and Elize at 2 in the morning—" I shot him a look, "—We were planning on going to Mia's house to practice with the katana and balisong. Then we went to the place-the um, the parking lot and—" I made fists with my hands and swung them in the air.

"Just say practice, 'Ana," RenRen said.

"It's redundant!" I complained. "Then while we were doing that this...thing, I mean, a new thing, another monster came and we kind of...fought until we stabbed it and slit its throat and then when we looked back Mia was curled up and apparently she hit her head."

"That's all?"

Philip was back on the counter, sipping apple juice from a pouch. He pointed to Elize. "Her shirt," he pointed out. "Did anything make it dirty?"

"It just jumped on me." Elize shook her head. "It doesn't hurt. But Diana here pushed it off of Mia by running into it." 

"Sh-she what?!" RenRen stuttered.

"Relax," I assured. "The stick worked well."

"You had a stick and nothing else and you came in full contact with one of the hybrids?"

"Can you not speak in goddamn italics?"

"What did the hybrid look like?" Aerron asked.

"Maybe half of Elize's height, with a monkey's body and the head of, like...I don't know," Mia shrugged, holding the bag of ice to the back of her head. "Like a bear but different."

RenRen sounded disappointed and concerned at the same time. "Half of Elize? Danes, wh..."

Aerron turned to me and said flatly, "What the fuck, Richard?"

I stared at him. "...I'm Diana."

"It's a vine reference!"

"Oi, Aerron," Philip called. He set the pouch down on the counter and looked at the three of us girls. "You said monkey and the head of a bear?"

"Something like a bear," Mia corrected. "Not a bear itself."

"You have apple juice?" I asked Aerron. He pointed to the fridge and told me to help myself. "Oh. Thanks."

"Yeah, yeah," Philip said. "Those two. Two," he repeated, holding up two fingers. "The notebook. Aerron, is it with you?"

"You left it in my room upstairs."

Philip disappeared up the stairs. Elize asked what that was all about.

"It's uh..." Aerron put a hand on the back of his neck. "It's a notebook that we share and we write random things there. It's been useful since the first attack where we record things we see. Before that, it's just been doodles and notes."

"Nerd," I mumbled. He glared at me as Philip came down.

"Okay, okay, it's here," He panted and started flipping through the pages. "It's the third time we've been attacked already, right? So for the past 3 attacks they're all done by monsters that are composed of two animals. Lion and dog, bird and scorpion, and bear-thing and monkey."

RenRen shrugged. "That's why we call them hybrids."

I shushed him. Philip sounded like he was onto something. "Be nice."

"Okay, and?" Elize asked.

Mia sat sideways on the couch so her feet hung off the armrest. Aerron, Philip and I were left standing while RenRen settled himself on the staircase. "Also, are we home alone?"

"Hey, I know that movie!" Elize beamed while Aerron nodded.

"Yeah, we're home alone," Philip repeated. "But do you know what that means?"

Laurence sighed. "Can we skip the questions, please?"

"Shut up," Aerron snapped.

Mia shook her head. "It means we have to be more careful. If being chased by a dog is bad enough with the speed, imagine it with the lion's bite."

Elize, now holding her own pouch of cold juice, shivered. "That was scary."

My best friend frowned. "And you're not at all concerned when you were alone in a parking lot with little experience with a katana today?"

"Things take time to sink in, alright, now shut the fuck up." I struggled to put the straw in the hole of the apple juice pouch, afraid that I'd poke it wrongly. RenRen held out his hand and I reluctantly gave it to him. I joined him on the stairs.

"So, that's one thing done talking about. What about training?" Aerron asked. "Tayo lang ba mag-isa o hindi na?" ("Will we do it by ourselves or not?")

"I think that's up to us to decide," Philip answered. "Y'know, like how our teachers let us do our work individually or in groups."

"This is one hell of a Christmas gift," Mia muttered.

"So, after that, the weapons. Planning it on January will be too late, so we do it now. RenRen and Diana don't have anything yet, right?"

Elize sipper her drink. "They have each other," She joked.

"I have my uh, magic," I said, swinging my fists. Laurence murmured that I have weak arms and I grabbed my juice back from him. "I have my dad's itak, okay? He said I could have it, so I just have to clean it."

"There's a junk shop in Mandaluyong," Aerron said. "Maybe you could go there. Laurence, you go with Diana."

"WHAT?!"

"WHAT?!"

"I mean, you're best friends, so why not."

"No!!"

"Why, are you not over your lo—"

Laurence put his face in his hands. "Okay, okay, fine. Fine. You're okay with it?" He asked me.

I nodded, taking a sip of the apple juice. "Yes. We need someone to go with us, though. Especially because we're buying a blade."

Mia perked up. "I wanna go!"

Philip looked at her. "Please, Mia, you look like you're 8. And we're all 13 here."

I raised my hand. "11."

"14," Aerron said.

"What?" I asked.

"14."

"Can you say that again?"

"No. I'm not falling for this, damn it."

RenRen straightened up. "Yeah, well what about you, Aerron?"

I snickered. "Yeah, I mean you already look like you're 40."

Philip frowned. "Actually, he just looks 17."

Laurence stood up. "Okay, that's perfect. Get in the car, fuckers. We're going shopping." He went for the door.

"Wait!" I said. "Where are you going?"

"Home?"

"Come back." Elize pulled him back and made him sit on the couch. I sat on the floor and looked up at Aerron.

"I think that's all," He said.

"Uh, one last thing," Mia said. "How long are we gonna keep this up?"

I could feel the tension in the air and in the silence when she asked that. We all hesitated until Philip spoke up, then the responses flowed on from there.

"Until we know all that we can about them," He answered.

"Until things are set right," I said.

Laurence glanced at the ground. "Until we have stronger people on our side and until we know where they came from."

Aerron crossed his arms again. "Until they're all gone."

"As long as we need to and as long as we can!" Elize beamed. I smiled at her determination.

"Yeah," I chuckled. "For as long as we need to."