It had started raining by the time Sarah could get off the rooftop. She sneaked through the alley behind the house and took the long way around the block to reach her car, in hopes of not being seen by the police. She hopped inside, took off her soaking wet hoodie and reminded herself to smile like she meant it whenever someone came and questioned her. She knew she pulled it off. There was no chance someone caught onto what she was doing and followed her exact footsteps. And yet, when she turned the car on she couldn’t help but feel watched from afar. Maybe it was the online weirdo that freaked her out. Maybe it was the fact that she broke into a dead man’s house to steal most likely illegal documents and a loaded gun. Whatever the case had been, all she wanted to do was drive home. 

 

Meanwhile, the sudden downpour had trapped Amy, Chase and Samuel inside Cosmo’s. Samuel knew about the tape, and the body, and now, the fact that the police had them pegged as prime suspects for a theft that they actually did commit. What Amy opted to omit for now was her new-found… abilities? She wasn’t sure if she wanted to call them that. In practice, not much had changed, it was just her sensory overload, manifesting in a way she could control it. She liked looking at it from that perspective, but she was scared as to what the others would think she was smoking if she told them. Was that the right call? She didn’t even know if she could replicate what she had done. It was hard to focus on the conversation at hand when the guys discussing AMC stock two stores over were so fucking loud. 

 

“So, what you guys really wanna do is lay low for a little bit,” Samuel was, for once, giving Chase drinks on the house, who was now busy acting as an impromptu DJ since the band couldn’t show up with the storm. “You’ve got a pretty strong alibi with me. If anyone asks, you guys were with me all night and I can assure you everyone here will vouch for you.” 

 

“How are you so sure that everyone will be so cooperative?” Amy was fidgeting with one of her rings, running every event through her head again. 

 

“It’s not our first rodeo, Miss Harper,” he laughed. “We help regular folks and know that the regular folk we help will have our back as well. You’d be surprised at what some of the regulars here have been through.”

 

Before she could respond, her senses heightened and drowned everything else out. She could hear a vehicle coming from a few blocks over. It was going over the speed limit, and there was a slight metal rattle behind the driver’s seat as it went over bumps. She had a working theory of what it was that set her off, but the driver receiving a slightly grainy message from a radio communications device gave it away immediately. It was a cop car.

 

“Ten-Sixty Two. Unidentified suspect has been reported breaking and entering from the 23rd of General Atlas. They’re armed and dangerous.” 

 

Amy excused herself to the bathroom but took the staircase to the rooftop instead. Sarah answered right away when she called.

 

“Ames, long time no see. We should catch up over a beer one of these days, or something,” she tried to play it cool but her voice was shaky.

 

“What’d you do?”

 

“How did you find out so quickly?”

 

Amy hesitated. “Long story”

 

“Same here. Where are you? I really need to talk to you.”

 

“We’re at Cosmo’s with Chase and a friend of his. He told him everything.”

 

“Fucking hell,” Sarah struggled not to punch the steering wheel. “Being a fucking idiot runs in the bloodline, I guess.” 

 

“What the hell happened, Sarah? Calm down.”

 

“I can’t, okay? Let’s just rendezvous at Cosmo’s and-” 

 

Sarah noticed a black car slowly overtake her and get in front of her right before she could take a right towards the city centre. No licence plate. Shit. She course-corrected and went straight ahead through a tunnel and a quick glance at the rearview mirror informed her that it was still tailing her. 

 

“Ok, new plan. I need to see you somewhere else. Not Cosmo’s.”

 

Amy wasn’t fully aware of the situation, but she wasn’t going to press her any further. At least not right now. “Is your place good?”

 

“Absolutely not. Meet me by the mountain river. The fence is chipped two blocks from Chase’s house, near the bus stop.”

 

Amy reluctantly agreed. She wasn’t super pumped to go to a foresty, fenced up area but she knew Sarah was in trouble. Chase was the only one to notice her leaving the building. 

 

“Dude, what are you doing? It’s pouring out.”

 

“I just really want to go home and crash. I’m tired.”

 

“Sammie can probably drive you.”

 

Amy worked through responses in her head before noticing he called him Sammie again. “Oh, no, I actually really like the rain. Plus, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your quality time together with Sammie.”

 

“You’re a bitch,” he half giggled. “Are you sure? I can walk with you. I don’t want to leave you alone after-”

 

“I’ll be fine, Chase. I just need some space, okay?”

 

He looked at her for a few moments before taking his jacket off. “Fine, but you’re taking this with you. If you catch a cold it’s on you.” 

 

She actually did like the rain, that part was true. The pit-pat of the droplets on the asphalt, the distant thunderclaps, the smell of wet grass and the feeling of her clothes slightly sagging on her was all pretty satisfying and usually helped to drown out every other sound. Not anymore, of course, but she could still enjoy the feeling while sorting through the sounds of the city blaring at her. That, and the overwhelming feeling that something terrible was about to happen to her friend.

 

Sarah took a while driving her would-be pursuer around a few dead end streets and mixing in with other traffic whenever she could, which wasn’t often at all. After a while of driving circles around busy areas, she cut through a dirt path close to the city park when all coasts were clear and slowly worked her way towards an old lakeside cabin that hadn’t been used in a long, long while. Not much in the way of electricity lately, but Sarah had a roof over her head and a table to put her laptop on while she looked through the SD card. Most of it was pretty lightweight documents, lab results for various animals and the like. Some of the folders housed music (Abraham was apparently a big R.E.M guy, which Sarah could respect), and the most interesting one was his phone’s camera folder. Various odds and ends from the lab, a few scenic shots of the thing that caught her interest, a blurry photo of a piece of paper with most of its information blacked out. Most of it, except for its title. Project Lazarus. 

 

Amy felt oddly uncomfortable in Chase’s house, all alone, at night. That feeling only got worse when she looked out the window to see the fenced forest area she had to get through to reach Sarah, and it spiked  again once the feeling of being watched hit her. Something about it was dizzying, sickening. She fell to the floor and closed her eyes out of pure stress, but when she did, she could visualise the house from outside. A good 300 metres away, behind a fence, more specifically. She felt around the room and got her footing, getting up without ever opening her eyes and approaching the kitchen window. There she was, eyes closed, head peeking out a window. For a split second, anyway, before whatever was watching her hurried out of the way, snapping Amy out of it. She could hear the grass rustle from about that distance away when she opened her eyes. And her heart was beating so fast it almost broke a hole through her chest. She definitely needed a weapon. What the hell could Chase have that would pass for a half decent weapon? 

 

She settled on an old, aluminium baseball bat and never stopped watching the fence as she went out of the house. She called Sarah up as she approached the bus stop.  “Are you still there?”

 

“Well, someone did answer the phone, right?” Sarah giggled nervously. “Would’ve been freaky as shit if it was someone else though. Imagine that.”

 

“Sarah.”

 

“Right. Did you ever go to the old lakeside cabin? It closed a few years ago, I’m setting up camp there for the time being.”

 

Amy never really went there, but as she got close to the fence, she focused and was able to hear Sarah’s car engine still on, just a short distance away. “Yeah, I’ll meet you there,” she stopped herself before hanging up. “Is it true that you have a weapon on you?”

 

Sarah looked over at her backpack. The revolver reflected the moonlight very slightly, just enough to draw attention to itself in the almost pitch darkness. “Yeah. It's part of the long story.”

 

“Good. Keep it on you. Just in case.” Sarah held it in her hands, shaking very slightly after Amy hung up. She regretted every part of the plan by now.

 

Amy moved through the trees and tall grass swiftly, always watching her back as she approached the cabin from the other side of the river. Every small bug, squirrel and spider walking around echoed in the side of her head. If she focused on them too much, she could feel their little feet crawling on top of her already wet skin. She wasn’t quite ready for that feeling. 

She hopped across a few rocks and squinted to see the laptop light from the window. She checked the doorknob and slowly entered, gripping the baseball bat hard enough to make her hands hurt, only to find Sarah staring out the second floor window, watching out for the car that followed her a while ago.

 

“Hey,” Amy whispered loudly.

 

Sarah jumped. “Jesus Christ, Ames, don’t do that,” she matched her tone as she rushed down the stairs to give her a big, shaky hug. Amy chose not to question it, it helped both of them to decompress. “Did someone follow you here? Are you okay?”

 

“I don’t know,” she loosened her grip on the bat. “I mean, I’m fine. I don’t know if someone followed me here. It’s weird. Also, the cops definitely know we stole the thumb drive.”

 

Sarah shrugged. “Yeah, I got that. Who followed you, though?”

 

“Felt as if someone was watching me as I was coming here. Heard grass rustling. Kind of sort of saw someone watching me from the window. Is that weird?” 

 

Sarah remembered the car. “Not at all.”

 

“What were you up to?”

 

“I went back to Abraham’s house,” She chose not to mention the forum, or the weirdo who contacted her. Not yet, at least. “Felt as if something was missing… I found an SD card and a loaded gun in his home office,” she spun the laptop and showed her the document. “Most of the stuff in here is pretty regular, except for this picture.” 

 

Most of the important details were blacked out but they could still pick out a few loose words. Nutrients, cell death and nervous, controlled electrical shocks. Dei Gratia.

 

“Do you think Abraham was working on this?” Amy kept rereading every word that wasn’t blacked out. It sounded like the kind of stuff Abraham worked on, with electric eels and the like. It was the same kind of stuff her father used to do when he was still in Fort. 

 

“Maybe, but I don’t think the project leads and him were on good terms after the fact considering what happened.”

 

“Well, whoever these guys are, they aren’t subtle with their branding.” 

 

“My working theory is that they’re some sort of cult. Rich powerful white people Lovecraft worshipping bullshit.” 

 

“Lovecraft was the writer, you’re thinking of-”

 

“Whatever. It’d explain the secrecy, and why the cops would hide Abraham’s murder, and the overuse of their stupid motto.”

 

Amy looked up and down the note again. “So, an eldritch cult.”

 

“It’s what makes the most sense.”

 

“It really isn’t,” she stopped herself and grabbed Sarah’s wrist. “Shut up. What was that?”

 

“What’s wrong?” Sarah got shushed by Amy again before being dragged into a windowless corner of the house. 

 

They both stood still and Amy paid close attention. Leaves and twigs crunching. Big footsteps. Too big to be a person. Heavy breathing followed by little drops of… something. It was thicker than the rain. Whatever it was, it was coming out of its mouth. 

Amy closed her eyes and for a second, she could only see pitch black… except for the outline of some stars and the dim light coming from the laptop screen. And it got closer and closer.

 

She opened her eyes suddenly. “Fuck.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“When I say now, run for the laptop to the other side of the room.”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“Just trust me,” Amy squeezed her hand and listened closely for a small crack above them. She closed her eyes and saw the lightning blind their stalker. “Now.”

 

Sarah shot across the room and closed the laptop before throwing herself to the floor. That's when she caught the first glimpse of the creature. It was tall, and pale, and its eyes were wide open along with its mouth. She ducked before she could see more of it but shot an anguished look back at Amy who just hushed her. 

On her end, Amy closed her eyes again only to see their pursuer climbing in from the window. Her eyes shot open as she saw its silhouette. 

Sarah had to bite her hand to not scream out in fear. She got a good, sweet look at the creature. Thin, slender legs supporting an inflated torso with arms ending in sharp claw looking appendages and a gaping mouth right below its perpetually open eyes. It was wearing a collar and a battered and scratched out onesie with a colourful 0 on its chest, as if it was doodled by a child. 

Its eyes didn’t adjust well to the darkness, Amy had figured out. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Sarah didn’t notice but she was making a really quiet yet audible whine. One that the monster could make out if it got close enough. She couldn’t take her chances on this. Amy held her breath, grabbed onto the baseball bat, slowly walked towards it and hit it over the head as hard as she could. It didn’t do much. 

The creature turned around and let out a horrible, high pitched screech as it fixed its eyes on Amy. 

 

“Sarah, run!” Her friend grabbed onto her backpack and ran outside. Amy tried to hit it but its jaw suddenly came down on her weapon, snapping it in half instantly, something Amy used to her advantage to escape too. 

 

As she blindly fled into the forest, Sarah pulled her violently against her so they could both hide behind a tree.

“What do we do now?” Sarah whispered.

 

“Shit, I don’t… I don’t know.” Amy was hyperventilating, burying her head into the jacket’s sleeves. 

 

Sarah very slightly slapped her out of it. “Not a good time to break down on me, Ames. Let’s try to get to the car.”

 

It sounded good on paper, but the car was more than a few feet away, completely exposed. They tried moving from tree to tree, inching closer and closer to the card, but all they managed to do was get farther away from the vehicle and closer to the monster.

 

“This isn’t working,” Amy stressed as she closed her eyes to confirm that the monster was still looking in their general direction. “Change of plans. Give me the gun.”

 

“What?” Sarah slightly raised her voice when whispering. “Are you going to fucking shoot it? Are you stupid?”

 

“No. I mean, if I can hit the shot, sure, but no. I want to distract it while you get the car.”

 

“What? I’m not letting you be bait.”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

 

“No, but if you give me some time…”

 

“We don’t have enough time,” Amy had already grabbed the gun from her backpack, struggling to support its weight. “Go!” 

 

Sarah wasn’t going to argue with a girl holding a gun. She ran to the car and before the monster could catch her, a gunshot whiffed past it. Amy was standing out in the open, holding the gun in one hand and covering her ear with the other.  

It was really mad. 

Amy rushed to hide behind a tree, but the monster climbed up its side and tried to catch her by leaping towards her. She barely rolled out of the way and aimed the gun at it again when it became upright. In a split second decision, when the creature leaped forward again, Amy decided to flip the revolver around and hit her opponent with the handle, bringing down all of its weight on its fragile looking head. All it did was make him dizzy. It certainly didn’t stop him from blindly swinging its arms at Amy, who was sent flying against one of the trees. 

It wasn’t a nice feeling. Her head was spinning and she felt as though someone had kicked it right off her neck. She could taste blood in her mouth, and it burned when her bruised lips were hit by the rain droplets. Her entire body ached and it was hard to move, she felt too heavy and she could barely focus on the creature crawling towards her. Even its high pitched scream was echoey, distorted. Well, shit. She was determined to let herself go before five bangs made her ears ring again. Then she noticed the blood all over her clothes and face. The monster was lying still in front of her, its torso riddled with bullets. Sarah was standing above it, revolver in hand. 

 

“Is it dead?” Amy struggled to get the words out of her mouth.

 

“I don’t wanna find out,” Sarah pulled her up with one hand and put her arm around her waist to help her walk to the car. She laid down on the backseats and drove off fast towards the highway. “Do you need to go to the hospital?”

 

“God, no, that’s a terrible idea.”

 

“Where to, then?”

 

“Chase’s house. Call him up.”

 

“He’s going to kill us, isn’t he?”

 

Amy struggled to lay on her side, coughed up a little bit. “Yeah, most likely.”

 

She was asleep by the time the cousins put her to bed. It was pretty scary, but they were relieved to find out that she was still breathing and that nothing seemed too broken. 

 

“Alright,” Chase sat down in front of a really shaky Sarah who was making her third cup of tea since she got there. “Care to explain what the fuck happened out there?” 

 

“Oh, you know, the usual,” she gave him an unintentionally crooked smile. “Soul searching. Breaking and entering. Monster fighting.”

 

“Can you please take shit seriously for one minute, Sarah? You guys mean the world to me and for all I know, you could’ve both died.”

 

Sarah looked down at her feet. “Yeah. I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

 

“What, the police thing? Yeah, Amy told me that.” 

 

“No, I… went back into the house. I got some things that would really help us in getting to the bottom of… whatever this is.” 

 

Chase raised an eyebrow.

 

Sarah gulped. “And someone followed me. Car without a licence plate. I made Amy meet up with me in the old lakeside cabin and then whatever killed Abraham attacked us.”

 

“Holy shit.”

 

“Yeah. I think I killed it.”

“You think?”

 

“I shot it five times, man, what else do you want from me?” 

 

Chase sighed. “What’s with the car that was following you?”

 

“No clue. I lost it long before I reached the cabin. I checked that it wasn’t following us here,” she finished her tea in one gulp. “What do we do now?”

 

Chase got Sarah’s laptop from her bag. “Now we get to work, right? And we take care of Amy whenever she wakes up.” 

 

“No,” she stopped him. “I’ll take care of Ames. She’s hurt because of me.” 

 

Chase hesitated before giving her a big, proud smile. “Alright. Fuck this tea shit you’re always on, though. You’re gonna need coffee for this.” 

 

Sarah giggled. “Can it at least be iced?”

 

“No, I’m not ruining coffee for you,” he was already grinding the beans. “What can you get from the SD card then?” 

 

“Well, all we’ve realistically got is this,” Sarah showed him the document along with a brief explanation. “I could see what I can salvage from the metadata. I really want to know where this was taken.” 

 

Back by the lake, a moving truck parked by the old cabin and a man dressed in all black came out, putting his gloves on. The monster was twitching on the ground, eyes still wide open. It was gasping for air when it was picked up and thrown onto the back of the vehicle. The truck took the highway as well, before making a sharp turn for a tiny dirt path leading to another forest barely outside the city. 

 

“Sir, I’m bringing Zero to your base of operations,” the man spoke through his earphone. “He seems pretty beat up, but nothing you can’t fix, I reckon.” 

 

The truck struggled through the coarse dirt and pebbles of the forest, as it had left the dirt path and headed straight into the trees. 

 

“I’d like to inform you that this is the last time we can clean up after you. We appreciate the effort you’re putting into this project, but you’re getting messy and people are starting to notice,” he stopped and listened closely. “Yes, the kids. They could prove to be a bigger issue than we thought. We really can’t get involved anymore. After this, you’re on your own. We trust that you’ll deliver favourable results quite soon.”

 

The man parked the car in an open field, right next to an overgrown, abandoned looking lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. 

 

“Yes sir, Zero will be put back into his cage shortly. We’re all proud of what you’ve accomplished so far and the prophets have high hopes for you. I’ll be seeing you soon. Dei Gratia.” The man took his earphone and took a rusty key to the lighthouse's door, making it creak when it opened. He dragged Zero inside and completely disregarded the stairs leading to the light, instead opting to open a hatch hidden by a dusty carpet that led to a metal highway and a valve door. He opened it with great difficulty and flicked the first lightswitch open, making half a dozen light bulbs turn on, making a consistent buzzing sound. The man dragged the creature into the room that was furthest to the left at the end of the hallway, a dark and damp room housing its cage. Zero whined and screeched as it was thrown there, trying to claw at the bars but struggling to do any real damage before the door was closed, leaving him in the dark. 

Before leaving once and for all, the man decided to check with the project’s newest subject. He didn’t want to enter the prep room, it was always far too cold for him, but he admired the work from the window. 

Abraham was cut open on a surgical table. His heart had been replaced by a mechanical pump and there were wires running all over his exposed insides. He was plugged into various bits of circuitry and two jumper cables in his chest were attached to some sort of portable generator. Alongside him was a table with various kinds of fish laid out one after the other. The man grinned slightly before he turned the lights off and left, driving away and out of the city. 

 

Chase was already asleep on the couch when Sarah was making herself the seventh tea of the night and talking to her dad on the phone. 

 

“Sarah, it’s getting really late. Are you sure you want to stay over?”

 

“Yeah, it’s gonna be fun! We ordered pizza and we’re going to watch old science fiction movies. Just like old times.” Sarah couldn’t see it, but her dad grinned at her last sentence. 

 

“Just make sure to call if you need anything, okay?”

 

“Okay, dad.”

 

“Anything at all,” he cut her off. “I mean it.” 

 

“I know, dad,” she laughed to herself. “I love you. Goodnight.”

 

“Goodnight, sweetheart.” 

 

Sarah pocketed her phone to focus on her tea. The loud crashing of a thunder strike startled her and she looked out the window where Amy had seen the monster watching her. She couldn’t notice for herself, but she was shaking very slightly. She took her phone out again and put her earbuds on to drown the storm out and tucked Chase in with a blanket before going back into Amy’s room.

Her laptop was already turned on and she had already pulled up the metadata for the picture she was so interested in. The GPS coordinates lead her to the middle of fucking nowhere when she punched them into Google Maps. Annoyed and still subconsciously nervous from what happened, she opened another tab and went back to the weirdo conspiracy theorist forum her friend had forwarded her. Reluctantly she sent TRUESIGHT a message request.

 

hey

i actually did go back

found an SD card and a gun and it didn’t go well at all

 

Her computer dinged at her as soon as she turned away from it.

 

what happened?

the police know that something’s up

and a car without a licence plate followed me around for a while after

and then the thing that killed abraham attacked us

us?

amy and i

are you guys okay?

i am. amy’s hurt tho

There was silence on the other end. Sarah hesitated to go on, but it was her best shot of knowing what happened.

 

amy acted weird. like she could

sense the monster or something

she was the reason we were able to get away

i see

do you know anything about that

wait

lemme guess, you do but you can’t tell me

you catch on quick, huntress

is she going to be okay

yeah

what did you find in the sd card?

Sarah shrugged. At this point, why the hell not? It's not like she could make any more progress on her own. She sent TRUESIGHT a copy of the image and its metadata along with her very helpful annotations about how it didn’t lead anywhere and how she almost died for a piece of shit buggy SD card with a picture taken from an iPhone 7. 

 

i see

i’ll check this out and get back to you tomorrow

goodnight huntress

Without even waiting for her response, TRUESIGHT went offline once again. Awfully rude of them, she thought. And then Amy stole her attention by turning over in bed and groaning.

 

“You type way too loudly. Slow down.” 

 

“Oh,” Sarah took one earbud off to pay proper attention. “I’m sorry Ames, I’m about done with this anyway.”

 

Amy squinted her eyes at Sarah, struggling to make out much detail in the dark and without her glasses. “What are you listening to?”

 

“Oh? Uh, Foals, I’m listening to Foals.”

 

Amy knew that already. She knew what song she was listening to as well, she just didn’t wanna pass up the opportunity. “Total Life Forever?”

 

Sarah chuckled. “How’d you guess?”

 

“Figured you were a Total Life Forever kinda gal,” Amy grinned back. “Can I listen with you?”

 

Sarah nodded and Amy instinctively rolled over to the other side of the bed, letting her friend lie right next to her and pass her one earbud. Spanish Sahara went from a fuzzy outside noise she needed to focus on to an actual choir of furies in her head. 

Long songs were Amy’s favourite. She could let them simmer and make a place for themselves inside her memory in a way that shorter songs never could. They called for attentive listening and introspection, and when they lined up just right to a moment that meant a lot to her, she could have a soundtrack to a core memory she could stretch out as much as she wanted to when looking back on it. 

Amy was really happy she fell asleep to Spanish Sahara on the first night in a long while where she didn’t feel alone.