Luka didn't even take a breath, yet the creature is on its feet back in the air. It's too fast. Before Luka can even react, a long, spindly limb catches Luka in the chest, the force sending him flying off.
The camera follows his fall in a sickening, dizzying spin.
Luka flies into another house's garden and hits the metal garage door of the house.
BANG—
The metal dents inward. Luka slumps to the concrete, his head snapping back against the steel.
The camera holds on him. He's still. A thin trail of blood begins to leak from his hairline, dripping onto his cheek. His breathing is shallow, ragged. He coughs. Blood comes out.
Still in a daze, almost conscious, he thinks—
"○Get... up. Get..."
Luka groans, his vision blurry. He looks up. The Darkin is landing in the driveway, its blade-fingers scraping the pavement, sparks flying in the dark. It's done playing. It lunges, its arm raised like a scythe to finish the job.
Snapping out of the daze, Luka's hand finds a broken chunk of a cement garden border to his side. He doesn't think. He thrusts the block upward, protecting himself from the claws closing in.
CLANG-STABB—
The creature's blade-finger pierces the cement block like it's made of butter, but the weight of the stone redirects the strike. The blade misses Luka's neck by an inch, burying itself deep into the garage door behind him.
They are locked together.
"GET–OFF–ME!" Luka screams.
They tumble into the garage, the door groaning as it's ripped from its hinges. Inside, it's a chaotic struggle in the dark. They smash into a lawnmower, a stack of winter tires, a workbench.
The creature stabs and claws at Luka, cutting him relentlessly.
While Luka keeps punching and kicking trying to get it off or at least to do some damage. Luka is losing. He can feel his strength flagging. The blood loss is making his head light. Every time he hits a wall, the house feels like it's vibrating.
Luka is clearly more powerful than any normal human being. He understood that much. But it just wasn't enough.
The best comparison that came in Luka's mind at that time was that of a 15-year-old boy fighting a grown adult man. The damage the boy is doing is visible but the difference in capabilities is still way too large.
His mind in a flurry—
"○I'm going to die here. In..a garage. Like a rat." he continues. "○And nobody will even know it for a while. Ah... man.. i haven't even had my kiss yet. What a bummer."
Just as hope fades from Luka's eyes.
He notices the ceiling.
The garage is old, the support beams already cracked, plus their onslaught of hits from the brawl.
Hope shines back.
Luka's eyes still here.
Another idea popped up.
Luka grabs the creature's stuck limb, and his other limb, using every ounce of his 'current' to pull—
"○One.. shot. ...Make it count."
He doesn't pull away—he rotates. He uses the Darkin's own forward momentum, continuously swinging the massive creature in circles building up even more momentum like a hammer thrower.
Letting go at the right moment.
He slams the monster into the main support pillar of the garage.
CRACK-CRASHHHH—
Head first the Darkin slams hard in the wall.
The wood splinters. The brick walls crack. The roof groans.
Luka doesn't stop. He throws himself against the crumbling wall, shoulder-charging it, standing close to the open garage. Screaming until his throat feels like it's tearing.
"AAHHHHHGHHH!!!"
"FALL! DAMN YOU, FALLL!!"
The camera shakes violently as the structure gives way.
The Darkin, already recovered from the crash, starts dashing toward Luka.
"C'MONNN!! FALLLLL!!"
Tension high and the Darkin about to reach with its claw.
With one final, desperate shove, the garage starts collapsing in on itself. Tons of wood, bricks, shingles, and drywall come crashing down in a deafening roar of dust and debris.
Luka evades the claws, stumbling back and falling.
The camera is swallowed by a cloud of white dust.
Silence returns.
Luka is lying on the driveway, just outside the wreckage. He's covered in gray dust and red blood. He's trembling—from fear, from the sheer impossibility of what just happened. Panting and sweating from top to bottom.
"I… I did it." he let out a jagged, broken sigh of relief.
The camera pans over the rubble. It's a tomb. A single, dark limb is visible, pinned beneath a massive beam. The claw that reached out. Close.
It doesn't move.
Luka's right eye is puffed up, his left shoulder hanging at a painful angle. He tries to stand, but his knees buckle. With a bit of struggle he manages, still watching the debris.
"○It's over. ..I have to go. I have to find a doctor. I have to - "
Click, click—
Creeekk—
"What..the..WHAT THE!! KID, WHAT DID YOU DO!!
Luka is jolted looking up to his right. That's right the people; he forgot where he's standing.
"Ohhh hohoho, YOU are in big trouble buddy. HOW DID YOU EVEN MANAGE TO DO THIS!? Im calling the cops." as he's typing the numbers in.
Luka's dry mouth opens up after a slight delay—
"MISTER WAIT PLEASE!? Stop i beg, i can explain. Look, look see the hand?" the camera panning to the debris. "See this..this..thing was chasing me from down the block, please mister you need to believe me." Luka exclaimed.
The man wasn't going to entertain a lunatic that's at his house at almost 04:00 AM, that made this mess. But noticing the bloody mess the kid was in, the scars, the bruises, his right eye, he looked at the scattered debris looking for this so-called 'hand' of a creature.
.
"Ok, that's it i'm calling the cops and i'm coming downstairs to make sure you dont run."
"○Huh?"
"W..what, ARE YOU SERIOUS!? LOOK AT IT, it's like out of a movie." Luka's voice shrieked.
The man looking at the place one more time and saying—
"Don't you dare run, stay right where you are i'm coming down."
.
.
"○...he doesn't see it."
.
The realization sets in