For a few seconds after the shaking stopped, there was only silence.
Not the calm kind—
the heavy kind.
Chris slowly lifted her head from the floor. Her ears rang. Dust floated in the air like ash. Around her, people were frozen, staring at each other, breathing hard, afraid to move.
"Is… is it over?" someone whispered.
Chris looked at Henry. At Lily. At Twilight.
They were shaken—but alive.
Relief barely had time to settle.
Then—
THUD.
The ground shook again.
Not violently.
Not randomly.
This time it felt… measured.
Like something stepping.
Thud.
The sound echoed beneath the floor.
A deep, hollow vibration crawled up Chris's spine.
Thud.
The footsteps grew louder.
Closer.
Cracks began to spread across the restaurant ceiling, thin lines at first—then snapping open like broken veins.
People screamed.
"RUN!"
Before anyone could react—
BOOM.
The ceiling exploded.
Chunks of concrete crashed down as dark shapes forced their way through. Smoke and debris filled the air—and from it emerged creatures no one had ever seen before.
Monsters.
Twisted bodies. Elongated limbs. Faces that looked half-melted, half-broken. Eyes glowing with hunger.
Time stopped.
Chris's heart dropped.
Her lungs refused to work.
This…
This is it.
Her nightmare.
Standing right in front of her.
After months of silence… it had come back.
"Chris!" Twilight shouted.
She didn't hear him.
She couldn't move.
Twilight didn't think—he acted. He grabbed her, lifting her into his arms, shaking her just enough to pull her out of the shock.
"Hey! Look at me!" he yelled. "We need to go—NOW!"
Henry instinctively grabbed Lily's hand, pulling her close. She was pale but focused, her eyes scanning the chaos.
"There!" Lily shouted, pointing toward a side passage near the kitchen. "That way—there's a gateway!"
No time to question.
They ran.
Hell Unleashed
The monsters attacked everything.
Tables shattered.
Walls crumbled.
People screamed as creatures tore through the restaurant.
Chris glanced back for half a second.
Blood.
On the floor.
On the walls.
On people who weren't moving anymore.
Her stomach twisted.
Twilight tightened his grip and ran faster.
Then—
A violent shadow cut through the smoke.
A figure dropped from above, landing hard between the monsters and the escaping crowd.
A sword flashed.
One strike.
A monster split in two—and vanished into smoke.
Chris's breath caught.
Him.
The masked guy.
The same one.
The one from her nightmares.
The one from the stairs.
For a moment, even the monsters hesitated.
Then chaos returned—ten times worse.
More than ten monsters surrounded him.
He didn't step back.
He stepped forward.
His sword moved like lightning—then suddenly changed shape, shifting into a massive bat, smashing a creature into the wall. In the next second, it shrank into a blade again, slicing clean through another monster's neck.
Every move was precise.
Brutal.
Efficient.
Chris stopped running.
She couldn't look away.
Her body froze again—not in fear this time, but shock.
"Chris!" Lily screamed.
She didn't respond.
Twilight cursed under his breath and lifted her onto his shoulder. "Sorry—but no time!"
Gunshots echoed.
Police.
Officers stormed in, shouting orders, firing at the monsters.
The bullets passed through them.
Did nothing.
"THEY'RE NOT WORKING!" an officer screamed.
The masked guy moved through the chaos like he belonged there—dodging claws, spinning, striking. Blood splashed the floor. Monsters screamed as they disintegrated.
This wasn't a fight.
It was a slaughter.
Escape
Henry shielded Lily as debris fell around them.
"Almost there!" Lily shouted, coughing from the smoke.
Twilight burst through the gateway, carrying Chris. Henry followed, slamming the door behind them just as something slammed into it from the other side.
They didn't stop running.
Sirens wailed louder outside. Ambulances arrived. People cried, screamed, collapsed.
Twilight finally set Chris down.
She dropped to her knees.
Her hands trembled.
"That… was real," she whispered.
Lily hugged her tightly, shaking. "You're safe. We're alive."
Henry looked back at the burning building.
Inside—
Steel clashed.
Roars echoed.
Shadows moved.
The masked guy fought alone.
And he was winning.
The Last Strike
Inside the ruined restaurant, the final monster lunged.
The masked guy didn't hesitate.
His eyes glowed fiercely in the dark.
"One step too far," he muttered.
The sword pierced straight through the creature's chest.
It dissolved into smoke.
Silence followed.
Broken only by fire crackling and distant sirens.
He stood still, breathing slowly, blood dripping from his blade—none of it his.
Outside, emergency lights painted the city red and blue.
The world would call this an earthquake.
An accident.
A tragedy.
But Chris knew better.
As she stared at the destroyed restaurant, her nightmare burned into her mind again.
Because this time—
It wasn't hiding in the dark anymore.
It had come into the light.
And everything had changed.