They’re smaller than the ones from the Pit, but still terrifying. Bat-faced, bat-winged, creepy little fiends with skeletal limbs and emaciated bodies.

Screams fill the school as hellions boil out of the night from all directions.

Two of them are especially large – spotted and beefy with red eyes. Cords of muscle flex along their elongated bones, making the other hellions look stunted. They’re the two who chased me from Beliel’s memory of hell.

They know I’m here. And they brought friends.

One of them lifts his mouth into the air and makes that same hyena call that I heard on Angel Island. If this is anything like the last time, we can expect a whole lot of company.

A guy jumps out of the shadows, writhing and screaming, with two hellions on his back. In his panic, he runs into a crowded building, bringing the two hellions with him.

A gunshot rings inside that building. I hope they shot the hellions and not the guy.

The hellions are after me, not them. I brought them here.

So it’s up to me to lead them away.

Without thinking, I sprint out into the night.

Chapter 21

21

I pump my legs as fast as they’ll go. Screams shatter the air, interspersed by long gaps of silence. I imagine people holding their breath so they won’t be heard by the monsters. My skin breaks out in goose bumps at the thought of what might be happening.

My plan, if you can call it that, is to run like hell away from the school and find a vehicle with keys.

There ought to be plenty right in the parking lot. Obi and his men have been working hard to make sure all the cars have their keys in the ignition and are fully gassed up for emergencies like this one. Well, maybe they didn’t predict a situation just like this, but close enough.

Once in a car, I plan to honk that horn like nobody’s business and drive as far away as I can. Hopefully, the hellions will follow me.

I have no idea what I’ll do if they don’t. Or if I get caught on the way to the car. Or how to escape once they’re swarming around me. But that’s too much to think about in this panic.

And what about Paige and Mom and Raffe?

I shake my head. Focus.

A man starts screaming to my left.

If I keep running, the man will probably die. If I stop to help him, I’ll lose my chance to draw hellions away from everyone else. No good choices left in the World After.

I hesitate but keep on racing into the parking lot. Pooky Bear bumps against my leg on her straps, as though demanding to be part of the action. But I need to get to a car as soon as possible and start drawing the hellions my way.