Reid slinks through the dark on the way to the last cache. The remaining glow from the fire has dimmed as the building crumbles in on itself. He gags on a waft of smoke that the breeze carries to him and freezes when the whole side of the station gives way with a rumble and hiss of sparks. The light rises again briefly and Reid takes a good look around.
The hunters are gone. Nothing moves but what’s left of the fire. He refuses to let his eyes settle on the four small bodies, tossed aside like over used toys and left to rot on the street. He can’t mourn them yet, can’t think about sweet little Megan with her enormous eyes and her squeaking mouse voice. He has two idiots to chase down first.
He eases around the side of the house he uses for cover and traces his path through its shadow all the way around the back. The tree line starts almost immediately but he avoids the woods, keeping low and close. The place Cole showed him on the rough map is right next door, the back porch sheathed in darkness. He waits and listens and it’s not long before he’s rewarded for his patience.
Cole and Marcus slide out of the dark and briefly through a patch of light that shines between the two houses. They are heading right for Reid so he waits for them, watching their backs, something they fail to do. And that’s why they miss the hunter who oozes out of the night behind them, its sharp teeth bared in a smile, one clawed hand raised to attack.
Reid has no choice if he wants to save them, not thinking or considering what he is doing will most likely get him killed. He leaps from the shadow of the house and into the light himself, ignoring Cole and Marcus who gape at him like he’s lost his mind. Because he’s sure he has when he gives the hunter the finger and laughs out loud, adrenaline surging through his body.
“Over hear, freak!”
He doesn’t wait to see if it follows him but runs instead, praying it’s enough, that Cole and Marcus are able to escape, that the hunter will take the insult personally and go after him.
He knows he’s succeeded when he hears Cole call after him.
“Reid! Run!”
Like he’s not already. But his instincts take that information and force him to change course. And just in time. He feels a whoosh of air rush by his face, sees a flash of a claw in the streetlight. Close, so close. But he is still unharmed and able so he runs on.
He swerves between two houses and into the dark again, rapidly finding a new direction while he hears a chuffing of air behind him. The hunter is so close he can smell the blood on its breath.
Reid is dead. One more step and the hunter will have him.
“Over here, ugly!”
Marcus. Reid sees the guy appear out of the corner of his eye, waving his arms at them, just on the edge of the light.
Reid jumps on the moment of distraction and uses it. He spins and goes back the way he came as the hunter rushes past him, missing yet again. Reid dodges between two cars and down the side of the driveway, throwing himself into a patch of bushes. He squirms under them, to the next yard and comes face to face with a parked car. The trunk is open a bit and, on impulse, he dives in and pulls the lid shut behind him.
Reid leaves just enough of a gap to see through, cursing himself for letting the hunter corner him like this. He shifts position gently, feels something dig into his hip and wriggles around until he can lift it free. The tire iron sparkles in the thin light filtering through the gap.
At least he has a weapon. Two, actually. His fingers find and release the knife he dug out of the dirt in the mine. He considers it before putting it back in his pocket. The tire iron will do. Not like he expects to survive this fight anyway.
He is panting and only then realizes how loud his breathing is. Reid forces himself to slow his inhales, trying to calm his pounding heart at the same time. But fear won’t let him. It only gets worse when he hears the soft scrape of something hard against the top of the trunk, like fingernails over a chalkboard. The hunter chuffs softly through the gap, taunting him. He can smell it now, the musk of it, mixed with the scent of old blood and death.
Reid can’t stand it anymore. He grips the iron with both hands and draws a breath to yell a battle cry when the trunk whips open and the hunter is there, grinning down at him.
Reid strikes without hesitation, the thick tube of steel taking the creature on the temple. It goes down with a grunt of surprise, collapsing half in the trunk with him. He scrambles over it, sneakers digging into its ribcage for leverage, while it tries to claw at him and haul him back. But blood is gushing from its head and it can’t seem to get its weight under it.
Reid lands hard on the pavement, turning and hitting it again on the backs of the knees. Once. Twice. The third time drives it down to the ground beside him, silver eyes staring up into his as he beats it again and again.
The light flickers in its eyes at last and goes out. As it does, the hunter’s body collapses into a heap of dust, glittering briefly in the bit of moonlight above. Reid collapses next to the remains, a wash of the stuff flying in his face, sucked deeply into his aching lungs as he fills them with air.
It’s like he’s been injected with super powers. Reid feels instantly calm and in control, his weary body full of energy again. Fire spreads through his body, but these flames are cold and full of power. He stares down at what’s left of the hunter and remembers another instance, when Leila killed the creature Joel sacrificed Reid to, and the miraculous recovery of his injuries after that.
He doesn’t have time to think about it any longer, to wonder about how his body is suddenly feeling. Marcus and Cole materialize out of the dark and grab him, hauling him bodily after them as they flee into the forest. Reid pulls away from them, high from the rush of his returned vigor, and easily outruns them, wanting to shout in joy and laugh out loud as he leads them on, all the way back to the waiting kids.
***