Yuki-san shot another shard of ice into the creature’s gaping mouth. It screamed in pain before falling off the wall onto its back.

Seizing the opportunity, Yuki-san mustered what must have been all the strength in her compact frame and dragged me away from the creature. A jolt of pain shocked my whole body with each step I took.

She ran as fast as she could, the creature right behind her. It seemed to get closer by the second, only being kept at bay by Yuki-san's occasional attempts at offense.

Eventually, we reached a long stretch of road, the one we walked on the way to the convenience store. If it weren’t for the lamps, we would have been running in pitch darkness.

This was already a quiet neighborhood, but there wasn’t a single soul out this late, save for the owls and cicadas whose calls echoed through the deafening silence. There was nobody to call out to for help and even then, what good would they have been?

“I cannot keep this up. At this rate, it will catch up to us… We need some place to hide or rest in.” Yuki-san's eyes darted around the area.

“H-how about… there…” I pointed in the direction of the basketball court on the left side of the street, more specifically a small building behind one of the hoops which I assumed to be a storage building of sorts.

It was the best shot we had for shelter, as a building made for frequent and public use had a chance of being unlocked.

“V-very well. We will take refuge in there and I will heal you up…” Yuki-san said as she darted into the caged basketball court, my limp body barely hanging onto her.

As we reached center court, my mind went blank and my vision darkened.

My hands had already grown numb, but at this moment I lost all strength in them altogether. My grip on Yuki-san’s shoulders weakened and I slid down like a ragdoll onto the cold, hard blacktop court, the coarse sand and rocks grazing my powerless body.

Yuki-san let out an anguished cry, followed by the rumbling footsteps of the creature in pursuit of us.

“Young Kumagawa-sama, get up! We have no time!”

She tried to pull me up, but without my own strength working in tandem with hers, it was in vain.

The rapid footsteps of the creature grew closer and closer, however, I was no closer to coming back to my senses.

My entire body lost all feeling. Even Yuki-san’s desperate cries grew further and further.

Eventually, Yuki-san gave up trying to get me onto my feet and laid me down on my back. She focused her attention onto my wounded thigh, a crimson stream flowing around the object that had lodged itself.

Yuki-san placed her right hand on top of the bloody stone and her left forearm into my mouth. She uttered a brief apology before attempting to pull the foreign object out of my thigh.

My body seemed to regain its ability to perceive pain just for this moment. I let out a horrid muffled scream as I bit and scratched deeply into Yuki-san’s arm, blood trickling out from where my teeth met her skin.

She pulled and she pulled, but the object refused to budge. I writhed like a lizard’s severed tail, but Yuki-san laid on top of me to keep me down. 

After an agonizing while of struggling, Yuki-san finally managed to yank the rock out. It was drenched in blood where it had punctured me.

The chain-link cage that encased the basketball court began to rattle. It was in no way enough to keep the creature out, considering that there was an entrance right there.

Yuki-san looked back at the demon, mad desperation in her eyes as she froze the creature’s hands to the cage. She focused her attention back onto me, her trembling lips speaking words that I could not make out.

The wound on my thigh, with the foreign object removed, was now a gaping hole the size of a golf ball with blood streaming and spewing out of it in every direction, staining Yuki-san’s snow-white skin and kimono. The stone was large and sharp enough to puncture an artery and it seemed Yuki-san knew that, as she looked on with eyes like the head of nails. Her nostrils flared and her hair was strewn about, strands caught inside her pursed lips.

She pulled her mangled arm out of my mouth and placed it over my wound. Her other arm soon followed suit and a blue glow emitted from both of her hands. However, before very long, before the wound showed any visible signs of healing, the glow grew dimmer and dimmer.

And then it was no more.

The once brilliant sheen in Yuki-san's eye began to fade. Her body turned translucent as she struggled to even open her mouth. She drooped forward, her face close to mine.

“It… cannot be…” she spoke with a weary voice.

Even in my dazed state, I more or less grasped what was going on.

“I… do not have enough magic… I used it all up… for telepathy, fighting the demon…” her face twisted in pain and regret.

“I am sorry… young Kumagawa-sama… I am sorry… I failed you…” she collapsed limply onto my battered body.

Without the rock acting as a cork, my wound was free to spill out all the blood in my body. It was only a matter of time before I bled out. Even if I made it out of here alive, there was still the risk of infection.

With a loud crash, the ice holding the creature in place shattered into pieces. It pried open the entrance into the court, the metal scraping and clanging. It took a few steps forward, its lifeless gaze darting back and forth before squaring onto me.

The creature walked forward, bathed in the harsh lights of the court.

Its skin was a dull light gray with a slight bluish tint and it looked neither male nor female. Furthermore, it possessed no genitalia. The creature’s limbs were long and seemed to just be made of skin plastered on top of bone, with nothing in between. It possessed a horrific face, which, much like the rest of its body, was wrinkled and shriveled up like a prune. The light of life had left its bulging, pupil-less white eyes. Grotesquely misshapen and disorderly teeth decorated the creature’s slacked jaw.

It had more teeth than any human should ever have.

The crying girl on top of me wrapped her arms around me. She repeatedly muttered words that I could hardly make out, her tears falling into my eyes. They blinked, though I felt no pain.

Her life, much like mine, was fleeting by the second.

As if to pry me back into full consciousness, the creature let out a hideous wail. It lunged towards me, knocking Yuki-san away like an empty soda can. Her tiny body made a large thud as it crashed onto the ground several feet beside me. The creature took Yuki-san’s position on top of me and further opened its unnaturally wide jaw. It had more teeth than I initially thought. The inside of its mouth was a damp, bony cavern.

I closed my eyes, surrendering to my fate as Yuki-san cried and cried to no avail.