Webb's a dead guy with no memory of his life, and that's how he likes it. He'd sworn he'd protect After, the city of the dead, from monsters, but the monsters have all been killed off. Now he has only one thing left to do: go through the Gate and fi...
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I grabbed Jacob by the shirt collar and yanked him back into the sand with me, just as the beast nearly trampled us.
Coughing, we both struggled to our feet in the cloud of dark dust the rampaging elephant kicked up. I had to squint to make sense of our surroundings. I could only catch glimpses of the smoking corpse of what used to be an elephant through the dust—tusks sharp as swords and a trunk that sifted through the sand, grasping for anything to turn into voidling.
"Don't let it grab you!" I shouted to Jake in between coughs. "It'll turn you into—"
"Un monstruo," Jacob concluded, looking braced to flee as he sized up the contorting dust around us and the elephant it hid.
I dodged a tusk by a hairs' breadth with a yelp and raised my sword. "Si!" I said.
Jacob looked from my sword to the measly little switchblade he held at arm's length, perhaps reconsidering his choice of weapon.
A trumpet sounded from the settling dust. The monster had seen us.
"What're we going to do, Webb?" squeaked the child at my side.
I bit my lip. Why did Jacob have to be here? Unlike me, he was susceptible to becoming a voidling, and the pipsqueak wasn't going to be much help in a fight. "Well, first of all," I began. "you're going to fuck off and get somewhere safe." The boy opened his mouth to protest, but just as I'd done when we'd first met, I planted my boot squarely on his chest and kicked him far, far away from me. I turned away from the profanity-spewing child rolling across the dunes to the charging elephant. The creature changed its course, making headway toward the smaller target.
"Hey!" I screamed over the din. I raised my sword above my head and spun it like a glow stick at the universe's weirdest rave. The beast's head turned, empty eye sockets locked on me as if it could still see. I kept twirling my glowing blade, keeping its attention on me alone. The ground quaked. The monster fast approached.
Sure, we could run, but no way could we outrun an elephant, especially one that could never tire. I narrowed my eyes and brandished my weapon. But maybe if I could slow it down...
I rolled to the ground just as the creature was about to impale me. A hefty foot passed over me. I slashed my blade, slicing the elephant's ankle. The beast let out a pained bugle and limped off a few paces, leaving behind a haphazard trail of slick, wet sand.
I sat up, covered in grit but sporting a grin. That should do it. Now all I had to do was find Jake, then we—
My jubilation was short-lived. Both the elephant and I watched as the flesh of the bleeding leg it favored mended itself with a hiss. Something about voidlings made them heal faster than any normal ghost.
The rotting animal flapped its ears at me. I let out a groan. "Oh, please don't make me kill you, buddy."
It was an elephant. It must've already had a hard enough life. I didn't want to be the one who made its afterlife even harder.
