‘Bring him,’ the wasp ordered, moving aside so that the creeper now faced Chloe, his ghastly smile tearing against its stitches.

Ben couldn’t speak. He could hardly breathe.

‘His first life will be taken on this night,’ the wasp bellowed, arms held aloft, turning in a slow circle to meet the eyes of all those around him.

Chloe wriggled and squirmed on the ground. ‘No,’ she shrieked. ‘Let fucking go of me. Ben,’ she called out, but he couldn’t help. He couldn’t even call back to her.

The wasp knelt and seized Chloe’s jaw with his filthy fingers, muting her cries. ‘I’ll show you how real he is.’

Their creeper was laid atop her. His head fell beside hers as he snarled through those pointed teeth. Naked bones writhed into her body. The wasp released Chloe’s face, but not before slamming her skull back onto the ground. The impact must have all but knocked her out. This thing was on top of her and there was nothing she could do to escape.

Ben watched in horror as the creeper’s face rose above Chloe’s, inches apart, spittle and bile trickling from his mouth like tree sap. She didn’t scream. She couldn’t. Terror had taken her voice. His arms moved by sheer force of madness, drawing those crooked hands to her throat.

But the creeper’s broken fingers wouldn’t close around it. They pressed clumsily into Chloe’s skin as she blindly jerked her head back and forth to escape them.

His frustration manifested in the most feral of shrieks, like a skulk of foxes being slaughtered. With all his will he yearned to strangle her but his injuries prevented him. He examined his misshapen knuckles more closely like a child seeing their hands for the first time. Those bloated eyes were quaking in their sockets as the rage rose within him.

Another vicious scream startled the one pinning down Chloe’s right arm, toppling him backwards. It all happened so quickly. Her free hand grabbed the hammer from the pocket of her parka, raising it, aiming for the vile thing too focused on its lame fingers to notice. The villagers gasped in all that cold air as they anticipated the impact.

But the wasp’s gangly leg kicked Chloe’s arm mid-swing, sending the hammer flying out of her reach.

‘Hold her down, damn you!’ he roared.

Ben couldn’t believe it. She had come so close.

The creeper stared down at the hammer, recalling perhaps the pain such a tool could inflict; how one so similar had shattered his own bones with ease.

‘Please,’ Chloe cried, ‘just let me go.’