He charges again, and she keeps hitting him, over and over. But he keeps getting up, like some demented clown on a bop-bag, bouncing back even as she feels his bones crunch under her fists. His skin is torn in a hundred places, and he’s oozing that black gunk everywhere.

He smiles at her like this is the best time he’s ever had.

In frustration, Alana picks him up and throws him down hard on the ground.

She hears his spine snap. Finally, she thinks. And takes a deep breath and puts her hands on her knees. She never used to get this tired.

Unbelievably, Wade gets up again.

He shakes himself and grabs onto his own face as if it’s interfering with his breathing. He pulls hard, and peels the flesh back, revealing more of the slick black skin underneath, the color of an oil spill.

He doesn’t stop at his face. He keeps pulling, tearing the old, human skin off like he’s removing a layer of clothing.

Alana recognizes it now. She never thought she’d see the process up close and in person.

But Wade has fully stepped out of his mortal flesh, and revealed something underneath: a more compact, more powerful musculature, shrunken and twisted as if burned down to a harder core; hands and feet ending in claws; a mouth crowded with fangs.

Whatever humanity Wade once owned is gone. A newly born goblin is all that remains.

Alana takes a deep breath, rolls her head on her shoulders. A goblin, bare-handed. No big deal.

She backs up for a little more space and bumps into Natalie Blum.

What does it take to get these people to run? She grew up seeing these things, and she would run if she had a choice. And yet, most of the class is still hanging around. Alana wonders, not for the first time, if there’s something in the water in her hometown.

“Get out of here!” she yells at Natalie, who’s having trouble getting to her feet in her high heels. Alana pulls her up, turning her back on Wade for crucial seconds.

He lands on her and snaps his jaws shut and tears a large chunk out of her shoulder.

Alana manages to pull his head away, but he digs his claws into her arms and shoulders and leaves long, bloody furrows. She hurls him away again.

He rotates in midair and lands on his feet, his new body more limber and flexible. He faces Alana and spits out flesh and blood and linen. When he grins, it looks like his mouth opens too wide.

Alana watches him and waits for his next move. She does not feel great.

In fact, she feels like shit.

This may be because Wade has bitten and clawed her several times, and more of her blood is outside her body than she’d prefer.