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9

12:00 AM

RUMBLE

The black panther roared again

The sound felt loud enough to knock Jessica backward, but her feet were frozen in place She wanted to turn away, to run, but so thes, of its hungry roar, of the thin, cruel line of pink tongue that flickered out fro or not," Jessica said softly, "getting eaten would suck"

The beast&039;s eyes flashed bright purple in the e shape, the two longest fangs stretching out until they were as long as knives It crouched, gathering itself into a bundle of h like a sprinter setting up to start a race Its rating sound of claws scraping asphalt reached Jessica&039;s ears, sending shivers up her spine When the cat sprang toward her, it beca and swift as an arrow

The moment it moved, Jessica was released from its spell She turned and ran back toward the snakes

Her bare feet slapped painfully against the asphalt, and the arc of snakes was arrayed across the street directly in front of her, so she veered off to one side, onto the softer strip of lawn The snakes rass in front of a raining sharp fangs piercing the soles of her feet with every step When she reached the spot where she guessed the snakes were, Jessica launched herself into a long jump The air rushed around her, and the leap see bounding steps until she reached the edge of the next driveway

Jessica stued to keep running The snakes were definitely behind her now, and she realized with relief that she hadn&039;t been bitten But the footfalls of the black panther were still closing in She ht be fast in this dreaes fro cats taking down their prey, grabbing hold of gazelles with their teeth and dise them with hind claws that spun like the blades of a blender Cheetahs were the fastest animals in the world; panthers probably weren&039;t that far behind There was no way she could beat the beast in a straight line But she recalled how antelope escaped cheetahs: by twisting and turning, so that the heavier, less agile cats shot past and tuht themselves for another attack

The problelance over her shoulder The panther was only a few bounds behind, terrifyingly huge this close Jessica angled toward ain front of the next house, a wide old tree that sheltered the entire yard She counted down fro the cat&039;s footfalls tearing into the grass closer and closer At one, Jessica threw herself to the ground behind the wide trunk

The panther&039;s leap took it over her, a dark shadow blotting out the giantsound cae, as if the air itself were splitting

Jessica raised her head The big cat was scra a spine-chilling screech from the asphalt Then she spotted the marks inches fro, cruel gouges just above where her head had been, the freshly exposed hite for a moment before the moon leached it blue

She stood and ran

There was a narrow gap between two houses, an overgrown channel of grass and dark shapes Jessica dashed instinctively for the narrow space She crashed through the high grass, juainst one wall, then stumbled to an abrupt halt

At the other end of the gap was a chain-link fence

Jessica ran toward it There was nowhere else to go

She leapt as high as she could, fingers hooking into the weave ofherself up Her feet scra better than shoes but much more painfully At least the fence was new, the metal smooth and rust-free

As Jess cliiant panther behind her reverberating between the two houses The creature pushed through the high grass with a rushing noise like wind in leaves She reached the top of the fence and swung over, co suddenly face-to-face with her pursuer

The beast was only a few yards away Its eyes locked with hers In those deep pools of indigo Jessica thought she recognized an ancient intelligence, reu much, much worse

Except, of course, that this had to be a drea back at her was all in her head

"Psychosomatic," she whispered softly

The creature raised a huge paw to swipe at Jessica&039;s clinging fingers, still exposed through the holes of the fence She released her grip and pushed herself backward As she fell, a shower of blue sparks exploded in front of her, lighting the big cat&039;s glea on either side The whole fence see every inch of metal The fire see inward toward the long claws entangled for athe chain links

Then the creature must have freed itself; the world went dark

Jessica hit the ground softly, her fall broken by the unkerass She blinked blindly; the weave of the fence was burned into her vision, dazzling blue diaed fur alazed at her own hands wonderingly They were unhurt, except for triangular redherself over If the fence had been electrified, why hadn&039;t it burned her as it had the cat? There were no sparks now except for the echoes in her vision, and the fence hole before her She was surprised that the panther hadn&039;t ripped it doith a single swipe of its paw

Jessica peered through theto clear her vision The panther was shaking its head in confusion, backing away to the far end of the gap, lihtly It held up one paw and licked it, the pink tongue snaking out between the two long teeth Then the cold indigo eyes locked onto Jessica The cool intelligence was still there The cat turned and padded out of sight

It was looking for another way around

Whatever the fence had done to the panther, she was grateful The beast could&039;ve juh, but the blue sparks had spooked it

Her respite wouldn&039;t last long, though She had to getJessica rolled over onto her hands and knees and started to stand

A hissing sound carass she gliht

Her hand darted in front of her face just in ti, icy needles had been thrust deep into her arm Jessica leapt to her feet and stumbled away from where the snake had been hidden

Her eyes widened with fear as she looked down at her hand

The snake was attached by black filarasped by a spreading cold The filaue had split into a hundred black threads and twisted itself tightly around her The cold wasslowly up her ar, Jessica swung the snake against the fence The chain links lit up again, though much less explosively than when the cat had struck it Blue fire shot toward her hand, then ran down the length of the writhing snake The creature puffed up for aon end The filaround

Jessica leaned against the fence, exhausted

The ainst her back, as if the steel had beco with i after she&039;d slept on it all night long

Jessica sagged with relief, letting the ht for a moment

Then, from the corner of her eye, she spottedwould dig More of the snakes were coh

Jessica turned and ran

The backyard of this house was sht be safe frorass the snakes could hide anywhere She cliround in a narrow, paved alleyway

The big cat had headed back the way Jessica had come, so she ran down the alley in the opposite direction She wondered how she would ever get home

"Just a dreaht her no comfort at all The adrenaline in her blood, the sharp pain in her fingers fro in her chest - the whole experience seemed absolutely real

The alley led out onto a wide road A street sign stood at the next corner, and Jess ran toward it, casting her eyes around for the panther

"Kerr and Division," she read That was on the way to school She wasn&039;t so far froiant predator, I&039;ll be fine," she mumbled "No problethe day, Jessica realized It hardly felt like half an hour since the dreaantic the moon was now It filled so much of the sky that only a strip of horizon re overhead made the world seem smaller, as if someone had put a roof on the sky

Then Jessica saw shapes against the moon

"Great," she said "Just what I need"

They were flying creatures of sos fleshy and translucent, slowly gliding rather than flapping their wings They were larger than bats, though, their bodies longer, as if a pack of rats had sprung wings Several of the sounds

Had they spotted her? Were they, like everything else in this drea into the dark orb was giving Jessica a headache again, aze She turned her eyes back down to earth, watching for the panther as she jogged toward ho her

It wasn&039;t long before she felt the ruain

The black shape slid into sight in front of her a few blocks away, directly between Jessica and hoence in the panther&039;s eyes when they had faced each other through the fence The cat see there And its little slithering friends were probably already in formation to prevent any escape

This was hopeless

The creature started padding toward her, not breaking into its full stride this time It kne fast she could run and understood that it only had to go a little bit faster to catch her It wouldn&039;t overshoot this prey again

Jessica looked around for a place to hide, somewhere to escape to But the houses here on the rass on every side There were no tight spaces to crawl into, no fences to climb

Then she spotted her salvation, one block in the opposite direction fro hts off, but she could see that someone was inside it

Jessica ran toward it Maybe whoever was at the wheel could drive her to safety, or et inside the car It was the only hope she had

She looked over her shoulder at the cat It was running now, still not at full speed, but fast enough to close the distance with every bound Jessica ran as fast as she could Her bare feet ached fronored the pain She knew she could make it to the car