-November 27, Somewhere in the Mountains CO-

I hear the truck pull up outside, Harry must be back from figuring something out. When we woke up this morning it was white outside, but most of the dusting has since melted. Harry let Cassandra out of the cage and they ate some of those rations we got from the traffickers out there in the cold. When he brought her back in to put her away, he told me he was going into town. He's been leaving the cage uncovered, saying it's more human than hiding her in there like an animal.

Harry opens the door and enters with several shopping bags. He drops them on the floor in the same place he dropped the logs yesterday and goes out, only to return with more. After a third trip he closes the door and takes off his winter jacket. Cassandra shakes the cage near where the locked door is and Harry walks over to the corner where we've piled most our stuff. He retrieves the black glock and comes over handing it to me, before padding down his jacket pocked to confirm the second gun is securely zipped up within the pouch.

He pulls a small ring of keys out of his pocket and opens the cage. He pushes on his pocket to let her know the weapon is there and uses his eyes to point at me. I have the second gun resting in my lap. She knows the drill. If it were me I'd never let her out except for the bathroom. Letting someone like that out could be extremely dangerous. One second and she could have a knife, or a block of wood, or a gun and that'd be the end of us. Harry doesn't see it that way. To him he's doing her a favor with letting her out of the cage and talking with her.

Cassandra steps out of the cage and stands, stretching her arms in the air. She adjusts the ruined gown on her shoulders. Harry rummages in one of the bags and pulls a pile of fresh new clothes out. He sets the clothes on top of the cage. Cassandra whispers something to him and picks a white tank top off the top of the pile. He whispers something back to her and they both nod.

As Harry turns back to the bags in the middle Cassandra pulls the straps off her gown and lets it fall to the ground. Her back is covered with welts and lacerations and there are several dark bruises on her rib cage and the backs of her arms. I turn away. "What's the plan?" I question.

He bends down to two of the bags and pulls them up, dropping their contents on the ground. What falls out is an array of plastic tubing, needles, bandages, vials and medication. I look at the impressive pile, "Did you, rob a hospital?"

"He comforts the weapon in his pocket, "Does it matter how I got it? I couldn't get what mattered, blood."

"What do you plan to do with it?" Behind him Cassandra has put on the white tank top and short blue pants. It's not particularly winter wear, but it's better than the rags she had on before.

"Well, we can draw blood, look I got the bags." He pulls a few empty bags out from under the pile.

"I would need more than what either of you could supply with those, for whatever reason I can't digest it properly and need significantly more that way to get my fill."

"\We could both draw blood over the next few days until you need it."

"If each of you can draw your entire body dry two or three times, maybe. You'd need more bags than that," I point at the dozen or so he has.

He looks at what he thought was a good amount, "Point taken. What do you need to make it work right?"

I ponder on the question while watching Cassandra has slowly walked over to our belongings. She may be scoping out a weapon, "Flesh should do it."

Harry goes back to his bags and pulls two large sacks of bloody raw beef out, "Will these work?" I've honestly never tried something like this. Before I got sick I'd lure, take a little and let the person go knowing no better—but after I just got used to leaving a trail of the dead and dying.

"Maybe, but how would using that get me blood from her? You saw what I am." Cassandra has crouched down next to our things. She's taken a particular interest in my duffle bag and is looking into the opening. I tighten my fingers on my weapon, trying to remember if there is anything dangerous in there.

Harry picks up a handful of needles and tubes, "Maybe we can use these, feed it into the meat, you'll taste the flesh but really be biting into something like... this," he pulls up one of the blood bags, "hidden inside it and wired directly to her."

"It may work, but if it doesn't and it's just another blood bag then you'll have me hungry with the taste fresh on my tongue. I don't what I'll do." Cassandra reaches her hand into my bag and pulls out the black and white notebook. "Put that back," I snarl at her.

Harry turns around as she opens the book, "Wow, what is this?" she asks, turning the pages, "there are so many. You really are a monster."

"Put. It. Back." Cassandra drops the book and stands. She slowly turns to me. Harry also turns to me, his eyes on mine, both of them wait for the next move. "Don't touch my stuff."

Both reply in unison, "Yes Ma'am."

"No, not you Harry." ringing begins in my ears, quiet first, but growing progressively louder. My stomach cramps, "Shit, Neel, put her in the cage now."

"I'm not Neel," Harry starts.

"Just put her back in the cage!"

"Why?"

"It's happening again," A second wave hits my chest and the world evaporates around me.

In the distance I hear Harry speaking, "Get in the cage, now."

Then Cassandra, "But, but..."

Suburbia. Not really.

White walls, white carpet, a white couch. Everything is bright. The room is small. Across a small walkway are a fridge, microwave, counter, and stovetop. This is Neel's apartment. He walks into the tiny living room wearing a red shirt and black slacks, there is also an apron strung over his shoulder. His hair is still wet and he's shaven. He falls down onto the couch at looks over at the microwave, it reads 3:40.

He pulls a stack of index cards out of his pocket and begins spreading them out on the couch in a grid. There are three headers with several cards filled with text following each one, the first reads header, 'If it understands English' the second reads, 'If it doesn't understand English' the third, which has the shortest row after it, 'If it's not real.'

He begins picking up the first stack in order from top to bottom; it's a speech of some sort and prompts for questions. He then gathers the second row, which are mainly prompts for various gestures he can use. A red line stands out on one of the cards 'Use middle finger' right under it 'Maybe it knows Shakespeare'. The third and shortest row only has two other cards, one reads 'Seek medical attention before you become that guy who always sits in section three' and the other says 'Drugs?'

He squeezes the pile between his fingers before standing up to leave his apartment. When he walks by the clock it reads 3:45. He puts his shoes on and goes outside.

His car, which is parked across the street instead of in his spot, is not alone. The Angel is poised on top of it like an eagle ready to swoop down on its prey. The front windshield is smashed in by its weight and one of the mirrors is broken off. The trunk is bent so far in, it has popped open and the roof has crushed the driver and passenger seat down. Neel throws his hands into the air causing the apron to fall off his shoulder and storms towards the beast.

As he crosses the street he flips through his index cards until he finds one and looks up, "What the hell is your problem!" The beast moves onto the hood, its sharp claws puncturing the metal, "I mean all you do is break my shit and try to scare me! The girl I like didn't even call me after what happened!"

Neel gets right up against the creature, so close he could reach out and touch it. Its legs look much like that of a monkey, but with massive clawed paws and huge muscles. Its knees jut out a few feet in front of its body before they withdraw back the same distance to support its torso.

Its chest is the only thing that lacks thick dark hair, but only where its eight-pack abs are, each muscle two to three times the size of a hand. Its forearms look more like that of a human, but are disproportionally larger than its legs, which are still pretty massive. Its biceps are easily four times the size of Neel's head and its arm the size of a watermelon all the way down to its clawed fingers.

Its head sits on top of its buff chest with its chin protruding outwards and pearly white hook-fangs jabbing out from under the lips. Its nostrils open and close as it breathes—getting up to the size of shot glass as it blows out air. Its ears point up with little chunks missing and it has a thick line of black hair down the center of its skull which transforms into wild pony tail which sinks deep between its wings and down onto the car. While most its hair is very near black or some very dark brown its wings are as dark as soot. Its monstrous wings fold tightly against its back while sticking out a good few feet, the ends of the wings are ragged and torn as if they've been dragged around or have considerable wind damage.

"You dragged me here." The booming voice doesn't come from the demon itself, but instead from all around, as if it was speaking from the bowels of hell.

Neel glances down at the index cards for a second then says, "Who are you?"

"Aleniese," its voice thunders.

Neel flips the cards in his hand and look down to one, at the top is says 'Clarify' with several underlines, "What do you mean 'I brought you here?'"

The demon steps forward off the car, adding further injury to its front bumper and headlights. He lowers himself onto the sidewalk, using his front arms to support himself on all fours. Aleniese steps into the empty parking lot on the other side of the sidewalk the car was parked at and twists his head to get his face close to Neel's. Neel cringes at the rotten stench that comes from the Demon's mouth as the earth around him rumbles, "I don't know."

Neel takes a step back. Without looking at his prompts he asks, "Okay... well, what do you want me to do?"

Neel looks into Aleniese's white eyes. There is thin cloudy layer of flesh covering his eyes. The layer flicks up like a reptilian uncovering its pupils. Neel stares into the true eyes of the demon. They're two black horizontal slits with red rims surrounded by a pool of brown with speckles of white and grey. The slits dilate as an adjustment to the harsh air and bright sunlight. Inside the widening slits is a black void. Within the void are burning bodies, death, destruction, hundreds of skulls, a river of blood, an endless desert with an endless grid of ever-burning torches, black tar pits with spears littered with bodies, and a million other horrific things.

Clarine a voice echoes, Clarine, breathe! Neel's head begins to shutter, his eyes water, and his face is drawn into the darkness, he doesn't blink. He can't blink. "Release me." the demon growls as the thin white layer drops down over his exposed eyes.

Neel stumbles back, pulling in huge gulps of air and blinking profusely. He nearly falls to the ground in panic as Aleniese spreads his wicked wings open to the size of an F-150 truck in either direction. Neel slowly sits down on the ground as Aleniese's black bat-like wings slam down with one hefty thrust, shooting it into the air as wind explodes outward blowing Neel over and setting off several car alarms.

Neel lets out a relieved huff and pulls his phone out of his pocket, it reads 3:57. He watches the time, the last couple times the demon appeared time reverted after it left. His car should be fixed and he should have plenty of time to make it to work. 3:58. He continues to watch the numbers, 3:59... 4:00... A neighbor with an unshaven face, round rimmed glasses, and a soiled white shirt on the second floor one unit over from Neel's pokes his head out the window, "Hey, I heard a noise, and all the car alarms were going off!" The neighbor spots Neel's car, "Wow, what happened to you car, it looks like a meteor landed on it!"

The number on his phone ticks 4:01, "You've got to be kidding me!" Neel shouts at the wreck throwing his hands up.

Clarine!

My eyes open. Harry is over me with both his hands on my shoulders.

"You're bleeding." I look up that the voice. I've been laid out flat on the ground, there is a dark red spot on my chest.

"I know its name."

"What name? Neel?"

Harry backs away; his hands are covered with grey flakes and a yellow dust of some kind. I pull the jacket down my shoulder and look at it, the skin there has completely flaked off. Red and black globs cover the exposed muscle.

Harry takes another step back, "I'm, I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do."

I let go and let the jacket cover the wound, "Its fine." My stomach cramps. I throw my fingers into the wood floor and drag my nails along it. I can feel my shoulder blades rip apart against the floor. It's not over.