Prologue

The truck was an older model, with a squarish frame and one fender that didn’t quite match the rest. Amber could make out a few toys within, moving around as it rolled. No bodies though, so it was definitely empty.

That was nice. It wouldn’t have been fun to discover that the car currently flipping through the air sideways on a direct course towards her was filled with kids.

Only one person was going to die, crushed by a run-down truck from the late 90s, and that person was her.

Why aren’t I moving?

The truck kept on spinning, kept on coming closer and closer. She caught the faintest smell of gas from it, felt the wind of its motion beating against her face.

She started to flinch back. She wouldn’t move out of the way in time. The truck would hit her, and that would be it.

The image of the white truck rolling over her flashed through her mind. She imagined its sides painted in her blood, but only a little bit of it. Most of that would end up on the sidewalk. Maybe the truck would bounce off the front wall of the pharmacy behind her, then roll back down to finish the job?

Something crunched. The wind shifted.

Amber opened her eyes.

She noticed that she wasn’t crushed into a pulp, which was really great.

Ever so slowly, she turned to the side and looked down the street. Hollowpoint was a small town. More people drove through the town than lived in it. They had one road with shops on it. Bridge street. On account of the bridge in its middle.

She’d been out, looking for a few necessities at the pharmacy, arguing with the doctor behind the counter about the price of meds and whether or not the government would cover them. Then she stepped out into chaos.

And now the truck was flying off to the side and away from her, rolling upside down, its front then its back slapping the road with the grinding crash of steel being rent.

“Hey!”

Amber snapped out of whatever day-dream-like funk had taken her with a gasp. She took a step back.

A girl was standing before her, red hair that flowed down in twin tails, a sleek skirt with long golden ribbons pinned to it with red gems the size of Amber’s closed fist. She held a sword by her side, the tip hovering just over the pavement and the entire thing lit up by ethereal flames.

Amber’s mouth clicked shut.

“You okay?” the girl asked. She sounded normal.

Why wasn’t I expecting that? Even pretty girls speak normally.

The girl, the Magical Girl, looked like she was about to say something.

Instead she turned into a blur.

Amber gasped as the air was driven from her lungs. She couldn't see anything past a veil of curly red hair. In a blink she was no longer on the pavement, glass was shattering around her, and her feet were scrambling for purchase even as her face was buried into red locks.

The world snapped back in place and Amber found herself standing, pressed into the magical girl’s front. “Stay in here, yeah?” the girl asked as she lowered Amber down onto the glass-covered floor.

Behind her, where Amber had been standing, the truck was back. It was crushed, turned into a ball of steel and plastic the size of a trash can with a mirror sticking out of one end.

What?

“What?” Amber asked.

The girl stood up, brought her hand up to the side of her face in a peace symbol, and winked. Her open eye was deep red, with a cross-shaped pupil. Amber couldn’t help but focus on that for a moment, even as the rest of her tried to figure out what was going on. “No worries! Combat team Ellida is on the scene!”

Someone landed on the pavement outside. Another girl, in a yellow blouse, and with armoured boots that reached up to her very tight shorts. Amber avoided staring. “Hey! You playing tourist?” The girl asked.

She brought her leg back, then grunted and kicked the remains of the truck.

It shot away with a crunch like a bomb going off. “Hurry up!”

“Coming!” the magical girl before Amber called out, before turning back to Amber. “Stay in here, it’s probably safer.”

With that, she turned and leaped out through the broken window. Her hand stretched out to her side, and the flaming sword reappeared with a hiss like water pouring onto a brazier.

Amber sat back, glass crunching beneath her. She looked to her hand, where she held the loops of her shopping bags and nothing else.

I’ll need to order the medication all over again.

She giggled, then stopped at the sound of an air-raid siren going off.

Everyone knew what that meant. What the wailing announced.

The monsters of Agartha were in Hollowpoint.

Just as noteworthy, there were magical girls on the scene to save the day.

She got up, tossed the plastic bits of her shopping bag to the side, then took stock. Amber was... terrified. Yeah, that sounds about right. Terrified. Scared out of my wits. Yep. She laughed nervously, then cut herself off.

The pharmacy was empty. At least the make-up section she’d been placed in. Figures people would be more preoccupied with other things. She knew that Hollowpoint had a few rally points, but that had always been more of a joke than a real concern.

Monsters invaded important places, other places, not quiet little Hollowpoint, where nearly everyone knew each other by sight, and they could probably each list off half of the other’s acquaintances.

And yet the sirens rang on, headless of Amber’s difficulty accepting what was happening.

She swallowed, the full situation dawning on her.

Hollowpoint was under attack.

How long until the army arrived? Would the girls here be enough?

She’d seen plenty of propaganda on TV, of the army exterminating monsters, or powerful magic being deployed to wipe out entire swarms of nightmarish creatures.

Would there be a Hollowpoint in a few hours?

Calm, calm.

Amber took a deep breath and tried to keep her heart from beating out her chest. It wasn’t like her to panic.

Then again, I’ve never almost been crushed by a truck before.

For a moment, she wondered why it was so important to her that it was a truck that had been about to kill her as opposed to anything else. Shaking the thought away she glanced around. She couldn’t just stand there and wait for some gremlin to come around and eat her. She had to move.

Unfortunately, other than life-sized cardboard cut-outs of magical girls selling glittery make-up, the corner of the pharmacy she was in wasn’t exactly an armory.

Get home. Check on dad. Make sure he’s safe, then we hide in the basement.

Her dad wouldn’t hear the sirens. Even if he did, he’d have a hard time getting to safety.

Choice made, Amber nodded and moved over to the new opening in the front wall, careful to step where there was the least glass. She gripped the edges of the window pane and stuck her head out to look down the road.

The street was nearly cleared. There was one man standing on the sidewalk some ways down, but he soon ducked behind a car. The shops she’d known her entire life were a mess, glass broken, fronts smashed in by flipped cars. A fire hydrant was spraying a plume of water into the sky.

Amber was about to step out. It seemed clear. Not safe, but clear.

She heard something. Like the slow hiss from a Bunsen burner, but pitched so high it made her teeth itch.

A creature burst through a shoe store and crashed through the back of a semitrailer before, with a flap of thick white wings, it righted itself in midair, unharmed.

It was a skull, with two great angelic wings growing out of its back, nearly as tall as Amber, even if it looked unnervingly human.

It was followed by three magical girls. The redhead with the sword shot out towards it, blade burning bright as she slashed at the skull.

The hissing increased. The air before them rent apart.

Amber had once seen a flight of jets going supersonic, just a video in class. The blast of air before the skull was the same. It rammed the magical girl back and sent her tumbling towards the cars abandoned by the roadside.

The wave of compressed air hit the pharmacy and Amber crouched down, still where the red-head had left her. The remaining windows burst apart showering her in glass. She screamed, only cutting it off when she reminded herself that it would only attract the monsters.

Looking out and down the street again revealed the huge skull winging backwards and away from the girls. The two still standing were moving to circle it, one of them waving a staff through the air that launched brilliant sparks at the nightmare.

Amber watched the redhead pull herself free from the wreck she’d been punched into. She didn’t look like she’d gotten so much as a stain.

Then the man that Amber had seen ducking away jumped out and at the magical girl. His arms stretched out unnaturally, his mouth opened far too wide, with teeth that looked wrong even from where Amber stood.

Oh no.

The magical girl twitched her hand, her blade slicing a circle around her that took the monster's arms at the elbows. She pointed her free hand at its face, and a torrent of flame enveloped the nightmare.

She’d never even looked at it.

Just like that, the girl bounced off, catching up with her companions and the massive skull.

Maybe I won’t take the main street.

Amber pushed back and away from the windows. Her sneakers squeaked on the linoleum for just a moment as she took off running towards the far end of the pharmacy. Her sense of direction had always been pretty sharp, especially in a place where she’d lived nearly her entire life.

These are busted too.

The eastern wall was a mess, the stand-up racks of Hallmark cards toppled to the floor and the decal-covered windows behind them shredded apart. That actually suited her just fine. Wish I had a jacket to cover the edges, she thought as she reached the window and looked down at the bottom edge.

A glance outside revealed a parking-lot filled with older cars, none of them intact. No one was running around, but she could hear screaming from somewhere in town. Her old elementary school was right behind the pharmacy. They were supposed to have a shelter.

Would they even let anyone in?

It was a moot point, her father wouldn’t make it there on his own.

Dammit.

She placed a foot on the lip of the window, then climbed over it. She landed in the grass just outside and only had to hobble once or twice to stay on her feet.

Patting her jeans, Amber inspected her surroundings again. Still no one. Can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not.

There wasn’t all that much information available about the monsters, about the nightmares. What little she did pick up though always mentioned things shifting and changing for the worse. Fogs that would mess with your sense of direction, monsters that felt like friends, people going missing because they stepped into a shadow. All the horror stories told to children brought to horrific life.

The smart thing to do would have been to stay hidden. There was probably nothing she could do, even if she was at home.

“Dammit,” she muttered.

Arms crossed to ward off an unseasonal chill, Amber darted forwards and into the streets of the one place she’d always called home.

She passed the first street, with the school, and that one-way they blocked every Saturday for the farmer’s market, without issue. They were deserted, and the haunting wail of the air raid sirens in the distance never ceased, but she could almost pretend that there wasn’t anything wrong.

It was a block later, just as she was getting close to home, that she saw something white darting between some trees.

There was an old church next to the school--all stone and mortar and as old as the town itself--and next to that, a site where a graveyard used to be before it was excavated and turned into a little park.

The white thing zipped out from between the trees.

It was a cat. Twin-tailed, and with eyes that glowed a brilliant blue.

Amber’s heart lurched, and she started to scramble away when she saw a man running out of the woods after the cat.

A man with arms that were far too long, and ***** skin the purple-blue of frostbitten flesh. He grinned with teeth that were jagged spikes.

“Amber!” the cat called. “Save us!”

And with that, the cat jumped into her arms.

She, of course, threw it into the monster’s face and took off running.

Amber had an interesting relationship with exercise.

On the one hand, she was pretty good at sports. Soccer mostly, it wasn’t too expensive and it let her hang out with some of the girls from the only highschool in town. She could run and jump and hold her own fairly well.

She had always been a little competitive, and wanting to be one of the better players had always made her push herself.

On the other hand, she hated every minute spent actually exercising. It was sweaty and unfun.

Don’t regret a minute of it now.

She sped up, spurred on by inhuman howls and the creeping sensation that something was breathing down her neck.

Speeding around a corner, she glanced over her shoulder just long enough to see that she wasn’t being followed, at least not by anything visible. The long-armed monster was still by the cemetery, twisting this way and that while black blood gushed from its face.

That was enough to give her a boost.

Her home came up before her. A little two-storey house, once bright blue, now nearly-white from the sun draining the colour out of the vinyl. The grass needed cutting, and there was a step on the front porch that was cracked.

It was home, had been for a little over a year. It was safety.

Amber bounced up the front steps, deftly pulled her keychain out of her too-small jean pockets, and fumbled with the lock.

The moment she was in the house she spun around, closed the door behind her, and locked it. Pulling the curtains closed, she turned back around and stared over at the couch. Their house was a tall but narrow building, stairs to the right, living room to the left. The kitchen was somewhere in the back.

Not down here.

She took the steps two at a time and burst onto the top floor, heart still fluttering away like a bird trying to escape its cage. “Dad?” she called out. “Dad!”

“Sweetie?” her father’s voice came from a room off to the side.

Amber burst in, eyes locking with the lump on the bed. Her shoulders slumped. “You’re okay,” she said.

“Hey sweetie,” he said. “Is school over?”

“It’s Sunday,” she said. She shook her head, reddish locks flying about. “Didn’t you hear the sirens?”

“The phone?”

She moved over to the side of the bed, her hand coming up and laying across her dad’s forehead to move his hair away. “Dad, we need to get to the basement.”

“What?” her dad asked. He looked up to her, familiar green eyes locking with hers. He had always been a big guy. Wide at the shoulder, a sort of brick wall sort. That was before. Now he was, in a word, fat.

The chemo pills, or maybe it was some other part of his daily cocktail of drugs. It didn’t matter, something messed with his metabolism. She’d spent over a year seeing him turn from a strong, capable father to a man that only had his pride left.

“Dad,” she said. “The sirens went off. We need to get to the basement.”

He groaned, pulling the blankets higher. “It’s another test.”

“It isn’t dad, I saw the monsters out there. Creepy things, there was a giant skull and... and dad, come on, let’s go downstairs.”

Amber moved around the room, pulling curtains closed and shutting off the lights as she went. “Are you sure?” came from the blankets.

“Yes. Please? We need to go.”

Her dad sighed. “I’ll be fine here.”

“Dad, no,” Amber said, putting a bit of force behind it. She picked up a few pill bottles and ran out of the room and into hers.

There wasn’t much in the room that marked it as hers. A few old plush toys, a pile of folded clothes on a chair. Medical pensions didn’t add up to much, even after downsizing. She found a big purse tucked away in her closet, already half-filled with a few odds and ends. Tossing the pills in, she rummaged around and pulled a canvas bag out from under a few things and flung it over her shoulder.

Returning to the bedroom, she found her dad sitting on the side of the bed. “Need a hand

“No, no, I’ll manage,” he said.

Amber gave him a few seconds, then extended a hand to him. “Come on. We shouldn’t be up here.”

Her dad hesitated, then took her hand. She had to tip back to pull him up, but he got to his feet, then started the slow process of fumbling his shoes on.

“Do you have everything?” he asked.

“I think so,” she said. “How are your lungs?”

He shrugged and started towards the door. Amber slid past him and made her way down to the first floor. The rest of her dad’s medication was in the kitchen, so she ran over and flicked every bottle into her purse. Her dad arrived and tugged the door under the staircase open. “Should we turn the basement lights on?” he asked.

Amber licked her lips. They were dry. “I don’t know,” she said.

We’ll need water. She grabbed a couple of bottles, then followed her dad down. He had tugged the light switch on, illuminating the humid basement in flickering fluorescent-white. It would probably make it easier for something to find them. But then, there were monsters that travelled through the shadows.

I want to see it coming, at least.

They had a little corner of the basement with an ancient sofa, there since before they moved in. It was a bit of a mess, but it supported her dad’s weight when he landed on it with a huff.

Amber dumped her things next to him, then, with plenty of nervous energy left to burn, she rushed around the room closing the curtains over the little windows and shoving old boxes filled with moldy books before those that didn’t have any curtains.

She was moving back towards her dad, to sit next to him, to hold his hand, when the floor shook. The junk on the shelves trembled, a basket filled with dirty clothes by the washing machine in the corner tipped over. Amber bent her knees a little, arms spreading to keep standing.

Just as suddenly as it had begun, the trembling stopped.

“What--what was...” her dad stopped talking, a hand pressed over his chest.

“Dad?” Amber asked.

Then she noticed it. Dust, from the ceiling, displaced by the shaking of the ground. Her dad coughed, then coughed again, a racking, wet cough that had her cringing.

She rushed over and rooted around in her bags for a t-shirt that she pressed over his face. “Here, breathe through this,” she said.

This moldy air, the dust. Damn.

“Inhaler,” her dad said. “My throat.”

She nodded and riffled through the medication bottles. “Um,” she said. “I have water.”

“Do you have my inhaler?”

Amber shook her head. “I didn’t see it. I’m sorry, I’ll go get it.”

Her dad placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine,” he said.

She could already hear the wheeze in his voice. “Where was it?”

“Next to my bed? I...” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small picture frame, a smiling pair of redheads grinning at the camera, one smaller, sitting on the other’s lap.

Amber looked away. “Next to your bed, right? I’ll be back in a minute.”

“You should stay here,” he said. “I can get it.”

“It’s fine,” she said.

No goodbyes, she thought as she moved towards the stairs. Just upstairs and back down.

The first thing she noticed that was out of the ordinary was the sky. It had turned a swirling sort of smokey-white. It was like looking into a blue sky and seeing a few streaky white clouds, only these were low, and seemed to roam over the city like the fingers of giants.

Amber licked her lips and moved up the stairs. Barging into her dad’s room again, she spotted the inhaler right away. A blue-plastic thing, next to the head of the bed.

“That was rude.”

Amber gasped while spinning around. Her hand reached out, grabbing the first thing she touched and flinging it across the room.

Her dad’s pillow sailed in a tight arc and smacked the cat-like creature with a dull thump.

It flew off the edge of the bed. Then she noticed the inhaler dropping next to it. It had been in the same hand she’d grabbed the pillow with.

“Wh-what are you doing in my house!” Amber hissed.

“You have a cat door,” the thing said. Its head appeared over the edge of the bed, fur all mussed until it shook its head.

The creature was cute. Big guileless eyes, lots of fluff, big tufts of hair sticking out of its floppy ears. Amber was instantly wary of it.

“Get out of my house,” she said.

“Usually, girls are far more enthused to meet us.”

Amber crossed her arms. “You’re creepy.”

The creature’s ears drooped. “Ah, we apologize. We didn’t intend to scare you. I suppose your reaction wasn’t too implausible, considering the circumstances.”

“You can apologize by leaving,” Amber said.

It blinked. “I suppose we could. You... do know who and what we are, yes?”

“Yeah, I watch TV,” Amber said. And she saw the news articles, and the celebrity rags, and the cartoons. My mom didn’t raise me to believe just anything. “Do I need to fling you out by an ear?” she asked.

“How interesting! I don’t think that would be wise though. Not when there’s already a nightmare in your house.”

“You?” Amber asked.

Something crashed downstairs.

“No, not us.''