Standing watch outside Vivi’s Fashion Finds, it was like it could have been any other day. A few people milled about the area, but not many of the residents of Redwood Cove preferred to stay out past the evening. So she just had to wait around, sort of in the vicinity of the store, but not close enough to where she looked like she was loitering.

  A demon was approaching and she wasn’t about to let a friend she’d forgotten she had be its first victim. For a while she was alert and on her feet, pacing around corners to see who or what might be approaching. But it was quiet. Maybe Tío and the Watch had slowed it down, maybe even stopped Marty. Soon, however, hope faded back into fear as it was taking suspiciously long for them to get Annabelle out of Vivi’s.

  To distract herself, she occupied herself with her memory of this place. Downtown Redwood Cove was one of the only places where everyone blended together. Bored housewives and hard-working immigrant families both built their businesses there. Though, it was only the latter who staked everything on the success of their little shops and corner stores.

  Across from Vivi’s was Casa de la Ceiba, a Guatemalan mini-mart where she’d slap her sister’s hand when she tried putting tequila in the shopping basket. A little further down was the Reveles Ice Cream Parlor. On the corner was the toy store where she spent hours window shopping with Javi and Victor. They’d beg her with pleading hands to borrow money to buy Dragon Ball Z figurines or new Star Wars Lego sets. Of course, she always said no, but would return a few days later to spend nearly all the money she’d made working part time at Mama’s bridal shop on one single set of little bricks. How on earth a pile of plastic was so damn expensive was beyond her, but it was worth it just to make the boys smile.

  Further down the block, not quite visible from her vantage point, was what remained of Mama’s shop. They’d passed it on the way to Vivi’s but everything with Annabelle, demons, and the creases in Hunter’s brow that meant he was mad at her, took up so much space in her mind. She only spared Marta’s Bridal a single glance, with its boarded up windows and ‘Retail Space For Lease’ sign posted in big font.

  Movement within Vivi’s store snapped Marcie out of these thoughts.

  Marcie leaned on a parking restriction sign and peered into the store. Hunter and Grant were the only ones in Vivi’s aside from one employee who they followed from rack to rack. That employee was unmistakably Annabelle with her bright ginger hair, paper white skin, and outfit a very fashionable black and red ringer tee under short-cut overalls. Her face held a sneer—also one of her most identifiable traits—as if the boys smelled like shit, looked like shit, and were trailing it around the shop.

  What were they saying? Seeing Annabelle pulled on something within Marcie’s chest. Sure, she knew they had grown somewhat closer, the few memories she had of it now were clear evidence of that. But, she felt compelled to run into the shop to Annabelle like they were long distance friends meeting at an airport for the first time in far too long. She’d only felt this way, this intensely once before.

  The boys were taking too long.

  Before she could convince herself out of it, she cautiously pushed on the shop’s door. Annabelle was back at the checkout counter. Hunter and Grant were still pleading with her when a little bell above the door jingled.

  When Hunter and Grant turned, Marcie saw their eyes widen with panic. Annabelle, none the wiser, waved over. “Welcome to Vivi’s! Let me know if I can help you with anything!” Annabelle said with uncanny sweetness. Marcie shuddered at how genuinely pleasant she sounded.

  She hid herself behind a tall rack of clothes in a way where she could see them but they couldn’t see her. The three of the others lowered their tone, though she could still understand their conversation.

  “Grant what the hell. We’ve been trying to get a hold of you for almost a week! We thought you went missing like Marty did. You can’t just turn up with this gangly weirdo and tell me he’s–what?–hunting me down? What the fuck is going on?” Annabelle said through gritted teeth.

  “It’s a lot to explain–” Grant sounded entirely apologetic.

  “Try me,” said Annabelle.

  Hunter grunted in frustration. “We don’t have time for that.”

  “Well I’m not going anywhere. If you haven’t noticed, I have a fucking job,” she said.

  Then, to Marcie’s horror, Annabelle began to walk towards her. The girl strutted towards her with a purposeful step and with a flip of her hair, Marcie immediately knew that this was Annabelle at her most annoyed. She always grew twice as confident when she was upset. Then, as that thought hit Marcie, she wondered how exactly she knew that.

  There was no time to ponder it, when Annabelle said, again in sweet tones, “Hey! My sincerest apologies, miss. I was caught up by some friends. Is there anything I can do to help you today?”

  Before Annabelle could cross the threshold of the rack and see Marcie’s face, seeing the longing that she couldn’t find a way to put aside, Marcie bolted for the door. With another jingle of bells, she was outside again.

  It wasn’t yet sundown and yet the street was darker now than before she had entered the shop. She was only in the shop for a few minutes, how was this possible? She heard the Watch barking. A loud crack like the snapping of trees came from somewhere beyond the roofline of the downtown shops.

  Then, she saw what was casting the large shadow over the street. A gargantuan mass of squid tentacles reaching high into the air whipped around wildly, swatting satellite dishes off of rooftops and taking out power lines.

  People were screaming and running down the street, across the side leaving their shopping bags behind. A fleet of cars sped off in the opposite direction of the flailing mass. Soon after, shop owners and employees were running out of their stores and following after the rest. Marcie didn’t know what they were seeing, but it was likely as terrifying as the sight before her.

  Someone, in the chaos, crashed into her. Marcie barely budged, but their collision sent the other person tumbling to the ground with their belongings. Marcie reached down her hand.

  The other person began to reach for her hand. A young boy–who looked to be around fifteen or sixteen–looked up at her at first with gratitude, then something changed in his demeanor. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and his hand did not move.

  “Come on!” Marcie grabbed their hand and started raising them up. “You gotta go!”

  Then, Marcie noticed. What had fallen out of this person’s hands was a book. Its old yellowed pages lay open on the ground and on it were diagrams and symbols and long text in Latin.

  She jumped back, away from this stranger. And she realized in that moment that he didn’t bump into her running away from the monster. He was running towards it.

  The boy quickly swiped up the Necronomicon then flipped the hood of his hoodie back over their shoulder length blond hair.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, in a mournful tone, then bolted forward again.

  Marcie was stunned. Had she just met the Void?

  “Hey! Wait!” She called after.

  Not even a block away, the monster finally came into full view. The mass of tentacles was reaching out of Marty’s throat and some wrapped around his limbs, forcing him to hobble slowly. One car almost ran straight through Marty as he walked into the street, only swerving at the last minute and sideswiping Marty instead. He didn’t even flinch. In response to this slight, however, a tentacle came down and slammed into the car’s rear windshield. Glass shattered and Marcie could hear the screaming of children as the car sped away.

  The barking had stopped. Marcie spotted one lone dog follow limply after Marty, but it was bleeding profusely. The rest were nowhere to be seen. The thought that the dog might be Tío terrified her even more.

  Hunter, Grant, and Annabelle burst out of Vivi’s.

  “Is that Marty? What the fuck!” Annabelle shouted. “How the hell is there a tornado here?”

  Hunter grabbed a hold of Marcie’s wrist. “What are you doing? We gotta go!”

  “You know I can’t go with you.” Marcie was looking back and forth between Hunter, Annabelle who seemed lost and rightfully panicked now, and the approaching horror. “Take Annabelle and go back to my uncles!”

  “But…! Who is that?” Hunter asked, spotting the lone figure in a hoodie walking straight towards Marty.

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  “No time for that! Go!”

  Reluctantly, Hunter got Grant and Annabelle into the car and left her behind.

  A sickly hoarse voice said. “Annabelle. Please. Don’t leave me.” It hit Marice’s ear like its source was whispering into her, like she could feel breath down her neck even though Marty was several yards away. The creeping dissonance of watching him get steadily closer, closer, and also feeling him right there.

  Fins, spines, tails, and an abundance of fishy heads were emerging from Marty’s body like growths. And they all looked as though they were shocked with pain. The tentacles protruding out and stretching his jaw continued to lash out at random.

  That boy who’d bumped into her had stopped right in front of Marty and was flipping frantically through the Necronomicon. Sympathy hit her seeing the panicked look on his face. That couldn’t possibly be a demon, just a kid. That still didn’t answer how the hell he had the book, but she’d never get answers if the kid died. So she clenched her fists and toes one last time and approached.

  Walking closer and closer felt like being pulled by the whims of the tide. Her lungs expanded as though they were filling with water, though to her that was only a severe discomfort rather than fatal. And was she actually hearing the sound of the waves? They weren’t anywhere near the docks. Marcie fought to lift her feet from the ground, how had that boy gotten so close so quickly? She pushed off her heels and pressed forward with all her strength.

  Closer. Closer. The boy was reciting something in Latin. Was he trying to stop Marty or help him? Closer. The boy was shaking, so much so that it made his speech choppy. Even Marcie could tell he was skipping over words. And then Demon Marty spit up a geyser of water, drenching the boy. It didn’t deter him from trying the spell again. Closer. Another tentacle, lined with barbs along its full length, unfurled itself. Its sharp end had no eyes but it circled above the boy like it had its sights set on him. Closer. The tentacle rose up. The boy started his spell over again. Closer. The tentacle came down. And the boy didn’t notice.

  Strength pulsed into Marcie’s calves. The sensation of struggling against a powerful current alleviated and her body felt fifteen pounds lighter. She threw her body over the boy, wrapping him in her arms.

  The tentacle’s barbs pierced her skin and rent the flesh of her back. Pain shot through her; lovely, exhilarating pain. But that pain lingered. Those wounds weren’t healing. And the pain she loved for a few blissful moments ate her alive. Her knees buckled. No. Not now.

  She braced herself and anticipated another attack from Marty. Instead, she felt a heavy weight fall onto and then off her back. His monstrous tentacles had gone limp the moment one had struck her and all the writhing fish heads attached to his body froze and their eyes lost signs of life. Marty had crashed to the ground and the appendages that reached high into the sky followed suit, slamming into nearby buildings, breaking more windows, and leaving cracks in the concrete road.

  “I–I did it!” The boy cheered, then he started laughing in nervous celebration. “Thank you!” He said to her.

  Marcie’s legs finally gave out. Chunks of her own flesh lay on the ground around her, the body she trusted to heal itself was still doing nothing of the sort. She could feel the inner layers of skin and muscle exposed, but not in the places she’d gotten used to.

  Disintegrating was the best way she could describe the process that was overtaking her body. The feeling started at the tips of her fingers and toes. It started as a shriveling which turned into a withering. Then, it was like she was losing density, like each cell of her body was desperately reaching out towards the next to maintain its form and struggling to grab hold.

  She was on the ground, staring unblinking at Martin Gillman. The tentacles were still reaching out of his body and twitching. The boy was panicking again.

  “Oh Lord Jesus,” he cried. His voice was soft and airy, but it was cracking like he wasn’t used to his own vocal cords. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  She’d heard those words before. Or rather, seen them.

  “Do you know…who I am?” Marcie wanted to ask, but couldn’t move her jaw to form words.

  “God. I’m sorry!” He continued and repeated the phrase. He was sobbing, but he was also beginning to change.

  His apologies sounded like they were getting suffocated into silence. The shadows under his feet grew darker. The human outline of his body imploded, its matter inverting.

  “You should be sorry,” a growling voice said, overlaid on top of the boy’s.

  The voice of the Void rattled the ground. “There is no stopping me, Droplet. The more you disturb my process, the more I punish you. Is that what you want?”

  Was the Void fighting with itself? Was the kid trapped in his own body?

  Marcie looked back towards Marty. His eye had twitched and she realized that he was still conscious. He was a mess of aquatic organisms but his eyes were still human. Marcie realized in shock that Marty was trapped inside his own body too.

  A fleet of sirens was coming from somewhere in the distance.

  The Void groaned. “AAAGH!” and swung its foot hard into Marty’s stomach. It connected with the head of a lionfish, smashing its skull to fragments with a cracking sound. The Void continued its tirade, stomping around and kicking more.

  The Necronomicon had fallen within arms reach. Grabbing for it was all Marcie could think to do. Mustering all her strength, straining against whatever was trying to tear her apart, she gripped the book’s spine and curled around it.

  The sirens were coming closer. The Void looked around frantically.

  “Where did you drop that book you imbecile?” It yelled to itself. “If you don’t tell me where it is this instant, I will slaughter the police officers first and then we can go home, so I can rip your family limb from limb. Would you like that?”

  The Void scoured the ground and then finally landed its attention on Marcie.

  “Marcella Portillo. You must be back from the dead JUST to spite me,” said the Void. She felt both frigid cold and the warmth of light radiating off of this demon as it crouched over her.

  She wanted to speak, wanted to fight. But all the energy left in her was being used to lock her arms. So, Marcie’s response came out as a low moan.

  The Void ignored her attempts to talk back. “Give me the book.”

  Marcie curled tighter.

  “It will be much easier if you listen to my instructions, girl.”

  She didn’t budge, just held on as tight as she could as the world seemed to be coming undone.

  “It is no matter. I have killed you once. This time, I will make sure you cannot return.”

  Darkness washed over her and it was like catching fire. She was breaking apart faster. Her skin was drying, her blood was boiling, the threads of muscle that she was straining to keep hold of the book felt like they were snapping, and it hurt. It hurt so bad, she wanted to scream, but her vocal cords felt like they were clogged with sand. Death was coming for her again. She knew this feeling.

  Sudden flashes came of a collection of people standing over her as she lay dying on the carousel. She spat blood onto the hard wood beneath her, only for it to pool in her lungs again. The night was dark, almost pitch black, but she could still make out six faces, all plastered with their own kind of shock.

  Grant looked pale, like he was about to puke. Edith was crying, God knows why. Curtis and Marty were freaking out, something about their parents and not calling the cops. Who fucking cares guys, a girl is bleeding out right now. Julie looked affronted, she couldn’t believe Marcie had the audacity to die in front of her. And Annabelle. Behind the shock, she looked…unsurprised.

  Look at them, they weren’t your friends. I enjoyed your flavor while it lasted. Alas, my Masterpiece, it’s time for me to move on, the Void’s voice said.

  That was it. She didn’t jump. Well, she had but she didn’t want to. She knew it. She’d known it this whole time it wasn’t her. The Void killed her.

  Time winded onward. Those six people hid their tracks. Annabelle took the red clip out of her hair, letting strands loose that fell over her eyes. Soon they were gone. The sun rose. She had died hours ago, but she lingered. Fury and confusion had taken hold of her soul and her soul insisted on holding on for as long as it could.

  Twilight had come, a soft red slowly rising above the ocean. Two black converse shoes approached her body. Someone had found her. But just before she could see the sun, she couldn’t hold on any longer.

  BARK

  Marcie opened her eyes, back in her body. Downtown was still a mess. Marty was still twitching on the concrete. But now, the Void held the book and was backing away from a hoard of Xolo. The Watch.

  Tío, in his canine form, was leaning against Marcie and he was glowing gold. She felt her body reforming, herself becoming whole again.

  The Void raged. Fine, you disgusting creatures. I shall depart. I’ll be back to devour each and every one of you.

  Shadows swirled around the Void and Marty higher into the sky than even the tentacles had risen.

  “No!” Marcie shouted. “You’re not allowed to leave!”

  She launched herself up and at the Void.

  Tío barked in protest.

  She was too late. The shadows collapsed in on themselves. All Marcie grabbed for was air. The two demons were gone.

  Tío barked again. Another warning. Marcie saw sirens wailing down the street, getting closer fast. It was too late to catch the Void and she couldn’t, under any circumstance, be caught by the cops.