A cool breeze ticked his face as he strolled through the silent alleyways, empty except for the occasional cardboard box or rubbish bag. Unlike others, he was not afraid of walking through such dark alleys in the dead of night. It was actually sort of comforting.

He was called Thomas Schmidt, and he wasn't a particularly sociable boy. He only spoke to others when he needed to. But this didn't mean he was not kind. Quite the opposite, in fact. Others knew him to be a selfless, polite young man who was the one to go to for a hug and some encouraging words after you'd had a bad day. Now, it just so happened that as he was exiting the alley that he heard the faint crying of a girl. He thought it was strange. Children cry because they want attention, to be fussed over about. But this crying was different. Suppressed. Trying to avoid attention. Thomas, being the caring teen he is, sprinted towards what he thought was the source of the crying. He found himself entering a convenience store, and he saw a teenage girl, sat on the floor in an awkward position, with her hands covering her face.

"Hey, are you all right?", he said in a whisper, so as not to startle her. He put a hand on her arm, which she jumped at, tearing the hands from her face to see who had touched her. Her face was wet with tears and her hair was messy. "Hey, what happened? Tell me.", he tried again. All he got was some mumbling about shadows chasing after her. Poor girl, he thought, so traumatized her brain filled the gaps in to explain what had happened to her.

""What is your name? Tell me your name."

"B-...Brianna."

"Okay, Brianna," he said as he rose, "tell me. What happened to you?"

Just as Brianna opened her mouth to speak, the earth shook. It was only a miniature tremor, but some items fell off the shelves. It caught Thomas off guard and he almost fell over. Good to know he's alert. Earthquakes aren't just one shock, it's a series, escalating in destructive power. Assuming that the tremor just now was part of an earthquake, Thomas thought to himself. He realized that somewhere like this isn't a good place to stay during an earthquake, so he tugged on Brianna's arm. "We can't stay here," he said. "It's too dangerous."

Unfortunately, before Brianna managed to compose herself, Thomas saw something move outside. And before he could guess what it was, a huge fist slammed against the doors, spraying glass everywhere. "It's the shadow thing!" she screamed. "Run!"

Thomas analysed the convenience store. The only other exit would be the back door, but could he make it?

While he was thinking, another huge fist hit him with such velocity that Thomas barely had time to register what was happening before hitting the wall behind the cash register. He swear he heard something snap but struggled to get back up as Brianna shrieked again. Thomas ran towards her as she ducked to avoid another arm of the thing outside, knocking some shelves over. She crawled to the back of the store, and Thomas hoisted her up and pushed her through the door as the thing entered behind them. Heart pounding, they sprinted along some alleyways, hoping an exit would appear, but they reached a dead end. The fence was too high, and there were no branching streets along the alleyway. No escape.

They watched with horror as the thing that attacked them moved along the same path, grinning monstrously. With another step the demon took, Thomas felt his heart would explode. Brianna hugged his arm tightly and closed her eyes, as if this was all a dream, and she could just wake up. As the demon raised a huge arm to crush them both, he quickly thought of what would happen if he died here and now. If anyone would know.

This was the end.