The bright moon pierced through the clouds, and beneath it, a hell was closing in. The forest roared as the calm dissolved.
"No, I can't." Laura refused outright.
"Mom, please...! If I do it alone, I could—"
BOOM. The door flew off its hinges, and Tirio went down with it. Silence claimed the house, and smoke clouded everyone's eyes. Tirio lay sprawled on the floor, and before him stood the rest of the family, terrified and desperate. All eyes fixed on the gaping hole where the door had been. Slowly the smoke cleared, and behind it something strange came into view — a kind of barrier sealing the doorway, holding back those terrible beasts from breaking through.
"Laura... ahg... Laura..."
"TIRIO!"
Laura ran toward Tirio with the baby in her arms, trying to help him up.
"MOM, don't get too close!"
Laura froze and looked toward the door. The smoke had cleared completely now, and the moonlight poured in like a spotlight, illuminating what was attacking them with growing clarity.
Its skin was as dark as a moonless night, steaming with a grayish vapor. It had a vaguely human build, but with long arms and thick, powerful legs, claws, fangs, and eyes so deep that only a tiny yellow light could be seen flickering within that profound darkness.
The creature raised its claw and, almost tenderly, stroked the invisible barrier blocking its way. Sparks leapt from the contact, like electricity.
"I think that'll hold it for now. We need to find a way out of here." She looked around as she lifted Tirio off the ground, Hayden still in her other arm.
"Hey, house... lend me some of your power, would you? I know you want to protect this family just as much as I do. So... let me do this, and then let me go be with my mother."
"ANNE, come on, hurry!"
Laura helped Tirio to his feet. Behind them, a blinding light rose up, and from it emerged a young woman of about thirty — slender, dark-haired, wrapped in a black cloak, a curved and strikingly powerful dagger in her hand. She descended slowly through the air until her feet touched the ground.
Crack, crack, CRAAASH — the protective barrier shielding the home gave way, yielding to the menacing beast. Yielding to the Gorent.
The couple stood frozen in confusion. In that instant, their longing for safety and peace surged stronger than ever, even as their faith in it shattered.
The monster lunged at the family with brutal ferocity. Its claw swept toward Laura's face — and just as people say, her whole life flashed before her eyes. Tirio threw himself in front of her as fast as he could, trying to block the attack, and CRRRRRACK — the claws slid off a crystalline shield that had formed behind them.
Step by step, the young woman advanced toward the monster. The sound of her heels echoed through the house, each step sending out a wave of force that struck the creature and pushed it back, inch by inch. The angle of the moonlight began to fall across her, and little by little, as she drew closer, her face came into view.
Laura and Tirio looked up, stunned, because what they were seeing should not have been possible.
"No... it can't be..." Tirio stammered.
"ANNE?!"
Passing beside them, she turned her head, looked at them through the crystal shield, and smiled faintly. Then she fixed her eyes forward again and kept walking, steady and resolute, toward her fate.
She stopped in front of the beast and stared straight into its eyes — eyes that had shifted from fear to open defiance, radiating confidence. She tightened her grip on the dagger and, with her other arm, threw a punch that tore through the air and struck the Gorent with even more force than the shockwaves before it, sending the creature flying several meters into the yard.
GRRRR — the beast roared in fury and surged with renewed power. It attacked relentlessly, without restraint, every strike aimed at tearing Anne apart.
Laura and Tirio could barely process what was happening — Tirio especially, who felt completely unmoored. From inside, all they could hear were the monster's roars, the impact of blows, and bursts of raw power.
"Laura... what's happening?"
"I don't kn—"
"Don't you dare lie to me, Laura! I've seen this before, and now our eight-year-old daughter is fighting a monster that looks like—"
"Okay, okay, okay... I know exactly what you think about magic. That's why I kept it from you—"
"That's why you kept WHAT from me?! Laura, LAURA!"
"That Anne is— that Anne is—"
"That Anne is WHAT? Finish the sentence."
"That Anne is the daughter of a witch. The daughter of one of the last Ladies in Black."
"Anne?!"
"Yes. I found out a few months ago, during one of your trips." Tears flooded her eyes, her face caught between fear and grief.
Emotions collided inside Tirio — he no longer knew what to think, what to do, or what to feel. Once again, his past had come back to haunt him, this time wearing his daughter's face. He looked back out toward the yard, and for one moment every fear and feeling fell away, leaving only the sight of the battle unfolding right in front of him.
Anne, barely able to control the power that had been lent to her, was giving everything she had against the creature. The pressure of the fight kept mounting, but she handled it with a precision and restraint that looked almost rehearsed.
BOOM!
A brutal blast echoed through the entire forest. The beast, sent flying by a blow that had clearly hurt them both, landed hard in the open ground. The Gorent rose slowly, limping on one leg, while Anne remained standing, imposing, as if nothing had happened.
She coughed hard, pressing a hand to her mouth. When she pulled it away and looked at her palm, she found blood — the power was taking its toll.
"Please... give me a little more time. Please," she whispered.
GRRRRAAAAAAAACK! The beast let out a scream into the night, almost like a call for help. Silence swallowed the forest. Everyone fell quiet, listening — to the silence, to the scream, to the dread settling over all of them.
Anne understood immediately, because the dagger had begun trembling, harder and harder. She lunged at the wounded beast and, with one strike of the blade, split it in two. Seconds later, it vanished into the air. Anne wouldn't stop bleeding — that power was killing her a little more each time she used it recklessly.
Her gaze drifted, unfocused, and moments later she was caught off guard by a surprise blow from more Gorent that had answered the creature's call. She was sent skidding back toward the house, and as she looked up, she saw her family — Tirio, Laura, Hayden — watching her, terrified. She rose to her feet without hesitation and turned around. Before her stood two Gorent, ready to finish her off, and facing them, a spirit ready to sacrifice everything to protect what she loved most.
"Give me more," Anne whispered.
"Are you sure?" A voice rose from the dagger — many voices, layered into one.
"I don't care what happens to me now. I have to end this before I run out of ti— AAAAAAHHH!" Her ankle twisted, and she collapsed to her knees.
"As you wish. But I warn you — you only have one minute. After that..."
"I know—"
"ANNE, don't you dare do that!" Laura screamed.
"Mom?!"
"If you die now, who's going to raise Hayden? Think carefully about what you're doing."
"Mom, if I don't do this... we're all... we're all going to—"
"Don't even finish that sentence." Tirio cut her off.
Before anyone could continue, Hayden's cry shattered the tension in the air — he'd finally decided to wake up.
"Waaaah, waaaah, waaaah—" His cry rang out like bells across the whole area, and from it, waves of power rippled outward.
Crack, crack, CRAAASH — the dagger in Anne's hand shattered, and with it, that immense power vanished. The beasts collapsed to the ground in terror, the malevolent essence around them dissolving and leaving behind nothing but the remains of wild animals that had been possessed. Tirio looked at his son again, and saw it — Hayden's eyes had turned as dark as they had been the day he was born.
No one could make sense of any of it. Exhausted, Anne collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The eight-year-old girl had transformed into a grown woman, somewhere between thirty and forty years old.
"Anne, Anne, wake up, sweetheart!" Laura shook her, crying, devastated, while Tirio watched from a few steps back.
"Laura. Laura, LAURA! Get away from that woman."
"What are you talking about?!"
"Get up, please. I don't want you near her."
"What? What are you saying, Tirio?"
"Only a monster can kill another monster. Elionor told us that — remember?"
"What is that supposed to mean? Are you calling Anne a monster?! Tirio, she just saved our lives and nearly lost her own. Do you think that's fa—"
"I know, okay? But—"
"But WHAT, Tirio? BUT WHAT?"
"Hell, I don't even know what she is right now. Witches are supposed to cast spells, see the future, things like that — but we just watched an eight-year-old girl turn into this. If she was even really eight to begin with."
"Tirio..." Laura broke down, her eyes brimming with tears, because his argument wasn't entirely wrong, and that was the last straw. "After everything you just saw, how can you possibly believe—"
"I don't know what to believe anymore, okay? I just want... I just want to live in peace. I want things to go back to normal, and the magic—"
"I KNOW, OKAY? I KNOW!" Laura answered through tears, holding Hayden tight against her as she slowly rose to her feet.
The monsters were gone now. The calm had returned — but maybe too soon, because something worse was already stalking them from the shadows of a hidden past.
Inside Laura, a secret was beginning to burn — a fear slowly working its way to the surface.