What she shot was pepper spray, and it's eyes point-blank.
"Aaagh! My eyes!" It hissed, her grip on Lester's waist slackening as the stinging spray took hold.
Without a second's hesitation, Lester lunged forward, wrenching himself free from the clutches of the entity calling itself Mira before she could regain her senses.
He bolted toward the bedroom door where Sky stood waiting.
Behind them, the creature stumbled blindly, long dark claws tearing uselessly at her streaming, tear-soaked eyes.
But just as Lester reached the threshold, Sky's eyes widened in sudden terror.
"Duck!" she screamed.
He heard it before he saw it—a violent, metallic whistle slicing through the air like a snapping steel cable.
Driven by foolish instinct, Lester turned around. It was a grave mistake to turn around.
A thin blur of pitch-black shot straight for his face.
Before his brain could even process the threat, his right hand flew up on pure reflex to shield his eyes.
THWIP-SLASH!
The spade tip of her tail whipped across his raised palm.
A razor-sharp obsidian edge bit deep into his hand, shearing clean through the skin from his pinky base to his index finger.
At first, there was only silence—a cold, sickening numbness where his palm had been.
Then, a split second later, the heat hit him.
It didn't just hurt; it felt as if a molten blade had been pressed directly against his open nerves.
A searing, white-hot wave of pain surged straight up his forearm, traveling through his elbow and locking his shoulder in an agonizing cramp.
Fresh blood welled in the deep line across his hand, hot and slick, spilling over his fingers as his hand instinctively curled tight.
The sharpness of the pain made his breath hitch.
He was completely blinded by the agony.
Suddenly, a violent tug clamped onto his shirt collar.
He was yanked off-balance, his body thrown across the threshold before he could object.
Sky threw her shoulder into the oak door, slamming it shut with a powerful thud just as a secondary impact rattled the wood from the other side.
She jammed the key into the lock, twisted it sharply, and yanked it free.
The heavy oak door rattled violently on its hinges as the latch caught, sealing the enraged entity inside the guest room.
Lester hit the hallway floorboards hard, his knees buckling under the momentum of his own panicked escape.
Blood streamed down his right wrist, hot and heavy, pooling in the crevices of his palm and dripping onto the carpet in dark, rhythmic splashes.
"Ouch… oh, great heavens, that stings! I hope this doesn't develop an infection Robert."
He squeezed his right wrist tightly with his left hand, trying to apply pressure while deliberately not looking at the open wound.
The white-hot heat from the slice radiated up his arm in throbbing pulses, making his fingers twitch uncontrollably.
Sky's eyes darted down the hallway.
A few curious partygoers were already drifting out of nearby rooms toward the noise, phones in hand, murmuring to one another.
"Damn it," she muttered under her breath.
She whipped out her phone. With rapid-fire thumb strikes she fired off the broadcast:
@Sky_Official: FREE TEQUILA SHOTS AND A $500 CASH PRIZE FOR THE BEST DANCE-OFF DOWNSTAIRS IN THE KITCHEN RIGHT NOW! I'M PAYING! GO GO GO!
Down the corridor, dozens of phones chimed almost simultaneously.
Then the first real blow hit.
A violent crack echoed through the frame as a heavy, unnatural weight slammed against the door from the other side.
Wood splintered outward near the lock, spraying fine shards across the floor.
Skye immediately threw her full weight against the door, bracing both hands and one shoulder against the solid oak, boots planted hard on the floorboards.
Another deafening thud rattled the hinges. The door lurched under her.
"What are you even whining for?" Sky snapped, her voice cutting through the panic as she strained to keep the barrier closed.
Another impact shook the entire frame, vibrating up through her arms. "I told you to duck! If you hadn't hesitated like an idiot, your hand wouldn't be shredded right now!"
Down the hall, doors began opening one after another. Voices rose—confused at first, then excited.
Footsteps thumped as people started moving toward the stairs, drawn by the sudden promise of free tequila and cash.
More phones chimed. Shouting grew louder. The stampede was building—students pouring out of rooms, laughing, calling to each other, already halfway to the staircase. The second-floor hallway was thinning, but not empty yet. Bass still thudded up through the floorboards from below.
"Almost clear," she muttered through clenched teeth, eyes flicking once more down the corridor. The last few stragglers were vanishing down the stairs now, their voices fading.
Another brutal slam. The lock plate bent. The door was failing.
Lester squeezed his eyes shut, a bitter grimace twisting his face.
"I know, I know—my fault!" Lester yelled over the noise, clutching his bleeding palm as he scrambled halfway to his feet.
Another heavy blow cracked the frame harder. The wood groaned in protest.
A long vertical split appeared near the top hinge.
The door shuddered again, harder. A section of the frame splintered outward with a sharp crack. Sky's boots slid an inch on the carpet. She slammed her shoulder back into place, breath coming in short, controlled bursts.
Sky gritted her teeth and shoved back harder, shoulders burning.
"I don't have time for this!" Sky hissed, still braced against the shuddering door.
The fresh impact nearly drove her back a step; she planted her feet again and pushed with everything she had. "Stop leaking and get ready to move!"
Sky shoved Lester hard toward the open hallway.
"Run—get out of here as fast as your legs can carry you, now!"
He pushed off the floor, his sneakers skidding across the wood as he sprinted for the threshold.
He cleared the doorway, his stride lengthening as panic fueled his flight.
But the second the last footsteps disappeared downstairs, the guest-room door exploded outward in a shower of splintered wood and flying shards.
The entity that called itself Mira stepped through the ruined frame.
But before he could take three steps down the corridor, his feet abruptly stopped moving.
It wasn't a physical wall.
His legs tried to push forward, but his sneakers remained bolted to the wood as if nailed down.
He pitched forward, caught off balance, and slammed hard against the floorboards.
He twisted around in a panic, looking back.
Down the hall, Mira stood with one hand raised, her long fingers curled into a claw.
Pitch-black tendrils were bleeding out from the soles of his shoes, stitching his shadow firmly to the floorboards.
She had tethered his silhouette, completely locking his movement without even needing to touch him.
"Oh no." Lester thought
Tears from the pepper spray still streaked down its burning skin. Heavy curved horns swept back from her forehead, and her tail lashed against the floorboards like a whip.
"I'll gouge your eyes for this, you miserable human!" It spat, her voice echoing with a layered, demonic resonance.
"Gouging my eyes? Please, your mascara is already halfway down your neck," Sky scoffed, delicately picking a few jagged wood splinters off the sleeve of her jacket and flicking them away with supreme indifference.
She unzipped her bag with a heavy, dramatic sigh.
"Let's see how intimidating you are once I get your good side."
Sky reached into her side bag and pulled out what looked like.