— Faelyn Sylsalor, “Demons and Their Curses: Volume 1,” page 199
Emily knew what she had to do, but fear had rooted her in place like iron chains.
She had seen the illustration of the Sandman in the beastiary, but it didn’t prepare her at all for the reality of it. The creature was a nightmare given form. It took a slow step toward the child’s bed, talons scraping against the wooden floor.
Emily’s cigarette trembled between her lips before slipping to the ground. She took a quiet breath and raised her hand, fingers poised. Her heart thudded in her chest. She watched carefully, waiting for the moment the Sandman crossed into the circle they had drawn. But the creature paused just before it. Its beak clacked sharply. It went unnaturally still, head tilting as if listening to some unseen whisper.
Emily’s blood turned to ice. Had it sensed them? Lurking across the hall, hidden in shadow, ready to spring the trap? No, it couldn’t be that cunning. It was a beast driven by instinct, not intellect... right?
Then, it moved again, crossing one foot across the invisible threshold.
Emily held her breath.
It took another step. Then another.
SNAP!
The ring of candles erupted in roaring pillars of fire. The room flooded with a warm, golden light. The Dreamweaver Dust ignited in a brilliant swirl of glowing embers before exploding outward in a luminescent wave. The air shimmered as a semi-translucent barrier materialized around the Sandman like a ripping wall of glass.
The Sandman jerked back as if struck. It threw back its head and unleashed a piercing shriek, a cacophony of squabbling ravens and dying winds. It raked its talons desperately against the barrier, producing a harrowing screech like steel grinding on steel. The barrier held firm. When the creature realised it couldn’t escape, it flung its cloak over itself like a shield. It feared the light, Emily remembered.
“We did it?”
Mina nodded, then glanced back at Violet. “You're up.”
Violet surged past them. The Sandman whipped its head toward her and snapped its beak. Violet intertwined her fingers in an unusual manner, then forcefully pulled her hands apart. Glowing purple threads unraveled from her fingertips, writhing like spectral serpents. They slithered through the air, undeterred by the barrier, phasing through it like smoke through glass. A bone-chilling cold swept the room, deeper than before, frosting the edges of the windows and stealing the breath from Emily’s lungs. She shivered violently as the temperature plummeted.
The Sandman recoiled, slamming backward into the barrier and shrieking anew as if burned. The threads lashed out, snapping taut around its elongated limbs like chains. The creature thrashed wildly.
Emily stood frozen, watching. What else could she do in this moment? Mina already had her flaming daggers out, so Emily retrieved one of hers and readied it.
The eyeholes of Violet’s mask began to glow with swirling purple mist that cascaded down like ethereal waterfalls that pooled and writhed on the floor. The room strobed with eerie violet flashes of purple light, clashing violently against the warm candle glow. Violet’s fingers twisted and pulled like a puppeteer’s, and the Sandman contorted in agony. The bindings glowed brighter, searing into its corrupted essence until they burned white-hot and ethereal. With a savage yank of her arms, Violet tore free a ghostly light from the creature’s core that vanished like smoke. The moment it separated, the Sandman collapsed in a heap, twitching spasmodically. Its talons gouged deep furrows into the floorboards as it let out a house-shaking bellow.
“What happened? Is it over?”
Mina nodded. “The guardian spirit has been excised. What remains is just the husk.”
As if summoned by her words, the Sandman exploded upward, surging to its full, towering height. The purple threads still bound its limbs, but without the spirit’s essence resisting, Violet’s hold faltered. The monster yanked viciously against the bindings, and Violet lurched forward. Her boots scraped harshly against the floor as she was dragged inexorably toward the barrier.
“Violet!” Emily screamed.
Violet stumbled, her foot disturbing the shimmering powder. A catastrophic crack resounded like glass shattering under immense pressure. The barrier imploded in a burst of fading sparks, the golden light winking out as the seal shattered completely.
Mina seized Violet by the collar and yanked her backward just as the Sandman broke free. In the same fluid motion, she threw herself between the girl and the monster. The Sandman’s talons raked across Mina’s chest, hurling her as if a discarded puppet. She crashed through the wall in a cataclysmic BOOM that shook the foundations of the house. Dust billows like smoke from a bombardment.
Violet stumbled and fell hard onto her hands and knees. Her glowing purple threads flickered wildly before dissolving into wisps of fading mist. The Sandman whirled toward her, its hollow eye sockets burning with an unnatural, seething fury that seemed to suck the light from the room.
Emily hurled one of her flaming daggers straight into the creature’s chest. The blade buried itself deep with a hiss of superheated metal meeting corrupted sand. “Run!” she bellowed.
Violet scrambled upright and bolted into the hallway.
The Sandman staggered under the blow, letting out a piercing screech. Blackened sand leaked from the wound as it wrenched the dagger free, flinging it aside like refuse. The gash crackled violently, the edges hardening into jagged, crystalline glass that sealed the injury in a grotesque scar.
Emily drew her other dagger and ignited it just as the monster lunged. She twisted aside, slashing upward across its flank. The blade carved a searing gash along its hip, leaving behind a trail of translucent glass that gleamed in the firelight.
Mina vaulted through the ragged hole she’d created and mercilessly drove both flaming daggers into the Sandman’s back. The creature arched in agony, emitting a high-pitched squeal that shattered nearby glass panes. Its coarse, granular body rippled like disturbed water before erupting in an explosion of sand that blasted through the room with concussive force. Emily slammed into the opposite wall, and pain flared down her spine as she staggered on her feet. The glassy wounds from earlier strikes tumbled to the floor and shattered like ice on stone.
Mina stood her ground amid the storm, unmoved by the blast. But the Sandman reformed in an instant behind her, slightly smaller than before, but no less deadly. Her blade caught the monster’s talon and deflected it just enough to expose its midsection. She got another slash in before pivoting away. Emily’s vision swam as she tried to track the blur of combat. Mina maneuvered around the beast with lethal grace, weaving patterns of fire and glass across its reforming hide. Wound after wound hardened into crystalline patches. Suddenly, the Sandman’s tongue lashed out like a striking viper, coiling around Mina’s throat in a vise of abrasive grit. She choked, dropping her dagger and catching the edges of the creature's beak as it lunged forward, trying to clamp down on her head. Razor-sharp teeth spiral deep into it’s mouth, like an endless, gnashing whirlpool.
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Seizing the opening, Emily summoned her discarded dagger back to her hand with a sharp telekinetic pull. She charged forward with a primal scream, both blades raised high. But the Sandman whipped around, hurling Mina and slashing its talons across Emily’s padded vest. The world spun in a dizzying whirl as it hurled her through the shattered window. Cool evening mist rushed against her face, followed by the brutal kiss of the pavement outside. She hit the street hard, knocking the air from her lungs. Splintered wood, glass shards, and debris rained down around her as the mists curled.
The Sandman vaulted after her, unleashing a hellish shriek that echoed through the cavern town. Before Emily could scramble up, talons clamped around her waist, digging through her armor with crushing pressure. She was yanked into the air again.
“Shit—!” she gasped, kicking her legs furiously. The creature was somehow bigger than before, as if it had recovered all the crystallized sand. Then, a shadow launched from the window, striking the Sandman in the back. It screeched, plummeting and slamming Emily down onto the stone street with it. The impact cracked the pavement beneath her and sent a fresh pain through her body. Her vision blurred, the edges going dark as she gasped for air. Something felt broken inside.
“Bastard!” Mina snarled from atop the monster, wrenching one dagger free and driving it in again.
“Foul beast!” sounded Henrik.
Emily rolled her head just in time to witness the knight charging headfirst with a flaming halber in his grip. The weapon swung down onto the Sandman’s outstretched arm with the force of a battering ram. The limb exploded in a burst of dry sandstone fragments, scattering like brittle clay. The creature staggered back, shrieking as it flung Mina aside and lurched unsteadily to its feet.
From around the corner, Karaline, with her flaming longsword raised high. She planted herself firmly in front of the wide-eyed Violet.
“Is Kasia’s soul truly free?” Henrik shouted.
“Aye!” Karaline shouted over the chaos. “Violet said so!”
“You’re certain?” Henrik pressed.
“Yes!” Mina snapped.
The Sandman’s hollow sockets fixed on Violet. Even without eyes, the hatred radiating from those voids was palpable.
“Then why does the abomination yet live?” Henrik demanded
“Because these things cling to existence,” Mina growled. “Keep striking. Every grain we turn to glass is one it can’t reclaim.”
“It cannot simply draw more sand from the street?” Henrik asked, glancing at the cobblestones beneath their feet.
“Maybe to reform, but it's not the corrupted essence it needs.” She edged backward as Henrik took the forefront, then dropped swiftly to Emily’s side. “Hey, look at me. Talk to me. Are you breathing?”
Emily tried to answer, but the pain in her ribs was too great. Each shallow inhale felt like broken glass grinding inside her chest. She managed a weak shake of her head.
The Sandman let out a hellish roar, then surged toward Violet with terrifying speed.
Henrik slammed his foot down. The street buckled beneath the impact, and a jagged wall of stone erupting from the earth in a thunderous crack, blocking the creature’s path. Simultaneously, a massive boulder tore free from the ground behind the Sandman, exploding mid-air into a storm of razor-sharp shards. The barrage hammered the monster forward, slamming it repeatedly against Henrik’s summoned barrier. The impacts didn’t pierce its hide, but they staggered it. The knight charged through the settling dust with an overhead swing at the ready. The Sandman burst apart an instant before steel met it, and cloud of abrasive sand exploded through the air like buckshot.
The halberd buried itself deep in the wall with a ringing clang. Behind Henrik, the cloud coalesced in a heartbeat. Reformed and leaner, the creature raked its talons across the back of his helm. Metal screeched; Henrik staggered forward with a grunt, helm dented and ringing.
The Sandman pushed past him, bounding toward Violet again.
“Run, Vi!” Karaline roared. Her flaming longsword bit deep into the creature’s shoulder joint. The monster dropped to its knees, howling.
Violet turned and fled, vanishing into the thick, swirling mist.
Karaline planted her boot against the Sandman’s chest and wrenched her blade free in a spray of crystalline fragments. With a fierce cry, she drove the sword straight through its skull, the flaming edge punching out the back of its head in a burst of molten glass. The creature convulsed, talons scraping futilely at the embedded steel, trying to pry the weapon loose. Its head began to crystallize around the wound, hardening into a grotesque, translucent mask.
“Ye ugly bastard,” Karaline snarled through gritted teeth, both hands tight on the hilt. “That got yer attention, did it no’?”
The Sandman twisted suddenly, severing its impaled head at the neck.
Karaline stumbled backward, suddenly off-balance as the weight of the sword shifted. The creature’s crystallized head remained fused to her blade. “The fuck—?” From the ragged stump of its neck, sand surged upward in a vortex, reforming a new head, more birdlike than before. Talons punched through Karalines sides with a wet, meaty crunch.
“Karaline!” Henrik roared, already turning.
The Sandman let out a triumphant, squawking cackle, like a demonic parrot, and hoisted her high. Her longsword clattered to the stones as she cried out. Then, the creature pulled. Karaline’s body parted with a sickening, wet tear. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc, painting the creature’s sandy hide and spattering the mist red as her two halves were flung apart into the fog.
“No!” Emily screamed, the sound ripping from her raw throat despite the agony in her ribs.
Mina launched to her feet, but the Sandman disappeared into a whirling cloud of sand that raced away down the street, vanishing into the thick mist like smoke through fingers.
Henrik sprinted toward the fallen pieces of Karaline.
“Don’t!” Mina shouted. “It’s going for Violet! Find it!”
She spun to Emily, eyes fierce. “Stay down.” Then she, too, disappeared into the fog, pursuing the fleeing nightmare. Henrik stood frozen a second, staring at what remained of Karaline. Then, with a guttural sound of grief and fury, he wrenched his gaze away, retrieved his halberd from the shattered wall, and charged after Mina into the swirling mist.
The Sandman’s distant shrieks faded into the muffling fog of Serenity Gardens, leaving Emily utterly alone on the cracked street. Silence pressed in, broken only by her own ragged breathing and the wet drip of blood somewhere nearby. She couldn’t move at first. Her legs trembled uncontrollably, and her vision was tunneling as shock and pain shocked her system. Nausea surged inside her, and her ribs burned with every shallow breath. She wouldn’t be surprised if a few were actually broken bones.
She couldn’t just lie here, though. Violet needed her.
Strength trickled back into her limbs, and Emily pushed herself upright. She swayed and limped toward the dark, glistening stain where Karaline had fallen. The cobblestones were slick with blood. The replay in her mind was relentless: the wet rip, the way her two halves careened and spilled her guts across the pavement.
“Go, Emily!”
She looked to the side. The voice, hoarse and furious, was unmistakably Karaline’s. It cut through the fog like a blade. Emily’s eyes strained into the swirling gray. At the edge of visibility, half-hidden in the mist, something moved. Karaline’s upper torso lay propped against a low garden wall, pale and blood-soaked, but undeniably breathing. Her intestines spilled across the stones, soaking in a pool of crimson. Yet her chest rose and fell in shallow, stubborn breaths.
Emily’s stomach lurched. “W-what…?”
Karaline tilted her head back against the stone with a groan. “Oh, fer fuck’s sake—” She braced her elbows beneath her and pushed, dragging herself upright a few inches. Fresh blood oozed from the wound.
“You’re… not dead?” Emily whispered.
“Technically,” Karaline rasped, coughing up blood. “Now quit standin’ there gawpin’ and go get ‘er!”
“But I saw— It ripped you in half—”
“Yeah, and it fuckin’ hurt! But I’ll live. Violet won’t if that thing reaches her. So get yer arse movin’!”
Emily couldn’t process it. People didn’t survive that. They just didn’t.
“Listen,” Karaline growled. “I’ve walked away from worse. I’ll crawl if I have to, but right now Violet needs ye. The bastard’s fixated on her. Go. Now.”
Emily’s mind spun, thoughts colliding like shattering glass. This wasn’t possible. None of it made sense.
“GO!” Karaline roared.
The shout jolted Emily into action. She sucked in a breath, fire exploding along her ribs, and turned away. “I’ll get her…”
“Damn right ye will,” Karaline called after her. “‘Cause if ye don’t its yer ass I’ll be kickin’ instead!”
Emily ran. Every step sent a fresh wave of agony stabbing through her chest. The muscles in her legs screamed for her to stop, to collapse, to let the pain win. This was just like training, she told herself. Endure. Push through. Never quit. She wouldn’t stop. Not until Violet was safe.
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