Lucky

Chapter 2

If there was ever a time to run, now was the time. Deaglan, with his back pressed against the wall, looking death in the face... faces, as it were. There had never been a better time too flee. 
The two skeletal beasts threw their heads back and screamed into the air like dogs of war.  It was as if they were celebrating their kill without having made it yet, as if they knew that their prey wasn't going anyway. They were almost laughing in the way they screamed and screeched.
They were right in this too. Deaglan may as well have been tied down for the little difference it would have made. His back was still pressed to the wall. His face was demented with fear. And his body was unwilling, or at least unable to respond. He was going to die and there was nothing he willing to do about it.
It was as the two monsters screamed into the air that the mutt beside them began to change also. Its fur fell from its body in patches, revealing black and red blotched skin like scales. Its spine began to break from its back and stick up like a razor blade, and its jaw stretched out extended to such a huge length that it could have eaten Deaglan in two bites.
"Hey!" a voice suddenly called out from down the alley.
Deaglan whipped his head around to see who had called out. He was almost as surprised by who it was, as by what was happening.
It was a girl, not much older than he. She had dark black hair that fell to her shoulders, and she was dressed in all black too. From the rims of her thick glasses, to the laces on her leather boots, she was a near shadow as she darted deeper and deeper into the alley toward Deaglan and the monsters. About to call out and warn her, as if she had no idea what she was heading into, Deaglan’s voice caught in his throat when he saw her up close.
She was, for want of a better description, beautiful. Or at least Deaglan thought so. She had high cheekbones and an angular face that was only hidden by her thick framed glasses --, which Deaglan suspected she wore to cover this up. Her lips were full too, but plain as she had on no lipstick or gloss of any kind. And although her expression was hardened, this seemed almost unnatural, as if she were doing it on purpose. She struck the figure of someone who knew how attractive they were, and hated the fact.
This moment of appreciation was as brief as it was unexpected. No sooner had the girl reached Deaglan, did he pull his mind back to the moment at hand. “Run!” he found himself screaming at the girl. “Get out of here! Go! I'll... I'll hold them off!”  He actually considered for a moment using the can of tomato soup he held as some kind of weapon. Maybe to bludgeon them to death? But that thought left him as quick as it had come.
If she heard him, she gave no indication. She sprinted right into the middle of the two beasts. And where the two monsters should have thrown themselves at her with ravenous hunger and excitement, for surely she was another meal for the two to divulge on, they actually seemed scared.
Indeed, the one furthest away turned to flee at the sight of her, as if this little girl was some sort of monster too. But before it got the chance to run, the girl fell to her knees, closed her eyes, opened her mouth and screamed.
To Deaglan it sounded like a normal enough scream; loud and piercing. But if the reactions of the two beasts and the dog was anything to go by, her scream was near fatal to hear and such that one would rather drink poison than be subjected to it. The three monsters fell to the ground, screaming and crying out as they did so. Where the two skinny men grabbed at their ears as a means to block out the sound of the girl screaming, the dog howled into the sky before collapsing on its back.
As she continued to scream, going red in the face, the three creatures from Deaglan's nightmare, rolled onto their backs, screamed back themselves and then fainted. And it was only when they were out cold, near dead from the lack of movement in their bodies, that the girl stopped.
Still on her knees and red in the face, she looked up at Deaglan and actually smiled. Deaglan felt his heart beat against his chest as the smile washed over him. He had no idea who this girl was, or what had just happened, but for some reason he trusted her. More than that, he actually felt safe around her.
But this smile lasted a second, maybe two, for no sooner had it crossed her lips did she suddenly close her eyes and fall forward, flat on her face. Like the three monsters that she had just paralyzed with... well, Deaglan guessed it to be her scream, although he couldn't comprehend why it was so effective, she too was out cold.
A forgotten can of tomato soup still clutched in one hand, and two brown paper bags balanced in his other the arm, Deaglan stared down at the four passed out bodies wondering what the heck he had just witnessed and more to that fact, what he going to do about it.