During the chaos outside, there was one family that stayed inside. This, of course, was the Lund family.

Felix was currently organizing all of the magic tools he had, spreading them out on the floor and trying his best to guess which ones would be useful right now. On the other hand, Clara was seated with Emil in the corner, blocking her son’s ears from the blood-curdling screeches outside. She was also terrified, but she had to put on a strong front and protect her son.

What was out there? She didn’t know. There was no way to find out without taking down the wooden planks that blocked the windows, but she didn’t care to see what was going on out there.

“Felix,” she whispered, trying her best to keep her voice down.

“Yes?” He looked up from his work, trying to mask the panic that he felt.

“How long will the barrier last if they… if they come for us?”

His mouth pressed into a thin line. How was he supposed to know? This was some half-assed force field. It wasn’t cast by an actual magician, so it’s true capabilities were obviously subpar. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.”

Clara didn’t respond and rested her head atop of Emil’s, wishing that she could calm the rapid beating of her heart.

Why did this have to happen to them? Everything had finally been looking up. She had thought that their lives would be carefree… perhaps that had been far too naive of her.

She wrapped her son closer to her body, sending out countless prayers to the Gods to spare her family. In her frail arms, Emil’s tiny body was shaking.

Oh, her baby. Why was it that he only knew of suffering?

“We’ll be okay, we’ll be okay,” she whispered into his soft head of hair, rocking back and forth. She was also speaking to herself when she said this.

He turned to her, his hazel eyes flashing with wisdom that did not belong to a child. “Will we?” his voice came out cold and detached, startling his mother greatly.

Clara blinked a few times. She couldn’t help but feel that the boy looking at her wasn’t her son. How could he gaze at his mother like this otherwise? “Who are you?” the words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them.

Emil didn’t respond though, instead, he shook her off of his body and walked over towards Felix. “Father, we need to leave. It isn’t safe here.”

“Oh…” Felix seemed confused. That much was obvious, wasn’t it? But going out there wasn’t any better. “Go back to your mother,” he said gently, rubbing his son’s head.

“No. We need to leave.” He started picking up the items spread out on the ground. “Take this one, this one, this…”

Felix wanted to yell at his son to stop touching the things, but he couldn’t find the confidence. After all, if Emil had the capability to become a spellcaster in the future, how could he, without a grain of talent, speak up?

“This amount should be enough for us to escape. These ones all have offensive spells loaded into them. If we set them all off at once, the explosion from that should take out the wolves.” Emil nodded at the bundle that he held then stretched it out to his father, who wordlessly accepted it. He couldn’t understand how his ten year old son was spouting out ideas like this. “Can we leave now?”

Clara stood up, sharing a long look with Felix before beginning to move. “Okay. Let’s remain quiet, though. If we run straight for the woods, we can probably escape before anything catches up to us. They should be…” she listened to the continued screams coming from outside, “busy.”

Her husband nodded and handed her all of the tools in his hands. “Yes. Clara take these,” he stated before squatting to the ground. “Emil, get on my back.”

Emil obeyed, climbing onto his father’s broad back. Once he was secure, the family quietly escaped their cottage, not daring to look back at the carnage that was happening behind him. Since their home was one of the farthest from the entrance of the village, it was still relatively quiet in their area because most of the action was happening further up.

And they ran.

And to their surprise, they managed to get a sizeable distance away from the chaos without anything following them. To say that hope was filling their hearts would be an understatement. They all believed that the would ultimately be safe.

But what they didn’t know was that all along, the pack’s target had been Emil. Yes, he was the delicious scent that they had picked up. And even through the heavy odor of blood, the wolves caught notice that their prize meal was escaping.

The one that could be considered the alpha let out a low growl. This sound alerted all of the others that were still busying themselves with terrorizing the villagers. They stopped in their tracks.

Then, one by one, they began to chase after that delectable smell, leaving behind the paralyzed and broken bodies of their playthings. The people that hadn’t been attacked yet felt their hearts calming.

It was finally over! Those damn beasts were leaving now, after they had torn through over half of the people that lived here…

Noticing that the screams behind them had ceased, Clara turned her head back towards their previous home as they continued to run. She had a cold sense setting. Was everybody dead now? She had never considered any of those people to be her friends, but after over a decade of living there, they still had some sort of relationship. Her heart ached.

She slowed in her pace slightly, the grief weighing down on her body.

That’s when she heard it.

The barks of the wolves. The pounding of paws.

Her heart did a somersault.

No, no. It couldn’t be. This couldn’t be.

They were coming.

She immediately picked up her speed again. “Run, run, run!” she shouted at Felix. “They’re chasing us!”

When he heard this, Felix started pumping his legs even faster, ignoring the steady burn that was building up in his thighs. He had never really had to run or fight, so something this intense was already pushing him to his limits.

Dread seeped through his bones and body.

Could they make it? How long could he keep running at this speed? In comparison to a pack of hungry wolves, his stamina was lacking. If he slipped or fell…

He held onto Emil even tighter, his heart racing.

No, he couldn’t allow himself to think negatively currently. They had to focus on one thing, and that was getting away. Felix swallowed the dry ball in his throat.

Clara was in a similar boat, perhaps even worse than than Felix.

Her body had been weak ever since the pregnancy. She had gotten ill during and after it, so she had always been weak and bony. And with the lack of food and proper medical care at the village, she was never able to recover completely.

Like this, even though they were running at their full speed, they were still basically sitting ducks.

The wolves would catch up to them soon. They would never be fast enough to escape. If they had time, they could figure out the most efficient way to deal with the beasts chasing after them... But that was something that they surely didn’t have.

A look of understanding crossed Clara’s face as she looked down at the items jostling around in her arms. She dropped to her her knees, biting down hard on her thumb and dripping her blood all over the objects.

Felix stopped, noticing that Clara was no longer behind him. “Honey, what are you doing? Get up, run!”

Clara said nothing and moved to face her husband, a peaceful smile gracing her face. “Please.”

He stood there, silent realization spreading across his face. Someone had to stay back and set it all off. Since they weren’t magicians, they had to manually activate the magic tools. “Honey…” He took a step forward, feeling his heart clenched tightly in his chest. It was getting hard to breathe. “Why--”

“Go.”

He shook his head. He couldn’t let this happen. This really couldn’t be happening. Clara had always been the one by his side… How could he lose her? “I--”

“Go!” Clara shrieked.

Felix swallowed then nodded and began sprinting again, shifting Emil so that he wasn’t clinging to his back but rather hugging his front. He was more secure that way.

“I’m sorry, Clara,” he muttered, forcing the tears in his eyes back. He couldn’t let his feelings get the best of him. Not yet. He had to make sure that Emil was safe.

The cold sheen in Emil’s eyes vanished completely as he realized that he and his father were continuing forward. What about his mother? Why wasn’t she running, too? The scary things were closing in on them. If she stayed back, then she would--yes, that was the only thing waiting for her.

“Mommy!” Emil wailed, stretching out his arms. The distance between him and his mother was rapidly increasing. “Mommy, no, mommy!” He kicked and fought against his father, trying to run back to his mother and drag her back with them. “Mommy!” he shrieked, watching as the wolves rushed towards her. “Mommy, don’t go!”

Clara saw it all, the smile on her face shaking. It hurt so much. She didn’t want to leave, either. She wanted to watch him grow up into a handsome man and fall in love… she wanted to see all of it. But she knew that she couldn’t. Her journey ended here.

She blew a kiss at Emil. “I love you, baby,” she mouthed before turning back. She extended out her arms and began to breathe in deeply. Yes, this was what she had to do. For Felix, for Emil…

The monsters were about to trample over her body.

“Activate!” she yelled, her voice containing more power than it ever had before.

A bright light exploded in the night.