With Camila giving directions from the passenger seat and both phones charging, the journey passed in awkward silence. David found himself stealing glances at her profile, trying to figure out if he'd somehow offended her earlier.

  Just as they pulled up to the house, Camila broke the quiet. "Look, I know I'm pushing you to do this now, but we need to keep moving. There'll be time to play later. If it's a real problem, I can ask Mark to come with me and you can do your own thing. Just speak up."

  She got out before he even killed the engine and started heading toward the apartment door.

  David felt frustration spike. She'd picked this timing specifically to avoid his logical arguments about why securing all available benefits before leaving the obelisk was optimal strategy.

  He killed the engine and jumped out, accelerating to catch up with her.

  The silence shattered.

  A scream pierced the air, followed by a furious yell: "GET AWAY FROM HER!"

  Crashes thundered from upstairs. A panicked shout: "Run!"

  Then a strange hissing snarl that definitely wasn't human.

  Camila didn't pause. She immediately accelerated toward the door, clearly recognizing the voices.

  David's mind snapped into crisis mode. Katie, Mark, and Carl were in trouble. Something had found them while he and Camila were playing with magic at the obelisk.

  He started to shout a warning, then caught himself. Their approach might not have been noticed yet. Better to maintain surprise.

  Camila was already wrenching open a cupboard at the bottom of the stairs. She emerged with a softball bat, then quickly grabbed something else and shoved a field hockey stick toward him.

  David shifted the unfamiliar improvised weapon in his hands as more crashes echoed from above, now joined by hissing snarling growls and grunts of pain.

  His analytical mind catalogued the sounds. There were several people up there fighting, he couldn’t be sure if that meant multiple attackers but there was too much going on for it to be good. His new friends were still alive and fighting. Time was critical.

  Camila was already halfway up the stairs by the time he sorted himself out and he was left with no choice but to rush after her. No time to plan and surprise was likely to be their best chance to impact this fight. He needed to go now!

  David's heart hammered with adrenaline as he followed. Whatever had found them, he was about to fight back rather than run for the first time. His fear soured his belly for a moment but then adrenaline and anger boiled over and he rushed up biting off a screamed warcry that would alert their enemy.

  He rushed up the stairs to discover what they were really facing in this new world.

  He reached the top of the stairs just as Camila launched herself forward, bursting through the door softball bat raised and already moving in a rapid arc.

  David's first impression was of wrongness. Too much length. Too little human proportion.

  His second impression was worse, as the creature lunging at Mark resembled the ghost from his initiation. No, that was wrong. It wasn’t something inhuman trying to fold itself into a human shape it was the opposite.

  He saw a humanoid shape twisted beyond recognition, trying to escape human form and become something else. This thing was stretched and resculpted like modeling clay, too tall and sinuous and with that wet crumpled look a butterfly has right after it exits the chrysalis – as though there was still work to do and the shape wasn’t fully formed.

  Still there was enough left to make him sure, horrifyingly sure that once this had been properly human.

  Mark clutched a battered bar stool as an improvised shield. Fresh gashes in the wood showed the creature could do real damage.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Wet mucus glinted across the monster's frame. Flakes of dried slime clung to clothes that no longer fit, looking like they'd been dipped in industrial waste.

  David's stomach clenched. This was what happened to people who didn't make it to the obelisk in time.

  The creature reacted to Camila's attack, twisting its frame but stumbling as though its balance was off. A long whipping limb with what looked like fused finger-claws blocked her strike at the elongated torso.

  Mark used the reprieve to shove the stool forward, trying to create distance. The creature staggered back, tripping over the slimy remnants of clothing sliding down its body.

  David's eyes swept the scene, assessing threats and opportunities. Carl pressed against the wall, clutching a kitchen knife with shaking hands. His other hand covered a growing crimson stain on his leg.

  No sign of Katie.

  The creature made an odd staccato buzzing as it twisted on the floor, bringing long-bladed forelimbs to bear while independently moving its bowed legs to find purchase.

  David saw the tactical problem immediately. The thing was about to sweep low at Mark and Camila's legs while they were committed to downward attacks. They'd have to choose between offense and mobility.

  The creature struck with both clawed limbs, forcing his friends to flinch back. It used the space to recover, rising like a cross between a snake and mantis until its head brushed the ceiling.

  Mark staggered backward, trying to get his stool up to block. Camila lunged forward with the bat, swinging for the body, but the elongated torso flexed with serpentine fluidity to absorb the blow.

  The creature reared back, positioning both bone blades for killing strikes.

  David saw it all in that crystallized instant. Mark might block one blade, maybe. Camila was completely exposed, her swing having left her unbalanced. Even if David could deflect one attack with the hockey stick, that left one blade free.

  They needed time. Just a moment to recover position. There was only one way he could help both of them. He opened his mouth and the word formed in his mind, but more than sound filled the space behind it. Something deeper and more complete than simple vocabulary. Something which pushed back and burned as he started to speak.

  It was as though he had just run a race, hell as though he was running one right now, and he had to give a graduation speech without a microphone at the same time.

  Then it happened. David focused on what he needed and spoke, sound twisting as magic rushed out of him. His willpower broke the barrier and filled a strange multidimensional shape in his mind, and the word emerged with a crack followed by a hollow rushing noise.

  "HALT."

  The creature froze mid-strike, muscles seizing completely. Mark and Camila shuddered as the command touched them too, but David instinctively knew most of the magic had flowed into the monster.

  Weakness clawed at David's guts. The spell had taken more out of him than expected, it still felt like he had run a race and he was breathing hard, gasping for air almost.

  For a heartbeat, everything held. Three humans stared in shock while the thing glared helplessly from frozen eyes.

  Then Mark screamed, lifting the stool. "It killed Katie!"

  Rage exploded through the group. All three threw themselves at the paralyzed creature while Carl emerged from shock to lunge forward with his knife.

  What followed was brutal and necessary. The creature couldn't block or dodge, taking crushing hits with meaty sounds of things breaking inside it.

  David felt his hockey stick connect with something that gave way with a wet crack. The analytical part of his mind noted the effectiveness while his emotions roared approval.

  The creature started moving again as the spell wore off, maybe it held for a second, or two once they started to hit. That was an eternity with it surrounded by four desperate, grieving people who pounded over and over.

  Even as it started to move there was no space, they pressed forward striking over and over, in more danger from each other’s frenzied blows until it lay still.

  After it went limp, Mark and Camila continued hitting it, tears streaming down their faces.

  Carl slumped back struggling over to rest against the couch, still clutching his bleeding leg.

  David held the now-stained hockey stick with shaking hands, feeling adrenaline drain out of him with an odd rushing sensation. Fatigue washed over him in waves. He noted absently that his breathing had recovered from that chest constricting exhaustion from casting, though he was still out of breath from the exertion of beating something that used to be human to death.

  The spell had worked. His first real magic had saved their lives. The thrill was intense and he wanted to throw up. David, you’re a wizard and the world is fucked.

  Katie was gone.

  Dreading what he'd find but knowing he had to check, David walked toward the kitchen where he'd last seen Katie cooking. The door to the back stairs stood open, revealing an ordinary wooden staircase leading downstairs.

  His mind tried desperately to distract him with analysis - working through implications. One creature suggested others were possible, at least one had woken up but were there more? Were hundreds of these things going to emerge from the surrounding houses and swarm towards them? The obelisk's protection was limited, would it be enough to keep them safe? The transformation process was apparently complete for some victims.

  The new world had just shown them another face, and it was worse than anything he'd imagined. Right now he had to get to that door, make sure there weren’t more of those things sneaking up the stairs he could just about see.

  David gripped the hockey stick tighter and stepped into the kitchen, forcing himself to keep advancing, knowing that nobody else could do what needed to be done next as the cries and wet thumps behind him testified. Time to confront whatever remained ahead of him before the grief and horror overcame them all.