The car silently crawled through the town's deadlocked streets, it had felt like they had been stuck in traffic for 2 years at this point. The pavement outside was slick with slush where the ice and snow had been harshly booted aside by the footfall of many people. Maeve's lack of shivers told me she was warm enough, although I think we were all starting to get hungry. I had to stop myself from chewing a little bit on Erina's scaly red tail a few times. She was busy getting red in the face at all the traffic.

"Honestly! People do not know how to drive in the snow anymore" She let a lick of flame dart between her flared nostrils.

'They never did' I thought to myself whilst I tilted my tablet to turn the car in the game I was playing whilst we waited.

"Actually thanks driver we'll walk from here I think" Erina turns to Maeve and me and we nod. I slide the tablet back into my bag and slide myself over as Maeve steps out of the vehicle. Erina pays the driver and joins us out on the pavement. "Its only a short 15 minute walk to the arcade from here, although we woulda been here faster if we flew" she pouted.

"and I'd have ended up an icicle" Maeve bops her gently on the side of the back of her hand.

"fineeeee, but I can do this" she walks over to a signpole and scrapes her horn on it; creating a spark that dances down her hair, along her arm and down to her hand. She makes a motion with it and the spark splits and falls to the pavement, spreading out in a line across the entire width of the path. Then with a snap of her fingers the spark erupts into a low and gentle flame, melting the ice around it. "Keeps us off the ice this way" she takes a step forwards and the small line of fire moves forwards with her "see?" She tilts her head and puts her hands on her waist with a proud grin on her face.

I look at her and turn to Maeve. Maeve does the same and we both mouth: "dork" and I giggle.

We proceeded a little further down the empty pavement before Erina gestures towards a cut-through. "Just through here" We follow her into the small pathway, skirting around the pile of snow that had gathered on the corner. Ahead of us we could see the other street a few yards away, cars crawling and sliding down it just like everywhere else. All of a sudden Maeve exclaims:

"Look out! Incom-" A tall slender figure lands in front of us sending a flurry of snow over Erina. I peek out from behind her and see a flash of teeth and claws glinting in the little sunlight available between the two buildings we were sandwiched between. A gravelly voice rings out, bouncing off the walls.

"Give, me, the, Zombie" The man seems to be panting furiously, slobber dripping from his jowls. I shudder at what those claws could do to my fragile flesh.

Erina shook violently, her hand brushing the snow off of her jacket. "BUZZ OFF FUCKWAD!" She launches herself at the man hard enough to crack the concrete slab she was stood on and delivered a fiery uppercut to the jaws. "Sylvie, Maeve get back!" Maeve pushes herself in front of me and whispers something in that irish lilt of hers, a sword manifests in her hands, which are suddenly covered. by flashing silver gauntlets.

"I can fight too Erina!"

"No! I can deal with this ogre. You keep Sylvie safe" Erina says battering the man whilst dodging his furious sweeps. "Hah! Too slo-" Erina gasps as the ogre -whose fanged face was revealed when Erina landed her first blow- grabbed her tail with one of his long arms and swung her backwards over mine and Maeve's heads. She just about gathers herself up in the air before she slams into a parked truck. I run out of the alley with Maeve hot on my heels.

I duck around the corner in the entranceway of a charity shop and watch Maeve parry a blow from the ogre's claws. I feel a burst of temperature as Erina launches a fireball at him which narrowly misses and lands in a snow bank, causing a deluge of water splashing over the pavement where Maeve and the ogre lock claws and sword. They bat at each other back and forth, Maeve dodging bravely before clipping the ogre's shoulder. Suddenly giant footsteps pounded down the street towards us. A giant man; one of the biggest men I've ever seen in my life; in the biggest turtleneck jumper ever worn by anybody, bore down on the fight like a freight train. Maeve sees him at the last moment and jumps out of the way as he barrels the ogre over like the last pin at the bowling alley.

"WHATS GOING ON HERE THEN? ON MY DAY OFF TOO!" The man exclaims, his voice thundering.

"This dickhead jumped us in the alley" Maeve tells him. I peer closer and notice the man's skin almost appears rocky. "He wants my friend"

"KIDNAPPING EH? YOU'RE NICKED THEN" He fishes a radio out of his back whilst pinning the ogre with another giant hand. "CAN I GET BACKUP TO CRESS STREET, A VAN TOO" he hoists the ogre over one gigantic shoulder. "YOU TWO STICK AROUND WHICH OF YOU WAS HE AFTER?" He looks around at Erina, who had landed next to Maeve. Both shake their heads and point back towards me. 

"He said he was after 'the zombie' that would be Sylvie here" I take a few nervous steps forwards.

"OH..." He seems to recognise me. "I KNOW YOU" he grumbles thoughtfully. In this moment the gaunt ogre wiggles free and jumps clear off of the giant's shoulders, seeming to dislodge some sort of gravelly substance that clatters down onto the pavement. He seems to struggle for a moment, as if batting off some invisible enemy. I peer closer and I can see several glowing spots on his arms, and under the tears in this clothes from Maeve's swords. A voice echoes out loud:

"Be seeing you soon, Sylvie" The voice was chilling to the core, but I didnt recognise it. The words seemed to seep into my bones, even Erina looked to shiver. And then with a flash the ogre was gone, left in his spot was a dark stain and a horrid burnt smell. Erina rushes over to me to check if I was ok whilst Maeve eyes the giant coolly.

"Whats your name copper?"

"PC Rubblesworth"

"no it isnt" Maeve responds without missing a beat.

"you're right its just PC Davidson, do you have a license for that?" he says, pointing towards the sword.

"A license for what?" the sword and gauntlets fade away. The sound of sirens cuts the conversation short as a van slowly skids to a halt besides us.  Four human policemen clamber out and surround us, one of them shuffles over to PC Davidson.

"Whats the situation?"

"That pile of ash over there attempted to kidnap this girl" He points to me and I shy away from the stares of the officers. "When I got here the suspect was engaged in a fight with her friends, who were protecting her" The riot policemen lower their batons and clip them to their waists. "I tackled the suspect but he wriggled free, then some runes appeared on his body and he disintegrated on the spot" He shook his head shamefully. "I am not familiar with that sort of magic myself" He doesn't mention the voice, did he not hear it? I wonder to myself. The policeman who was talking to PC Davidson took off his helmet, revealing long blonde hair and pointy ears. He turns towards us and fixes us with piercing icicle blue eyes. "You three dont move anywhere. We will need statements from all of you"

Maeve and Erina both eye the man with suspicion. Erina whispers in my ear "This guy gives me even worse vibes than the dust pile did" I must admit I agree with her as I watch him walk towards us with a scowl on his face. "Lets start with you zombiegirl" 

I gulped nervously.