It was never meant to be like this! Martha thought over, and over again as she and John ran outside in search of safety. Her eyes widened in horror as the building from across the hotel burned in a blaze of red and yellow.

  Martha ran from her home and her old relationships. She wanted to avoid conflict, the threat of suffering that could be inflicted onto others if she didn’t have a say. Yet, it seemed karma had a way to peek around the corner. Martha never believed she had a choice in life, that everyone she used to know would tie her down or put an unrealistic expectation on her. Her family would praise her, yet those praises to her never felt genuine. Even her old friend group felt fake as their interests were never the same as hers. She even believed that no one cared about her hobbies, even when everything stated otherwise.

  Joining a cult was her only chance of finding a way out, a safe place that cared for her as a person and to satisfy her delusions. A community that could give her the confidence to leave the people like they gave her nothing for her efforts. While she did kill, she did participate in human sacrifices, she did it with friends. People she trusted and loved with all her heart. But her actions caught up to her. A monster came knocking, one she had no desire to confront herself.

  John and Martha bolted to the direction of the school, where their glorious leader was located. John was ahead of her, for a split second he turned around to face her to see if Martha was okay.

  Then, like a zit being popped. John’s head exploded. Blood, skull fragments, and bits of brain splattered all over Martha’s face. She fell to the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs while she tried to wipe away the gore. Martah crawled to the other side of the street and hid behind a building. She sobbed and shook uncontrollably, rocking back and forwards trying to get some semblance of safety into her petrified heart.

  She flinched as the entire first floor of the hotel burst into flames. ‘No!’ Martha whimpered as she helplessly watched, knowing that most of her friends were inside the hotel perished in the blink of an eye. Martha shut her eyes and hit the back of her head against the wall, nothing could’ve survived in there. Oh, so she hoped. She begged to herself that the attacker was killed.

  But no matter what god she prayed to, the reptilian figure walked out of the flames, unfazed as fire danced around its body. What terrified her was not its monstrous appearance, what it had done to her friends. What shook her core was its blank expression, the reptile did not smile, they did not frown, nor did it look excited, nor did they seem to take joy. They showed nothing! It was like it was all just a routine job. They showed the same expression as someone taking out the trash or washing the dishes.

  The reptile noticed Martha and marched towards her with their rifle at hand. They didn’t take aim, they just calmly walked towards her. Martha knew that whatever they were, their intentions were not good. She ran to the park, desperate to get to Theodor. Screaming to alert everyone of the monster behind her.

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  Bang!

  She fell face-first onto the soft grass. Martha tried to move her legs, but she couldn’t feel them. Martha cried in agony as it became clear that she was shot in the back. With all of her remaining strength, she flipped herself over to face the monster steadily approaching her with a monotone expression.

  Before the reptile could execute her, they shifted their body to one side as five flagellants charged toward them. Devoted cultists who fused their skin to metal creating an equilibrium between the earth and the mortal shell. They rejected the material and sanity to be truly connected with their twisted understanding of the natural world. Their hands and feet were replaced with blades or whips, their eyes removed so they could have a blessed piece of iron bolted onto their face. What people thought would make them weak, in reality, made those creatures durable and agile. The perfect monsters to take on another.

  The reptile fired their rifle into the group, only able to take down one before his rifle was whacked away. The reptile pulled a knife out, the blade glowed under the night sky as he sliced the neck of one of the flagellants. Its black blood, corrupted by vile magic, coated their coat.

  Two others pounced on the lone reptile, their rusted blades thirsting for flesh. But they were outmatched as he grabbed one of the arms and redirected the blade into the other’s chest. It whaled as it noticed how its unorganised attack killed its friend. The reptile finished it off by ripping out the blessed piece of iron from its face, dying as its nervous system was violently torn out of them.

  One attacked from behind, using their whip of barbed wire. The reptile spun around and caught the whip with his left arm. With their immense strength, the reptile dragged the flagellant to them to rip their spinal cord from their body.

  The last flagellant managed to tackle the reptile to the ground, the creature tried to kick a blade into the reptile’s stomach but it was unable to penetrate the reptile’s vest. With a flick of their tail, the strange armour piece became rolls of shark-like teeth. The armoured tail wrapped around flagellant’s leg and shredded large chunks of flesh to reveal their bone and grafted wire. The creature howled, allowing the reptile to grab its plaque and rip it out of its face.

  Victorious, the reptile threw the creature to one side. Picking up their rifle and dusting themselves off so they could continue on with the brutal butchering of the remaining cultists.

  Martha leaned against the tree, mortified that she watched the most devoted of the followers effortlessly killed by just a lone figure who didn’t seem to care about their demise. She thought to herself that perhaps the cult was wrong, that what they were about to birth into this world wouldn’t be the rightful rulers. Instead, she realised that there are forces out there that will resist her ideals. A force that would match the horrors they inflicted onto the world ten-fold.