I screamed as I tried to jump around the creature, the sucking sound from the creature stopped and it started to lurch forward, preparing to shoot out the air and come crashing into me... instead of the usual noise of the air being shot out, I heard a pitiful squeak come from behind the creature and I heard...

"Aaron?!" I shouted.

"Dad!" his voice came from behind the creature. The squeak turned into a small bursting noise, I shook myself out of my shock just in time to jump out of the way as the creature was pushed forward slightly, stumbled a few feet, then fell headfirst into the inferno that was the basement.

As it fell, I saw the makeshift spear lodged into the hole in its back. Aaron was standing where the creature had been, breathing heavily. He gave me a relieved look, then collapsed into my arms as I was there to grab him in an instant. I barrelled through the door to find Jared with the white ooze all around his hand and the gun he was holding.

"Quick!" he shouted, "Through this window!"

I put Aaron through the open window first, then jumped out after him with Jared right behind me. Aaron had managed to recover enough to stand on his feet again, and the three of us sprinted all the way to the van and collapsed onto our knees when the adrenaline finally faded.

For the first time, the rain was a relief as it cooled my burning hot skin.

Wait... my heart froze, "Where's Sarah?"

A loud explosive noise filled the air as the flames suddenly burst through the roof and engulfed the entire building.

"I helped her get into the van, she's okay. She just had trouble walking," Aaron said, "Then I took that spear and came in to help you!"

Phew, I was really worried there for a second.

I hugged Aaron tightly, "You shouldn't have come in there. You're just a kid, and there's never any way of telling what those monsters can do. What if you died?" I squeezed him tighter, "I don't know if I'd be able to go on without you, too..."

"What if I died?!" he pouted, "What if you died?! I couldn't leave you in there, dad." he moved out of my hug and pointed at me, "And if I do die... You better not give up, okay? Because then I'll be rooting for you up in the sky with mom!"

I wiped my tears away and laughed, "Yeah, I guess you're right... Sorry. Thank you for coming to save us, Aaron. But you need to be careful, okay? You need to know your limits."

He nodded and smiled.

"I tried to stop him..." Jared said, "But he wouldn't listen to me. I at least told him about the hole on the back of the thing, and it looked like it payed off. I've known it all along... but you've really got quite the spirit, Aaron!"

We watched the building burn for a moment, then started towards the van. The white ooze had turned liquid again and dripped off of Jared's hand, either because of the rain or because the thing had died, who knows. We better get out of here now in case the flames get too wild.

I stopped in place as I heard a strange humming noise coming from the burning building.

Dreading what I'd see, I managed to twist my neck around.

My jaw dropped.

In the middle of that conflagration, standing atop the burning ruins of the house... were the three monstrous sisters.

Their bodies were still covered in wounds and burning to a crisp.

"No..." I muttered out loud, "Don't tell me this isn't over."

The three of them glanced towards us... and bowed.

What?

What... the hell... were... they doing...?

They then turned to face each other solemnly, and linked their arms together.

"Hey..." Jared uttered, "What... is this? Hey... hey, hey..."

Their bodies all flickered as they were engulfed with flames... and a pure white glow.

Their radiant white bodies slowly transformed into ash, from head to toe, and then that ash began to crumble away, all of it drifting into a spot above where their heads had been.

None of us could move.

We were held in place by the utterly inexplicable and yet strangely beautiful scene before us.

The ashes swirled together, dancing and winding in the flames, until it gradually began to form into the shape of... a feminine figure, with a body constructed of ash and a dress formed out of flames. It had no eyes, mouth or nose. There was something about it that absolutely mesmerized me, in some bizarre way it was both uncanny and graceful all at once.

The flames that formed its "dress" burned brighter, and as they did new flames blazed to life on its hands. I noticed the ash that made up its body was slowly crumbling away into nothing. Though its visage was featureless, it turned to face me.

It stood there momentarily motionless, the rain pattering onto its frail and graceful body, the flames roaring against the deluge.

It gestured its head at us in a way as if to say, "Prepare yourself."

Then, it performed a curtsy with the fire of its "dress".

What the hell... was going on anymore? Was this thing... challenging us? Like a knight would before a duel? How intelligent was it? And why would it... what in the name of...

I took a shotgun from the trunk.

Alright.

I'll play with you.

"Aaron... get back."

As the inferno danced around it, reducing its body to nothing, the amalgamation of the ashes of the three creatures danced as well, spinning in a pirouette. I aimed the shotgun at its chest, it hopped and skipped in place, I put my finger on the trigger, it leaped gracefully into the air, the barrel of the shotgun followed it as it was about to come crashing down towards me, feet first.

I fired.

A chunk of its right side was blown away by the blast, trailing and fading away behind the thing as it dove with force towards where I had been not a second before, landing gently on the tips of its toes. I aimed at the thing again, but before I could pull the trigger it kicked at me with a burning leg, the hot air making me recoil as it burnt the hair off my arms. I landed on my bottom as I tried to steady myself, but fired the shotgun at the thing again. I missed completely as it leaped back onto the burning building, I reloaded the shotgun, the thing spun in a majestic dance, leaped to a burning pillar, then prepared for another strike.

This time its body was cloaked entirely in flames, blazing behind it as it came soaring towards me like a comet. I pulled the trigger.

...But hit nothing.

I blinked. The flaming thing had suddenly been sucked back by something. Something behind it. A noise that I didn't hear over the burning building suddenly became clear in my ears. I felt some force gently tugging me forward. The flaming thing tried to pull itself away, but it was no use. It was sucked directly into what was behind it. Its ashes and flames mingled together in the vortex for a moment before they were absorbed and faded away into the mass of... things that made up the new arrival.

The ash-thing had been sucked into a tornado-like vortex that stood about twenty feet tall. It was starting to tear through the burning building, and I could feel the air around me tugging towards it... no, there was something else too. It felt like there was something within me being pulled at by some force in that twister. I shivered as I saw that inside of that swirling vortex there were dozens of screaming phantasmal shapes. They looked like humans... like ghosts. They reached out of the vortex as they scrambled and crawled all over each other, spinning around endlessly, desperately trying to claw their way out. But it was no use. The instant one of them managed to just poke a finger out of the vortex, they were violently tugged back in. They screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed, their cries mingling together to form an absolutely hellish chorus. I blinked again as I saw the flaming ash-thing in that vortex as well, and I noticed that there were other non-human shapes caught in that hell as well.

I could have stayed in place staring in a daze at the tempest of tormented beings until I would be swallowed up by them as well, but Jared grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me into the passenger seat of the van. Aaron was already in the backseat with Sarah, who was fully conscious now.

"What the hell is going on with that thing?" Sarah shouted, her eyes wide as she stared at the vortex in wonder and dread.

Jared put the van in drive, but the vortex was tugging at the vehicle, preventing it from moving. I gazed in terror as the vortex made its way across the fire, the flames joining with the tumbling bodies, scorching them and heightening their wails.

Jared cursed and pushed hard on the gas, and we managed to break free of the tugging force of the nightmarish tornado.

We could still hear the tormented screams echoing through the air for a full minute as we drove away and left the burning radio station behind us. What in the hell was that?

"Were those... souls?" Sarah asked nobody in particular, her voice trembling.

The suggestion shook me to my very core. The screaming ghost-like figures in the vortex sure looked like tormented spirits. But there had even been the shapes of indescribable creatures in it as well, and the ash-thing had joined with them in a weird phantasmal state.

So... what did it all mean?

And the way it had acted before it got sucked into the vortex... why? I couldn't make any sense of it, no matter how hard I tried.

Jared sighed, shaking his head, "Whatever the hell any of that was, let's just be glad we made it away from it mostly unscathed."

Jared and I got out to swap seats and as I was walking to the driver's seat I caught sight of a sign that was knocked over on the side of the road. It read: "Crestland City: 4 Miles".

I looked towards the direction of the city, seeing the vague outlines of skyscrapers in the distance, through the heavy rain. A single red light flashed on and off gradually. It must have been from the aircraft warning light at the Crestland airport. Did that part of the city actually still have power?

I took a deep breath.

We were going to find out soon.

I sat myself in the driver's seat, buckled up, looked at Jared, Sarah and Aaron... then drove towards the city that we had heard so many dark whispers and rumours about.

Crestland City.

Ready or not, here we come.

END OF BOOK 1