Stop! This is the police! Stop! Malachi charged up each flight of stairs, bounding up two steps at a time pursuing the woman shaped darkness.

She is fast, Malachi thought. Too fast.

Pushing hard up the stairs, the dark woman ahead of him sprung lightly three steps at a time, flying around corners, her feet barely touching the ground.

Stop! Malachi cried out, rounding the second floor. Come on, lady, stop!

An apartment door flew open in the corner and a lady with sharp cut black hair and thick mascara peeked out.

‘Bout time, I’ve been… whaaaat?”? I’m calling Staring at the bull of a man chasing what looked like a woman she yelled and slammed the door shut.

Malachi threw his body around the final corner and landed hard on the third floor just in time to see the black shape waiting for him in front of the corner apartment door. Lights from the racing traffic outside flickered through the hallway window revealing flashes of his quarry.

She was completely covered in… what? Malachi drew short and stopped on the landing. Each flash of light showed her covered head to toe in what was that, skin tight black latex vinyl? With a shock Malachi realized it covered over her face as well, leaving only the impression of a woman’s face; indents for eyes, a delicate nose and black latex covering over her mouth, leaving only the shape of lips.

Pursing her lips, she blew Malachi a kiss and disappeared through the closed apartment door.

Another scream ripped through the same apartment door. Running down the hall Malachi stopped in front of the door as another terrified scream ripped through the woodwork. Raising his size 14 door key, Malachi drove his heel into the door just above the lock. The door burst inward, splinters of wood flying inside. Momentum carried Malachi through the doorway and into a shower of broken glass. Throwing his hands up to protect his eyes, Malachi tried to fall back, but his boots slipped from under him and he crashed to the floor.

In front of him reality had shattered. It was like one of those tricks you would see in AC and Vegas when the magician cut the pretty assistant in half. But in the trick, you could see what was supposed to be both halves of her body separated by a saber, and in two boxes, her feet wiggling out one side and an oh my expression on her face sticking out of the other side.

But the redhead was completely cut in half, levitating halfway off of the floor. Screaming in terror, she desperately grasped the side of a couch, her fingers digging deep into the vinyl while a great wind was sucking her into a gaping vortex. Shards of reality broken like a glass mirror, ripping and circling around, cut her completely off at the chest, her waist and legs consumed by the thrashing pieces of glass.

Help me! She screamed, her eyes bulging from the strain as she desperately looked at Malachi. Help me!

Scrambling to his feet, Malachi threw himself at her just as her fingers ripped from the leather couch and flew off. Malachi grabbed on to her, one beefy hand completely encircling her own.

Hold on! The sucking wind was overwhelming, ripping at Malachi and sucking him and the girl deeper into the vortex. Hold on!

Digging his heels in, Malachi put his 300 pounds of linebacker muscle to work and pulled hard against the wind. Screaming, the redhead thrashed in the wind, her body flapping back and forth like a kite caught in a tornado.

COME ON! COME ON! Malachi growled gripping her hand harder, her nails digging deep rivets into his palm. Reaching out, Malachi grabbed the corner doorway into the kitchen with his other hand stretching his arms as far as he could go. Muscles bulging with tension pushed out of his thick neck and Malachi curled his bicep, stretching out the fabric of his shirt, pulling the redhead inch by excruciating inch out of the vortex.

Yes! Malachi roared. YES!

Watch out! Malachi turned as the redhead screamed out her warning just a second too late. The woman in black burst out of the vortex, hands curled into vicious claws digging into the redhead’s back. Catapulting herself off of the girl’s back, she thrust her body across the gap and swiped at Malachi’s face, her claws a breath away from his eyes. Reflexively Malachi let go of the redhead’s hand, protecting his face.

Staring in horror their eyes met as time seemed to stop. Wide bright green eyes shining bright with tears and filled with terror, her mouth frozen in a scream. With a violent rip the rest of the redhead’s body was sucked through the vortex, the woman in black flying into the vortex behind her, clawed fingers dug deeply into her shoulder. With a great sucking pop, the vortex closed in on itself and disappeared.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5-Jon