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Besides, the neighbors had said it wasn’t safe out after dark. She had to get to the little one as quickly as possible.
She ran to the chute and tapped the sensor, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around herself as the thing dropped to the ground, causing the frigid air to swirl in her hair.
She stepped off the platform immediately, but it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness under the island, where the starlight couldn’t battle the strange shadows of 0-dette.
After a moment, she could see the shape of something. Her eyes and brain couldn’t identify it immediately, but her feet were still moving.
In the darkness, a pair of yellow eyes opened and fixed on hers.
That yellow gaze seemed to communicate directly with her mind, sending her body into a sort of haze, and telling her that she was doing something very important.
I’m saving a baby, she said to herself stupidly.
Though it was clear that what hunched in the dark below the island was not of any race she knew.
And it definitely wasn’t a baby.
Some instinct deep inside her finally screamed for her to run.
But by then it was too late. Her body no longer obeyed her. It was under the thrall of the thing that watched her with a mixture of disinterest and amusement.
She was not the rescuer. She was the prey. This thing, whatever it was, was going to eat her eventually. But Ella strongly suspected it was planning to toy with her first.
She desperately called on her body to move.
Take two steps back onto the chute. Tap the sensor.
But it was hopeless. She might as well have been shouting to some idiot in a holo-film who was about to walk right into the killer’s arms.
The thing moved in the shadows, and she had the impression of something large and sinewy, circling her to get the lay of the land.
She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
The creature moved closer, as if in slow motion, and she could see its enormous mouth slowly opening, wider and wider, until its jaw unhinged.
“Don’t look at it,” Jhon shouted from somewhere far, far above.
How had he known she was out here and in trouble?
Her heart leapt at the sound of his voice. But it was too late. She had already looked. And the chute platform was down here with her. There was no way he could get to her in time.
A second later, she heard something thump to the ground behind her and was certain it was a second monster. Between them, they would tear her apart.
She let out another silent scream.
Then warm, strong arms were wrapping around her, pulling her onto the platform.
Jhon.
How had he gotten down here so fast?
The monster in front of her hissed.
Jhon let out a thunderous roar that would have made her jump out of her skin, if control of her body hadn’t belonged to the monster in the shadows.
The thing hissed again, but its yellow eyes blinked shut.
Immediately, she felt its hold on her receding.
