"You're doing it again."I looked up from my plate. Kyle was watching me over the top of his burger, looking amused, like I was some kind of novelty he'd just caught performing a trick."Doing what?""That thing where you disappear into your own head." He gestured vaguely toward my face with a fry. "Zoning out. You've been doing it for days now.""Sorry." I forced out a small, easy laugh, the kind that sounds apologetic but doesn't mean a thing. "It's just been a long week.""Every week is a long week for you," he said. He wasn't being mean, exactly, but he wasn't being kind either. It was more like he was noting a defect in a piece of property he owned. "You need a hobby, man. Something that isn't just work and constantly worrying about the rest of us." The rest of us. As if I were part of his staff. As if my entire role in his life had been whittled down to a chore he checked on occasionally, like making sure a smoke detector still had fresh batteries."Maybe," I said.He grinned, l

Kyle was already there when I walked through the door, feet propped up on my coffee table like he owned the place, a beer in his hand, laughing at something on the TV."There he is." He didn't even bother getting up. "Lilly said you were out 'clearing your head' again. That's basically your whole personality lately.""It's been a long few weeks," I said, dropping my keys on the counter."Yeah, you keep saying that." He took a swig of his beer, his eyes glued to the screen. "You should loosen up, man. The world isn't ending."Seventy-one hours and some change. I almost smiled at that."Maybe you're right," I said instead, turning to help Lilly in the kitchen.She barely looked up when I walked in. She was busy stirring something on the stove, her phone propped against the toaster playing a video at a volume so low it was practically white noise."Smells good," I said."Kyle's staying for dinner." It wasn't a question, and it wasn't really news either, since I could clearly see he was a

"Jay." Kyle’s voice was barely a whisper, trembling. "Jay, what’s going on…""Quiet." I gripped his arm, hauling him back against the nearest concrete pillar. "Stay behind me."[Threat Sense: Active.] [Distance: 10 meters. Closing.]Whatever it was, it wasn't rushing. That was the part that truly unnerved me. Something that patient in the dark usually knew exactly how the encounter was going to end.My eyes struggled to adjust, slowly pulling shapes out of the gloom parked cars, thick concrete columns, and the dead vending machine Kyle had been standing by only a moment ago. Everything was still. Nothing moved. Nothing I could see."Last time," Kyle breathed, pressing himself tight against the pillar beside me, "the thing that got me... it didn't even look like anything. Not until it was already inside."[Distance: 5 meters.]I shoved him further back, positioning my body as a shield between him and the open garage floor. The courage I’d scraped together back in that grocery store wee

The scream ripped through the floor three levels below, and a moment later, it felt like the entire building screamed along with it."Pack only what you can carry," I said, already in motion. I reached for the bag I’d kept tucked away in the hall closet for this exact scenario months of quiet, paranoid preparation distilled into sixty frantic seconds. "Now. We don't have time to argue about this."Lilly was frozen by the window, her phone still gripped tight in her hand as she stared down at the street. "Jayden, there are people down there. They're oh my God, they're…""Don't look." Kyle stepped in, grabbing her arm to pull her away from the glass. "Lilly, don't look. Just come on…"He was too late. I saw the impact on her face before I even turned to look myself that specific, hollow kind of horror that stays with you, the kind I remembered all too well from a hallway I’d already died in once.Outside, the evening traffic had vanished, replaced by something straight out of a nightmar

The impact from behind hit the rear bumper with such force that the steering wheel nearly ripped out of my grip."Jayden!" Lilly’s scream cut through the cabin as the car fishtailed over loose gravel, our headlights sweeping violently across the dark wall of trees.I fought to straighten the wheel, pinning the accelerator to the floor. Through the swirling dust ahead, the steel door of the safehouse finally came into view. "Hold on!"We tore into the clearing at full speed. I slammed the brakes, the momentum jerking everyone hard against their seatbelts. Before the car had even come to a complete stop, I was already unbuckling and shouting."Out! Now! Get inside!"Kyle and Lilly scrambled out, stumbling blindly toward the entrance. I spun around just in time to see the thing that had been hunting us burst from the treeline it was fast, moving with a sickening, unnatural gait, its teeth bared in a mess of what used to be a human face.[Restraint: MAXIMUM.]I didn't run. I met it head-o