Emery didn't stop running until she could barely make out the safe house in the distance. She walked along the shore, kicking at shells and rocks. The lake was quiet, only murmuring with each little wave, the tide far back.

Her hands still shook, even after her racing thoughts had numbed a bit.

The voices of her peers rising and screaming "Monster!" at her still rang around her head. The tears had dried a while back, and they crusted on her cheeks.

She planned on going back in the dead of night to steal some of the food storage and other equipment, but she kept walking away. If she stopped, she wouldn't be able to get up.

Emery glanced down at her hands. They looked normal to her: brown and small, slightly callused. But something had changed. She'd killed a spirit—or whatever she had done, sent it away? Burned it? She had no clue still, all that had been on her mind was to save her brother.

A brother who probably detested her now.

She slowed her steps and faced the lake. A half moon looked down on the waters, throwing spools of silver across its surface. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, recalling the power surge she'd felt after disintegrating the spirit.

She'd never felt something like that before. It was as if her senses had heightened exponentially, and she could feel every little vibration in the air, and for that split second, she hadn't felt so small anymore.

But it's wrong. She opened her eyes, wetness already pooling past her lids. I can never do that again.

She didn't know how long she stood there, staring at the moon, repeating over and over that she could never do it again, when the soft sound of sifting sand reached her ears.

Emery straightened her back, loosening her shoulders, but didn't look to see who it was.

It's probably one of them, come to try and kill me. They called me a monster. She found she didn't have the strength to face them.

The shuffling got louder, and whoever was trying to sneak up on her accidentally kicked at rock, and the noise of crackling shells pierced the air.

The hairs on her arms stood on end, her breaths coming out faster. The suspense made her turn around, despite her tired and sore limbs and the negative thoughts that continued to lap around in her head.

Em sucked in a sharp breath, and she stilled, little cold shocks rolling down her arms.

Felix stood a couple paces away. His dark hair was a mess like normal, but darkness clung to the bottom of his eyes. A backpack looped around his right shoulder. He held a small knife in his other hand, pointed down to the sand.

The first thought that entered was, Is he here to kill me? Has it really come to that?

The thought vanished like the spirit she'd disintegrated when Felix took a step forward and croaked, "Em."

Emery ran to her brother, colliding into his chest and wrapping her arms tight around his waist. She buried her face in his shirt and let the rest of the tears spill. She wondered if she'd ever be able to cry again, she'd shed so many tears that night.

She heard a thud, and when she felt Felix's warm hand press into her back, she realized he must have dropped the knife in the sand.

After what seemed like forever, Em sniffed and mustered up the courage to whisper, "I thought you hated me."

"You saved my life, Em." He sighed, his exhalation blowing at a couple of the strands of her hair that mussed on top of her head. "It scared the shit out of me, watching you run at that thing. But..." He paused, as if even now he was still processing what had happened what must have been hours ago. She wasn't sure how much time had passed. "They don't know you like I do. They don't understand your situation."

"And what is my situation?" Em asked, her voice flat as a coldness seeped into her chest.

Felix stepped away, pushing her back, his hands on her shoulders. His eyes moved side to side over her face, as if he was trying to figure out what she was thinking. "Your possessed. But... you're stronger than that thing." He huffed out what sounded like a combination of a laugh and groan. "You're much stronger than me, Em. I could never stand up for you against those guys because... I don't know why. I guess because I'm not strong, not like you. I know if our roles were switched, you'd kick their asses if someone just looked at me wrong."

Goddamn it! She wiped at her eyes with the heel of her hand, trying to force the stupid tears to stop streaming down her face.

"But I'd never leave you out on your own to survive. Never." He shook her slightly as if to punctuate his words. He let the backpack fall to the sand. "Especially not without some supplies."

Her stomach twisted when he squatted down and opened the zipper, rummaging through the contents. When he took out a baggy full of nuts and dried food, her stomach grumbled.

Felix snickered and tossed the bag at her and she caught it one-handed, opened it, and downed the contents.

It wasn't as filling as meat, something they'd been without the past week, but it was something substantial, something to keep her energy up.

Felix reached down to the bottom of the bag and then pulled out crinkled papers. "I was able to snatch this without anyone seeing—"

Em grasped at the papers, smoothing them out on top of the sand. It was a brochure from the old world, one that pointed out attractions around the area and, where to eat and where mini golf courses were.

She only had eyes on the map in the center pages. Someone had drawn circles in red marker in what seemed like random area.

But they weren't random to her. She knew what those red circles meant.

They were safe houses.

Em glanced up at her brother who was studying her, and she wondered what he was thinking. Does he regret coming after me? Is he scared? Of me? Of what could be lurking just ahead of us?

She shook her head to clear it. It didn't matter, because they had a map to guide them to the next safe location.

Although as she stared at those tiny red circles, and despite just eating, her stomach felt empty.

They'd been to how many safe houses? Each one failing, and now this one chasing her out. There has to be something more out there other than these safe houses.

But what else was there? There was safety, and then there was the outside, where spirits lurked freely, their urge to possess and kill humans greater than anything else.

It was as she surveyed the map, trying to pinpoint the best path, that the spirit inside her squirmed, as if waking up from a slumber.

And then it roared.

Em jolted upright, scrambling back away from the map, her hand gripping at her chest.

"What? What is it?" Felix asked, his eyes wide.

Her chest rose and fell faster than normal as she tried listening to it. But it didn't roar again, instead it felt like it was crawling beneath her skin, trying to find a way out of her body. It felt like millions of baby spiders prickling just beneath the layer of skin, and she wanted to jump and try to shake them all off.

It couldn't leave her body though. It was stuck. Her body was a cage, after it had expended all its power in order to save them both when she had been on the brink of death.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute, but she swallowed and stammered, "I—I don't know."

But something had changed, and her spirit was fighting at its prison that was her body. Is it because I killed that spirit? Is it scared it's next?

After a couple beats of silence as Em sat rigid on the beach, her chest heaving, the spirit started to calm down, and soon it settled, back to how it normally felt.

"Is it the demon?" Felix asked breathlessly. He had scooted closer to her, a hand reaching out but uncertain what to do to help.

Em cleared her throat. "Yeah..." She shook her head, frowning. "It... I think it was trying to leave." Her brow furrowed as she thought it over. It didn't sound right coming off her tongue though.

She squinted at the map, its white pages illuminated by the glow of the moon. "It's like... It sensed something. Something has changed." She chewed on the inside of her cheek. "But what, I have no fucking clue."

A gentle breeze sifted over the sand, and the paper map fluttered under its wake.