Alpha Prime's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Alpha Prime pressed their back against the closed doors and listened. The pursuers outside had stopped moving. The boy on the sidewalk was still grinning, but the grin was fading now, like a painting left in the sun. The brass ornament in Alpha Prime's hand cooled by a small degree. That worried them more than the heat had. Inside the plain gray hall, the air smelled like old paper and cold iron. The fox-shaped creature stood between Alpha Prime and the street, ears flat, tail low. Then the creature turned. Not toward the doors. Toward the back of the hall. Its gold eyes fixed on a dark hallway Alpha Prime had not seen before, past the cold radiator, past a row of empty coat hooks. A sound came from that hallway. Soft. Regular. Something dragging over wood, then a pause, then dragging again. It was getting closer. Alpha Prime looked at the creature. The creature looked at the hallway, then at Alpha Prime, then at the ornament. It made a low sound in its throat, not a growl, more like a warning cough. Alpha Prime understood. The building was safe from what was outside. It was not empty. The pursuers could not come in because something already lived here, and that something was waking up. Alpha Prime had run into a trap with a locked door behind them. They did the only thing they could think of. They walked toward the sound, ornament raised, because the front doors would not open against the pursuers and the fox would not leave the middle of the room. Halfway down the hallway, the dragging stopped. A shape stood in a doorway. It was tall and thin and wore what might have been a coat. Its face was not finished. Alpha Prime held the ornament out the way the boy had held it out on the street. The jeweled spindle caught the weak light. The shape in the doorway did not stop. It took one step forward. The ornament stayed cool in Alpha Prime's palm. It did not work on this one. Alpha Prime backed up fast. The fox-creature was already moving. It shot past Alpha Prime's legs and planted itself in the hallway, harness catching the light, teeth bared for the first time. The pale blue markings along its ribs glowed. The shape in the doorway hissed and pulled back into the dark. The creature did not chase. It turned its head and looked at Alpha Prime, then at a narrow side door Alpha Prime had not noticed. A way out that was not the front. Alpha Prime understood the second lesson of the night. The building was not safe. The creature was. And the creature was telling them to run again.