At first, I thought it was the thunder of the incoming storm, but then as the hair on the back of my nape stood up and as chills ran down my spine, I realized that something was really, really not right. I stared ahead of us to make sense of what just made that inhuman sound; next to me, Jongdae was as stiff as a pole. His usual soft gaze hardened.

I swallowed. "W-What was that?"

The sound came again, and this time, louder and nearer. I frantically looked around into the shadows where the light of the streetlamps above us didn't touch, but still I couldn't make out anything.

"Stay close to me." Jongdae instructed as he drew me closer to his body, as if I wasn't already close enough. Hell, I wasn't going anywhere soon.

"M-Maybe it's a feral. . . dog?" My conviction sounded pretty lame then and it didn't sound so optimistic. By the grim look on Jongdae's face, I knew that feral dogs were the least of our concern.

But what else could it be? 

Before I could react or say anything, something in the shadows, just a few feet in front of us, moved. I swallowed back a whimper when the darkness seemed to swirl, like a dark fog forming out of the shadows itself. Not long, a pair of bloodthirsty eyes glared at us from the shadows. I couldn't make out what the creature was as it was literally pitch black where it was standing.

Like. . . like it was not from this world.

Jongdae pulled me to stand behind him, shielding me with his body. Which was ridiculous! If that thing was a feral dog or not, he alone couldn't possibly fight it off by himself, right? But Jongdae was already staring at the creature in a death glare, pinning it to its place as the thing growled at him.

Then, it melted literally out of the shadows.

I smacked my palms over my mouth to prevent a scream from bursting out. That thing, whatever it was, had human-like figure, but it was so distorted and so unnatural that it couldn't possibly be alive. Its beady red eyes were staring straight at me, as if Jongdae mattered nothing less than a simple obstruction on its way. Its mouth, gaping and salivating, was filled with rows of impossibly long razor-sharp fangs. It had no real teeth like you and I do; all it had were jagged sharp needle-like teeth, like a sand tiger shark's teeth. If you don't know how gruesome sand tiger shark's teeth are, Google them. Hell, if you're scared of monsters, stop reading this. I wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart.

It stalked to us on all fours, its long talon-like claws looked like they could literally rip your organs out in one swipe. You know, like how the character Gollum in Lord of the Rings would walk - or crawl, really. Its skin was also almost alike Gollum; deathly pale and sunken, as if it had never walked in the sun before.

"Neeeeeepphilimmmm. . ." it croaked in a terrible hollow voice as it stared at me. My blood literally turned to ice, and I felt my face drained out of colour.

I took a staggering step back, and fumbled for Jongdae's sleeve. Heck, we should run. "J-Jongdae-"

As if hearing my voice was any sort of encouragement, that thing shrieked in glee and leapt towards us in a surprising display of agility. Before I could even blink, Jongdae pushed me to the side and rammed his fist into the creature's face, smacking it aside easily with a kind of strength I didn't know was possible coming from a human. I gaped at my best friend.

He kept his back to me as the creature snarled and regained its footing, baring its terrible teeth at him. Spit flew everywhere. Yuck. "Chen, let's go!" Umbrella forgotten, I shakily got to my feet as lightning flashed above us.

"Run, Erin." Jongdae said sternly. "When I tell you to run, you run."

"What? No! Please, l-let's go together!" I was shaking, either from the cold or from the complete fear, I wasn't so sure.

"Run!" He yelled, just a split second before a blinding white light seared my vision away and a thunderous clap of roar burst everywhere around me. At the same time, I was flung against the wall behind me and I groaned as I tried shaking off the dizziness away. My vision swirled, but through the haziness, I realized we were just hit by lightning.

And where the lightning had struck, was an ashen pile of black goo. The creature was gone.

Jongdae was swaying in his spot. I didn't even stop to ponder the fact that he wasn't struck alongside the creature by the lightning. I ran to him and grabbed him before he could collapsed. "Hey, hey, Jongdae. Come on, stay awake."

His eyes were half-lidded as if he was drained out of his energy. But as I struggled to steady the both of us, more sets of growls came from the shadows. And before we both got swallowed in a pile of lemons, all I could think of was,