Thud!

  Crack!

  A cabinet fell to the floor and the worn-out planks splintered under its weight, but Lawrence didn’t stop running—he only glanced behind himself at the barricaded door of the first floor.

  Thwack!

  Sharp claws shattered the blockade into pieces in a flurry of swipes; the strength behind the attacks was terrifying.

  Still, Lawrence noticed just how much the gap between him and the beast widened—by a few meters at most, but it was a lot in this situation. Much more than it had been in the moment he had managed to climb out of the canal, when he undesirably got a good view of the... monster.

  That was the word he would use for it. A monster. A beast who could be described as an existence between a bat and a mountain lion, but more than two times larger than the latter. Moreover, its thick muscles were clearly pronounced even under its patchy brown fur. Tiny stretches of membrane were spread by the joints of its legs, but what most evoked a bat was the creature’s head.

  Screech!

  Lawrence had already climbed to the next floor when he heard the monster demolish the first floor of the residential building in its pursuit.

  Disappointingly, its size wasn’t large to the point that it couldn’t traverse spaces suited for humans. Though even if that were the case, Lawrence had a suspicion that a building’s walls wouldn’t stop it for too long.

  Either way, his current tactic was buying him time, but it wasn’t a solution to this predicament. There was the sword he hadn’t let go of—suitable for a desperate last stand; the possibility to hide—essentially a gamble... what else?

  He needed more time to think, but what was that even worth, if his brain wasn’t working properly? Over ten hours of adrenaline constantly circulating in his veins and however many more without water left him with little room for reason in such a dire moment.

  Thus Lawrence ran, through an apartment on the second floor and onto the adjacent balcony. From there, he leapt to the neighboring building, then climbed through its window, went one floor down the stairs and hid—

  Crash!

  The noise announced the monster’s arrival at the room above his head, but Lawrence didn't make a sound.

  Thud!

  He heard it go down the stairs, but then—silence.

  With bated breath, Lawrence waited.

  One second; two, three...

  Thwack!

  The door to the room where Lawrence had chosen to hide went flying straight out the window on the opposite wall, almost severing his head in the process. If he hadn’t been scared before, he now nearly froze as the realization settled in—except there wasn’t the time for such things. After all, the monster wouldn’t stand idly.

  In whatever way the creature’s senses worked, they weren’t that trivial to fool. Was the sword his only option, then? No, he knew that it was no option at all. Yet, what else could he do but think this, as he struggled to use anything and everything in the cityscape to keep the beast at bay?

  For a while the chase continued and Lawrence’s desperation grew, but then suddenly—a moment after he had ran through a decrepit perfume gallery—howls unlike before reached his ears, as if they were cries of pain...?

  When Lawrence gazed back in confusion, the monster was nowhere to be seen.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Of course, he didn’t backtrack to understand why. Only later on, would he perhaps think that it had an extremely sensitive sense of smell...

  Hours later, at the city’s edge.

  The palace was now but a silhouette on the horizon and the enveloping stillness was only broken by the flowing river. The withered, dark, and otherwise silent forest wasn’t comforting, but Lawrence found solace in having escaped the monster.

  Though the thought of earlier events was still enough to elicit a slight shiver from his body. A tired body. He had ran for as long as he could before his lungs began to burn. Subsequently, he finally tried drinking the water from the river, but spat it out the instant his tongue got a taste of it. A foul taste. Which is why, after having followed the river further upstream, he entered a modest house amidst the trees. To rest, but primarily in the hope that boiling the water would help.

  Inside, he found a seemingly simple kitchen, though he couldn’t recognize several oddly looking utensils on the countertop... Regardless, he had filled up a pot by the river, lit up the firewood in the stove, and sat in a chair in the living room while he waited for the water to boil.

  The little house felt cozy, despite the darkness that had just slightly lightened because of the fire inside the stove. A simple, yet pretty light-green carpet lay on the floor planks and wooden sculptures of animals and people stood on the shelves spread around the room. And, while Lawrence had never expected to pay attention to such things, there were no corpses around.

  It was in such an atmosphere, that sleep came over him and his body slumped against the table...

  He woke up in a daze, before he recalled what had happened—that he was no longer in the Empire. Slowly, Lawrence’s present reality settled back in.

  As he looked around, he found it hopeless to gauge how much time had passed; the darkness was the same if you excluded the fact that the light coming from the stove was gone. However, Lawrence had his wristwatch. It had been three hours. With a stretch, he stood up from the chair and headed to the kitchen. There was a slight discomfort he felt in various places, but his condition wasn’t too bad, because his body was in a good shape to begin with.

  Sip.

  The pot touched his lips and the leftover water that hadn’t turned into steam flowed into his mouth. Disappointingly, it hardly tasted any better... but Lawrence drank it nonetheless; his throat begged him.

  That was one thing taken care of. Hence, even more than before, he found himself lost in this new reality.

  Sat on the bench in front of the wooden cottage, Lawrence stared blankly at the dead trees around him. With what he had seen this far... would he need to hunt the monster from earlier for food? There appeared to be nothing else in this place...

  ‘What a hopeless world.’ Lawrence thought as he now brought a bottle of alcohol to his mouth. He found it in a kitchen cabinet. The taste was awful and it was significantly stronger than what he usually liked, but about perfect for today... whatever today even was, without a day and night.

  ‘At least the temperature is just right.’ That was the one thing he found no fault with.

  And after a while, his consciousness slipped away again...

  The next he saw, the world was a blur. But Lawrence felt no inclination to wake just yet, so he let his eyes, that were half-open for no reason, drift shut once more...

  —reech!

  But the second scream registered in his mind properly—his entire body tensed in an instant.

  To say that Lawrence was not ready for this would be an understatement. His thoughts were thrown into chaos, while his body moved unsteadily towards the house.

  Yet, perhaps it was because of the alcohol, that a single thought eventually emerged victorious—to fight. No, he was definitely still drunk, but something else clouded his mind. Something much worse... but he couldn’t have known.

  That’s why Lawrence turned around. Rather than hide inside the cottage, he stepped into the middle of the paved road that was built next to the river.

  The monster’s screams gradually grew louder. Doubt and reason kept losing their fight for a share of Lawrence’s consciousness. His fingers clenched the sword and cold sweat poured down his face.

  And finally, the beast arrived from behind a bend in the path.

  It was maybe forty meters away at that moment? But the distance melted rapidly as it ran ferociously.

  Lawrence couldn’t even think of his tactic for this fight. His mind was too narrow, it was all up to his muscle memory—which was also degraded. By alcohol, but foremost due to an entirely different cause.

  Screech!

  He wasn’t aware of it—the moment his parry met the monster’s claws.

  First he felt the sensation of flying, then the sharp pain in his back. As his vision went black around the edges, he gazed down. At the blood seeping from his stomach and his broken arm.

  But when he lifted his head, it was neither fear, panic, nor a desire to move that filled his thoughts.

  ‘Why is it there...?’ Lawrence got thrown so far back, that the entire house that had been behind his back, was now in front.

  In such a state, he completely failed to pay attention to the monster. Death would come, and he wouldn’t even know.

  Truthfully, it was already knocking on his door. All but the very center of his vision gave in to the darkness.

  And Lawrence didn’t realize it, when the monster suddenly squealed as its heart was pierced.