The creature was almost on top of her.
Claire was pinned beneath the fallen steel case, one arm trapped awkwardly under her, the other stretched toward Ryan through the gap beneath the half-raised barrier. Her fingers scraped uselessly against the concrete.
Too far.
Ryan was lying flat on the floor, reaching for her with everything he had. "Claire! Come on!"
She tried again, teeth clenched, shoulder burning, leg dead under the crushing weight.
Still too far.
Noah drove the pry bar under the steel case and heaved. Metal groaned. For one desperate instant, the weight shifted.
Hope flashed—
then the case slammed down again.
Claire cried out, the sound ripped straight from her chest. Her vision blurred. She could feel the floor shaking under her palms, the blood on her sleeve turning cold, the thing coming closer even before she looked up.
"Again!" Ryan shouted.
Noah didn't answer. He just reset the bar and shoved harder, arms trembling so violently it looked like they might give out first.
Behind them, Julia braced both hands against the barrier support as something massive hit it from the other side. The whole frame shrieked. Another hit like that and it would come down on all of them.
No one said it.
No one needed to.
They were out of time.
Claire knew it.
She knew Ryan couldn't reach her.
Knew Noah couldn't lift it long enough.
Knew that if the barrier failed, none of this would matter anyway.
And still, when she looked at Ryan's outstretched hand, some stupid, stubborn part of her kept trying.
The creature stepped over the twisted rail.
One step.
Then another.
It lowered itself, slow and certain, as if it had already decided she was the one.
Ethan couldn't move.
Blue warnings flooded his vision so fast they stopped looking like words and became pressure instead—cold, invasive, absolute.
Leave her.
Take the others.
Go.
His stomach turned.
Before he even moved, pain began needling behind his eyes. It spread fast—into his temples, down the back of his neck, into his jaw until his teeth locked together. His fingers twitched. His knees threatened to give. It was as if the system had reached inside him, found every nerve, and put a hand around it.
He remembered the last time.
That white-hot spike through his skull.
That violent seizure stealing his breath.
That instant, animal certainty that his body was no longer entirely his own.
If he pushed back now, it would be worse.
His heartbeat thudded hard, then harder, then turned jagged, skipping against his ribs. Sweat broke cold across his back. His lungs wouldn't fill properly. He felt pain before punishment, terror before action, death before choice.
"Ethan!" Julia shouted.
He heard her.
He couldn't answer.
Ryan was still reaching.
Noah was still fighting.
Julia was still holding.
Claire was still trapped.
And the creature was there.
Not near her.
There.
Claire looked up and saw its mouth beginning to open. She saw the wet shine of its teeth, the darkness behind them, the end coming down toward her inch by inch. Ryan's hand was still in front of her, still impossibly close, impossibly far.
She couldn't reach him.
Noah made one last, raw effort with the pry bar.
Ryan lunged farther under the barrier with a strangled shout.
Julia screamed at them to move.
The creature bent lower.
And Ethan broke.
"Stop!"
He threw himself forward—
and hit the ground.