DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

The screams echoed through the streets of San Angel — a pair of prolonged, almost unnatural noises that roused the townsfolk from their beds and pulled them out into the streets. By the time the throngs of people traced the cries back to the Sanchez house, however, they had fallen silent.

Maria was sitting in a corner of Alejo's room when she was found, trembling as she clutched her wailing son to her chest and murmured barely comprehensible strings of words. In the center of his daughter's room stood Manolo, surrounded by shattered glass and debris. He seemed not to hear the commotion unfolding around him: his gaze was locked on the open window, and those who unsuccessfully tried to pull him away couldn't coax a word out of him.

"They took her," Maria eventually whispered when she was questioned. "They took her…"

The words bled out into the gathering crowd. Someone has stolen away the little Sanchez girl, people said to one another. Snatched her from her bed in the middle of the night.

"Manolo!" Joaquin shouted as he forced his way to the front of the crowd with Ixa at his heels. He skidded to a stop when he saw the state of Ofelia's room, the blood draining from his face as his jaw dropped. "What the hell happened?"

Ixa knelt and ran her hands along the deep, jagged gashes in the floorboards. "Joaquin…"

A series of annoyed shouts rose up from the hallway as two small figures hurriedly wormed through the mass of bodies. "What's going on?" Vicente and Gabriela cried, stumbling through the doorway. "Where's Felia?"

Manolo's hands slowly clenched into fists when he heard them. "You two need to leave."

Vicente approached him. "Uncle Manolo?" he asked, his voice breaking. "Is Felia okay…?"

"Now," he snarled.

Joaquin moved to usher the twins out of the room, but they were already slinking silently away.

"Manolo," Ixa said, standing up and putting a hand on his arm, "what happened to her?" No answer. "…They came for her, didn't they?"

He took a shuddering breath and tried to take a step backwards, only for his legs to give way and collapse. Joaquin caught him as he fell, and he buried his face in his friend's shirt as he trembled.

"It's gonna be okay, brother," Joaquin whispered, trying to put an air of certainty in his voice. "We can still get her back."

Manolo shook his head. "It's all my fault."

"There's no time for that!" Pulling away from his friend, Joaquin gripped him by the shoulders. "Now listen," he said as though reprimanding a soldier, "you need to focus. She's alone, she's scared, she needs you to be strong right now. We're gonna find those cabróns and bring her home. That's a promise."

"I don't even know where they went…"

There was a clatter downstairs, accompanied by a reedy voice shouting. "There was a whole pack of them, I swear! I saw them with my own eyes! And the largest one spoke to me and — "

"I'll hear no more of it! Out of this house at once!"

The Mondragons hurried down to the parlor, pulling Manolo along with them. A sizable group was forming in the middle of the room around General Posada, whose remaining hand was latched around the throat of a struggling farmer. "I'm telling the truth, señor!" the frightened man was yelling.

"Can't you see we've no time for your stories? My granddaughter is missing, and you want to tell us about some beast that spoke to you?!"

"Let him."

The room fell silent as everyone looked towards the top of the stairs. Maria was making her way down from the landing with her son still in her arms. "What is he saying, Papa?" she asked. Her gaze was locked forward and never wavered from the scene she was approaching: grief had given way to a cold, razor-sharp focus.

"It's nothing you need to…" General Posada trailed off as his daughter shot him a glare. "Señor here says a talking jaguar tried to rip his throat out."

The muscles in Maria's face remained still, as did the rest of them, but the glint which passed through her eyes could not be ignored. "Is that true?"

"S-Si, señora," the farmer answered, his legs wobbling as Posada let him go free. "A whole pack. Six or seven, at least."

"Did you see where they went?"

He gulped. "They were swimming back across the lake a few minutes ago. One of them had something small in its mouth…?"

An invisible wave of realization rippled through the crowd, followed a moment later by one of horror.

Maria remained stoic. "Tell me which way they were headed."

"I-I don't know if — "

"Tell me!" Maria snapped, spitting the words out through her teeth as the fire in her eyes flared up.

The little man nearly fainted again. "…East. They were going to the east."

She nodded, then looked to her slack-jawed husband and friends. "We have a chance of hunting them down if we hurry."

"Quite right!" General Posada said, as though the idea had been his. "You wait here, mija. Give my men and I some time to prepare, and we'll — "

"You are staying right here," Maria answered, handing him Alejo. "I'm going after them."

"You what?" her father sputtered.

"Your men aren't fit for this, Papa," she continued. "I know how to fight those things better than any of you do, and I'll cover more ground by myself."

"You're not going alone!" Manolo said, snapping out of his daze. "She's our — "

"I'm her mother." Maria fixed an even more withering glare upon him. "And she needs someone she can count on to keep her safe."

Joaquin hesitated a moment before stepping between the two of them. "In that case," he said in a careful tone, "I think she'd be better off with a few more of us."

"Can you look to the twins for us, señor?" Ixa asked General Posada.

"What, all four of you fools?"

"Joaquin and I know these creatures as well," she answered. "And," she added, glancing at Manolo and Maria, "we shall not leave our family in such need."

"How long has it been since you saw the pack leave?" Joaquin asked the now-thoroughly confused and terrified farmer.

"Ten minutes? Maybe a few more?"

"You two go on ahead now," he said to his friends. "Take Plata, she can carry you both. We'll grab a few days' worth of supplies and follow you."

Manolo and Maria were out the door barely a few moments after he finished, pausing only to take coats, boots and swords. The people of San Angel stared through the gaping doorway after them as they ran away and were swallowed up by the night.

Joaquin turned back to the general. "We'll need food, guns, maybe a few bedrolls…"

"And we mustn't forget the map," Ixa added.

"What map?"

"Ofelia found a book this morning," she said. "An old journal. It had a map inside."

"What makes you think that'll help?"

"I…" She shook her head. "I don't know for certain. I simply feel it."

Her husband gave her a look of confusion that quickly softened. "Do you know where it is?"

"In her room, I should think."

"Then we'll find it." He motioned for a few of the soldiers to search upstairs before heading for the door. "And we'll find Ofelia, General."

"More likely you'll find what's left of — "

"Don't you dare."

In the shadow of the upstairs hallway, two small heads looked to where the third of them had last been and then at one another. There was a spark flickering to life in Gabriela's eyes, full of fear but just as much with hope.

Vicente could see it even before she was fully aware of it. "You're not going to — "

"I'm not," she said. "We are."

"I thought so."